Which function to use to match tracks in beets database?

[arsaboo]

I am trying to create a command to import playlists. Several sources (e.g., Spotify, Deezer) provide APIs to obtain the tracks in a given playlist. I can extract the title, album, and year for each track in the playlist.

For Spotify, we can use trackid. However, sometimes the same track can have multiple ids (depending on the number of versions) and we may not get a match with the trackid. Thus, my approach will be to match the identifier, if available. Otherwise, use manual text matching (based on album, title, and year information).

Now, I am wondering what is the best way to match that information in the beets database to get the item. Basically, I will pass the title, album, and year information and I would like to obtain a match (if available). I am assuming there is a function already somewhere that does the matching and returns the item.

I should add that sometimes there may not be an exact match. For example, the Spotify title could be Ye Tune Kya Kiya and the title in the database could be Ye Tune Kya Kiya Hai. So, the closest match above a certain threshold (distance?) should be returned.

[sampsyo]

Sure! You'll want to use library.items() to issue a query:

beets/beets/library.py

Line 1539 in 50825db

def items(self, query=None, sort=None):

For the query argument, you'll want to pass an AndQuery of MatchQuerys describing the criteria you need. There's an example in the subsonicplaylist plugin, for instance:

beets/beetsplug/subsonicplaylist.py

Lines 72 to 74 in 018396c

	query = AndQuery([MatchQuery("artist", query[0]),
	MatchQuery("album", query[1]),
	MatchQuery("title", query[2])])

[arsaboo]

Thanks @sampsyo. Does it do some sort of "fuzzy" matching?

[sampsyo]

No, that's for an exact match. You'll want to use other query classes to get different kinds of matching (exactly which depends on the kind of "fuzziness" you are interested in).

[arsaboo]

Which one would you recommend to get the closest match based on album and title? There may not be an exact match, which makes it a little difficult.

Ideally, something that would return an item with levenshtein_distance less than a certain threshold.

[sampsyo]

We don't have a built-in query that minimizes edit distance (i.e., something that sorts by proximity). However, the fuzzy plugin provides a kind of query that returns matches whose distance is below a threshold; that might provide inspiration:
https://github.com/beetbox/beets/blob/master/beetsplug/fuzzy.py

[arsaboo]

@sampsyo So, I tried this function:

    def _update_recently_played(self, lib):
        """Fetch the Plex track key."""
        tracks = self.music.search(
            filters={'track.lastViewedAt>>': '7d'}, libtype='track')
        with lib.transaction():
            for track in tracks:
                query = MatchQuery('plex_ratingkey', track.ratingKey)
                item = lib.items(query)
                self._log.debug('Obtained item: {}', item)
                self._fetch_plex_info(item, write=True, force=True)

This is to obtain the item with matching plex_ratingkey. However, I keep getting this error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/arsaboo/.local/bin/beet", line 8, in <module>
    sys.exit(main())
  File "/home/arsaboo/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/beets/ui/__init__.py", line 1304, in main
    _raw_main(args)
  File "/home/arsaboo/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/beets/ui/__init__.py", line 1291, in _raw_main
    subcommand.func(lib, suboptions, subargs)
  File "/home/arsaboo/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/beetsplug/plexsync.py", line 128, in func_sync_recent
    self._update_recently_played(lib)
  File "/home/arsaboo/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/beetsplug/plexsync.py", line 236, in _update_recently_played
    item = lib.items(query)
  File "/home/arsaboo/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/beets/library.py", line 1541, in items
    return self._fetch(Item, query, sort or self.get_default_item_sort())
  File "/home/arsaboo/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/beets/library.py", line 1519, in _fetch
    return super()._fetch(
  File "/home/arsaboo/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/beets/dbcore/db.py", line 1093, in _fetch
    rows = tx.query(sql, subvals)
  File "/home/arsaboo/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/beets/dbcore/db.py", line 858, in query
    cursor = self.db._connection().execute(statement, subvals)
sqlite3.OperationalError: no such column: plex_ratingkey

I can confirm that the plex_ratingkey column exists.

Item flexible attributes:
  data_source
  plex_guid
  plex_lastratedat
  plex_lastviewedat
  plex_ratingkey
  plex_skipcount
  plex_updated

[arsaboo]

I also tried a simple item = lib.get_item(track.ratingKey), but that returns None. Basically, I am trying to get the item with plex_ratingkey (in the beets database) = track.ratingKey. See this function for context.

[arsaboo]

Ok....looks like I was missing fast=False in that query.

[sampsyo]

Ah yes, this would do it!!