[Feature Request] - Better Comic book metadata

[zanish]

I am currently using League of Comic Geeks and attempting to move all tracking to Ryot. Comic books unfortunately seem to need to use OpenLibrary metadata which is pretty bad for comics. There are better options but would require set up of an API token by the user much like how video games twitch client setup is. I use a tool called comictagger and they've been solid, they have a write up on comic book meta information here: https://github.com/comictagger/comictagger/wiki/Comic-and-Manga-Information-Sources. I'll summarize my personal preferences below.

Option 1: ComicVine
ComicVine actually doesn't require an api token but would rate limit. Easy to use, only downside is there is no standard on how to handle TPBs, whether they are their own series or included in the series with books. Shouldn't make too much of an issue as long as users could override series.

Option 2: Metron
Used this a bit, but not enough to have a strong opinion. Seems to be solid though.

Option 3: leagueofcomicgeeks
I have an open question for them about API access and availability, looks like some have developed a unofficial api in the past so they may consider support in the future if it's not available.

[IgnisDa]

Ryot is a commercial project. Do these APIs allow access from such projects for free?

[zanish]

Would it change for self hosters vs cloud user?

I am not sure as Metron just says they have the right to refuse use, but no mention of commericial ban.

Comic Vine's api is publiclly rate limited and I see no verbiage stopping commercial use, but IANAL and don't know much about commercial area. They are a corporation so I'd guess they'd want a contract agreement.

This could be possibly partially solved by letting users add their own metadata providers and supporting the different comic tagging standards (I think there are only 3 widely used ones). Then users could use their personal accounts and api keys only for them and not for commercial use?

[IgnisDa]

Comicvine clearly states that they are not open to support commerical projects: https://comicvine.gamespot.com/api/

Metron API does not mention commercial usage, so it might be possible. But looking through Reddit, I find people complaining that their database is not well mantained.

This could be possibly partially solved by letting users add...

Depends on how Comicvine decides to look at this situation, but I doubt they would consider this usecase. In any case, I don't have the bandwidth to contact them and clear it up. If you are willing to clear things up with them, then I give you permission to do so on this project's behalf.

[zanish]

This is only an issue due to pro and cloud right?

So if it doesn't support commercial use, then could you allow users to add their own metatdata agents? Then as a self-hoster who is not paying. We can add plug-ins/metadata agents that would be available only to non-commercial users?

[IgnisDa]

Ideally yes. But as I stated, this is up to their discretion.

[IgnisDa]

Closing due to inactivity. Feel free to ping me if you have any updates.

[IgnisDa]

It seems like I made a mistake when looking through the Metron API. It seems solid and allows usage. @zanish Could you take a look through the website (https://metron.cloud/) and LMK if it contains data that you might need?

[zanish]

I think it would be a good choice.

Unfortunately it's still a bit lacking compared to comicvine as it's a newer wiki style site, but it's following seems to be growing and they are putting in good work adding data.

I'm a contributor on both comicvine and metron so appreciate both.

[IgnisDa]

If ryot were to allow comic book tracking, what all should it do? Additionally should it be a separate section (like anime/manga) or just be added as a provider to books?

[zanish]

I think separate like the way manga is. This would allow for more metadata and fields to be brought in as improvements over time, but can get basic tracking going.

For actual tracking it could 1 of 2 ways.

Option 1. Simple tracking would track similar to books (read progress, tags, etc.) maybe with the added option of filtering/grouping by series pulled from the metadata.
Option 2. The other option would be to mimic manga but instead of chapters and volumes you would do issues.

There's a lot of variance in how the companies print with annuals, special editions, trades, etc. So I think the best way is option #1 with a simpler tracking and just adding in series grouping as an option and defaulting that on. For examples of how comics are grouped/tracked LOCG (https://leagueofcomicgeeks.com/comics) I think does a good job. Also Komga (https://komga.org/) is another self hosted project that was comic focused and can be looked at for inspiration.

[IgnisDa]

The current komga integration just use chapter/volume for progress tracking. I'll take a look whether metron provides information like total issues/pages and then go from there.