Kodi Community Forum

Oh yeah - logic was never my strong point. This is why I don't do programming.

It seems like the question is "clear data" vs "no data". I don't think there is any way to "clear data" for any tag-derived data? The tag specs don't really allow for such a concept. Better IMO would be to use the Kodi web interface to make db changes.

scott s.
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May I ask, why not use kodis strength of addons and open up 'tag writings', like ratings, with an addon? If the user likes to write something like ratings back into their files, making the ratings available to other tag reading devices or software, he may use that addon?

I don't see the need for kodi to be able to mass rate songs, if there's no proper way to get this info back where it belongs, in the tags.

If I've read correctly, import/export of values is needed. Let that be handled with a tag writing addon and all is fine?
Bulk rating within kodi? Have fun convincing being that a PR worth being merged...

Propper reading of ratings into DB is a must have.

A little up for this post, as I'm looking for a media (music) manager that allows me to rate songs "on the fly".
The trick is I'd like the rating to be written in the file, using the rating tag. Music Bee seems to do that (I'm testing it, and Kodi, and Plex, and Music Monkey, and Helium - I don't have a life )

I'd love Kodi to update tag's files.

I read this, about the Emby add-on for Kodi : "3. Is the "Allow rating in song files to be updated by Kodi/Emby" setting in the add-on actually working?" (answer : yes)
Source : https://emby.media/community/index.php?/...c-ratings/

Coudn't it be a solution for Kodi's fans wanting to store the rating into the file ?

I'm not sure if its a "music manager" but you can rate tracks on TheAudioDB website, then use this Add-on to pull them down to Kodi regularly.

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=309611

This is how I manage my music ratings these days after years of frustration with apps and tagging files. The beauty here is you should never loose the ratings as you have a copy in the cloud and on your local Kodi library

(2017-03-14, 16:38)docwra Wrote: [ -> ]I'm not sure if its a "music manager" but you can rate tracks on TheAudioDB website, then use this Add-on to pull them down to Kodi regularly.

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=309611

This is how I manage my music ratings these days after years of frustration with apps and tagging files. The beauty here is you should never loose the ratings as you have a copy in the cloud and on your local Kodi library

This could be an alternative of writing ratings in tags. The point is : are the stored ratings downloadable to another media manager ?

(2017-03-15, 18:05)Bifidusse Wrote: [ -> ]This could be an alternative of writing ratings in tags. The point is : are the stored ratings downloadable to another media manager ?

Not that I am aware of yet... but the API is there and it should be very simple for any developer to implement.

You can even save the JSON response as a single text file using the API directly.

Example:
http://www.theaudiodb.com/api/v1/json/1/...ser=docwra

As you can see from the results, it has all the ratings, names and even MBID's available to match against.

While I think this is a cool new Music Tool. @docwra, don't you think this is going to add even more strain to TheAudioDB's website? After all, there has been several times in the past where their website ran out of bandwidth for the month.

This is why I have .nfo files, and download all my Artwork for Movie, TV Shows, etc. As many of these websites get bombarded with data requests, and can't keep up with the demand. So instead of having 5 Kodi installs in my house always asking for data, I just ask once, and then provide that data to all my installs.

Now why you may think that wont, or shouldn't happen that often. Think about every time you had to do a fresh install of Kodi...

1. New hardware box for Kodi, fresh install.
2. New version of Kodi, fresh install.
3. Old hardware box crapped out, install new component to fix, fresh install of Kodi.
4. Adding more boxes around the house, more Kodi installs.

Just saying I think it would be much better to read and write ratings to the tags, so they are always available.

I just know the moment Kodi starts writing tags there will be an outcry of compliants about Kodi messing up people's music files (even if it is untrue). Kodi is a media player, not a media editor, and I strongly recommend it stays that way.

The strain Kodi places on the free online resources is very significant, and I think we do need to be more considerate of this and design with care not to break these sources or be blacklisted. Drop source and rescrape is common on upgrades or additional instalations, just like @Powerhouse describes.

I have a number of jobs on my list relating to better management of persistent data, NFO files etc., and more efficient scraping etc. I get that users want the ratings they add in Kodi to be persistent, and transferable to other players (or a tag editor to make them part of the file), and I will keep it in mind. Exporting yes, tag editing then not me.

Maybe they want to share them via TADB, but surely rating a song is a personal and subjective thing, do other's ratings have any meaning? Isn't this what rating (and votes) is for rather than user-rating? Does TADB have the server resources to be the cloud rating store for every Kodi user? Or can we rely on only the minority will reading this and using it that way?

(2017-03-15, 21:02)DaveBlake Wrote: [ -> ]I just know the moment Kodi starts writing tags there will be an outcry of compliants about Kodi messing up people's music files (even if it is untrue). Kodi is a media player, not a media editor, and I strongly recommend it stays that way.

The strain Kodi places on the free online resources is very significant, and I think we do need to be more considerate of this and design with care not to break these sources or be blacklisted. Drop source and rescrape is common on upgrades or additional instalations, just like @Powerhouse describes.

I have a number of jobs on my list relating to better management of persistent data, NFO files etc., and more efficient scraping etc. I get that users want the ratings they add in Kodi to be persistent, and transferable to other players (or a tag editor to make them part of the file), and I will keep it in mind. Exporting yes, tag editing then not me.

Maybe they want to share them via TADB, but surely rating a song is a personal and subjective thing, do other's ratings have any meaning? Isn't this what rating (and votes) is for rather than user-rating? Does TADB have the server resources to be the cloud rating store for every Kodi user? Or can we rely on only the minority will reading this and using it that way?

Agree. Let's not open the tag writing can of worms. The POPM concept I guess included the idea of user-"signed" ratings, but implementing that is just too much work for the gain IMHO.

scott s.
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Any Kodi modifications belong in a nfo file, we should certainly never modify the file itself.

Another way to reduce strain on servers is to have a good working db concept. Each fresh install has all scraped data available if using an existing db. Only case not would be db corruption.
Isn't it possible with sqlite to copy the db over to a new install or placing it on a share?

Another thought I had would be to support a backup of only ratings in a single file like backup does already. Another option in menu to export/import only ratings into/from a separate single file

(2017-03-15, 20:28)Powerhouse Wrote: [ -> ]While I think this is a cool new Music Tool. @docwra, don't you think this is going to add even more strain to TheAudioDB's website? After all, there has been several times in the past where their website ran out of bandwidth for the month.

No issue whatsoever with website resources, its a single API call (we handle over 16million a night and have the capacity for much more after some recent upgrades).

(2017-03-15, 20:28)DaveBlake Wrote: [ -> ]I just know the moment Kodi starts writing tags there will be an outcry of compliants about Kodi messing up people's music files (even if it is untrue). Kodi is a media player, not a media editor, and I strongly recommend it stays that way.

Yep agreed, Kodi in my opinion should never edit media file tags.

I would also go further and say that Kodi should move away from NFO files and towards online sources of info. That was the original intention of XBMC many years ago and it still holds true today. I've always wanted Kodi to be a seamless install, without having to worry about what its doing, it should "just work".

Regarding the TADB sync Add-on, we are also looking at syncing the ratings the other way, so if you rate something in Kodi it should be possible to push that back to the cloud. Again this would be totally seamless to the user if they chose to install the Add-on. It already has the possibility to schedule a sync once a day or week. The Trakt Add-on already works this way, and is incredibly useful when it comes to watched statuses and ratings.

I recently setup a 3rd Kodi client in my house, all the watched statuses, ratings and metadata synced in about 45 seconds after a clean install. That's what i'm talking about

(2017-03-16, 11:14)docwra Wrote: [ -> ]I would also go further and say that Kodi should move away from NFO files and towards online sources of info. That was the original intention of XBMC many years ago and it still holds true today. I've always wanted Kodi to be a seamless install, without having to worry about what its doing, it should "just work".

Most definitively not, if anything we should expand the use of NFO files to include more data so they can be a true backup to what is held in the database. If data has already been scraped once, or if ratings etc have been changed, why require redoing all of this from online sources if you need to drop the database for whatever reason. There's is also the situation where once you've scraped once and have done an export then you no longer need an internet connection, let's say you done a set up for a holiday home or maybe parents and there is no internet available, so you should always be able to populate the database with no internet.

(2017-03-15, 21:02)DaveBlake Wrote: [ -> ](...)

I have a number of jobs on my list relating to better management of persistent data, NFO files etc., and more efficient scraping etc. I get that users want the ratings they add in Kodi to be persistent, and transferable to other players (or a tag editor to make them part of the file), and I will keep it in mind. Exporting yes, tag editing then not me.

(...)

I think covers, artist name, title and other "why would you ever edit these data" are part of the file and should not be editable by a media manager.
But, as a user, ratings are more personnal. I won't change the artist's name, of course, but what I think of a song, surely.

That said, I also consider that files aren't "mine". If I rate a song, and that the rating is written into the file, what would think my other - and beloved - half ? That se can't have her own rating ? I would not dare even think about it

Ok then, you converted me to "not in a file written rating" way of thinking

I'm still interested in saving/exporting. I'll give a try to the TADB addon then, if finally I tie my music to Kodi.

[maybe off the subject] : if I could manage a multiclient AND multiuser installation (there's a tutorial somewhere on the wiki, rather frightening), I guess ratings are user (profiles)-based. It allows then to have multiple ratings for a single song.