A different kind of playlists

2012-10-17 01:24:56

Hi

I am frustrated with foobars way of handling of saved playlists and am looking for another way.

Ideally I would like the album list to have 'virtual folders' ... so wherever there exist a playlist file, the albumlist will simply show it as a folder containing the files in the playlist, and adding the folder or individual files to the playlist will be done by dragging/keys as you would for a normal folder or files within. Also a way is needed to add & remove files from the 'virtual folder'/playlist

I hope that makes sense ..

My questions are first, does a plugin to allow this already exist (I couldn't find one) and second if not, is it possible to develop one with the current SDK (I am a C++ programmer)

Thank you very much

Mika

A different kind of playlists

Reply #1 – 2012-10-17 02:15:01

Create a custom tag (PLAYLIST?) that contains the name of the playlist as its value and add it to the files of that playlist. You can then access that playlist with the Album list. It won't do everything you want, but it's a start, maybe.

EDIT:

Come to think of it, you'd have to create another tag (PLAYLIST_INDEX?) to keep the playlist in the correct order. You would simply contain the individual index of each track. You could format it from %list_index% while the playlist is loaded. There would be a problem, though, if tracks belong to more than one playlist.

To answer part of your questions, I don't think Album list can do what you want. It relies upon title formatting. I don't know of any components that can do what you want either.

A different kind of playlists

Reply #2 – 2012-10-17 11:08:46

Any playlist managing component offers essentially what you describe, but of course necessarily works independently of the Album List, which is tied to the Media Library. You can use the built-in playlist manager, or try one of these:
http://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_plorg
http://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/...laylist_manager

A different kind of playlists

Reply #3 – 2012-10-17 16:37:49

Perhaps, you would be willing to help make foobar2000 better by describing your "frustration" further rather than just your proposed solution?

A different kind of playlists

Reply #4 – 2012-10-19 00:17:51

> Perhaps, you would be willing to help make foobar2000 better by describing your "frustration" further rather than just your proposed solution?

yeah of course, there are a few aspects to it, my main issues are with saved playlists, I often play at events and prepare a lot of playlists n advance

- modifying and saving a playlist is very confusing, it already has a name (in the title of the tab) why does it asks me for a filename again ? if I choose to save to the same name (which of course I would) why does it ask me about overwriting ? I would like a much easier way to add remove files from saved playlists

- I miss the ability to add a saved playlist to the current playlist, to add parts of playlists to the current playlist, after the current track for example, I can do this with cut and paste etc but it's a lot of hussle

- when loading a lot of playlists (20 for example) the whole tabbed interface becomes very hard to operste (try it) tabs keep jumping in and out and changing order

- IMO it will be much easier to work with a single open playlist, and simply see the saved ones in the album tree as folders (prob with some special marking) so you can just drag and drop in and out of them into the open playlist

I hope that makes sense

thanks

A different kind of playlists

Reply #5 – 2012-10-19 00:48:52

You can add playlist manager to your layout so that you won't have to use playlist tabs if they bother you
With playlist manager by side your playlist view you can interchange (copy/move) tracks between playlists very easily

If you shift-click on File menu, you can select "Save all playlists..." and export all playlists to supported format in chosen destination
Playlists you see in foobar interface are stored in your profile folder in FPL format