2017-10-15, 16:59
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.
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.
Save
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.
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.
Save
