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Topic: Tab for sorting by date added & Custom Library Folder structure (Read 5435 times) previous topic - next topic
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Tab for sorting by date added & Custom Library Folder structure

good morning,

im currently trying to find a program to replace Songbird 1.9, which is kinda outdated but featured a few things that arent possible in the latest version. on the way i tried Helium Music Manager, which was pretty good at first but then messed up quite a few things. so now i want to try the most functional program were you can control everything manually and foobar sounded like the way to go.

Im looking for two things in foobar that i cant hep to find. i did search the forum and google for answers, but the answers in other threads dont lead me anywhere, so here i go and ask myself:

1. How can i add a Tab (like Artist/Title/Album/Duration) to the library that sorts my music by the date i added them to the library. this is something really basic and i believe many people want to arrange their music here and then, so they see their last added tracks on top. i read a few threads about "%added" and "date_added%", so i right-clicked the tab bar->columns->more and then created a custom column with the name: "Date Added" and the pattern: %added% (also tried %date_added%). this doesnt work and only gives me questionmarks in the specific column. another thread answer said something about going to library->search and then a few other steps, but i cant even click the "Search" button, since its grayed out.

2. the second big thing is the reason i stayed with songbird 1.9. i listen to a lot of electronic music and one day noticed that "Albums" are really irrelevant to me. thats why i like to keep my music library folder in a different structure: Library/Artist/Title.mp3. i did read something about "file operations" but maybe because im new to foobar, i just couldnt understand it. i want all the music that i add by hand to foobar to move to my library with my own folder structure. any solutions for this?

and if someone has a link for a guide to change the ui elements it would be highly appreciated too. once im used to how foobar works it might be great, but right now it comes with a lot of questions...

big thanks in advance

Tab for sorting by date added & Custom Library Folder structure

Reply #1
You have to install the 'Playback Statistics' component which provides the '%added%' tags. The search is probably greyed out because you haven't set up a watched folder in 'Preferences/Media Library' yet. Once that is done, you have multiple options to list its contents (via 'Library viewers'). Alternatively you can generate 'autoplaylists' which update their contents automatically based on a criteria (that you can set up via 'Library/Search' for example). You probably want the latter as for now with a pattern such as '%added% DURING LAST 2 WEEKS' or something similar. If you click on the right '...' button you can create the Autoplaylist.

The File Operations (and basically any) component relies on foobar's titleformatting syntax. It will create folders and automatically rename your files based on the pattern you gave. For example '%tag%' will be substituted with the value of the corresponding file(s) TAG field. So '%artist%' equals with the ARTIST of the song, etc. Head to the wiki for more.

Tab for sorting by date added & Custom Library Folder structure

Reply #2
You have to install the 'Playback Statistics' component which provides the '%added%' tags.


actually i did that. i copied the .dll file into the component folder and restarted the program (do i need to restart the pc?)

anyway thank you for your feedback. im not home right now, but ill go through your recommendations when im home.

Tab for sorting by date added & Custom Library Folder structure

Reply #3
Use 'Preferences/Components/Install'. It is possible to install manually, but chances are you put it in the wrong folder.

Tab for sorting by date added & Custom Library Folder structure

Reply #4
ok i tried what you said. some things worked others didnt as i wanted them to.

by installing the component your way the tags showed "N/A" instead of a "?". then i searched "ALL" from my library folder and created a new playlist which is sorted by "$date(%added%)". now the date and time was shown when i added them. i guess in that new playlist i created. but i dont want to do that everytime i add a new song to my library. let me tell you a little more specific what i need foobar to do and you just say if thats possible or not. because if not foobar isnt right for me

i want to have my library as a list. as on of the sorting options i want the date when i added this specific song to my library. this library is located in a defined directory with a custom folder structure. whenever i add songs using drag and drop i want foobar to show me when it was added (right away without doing any new sorting options) and to copy this music file to my library folder using my predefined folder and title-name structure.

is this possible?

i mean all of this is basic stuff that even itunes can do. just show me right away when i added a track to my library. copying the new song to my predefined library is also very basic, i really didnt expect this to be such a great hassle with foobar. the only thing which makes it a little complicated and the reason why i dont use any major/normal music player is that i dont want the regular "Artist/Album/Song.mp3" structure but just "Artist/Song.mp3" and i believe thats possible with foobar, but my library changes day to day. and i dont want to launch any sorting commands or renaming commands by hand. i want foobar to do that automatically.

edit: sorry that this sounds a little frustrating, i truly am thankful for your help

Tab for sorting by date added & Custom Library Folder structure

Reply #5
then i searched "ALL" from my library folder and created a new playlist which is sorted by "$date(%added%)". now the date and time was shown when i added them. i guess in that new playlist i created. but i dont want to do that everytime i add a new song to my library.

Create an autoplaylist with the ALL query instead of a playlist.

and i dont want to launch any sorting commands or renaming commands by hand. i want foobar to do that automatically.

Not going to happen.

Tab for sorting by date added & Custom Library Folder structure

Reply #6
then i searched "ALL" from my library folder and created a new playlist which is sorted by "$date(%added%)". now the date and time was shown when i added them. i guess in that new playlist i created. but i dont want to do that everytime i add a new song to my library.

Create an autoplaylist with the ALL query instead of a playlist.

and i dont want to launch any sorting commands or renaming commands by hand. i want foobar to do that automatically.

Not going to happen.


ok thanks for your answer. so i might wanna look for an alternative. i dont have a problem setting up a program for a couple of hours, but then after this i do not want to worry about it.

Tab for sorting by date added & Custom Library Folder structure

Reply #7
The N/As are probably there due the reason that most of your files were added to your Library before the Playback Statistics component was installed. So technically speaking they weren't added at all, at least from the component's perspective (I am wildly guessing at this point, though). You can try re-adding all your files or rescanning your Library to write %added% tags, if they don't have one yet (N/A).

The previously mentioned autoplaylist does exactly what you want. Using a query like 'ALL SORT DESCENDING BY %added%' will list everything located in your Library in a single playlist with the most recently added tracks on top, updated automatically whenever something changes.

If you want to see the value of the '%added%' tags, go to 'Preferences/Display/Default UI/Playlist View'. Give a name to your custom column and use the code: '%added%'. Then close the preferences window and as I remember you have to right-click on the header of your Playlist viewer to select and activate your new column. I haven't used the Default UI in ages, but it should be pretty straightforward.

Edit: You might want to clarify what you mean as 'I want to have my Library as a list' by the way. Because the way you worded I assumed you were talking about a single, huge playlist. But I have a feeling you were rather referring to something like a tree view of your Library's folder structure, which is handled by a Library viewer, not a Playlist viewer.

As for adding files to your Library, that's what the File Operations component is for. It will never add files to your Library without any user input by design. However everything is very straightforward, you only have to select the files you want to add and choose a pre-defined pattern for the directory structure/file naming scheme (both of them are highly customizable via foobar's own titleformatting).

Tab for sorting by date added & Custom Library Folder structure

Reply #8
ok things seem to work out  the "added" feature works as i wanted it to. i just made an autoplaylist for ALL and with the by clicking the tabs i can sort the music by artist, song or date added.

no i didnt mean the tree view you were referring to just a usual boring list

i also got the file operations working it structured my folder just as i wanted it to! btw everything works incredibly fast and instant. the file operatios for my entire library didnt take 10sec. i was really impressed.

a few side question concerning my "adding new music" workflow. perfect would be just to drag and drop files into foobar and its added to my library. i then would run file operations and the music file itself would be moved to my custom folder structure. however drag and drop doesnt work . i then monitored a new folder that i called "Music In". i figured since this folder is now monitored whatever i copy into it will be added to my library, but it doesnt show up. did i do something wrong?

Tab for sorting by date added & Custom Library Folder structure

Reply #9
You first said "drag and drop files into foobar" and then you said "whatever i copy into it [Music In folder]". Which did you do? Dropping files onto a foobar playlist does nothing with regards to the library -- you need to move the files physically into a folder that's monitored by the library, either with Explorer or through the foobar file operations.

Tab for sorting by date added & Custom Library Folder structure

Reply #10
Just to avoid possible confusion (my random made-up terms):

  Library = all of your watched folders
  Storage folder = one of the watched folders which is organized (serving as your music collection)
  Junk folder = one of the watched folders which is unorganized (a downloads folder or your 'Music In' in this case)

I assume you are trying to drag & drop additional files to your Autoplaylist, which doesn't make any sense considering its design. It is an automatically generated list from the contents of your Library based on a criteria, you aren't supposed to add anything manually. For that reason you have the regular playlists which can be modified in any way and are not limited to your Library.

As for the workflow, you have two options. The simplest is dumping the files you want to move manually into a regular playlist just so you can select and add them to your Storage folder via File Operations (then most likely deleting the playlist as it serves no purpose anymore).

The other (which I assume you are trying to do) is taking this one step further: replacing the regular playlist with an Autoplaylist that will automatically list the contents of a Junk folder. I personally wouldn't say this makes a whole lot of a difference as you just replaced the drag & drop part with something else but you still have to select the files and confirm the move command (and no, foobar will never do that without your input). It brings up a small problem however: you have to set up an additonal criteria for your autoplaylists, otherwise the contents of the Junk folder will show up as they were in your Storage folder and vice versa (as they are now both part of your Library). The easiest way to separate them is the fact that they are two different folders.

So for your Storage folder you could set up something like: '%path% HAS \Folder1\ SORT DESCENDING BY %added%'

And your Junk folder (note that you can set up absolute paths too): '%path% HAS E:\Folder2\'

Tab for sorting by date added & Custom Library Folder structure

Reply #11
@aethelberht
yes! i actually tried both. first drag and drop and after that didnt work i used a different workflow through monitoring folders. the new song didnt show up on top because i was using "$date(%added%)" and since many other song were added that DAY, it just wasnt on top. now i use "%added%" which also shows the time and suddenly the song was on top, which makes sense!

wow Daeron youre great. i just changed my ALL Autoplaylist to a normal Playlist. Drag&Drop works now. Thinking about it this makes sense as well. why would i use an autoplaylist for this. i dont need it since clicking the Added Tab sorts them just the way i want!

my workflow now is drag&drop new music to my ALL Playlist. hit Cntr+A, hit my file operations Preset, Boom. Organized!

thank you guys so much, especially of course you Daeron. i will now start getting into modifying the UI. but with my basic structure set up, im really happy right now!