/etc/mt-daapd.playlist file

[eschoeller]

I enabled support in the config file, but none of the playlists I have defined in this playlist file are being displayed! What gives?!

[fizze]

What version of firefly are you using?

As far as I know that playlist file has been deprecated a while ago.
Firefly now is able to process iTunes.xml as well as m3u, pls, and other more common playlist formats directly.

[eschoeller]

0.2.4 r1376-1 debian

Seems that must be the case. I really need a way to create smart playlists on the fly using some scripts I have written. When I create a smart playlist via the web interface that works but where is that stored. Songs3.db? What is the easiest way to gain direct file access to something where I can create static and smart playlists?

Thanks!

[rpedde]

@eschoeller wrote:

0.2.4 r1376-1 debian

Seems that must be the case. I really need a way to create smart playlists on the fly using some scripts I have written. When I create a smart playlist via the web interface that works but where is that stored. Songs3.db? What is the easiest way to gain direct file access to something where I can create static and smart playlists?

Thanks!

Yeah, for now it’s in the database, but it’s moving back out soon.

The playlist entry doesn’t do anything.

You can create static playlists in .m3u format. Soon smart playlists will be back in files though.

— Ron

[scram69]

@fizze wrote:

What version of firefly are you using?

As far as I know that playlist file has been deprecated a while ago.
Firefly now is able to process iTunes.xml as well as m3u, pls, and other more common playlist formats directly.

I’m a little confused as to how this works. I tried copying a file called “iTunes Music Library.xml” from my mac to the music folder on the server running mt-daapd. However, the playlists that were created within iTunes on the mac, presumably contained in that file, do not show up when I connect to the server within iTunes (all of the music is there, however).

Is this the iTunes.xml file to which you are referring? What am I missing?

Thanks-

[eschoeller]

Ron,

Good. No offense but I think the db is the wrong place for it. I always ended up losing all my playlists somehow and it was very discouraging that there was no good way to back them up, short of backing up the whole db. And then if there was ever a problem with the db …. well .. you had to lose all your playlists too 🙁

Any eta for this? I’d hate to do a bunch of scripting now to only have to re-write them shortly.

scram: in the short term i’m going to look at xml files. I’ll let you know if i come up with anything

FYI: i am planning to write a web-app frontend that determines the current song being streamed to a certain IP and allows you to add this song to a playlist – unless someone has already done this! I wanted to avoid using m3u files and stick to just the mt-daapd.playlist file for centralized management. For static lists I would just have ‘path is /music/file.flac ‘ etc. This way I can avoid loading the hundreds of m3u’s that I don’t want to load by default. I’m not sure if this will introduce any performance issues …

do the playlists get re-scanned during the re-scan interval? will the future mt-daapd.playlist file be re-scanned as well? It would be incredibly helpful if it was !

[rpedde]

@scram69 wrote:

@fizze wrote:

What version of firefly are you using?

As far as I know that playlist file has been deprecated a while ago.
Firefly now is able to process iTunes.xml as well as m3u, pls, and other more common playlist formats directly.

I’m a little confused as to how this works. I tried copying a file called “iTunes Music Library.xml” from my mac to the music folder on the server running mt-daapd. However, the playlists that were created within iTunes on the mac, presumably contained in that file, do not show up when I connect to the server within iTunes (all of the music is there, however).

Is this the iTunes.xml file to which you are referring? What am I missing?

Thanks-

Yes, it should work. You’ll need to rescan of course, and make sure that you have process playlists as well as process itunes turned on in the advanced portion of the web config.

That should really do it. Also, the file needs to be directly above the music in the path. If it’s a copy of a live iTunes database, the best place to put it is in the folder that has all the artists, if that makes sense.

— Ron

[rpedde]

@eschoeller wrote:

Good. No offense but I think the db is the wrong place for it. I always ended up losing all my playlists somehow and it was very discouraging that there was no good way to back them up, short of backing up the whole db. And then if there was ever a problem with the db …. well .. you had to lose all your playlists too 🙁

Ya, well, I’m a slow learner. 🙂

Any eta for this? I’d hate to do a bunch of scripting now to only have to re-write them shortly.

I had hoped to have it done by now, frankly. But lately it’s been 12 hour days at work + going to gym + answering email = bedtime.

I hope to put at least a fair dent in it this weekend. I’d guess I’ll have a not-working-very quickly implementation by Monday.

do the playlists get re-scanned during the re-scan interval? will the future mt-daapd.playlist file be re-scanned as well? It would be incredibly helpful if it was !

Yes, they do. I’m not sure the playlists will be in one file. I’m thinking they will probably be in a “playlist” folder, one playlist per file. But yeah, if they change, they’ll get rescanned.

— Ron

[scram69]

@rpedde wrote:

Yes, it should work. You’ll need to rescan of course, and make sure that you have process playlists as well as process itunes turned on in the advanced portion of the web config.

That should really do it. Also, the file needs to be directly above the music in the path. If it’s a copy of a live iTunes database, the best place to put it is in the folder that has all the artists, if that makes sense.

— Ron

OK, I had the default settings, i.e. “Process xml Files” = “Yes” and “Process .m3u files” = “No”. As soon as I set “Process .m3u files” to “Yes” and re-scanned, firefly processed my .xml file and the playlists were visible. Strange…

Thanks for your help-

[eschoeller]

Ron,

Sorry to hear your days are so busy! At least you’re getting paid, right?
So, with the “folder” idea … would you strictly allow only one playlist per file, or could you define multiple playlists within a single file?

Scram,

Yeah, I had a similar experience .. I was able to get the playlists from itunes to show up, but they were all blank. Most likely this is because I took a copy of the xml file from my mac and copied it to my linux server where mt-daapd is running. The format of the xml files doesn’t really meet my needs so I’m going to wait for the playlist folder functionality.

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