QuickAdd Book Note Automation

Overview

QuickAdd script that automatically fetches book metadata from Google Books API and creates or updates book notes in the vault.

Script Location: Scripts/book.js

API: Google Books API (API key embedded in script)

Features

• ✅ Search by book title or ISBN
• ✅ Fetch metadata from Google Books API
• ✅ Create new book notes OR update existing ones
• ✅ Smart metadata merging (only fills in missing fields)
• ✅ Fuzzy title matching (prevents duplicate notes)
• ✅ Auto-wikilink authors: Author Name
• ✅ Clean genre formatting (extracts main categories)
• ✅ High-resolution cover images
• ✅ Language code expansion (en → en-US)
• ✅ Cover image URL in frontmatter
• ✅ ISBN support (ISBN-13 preferred, fallback to ISBN-10)

Setup

1. Prerequisites

• QuickAdd plugin installed and activated
• Google Books API key (already embedded in script)

2. Configure QuickAdd

1. Open Settings → QuickAdd
2. Add new Macro choice
3. Name it “Book” (or any name you prefer)
4. Click “Configure”
5. Add User Script command
6. Select Scripts/book.js from dropdown
7. Save
8. Enable lightning bolt ⚡ to add to command palette

Note: The script has the Google Books API key embedded directly, so no additional plugin dependencies are needed.

Usage

Creating a New Book Note

1. Run QuickAdd: Book from command palette
2. Enter book title or ISBN
3. Select from search results (if multiple matches)
4. Choose status: not started, reading, completed, or backlog
5. Note is created and opened

Updating an Existing Book Note

1. Run QuickAdd: Book from command palette
2. Enter the book title (doesn’t need to be exact - fuzzy matching handles variations)
3. Select from search results
4. Script detects existing note and updates only missing metadata
5. Note is opened with updated metadata

Metadata Mapping

Google Books API	Vault Property	Format
volumeInfo.title	Filename	Title.md
volumeInfo.publishedDate	year	Extracted year (e.g., 2018)
volumeInfo.authors[]	author	Wikilinked list: ["James Clear"]
volumeInfo.categories[]	genre	Wikilinked list: ["Self-Help"]
volumeInfo.language	language	Expanded code: en-US
volumeInfo.imageLinks.extraLarge	image	URL string (high-res)
volumeInfo.industryIdentifiers	isbn	ISBN-13 or ISBN-10
Manual input	status	User selected
Auto-generated	created	Today’s date (YYYY-MM-DD)

Note: topics property is left empty and should be filled manually, as Google Books categories are too broad for specific topics.

How It Works

Search Flow

1. Input: User enters book title or ISBN
2. API Call: Script calls Google Books API with query
3. Results: Returns up to 10 matching books
4. Selection: User selects correct book from suggester (or auto-selects if only one match)
5. Fetch Details: Script fetches full volume details for high-res cover images
6. Check Existing: Script checks if note already exists using fuzzy title matching in Personal/Books/
7. Update or Create:
   • If exists: Updates only empty frontmatter fields
   • If new: Prompts for status, then creates full note
8. Open: Opens the note in a new tab

Smart Metadata Merging

When updating existing notes, the script:

• Checks each frontmatter property
• Only updates if the property is empty or missing
• Never overwrites existing user-entered data
• Preserves all other content in the note

Language Code Expansion

Supports 60+ languages with proper locale codes:

Input Code	Expanded
en	en-US
de	de
fr	fr
es	es
ja	ja
etc.	See script for full list

Example

Input

Query: "Atomic Habits"  

Output (New Note)

---
created: 2026-02-09  
tags:
  - books  
areas:
  - "[[media/books/Books|Books]]"  
year: 2018  
author:
  - "James Clear"  
genre:
  - "Self-Help"  
  - "Psychology"
topics:
status: not started  
rating:
language: en-US  
image: https://books.google.com/books/content?id=...  
isbn: 9780735211292  
people:
---  
 
> [!info]  Post-Read Review - Atomic Habits
> 
 

Limitations

• Google Books data quality: Some books may have incomplete metadata
• Cover images: Occasionally Google Books returns first page instead of cover (rare)
• Topics: Must be added manually (categories are too broad)
• Multiple editions: May need to select correct edition from suggester

Future Enhancements

Potential improvements:

• Custom suggester modal with cover image previews
• Batch update multiple books at once
• Extract topics from book description using keywords
• Download cover images to Attachments/ folder (optional)
• Alternative cover sources for problematic books

Technical Details

Dependencies:

• QuickAdd plugin (required)
• Google Books API (key embedded in script)

Cover Image Strategy:

1. Fetch full volume details from Google Books API
2. Try extraLarge → large → medium → small → thumbnail
3. Fallback to Open Library if Google Books has no image
4. Remove edge curl effect and force HTTPS

Genre Formatting:

• Google Books returns paths like "Business & Economics/Organizational Behaviour"
• Script extracts main category: "Business & Economics"
• Removes duplicates and formats properly

Fuzzy Title Matching:

• Normalizes titles for comparison (lowercase, remove punctuation, trim spaces)
• Prevents duplicate notes when API returns slightly different formatting
• Example: “How to Win Friends…” matches “How To Win Friends…”

Error Handling:

• Handles network errors gracefully
• Shows user-friendly error messages
• Logs detailed errors to console for debugging

Performance:

• API calls typically take 1-2 seconds
• No rate limiting issues for normal use
• Results limited to 10 books for faster response

Related Automation

Similar pattern to:

• QuickAdd Place Note Automation - Creates/updates city and country notes with coordinates from OpenStreetMap

Both scripts follow the same design pattern:

1. User input
2. External API fetch
3. Smart create or update logic
4. Open result

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