Upgrading from MinimServer 0.8 to MinimServer 2

[haggis999]

I have just made my first attempt to upgrade from MinimServer 0.8 to MinimServer 2 but cancelled it as soon as I was told the old version would be replaced by the new one.

I had hoped the old version would remain functional while I took my time to experiment with V2. As that appears to be impossible, I need to understand more about how to make V2 run in a similar manner to my current V0.8 configuration (as shown below). Is this a simple conversion or do I need to learn a new way of doing things?

Code:

aliasTags=Work:Group
alphaGroup=All Artists, Composer
.autoUpdate=true
contentDir=/volume1/Music/My Music
displayName=MinimServer[BonzoNAS]
http.port=9790
indexTags=CLASSICALGENRE=Classical:Classical library, NONCLASSICALGENRE=Non-classical:Non-classical library, Sub-Genre, Composer, All Artists, Conductor, DiscType, Group:Work
itemTags=Genre
listViewAlbums=5
.logFile=minimserver.log
.logLevel=info
mergeFolderAlbums=true
ohnet.debug=Default
ohnet.port=9791
showExtras=true
startupScan=true
stream.converter=ffmpeg
tagCustom=Composer.displayRole={artist}
tagFormat=Artist.displayFormat={$composer^^ / $artist}, Composer.displayFormat={$sub-genre}, Group.displayFormat={$group^$disctype^ [^]}, Title.displayFormat={$title^$disctype^ [^]}
tagOptions=Album.sortTags={Album, Artist}
tagUpdate=/volume1/Music/My Music/MyTagUpdate.txt
.updateReminder=1
writeTagChanges=/volume1/Music/My Music/MyMinimServerTags.txt

[simoncn]

From a previous post of yours, I believe you have a Synology NAS.

Your current settings will be migrated automatically if you follow the steps in the first section of this page. To summarize:

1) Replace MinimWatch 0.8 with MinimWatch 2. MinimWatch 2 works with both MinimServer 0.8 and MinimServer 2.
2) Install and start MinimServer 2
3) MinimServer 2 will be in Starter Edition mode with many of your settings missing in MinimWatch. Don't panic!
4) Activate the free 30-day trial license
5) This will restart MinimServer and your previous settings will now be visible in MinimWatch. MinimStreamer will not be installed.
6) If you want to use MinimStreamer, install it using the MinimWatch Packages tab and click the Relaunch button
7) Everything will now be working exactly as previously
8) After no more than 29 days, you need to purchase and activate a MinimServer 2 full license.

If you look carefully at the settings in MinimWatch, you will see that tagCustom has been replaced with upnpCustom. upnpCustom provides the same functionality as tagCustom but has different settings. This change is intended to make this property easier to use and understand, as we discussed some time ago. Specifically, your current setting

tagCustom=Composer.displayRole={artist}

will be updated automatically to

upnpCustom=roleTags={Composer}

[haggis999]

Hi Simon,
I am indeed still using a Synology NAS (with an Intel processor). Many thanks for that very clear and useful summary of the process. I'm now happy to proceed with the update.

[haggis999]

I've hit my first issue, though I doubt if it is of any real consequence.

You say above that the first step is to "Uninstall MinimWatch 0.8". I just did that and then went to the instructions for Installing MinimWatch 2 on Windows, where it gives the opposite guidance, i.e. "If a previous version of MinimWatch is running, select Exit from the minim icon. It's best not to uninstall the previous version of MinimWatch".

So which instruction is correct? Does it really matter one way or the other?

[simoncn]

Fair point, I was not very precise. I will edit my earlier post in case others get the wrong impression.

[haggis999]

Another issue is that when I tried to run MinimWatch-2.0.8-install.exe I got the following security warning. The MinimWatch 2 instructions do say "Ignore any warnings saying that this file will damage your system", and I duly proceeded with the installation, but would it not be be better to provide a suitable certificate? You already do this for a Synology NAS.

Windows protected your PC
Microsoft Defender SmartScreen prevented an unrecognised app
from starting. Running this app might put your PC at risk.

Publisher: Unknown publisher

[haggis999]

MinimServer 2 is now working fine on my Synology NAS with a trial licence, but MinimWatch on my Windows PC shows that there was no automatic conversion of my previous tagCustom setting of Composer.displayRole={artist} setting to a new upnpCustom setting of roleTags={Composer}.

upnpCustom was blank, so I added the new setting manually. I'm not yet sure if it does what the tagCustom setting used to do for displaying the Composer tag in BubbleUPnP, as it's been quite a while since I last used BubbleUPnP. It appears to append the Composer in front of the Artist whether or not I use the upnpCustom setting, but when I tap on the Playing Now screen to view the metadata it shows the Genre under the Composer tag.

[simoncn]

This doesn't sound right to me.

I checked the automatic conversion of your tagCustom setting just before I wrote my post, so I don't understand why this didn't work for you.

Your upnpCustom setting sends the Composer to the control point but doesn't send the AlbumArtist to the control point. This is what your previous tagCustom setting was doing. The new default for upnpCustom is to send both the Composer and the AlbumArtist to the control point. If you would like to try this (which works well with most control points including BubbleUPnP), you can delete the upnpCustom setting.

After making any changes to upnpCustom, you should restart MinimServer and also restart the control point because the control point might be using cached out-of-date information from the previous MinimServer setting of this property.

I don't understand why you are getting Composer in front of Artist when using BubbleUPnP. I wonder if this is something that your renderer is doing. Which renderer is it?

Bear in mind that deleting upnpCustom doesn't prevent the Composer from being sent because the upnpCustom default is to send both Composer and AlbumArtist.

Showing Genre under the Composer tag seems completely wrong. I can't think of anything that could cause this to happen.

Regarding your earlier post about scary warnings from Windows when installing MinimWatch, the definitely needs attention but is not a simple fix. I will try to get to it soon.

[haggis999]

(01-11-2020 20:24)simoncn Wrote:  This doesn't sound right to me.

I checked the automatic conversion of your tagCustom setting just before I wrote my post, so I don't understand why this didn't work for you.

Could that have been because I first uninstalled MinimWatch?

Quote:Your upnpCustom setting sends the Composer to the control point but doesn't send the AlbumArtist to the control point. This is what your previous tagCustom setting was doing. The new default for upnpCustom is to send both the Composer and the AlbumArtist to the control point. If you would like to try this (which works well with most control points including BubbleUPnP), you can delete the upnpCustom setting.

After making any changes to upnpCustom, you should restart MinimServer and also restart the control point because the control point might be using cached out-of-date information from the previous MinimServer setting of this property.

I only ran some brief tests on BubbleUPnP after upgrading MinimServer and was conscious that caching could lead to misleading results when changing upnpCustom settings, but I did a rescan after each change rather than a restart. I will check this again.

Quote:I don't understand why you are getting Composer in front of Artist when using BubbleUPnP. I wonder if this is something that your renderer is doing. Which renderer is it?

I was playing my music on the same Android phone that was running BubbleUPnP. Does that mean BubbUPnP was the renderer?

[simoncn]

(01-11-2020 22:35)haggis999 Wrote:  Could that have been because I first uninstalled MinimWatch?

No, this is not relevant.

Quote:I only ran some brief tests on BubbleUPnP after upgrading MinimServer and was conscious that caching could lead to misleading results when changing upnpCustom settings, but I did a rescan after each change rather than a restart. I will check this again.

You also need to refresh the control point's view of things. BubbleUPnP has a Reload button for doing this.

Quote:I was playing my music on the same Android phone that was running BubbleUPnP. Does that mean BubbUPnP was the renderer?

This would be true by default unless you explicitly selected some other renderer.

Can you post screenshots that show the unexpected results?