Optionally RELATIVE paths in the MM database!

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Peter Panino
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Joined: Sat Nov 06, 2010 1:59 pm

Re: Optionally RELATIVE paths in the MM database!

Post by Peter Panino »

Is there a difference with the PORTABLE version of MM4 in handling this issue? Almost ALL portable programs use RELATIVE PATHS to find their data because they often are installed on portable drives such as USB sticks which always have a different drive letter depending on which computer they are attached. And because PROGRAM and DATA reside in the same directory which is the definition for portable programs. RELATIVE PATHS are a MUST for portable programs!!
nohitter151
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Re: Optionally RELATIVE paths in the MM database!

Post by nohitter151 »

Mm does not identify drives by drive letter, it uses the drive serial number.

So, yes, it works fine on portable installations.
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Peter Panino
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Re: Optionally RELATIVE paths in the MM database!

Post by Peter Panino »

Again, sorry that I have to say it, but this drive serial number concept IMO is so stupid that it hurts!

See this example which could be very common: A user has MM4 Portable on an USB stick together with the database and the audio files. One day he may run out of space on the USB stick and transfer all the files onto a larger USB stick. Using RELATIVE PATHS this would be absolutely NO PROBLEM: After copying the files everything works perfectly again. But with the drive serial number nonsense massive problems will start to arise: Many USB sticks will not allow to change their drive serial number, or error prone scripts to change the database will create a mess and destroy the work of years, or the user will be forced to meddling around on low level tricks by directly editing the database.

The drive serial number concept is clearly against all user interface guidelines and FORCES the user to use a concept which maybe works well for SOME users. But the user should have the FREEDOM of choice between several operating modes inside an application. So MM4 should clearly update to offer a CHOICE: Relative paths OR drive serial numbers (or a combination of both)!
Lowlander
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Re: Optionally RELATIVE paths in the MM database!

Post by Lowlander »

Peter Panino wrote: A user has MM4 Portable on an USB stick together with the database and the audio files. One day he may run out of space on the USB stick and transfer all the files onto a larger USB stick.
The user uses MediaMonkey to do this and has no problems.

However if a user uses a portable drive which may get assigned different drive letters the driveID will always work.

And relative Paths would also fail if you'd move the DB (or whatever the path would be relative to) to a different location.

DriveID works well, but forces the user to use MediaMonkey to move the files (outside moving with File Monitor enabled would work too). Drive Letters can fail when drive letters are changed and relative paths can fail when the relative position is changed. All methods end up having drawbacks, if a proper driveID recovery would be build in (automatic and just asking user for confirmation) it wouldn't be an issue at all, until then use MediaMonkey for your file moving needs.
Peter Panino
Posts: 130
Joined: Sat Nov 06, 2010 1:59 pm

Re: Optionally RELATIVE paths in the MM database!

Post by Peter Panino »

Lowlander wrote:The user uses MediaMonkey to do this and has no problems.
Dear Lowlander, please don't expect me to believe you that this would always work flawlessly, as even more more simple features in MM4 STILL DO NOT WORK. For example, as I have CLEARLY DEMONSTRATED in an other post, MM4 DOES save opened tabs inside its INI file but is NOT able to restore these tabs on the next program restart. And please don't tell me that in this case MM4 did not close completely, because this would imply telling me that I'm not able to read what's listed in Windows Task Manager!

I never wrote that MM4 should use drive letters to find its paths, but you still keep talking about drive letters. Relative paths are a really different concept than drive letters. The concept of RELATIVE PATH includes the OPTION to conveniently CHANGE the relative path inside the program preferences (a SIMPLE and QUICK task understood even by computer novices), where in turn MOVING 100 GB of files inside a program like MM is always a LENGTHY and ERROR PRONE process where many errors can occur, as we all know very well.
Proton314

Re: Optionally RELATIVE paths in the MM database!

Post by Proton314 »

Well, I have same issue.
I'm using 2 PC at work and at home. I need easy way to SYNC MM_DB (with Played# etc) and Music library.

So I Installed MM as Portable, DB saving absolute paths to Music Library (At Work).
Bring it to Home, SYNC and of course i got all my library greyed out. Missing Path!!! Even they all in same directory "D:\MUSIC" (Hard Disk S/N is problem...)

What will be great is Relative Path (AGAIN).
Easy thing to update
MUSIC_LIBRARY=D:\MAIN\MEDIA\MUSIC (At Work)
MUSIC_LIBRARY=D:\\MUSIC (At Home)

Many other programs using Relative paths. You can create as many as you want.
It's basically link to your library.

Many people will found this concept very useful!
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