Advanced Categorizing + Artwork

[cocco]

in conjunction with http://www.mpcclub.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21833 (tvix.jpg & folder.png)
i'm working on an advanced Categorizing system: (for advanced users)

Ordering your videos in many categories:
1.Alphabetic
2.Genre
3.Year
4.Actor
5.Director
6.Studio
... tell me if more...

this can be done by hardlinking files on NTFS Filesystems (Tvix 6500/7000)
But to make it simple we have to decide what root folders to use:

my opinion is to make something like this:

E:/ (root on windows tvix usb disk or tvix internal disk)

E:/Video/ (Video folder to make tvix understand that there are videos inside)

E:/Video/Movies/ (subvideo folder so we can have other subvideo folders like musicvideo/documentary/homevideos...)

inside the E:/Video/Movies/ i suggest to put the categories

E:/Video/Movies/Alphabetic (root movie folder with all original files)
E:/Video/Movies/Genre (linked files)
E:/Video/Movies/Year (linked files)
E:/Video/Movies/Actor (linked files)
E:/Video/Movies/Director (linked files)
E:/Video/Movies/Studio (linked files)

ok?

so now all i have to do is to make my app (http://www.mpcclub.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21833) create a bat file that creates the hard links

i only need 2 thing to know to get it work right
1.The name of the Tvix hard disk on windows (in this case E:/)
2.the movie file Extension (.avi, .mkv...)

PROBLEMS:
1.original movie name and folder must have the exact name as themoviedb.org title
2.if in the title (windows side) are unsupported symbols u have to change the title
3.the structure has to be exact like the one described above

when everithing is set and the problems are checked the bat would something like this:

md "E:\Video\Movies\Year\2002\"
fsutil hardlink create "E:\Video\Movies\Year\2002\Movie1\Movie1" "E:\Video\Movies\Alphabetic\Movie1\Movie1.mkv"
md "E:\Video\Movies\Genre\Action\"
fsutil hardlink create "E:\Video\Movies\Genre\Action\Movie1\Movie1.mkv" "E:\Video\Movies\Alphabetic\Movie1\Movie1.mkv"
....
and this will be very long as it creates hardlinks for (folder.png,tvix.jpg,movie1.avi) in each folder (so think if there where 30 actors)

explanation:
md (win xp DOS) creates a dir
fsutil hardlink create (win xp DOS) creates the hardlink of a file

so putting this result in a file named "createCat.bat" allows you to just click the file and have the new video added fully organized.

why i wrote:
what u think?
need some more infos about this dos commands used (never used dos...)
unsupported symbols in winXP for folders & filenames?
possible errors getting data : (no release year / no genre).... and?

[AfoAfo]

Hi cocco,
thanks for all the hardwork.

1/ I'd like to suggest that your app have fields for the user to enter the base directories (eg E:/Video/Movies/Genre in your example), or buttons opening folder dialog boxes for the app to catch the folders paths.

Doing otherwise would restrict the usefulness of the app to those who can comply exactly with the pre-defined structure, and these are as many as there are users (for example I like to put my categories directly under the root to get 200x200 icons for them , then name category folders 'video drama' for example to get the 138x186 layout inside).

It should not be too difficult to use the user-provided directory parameters to write the batch. Additionally, if a user only wants to use *some* of the categories proposed, he would leave the field blank for example, and the app would make a batch that would not create the related folders/links.

Maybe you could use a cookie for users willing to accept one in exchange of the the app retrieving the user's parameters (folders paths) automatically (instead of having to re-enter them on each use).


2/ "original movie name and folder must have the exact name as themoviedb.org title"
why? Files and folders names are essential for users to customize according to their needs as they can be displayed by the TViX interface in a much bigger font than you can get on icons. Therefore, i would guess that folder/files names are often used for interface navigation (they are certainly essential to me ;) ). So imposing the above restriction would also limit the usability of the app for those who need to name their files/folders differently (for language or other reasons).

I guess the function you are aiming at is for a single movie at the moment (I go to the app webpage, provide one movie title and get the batch). So why not get again the complete file (movie) path and name (with extension) from the user through an 'open file' dialog box ? This would be used by the batch, while the movie name entered in the search box would provide the info for imdb.

3/ I think the above suggestions would solve you problems 1-3, no?

4/ in what language do you need to program the batch creation? (can't promise, but...)

Cheers

*PS Oh, and in case you wonder, yes batch files can use variables and parameters