MangaDB DEV

General

this is the place to contribute ideas on a possible future addition of manga data to AniDB.

For other areas of active development on AniDB, check: Development.

Directly related: Generic PersonCompany DEV

Data

First thing we need to be aware of what data we would like to actually store/how the real world looks like.

Content forms we care about

• (Light) Novels
• Manga
• Doujin

Releaseforms

Content comes in various forms made up of different elements.

chapter only releases

used where?

• official online distribution

content elements

• chapters

volume only releases

used where?

• some novels
• doujins

content elements

• volumes which consist of basically 1 "chapter"
• "chapter"; basically 1 per book
• omake (depending on wanted granularity)
• illustrations (depending on wanted granularity)
• other 1 page content (index etc.) (depending on wanted granularity)

mixed content

used where?

• everything else

content elements

• volumes which encapsule the content into datasets
• chapters
• omake (depending on wanted granularity)
• illustrations (depending on wanted granularity)
• other 1 page content (index etc.) (depending on wanted granularity)

Editions

To make things worse the same content is released in multiple editions. Multiple editions usually share the same content (usually chapters) but might add different bonus content (illustrations, omake etc.). Repackaging and rereleasing are further reasons.

Hence an edition may or may not reuse existing content. It's potentially wanted to "transfer" as much data as possible with this. (where content = credits, release dates) While i say transfer what really is wanted is not duplication, but adressing the same content from multiple angles to lessen maintenance.

Credits

• Author (作者)
• Publisher/Printing (出版社)
• ...

Additional ones may contain assistance, editing, colouring, illustration.

Most credits apply on volume level and for regular manga are given in a short summary towards the end of the book. Though certain types of releases may contain content which doesn't fit that rule. Especially illustrations/guest work should receive credits on chapter level. Same goes for magazine releases

Character

• Chapter appearance

Nothing more to store here.

Situation and Problems

• packs aren't standardized
• repacks and re-edits are common

Hence because of that adding hashes or automating the add via those is somewhat impossible. The only way to do this would be if we break it down to the page level which is somewhat silly. Furthermore as viewer are capable of showing the content without extracting many people don't decompress the packs. Because of that going down to that level is pointless.

Implementation

General

Mangaentries

• like anime entries at AniDB
• description
• genres/categories
• producer
• picture
• colour/greyscale/B&W/mixed

Volume level

• is identical to the episode entries of AniDB
• data: volume name, volume number, release date

Chapter level

• is somewhat identical to the episode entries of AniDB
• a range of chapters builds a volume
• data: chapter name, chapter number (release date)

File level

• slightly identical to the file entries of AniDB
• only generic files
• generic files can have language and a group
• more than 1 generic file per chapter! basically every language + group combo creates a new file
• no size
• no hash

Database

Approach 1

BUSTED for various issues in regards to how data can be reused like credits and dates

General Thoughts

A bit of automation could get done with parsing the filename, but most adding would be manual labour, which is inevitable considering we store no hashes and there is no real way to do this with them.

It's essential to have mass-file-add tools for this. This includes mass-add to AniDB and mass-add to MyList.