Is the following possible?
I have added some attributes to my (PostgreSQL) database in mAirList and imported the values for these attributes from a text file which comes from my music scheduling software (Music1). One of the attributes holds the name of the “Category” used in Music1. I have set up Folders in the mAirList database that reflect the exact structure of the Categories that I use in Music1.
I now want to automatically assign my audio tracks to the Folder that is in the Category attribute field. Can that be done? How?
Frank
Not automatically, no. Well, perhaps it can be done with a script. Quite a complicated one though 
That’s a pitty. The next thing I was going to ask was to change the color assigned to a song depending on another attribute, i.e. on the “Tempo” attribute. But I guess that will not be possible with a mass update either then.
I found an easy way to do it, Torben.
As I imported the “Category” I exported from my music scheduling software as an Attribute into the mAirList database, I found all the files that were in a certain Category under Attributes (Category) in the Library list. All I had to do is to select all the songs within that Attribute folder and drag them to the appropriate Folder. Done.
Yes, that’s how you do it.
For those who want to make DB folders based on disk folders, they can sort by filename and then do the same.
Hi croozemaster,
Im very intrested how you create this?
Hi tinus102,
Suppose you want to have all the “Slow” songs in your database assigned to a folder called “Slows”. First, create a Standard Attribute called ‘Slow’ in mAirListDB configuration. I used a checkbox for that. Then, go through all your music and check the ‘Slow’ checkbox for each slow song. You could do the same for songs with piano in it or any other parameter you like. If you have not allready done so, create a new folder called ‘Slows’ in the database.
After you have tagged all your music, you will find all the songs that have the ‘Slow’ attribute in the Attributes list in your database. Then select all the songs that have this ‘Slow’ attribute and drag them to the Slows folder. Done.
You could also Mass Edit all these Slows and assign a specific colour to them, so that in your playlists you can see where the slows are thanks to their colour (if showing the colours of your music in the playlist is enabled).
Don’t hesitate to ask if you need more help.
Frank
[quote=“CROOZEmaster, post:7, topic:9899”]Hi tinus102,
Suppose you want to have all the “Slow” songs in your database assigned to a folder called “Slows”. First, create a Standard Attribute called ‘Slow’ in mAirListDB configuration. I used a checkbox for that. Then, go through all your music and check the ‘Slow’ checkbox for each slow song. You could do the same for songs with piano in it or any other parameter you like. If you have not allready done so, create a new folder called ‘Slows’ in the database.
After you have tagged all your music, you will find all the songs that have the ‘Slow’ attribute in the Attributes list in your database. Then select all the songs that have this ‘Slow’ attribute and drag them to the Slows folder. Done.
You could also Mass Edit all these Slows and assign a specific colour to them, so that in your playlists you can see where the slows are thanks to their colour (if showing the colours of your music in the playlist is enabled).
Don’t hesitate to ask if you need more help.
Frank[/quote]
Thanks Frank!
But how you get the export of Music1?
Hi Tinus,
Do you use Music1 yourself? If not, it will not make much sense of explaining you how I did the export because it is quite complicated and a lot of work. If you use another music scheduling software, better ask the programmers how to export your library.
Frank
[quote=“CROOZEmaster, post:9, topic:9899”]Hi Tinus,
Do you use Music1 yourself? If not, it will not make much sense of explaining you how I did the export because it is quite complicated and a lot of work. If you use another music scheduling software, better ask the programmers how to export your library.
Frank[/quote]
Yes, i use Music1 by myzelf. I use the SE version.
OK. I must warn you that it is a time consuming and quite a difficult job. I had asked Steve and Neil from M1 to make an export file with all the fields of the M1 ‘Songs’ table so that I could do an import in mAirList in one go, but they did not have the time to do it. So I had to figure it out myself.
- properly tag all your songs if that has not yet been done.
- The name of the sound files should match the corresponding ‘Cart’ field of M1, otherwise it will not be possible to do the import from M1 .
In my case, the sound files had a name like 20000.MP2, 20001.MP2, 20002.MP2 and so on. In M1 the correspondig ‘Cart’ fields were : 20000, 20001, 20002 etc…
- Make sure that the physical location of your audiofiles in mAirList corresponds with the content of the ‘File’ field of M1. If that is not the case, Neil from M1 can quickly change the content of the ‘File’ field for you. In my case he had to change to content of all the ‘File’ fields in M1 from “E:\Muziek\Cuts-backup\20000.MP2” to “C:\Music\Cuts\20000.MP2” as before moving to mAirList, I had Music1 running on my office PC and the DADPRO playout system on a remote PC at the transmitter site. Now I have Music1 and mAirList running on the same VPS and it works very well.
- Once that is done, you can start synchronising your audio folder in mAirList. Tell mAirList to use the Filename as the ExternalID. Very important!!! You will be using that ExternalID field later on for doing various imports from M1.
- Define which fields from M1 you want to add to the mAirList database. Suppose you want to add the ‘Gender’ field from M1 to the mAirList DB. Then you have to add a ‘Standard Attribute’ field in the mAirListDB configuration and use a dropdown selection field for it. You can prefill the selections with 'Not Defined, ‘Male’, ‘Female’, ‘Duet’, ‘Instrumental’ or ’ ’ (empty), ‘M’, ‘F’, ‘D’, ‘I’ as these are the descriptions for the Gender field in M1. If you take a look at the mAirList database, you will now see that there is an attribute ‘Gender’ added to it but it will stay empty as long as none of your songs has the Attribute field filled in.
- You can export different fields at once from M1, but I advise to start with just one field at a time. Now, in M1, make a Report with the fields ‘Cart’ and ‘Gender’. Define the ‘Style’ you want for the Gender field, depending on what you want (you can choose between Full Name or Abbreviation). Set the Print Mode of the report to ‘Comma Delimited File’.
Open the M1 report with a text editor. I use Notepad++ . The M1 file will look like this:
“20499”,""
“20516”,“Female”
“20491”,“Male”
“20490”,“Female”
mAirList needs the file to look like:
ExternalID,Gender
20499,
20516,Female
20491,Male
20490,Female
So, you have to add the first row with the name of the fields in the mAirList database you want to import into. ExternalID and Gender in this case, separated by a comma. Then you have to do a Find and Replace and change all the double quotes with nothing. Save the file now and import it into the mAirList database. mAirList will fill in the Gender field for the correspondig ExternalID name or number.
You can do this for most of the fields from M1. Be sure to check what has been imported in mAirList and make a backup afterwards EVERY time as an import cannot be undone. mAirList will only fill in the field(s) that have a name in the first row of the .csv file that corresponds with one of its own database fields. So if after the Gender import you want to import the Tempo, TempoIn and TempoOut, the Gender field is untouched.
Some fields, like the Soundcodes in M1 cannot be imported that way. That’s a whole other story and much trickier. Let me know if you need that and don’t hesitate to ask if you have further questions.
Good Luck.
Frank
Thanks Frank! It works fine
You’re welcome. I’m glad it worked for you.
Frank