Using the latest snapshot, when I play songs that were tagged in older versions, the artist is completly gone from the mmd file.
:o
It’s been sent. I’ve also narrowed it down to happening only when I drag a file from the database in the browser.
–EDIT–
The artist is still in the mmd, and when I don’t drag from the database panel, and drag from the actual containing folder it shows the artist again in the mAirList window… weird bug…
Thanks,
Matt
MMD files are never looked at anymore once the file is imported into the database (and you’re dragging it from the database browser). Just because all metadata is supposed to be stored and maintained in the database then.
It’s currently not possible to fetch the metadata from the database when you drag the same file from a directory browser or Explorer - in that case, the MMD is used again.
However, when you created the database in the first place, the MMD files should have been considered when you imported the files.
You might want to read the following background information I wrote a few weeks ago:
When you drag a file into the playlist (from Windows Explorer or the built-in directory browser), let's call this the "initial import", mAirList will read the native file tags (ID3 etc.) and import some common fields like artist, title, comment etc. It will also perform auto cue if enabled in the config, that is, it will scan the file for the points where a certain dB threshold is reached and set the Cue In, Fade Out and/or Cue Out points accordingly.You can now bring up the the Properties or PFL dialog of the freshly created playlist item and adjust the imported data as needed.
There are two ways to save the changes permanently:
Inside the file’s ID3 tag. This works only for MP3 files so far (and FLAC if I remember correctly). mAirList uses a special ID3v2 field invisible to other software to store the meta data as an XML block, in the same format as used in the XML playlists. The artist, title and comment field are also updated for convenience, but no other standard field is touched.
As an “MMD file” (“mAirList metdata”). This is a small XML file, again in the same format, placed along with the audio file in the same folder, or in a separate folder. The original audio file is not modified in any way. This method works for any kind of audio file: MP3, OGG, WAV, whatever.
Having stored the data, when you drag the same file into the playlist again, during “initial import”, the file tag or MMD file is recognized and used. That means that neither the native file tags nor auto cue are considered then.
Loading an M3U file is considered the same thing - for each file, the “initial import” steps are performed, either reading an MMD file or special file tag, or importing the standard tags and performing auto cue.
Loading XML playlists (.mlp) is different. An XML playlist contains the XML meta data of every single item, so mAirList does NOT perform the initial import steps when you load such a file. It will neither look for MMD files or file tags, but only rely on the information from the XML playlist. That means that the software which creates the .mlp file will have to put all necessary meta data inside it.
When you’re using a database, you are not supposed to deal with files at all, so all items are imported through the built-in database browser, thereby loading their meta data from the database. However, with the new mAirListDB, it will be possible to retrieve the data from the database even when loading an item the “initial import” way. During initial import, mAirList will ask the database if it has any information about that file available, and if so, use that information instead of any of the other sources like MMD etc. This is to ease import M3U playlists created by third-party software.
Please note that the “retrieve during initial import” thing mentioned in the last paragraph is the part which is still missing.