Feature request: clear cache on next restart

[NickP]

Hi Simon
I'm always wary about asking for something to be changed immediately after I have found out how to do it, but on this occasion I think it's reasonable since otherwise one has to go delving in dangerous areas with seldom-used tools...

What led me to this is that I did a whole load of retagging, and then started noticing that album art was missing, in both Kinsky and Lumin control points, which suggested the issue was with the data, but revisiting the data showed that it was OK. Searches on "missing album art" revealed nothing, restating MinimServer through MinimWatch made no difference, and restarting my QNap NAS made no difference. It then occurred to me to search on clearing Minim's cache, and it was there that I found both the underlying cause (my tag editor was set not to update file dates) and guidance on how to do it, which involved first finding out that PuTTY's character-based interface was too obscure for me, and then that my license to Smartftp had exprired. I eventually found FileZilla FTP Client on SourceForge, during the use of which I discovered the difference in functionality between connecting on ports 21 & 22, eventually to get to the correct folder, where there was quite a number of cache files, including from previous top-level folder designs, all of which (with a bit of trepidation...) I deleted. I restarted Minim, and have my sanity restored by my music appearing how I expect it to be!

So it occurs to me...: how about a checkbox or similar in MinimWatch that asks "Clear cache on next restart?", defaulting to unchecked, and that is set to unchecked during the restart process? The alternative - deleting files in Unixland using a tool that I might need every other year - is pretty scary and arcane for me, a pretty experienced IT person, and is not something I would undertake again in the absence of documentation to point me to the correct directory...

... just a thought...

NickP

[simoncn]

(30-09-2013 16:15)NickP Wrote:  Hi Simon
I'm always wary about asking for something to be changed immediately after I have found out how to do it, but on this occasion I think it's reasonable since otherwise one has to go delving in dangerous areas with seldom-used tools...

What led me to this is that I did a whole load of retagging, and then started noticing that album art was missing, in both Kinsky and Lumin control points, which suggested the issue was with the data, but revisiting the data showed that it was OK. Searches on "missing album art" revealed nothing, restating MinimServer through MinimWatch made no difference, and restarting my QNap NAS made no difference. It then occurred to me to search on clearing Minim's cache, and it was there that I found both the underlying cause (my tag editor was set not to update file dates) and guidance on how to do it, which involved first finding out that PuTTY's character-based interface was too obscure for me, and then that my license to Smartftp had exprired. I eventually found FileZilla FTP Client on SourceForge, during the use of which I discovered the difference in functionality between connecting on ports 21 & 22, eventually to get to the correct folder, where there was quite a number of cache files, including from previous top-level folder designs, all of which (with a bit of trepidation...) I deleted. I restarted Minim, and have my sanity restored by my music appearing how I expect it to be!

So it occurs to me...: how about a checkbox or similar in MinimWatch that asks "Clear cache on next restart?", defaulting to unchecked, and that is set to unchecked during the restart process? The alternative - deleting files in Unixland using a tool that I might need every other year - is pretty scary and arcane for me, a pretty experienced IT person, and is not something I would undertake again in the absence of documentation to point me to the correct directory...

... just a thought...

NickP

Thanks for this suggestion.

If you put something in the "writeAllTags" option and restart MinimServer, MinimServer will rebuild the cache files. This should be easier and safer than using FileZilla to manually delete the cache files.

I'll think about how to make this option available in a more obvious way. I'm trying not to clutter the main UI too much with options that most people will never need to use.

[NickP]

(30-09-2013 22:14)simoncn Wrote:  If you put something in the "writeAllTags" option and restart MinimServer, MinimServer will rebuild the cache files. This should be easier and safer than using FileZilla to manually delete the cache files.

Ah! Yes, that sounds good. I didn't come across that in the docs., but equally I realise that I didn't actually refer to them during this episode!

(30-09-2013 22:14)simoncn Wrote:  I'll think about how to make this option available in a more obvious way. I'm trying not to clutter the main UI too much with options that most people will never need to use.

Yes, I quite agree.
How about: on selecting "Restart", pop up a messagebox "Rebuild cache?" <Yes>|<No>, with <No> as the default choice, with a 5s timeout?
N

[winxi]

(30-09-2013 22:14)simoncn Wrote:  Thanks for this suggestion.

If you put something in the "writeAllTags" option and restart MinimServer, MinimServer will rebuild the cache files. This should be easier and safer than using FileZilla to manually delete the cache files.

I'll think about how to make this option available in a more obvious way. I'm trying not to clutter the main UI too much with options that most people will never need to use.

With the current version of the Synology package, the cache file(s) are deleted in any case when MinimServer is uninstalled. However, the user can choose whether or not to keep the configuration file when uninstalling. So, if one wants just to delete the cache file(s), he/she can uninstall MinimServer with the option to keep the configuration file and then reinstall MinimServer again.

I'm not sure how this is handled on other platforms. Maybe this approach could also be an option for these.

[simoncn]

(30-09-2013 22:24)NickP Wrote:  Ah! Yes, that sounds good. I didn't come across that in the docs., but equally I realise that I didn't actually refer to them during this episode!

The docs don't mention this at the moment. It has been discussed in a few forum posts. I'll add it to the docs.

Quote:Yes, I quite agree.
How about: on selecting "Restart", pop up a messagebox "Rebuild cache?" <Yes>|<No>, with <No> as the default choice, with a 5s timeout?
N

I would find this very irritating in the 99.999% of cases where a rebuild is not needed. The trigger for doing this would need to be something that doesn't intrude on normal usage.

[simoncn]

(30-09-2013 22:25)winxi Wrote:  With the current version of the Synology package, the cache file(s) are deleted in any case when MinimServer is uninstalled. However, the user can choose whether or not to keep the configuration file when uninstalling. So, if one wants just to delete the cache file(s), he/she can uninstall MinimServer with the option to keep the configuration file and then reinstall MinimServer again.

I'm not sure how this is handled on other platforms. Maybe this approach could also be an option for these.

I think this approach is ideal, but it's difficult to implement it on some platforms such as QNAP (no ability to interact with the uninstaller) and Mac (no uninstaller).

[NickP]

(30-09-2013 22:55)simoncn Wrote:  

(30-09-2013 22:24)NickP Wrote:  Ah! Yes, that sounds good. I didn't come across that in the docs., but equally I realise that I didn't actually refer to them during this episode!

The docs don't mention this at the moment. It has been discussed in a few forum posts. I'll add it to the docs.

Quote:Yes, I quite agree.
How about: on selecting "Restart", pop up a messagebox "Rebuild cache?" <Yes>|<No>, with <No> as the default choice, with a 5s timeout?
N

I would find this very irritating in the 99.999% of cases where a rebuild is not needed. The trigger for doing this would need to be something that doesn't intrude on normal usage.

Fair enough, tho' I'd've hoped that making <No> the default button wld have meant that hitting <Enter> would accept it, with the timeout handling where the user didn't notice.
N

[NickP]

(30-09-2013 23:04)simoncn Wrote:  

(30-09-2013 22:25)winxi Wrote:  With the current version of the Synology package, the cache file(s) are deleted in any case when MinimServer is uninstalled. However, the user can choose whether or not to keep the configuration file when uninstalling. So, if one wants just to delete the cache file(s), he/she can uninstall MinimServer with the option to keep the configuration file and then reinstall MinimServer again.

I'm not sure how this is handled on other platforms. Maybe this approach could also be an option for these.

I think this approach is ideal, but it's difficult to implement it on some platforms such as QNAP (no ability to interact with the uninstaller) and Mac (no uninstaller).

Isn't it a bit radical, to need to uninstall software [just] to clear some settings?
I only know MinimServer on QNap, so this might be a non-starter because it wouldn't be cross-platform, but here goes! On QNap, I can <Enable> or <Disable> MinimServer; these functions are used vvv rarely, so perhaps it wouldn't be wildly unreasonable for <Enable> to clear existing cached data - I'm assuming (yes yes I know the phrase) that clicking on <Enable> initiates a different execution path from the path entered on restarting the NAS.

N

[simoncn]

(01-10-2013 12:32)NickP Wrote:  Fair enough, tho' I'd've hoped that making <No> the default button wld have meant that hitting <Enter> would accept it, with the timeout handling where the user didn't notice.
N

I understand that, but my point was about the visual clutter that this would create.

I've had a couple of ideas:

1) Use right-click, shift+click or ctrl+click on the tray icon Restart menu item. This doesn't work because of issues with Java's tray icon support.

2) Use right-click on the contentDir property field to show a context menu with the option to clear the cache for that content directory. At present, this is my preferred solution.

[simoncn]

(01-10-2013 12:38)NickP Wrote:  Isn't it a bit radical, to need to uninstall software [just] to clear some settings?
I only know MinimServer on QNap, so this might be a non-starter because it wouldn't be cross-platform, but here goes! On QNap, I can <Enable> or <Disable> MinimServer; these functions are used vvv rarely, so perhaps it wouldn't be wildly unreasonable for <Enable> to clear existing cached data - I'm assuming (yes yes I know the phrase) that clicking on <Enable> initiates a different execution path from the path entered on restarting the NAS.

N

This couldn't be done when Enable is clicked, because this is exactly equivalent to booting the NAS with MinimServer already enabled.

It would be possible to do this as part of Disable, but I think the proposal that I have just posted is better because it works on all platforms and it makes it more obvious what is happening.