Multiple tags delimiter (e.g. Genre or Artist) syntax

[Rairwave]

I searched through this forum but I am a bit confused. What is the official delimiter that minimserver supports for adding multiple genre or artists tags?
Some posts mention // but in another post I read ; as delimiter. So should it be: R&B;Soul for multiple genre tags or R&B//Soul or R&B // Soul ?
What is the exact syntax that minimserver recognizes as separate tags?

[simoncn]

(11-12-2012 08:02)Rairwave Wrote:  I searched through this forum but I am a bit confused. What is the official delimiter that minimserver supports for adding multiple genre or artists tags?
Some posts mention // but in another post I read ; as delimiter. So should it be: R&B;Soul for multiple genre tags or R&B//Soul or R&B // Soul ?
What is the exact syntax that minimserver recognizes as separate tags?

Your confusion is understandable, because this whole area is very confused with a lot of variations between what different tagging programs write and what different media servers read.

MinimServer doesn't support any delimiter character for multiple values. The values need to be entered using separate repeated tags as specified by the relevant tagging specifications. For example, to tag a FLAC file with multiple genres R&B and Soul, the file should contain two tags:

GENRE=R&B
GENRE=Soul

If you view this file in Mp3tag, you'll see the Genre value as R&B\\Soul because Mp3tag uses \\ (not //) to indicate multiple values. If you view this file in foobar2000, you'll see the Genre value as R&B;Soul because foobar2000 uses ; to indicate multiple values.

Some tagging programs don't support separate repeated tags for multiple values. Because of this, some servers (notably Twonky) introduced nonstandard delimiters as a workaround (or hack). MinimServer doesn't support these nonstandard approaches.

I hope this helps. Please feel free to ask any further questions.

[Rairwave]

Thanks Simon for you prompt response.

[Budgie]

(11-12-2012 10:38)simoncn Wrote:  

(11-12-2012 08:02)Rairwave Wrote:  I searched through this forum but I am a bit confused. What is the official delimiter that minimserver supports for adding multiple genre or artists tags?
Some posts mention // but in another post I read ; as delimiter. So should it be: R&B;Soul for multiple genre tags or R&B//Soul or R&B // Soul ?
What is the exact syntax that minimserver recognizes as separate tags?

Your confusion is understandable, because this whole area is very confused with a lot of variations between what different tagging programs write and what different media servers read.

MinimServer doesn't support any delimiter character for multiple values. The values need to be entered using separate repeated tags as specified by the relevant tagging specifications. For example, to tag a FLAC file with multiple genres R&B and Soul, the file should contain two tags:

GENRE=R&B
GENRE=Soul

If you view this file in Mp3tag, you'll see the Genre value as R&B\\Soul because Mp3tag uses \\ (not //) to indicate multiple values. If you view this file in foobar2000, you'll see the Genre value as R&B;Soul because foobar2000 uses ; to indicate multiple values.

Some tagging programs don't support separate repeated tags for multiple values. Because of this, some servers (notably Twonky) introduced nonstandard delimiters as a workaround (or hack). MinimServer doesn't support these nonstandard approaches.

I hope this helps. Please feel free to ask any further questions.

Hi Simon,
The above is clear but I have run into problems because I tried to use \\ as delimiter when using Easytag and you have seen the results in my log file. I hope I can get round to re-tagging using Puddletag which works like Mp3tag but is there a way of looking at the tags in console so I can see and check that the lines
GENRE=
GENRE=
exist in the file rather than using the "indirect" tagging programme? For example how do you examine the actual tags in file?
Budgie

[simoncn]

(19-12-2012 01:19)Budgie Wrote:  Hi Simon,
The above is clear but I have run into problems because I tried to use \\ as delimiter when using Easytag and you have seen the results in my log file. I hope I can get round to re-tagging using Puddletag which works like Mp3tag but is there a way of looking at the tags in console so I can see and check that the lines
GENRE=
GENRE=
exist in the file rather than using the "indirect" tagging programme? For example how do you examine the actual tags in file?
Budgie

This apparently simple question is actually very difficult because of the different tagging formats that are used for different types of files. I'm not aware of any program that does a good job for this for all file types. I use a hex editor to look at file tags, but this requires extensive knowledge of the low-level tagging formats used by different types of files.

The following should work:

1) Put a single file into a test directory
2) Start MinimServer
3) Change contentDir to point to the test directory, and set the writeAllTags property to an output filename
4) Restart MinimServer
5) The output file whose name you set for writeAllTags will contain all the tagging information for that single file

[bbrip]

Budgie,

stupid question maybe, but why dont you use mp3tag in the first place instead of Easytag, Doggytag and whatever they may be called? mp3tag is just the best und you can be sure that it stores multiple values for the same tag in multiple lines for that given tag.

BTW, in a Mac-Environment you can use this little tool http://sbooth.org/Tag/ to view whether multiple lines have been written by your tagging program. You need to move to "advanced" tab which lists all tags for a given file or folder that have been written.

bbrip

[simoncn]

(19-12-2012 01:19)Budgie Wrote:  Hi Simon,
The above is clear but I have run into problems because I tried to use \\ as delimiter when using Easytag and you have seen the results in my log file. I hope I can get round to re-tagging using Puddletag which works like Mp3tag but is there a way of looking at the tags in console so I can see and check that the lines
GENRE=
GENRE=
exist in the file rather than using the "indirect" tagging programme? For example how do you examine the actual tags in file?
Budgie

Puddletag can split tags that contain '\\' as a delimiter. See this post.

[simoncn]

(19-12-2012 11:41)bbrip Wrote:  BTW, in a Mac-Environment you can use this little tool http://sbooth.org/Tag/ to view whether multiple lines have been written by your tagging program. You need to move to "advanced" tab which lists all tags for a given file or folder that have been written.

From the referenced web page, this tool apparently works for tags in FLAC files, but not AIFF/MP3/ALAC/MP4/M4A.

[simoncn]

(19-12-2012 11:41)bbrip Wrote:  stupid question maybe, but why dont you use mp3tag in the first place instead of Easytag, Doggytag and whatever they may be called? mp3tag is just the best und you can be sure that it stores multiple values for the same tag in multiple lines for that given tag.

I have the impression that Puddletag is closer to Mp3tag in its capabilities than it is to the general Doggytag breed of these programs.

[Budgie]

(19-12-2012 08:04)simoncn Wrote:  [quote='Budgie' pid='1528' dateline='1355876384']
[snip]

This apparently simple question is actually very difficult because of the different tagging formats that are used for different types of files. I'm not aware of any program that does a good job for this for all file types. I use a hex editor to look at file tags, but this requires extensive knowledge of the low-level tagging formats used by different types of files.

The following should work:

1) Put a single file into a test directory
2) Start MinimServer
3) Change contentDir to point to the test directory, and set the writeAllTags property to an output filename
4) Restart MinimServer
5) The output file whose name you set for writeAllTags will contain all the tagging information for that single file

Hi Simon,
Many thanks for the info. Hex editor is well beyond me so your suggested method will be fine for checking problem files. Thanks again.
Budgie