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Topic: Autoplaylists (Read 18302 times) previous topic - next topic
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Autoplaylists

Once in a while i read this term 'autoplaylist' here on this forum. In my opinion that is a playlist that updates itself automatically as an item in my musiclibrary matches the playlist-parameters.

Before I became a default UI follower/disciple/enthousiast/slave i used all kinds of fancy panels UI-configs. One of the best components I used with those fancy panels was Playlist Tree, by CwBowron (?). This was a selfupdating playlist.

Now, when using the default UI for a while, I am starting to miss that playlist tree. Not playlist tree itself, but playlists that updates when a track has something that belongs in that playlist.

Some examples:
I have a playlist with all my rating 5 songs. When I rate a new song 5 stars, i have to drag and drop it into that playlist.

I also have a playlist with recently added songs. When songs are older then a month I remove them from it, and new songs i add to it.

Also, mostplayed, lastplayed, neverplayed, rating 4, rating missing etc etc..

Is there some way in the default UI to create a selfupdating playlist? What component still works and doesn't violate foobs SDK and integrates with DUI? Not having this functionality makes using foobar the way i want to like having a job in organizing songs...

Autoplaylists

Reply #1 –
You can create autoplaylists from the integrated album list and library search components, as well as the optional facets component.

[dl][dt]Album list / facets:[/dt]
[dd]Right-click on an item ("all music" to use your whole library) and choose create autoplaylist.
Optionally, you can filter the list by a query. Click on the "?" button for a query syntax reference.[/dd]
[dt]Library search:[/dt]
[dd]Enter a query, verify the results, click on the "..." button, and choose create autoplaylist.[/dd][/dl]
Examples of queries:
  • Rating 5: %rating% IS 5
  • Rating missing: %rating% MISSING
  • Most played: %play_count% PRESENT SORT DESCENDING BY %play_count%
  • Last played: %last_played% PRESENT SORT DESCENDING BY %last_played%
  • Never played: %play_count% MISSING
--

Edit: It was determined that autoplaylists created with a directive such as SORT DESCENDING BY %play_count% are not automatically kept sorted when play counts change, this is planned for a future version.

Edit 2: Works now in 0.9.5.4.

Autoplaylists

Reply #2 –
Hi Frank, thx for replying that fast. These autoplaylists don't work as i expect or want them to do. I made an autoplaylist with rating GREATER 3. That creates a playlist with all songs with rating 4 and 5.

After that I rated 1 unrated song with 5 stars, but that doesn't appear automatically in the above playlist. And that is what I want. Or am I doing something wrong? (Obviously it appears in the playlist when I query again rating GREATER 3, but that's a step I prefer not to do).

For me there is no difference in creating an autoplaylist with that query or a playlist with that query, they are both the same and won't update when I update statistics of the tracks.

Autoplaylists

Reply #3 –
Does it work if you use %rating% instead of rating?

Explanation: Ratings added through the playback statistics component are not saved as tags by default, but merely stored in its own database. They are accessible with title formatting, but not as metadata fields.

Autoplaylists

Reply #4 –
That doesn't work either, tried with %rating% of course, but also tagged those ratings. It will find them on a new query, but the autoplaylist isn't updated by itself.

Based on your answers; it is supposed to work as I wish it would work? I have a very basic config, but maybe something is wrong. I use playlist-tabs only for playlistviewing, maybe i should use playlistmanager?


EDIT:
Found the problem! I didn't use the autoplaylistcreator, but just clicked create autoplaylist (which doesn't start that creator, but creates instant an autoplaylist). When i press the "..." button after a search it shows me three options:
1. Create playlist
2. Create autoplaylist
3. ....

When I click those dots its starts the autoplaylistcreator. That one works fine!. I can't access that autoplaylistcreator in medialibrary or facets only in search. Is there a shortcut/keyboard-control for that autoplaylist creator? Can't find it, and i like to bind it to the ? button on the toolbar.

Kinda strange this autoplaylist creator is hidden that much. It's such a beautifull thing.. Or is it me being blind...?

Autoplaylists

Reply #5 –
It works for me just fine on v0.9.5.3.  Enter in the query %rating% IS 5, goto the menu path to create a new autoplaylist, rename the playlist (of course).  Once I go and rate a new track, it's auto-updated into the "5 Stars" playlist.  Same is true for "never played" playlist.

Autoplaylists

Reply #6 –
It works fine for me too, but it's weird that clicking create autoplaylist doesn't bring up the autoplaylist creator, but clicking the dots bring that up. Is that a bug or what?

Thx for helping so far, I created loads of 'm in the last hour, also the time-syntaxes work great!!!!

Autoplaylists

Reply #7 –
Quote
(...) clicking create autoplaylist doesn't bring up the autoplaylist creator, but clicking the dots bring that up. Is that a bug or what?

No. The autoplaylist generator dialog merely provides an option to lock the sort order of the playlist. As far as the ability of self-updating is concerned, there should not be any difference between any of the described methods.

Please clarify if "create autoplaylist" works as intended for you now, in both album list and library search. If there is a problem, I would like to know whether it resulted from a bug in the program or merely user error.

Autoplaylists

Reply #8 –
When I choose create autoplaylist from album list with a filter %rating% IS 1, it creates a working autoplaylist.

When I choose create autoplaylist from Media Library Search with a filter %rating% IS 1 it works also. But, if I make a filter %rating% GREATER 3 it doesn't work, that only works when I use the generator.

(for all my other playlists-querys I used the generator, as I discovered that behaviour of GREATER just now..., so I wouldn't know if other  query syntaxes have that also, I only know now that IS works fine.)

Autoplaylists

Reply #9 –
That does not make any sense.

Are you sure you did not accidentally click on "create playlist" instead of "create autoplaylist"?

You can check if a playlist is actually an autoplaylist by trying to manually add or remove tracks.
Those commands should be unavailable for autoplaylists.

Autoplaylists

Reply #10 –
Oh my god... It's put at the bottom... Aaarghhhh... All this time living without it, never saw it... Shame shame shame (no sortorder of course!!!)

Thx for your help frank... Now I will go back to my cave and invent fire or the wheel again..

(i saw the rating = 1 appear coz i have no tracks with rating 1..., and with 4 or 5 I have hundreds...)

Autoplaylists

Reply #11 –
You thread has been of great assistance.

How do I change or edit a query of an Auto Playlist without recreating it from scratch?  Or another workaround would be to learn how and where I get the formula of an existing Auto Playlist?

For example:
  %rating% IS 5  (Existing Auto Playlist query named "Best songs")

I want to edit it  "Best songs" to become:
  (%rating% IS 5) and (%last_played% PRESENT SORT DESCENDING BY %last_played%)

Thank you in advance,

Autoplaylists

Reply #12 –
Right click it in the playlist manager or on the playlist tab -> Autoplaylist...

This is a new feature as of v0.9.5.4
elevatorladylevitateme
 

Autoplaylists

Reply #13 –
Hi everybody,


I just today switched to the DUI in the latest foobar version, looks great!
I just need some assistance in configuring...

I'm especially curious if I can solve one of my long-time problems now...
I'm always trying to show the queued playlist items inside a normal playlist. For this, I tried to make an autoplaylist with the following query by the methods described in this thread:
Code: [Select]
queue_index PRESENT

As I understand it, this should return all items with the tag "queue_index" but it does not!

If I try the query
Code: [Select]
rating PRESENT

it works, so where is my error? Is it just that the tag "queue_index" is a special one (as it also does not show up in the properties windows) so I can't use it for queries?


Thanks in advance for every tip concerning my problem!


NinjaN
IDE? This is S-ATA!

Autoplaylists

Reply #15 –
Thank you for your fast reply!
Not exactly what I wanted to hear, but oh well...
IDE? This is S-ATA!

Autoplaylists

Reply #16 –
I have an autoplaylist that doesn't seem to refresh/update automatically.

Confirmed that the playlist *is* an autoplaylist (cannot add/remove files, "Autoplaylist (Album list branch)" shows up in the context menu when I right-click on the playlist...).  The properties for the Autoplaylist are as follows:
Branch: All Music
Filter Pattern: (blank)
Force-sorted: (unchecked)

I have two folders in the Media Library.  When I delete folders from the within the second of the two Library folders, those songs are not removed from the playlist.

Do I have to delete the songs from within foobar?  What triggers the refresh of an autoplaylist?

(using v0.9.5.4, btw)

Autoplaylists

Reply #17 –
Quote from: blonde on
Do I have to delete the songs from within foobar?

Yes. Changes made outside of foobar2000 are not registered unless you perform a manual rescan of the library.

Autoplaylists

Reply #19 –
Thank you so much for these lines...
Solved a lot of problems here...

I just noticed that I was doing always the same operations:
Library -> Playback Statistics -> Show Recently Added -> Create Playlist (manually)
So, what I needed was an Autoplaylist - and it's working perfectly.

Foobar do not disapoint!

EDIT: Grammar mistakes corrected. Sorry for my bad english.

Autoplaylists

Reply #20 –
Hi everybody,

I'm having some big trouble creating and editing autoplaylists with my foobar 0.9.5.5. 

Quote from: Frank Bicking on
[dl][dt]Album list / facets:[/dt]
[dd]Right-click on an item ("all music" to use your whole library) and choose create autoplaylist.
Optionally, you can filter the list by a query. Click on the "?" button for a query syntax reference.[/dd]

Facets : Right-click works (Create autoplaylist)
Album list : Right-click doesn't work (the "Create autoplaylist" context menu option doesn't appear)



Quote from: Frank Bicking on
[dt]Library search:[/dt]
[dd]Enter a query, verify the results, click on the "..." button, and choose create autoplaylist.[/dd][/dl]

Library search : I can of course enter a query and see the results, but the "..." button doesn't appear.




Besides, once I've created an autoplaylist (with Facets, only method that works for me), I can't edit its contents ! I can right-click on the autoplaylist and see the "Autoplaylist..." option that should help me "view and edit properties of an autoplaylist", but when I select that option nothing happens (nothing appears, etc.).

Can somebody please help ?

Autoplaylists

Reply #21 –
Quote from: foorious on
Hi everybody,

I'm having some big trouble creating and editing autoplaylists with my foobar 0.9.5.5. 

Quote from: Frank Bicking on
[dl][dt]Album list / facets:[/dt]
[dd]Right-click on an item ("all music" to use your whole library) and choose create autoplaylist.
Optionally, you can filter the list by a query. Click on the "?" button for a query syntax reference.[/dd]
Facets : Right-click works (Create autoplaylist)
Album list : Right-click doesn't work (the "Create autoplaylist" context menu option doesn't appear)

Interesting. I don't know how you've gotten that to happen. It always appears for me.

Are you making sure that when you run foobar2000's installer you are updating foo_albumlist.dll?
The most recent version is 4.3 (you can check by going to file->preferences ->components)
[edit]thanks frank, that makes more sense.

Quote from: foorious on
Quote from: Frank Bicking on
[dt]Library search:[/dt]
[dd]Enter a query, verify the results, click on the "..." button, and choose create autoplaylist.[/dd][/dl]
Library search : I can of course enter a query and see the results, but the "..." button doesn't appear.

As the title of the window in your picture shows, you are looking at the "Playlist search" ([main menu]->Edit->Search), NOT the "Library Search" ([main menu]->Library->Search)

Quote from: foorious on
Besides, once I've created an autoplaylist (with Facets, only method that works for me), I can't edit its contents ! I can right-click on the autoplaylist and see the "Autoplaylist..." option that should help me "view and edit properties of an autoplaylist", but when I select that option nothing happens (nothing appears, etc.).
The facets component hasn't added that feature yet.
If you'll notice, the most recent version of facets (2008-02-25) was released before 0.9.5.4 was released (the version which added autoplaylist editing). It's up to Frank Bicking to update his component, at this point.
elevatorladylevitateme

Autoplaylists

Reply #22 –
Quote from: foorious on
Album list : Right-click doesn't work (the "Create autoplaylist" context menu option doesn't appear)


"Custom view" in the window title indicates that you have opened the album list from a selection of items ("create album list view from these items") rather than from the library menu. Such a custom view can be based on any selection of tracks, including ones that are not part of the media library. Since autoplaylists (a) need clear rules to determine which tracks are included and (b) are based only on the library, creating an autoplaylist is not possible in this context.

Autoplaylists

Reply #23 –
In other words, foorious, you need to use [main menu]->Library->Album List to open the Album List to make autoplaylists.
elevatorladylevitateme

Autoplaylists

Reply #24 –
Now THAT's clear guys ! I think I've fully understood.

So for now on I'll use Library > Album List and Library > Search for creating Autoplaylists. And Facets of course, once it's updated to support Autoplaylist editing.

Thanks for your help !