Auto - Update Filepath

[billyvnilly]

Originally posted by DrO
highlighting an invalid entry isn't that difficult to do (the code in jtfe is just about there to do just a different highlight of playlist items.... /me considers adapting the code to do this)

-daz

YAY

[Genma]

This would be a great plugin/patch to have for anyone who has a large collection which changes when organizing. I myself just finished ripping every cd I own, adding them to my collection and completely organizing the whole lot. I now have over 19GB of sorted mp3s on my hard drive and my brother's 150+ playlist is now mostly useless. Even though its not a missive list compared to the potential, it would still be a tedious job to either manually edit the m3u or replace the defunct playlist entries. I have very little skill when it comes to programming so if there is an app/plugin out there that could updates lists I would love to know about it. As it is I've been hoping for/expecting this feature in winamp since v3.
I hope a solution is found soon as people's collections are only growing!

[FLeX0r]

hmm... u guys could open the m3u file, download a mass replacive programm or use word and just replace the pathsequences... ?!
word has a replace funktion, and ist moderate fast cause u just have to paste and copy the text over in de notepad eitor uve used to open the m3u file...

[jojo 544]

Originally posted by FLeX0r
hmm... u guys could open the m3u file, download a mass replacive programm or use word and just replace the pathsequences... ?!
word has a replace funktion, and ist moderate fast cause u just have to paste and copy the text over in de notepad eitor uve used to open the m3u file...

That won't do, i'ts sugested before (see above).

Originally posted by Jojo544
Playlists can indeed be fixed with wordpad or some editor with find & replace function. I already did it myself, and for big groups of files it's very usefull, but for many small groups of files in different folders a kind of 'fix playlist' plugin would realy be welcome.[/B]

[billyvnilly]

did this one slip through the cracks or does it really not work that well....im trying it right now

http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=100248

[edit]dang!!! so it didnt slip through the cracks, its doesnt do anything! and i had such high hopes[/edit]

[jojo 544]

Hey, i didn’t know about this one either.
I guess i didn’t search well enough, i did my search all over again, but now i think there really aren’t any of this ‘playlist fix’ plugins left to be discovered, but please correct me if i’m wrong.
And this one, well i like the idea, the concept is good but i don’t like the way it works:

1) It scans your computer for mp3’s. The folders / drives to be scanned are not customable.
2) The scanning starts each time winamp is opened, so that is also not user defined.
3) Dead links can only be replaced when a replacing file is found with the exact same tittle.
4) When no replacing file is found there is no posibility to manualy browse to look for it.
5) The plugin is only accesable through: preferences/plugins/general purpose/m3u playlist checker/configure plugin. Thats a long way to go, i’d like it to work in 1 or 2 clicks max.

But i also have to say that this plugin is as close as it gets to the idea of broken playlist enties fixing. Hopefully there will be an update or yet another plugin that has the full works.
My fingers are still crossed.

I also searched the forums for relating threads, and came up with this results:

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread....hreadid=179079 (this one)

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=185060

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=183199

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=182553

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=167852

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=186481

[ttimbul]

You guys are all confusing the main point I think. The idea is to have the media library recognise that a file represents the same song after it has been moved on the file system.
If you use filehashes (like most p2p applications do) then u can detect arbitrary renames, moves, ... What u cannot detect is if the ID3 tag has changed because it would alter the file hash, but assuming you use winamp to manage ID3 there would be absolutely no problem as winamp could simply rehash on the spot. What I dont understand is why Winamp uses the outdated method of addressing files by path, rather than addressing hashes and keeping a map of these hashes to the corresponding file on disk!
A rescan would update this map. Of course a rescan would be more costly because of the hashing overhead, but then why not also store the last modified date of the file. If the file has been modified (including deleted) since last time the hash was taken, then just remove the path association from the hash, but NOT the actual file record (with ratings etc).
To avoid having zombie entries there would ideally be a button where you click to remove zombie entries from the library...

Whats the issue? It just requires some effort and reorganisation... In this respect I think winamp is totally behind other software!

[jojo 544]

Originally posted by ttimbul
You guys are all confusing the main point I think. The idea is to have the media library recognise that a file represents the same song after it has been moved on the file system.

No, wrong thinking! it's about PLAYLIST entries, m3u or pls.
I suggest you read the whole topic before you post, all in here

[dlinkwit27]

All i want is for when I move or re-name a song, winamp automatically knows which song it was, and updates the entry both in the media library, and if it in the playlist, the entry in the playlist so that the song will play without having to be added again.

[james]

Originally posted by ttimbul
In this respect I think winamp is totally behind other software!

In that case you better download something bloated and expensive.

[edit] pasto [/edit]

[james]

Originally posted by dlinkwit27
All i want is for when I move or re-name a song, winamp automatically knows which song it was, and updates the entry both in the media library, and if it in the playlist, the entry in the playlist so that the song will play without having to be added again.

Yeah that would be cool, but I don't think the way the ML and PL are coded would support this without a huge amount of work. I guess a plugin could do it but it's a fairly tricky and resource-intensive thing to do.

[jojo 544]

Hi dlinkwit27,

To fix the lib. a rescan should do the job. For playlists, if the filename has'nt changed, you could try http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=100248
as billyvnilly suggested. For me it worked, but i have some other issues with this plugin (see my post higher in this threat)

Originally posted by james
I guess a plugin could do it but it's a fairly tricky and resource-intensive thing to do.

Would it realy be that difficult?
I saw something simular before, if i remember well in MPEX plugin, scanning for duplicate or similar files in different levels, and this m3u playlist checker also is getting close to what i’m looking for.

Originally posted by jojo544
Finding same or similar files can't be so hard to do, i saw it in some plugins already, with options for 'exact' same, almost same, +/- same and so on, i think in 5 different levels, checking length, filename, bitrate... [/B]

[moymike]

No need to fix it if it aint broken....

As I see it, there are 2 methods to handle the issue of playlist getting messed up: (and don't forget ML database also)

1) Have a fix-it program that you run on demand, that attempts to locate moved and renamed files, and then updates the changes to all the playlists and the ML database.

2) Via a plugin, or addition to Winamp... rename and move the files from within Winamp, so that the ML and playlists can be kept up-to-date as the renames and moves occur.

I really don't understand why everyone is wanting option #1. Fixing playlists and the ML database after moves and renames take place is a bandaid at best. It would be like having to run scandisk everytime you wanted to make sure your files where straight. There will be times when files are just plain missing, or misidentified. Mostly though, I just hate the idea of having to run this utilitily program to fix something that never needed to be broken.

A much nicer solution would be to have a plugin in Winamp that would handle file moves and renames, and fix the playlists and ML as they are accomplished. Then, there would be no searching for the right match, or need to run a cleanup program after the fact.

Maybe something like - Dynamic Library by Joonas - has an opportunity here.

[jojo 544]

Well that makes a lot of sence, i like this idea, but i'm not sure witch option (1 or 2) would be the easiest to code.

I suggested this issue to joonas already and he seemed to be intressed, but i guess he has some more work on the dynamic lib. plugin first.

Sooner or later i hope someone eventualy will come up with a solution to the problem of broken entries, either a good fixing plugin, or a system like you said to rename and / or move files without breaking the links

[ttimbul]

so you didnt get my point after all...
I guess I didnt put it right and started at the wrong point :s

I meant to suggest that winamp could track files not by their path on disk, but by the filehash, which stays the same for any file as long as it is not modified. (Contents the same = hash the same). This is how any p2p app identifies the files you share anyway!
So when winamp updates an ID3 tag, obviously the file changes, but since winamp knows that, it can update it straight away in the library.
If a file is moved, its path changes, but not the hash. All you have to do is rescan (yes, that can be improved by having winamp handle the moving as well) and winamp will link the (same) hash to the correct file on disk.

As for playlists. I have no idea how playlists work now, I am guessing that they link straight to files on disk, so how about instead synchronise playlists with the ml instead, so the playlist only links to hashes, the library is responsible for delivering the correct song...

I hope that makes more sense now....