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Best practice for multi-user content management

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2016 5:13 am
by hiker24
Hi,

so far I've used MM primarily for management of my own music library. With the kids getting older, I end up having their music on my disc as well and of course they want to have it on their mobile devices primarily. So the question is how to best organize this?

So far I've considered:
  • Using per device sync settings - but those or rather hidden in the options and can't be browsed in the main tree (ideally I'd see my son's music right there and just drag stuff in and out)
  • Playlists per kid and sync those lists only, but playlist management is kind of "flat" (i.e. no album etc. subtrees in them)
  • Collections? no hands on experience yet b/c I only have the free version so far, seems that Collections are built up from filters, i.e. I can't manually drag "kids music" into a Kid collection
Any other ideas/suggestions?

Thanks!

Re: Best practice for multi-user content management

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2016 12:10 pm
by Lowlander
Playlists are useful for playback and syncing. I mostly use AutoPlaylists for this. Collections are useful for managing files or presenting a sub-structure over DLNA. Both AutoPlaylists and Collections are created in the same way. You add the Criteria of which files should be included. AutoPlaylists will allow you to order and limit the amount of files, Playlists can be referenced unlike Collection, but they won't present a sub-structure like Collections.

I'd use a combination of AutoPlaylists, Playlists and Collections to manage a multi-user Library. The key is using the available tags to create a separation (be it in the Library through Collections or to determine what needs to be synced). For example, I gave kids music the Genre Babies, Kids, Tweens or Teens. Then where needed I can filter these files out or create an AutoPlaylist on them. The same goes for seasonal music like Christmas and Halloween music. You have fields like Genre, Rating, Path, the Classification and the Custom fields to create data that will allow you to separate files into Collections or AutoPlaylists.

Re: Best practice for multi-user content management

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2016 12:48 pm
by hiker24
Ok, I'll start with tagging then, let's see how far I get with the play lists. Genre seems to be limiting though? Let's suppose a song should appear in both my daughter's and my son's playlists, I suppose I'd rather use Custom1-4 for that? Also, does the Gold version AutoPlaylist criteria allow filtering on those custom fields? i.e. I'd set Custom1 to Son, Son&Daughter or Daughter, then I'd filter for Custom1 contains either of those respectively ? Is that possible?

Re: Best practice for multi-user content management

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2016 1:00 pm
by MMuser2011
Just my 2 cents:

Are you sure that tagging every single song with custom genres like "Son", "Daugther" is a good idea?
I just imagine how your daugther may like "Justin Bieber" for one or two months and then she switch to "Justin Timberlake". Would you change your tags everytime as soon the taste of your users change?

I would suggest that you use some system that is more depended on hard criterias like a music genre (Pop, Electronic, House, Chillout etc) and maybe "highest chart position" or something like this.

Re: Best practice for multi-user content management

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2016 2:37 pm
by Lowlander
You can use multiple Genre's per file thus it may serve its purpose. Custom fields are part of the Criteria available for AutoPlaylists.

Re: Best practice for multi-user content management

Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2016 1:44 am
by hiker24
MMuser2011 wrote:Just my 2 cents:
Are you sure that tagging every single song with custom genres like "Son", "Daugther" is a good idea?
not sure yet... one last question (I think): I assume a single file can be contained in more than one collection?

Re: Best practice for multi-user content management

Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2016 8:07 am
by MMFrLife
hiker24 wrote:one last question (I think): I assume a single file can be contained in more than one collection?
Yes, as long as each collection a file is contained in has criteria/criterion for it related to that same file.

Re: Best practice for multi-user content management

Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2017 8:28 pm
by Hdhntr23
Lets say I want to have a collection based on a different drive letter or, a different directory vs. c/users/mymusic... how would I do that?

I have a main collection of about 48K files and I do not want to affect that in anyway. I would like to add a second collection as sort of a playground or sandbox. Then once Im ready, move some files from the sandbox directory into my main "my music" directory.

I want to create collections that does not affect my main library and I have no idea how to do that. I would like that 2nd collection (and subsequent ones after that) to also have their own rules for auto organizing as well.

I have created a new collection as a test but now I have no clue how to proceed to make it do what I want. Any help would be appreciated.

What is most important to me is that if I open up collection A... I only want to see the music associated with that drive or directory, same with B and C etc. I do not want to have to scroll thru tracks from one drive to see tracks from another drive in each collection.

Hope this makes sense?

Thanks!

Re: Best practice for multi-user content management

Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2017 9:44 am
by MMFrLife
File > Manage Collections > New Collection (bottom-left, middle icon) > Name it and click Criteria tab > click '<Add Search Criteria>' >
Property: path/filename; Condition: contains; Value: type any of the following ideas (drive, dir/folder name, etc. without quotes), "D:\", "Songs That Get Me Excited",
"My Music", etc.

Re: Best practice for multi-user content management

Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2017 10:58 am
by Hdhntr23
Thanks Z!

Here is the next question tho, is how can I add a drive to my library without having my auto-organize rules from the "C" drive apply?

To be clear, I am trying to add a directory in "H" to my library (As a new collection) but I do not want it to cross-pollinate with my "C/my music" collection. I have auto-organize rules set for my "C" collection already.

I tested pulling in a folder from the H drive/directory while I was in that collection as Z advised above and it came into my "C" collection. How can I avoid this?

Thanks!!

Re: Best practice for multi-user content management

Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2017 1:59 pm
by MMFrLife
Hdhntr23 wrote:Thanks Z!
You mean MMFrLife? :wink:
Hdhntr23 wrote:I tested pulling in a folder from the H drive/directory while I was in that collection.....and it came into my "C" collection. How can I avoid this?
I am not sure exactly what you are trying to do, but you don't need to apply auto-organize rules just to isolate files you have or put in a particular directory in a
drive's path.

Can you provide a step by step (with numbering) of what you did when it cross-pollinated with another drive?
Make sure you provide the collection's property, condition, value criteria that you used. The value should just be the name of the folder.
However, you may need to also include the first part of the path that also contains the drive letter; that is, if you modeled your paths simlarly
and both drive paths contain the folder "My Music",

Re: Best practice for multi-user content management

Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2017 2:18 pm
by Hdhntr23
Hahahah yes Mmrflife!

1) "in" the new collection
2) file/add-rescan files
3) pulled from new "H" directory that the collection is pointing to as you mentioned above
4) went and opened the "C" collection and noticed the folder that I just brought in had come into C/my music

New collection is setup as follows:

I have it set to match ALL of the following criteria:

property: path/filename
condition: contains
value: (H:\"xyz")

tree nodes: (although I have a strong feeling this doesnt matter)
location
title
artist and album artist
album artist
album
genre
year
files to edit

Re: Best practice for multi-user content management

Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2017 2:29 pm
by MMFrLife
Hdhntr23 wrote:Hahahah yes Mmrflife!

1) "in" the new collection
2) file/add-rescan files
3) pulled from new "H" directory that the collection is pointing to as you mentioned above
4) went and opened the "C" collection and noticed the folder that I just brought in had come into C/my music
Make sure you are scanning to the "H" target.
Can you provide the complete path of the "H" folder target and the "My Music" path?
Also, show the criteria you used in the "H" path collection.

Re: Best practice for multi-user content management

Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2017 3:02 pm
by Hdhntr23
New collection is setup as follows:

I have it set to match ALL of the following criteria:

property: path/filename
condition: contains
value: (H:\"xyz")

tree nodes: (although I have a strong feeling this doesnt matter)
location
title
artist and album artist
album artist
album
genre
year
files to edit

I just did a test without my auto org rules just now and did another test and it worked!!

Re: Best practice for multi-user content management

Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2017 3:47 pm
by MMFrLife
Hdhntr23 wrote:I just did a test without my auto org rules just now and did another test and it worked!!
Glad it Worked ! :) The tree nodes don't determine whether it would work right or not.
As long as the collection is configured properly and your adding the files to the "proper" target, you should be able to add the files
by Add or Auto-Org rules and have them show up by themselves and not with other files from other locations.