Is it possible in mAirList 4 to bulk change event dates?
For example I have a dozen events set to run every hour on a specific date such as 27/09/2013. I want to change all of them to another dates such as 03/10/2013.
At the moment we’re having to change them all individually. If it were only a dozen like in the example it wouldn’t be so bad but every so often we need to change dates around for a very large number of events (triple figures) and it would be nice to bulk change just the one field in all those events without changing anything else.
There is no built-in function for that, but you could just save the event list as an *.mle file, which is in fact an XML file, open it in a text editor, do some search/replace, and load it again.
If I used the XML text editor method and changed a date and it also changed the “last played” field would this confuse mAirlist or would it not really matter?
Is this potentially a feature that could be added? Much like in iTunes you can select multiple mp3s to change specific metadata fields we could select multiple events and change a field such as date?
In the XML editor, you would be looking for the specific fields anyway, but I don’t think an MLE file contains ‘last played.’ That would live in the mAirList database, or MMD file, or wherever your ‘metadata’ is stored.
Last time I looked, an MLE file contained only the properties of the events themselves. You say you are changing ‘triple figures’ of these, which makes me wonder whether you are using events to play your ads. or something like that? If so, I would say that the better way is to put expiry dates on the individual pieces of audio in your ad. breaks and use Virtual Folders and the Mini Scheduler to organise the playout and ‘shuffling’ of these.
Apologies if my guess is incorrect; but even if it is wrong, I’m still intrigued as to why the heck you have so many events?!!
It is sort-of possible to have something happen once every four weeks.
In mAirListDB, create two sets of Hour Template Assignments, plus all the ‘different’ hour templates you need for your ‘special’ week, containing the every-28-days items.
The first set of Hour Template Assignments is for weeks one through three. Create this and then Export… it with a sensible name (maybe Standard Weeks?).
Now change the Hour Template Assignments to the way they need to be for your ‘special’ week. This will use the ‘special’ Hour Templates you created, which will probably be playing items from Virtual Folders you don’t include in your ‘normal’ Templates. Again, when it’s correct, Export… it with a sensible name (maybe 28 Day Weeks?).
To generate your schedules, make sure you have the correct set of Hour Template Assignments loaded (click Import… in the Hour Template Assignments dialog to do this) for the week or weeks you want to generate (let’s say, your ‘normal’ weeks) and generate the schedules for those weeks. Now Import… the other set of Hour Template Assignments (let’s say, your ‘special’ week) and again generate the schedule for that week.
It’s slightly more effort to set up initially, but then it’s very easy to create schedules as required after that. And it avoids the madness of having literally hundreds of Events (mAirList will handle this, but if you have a large number of Events — more than, say, fifty — you should always be wondering if there isn’t a better way to do whatever it is you’re doing!).
Hope that helps you: if any of that isn’t clear, please do ask!