Museeks Folder Structure System

[Winterhuman]

Museeks's directory structure problem

Intro

(This post is going to be very long, please say if I am asking for way too much, I'm not claiming to offer a perfect solution and I am very open to suggestions.)

Many users have been wanting Museeks to be able to interpret their directory structure, and to be able to smartly determine what the user is trying to do, I propose the reverse.

What if Museeks was allowed to create the directory structure for the user?

This solves needing to adapt to hundreds of different directory schemes and instead leaves customising the directory structure to the user, using the settings menu, .m3u files, and by manually naming directories.

Tiers

Directories placed relative to the user's default Music directory will have different functions called tiers, for example:

Playlist

Artist

Album

etc...

• The Music directory is permanently enabled as {Tier 0}, all tiers are nested underneath it.
• Tiers are read relative to the parent tier (e.g. For Music/Playlist 1/Artist 1, Artist 1 is understood as within the Artist tier because it is under the Playlist tier; not because it's the second nested tier from Music [Keep reading to find out why it's done like this and how it can be overrided]).
• Tiers are read from top to bottom where top is the Music directory (e.g. If the Artist tier was disabled then directories under Playlist 1 will be within the Album tier).
• Each tier can be enabled or disabled with a simple checklist within Museeks's settings menu.

Simple playlist structure

A user has a default Music directory with playlist directories inside, in those playlists are the songs belonging to those playlists (Or at least those playlists, keep reading for how multiple playlists are dealt with)...

In the settings UI, the user enables the Playlist tier and nothing else.

There are two ways playlists can be created and understood by Museeks:

1. Using Museeks's Create playlist button to create My Playlist, Museeks then creates the My Playlist directory under Music.
2. The user manually creates the directory My Playlist under Music, Museeks knows that My Playlist is in the Playlist tier based on it's location relative to Music, Museeks automatically reads and adds My Playlist as a playlist.

Songs placed under the My Playlist directory are automatically added to the My Playlist playlist.

Deleting a playlist does not delete the directory, instead a period is inserted in front of the directory's name to prevent it from being re-read (e.g. My Playlist becomes .My Playlist), this allows users to easily revert their actions and to prevent accidently deleting songs under directories.

Playlist-Artist-Album structure

Continuing from the above, the user now enables the Artist and Album tiers.

Directories can be automatically read and added the exact same way as described above, but, Museeks additionally understands that songs under My Playlist/Artist 1/Album 1/ should be added to the My Playlist playlist even though it isn't directly underneath it.

Directory structure examples

Here are two valid directory structures that Museeks will be able to read...

Music			{Tier 0} [All tiers are enabled]
 ├Song 1
 └My playlist	{Tier 1}
   ├Song 2
   └Artist 1	{Tier 2}
     ├Song 3
     └Album 1	{Tier 3}
       └Song 4
----------------
Music			{Tier 0} ['Playlist' tier is disabled]
 ├Song 5
 └Artist 2		{Tier 1}
   ├Song 6
   └Album 2		{Tier 2}
     └Song 7

So... what about tags?

Let's say all tiers are enabled, what happens with the tags of songs {1-4} for the above example?

If songs {1-4} share the same artist (Artist 1), they'll be listed the exact same way regardless of if the tag or the tier told Museeks that information, however, the user will be given a choice...

Override tag information with the directory name?

This is for when tag information contradicts the directory name, this option can be given per song file and per directory as the next section will explain...

What if both examples from 'Directory structure combinations' are present?

Let's say both directory structures from the examples are being used, how do we tell Museeks's that Artist 2 isn't within the Playlist tier?

Directory's names can have in-brackets information to explicitly tell Museeks what tier that directory is supposed to be in, e.g.

Music				{Tier 0}
 ├Song 1
 ├My playlist		{Tier 1}
 | ├Song 2
 | └Artist 1		{Tier 2}
 |   ├Song 3
 |   └Album 1		{Tier 3}
 |     └Song 4
 |
 └Artist 2 {Artist}	{Tier 2}
   ├Song 6
   └Album 2			{Tier 3}
     └Song 7

By putting Artist 2 {Artist}, Museeks will understand Artist 2 to be in the Artist tier, Album 2 doesn't need to be named however; tiers are read relative to the parent tier and not relative to {Tier 0}.

Also, {t} and {T} can be specified in the names of directories and song files to control the Override tag information with the directory name? option for tags{t} and tiers{T} respectively.

(Perhaps Museeks could optionally set and read a custom tag within the song's tag data to specify this override rather than in it's name?)

What if a song is meant to be under multiple playlists, artists, albums, etc?

Let's suppose the user wants Song 1 to be placed within the My Playlist playlist AND an Other Playlist playlist simultaneously...

Song 1 is placed under the directory My Playlist.

The user goes into Museeks and uses the UI to add Song 1 to the Other Playlist playlist, thus creating the Other Playlist directory under Music.

Museeks automatically saves this information to an Other Playlist.m3u file under the Other Playlist directory.

(The .m3u format may need to be changed so songs are defined by paths relative to Tier 0 to allow songs in other directories to be specified in the M3U file.)

Song 1 will be listed under My Playlist and Other Playlist without needing multiple copies of the same file or directories.

Summary

Quick note

Not all of this functionality has to be introduced, most of the components to make this work are independent of one another so certain features could be implemented while others are excluded, this will likely happen since Museeks is trying to be minimal are some of these features and their requirements are not.

Advantages

• Virtually all directory structures are possibly and additionally tiers can easily be added later on when needed.
• Leverages existing M3U support for full functionality, but, doesn't require them for simpler setups.
• No complex settings transfer needed, the tier checklist, named directories, and .m3u files are all that are needed to transfer a directory structure to a new install.
• Museeks will be able to adapt for if song files move and change names; it can also automatically update .m3u files when these changes happen.

Disadvantages

• Still need to figure out how multiple Music directories will work (Such as when remote storages are involved).
• Museeks will be able to create directories and thus can manipulate the filesystem, this could be a concern if not properly implemented (especially if the root user tries using Museeks) so this is something that needs to be considered.
• This is a lot of work and is a major departure from the current system.

Things I need help with

• I can't know all possible combinations and the type of issues certain tier combinations will cause, please say if you can think of or use a directory structure that this wouldn't be able to interpret properly.