old-style batch import? - Printable Version

old-style batch import? - Printable Version

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old-style batch import? - smw - 06-14-2015

In the original MobileSheets, my workflow for importing new songs was as follows:

1) put newly-scanned PDFs into a directory on my Linux system

2) rsync this directory to my tablet

3) perform a batch import from the tablet's sync directory, inferring the album, artist and song title from the full pathname of each imported file

This allowed me to import many songs at once, from multiple albums.

Is there a way to do the same thing in MobileSheets Pro? If so, I haven't been able to find it. The new batch import doesn't seem to use the imported file paths anymore, and while it's easy to set specific metadata for all incoming titles in a batch, the same metadata applies to all of the songs; I'd prefer not to have to split my incoming titles by performing a separate batch import for every album involved.

Is there a settings option I'm not seeing?

If not, I'd like to request a setting which would restore the old batch import mechanism.

Thanks,

- Steven

RE: old-style batch import? - bumblebee - 06-14-2015

related to this?
http://zubersoft.com/mobilesheets/forum/showthread.php?tid=2402

RE: old-style batch import? - sciurius - 06-14-2015

Based on my own situation and experience, I took a different route which may contain aspects worth to consider for MSPro. It goes far beyond guessing metadata based on file names.

I also maintain all my music on an external (Linux) system, and rsync it to the tablet. Then I use MSPro to do the batch import. So far nothing fancy.
On the pc I already had several databases that contain song information, including metadata. So I wrote a tool that extracts the metadata from the databases and stores it directly into the MSPro database. This works fine for me, I can quickly add all the relevant metadata (song title, artist, composer, key, tempo, signature, capo, ...) to the MSPro songs. It is, howver, pretty much hard wired for my situation.
I can imagine that it would be possible to supply externally generated metadata information about songs to MSPro, for example in the form of a JSON data file.

RE: old-style batch import? - smw - 06-15-2015

(06-14-2015, 03:49 PM)bumblebee Wrote: related to this?
http://zubersoft.com/mobilesheets/forum/showthread.php?tid=2402

Thanks! Yes, that's exactly what I was asking about.

RE: old-style batch import? - smw - 06-15-2015

(06-14-2015, 06:09 PM)sciurius Wrote: On the pc I already had several databases that contain song information, including metadata. So I wrote a tool that extracts the metadata from the databases and stores it directly into the MSPro database. This works fine for me, I can quickly add all the relevant metadata (song title, artist, composer, key, tempo, signature, capo, ...) to the MSPro songs. It is, howver, pretty much hard wired for my situation.

That sounds great. It wouldn't work for me, though, simply because I don't have my metadata in a database to begin with; my organization on the Linux side is strictly based on the directory structure where the files are stored.

(06-14-2015, 06:09 PM)sciurius Wrote: I can imagine that it would be possible to supply externally generated metadata information about songs to MSPro, for example in the form of a JSON data file.

I admit I wouldn't have thought of that, but for my own use the old style batch import is still the best fit -- although the modification proposed here would be even better.

RE: old-style batch import? - sciurius - 06-15-2015

Up to a certain extent, yes.

In my case, the metadata I'm most interested in is

title
artist
composer
collection
key
tempo
signature
capo/transposition

Theoretically it is possible to have this all reflected in the directory structure but maintaining it would not be fun.

So a slightly alternative approach:

When importing a file (e.g. "My Song.pdf") look if there's a file with the same name and a .json extension (e.g. "My Song.json") and import metadata from that file.

For example:

Code:
{ "title" : "My Song",

  "artist" : "The Squirrels",

  "key" : "D",

  "capo" : 2,

  "tempo" : 124,

  "time" : "16/9",

  "genre" : "ante-dilluvium irish metal"

}

Alternative for JSON could be the well-known (and easy to manually maintain) INI file format:

Code:
title: My Song

artist: The Squirrels

key: D

capo: 2

tempo: 124

time: 16/9

genre: ante-dilluvium irish metal

The (side-)effect that multiple inputs for the same song (e.g. "My Song.pdf", "My Song.cho") are covered by the same metadata file may be considered a feature, although in the case of the INI file format it would be easy to extend it to something similar to:

Code:
title: My Song

artist: The Squirrels

key: D

tempo: 124

time: 16/9

genre: ante-dilluvium irish metal

[ChordPro]

capo: 2

RE: old-style batch import? - itsme - 06-15-2015

The proposal of Sciurius seems to be the easiest and most flexible.
It would allow managing songs and metadata separately in every desired folder structure with really great possibilities for e.g. sharing data with others (band members, MSP community, RealBook users).
You might even consider exporting such metadata files.

RE: old-style batch import? - sciurius - 06-15-2015

Thanks Wink

The MobileSheetsPro Tools on Github can export metadata to JSON and use it to update an existing database. It currently uses a "one big file for everything" approach but I could change that.