foo_random_pools, Select random groups from the media library Options

[fbuser]

foo_random_pools is a foobar2000 component for creating random playlist entries selected and grouped by various pool definitions.

Mainly you can define titleformat expressions for selecting random groups like albums including sorting and filtering from the media library.

Download the latest version: here

This post has been edited by fbuser: Sep 16 2011, 22:50

[TakuSkan]

Could you just lay out a brief abstract of what needs to be done here? I'm not at all clear on why changing the group and filter as we did here changed the whole dynamic of what's going on. This thread is about the only source of information on this component... si/no?

[fbuser]

Could you just lay out a brief abstract of what needs to be done here?

Mainly you need to find a title format expression for grouping, which matches your root folders. Something like $puts(Remainder,$stripprefix(%path%,<your base path>))$left($get(Remainder),$sub($strchr($get(Remainder),\),1)) could be a starting point, maybe it already works.

I'm not at all clear on why changing the group and filter as we did here changed the whole dynamic of what's going on.

The filter is used to restrict the tracks of the media library before building the groups. For each track of the media library, which is not filtered out by the filter expression, the group expression is evaluated. All evaluations with the same value are building one group. Normally one such complete group will be randomly picked, but this behaviour can be customized by several attributes, e.g. you can limit the picking to only one track per group. So, for your described cases it should be obvious, that using %artist% as group leads to a different result than using $directory(%path%) as a group.

This thread is about the only source of information on this component... si/no?

Besides the help file, most probably yes.

[TakuSkan]

Something like $puts(Remainder,$stripprefix(%path%,<your base path>))$left($get(Remainder),$sub($strchr($get(Remainder),\),1)) could be a starting point, maybe it already works.

Well if one of the main purposes of this component for me is to avoid constantly playing tracks by artists I have huge numbers of files for, after a quick test, that code seems to do just the opposite.

I'll try to read up on those title formatting values and see if I can figure out what they do and how to tweak things to work for me.


This post has been edited by TakuSkan: Oct 9 2010, 23:24

[fbuser]

the main purposes of this component for me is to avoid constantly playing tracks by artists I have huge numbers of files for, after a quick test, that code seems to do just the opposite.

This code is not meant to do this. It is meant to balance the groups determined from different folders. If you want to balance the groups determined from different artists, you have to go back to use just %artist% as group. You need to decide for one of these. Both together is logically not possible.

[TakuSkan]

If you want to balance the groups determined from different artists, you have to go back to use just %artist% as group

If I could set %artist% as the group, and then as a filter, set a path for each genre I have folders for, and then set a priority for each within the filter code string, I think I could accomplish what I'm after.

But even though Wooops suggested that it should work in an earlier post, apparently I can't set more than just one path as a filter. For instance this filter will lock up FB2K:

(%path% HAS "\MP3s\Blues") AND (%path% HAS "\MP3s\Country")

And then there'd still be the problem of setting a priority for each within the script.