How to populate custom fields?

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pokeefe0001
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Location: USA, Pacific Northwest

How to populate custom fields?

Post by pokeefe0001 »

I'm in the process of building a new MM 4.1 system based on on an old MM 2.5 system. In the old system there were some custom fields in the database records that, I think, had been set using a homegrown Access utility. The fields copied over during the 2 database upgrades, but we don't have a way of setting them for newly scanned tracks. The custom fields do no show in a Properties display, but I assume that display shows just the standard MP3 tag fields. (I could be way off base there.)

The most important custom field is just a copy of Genre, I think. (We have misappropriated Genre for other purposes - it contains country of origin information.) Is there, without writing a script, some way of copying data from a standard field to a custom field?
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Lowlander
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Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: How to populate custom fields?

Post by Lowlander »

If you modified the database file with custom data you'd need to script to access the data. MediaMonkey does have Custom fields, but those are MediaMonkey generated database entries, not user custom generated database entries.
pokeefe0001
Posts: 97
Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2018 4:48 pm
Location: USA, Pacific Northwest

Re: How to populate custom fields?

Post by pokeefe0001 »

I think I didn't explain very well. The fields are standard MediaMonkey custom fields:

Code: Select all

[CustomFields]
Fld1Name=Country
Fld2Name=Teacher
Fld3Name=Comments
I believe they may have been populated outside of MediaMonklkey but MediaMonkey knows about them and displays them in track data.

I want to know the "formal" way of getting data into these fields.
MMV4 (1919) Portable
MMW5 (2606) Portable
Multiple Win11 x64 21H2
Multiple Win7 x32, unknown builds
Lowlander
Posts: 56465
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: How to populate custom fields?

Post by Lowlander »

pokeefe0001 wrote: Thu Jul 29, 2021 1:34 pmI want to know the "formal" way of getting data into these fields.
From where?

You can manually tag them in the Properties dialog or as a field shown in the Filelisting (F2 to in-line edit).
pokeefe0001
Posts: 97
Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2018 4:48 pm
Location: USA, Pacific Northwest

Re: How to populate custom fields?

Post by pokeefe0001 »

Lowlander wrote: Thu Jul 29, 2021 1:46 pm
pokeefe0001 wrote: Thu Jul 29, 2021 1:34 pmI want to know the "formal" way of getting data into these fields.
From where?
Copying the field from a track that that already has the data, probably. These custom fields contain country of origin and teacher. I can certainly find that data as plain text somewhere even if there are no tracks already containing it.
Lowlander wrote: Thu Jul 29, 2021 1:46 pm You can manually tag them in the Properties dialog or as a field shown in the Filelisting (F2 to in-line edit).
I'm afraid I don't see the custom fields in Properties. Is there a way to get it included?

I'm not sure that would help a lot anyway unless there's a way to search for tracks that are missing the data. I know there are a minimum of 155 tracks missing this data (because I just scanned them in) and probably a whole lot more that did not have the data in the old database. Finding the newly scanned tracks is easy; finding the old bad tracks is not.

"Files to Edit" has a good search function, but it's available for only a small subset of fields - definitely not the custom fields. Is there a way to get new fields (such as our custom fields) included in the list of fields under "Files to Edit"?
MMV4 (1919) Portable
MMW5 (2606) Portable
Multiple Win11 x64 21H2
Multiple Win7 x32, unknown builds
Lowlander
Posts: 56465
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: How to populate custom fields?

Post by Lowlander »

The Properties > Classification tab has the Custom fields. You can also have them shown in the Filelisting and can also use them as Criteria in AutoPlaylists and Advanced Search. This will allow you to locate without a value for a specific Custom field.

If you're importing from a text file, check out: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8882&hilit=import+txt (it will need to be customized to fit your needs).

You can't modify what is available for Files to Edit nodes, but you can replicate it using AutoPlaylists.
pokeefe0001
Posts: 97
Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2018 4:48 pm
Location: USA, Pacific Northwest

Re: How to populate custom fields?

Post by pokeefe0001 »

Thank you. I had not looked in Classification. I was just able to fix about 50 tracks that all needed the same information in the custom field.

I haven't yet looked into AutoPlayLists (because it didn't sound like something I needed ... just like Classification. I'm slowly learning.)

I've also noticed that we have custom fields defined in Magic Nodes old MM. I know nothing about Magic Nodes, but I guess I'd better learn right away.
MMV4 (1919) Portable
MMW5 (2606) Portable
Multiple Win11 x64 21H2
Multiple Win7 x32, unknown builds
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