Playback Statistics component: version 3.0.1, Discussion, feedback and beta versions Options

[Peter]

Download - version 3.0.1:
http://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_playcount

Documentation:
http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?ti...oo_playcount%29

This component requires foobar2000 v1.1 or newer.

Changes since 3.0:
- No longer attempts to update tags on remote files or streams when playing.

This post has been edited by Peter: Oct 12 2010, 14:43

[Sandrine]

After playing around a bit with this component, here's my verdict:

GOOD

1) Tags stored in database can apply to various albums with the same name

2) Playstamp tags appear in Properties dialogue, rather than the metadata dialogue. This takes care of situations where one doesn't want a file hash to change every time its statistics are updated.

3) Star display for ratings

BAD

a) The "Ratings"-field is a universal tag used by Windows and other media players and must appear as a tag under Metadata, not as a file property as it does with this component. A rating is not a physical property of a file.

b) Names of statistical fields are different for tags and database. ADDED vs. ADDED_TIMESTAMP, LAST_PLAYED vs. LAST_PLAYED_TIMESTAMP, FIRST_PLAYED vs. FIRST_PLAYED_TIMESTAMP. There's no reason this plugin should be an exception to every other tag in foobar with its query syntax not having the same name as the tag. It's also bad programming: a database should store a date value as integer but display it as a human-readable date according to the users country/language setting of the OS. (These values are also not physical properties of a file, btw.)

c) Reading of database values takes precedence over tags-reading. It must be the other way round (at least as soon as "Automatically synchronize file tags with statistics" is enabled, but possibly always). Otherwise the plugin breaks compatibility with the field "rating" since that is being completely ignored if it is written as a tag, but not added to the database (it also block the "Quick Tagger" plugin).

[laite]

c) Reading of database values takes precedence over tags-reading. It must be the other way round (at least as soon as "Automatically synchronize file tags with statistics" is enabled, but possibly always). Otherwise the plugin breaks compatibility with the field "rating" since that is being completely ignored if it is written as a tag, but not added to the database (it also block the "Quick Tagger" plugin).

I also would really like this to be optional as I have been using playback statistics custom for a while now and foobar can't read my first/last played from that time anymore

Why not somekind of options-page to customize what tags are enabled etc.?