Separators in custom fields

[lyapounov]

(25-02-2023 18:21)simoncn Wrote:  Actually, using .m3u playlists is the best way to transfer playlists between different devices. The playlists need to use relative paths and "forward slash" path separators.

I have never used m3u playlist but I am looking to give it a try.

Just one question: you mention to use relative paths, but the norm accepts absolute paths ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M3U

[simoncn]

You can use absolute paths if you are 100% sure you will never move your library location or copy your library to another device. Otherwise, using relative paths is a safer choice.

[simoncn]

(09-03-2023 20:58)edj Wrote:  So from my point of view the problem has been solved, and so your solution above should probably be at the bottom of the pile given that (I assume) nobody has raised this before!

I recall a previous discussion about this but I can't find it now. I will wait and see if other users would find this useful.

[DavidHB]

(09-03-2023 22:22)lyapounov Wrote:  Just one question: you mention to use relative paths, but the norm accepts absolute paths ?

I think that Simon is saying that the choice between absolute and relative paths is a 'horses for courses' thing; if so, I agree with him. But consider this

We can pretty much control how we organise our content directory, and it makes sense that, once a music album is put in a particular place in the folder tree, it should stay in that place, so that its position relative to the content directory remains constant. But we cannot always so easily control where the content directory itself is located in the device file system.

If we only have one instance of MinimServer running and only one content directory, this will not matter in the short term; both absolute and file paths sin .m3u playlists will work equally well. But there always will come a time when a device has to be replaced, and the file system on the new device may well be differently organised to the file system on the predecessor device. If playlist file paths are relative within the content directory, this will not matter; all that will need to change is the contentDir setting in MinimServer properties. With absolute file paths, all the playlists would have to be edited.

I actually have three identical versions of my music library on different devices, each associated with its own local instance of MinimServer. With relative file paths, playlist files can be copied from one device to another and work equally well, when indexed by MinimServer, on all devices.

If you use Windows, the now ancient but still very usable Playlist Creator (latest version 3.6.2) utility is still available on a number of download sites, even though the original author's website has now disappeared. Playlist Creator enables you to create .m3u or .m3u8 playlists using a drag and drop interface. It supports both relative and absolute file paths and the creation of files with either back or forward slashes as path separators. It is great for experimenting with playlists without needing to get too deeply into text editing.

David

[lyapounov]

(10-03-2023 20:01)DavidHB Wrote:  

(09-03-2023 22:22)lyapounov Wrote:  Just one question: you mention to use relative paths, but the norm accepts absolute paths ?

I think that Simon is saying that the choice between absolute and relative paths is a 'horses for courses' thing; if so, I agree with him. But consider this

We can pretty much control how we organise our content directory, and it makes sense that, once a music album is put in a particular place in the folder tree, it should stay in that place, so that its position relative to the content directory remains constant. But we cannot always so easily control where the content directory itself is located in the device file system.

If we only have one instance of MinimServer running and only one content directory, this will not matter in the short term; both absolute and file paths sin .m3u playlists will work equally well. But there always will come a time when a device has to be replaced, and the file system on the new device may well be differently organised to the file system on the predecessor device. If playlist file paths are relative within the content directory, this will not matter; all that will need to change is the contentDir setting in MinimServer properties. With absolute file paths, all the playlists would have to be edited.

I actually have three identical versions of my music library on different devices, each associated with its own local instance of MinimServer. With relative file paths, playlist files can be copied from one device to another and work equally well, when indexed by MinimServer, on all devices.

If you use Windows, the now ancient but still very usable Playlist Creator (latest version 3.6.2) utility is still available on a number of download sites, even though the original author's website has now disappeared. Playlist Creator enables you to create .m3u or .m3u8 playlists using a drag and drop interface. It supports both relative and absolute file paths and the creation of files with either back or forward slashes as path separators. It is great for experimenting with playlists without needing to get too deeply into text editing.

David

I have 4 replica of my music, all on synology servers (one being on an external drive, though it is 10T and soon full...).

But I get your point; what I may do, as all my music's info are stored in a database on my synology, is create a program to automatically generate the m3u.

Thx !

[DavidHB]

(12-03-2023 01:01)lyapounov Wrote:  I have 4 replica of my music, all on synology servers

User requirements vary, but I have always found it best to have the 'master' copy of my music library (that is the copy where I do all ripping, downloading, tagging and playlist generation) on my PC, because the utilities I use are all Windows-based. I almost never use the master copy for actually playing the music; that is done from one or the other of my QNAP NASs. But I do use the Windows instance of MinimServer to test new features (most recently my implementation of index artwork).

For copying files over from the master copy of the library to the NASs, I used to use the Windows SyncToy, but this has been deprecated under Windows 11. I now use the FreeFileSync utility, which does the job just as well.

(12-03-2023 01:01)lyapounov Wrote:  But I get your point; what I may do, as all my music's info are stored in a database on my synology, is create a program to automatically generate the m3u.

Unless the programming aspect is fun for you, I expect that you could find a free or inexpensive utility to do this job. I have certainly seen no point in trying to produce my own version of Playlist Creator. For me, the key thing is to keep the playlist files clean and tidy. I keep all playlists in a single ../Music/Playlists folder, which Playlist Creator is set to use. This makes the playlists very straightforward to generate and amend as necessary.

David

[simoncn]

Support for backslashes as directory separators in Linux and macOS playlists is now available in MinimServer update 252.

There is a change from what I proposed in post #9 of this thread. For Linux and macOS, a "real" backslash (\) needs to be entered as a double backslash (\\). This is simpler than the original proposal and is consistent with how backslash characters are escaped in many other contexts.