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Topic: Watch directories? (Read 4562 times) previous topic - next topic
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Watch directories?

Is there a way to make foobar watch certain directory, and if new files are added, the playlist gets updated automatically?

Watch directories?

Reply #1 –
What playlist?

Sounds to me like you might want the media library instead.

Watch directories?

Reply #2 –
It's possible but probably not in a way you expect it.

You can create autoplaylists (self updating playlists based on the media library db1989 already mentioned) based on metadata already, and since the full path is accessible through foobar's TAGZ, you can create autoplaylists that match certain expression in the music tracks' path.

If you are asking for an easy click and be done UI feature, my assertion is that it's highly unlikely that's going to happen.
 

Watch directories?

Reply #3 –
Once set up, you can use one of the media library viewers to create an autoplaylist for your folder.

For example, open the album list, select the "by folder structure" view, right-click on a folder (or all music), and select "create autoplaylist".

Watch directories?

Reply #4 –
nice, thanks

but why can't I use the sorting thingies on this playlist?

and how can I create more auto-playlists for different folders?

Watch directories?

Reply #5 –
if you mean the Edit>Sort menu items are greyed out, it's because the playlist doesn't have focus. select an item, then use the menu.

you can use the steps Frank described as many times as you like to create multiple playlists.

Watch directories?

Reply #6 –
k i did it 
it was the "force-sorted" option that was checked and it didn't allow me to sort the tracks..
and to create multiple auto-playlists I had to move all my music directories into a one dir and add that dir to the music folders.  so now i can right click each sub-dir and create an autoplaylist

Watch directories?

Reply #7 –
Good you have is sorted out. You may be making extra work for yourself. Do you really want / need an autoplaylist for every single directory you have? Does this not crowd / clutter your interface somewhere?

If your goal is for foobar2000 to track all changes you make to various directories, all the various media library viewers do so automatically. In my usage, autoplaylists are used for queries against the library a little more complex than please show all tracks in a folder - as the media library already does so automatically.
You might have a look at the query language to get a better feel for their usage in building autoplaylists such as all tracks by X that I have rated >Y and I have not listen to since Z.

http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?ti...00:Query_syntax
http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?ti...tting_Reference

Watch directories?

Reply #8 –
After reading this topic I've found that such autoplaylist connected with one directory on my HDD would be usefull for me. I found another recent topic with such question and this post there:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....st&p=827061

My problem is that when try to go follow linked tutootrial then I don't find options that are shown on printscreens. When I click at my "Library" menu I don't see there any "Autoplaylists" entry. Do I need any additional component? I have Media Library set up and I got 2 standard ML viewers (search and album list) which work. So how to get Autoplaylists functionality?

Watch directories?

Reply #9 –
Yes - now I see what you was talking about in that thread.

A little "how to" based on my experience and Frank Bicking directions:

For me it worked like this: I opened Album List (with my own keyboard shortcut "Alt+A" - that's why I love foobar so much), then I changed "View" to "by folder structure" and in "Filter" field I entered "%path% HAS EAC" (without quotation marks of course). Then I clicked on "Al Music" entry on tree view with filtering results and I choose "Create Autoplaylist". After it was created with name "%path% HAS EAC" I renamed it to "My CD rips". That's how I got playlist that contains every Audio CD that I ripped myself and will be updated when I rip any new one.
Now you can change my string to whatever you want. "%path% HAS trance 2013" if you have separate folder "trance 2013" for this year Trance releases,  "%path% HAS romantic tracks for my GF" if there is often uptated directory with that name on your HDD, etc.

Starting using Media Library about a month ago was good option  . I got bad experience with Windows Media Player media library and that's why I wanted to avoid such solution. In case of foobar there's nothing to fear about with ML

Thanks for help Frank, and I hope that someone will find usefull my short "how to" .

Watch directories?

Reply #10 –
Just to clarify: "by folder structure" is not a requirement. The original question was about folders, so this view was suggested because it allows you to create autoplaylists from any displayed subfolder, without having to enter anything into the filter field. You could also, for example, select "by artist" and right-click on one of the artists.

If you, on the other hand, want to create a query-based autoplaylist from the entire library, the selected view is irrelevant. You might as well use the library search then (enter the query, click on the "..." button).

I am surprised how many features remain unnoticed because users are unwilling to explore preferences or context menus, while the same people have no problem posting to a forum.

Watch directories?

Reply #11 –
Quote from: Frank Bicking on
I am surprised how many features remain unnoticed because users are unwilling to explore preferences or context menus, while the same people have no problem posting to a forum.


propably many things remain unnoticed, because they aren't easily/intuitively accesible and/or implementet in an obvious way...
aside from (one of) this topics problem(s) - why isn't there just a button with wich you can create an autoplaylist? why do you have to use a library viewer for this? - a few weird things:
why are some components not default choices during installation (e.g. freedb)?
why can't one lock the default playlist viewer to a specific playlist?
why do some tags take precedence over others by default?

on top of things like this, there is an abundance of out-dated documentation and a plethora of 3rd party plug ins

don't get me wrong, some topics in this forum are indeed hilarious, e.g. this one...sriously, how hard can it be to find the media library settings?
but foobar has a lot of screws to play around with...and some are just too well hidden

Watch directories?

Reply #12 –
Quote from: ruebe on
why isn't there just a button with wich you can create an autoplaylist? why do you have to use a library viewer for this?

Because you have to select some criteria, which involves a search field or displaying the contents in a certain way. Library search has a button, album list doesn't need one because there is "all music". Most of the program's commands are accessed through context menus.

Watch directories?

Reply #13 –
yes, you have select criteria, but that doesn't mean you have to do so via some library viewer
there could for example be something like library > autoplaylist that leads to a pop up in which to insert a query and a sorting pattern
or right clicking a playlist viewer > autoplaylist that would do the same

of course, this would be somewhat redundant but it would be easiert for the not-so-avid user to find autoplaylists

Watch directories?

Reply #14 –
I have one question. If I set my autoplaylist to be "force-sorted" - than what sorting pattern would be used?

Watch directories?

Reply #15 –
For autoplaylists created from the album list, the pattern of the selected view is used, meaning tracks will be sorted in the order in which they appear in the tree. Duplicates resulting from %<field>% syntax are removed. "By folder structure" is not based on title formatting, but similarly uses relative folder and file names as displayed. This is no different from performing any other operations such as sending tracks to a normal playlist, and also why it is important to keep entries for tracks even if you never expand the album nodes.

Library search supports SORT BY or SORT DESCENDING BY as part of the search query.

Quote from: ruebe on
there could for example be something like library > autoplaylist that leads to a pop up in which to insert a query and a sorting pattern

Add a track list for preview purposes, and you end up with nothing but a relabeled library search, for the sake of making one of the commands accessible through it easier to find. Once you enter a query, you can even open that exact popup you proposed.

Watch directories?

Reply #16 –
as i said, it would indeed be redundant, and yes it would be not much else than a relabeling in order to make a function easier to find
but that was the whole purpose of my post...in my opinion autoplaylists are hard to find if you don't know where to look for them
they are also a prime example of a couple of little things that make foobar not as accesible for beginners as it could be

Watch directories?

Reply #17 –
Could anyone help me what is wrong with this expression used for Autoplaylist?
%path% HAS eac SORT BY $directory_path(%path%) - %filename% 
while
$directory_path(%path%) - %filename%
is proper sorting expression, working exactly as expected in other places in foobar? Foobar says that whole second line of this post is "incorrect filter expression". When I add quotation marks to sorting part (I thought about that spaces), I got "sort operations not available in this context" error. When I remove both quotation marks and spaces then I got back to "invalid filter expression"... Adding parentheses nothing changes...

Watch directories?

Reply #18 –
$directory_path(%path%) must be in quotes, so:
Code: [Select]
%path% HAS eac SORT BY "$directory_path(%path%)" - %filename%
[/s]
For the real source of the problem, see post below

Watch directories?

Reply #20 –
Quote from: Frank Bicking on
Add a track list for preview purposes, and you end up with nothing but a relabeled library search, for the sake of making one of the commands accessible through it easier to find. Once you enter a query, you can even open that exact popup you proposed.

Quote from: ruebe on
in my opinion autoplaylists are hard to find if you don't know where to look for them

I think both of you have a point. Redundancy in the code or user interface should be avoided and the autoplaylist feature should be easier to find. For media library browsers this problem was solved by displaying a list of them on the media library preferences page. I think a similar approach could work well for autoplaylist creation.

Imagine there was a "New autoplaylist..." command in the "File" menu which would open a wizard-style dialog. This wizard would present the available options for creating an autoplaylist. Each option would be accompanied by some short text that describes how this particular option defines an autoplaylist. Selecting an option and clicking OK would open the user interface of the chosen option, i.e. for Library Search the Librarys Search window would be opened. The image below shows a mockup of this dialog.
[attachment=7424:autoplay...t-wizard.png]
Of course, the actual dialog could be made more visually appealing. It would probably also good to include a way to access further documentation that describes how to create an autoplaylist with the particular option and how to invoke its user interface directly, i.e. without going through the autoplaylist wizard.

Watch directories?

Reply #21 –
Quote from: foosion on
Imagine there was a "New autoplaylist..." command in the "File" menu which would open a wizard-style dialog. This wizard would present the available options for creating an autoplaylist. Each option would be accompanied by some short text that describes how this particular option defines an autoplaylist. […]

Nice idea!

Plus it sounds quite similar to how iTunes creates Smart Playlists, which is bound to please the numerous people who want fb2k to do various things ‘like iTunes does’.  (IMO, iTunes does a few things right but too many things wrong, and that’s without my commenting on the Apple/iStuff of today overall.)

Watch directories?

Reply #22 –
It would be nice if option "generate Autoplaylist" could be binded with keyboard shortcut...