Artist Info Folder error - read only?
#1
I cannot browse to and select my Artist Info Folder in settings unless the folder is write enabled. Otherwise even though I can browse to it, I get an error saying that I can't select it.
I have several installations around the house (and over the internet) retreiving my media and files from my Synology NAS; including my AIF. I have one 'master' install that has write permission to all my shared folders, and the 1 installation I run Artwork Beef from to download my info to AIF. The remaining installations log into my NAS with  read only access and just need to read & serve up the files & AIF pics, but shouldn't (?) need to ever write to that folder.

Is there a way to have a read-only AIF?
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#2
If you only want the Master install to be able to media updates and exports to the NAS, then why don't you run a MySQL setup whereby the other installs can connect to the same database? this would mean you wouldn't have to scan the AIF on each individual install.
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#3
While I would love to have that kind of setup, I severely lack the knowledge/skills to implement a MySQL setup. The Wiki says it is a "advanced (complicated) and experimental feature" and there a 39 pages of comments in the How To section - I find that very intimidating. I use the WatchedList addon as my easy workaround for at least tracking what's been watched; that's a write-enabled folder and looks like I will have to relocate my AIF to a similar spot if Kodi continue's requiring write permission to AIF. That's about my limit unfortunately.
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#4
I have no idea why Kodi wants write permission to the AIF, it certainly does not actually write anything there. Perhaps try adding it as a music source.
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#5
The add-on "Artist slideshow" can be configured to download art and/or information into that folder.
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#6
Interesting to know.  But of course whatever addons may do with your folders etc. is not Kodi, and when I talk about "Kodi doing X" or "not doing X" I always implcitly mean Kodi core fresh out the box without addons or plugins.
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#7
(2020-03-18, 21:31)DaveBlake Wrote: I have no idea why Kodi wants write permission to the AIF, it certainly does not actually write anything there. Perhaps try adding it as a music source.

All clients have an "export" option. You'd need write capabilities to export fanart, thumbs, and .nfo files to that folder.
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#8
Ah yes, AIF could be an export destination, good point @burcs . But that should not stop the browsing and selection in the way the OP experienced. I remain mystified by this, and unable to reproduce.
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#9
When querying "album info" and "artist info" via regular scraper (in my case Universal Album/Artist scraper), all associated artwork and information is written into the AIF.
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#10
(2020-03-28, 11:33)HeresJohnny Wrote: When querying "album info" and "artist info" via regular scraper (in my case Universal Album/Artist scraper), all associated artwork and information is written into the AIF.
That is incorrect on all points, in fact I almost deleted the post rather than let it mislead others.

Nothing album related is read from or written too the AIF. You can even use Kodi music library without having an AIF set, and use both scrapers like that. Scraping artists can read artist.nfo and art from the AIF but it does not write to it. I repeat, it does not write to the AIF. Maybe some addon writes to it, but not Kodi itself unless the user deliberately chooses to export artist information and art too the AIF.
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#11
I can reproduce it.  I don't think that it's odd that it has to be writeable, seeing as how the help text for the AIF says "Select the folder where artist information (nfo files and images) should be saved in."

A workaround for @Buzzsaw is to edit the guisettings.xml file in the userdata directory for all the machines that he wants to be read-only and add the AIF path in there.  Those machines will then be able to read from the AIF but will be unable to write to it.
Learning Linux the hard way !!
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#12
(2020-03-28, 12:09)DaveBlake Wrote:
(2020-03-28, 11:33)HeresJohnny Wrote: When querying "album info" and "artist info" via regular scraper (in my case Universal Album/Artist scraper), all associated artwork and information is written into the AIF.
That is incorrect on all points, in fact I almost deleted the post rather than let it mislead others.

I don't understand the hostility there. I don't claim that Kodi itself does the writing or to know any of the mechanics involved but it does certainly occur. I don't have a special setup with weird add-ons, just Artwork Beef and Artist Slideshow. Artwork Beef has written many additional artwork types into advancedsettings. How else could information be retrieved from the AIF if it's not written there somehow?
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#13
Written to when you manually save nfo and images that you want Kodi to use, not generally written to by Kodi during scraping. I must be going mad in isolation. @black_eagle find me the code that does the writing as part of scraping.

You can reproduce the OP problem, again can you see why it is a problem? I'm not getting it, something to do with the drive/folder browser not letting you browse read-only even though it isn't writing anything at that point?
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#14
(2020-03-28, 13:05)HeresJohnny Wrote: I don't understand the hostility there.
Apologies if I sounded hostile @HeresJohnny, I'm still your friendly (usually) neighbourhood music lib dev. Smile
Maybe I am losing my grip!


(2020-03-28, 13:05)HeresJohnny Wrote: I don't have a special setup with weird add-ons, just Artwork Beef and Artist Slideshow. Artwork Beef has written many additional artwork types into advancedsettings. How else could information be retrieved from the AIF if it's not written there somehow?
Common respectable addons, but still addons and I have no idea if they write stuff or not. I don't know if ArtworkBeef saves image files by default or optionally, or just tells Kodi where online they can be found. Art can be sourced online and cached in textures db and texture cache folders (not the AIF). But Artwork Beef and Artist Slideshow could be saving images in AIF.

It probably seems nuts to users that I separate what Kodi (core) does from what addons do since the whole thing looks like Kodi to them. I only have control over and (some) knowledge of what Kodi core does, and that is more than enough work for me, the rest is mystery.
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#15
Actually, nobody is blaming you for any of the stuff but I can understand if you're protective of your "baby" :-)
I think the user here just wants a practical solution and for all intents and purposes that means the AIF folder should be write enabled. How to do that is OS and network stuff.
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