Announcing MinimServer 2.1

[Gussy]

(16-12-2021 09:43)simoncn Wrote:  This facility is intended to show recent files (added or played), not a historical list. The limit of 1000 has been chosen for performance reasons (response time and memory usage).

No worries - thanks!

[retraite]

Hi Simon
Thank you for the improved functionality added to Version 2.1. I have read the guidance on installation and use of *RecentAdded and *RecentPlayed and and installed as per instructions. *RecentAdded works well on both my Music NAS boxes, but *RecentPlayed only appears on one. The played-files.txt file is present on the box showing both categories, but not on the one that shows only *RecentAdded.
As far as I can see, all Minimserver settings are the same on both boxes, but my Synology DS214+ (ARM7) gives me both headings, whereas the Synology DS218+ (Intel 64) does not.
I have uninstalled and reinstalled Minimserver on the 218+ but that has made no difference. I’m not getting any error messages on the log on either box.
Can you suggest any solution to my problem, or next steps to try to identify the problem further?

[simoncn]

On the 218+, are you running DSM 6 or DSM 7?

[retraite]

Hi Simon
Both boxes are running DSM7. Thanks for the quick reply.

[retraite]

Hi again Simon
While we have been exchanging emails, I began playing an album on the 218+. As a result, the Recently Played heading has now appeared on the 218+. I was quite surprised by this as I played a number of albums yesterday, although I did clear the playlist after I had finished playing them. The reason for the experiment of playing something today was because I noticed that I hadn't cleared the playlist on the 214+ and that was a difference between the 2 boxes.
I don't know if this helps. I'll keep experimenting and see what happens from here.

[SnapperMike]

Thank you Simon, all is now well.

[simoncn]

(16-12-2021 14:16)retraite Wrote:  Hi again Simon
While we have been exchanging emails, I began playing an album on the 218+. As a result, the Recently Played heading has now appeared on the 218+. I was quite surprised by this as I played a number of albums yesterday, although I did clear the playlist after I had finished playing them. The reason for the experiment of playing something today was because I noticed that I hadn't cleared the playlist on the 214+ and that was a difference between the 2 boxes.
I don't know if this helps. I'll keep experimenting and see what happens from here.

Which playlist is this? If it is a playlist held by the control point, clearing it will make no difference to what MinimServer shows as played files. If it is a .m3u playlist on the server, deleting the playlist file should also be OK as MinimServer records the location of the audio file that was played, not the location of the playlist entry.

[retraite]

It was a playlist in the control point. The only reason I referred it was because it was the only visible difference between the NAS box settings, but coincidentally its contents were the same as those that appeared under the Recently Played heading.
It seems that the Recently Played heading has only become operational on the 218+ since the Index Tags were installed and only that one album played yesterday on the 214+ playlist was included under Recently Played.
Both boxes seem to be operating fine, but unlike the Recently Added heading, the Recently Played does not appear to have a history prior to installation of Minimserver 2.1.
I can happily live with that, given the extra functionality I now have access to because of your efforts, but I thought you should know what happened.

[simoncn]

You are correct that Recently Played doesn't know what files were played before Recently Played was enabled. Also, if you disable Recently Played for any reason, no history of files played will be recorded until Recently Played is enabled again.

Recently Added also doesn't know exactly when files were added before Recently Added was enabled. The history you see for that is based on the last modification dates of the files in the library, which should usually be fairly close but not exactly correct.

[retraite]

Thank you for your explanation and my apologies for my lack of understanding of the way the Recently Added and Recently Played functions actually work, which I’ll attribute to my advancing years. I had assumed from the section in the User Guide that both headings would be present in the Control Point immediately upon adding the Index Tags and restarting. The fact that the Recently Played heading didn’t is what led to my confusion. I’ll quietly go back to my corner now!