Three defects from real-world use:
- The m4b rewrite assumed every stream survives -map 0 -c copy; files
carrying text-ish tracks (the movenc 'text' fourcc) fail the ipod
muxer with "Tag text incompatible with output codec id" — exactly the
error a write attempt hit in the field. The rewrite now attempts full
fidelity first, then retries mapping audio + attached pictures only
(-dn -sn): chapters live in the container header (-map_chapters 0)
so they survive; every attempt still ffprobe-validates before the
atomic rename and the original is never touched on total failure.
- The browser confirm() is replaced by an in-app dialog
(WriteToFileConfirmDialog, Alpine + templ — no native dialogs).
- "Write to file" now SAVES the pending editor edits first (persisted
through the same PUT the Save button uses), then writes the file
from those DB values, and closes the editor + refreshes the page
exactly like Save — previously the endpoint wrote the LAST-SAVED DB
values, so edits sitting in the modal never reached the file, and
the page didn't visibly update.
Test coverage per the owner's bar: EVERY single-file container (MP3,
FLAC, M4A, M4B) gets its own runtime-generated fixture, gets written,
and the FILE's metadata is then verified independently — ffprobe reads
the rewritten container and every mapped key is asserted per format,
including the subtitle round-trip split (MP3/FLAC yes, M4A/B no) — and
the EPUB/CBZ/sidecar assertions now PARSE the written XML (dc titles/
creators, ComicInfo fields, calibre meta) instead of substring
matching. A smart-genre unit test also pins the mixed-blob contract: a
recognized shelf wins the genre column even when demoted format words
ride along in the same blob.
Phases 5b and 5c of the metadata writer.
5b — single-file audio (MP3/FLAC/M4A/M4B): the container's tags are
rewritten with ffmpeg -c copy (no re-encode; -map 0 keeps cover art,
-map_chapters 0 keeps chapters). The key set is exactly what the
scanner's applyAudioTagFallbacks reads back — title+album, subtitle,
artist/album_artist, composer (narrators, Audible's convention),
grouping + iTunes series-part, date, genre — so a write + rescan
round-trips. Output is ffprobe-VALIDATED (duration within 1s/0.5% of
the source) before the atomic rename; a lossy container rewrite never
replaces a good book. Fields the format can't carry per our own read
chain are deliberately not written, and fields_written reports only
what really round-trips (subtitle rides MP3/FLAC — this image's mp4
muxer drops subtitle keys, discovered empirically and pinned by test).
5c — CBZ: ComicInfo.xml injected (or replaced) with the same atomic zip
rewrite as the EPUB path, extended with an append-if-missing mode
since a comic may not carry one yet. Field map mirrors the scanner's
comic block: Title/Series/Number/Count/Volume, Writer (authors),
Summary, Publisher, Year/Month/Day, LanguageISO, Web, Genre+Tags;
fractional series numbers are omitted rather than truncated to a lie.
CBR/CB7 stay on the sidecar path (RAR/7z can't be rewritten in place).
Integration tests generate media at test runtime with ffmpeg (m4b) and
in-memory zips (cbz) — no binary fixtures — pinning the tag round-trip
through ffprobe, post-write rescan titles, the ComicInfo injection and
the validation-gate behavior.
Phase 5a of the metadata-writer feature: the book editor gains a
"Write to file" action (admin) that persists the item's CURRENT
database metadata into the artifact on disk, so the library stays
portable to Calibre and other apps — the thing Save alone can't do.
Dispatch (services/metadata_writer.go): EPUB/KEPUB gets its embedded
OPF spliced in place (fresh dc:* block generated inside the ORIGINAL
metadata open tag; manifest/spine/guide untouched; every other zip
entry copied byte-identical in original order so mimetype stays first
and STORED; original dc:identifiers preserved — the package's
unique-identifier must keep resolving). Everything else takes a
Calibre-style sidecar: metadata.opf when the book is ALONE in its
directory (Calibre's own convention — round-trips through Calibre
too), <basename>.opf when siblings share the folder, so one book's
sidecar can never poison dir-mates' scans (the scanner now reads both,
basename first).
Safety contract: temp file + atomic rename — the original is never
truncated on failure; the generated OPF is unit-tested to ROUND-TRIP
through the scanner's own parser (write side and read side can never
disagree); metadata_overrides are deliberately kept (file and DB agree
after the write; overrides still guard against stale sidecars). The
endpoint re-extracts inline (RescanMediaItem) and reports rescan
failure separately — a failed rescan doesn't undo the write. SHA-256
changes are inherent and documented for users (Kobo/KOReader re-key).
UI: the metadata editor modal carries the file path as a data
attribute; the button confirms before mutating, labels the target
(embedded vs sidecar) and toasts the outcome. Integration tests pin
the 403, missing-file error, EPUB embed + post-write rescan title, the
lone-book metadata.opf case, and the shared-dir <basename>.opf case
with no dir-scoped litter.
John O'Keefe