Saving/Editing multiple categories

[JREkiwi]

Following on from this post.

Please let me know what API calls you're referring to with this. Each category is stored separately, we don't store them all together with a slash between them. And please start another thread to continue this discussion.

I'm now using
value="Movie/Action"
SetMediaFileMetadata(MediaFile, Genre, value)

A quick test in 7.1.4/5 using
value="Movie, Action"
SetMediaFileMetadata(MediaFile, Genre, value)
seems to work with the built in category edit functions, and display in the STV.

I used to use AddShow() to set Category and SubCategory, but changed with the advent of SetMediaFileMetadata()

John

[Narflex]

If you use "Movie/Action" for in that Set call, then it'll set the Category to be Movie and the Subcategory to Action. If there's more than that (which is supported in V7.1.3+) then it tokenizes the string on the '/' or ';' characters and each token becomes a category in the original order, with the first one being the Category and second one being the SubCategory.

If you use "Movie, Action" then the category will be set to "Movie,Action". The only time these are broken up based on a comma delimiter is when the FilterByMethod call with "UserCategories" is used, or when the GroupByMethod call with "Categories" is used.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by Narflex

If you use "Movie/Action" for in that Set call, then it'll set the Category to be Movie and the Subcategory to Action. If there's more than that (which is supported in V7.1.3+) then it tokenizes the string on the '/' or ';' characters and each token becomes a category in the original order, with the first one being the Category and second one being the SubCategory.

If you use "Movie, Action" then the category will be set to "Movie,Action". The only time these are broken up based on a comma delimiter is when the FilterByMethod call with "UserCategories" is used, or when the GroupByMethod call with "Categories" is used.

Okay I could have sworn it use to store with a comma delimiter before the betas started back uo for 7.1 as I thought Andy and I and stuckless had this talk befoe but that was long agon and I have slept and drank allot of beers since then .

[JREkiwi]

There does seem to be an inconsistency with how the Edit Video Information in imported videos works though.

It uses SetMediaFileMetadata() to save the Genres but appears to be saving them as comma delimited. It also saves them in alphabetical order (No way to set Category v SubCategory).

When using SetMediaFileMetadata(),
with categories saved as comma delimited, each one shows as checkboxed in the Edit Video Information.
with categories saved as / delimited then the Edit Video Information only displays the first 2 categories as checked.

John

[Opus4]

But, the default STV is doing things that way for its own specific reasons & that work was done before the core could handle having more than 2 categories associated with a video.

Could you re-explain what the issue is that being encountered? We aren't entirely sure what the problem is and what the goal is. Thanks.

- Andy

[Opus4]

After rereading this & looking at the STV code some more, I think I may know what needs to be done.

The STV is currently only checking the category & subcategory when creating the list of cats to edit - it needs to check all possible cats.

Then, when writing the cat list back out via SetMediaFileMetadata(), I'll change the default STV to use a slash-separated list instead of a comma separated list, so each cat will be a separate value in the metadata for the item. It will still handle reading a comma-separated list for backwards compatibility.

Because the default STV simply uses checkboxes to mark which cats to assign, it doesn't have a away to mark cat vs subcat, so there isn't a gauranteee which one will be listed as the main cat, though it may still be in alphabetical order for consistency.

Does this sound right and/or did I miss anything?

- Andy

[stuckless]

How would the following "Category" be processed using SetMediaFileMetadata("Genre", "Action/Adventure,Drama,Horror")

I'm curious, because I think BMT uses the comma to separate genres (categories) but it doesn't care if you use / in there as well... ie, it just passes it through. Should BMT change and set everything using a forward slash?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by stuckless

How would the following "Category" be processed using SetMediaFileMetadata("Genre", "Action/Adventure,Drama,Horror")

That would end up with a category of "Action" and a subcategory of "Adventure,Drama,Horror".

I'm curious, because I think BMT uses the comma to separate genres (categories) but it doesn't care if you use / in there as well... ie, it just passes it through. Should BMT change and set everything using a forward slash?

I'm fairly sure the above category string you posted came about because of the previous ability to have only 2 separate categories. If you want all those values to be 4 separate categories for the new multi-cat capability, then it should be changed to use all slashes.

- Andy

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by Opus4

That would end up with a category of "Action" and a subcategory of "Adventure,Drama,Horror".

I'm fairly sure the above category string you posted came about because of the previous ability to have only 2 separate categories. If you want all those values to be 4 separate categories for the new multi-cat capability, then it should be changed to use all slashes.

- Andy

Thanks Andy. I'll make a note to update the bmt code to use slashes.