Phil Meyer;223494 Wrote: > So, now I'm thinking it would be good to sync between SlimServer and > iTunes, such that ratings are shared between SlimServer and my iPod. > > What are my options?
NOTE!!!!! BEFORE YOU START, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A COMPLETE BACKUP OF THE TRACKSTAT DATA AND YOUR ITUNES LIBRARY FILES To my knowledge you have three options regarding integration of ratings between iTunes and TrackStat. 1. The built-in iTunes plugin ============================= Supports one way import of ratings from iTunes to SlimServer. If you are using TrackStat you should be aware of that TrackStat will ignore the imported ratings for songs that already have a rating in TrackStat. If a song don't have a rating in TrackStat, TrackStat will use the rating imported from iTunes. So basically changed ratings will be ignored while new ratings will work with TrackStat. There is no way to get any ratings changed in SlimServer back to iTunes using the built-in iTunes plugin. 2. The iTunes Update plugin =========================== This is great as long as your filenames are the same in iTunes and SlimServer. This means that it will work great for mp3, aac, apple lossless but won't work for flac. It makes it possible to set ratings in SlimServer and export these changed ratings to iTunes. If I remember correctly it can also read ratings from iTunes for the currently playing song. It has two modes: - Direct mode: Writes/reads ratings to iTunes directly when they are changed/read in SlimServer - Log mode: Writes any changed ratings to a text file which later must be imported into iTunes using a separate perl script. The direct mode requires that iTunes is installed on the same computer as SlimServer. Log mode makes it possible to have SlimServer and iTunes on different computers as long as the file path is the same. I think the log mode now also supports to write a changed rating on a FLAC file to a MP3/AAC file in iTunes with the same name and path but different file extension, but I'm not completely sure. If you like a two way import/export of ratings, I think you will also need to use one of the other options for the import since iTunes Update doesn't have any way to import ratings from iTunes to SlimServer. It can only read the rating in iTunes for the currently played track. 3. The TrackStat plugin ======================= Supports rating integration in tree different variations: - Ratings changed in SlimServer can be written to a text file and this text file can be imported to iTunes using a separate perl script. Pretty much the same as the "log mode" in the iTunes Update plugin. - A global import where all ratings in iTunes are imported to SlimServer - A global export where all ratings in SlimServer are written to a text file which then can be imported into iTunes using the separate perl script. In contrast to the other options, TrackStat has a path and extension mapping mechanism which makes it possible to store the music library in different main directories in iTunes and SlimServer and also to have different extensions. This means that you can have a FLAC library in SlimServer where music is stored in /mnt/music on a Linux computer and using iTunes on a Windows computer where you have the same library in MP3 format stored under C:\Users\xxx\My Documents\My Music. The global export/import has no logic to avoid overwrites of ratings, both will overwrite any ratings previous set. So you will have to decide who is the master. I think the only way you are going to get a working two way integration is to use iTunes as the master. You can then do as follows: 1. Do a one time global import/export to make sure your iTunes and SlimServer ratings are synchronized. You will need to decide if you want to use the iTunes or TrackStat ratings. If you decide to use the iTunes ratings and do a global import in TrackStat, it will overwrite any previously set ratings in TrackStat. Unrated tracks in iTunes will not overwrite rated tracks in TrackStat. 2. If you did an import in step 1, it is a good idea to do an export now. This will make sure any tracks rated in SlimServer which is not rated in iTunes, will get the correct rating also in iTunes. 3. Configure TrackStat to write changed ratings dynamically to a text file. 4. At regular interval run the perl script bundled with TrackStat to export changed ratings in TrackStat into iTunes. 5. At regular interval do a global import to get the ratings changed on the iPod/iTunes back into SlimServer/TrackStat. Remember to execute step 4 just before. Phil Meyer;223494 Wrote: > 1. When importing from the designated iTunes music library xml file to > SlimServer, what happens if SlimServer/TrackStat already has statistics > for the songs being imported? Probably not a big deal, as once I've set > a rating in either place, I probably won't be changing it. I just want > to know what will happen before I try it! > > I believe the iTunes stats will overwrite the Trackstat ratings > (presumably only for songs that have ratings in iTunes). > First of all, I feel that I haven't completely tested this logic, so before you start make sure you have a backup of the TrackStat data. But this is how it is supposed to work. Ratings will be overwritten when doing an import, the exception is that unrated tracks in iTunes won't overwrite the ratings for rated tracks in TrackStat/SlimServer. For play counts and last played time there is some logic: - If the play count is higher in SlimServer/TrackStat, the play count and last played time will not be overwritten during the import - If the last played time is higher in SlimServer/TrackStat, the last played time will not be overwritten during the import - If the track never has been played in iTunes, there is no play count and last played time data available in the import and the previously statistics in TrackStat/SlimServer will remain. - If none of the above applies, the previous play count and last played time in TrackStat/SlimServer will be overwritten during the import. Phil Meyer;223494 Wrote: > 2. What happens with the playcounts? Is it possible that an import from > iTunes could cause the playcount within SlimServer to be reduced (songs > played more frequently in SlimServer than in iTunes since the stats > were exported from Slimserver). If this is the case, is it not > possible to find the last played time for both ends, and use the stats > from that source? Maybe it would even be possible to consider > SlimServer to be the master, and remember the playcount before sync > with iTunes and compare when importing, thus incrementing playcount in > trackstat by the difference.Se answer on question 1. TrackStat doesn't > remember when you did the last export to iTunes so using SlimServer as master will be hard. If you want a working two way integration I think your best chance is by using iTunes as master as described in the first part of my answer. Phil Meyer;223494 Wrote: > 3. If I import stats from iTunes for the mp3 copies of flac files, does > the import convert the stats to the appropriate flac source in > SlimServer? TrackStat seems to do this translation on export, but what > about importing?The path and extension conversion will work on both import > and export. In the latest TrackStat release there is an extra check during the import: - If a track with the extension used in iTunes exist on the disk when doing the import, no extension conversion will be done. I think this extra logic might get you into trouble for the MP3 files that have a FLAC version in SlimServer but the MP3 version is still accessible on the disc from SlimServer. I'll put an entry to the wish list to make an option to turn this logic completely off. Phil Meyer;223494 Wrote: > 4. How does the export to iTunes work? I guess I need to do a one-off > complete export, followed by dynamic incremental exports (does this > export happen as each track is played, or periodically?). The incremental export will add an entry to a text file each time a track is played or a rating is changed through TrackStat. You have to run the bundled perl script manually at regular intervals to get the ratings and statistics into iTunes. Phil Meyer;223494 Wrote: > 5. TrackStat plugin config says that it will write to a file, and then > some perl scripts need to be run to apply the changes to iTunes. > Is/Can this be automatic? Is there any way to do an automatic import > from iTunes (eg. when iTunes is run, or my iPod is connected)?The perl script > is actually taken from the iTunes Update plugin with a small modification to support the global export from TrackStat. It seems like it can take an extra parameter, so if you run it like this it will do an import and sleep for an hour and do an import again and sleep and ...: perl.exe iTunesUpdateWin.pl C:\xxx\TrackStat_iTunes_Hist.txt 3600 I've never tested this myself, so if it doesn't work, let me know. ============== As a side note to all this. I'm currently trying to completely get rid of iTunes since the only thing I'm using it for is the iPod synchronization. The result of this is that sometime in the near future the following will be available: - Statistics import/export to Amarok (Linux application that supports iPod synchronization) - An iPod plugin which makes it possible to configure which SlimServer music to synchronize with the iPod and setup smart playlists for the iPod directly from SlimServer. The synchronization part will be based on GNUpod. The primary goal for the plugin is Linux, but if it doesn't get too complicated and there is an interest I might make a Windows version too. It might even work out of the box on Windows, I'm not completely sure which limitations GNUpod has on the target platform yet. -- erland Erland Isaksson 'My homepage' (http://erland.homeip.net) 'My download page' (http://erland.homeip.net/download) (Developer of 'TrackStat, SQLPlayList, DynamicPlayList, Custom Browse, Custom Scan, Custom Skip, Multi Library and RandomPlayList plugins' (http://wiki.erland.homeip.net/index.php/Category:SlimServer)) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ erland's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3124 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=37986 _______________________________________________ plugins mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/plugins
