2017-08-02, 18:53
More "inverse support" (a dev getting input from the wider community) from your friendly but over worked music library dev.
While in the process of improving music scraping I'm finally getting around to looking at the export/import facility. I'm going to use this thread to collate comments about export made in other thread, but if anyone else out there would like to chip in then that is fine.
Preamble - where we are in Krypton
The prime purpose of export is to save the additional artist and album information and art work that has previously been scraped from online sources, so that it can be used by another Kodi set-up, or after a clean reinstall, without having to go online and fetch the information again or repeat manual choices. Hence currently only artist and albums that have been scraped get exported.
Exporting produces either a single xml file, or separate nfo files for each artist or album. For separate NFO files it relies on every scraped album or artist having a unique (folder is for that artist and only that artist) folder that Kodi can identify by looking at where the related music files are stored (not at folder names etc.). This is fine for albums (all the music files in a unique folder is an obvious way to store and album), but there are many situations where artists do not have such a unique folder, and then problems start.
Issues
Todo
Basically solve the export/import of additional info for artists that do not have a unique folder - stop the mess and provide a way to input/edit/store the data locally in xml format.
Add facility to externally save the modified song data (no more loss of playcount when you drop or move a source, or do a clean install etc.)
Older threads/posts
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2535004
Multi-disc sets - https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...id=2509217
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...id=2351319
Fanart for compilations - https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=266371
Music scraper returning wrong artist - https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2281544
Art related - https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2221020
Feature requests
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=248328
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=246408
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=246303
While in the process of improving music scraping I'm finally getting around to looking at the export/import facility. I'm going to use this thread to collate comments about export made in other thread, but if anyone else out there would like to chip in then that is fine.
Preamble - where we are in Krypton
The prime purpose of export is to save the additional artist and album information and art work that has previously been scraped from online sources, so that it can be used by another Kodi set-up, or after a clean reinstall, without having to go online and fetch the information again or repeat manual choices. Hence currently only artist and albums that have been scraped get exported.
Exporting produces either a single xml file, or separate nfo files for each artist or album. For separate NFO files it relies on every scraped album or artist having a unique (folder is for that artist and only that artist) folder that Kodi can identify by looking at where the related music files are stored (not at folder names etc.). This is fine for albums (all the music files in a unique folder is an obvious way to store and album), but there are many situations where artists do not have such a unique folder, and then problems start.
Issues
- Artists without a unique folder (identifiable from the contents):
- Collaboration albums. Those with multiple album artists e.g. classical music with Composer, conductor orchestra, or "Riding with the King" by BB King and Eric Clapton
- Song artists that do not have their own albums e.g. appear only on Various Artist compilations, or a guest artists on songs on albums by other artists.
- Musicians, or other music professionals, that contribute to songs e.g. Mixer, producer, composer etc. but are not the song or album artist
- Collaboration albums. Those with multiple album artists e.g. classical music with Composer, conductor orchestra, or "Riding with the King" by BB King and Eric Clapton
- No way to export (for backup or transfer) user entered song data e.g. song rating, last played date or play count. Needs to include singles in this too, not just album tracks.
- Import can not cope with artists with the same name (always in lib with mbids to make unique)
- Import does not set artist artwork, have to visit each artist manually in info dialog to select it.
- (OT)Automatically scanning for local artist art when music first added to library:
- Only works for the first album artist of an album.
- Looks in the parent folder of the album for a default image, and repeats for every album
- Only works for the first album artist of an album.
- Single file export can result in folder.jpg and fanart.jpg wrongly written (e.g. in the /mp3/<genre>/ folder)
Todo
Basically solve the export/import of additional info for artists that do not have a unique folder - stop the mess and provide a way to input/edit/store the data locally in xml format.
Add facility to externally save the modified song data (no more loss of playcount when you drop or move a source, or do a clean install etc.)
Older threads/posts
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2535004
Multi-disc sets - https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...id=2509217
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...id=2351319
Fanart for compilations - https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=266371
Music scraper returning wrong artist - https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2281544
Art related - https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2221020
Feature requests
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=248328
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=246408
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=246303