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Export/Import and local artist art improvements
#91
@bilgepump I'm stumped (temporarily I hope) because it works for me. Confused
Quote:As I mentioned, Kodi seems to be "seeing' that artist info folder, because when it scrapes (locally) it scrolls through all those obscure names that are there.  They aren't anywhere else but in that folder are they?
Those "obscure names" are in the database. On doing "query for all" from the context menu within the artists node  the progress bar is reporting its loop through the artists in the library, not folders. So no it does not show it sees the Artist Info Folder.

Please do try again and see if we can spot what the issue is - a user/settings thing or something in the code. I am still suspicious that the Artist Info Folder just isn't set to a folder that has sub-folders with art for those artists, because that is the most obvious thing.

There is a new test build on the mirrors c4aaf3026b (win32, other platforms accordingly). That fixes the album art issue Zag spotted that I added during PR code clean-up.
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#92
DaveBlakeThose "obscure names" are in the database.
Yes, but they get there from kodi scanning the artist info folder, don't they? Or are all of those weird and wonderful names all in the tags?

Quote:Please do try again and see if we can spot what the issue is - a user/settings thing or something in the code.
I tried again, afresh.  Still no joy.  Somebody had mentioned a prompt to set the artist info folder, I didn't get a prompt, I just put it in manually in the settings.


Quote:I am still suspicious that the Artist Info Folder just isn't set to a folder that has sub-folders with art for those artists, because that is the most obvious thing.
Well, I can see the pictures when I browse the folder in windows explorer, and if I browse to the folder from within Kodi and manually pick up the thumb, the picture will appear in Kodi.  It's there.  A "folder.jpg" and an .nfo with all info about the person.  Some don't have pictures, there are names that I've never heard of and I'm clueless as to who they are.  The internet seems similarly clueless, because it hasn't picked up any picture for them.
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#93
(2017-10-14, 13:50)DaveBlake Wrote: There is a new test build on the mirrors c4aaf3026b (win32, other platforms accordingly). That fixes the album art issue Zag spotted that I added during PR code clean-up.

Woohoo!  Nuked it and installed this one, and it's scanning in non-album-artist pictures as I post.

TWO differences from before.  I moved the "artist info folder" OUT of the "Music" folder where it was, in case that was what was messing things up.  And the last program was a 64 bit one, and this one isn't.   I also got the prompt this time.

(BTW, I feel a bit sorry for artists who are on releases and the people who bought the release has no clue who they are..... :Big Grin  Who ARE all of these people?)
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#94
(2017-10-14, 16:31)bilgepump Wrote: "Those "obscure names" are in the database."
Yes, but they get there from kodi scanning the artist info folder, don't they? Or are all of those weird and wonderful names all in the tags?
They are all in the tags, that is where they come from and why Kodi later looks for art for them.
You could add a folder called "XXXXXX", Kodi would not create an artist just because that folder was there.

Quote:I tried again, afresh.  Still no joy.  Somebody had mentioned a prompt to set the artist info folder, I didn't get a prompt, I just put it in manually in the settings.
Manually in settings is fine.

Quote:Well, I can see the pictures when I browse the folder in windows explorer, and if I browse to the folder from within Kodi and manually pick up the thumb, the picture will appear in Kodi.  It's there.  A "folder.jpg" and an .nfo with all info about the person.  Some don't have pictures, there are names that I've never heard of and I'm clueless as to who they are.  The internet seems similarly clueless, because it hasn't picked up any picture for them.
Hum... I wonder if somehow in your manouvres the artists got set as already scraped, hence "Query for all" didn't try to find anything. Interesting, but I'm still not seeing the light. Sad

Just to be clear - you have (not so obscure) song artists, with art in the Artist Info Folder but after "Query for all" from artists node you don't see this art. Right?

But starting again, OK I look forward to your feedback Smile

Quote:BTW, I feel a bit sorry for artists who are on releases and the people who bought the release has no clue who they are..... Smile Who ARE all of these people?
My song artists are not that obscure, so now you have me curious about your music collection. Or did you export "other artists" too? That is fine, it means that you have a folder for all the people involved in the muisc - producers, lyricists, engineers, composers etc. If you tagged using Picard they will all be there from the tags Smile
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#95
(2017-10-14, 19:50)DaveBlake Wrote:
Quote:They are all in the tags, that is where they come from and why Kodi later looks for art for them.
You could add a folder called "XXXXXX", Kodi would not create an artist just because that folder was there.
Thanks.  It can be very confusing getting your head around this stuff.  Tag information, files information, library informaion, just where things are and where they come from is complicated (I still don't really understand where the tags ARE, the tag editor or musicbrainz brings them up but where exactly are they?  Somewhere..... Big Grin)


Quote:Hum... I wonder if somehow in your manouvres the artists got set as already scraped, hence "Query for all" didn't try to find anything. Interesting, but I'm still not seeing the light. Sad
Well, the source was "Music" then underneath the "Artist Info Folder" and each artist with their albums as subfolders... When the source was added and scanned, it did scroll through all the info in the artist info folder, I could see it doing it.  Maybe that confused it?    I can mess about a bit, later, to try to figure it out.


Quote:Just to be clear - you have (not so obscure) song artists, with art in the Artist Info Folder but after "Query for all" from artists node you don't see this art. Right?
I see it now, with the new build, and having the artist info folder in a different location, it worked.


Quote:My song artists are not that obscure, so now you have me curious about your music collection. Or did you export "other artists" too? That is fine, it means that you have a folder for all the people involved in the muisc - producers, lyricists, engineers, composers etc. If you tagged using Picard they will all be there from the tags Smile
I probably exported the lot.  I have classical albums and I thought that would throw out both the composer and the orchestra and that sort of info.   Besides, as I'm just mucking about, I wanted to see what happens, it's not like I'm doing it on my "proper" Kodi.

Apart from cds I've bought from the "proper" music shop/regular shops, I buy cds from the opshops, they only cost a dollar or something ridiculous these days.  Most of "my" music is still on records and cassettes, so my cd collection has stuff I've bought without knowing too much about it/ just having one good song on it/curiosity.  It probably isn't that the artist is that obscure, just that I've no clue who they are (Felix da Housecat?  Seriously? Big Grin).  Many I know are off a "dance music" (I call it disco Big Grin) cd I got, but there are some other names I don't recognise that I'm not sure what album they're on (probably a movie soundtrack, I suspect)
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#96
(2017-10-15, 02:21)bilgepump Wrote:
Quote:Just to be clear - you have (not so obscure) song artists, with art in the Artist Info Folder but after "Query for all" from artists node you don't see this art. Right?
I see it now, with the new build, and having the artist info folder in a different location, it worked.
Well that is a relief (I think) Smile

Your experience/feedback on this has inspired me to try and make the UI clearer at least.
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#97
Going back to the "All Artists", I think perhaps this should be "All contributors" which I think is line with your own original thought. In my view it would be better not to have artists in the name to try and inform that with this enabled it's far more than just artists exported.

Other that only others ideas for naming were "All people" or "All involved" which I dismissed.
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#98
(2017-10-15, 09:18)DaveBlake Wrote:
(2017-10-15, 02:21)bilgepump Wrote:
Quote:Just to be clear - you have (not so obscure) song artists, with art in the Artist Info Folder but after "Query for all" from artists node you don't see this art. Right?
I see it now, with the new build, and having the artist info folder in a different location, it worked.
Well that is a relief (I think) Smile

Out of curiosity, I went back and tried the other build with the artist folder in the new location.  It still didn't pick up the metadata/photos, and didn't give me a prompt.  It doesn't seem that it had anything to do with the location of the artist info folder.  Anyway, the new build is perfecto, so it's all good now.
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#99
Thinking aloud...
I have edited the thread title to reflect the "mission creap" - yes this work is about improved export/import but that implicitly includes improved fetching of local artist artwork and nfo files when scraping.

The process of getting local art
Scanning (of tags) when a new music  is added works through folders, so can pick up album art placed with the music files, and attempt to get (first) album artist art from the folder immediately above. Correctly identifying artist art like this is risky, as it is taking place while looping through the albums adding them to the library and so there is no way to know if the location (and hence art) is unique to that artist, or if albums by different artists are mixed under a common folder. But to be backwards compatible we need to do it, and also much of the time users do have a music/<artist name>/<album name> folder layout.

[Note v17 and before looks upto 3 levels above the album folder for artist art, and this contributes to those ocassions when a user gets the same "random" art apprearing for multiple artists]

But there is no way to get local artist art for song artists, album artists other than the first or other contributors with that approach. To solve that I have introduced a nominated folder that art can go in - Artist Info Folder. However to get unique folder naming for each artist it needs to be populated from (via export) and applied to (via scraping) a populated library.

Scraping works per artist or per album on a populated library, so it is easy to get local artist art from the nominated location and work around duplicate artist names etc. But that location needs to be set before scraping starts.

I had added a dialog prompting the user to enter the Album Artist Folder when they add a music source. That is convenient for experienced users transfering previously exported art and NFO, but confusing and unnceceassary for beginners (and many others) that do not have any local art but want Kodi to magically fetch it online. A clumsey bit of UI, I think I can do better - thank you for the encouragement Zag and Bilgepump.

Better UI for Setting Artist Info Folder
a) For starters on adding a music source it only matters that Kodi knows where the local artist art is held when scraping is going to happen too i.e. "Fetch online nfo on update" is enabled. So I could limit the "set your Artist Info folder" prompt to then only.
b)Expaining more clearly what they are being asked for might help e.g. prompt with
"Do you have local artist information (NFO) and art files that you want to fetch? Set the location of these artist folders now"

Then again it does not tidy-up much. Because of improvements to the way scraping happens, the robustness of tag processing, and better user tagging (yes generally users have got better at using Picard!) I am leaning towards making "Fetch online nfo on update" enabled by default - so art can magically appear! So back to a annoying/meaningless-to-many prompt disrupting the flow.

Then I had a light-bulb moment.  Smile
Rather than interrupt the natural flow of adding a music source just add a context menu item - "Set Info providers" to the file view screen. This brings up a new dialog that lets the user set the default album and artist scrapers and settings, and the location of the Artist Info Folder. Makes it easy for the user to set those relevent settings that are otherwise tucked away and a pain to get to. 

This is not the same as setting content, the music scrapers are not source dependant in the way video is. The music scrapers fetch additional info for library items, while the video scrapers identify file contents and create the video library. It is about setting the music information providers (local and online), when you start building your music library.

I could see the same dialog being available from "query info for all" too.

However it is not quite "contextual", and would need to allow for context menu to come up on "Add music..." item when there are no other items.

Otherwise "Set Info providers" dialog comes up after "Do you want to scan to library?" prompt when "Fetch online nfo on update" is enabled. But I would like to take it out of the flow. Maybe (mad idea) a "Scan and Scrape" dialog instead of the "Do you want to scan to library?" prompt, or a 3rd "settings" button on the prompt dialog?

Anyone with me? I guess I need to do it and show you.



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(2017-10-15, 16:59)DaveBlake Wrote: but want Kodi to magically fetch it online.

I think real beginners  have to get their head around tagging their files before any magic will happen....Big Grin  I think there's a learning curve that can't be avoided.  Tagging, setting a source, scanning in the items from the source and then scraping to add information and artwork, either from an online information provider (at first) or from local information when you've already downloaded or added your own information.

I like the idea of being asked to set the folder at the stage you've got it.  If you tie the setting to scraping, you'd need a dialogue for scraping locally, and also one for the "exporting to" if/when people want to do that, wouldn't you?  I can't remember the actual wording of the dialogue now, but it seemed pretty clear what it is asking.  Could it be made clearer for first-time users by saying something on the end like "if you are setting up Kodi for the first time and don't yet have any local artwork to import or export, you can set this later at settings-wherever" so people don't sit there wondering what on earth it is and worrying that they HAVE to put something in. 

I like that Kodi has scanning and scraping separate.  Once you realise you have tag/fix the tagging, you'll be glad that it doesn't go right ahead and scrape, or else you might end up with Ella Fitzgerald all over the place like I did.  Big Grin

(BTW, I'm not sure that I've encouraged anything, or what?)
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New build seems to be working well:

Image

Just one slight oddity with the Various Artist export:

Image
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Hum... an album with "!" in it's name, a Musicbrainz release group ID and yet no Musicbrainz album id. All very suspcious Smile
Thanks for test feedback Zag, I'll have a look.

EDIT: I notice also that that "Various Artists" is German techno producer Torsten Pröfrock with mbid 4e46dd54-81a6-4a75-a666-d0e447861e3f, not the usual "Various artists" used for compilations etc. with mbid 89ad4ac3-39f7-470e-963a-56509c546377.

Did you have music files with both versions of "Various Artist" in the library at the time you exported?

With something tagged like that in my lib, with and without the other compilation VA, I have not been able to repeat the export odditiy of getting the album.nfo into <Artist Info Folder>/Various Artists/Music.

I get <Artist Info Folder>/Various Artists_4e46/Next/album.nfo (identifying the duplicate "various artists" when I have them)
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Yes I deliberately used samples that were downloaded without properly tagging them, so a good cross section of tagging.
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I was testing the 1013 test build. I notice a change in adding artist thumb/fanart via the music information dialog. Previously (master 1010 nightly and before) when you open music information on an artist, and select either "get thumb" (radiobutton 10) or "get fanart" (radiobutton 12) Kodi would look in the artist folder for folder.jpg or fanart.jpg, and if found display it the file browser "Browse for image" as "Local thumb" / thumb://Local or "Choose fanart" as "Local fanart" / fanart://Local and it then could be directly accepted. Or you could select the "Browse" option, which then refreshed the file browser with "Thumbnail" or "Fanart" and in either case the first option is *Item folder.

This no longer works in the 1013 test build -- You don't get "Local thumb" nor "Local fanart" as options, and you don't get *Item folder as browse options either. At least for me that's kind of a step backwards. The Local thumb/fanart helped me as I use album artist to hold alias which I know is not supported but worked out in this case. But also for compilation (song) artists I also put their art alongside album artist art as <artistname>-poster or <artistname>-fanart and the *Item folder made it easy to find these.

I guess if all artist art is moved to a user-defined artist art folder tree the current functions don't make sense, but then you have to do a lot of clicking/scrolling to get to the folder containing the desired art. Or maybe I don't understand the intent of how local artist art is intended to be added to the library in the new scheme.

scott s.
.
maintainer of skin  Aeon MQ5 mods for post-Gotham Kodi releases:
Matrix see: Aeon MQ5 Mod Matrix release thread
Nexus see: Aeon MQ5 Mod Nexus release thread
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Scott that is not a feature I have ever used, so my lack of awareness may have led to undesireable results (accident as opposite of design). In fact if I had known about it the *item functionality could even have been useful when debugging random art issues to see what Kodi thought was the folder for an artist. The voyage of Kodi discovery never ends!

EDIT: Had some trouble reproducing, it seems to behave like v17... Then I found that the behaviour you report happens only when no local art was in the folder during scanning. If there is a folder.jpg then you still get a *item when browsing.

I have been so focussed on how the automatic identification of artist art that is mixed in with music can go wrong, I had missed the ways it can be useful manually to have it there. So help we out with views on that.
Quote:I guess if all artist art is moved to a user-defined artist art folder tree the current functions don't make sense, but then you have to do a lot of clicking/scrolling to get to the folder containing the desired art.
a) For backwards compatibility do we provide a way to get to the folder Kodi v17 and below would have taken as the artist folder (the folder above all the folders containing music by that album artist)? It will still pick up art from there if such a folder is unique for the album artist, but prefers art from the approriate folder within the Artist Info Folder if it exists.
b) Do we provide a quick route to the approriate folder within the Artist Info Folder?

Perhaps both, or maybe b) with fall back to a)?
I find that *item in v17 only goes somewhere useful for album artists, when on song artists (no album) or other contributing artists (producers, lyricist etc.) it just opens on my root directory.

Quote:Or maybe I don't understand the intent of how local artist art is intended to be added to the library in the new scheme.
My focus so far has been that the art initially comes for online scraping. So one approach: fetch art from online sources (using scraper or other addons such as cdArt or Skin Helper Service); save to Artist Info Folder via export to separate files in library folder. Not the art is there in the Artist Info Folder, and should you do a clean install then scraping (not just scan of tags which does pick up art next to the music files) will pick it up.

For art found manually if you create a folder in the Artist Info Folder with the artist name Kodi will use, and put art in there, then scraping using "Query Info for all" with that artist present in the node (so you could be looking at producers and have art for them) will pick up that art. The nice thing is that is can be automated, you don't have to visit every artist and look at Artist Info dialogand pick art by hand etc. The hard thing is putting the art in the correctly named folder. Then again if in doubt export unscraped artists to separate files, and  folders will be created for every artist that you can then manually populate with the art files.

What may catch people out is that pick up of art from Artist Info Folder is part of the scraping process, not the tag scanning one. The reason is technical, as I described in my brain fart a couple of posts above https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2655747. I hope that users can get used to their local art being collected by scraping rather than the scanning phase. But the up side is that they can have automated art for any artist, not just album artists with limits.
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Export/Import and local artist art improvements0