Hi,
This is part info, part request.
Is there anyway via scripting or other that i would be able to import items to the database via a text file…
Currently i use powergold for my scheduling but would love to be able set up the database in mairlist to mirror that of powergold…
Therefore, it would be great to import from a textfile the relevant info such as artist, title, duration, ramp, end style, filename etc…
Many Thanks
I believe this could be done through a script. Does the Powergold text include the file names of the items? Because you would need them identify the items in the datatabase.
Do you want to read the data from Powergold’s text file only when the item is [b]intially[/6] imported into mAirListDB, or do you want to be able to sync the two databases (that is, from Powergold to mAirList) over and over again, even if you make changes in Powergold? (No, two-way sync won’t be possible.)
If it’s only for initial import, I’d propose a script that reads the Powergold text file and creates an MMD file for each item, pretty much like Richard (streamer) did for the SPL APE tags, see here: http://forum.mairlist.com/index.php/topic,4190.15.html - but that will only work for the initial import, because even when you change the MMDs later, mAirList won’t read them again when the file is already in the database.
If you want to sync the mAirListDB with the Powergold data, you should first import all files into mAirListDB, and then use a script that looks up the item ID for each file name (using the ReverseLookup method of IDatabase), sets the properties accordingly, and saves the item back into the database.
I can give you details later, please clarify first what you are going to achieve.
Hi
What i had in mind was to have the database in mairlist to contain the same files as the powergold database, so people can only pick from what is offered by the current circulation (if that makes sense!)
Using an awesome method described by charlie, all my powergold files are tagged with filename path, therefore it seems i need to get a script that will convert a text file string to an mmd file and then be able to import that information to the database.
I didnt want the two databases to talk to each other, if its simple enough using a script to convert to mmd then update the database then i can do that manually when a rotation happens in powergold.
Hope that makes sense!
Hm, so it’s only some of your files that you want to appear in the mAirListDB, not all of them? That is, only those which are mentioned in the Powergold export?
yes that is correct…
in my hardrive folder where the audio is located there are 12,000 tracks for example, in powergold i only have say 3000 tracks selected - therefore i’d want to export in a text file that list of 3000 from powergold and then import it into the database so that the mairlist database only show the 3000 songs from that hardrive location.
Well, the hardest part would be to remove songs from the mAirListDB again when they disappear from the Powergold file at the next import. You’d probably have to start a new mAirListDB each time. Would this be a local or a networked one?
local
I do have an Excel spreadsheet which does this (http://forum.mairlist.com/index.php/topic,3374.0.html),
and there’s an OpenOffice one (http://forum.mairlist.com/index.php/topic,3396.0.html) if you prefer OpenOffice (I don’t!).
You would still have to import your text file from Powergold into Excel (or Calc) AND change the column order to match the import to MMD spreadsheet layout first. There are instructions in the thread for the Excel version. 
Be warned that the Excel/Calc spreadsheets above create ‘old’ (pre-V3) MMD files. This may not matter to you, but I genuinely don’t have time (for at least a week) to amend these spreadsheets to write the most up-to-date format of MMD files. The ‘pre-v3’ MMD files ARE readable by current versions of mAirList, but I’m just letting you know in advance that they are NOT ‘v3 format’ MMD files.
BFN
CAD