something about advanced filename manipulation...

[Sedge]

Ok, I think I'll lay this out with example - I think the only actual *tweak* needed is a way to handle square brackets in file names, as currently, I believe only ellipses are handled.

Here's an example filename from my imported collection....
Grandfolder: Sound Choice
Folder: 2173 - Christmas
File: 2173 - Christmas-00 - Dolly Parton [Sc] - Hard Candy Christmas.zip

Now, this is how the file is after it was imported (and meta-pushed) by kJams. Originally, I think the file name was something like this: (folders are obviously the same)
File: DOLLY PARTON [SC] - HARD CANDY CHRISTMAS.cdg
Now, as the filenames are already changed, I can't easily go back to this, and even if I did, that annoying square bracket thing is still there.

So, I would like the file format to end up properly in L-T - R - S, I actually don't care about the track number, and most are not numbered anyway..

Oh, and if possible, I would like to be able to add characters to the Album field, (of the filename, not the folder) to go from 2173 to SC2173...

I haven't been able to get any name format working properly with the 'I' token in it - but here's about how I think it would go...
L - I-T - R -S
and I would hope for something similar to that to output this:
2173-00 - Dolly Parton - Hard Candy Christmas.zip

I hope you're following me - I can probably write the regex expression to make this work, but I know we're not quite there (and understandably so)

I probably could have done the renaming in linux prior to importing, and saved myself a lot of time, but silly me went and jumped the gun and did the import, then probably made it worse by doing the meta push and letting it rename everything as it wanted, and now I have a bit of a mess. Luckily, there's plenty of data there to do a search on.

Most likely, I just need a more advanced primer on how the current naming system actually works, as chances are good all this already works, and there's just a gap between my knowledge of the system and what it can actually accomplish.

>>Sedge
(thanks for all your help)

[dave]

how many songs do you have like this?

would it be possible to use a finder script to replace all brackets [] with parens () ? kJams CAN handle parens just fine. then you'd be *totally* all set, would that work?

[Sedge]

yes, I think I could handle getting them all changed to parens (my bad.. ellipses? wtf!) using a finder script (or the unix rn command, kind of like rename, but with regex).

However, as all these files (I'd guestimate over 1000) are currently loaded in the kJams library, wouldn't doing such a thing screw them all up and make them orphaned? I suppose this isn't the end of the world, in a way.

Then, assuming I was pulling them *back* in to the library, after orphaning them, cleaning up the orphan entries in kJams, could you give me a sample format matching line... now the file name format would be:

File: 2173 - Christmas-00 - Dolly Parton (Sc) - Hard Candy Christmas.zip

I've had mixed luck making them up myself, and no luck using the I token.

One further related comment - I haven't been getting the option to do the renaming at time of import lately (granted, I've often been importing large numbers of files, or folder trees, at a time) - is there a good way to turn that back on?

[dave]

here you go:

quit kjams
in finder, go to folder, /Users/<you>/Music/kJams/
now *delete* "kJams Library" (the exact name, no other)
now rename all your brackets to parens, i use ABFR
now run kjams -> your library is empty
set prefs->tags->reading->scan meta tags->ask
now drop the folder containing your music onto kjams
click "file names"
click "edit"
add "L - I-T - R (L) - S" and save, switch back to kjams
pick the one you just made
click "use this for all" presuming they're all like that
dance for joy

now, this is kindof lame, because your album name will become "2173 Sc", when i know in fact you want it to be "SC2173". the only way to accomplish that is to somehow, during the rename phase, rename your files to put the (L) in parens before the L with the numbers. eg:

(Sc) 2173 - Christmas-00 - Dolly Parton - Hard Candy Christmas.zip

in that case the template would be: "(L) L - I-T - R - S"

i'm not sure if ABFR can do the "move parts of the name around", but i'm quit sure you could get that with a shell script or python.

[Sedge]

OK, thanks for that. I suppose I was right about the whole orphaning thing... and for 2541 tracks out of 17254, I don't know if I want to rebuild the library, no matter how much I trust metadata and such. The example string was quite informative.

>>Sedge

[dave]

if you're going to rename your files in the finder, you will HAVE to rebuild your library. orphaning is NOT an option, i think you misunderstand what that means.

[Sedge]

As I often do, I was likely using the wrong term. I was going to even make an aside to note that when I originally used it, because I was pretty sure it was wrong... but we understand each other anyway.

I meant what you explained - that by renaming a file outside of kJams, it becomes invisible to the kJams library (the library only has a link to the file path/name, which then would become a broken link) and the only way to recover that file is to re-import it (and clean up by deleting the broken file link in the library. (in case anyone got confused)

All this is why I requested a way to do it within kJams! (And don't take this as me being grumpy - and don't you dare take time away from developing the server functionality to work on this little issue)

[dave]

renaming a file outside of kJams, it becomes invisible to the kJams library ... and the only way to recover that file is to re-import it

this is the messy and error prone way to do it. the clean and guaranteed to work way to do it is to just start from scratch, like i suggested. just delete your library from the finder.