Metadata Tools CuriousG
Fills in metadata from a filename template. Adds "Album Artist" to the filter list. Also helps you bulk copy artistName to albumArtistName throughout all your files.
Update (2009-04-09)
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Updated to work with Songbird 1.x versions.
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For those who are looking to not only use Songbird as a player, but to also help manage their music collection, this is a set of small tools to help out.
First, you may have a number of files that are named well, but do not have any metadata internally. Metadata Tools will help you copy that information from your file names in bulk. First, go to options and fill out the template of your naming convention. A sample template has been placed in as a default. Next, just select a bunch of files, right-click, and select "Copy Meta Data from File Name". The tool will parse the information from your files, populate the Songbird meta database, and finally write the information back to the file, if it can.
The second and third tools are for those who use the "albumArtistName" field. This field is helpful for those of us who have a lot of compilation and DJ mixed albums. There are times when you just want to hear songs from a particular artist's albums and not off of a mix where the song may start halfway through. Making sure that the "albumArtistName" field is populated throughout your library helps with that. It also helps you search / filter for your mix albums that are labeled as "Various Artists"
The second tool allows you to bulk copy the artistName field to albumArtistName field. Helpful in filling out missing information in your library. Just select the files, right-click, and select "Copy Artist Name to Album Artist Name".
Finally, I've added "Album Artist" as one of the items that can be selected within the filter list.
As with any extension, try the tool out on a few files first to see your results before using them on your entire library. I would hate to see your mess up your entire library's metadata!
Songbird seems to have issues with reading and writing to wma and m4a files, but maintains its own database of meta information.
Some Instructions on Changing the Template
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Say you have a directory of files that you've imported and their file names are as such:
Ella Fitzgerald - The Best of the Song Books - 01 - Something's Gotta Give.mp3
Ella Fitzgerald - The Best of the Song Books - 02 - Love Is Here to Stay.mp3
Ella Fitzgerald - The Best of the Song Books - 03 - Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered.mp3
Ella Fitzgerald - The Best of the Song Books - 04 - I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm.mp3
Ella Fitzgerald - The Best of the Song Books - 05 - The Lady Is a Tramp.mp3
Ella Fitzgerald - The Best of the Song Books - 06 - I Got It Bad (and That Ain't Good) (2).mp3
Ella Fitzgerald - The Best of the Song Books - 06 - I Got It Bad (and That Ain't Good).mp3
Ella Fitzgerald - The Best of the Song Books - 07 - Miss Otis Regrets.mp3
Ella Fitzgerald - The Best of the Song Books - 08 - 'S Wonderful.mp3
Ella Fitzgerald - The Best of the Song Books - 09 - Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.mp3
Ella Fitzgerald - The Best of the Song Books - 10 - Love for Sale.mp3
Ella Fitzgerald - The Best of the Song Books - 11 - They Can't Take That Away From Me.mp3
Ella Fitzgerald - The Best of the Song Books - 12 - Midnight Sun.mp3
Ella Fitzgerald - The Best of the Song Books - 13 - Hooray for Love.mp3
Ella Fitzgerald - The Best of the Song Books - 14 - Why Was I Born.mp3
Ella Fitzgerald - The Best of the Song Books - 15 - Cotton Tail.mp3
Ella Fitzgerald - The Best of the Song Books - 16 - Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye.mp3
Using this case, the default template will do:
<artistname> - <albumname> - <tracknumber> - <trackname>
The extensions are removed for you (since they are not a valid SBProperty).
But let's say your formatting is different. Album Name comes first, you don't have spaces in between the fields and instead of -'s you use _'s. Like the following example:
The Best of the Song Books_Ella Fitzgerald_01_Something's Gotta Give.mp3
Then your template should look like this:
<albumname>_<artistname>_<tracknumber>_<trackname>
Basically, the tool relies on the premise that the files you want to work with are named in a somewhat standard way and that something is separating the fields, like a - or _ or even a space (but that would mean that the fields would have to have something besides a space as their space - if that makes any sense). By looking at your files naming structure, you should be able to determine the order of the fields.
The tool takes the template, runs a regular expression to determine the fields you want to extract and the format of the file names and creates a new regular expression which is then run against your file names to fill out the fields.
Fixed a bug where the metaDataService.write function had to be updated to include the list of properties that were being updated.
hey this looks like an awesome tool. i can imagine it would be really useful.... if only i knew how to use it:( i've tried selecting a few files (i assume you mean in songbird?) and right click but there is no "copy metadata from filename" option there. and the options to the add on only lets me change the template.... so how do i get it to fill in the metadata?
Thanks stevel!
Hi Brendy,
Can you give me a few details? What platform do you use? Which version of Songbird do you use? A couple of times in my own installation of other plug-ins I noticed that I needed to restart Songbird in order for them to show up. You can try that. Also, what other extensions do you have installed? When you right click, what menu items do you see? Also, I'm presuming you are right-clicking within the standard library and filter views. I haven't tested so much with other viewed from other extensions.
Let's see if that information is helpful before I ask what the error console says.
I'll update the description to include some instructions on how to update the template. Thanks!
Hi CuriousG
I'm using windows XP home edition SP3. i am using songbird version 7.0. i have got quite a collection of extensions but i don't think many would intefere with yours. i've restarted multiple times since installing your extension.
Extensions: music recommendations, now playing list, options menu, pane buttons, party shuffle, playlist export tool.... there are quite a few more. just ask if you want a full list (might take me a while though :P)
when i right click i see: play, remove, edit, add to playlist, add to queue, search, lyrics. i use the plain flat library view without the 3 column filter things.
Damn... pretty much the same install I have, sans a couple of extensions. Have you ever used the error console? If you scroll down in the error console, do you see any warnings or errors associated with the extension?
- George
i've never really used the error console but i managed to find it and scroll through all the errors and warnings and don't see anything that looks related to your add on
Hi Brendy,
I appreciate your help in trying to narrow this down. My theory is that perhaps one of your installed extensions may make modifications to the playlist window which prevent the XUL in my extension from finding it and overlaying on top of it. I don't have an "add to queue" item in my right-click menu. Is that from an extension?
- George
No problem George :) whatever i can do to help the community make songbird better. Yes "add to queue" is from the 'now playing list' extension. very useful extension too:P
BREAKTHROUGH!! I viewed a playlist and i saw your context menu options! it just doesn't show in the main library view :( hopefully there's a work around!
Hi Brendy!
Great to hear it is at least showing up somewhere. I've taken a quick look at the "Now Playing" extension. It creates the context menu items differently than how I do it (it uses JavaScript, where I use pure XUL), so I may do some testing to see if I can replicate it and eliminate this error. If I come up with something, I will post up a URL for a test for you before I release it. I'm going to be out of town next week, but if I get any time, I'll put it together.
Thanks again for your patience.
- George
Thanx it seems handy! I tried it with a couple of tracks and worked just fine, didn't have any problems so far.
To those of you that cant see the "Copy Meta Data from File Name" option after right clicking. I have found in my Songbird that this happens when in the "Filter Pane" view. If you switch to "List View" then highlight and right click the "Copy Meta Data from File Name" is available.
It works this way for me hope it is for you too.
only one preset? much less useful than expected...
Heya, great addon!
But I have a problem. I have a bunch of filenames like:
...
03 Scar Tissue.mp3
04 Otherside.mp3
...
So, my template is simply "<tracknumber> <trackname>", but it won't do anything for tracks that have more than that first whitespace character. Even if I select a bunch of tracks and any of them have more than one word in the name, it will do nothing. However, if I select multiple tracks with only one word, it works fine. "04 Otherside.mp3" becomes Otherside with track number 4 in the metadata, but Scar Tissue remains "03 Scar Tissue.mp3".
Thank you! The album artist addition to the filter made Songbird useful to me. It's now my primary player...
Hi erik,
Thanks for the example. I'll see if I can improve the algorithm a bit to help out with examples like that. I wonder why it just keeps "03 Scar Tissue.mp3" instead of even doing something like "03 Scar" and "Tissue". Oh well, I will check it out.
I presume that you are also saying that if you have a track in your selection with more than one word / whitespace character, it will do nothing to all the other tracks, even if the rest have only one word / whitespace character. This sounds like a JavaScript bug to me, so that's a good start for me to look at. Thanks!
- George
Yup, you understood right. I found another bugsy though! (I suppose it's another manifestation of the same one, actually)
I acquired some more music, and one of the tracks is "06 - D.A.N.C.E - Part 2.mp3", and I get the same problem I did with Scar Tissue, as my filter is set to "<tracknumber> - <trackname>".
Maybe the program gets a little confused when it sees three things where there should just be two.
Hi, Erik.
Your addon seems useful, however I wonder if you could implement a feature that would help a
problem that I have.
Unfortunately a load of filenames for a load of songs I have, have become corrupted. Every space between words is replaced by "_20" and every apostrophe is replaced by "_27", etc. So the song "A hard day's night" is actually "A_20hard_20day_27s_20night.mp3". Which is highly unpleasant. A tool that could go through the whole lot and replace every "_20" with a space and every "_27" with an apostrophe (or whetever the user specifies) would be extremely useful.
Or perhaps a feature that searches and finds the track information from the internet? :)
Oops, I meant to refer that last post to CuriousG
Sorry! D:
Great! And it would be even greater if it could use the folder information. For instance most of my library is organized that way:
Artist A - year - Album/Track# - Artist - TrackName.mp3
Artist B - year - Album/Artist - Track# - TrackName.mp3
Artist C - Album/Track# - Artist - TrackName.mp3
As you can see, sometimes the year is included in the folder name, sometimes it is not. And sometimes the artist and track# are reversed... That brings me to another suggestion: it would be wonderful to have an easier access to the current template (to edit it or select another one)...
Thanks and keep up the good work! :-)
Rem
Thanks Rem,
Just to give everybody an update. I've been hampered in developing the next version of this plug-in as I can't get the most recent version of Songbird to work on my computer at all, even with a clean install. I'm going to keep working on it (because I love Songbird), but it's going to take some time.
Thanks for understanding.
CuriousG, for when you get Songbird going again...
Great extension, very helpful. There's one main little hitch with the extension I've run into (I'm running WinXP/SP3, Songbird 1.0):
After I've edited metadata and clicked "OK," I always get a dialog box called Writing Metadata, which says:
Songbird was unable to write metadata back to your media file. The metadata displayed in Songbird is now inconsistent with the metadata contained in the file. Please check that you have write permission, or reimport the file to restore the original metadata.
The "details" dropdown then shows the full path to the audio file on my hard drive, and that's it.
Is this a DRM thing from music that was once in iTunes or something? It happens the same way no matter wheter the song file is something I bought off iTunes, bought as an .MP3 download off Amazon, or a song from a physical CD that I ripped to my hard drive. Or do I have to go into windows admin controls and mess with file permissions or something?
Thanks man. Keep up the good work!
Hi JustDerek,
Thanks for the feedback. I've seen that error message occur in a few of the following instances:
- The file type is WMA, M4A, or AAC. Looks like song bird can read but not write those types.
- The file name is too long or under too many directories (which would make the path too long)
- Write permissions are incorrect
I suppose it could also happen when
- The file is currently being played
- The full path name has a character in it that confuses SongBird
- The files is stored on a network drive or netapp device
- Windows Vista User Access Control blocks access to the file
When this error occurs, SongBird will update its own internal database, but not update the file. The file name/path is used as the ID within the database so that from SongBird's perspective it will have the correct data.
What platform and version of SongBird are you using?
- George
Hi George,
This is a great little add-on, really useful to keep my music organised.
I have just one query...
I have many albums that are mixed albums...for example an album may be the following:
Album 1: Artist 1, Artist 2, Artist 3, etc.
So, in my library I have many many artists that have only one song, and similarly I need to hunt around to find the full album they belong to.
In amarok (and itunes) these could be grouped together under "compilations". Further, when I transfer to the iPod, I would see these albums under "compilations" and I would not see hundreds of basically random artists (with 1 song) in my main library.
Can I use the "album artist" function to achieve this?
Thanks
I have a question. First of all i like the fact that u added album artist in the selection windows. However, even though all my music files have proper album artist tags, songbird doesnt see them. Now i'm wondering if it is a good ideea to add album artist field via songbird metadata editor. SInce the songs allready have this tag. Now my second though.
According to the "grammar" you implemented with the tags, my music is organized as follows:
<genre>\<albumartistname>\<year>_<albumname>\{<albumname>_<tracknumber>}_<artistname> --- <trackname>
Notice the folder separation by "\" sign.
This formula doesnt semm to work however. Any thoughts ?
I was wondering, though this might sound strange, but what about something that reads the existing metadata and renames the file for you?
For instance a great deal of my music has all the correct metadata but all of it is named horribly and with no particular scheme?
Is there some way that this concept could be incorporated into this tool or should I suggest it elsewhere?
Is there going to be an update for 1.1.1 or is there a way for me to get it working on 1.1.1?
Hi!
I'm also missing this add-on. Please update it for 1.1.1.
Thanks!
Hello all,
Giving everybody a little update. I recently had to purchase a new computer as my existing one crashed. Yay. So I'm in the midst of moving everything over to the new machine. I've installed Songbird and I'm testing it out. So far I still get a few errors on some songs, but 1.1.1 looks a lot more stable. <phew>
Ok, now for some responses:
abhiroopb: Yes, you can use the Album Artist tag to signify compilations. It doens't look like SongBird has a "Compilation" tag support, though I'll have to double check. The way I have my library set up is that all compilations have the Album Artist set to "Various Artists".
Bytales: Try using the "/" character instead of "\". This may still not work, as I don't think that I had directory support enabled though.
Morose: Personally, I use MusicBrainz Picard to manage my meta-data and filenaming. It's pretty good, and cross-platform. Renaming files might mess up Songbirds file references. I'll have to check.
spydr11 & ruipenunes: I hear you! My first priority once I get SB back up and running will be to test the add on out with 1.1.1 and just do a quick dot release before trying to add new features. I'm pretty certain it will work fine. Purely modifying the install.rdf file to change the max version should do the trick.
abhiroopb: I found that Songbird does have an "isPartOfCompilation" tag inside, but it doesn't seem to be used anywhere. I will look into adding it as a column, filter, and editable element.
Hi
I can't see any of the addition right-click menu items (neither in English, nor in French) promised by this extensions! I must say that I have quite a bunch of other extensions, and I haven't tried one after the other yet... Any idea where I should be looking first?
Thanks
Hi Klint,
Yes, that is still a problem with this add-on, and I haven't fixed it yet (I just got the latest Songbird working after months of having no Songbird!). Anyway, what I've found is that if you switch views to another view, you will then be able to see the menu items. Yes, strange.
- George
Ok, the trick does it. Maybe some problem in initializing things???
Thanks
Cool. Good to know. Yes, it's probably some kind of initialization problem. I need to look over some other folks extensions to see how they've implemented menu item functionality like this.
Glad it is working for you now.
- George
Hello again
It seems that the ALBUMARTIST tag is not being written back to the file, at least on my installation. The Songbird database is updated correctly though.
Thanks
Hi Klint,
I discovered a bug in 0.1.01 and uploaded a new version. Do you have v0.1.0.2? Also, what kind of file are you writing to?
- George
I have the v0.1.0.2 and I'm writing to MP3 files!
It would be nice if it was an option for change the title of the file.
Fort example I have the song "michaelthriller.mp3" :
Title : Thriller
Artist : Michael Jackson
And I put "change the name of file with your meta", and my name file now is :
thriller-michael_jackson.mp3
And better if he can put all in diferents folders ;)
Sorry, I don't finish :
different folder :
So one for one artist or one album...
Hello,
Klint: I'll see if I can replicate the error on my end. If you open up the error console, do you get any errors relating to the add-on? Also, do you get a popup saying that the meta-data can't be written to? Finally, are you playing the file at the time that you are attempting to write to it?
Jerome: Thanks for the feature suggestion. I'm looking into how I can make this a lot more feature rich.
- George
Hello George
Here is the latest test I've done:
- XP SP3
- New profile for SB without any other addon than Metadata
- Imported 10 files (MP3)
First, important to notice that the right-click menu options are here from the beginning!
Then about the other issue:
- using MetadataTool to copy Artist to AlbumArtist: the SB database is updated correctly, the file last update date is changed, but no tag is actually written to the file. No error in the console.
- when I update the AlbumArtist tag directly in SB, a tag named BAND is written to the file.
Hope this helps
Olivier
Hi Klint,
Thanks so much for this information. I'm looking at the code to see how it is different from the trackEditor.js code in the Songbird code. Hopefully I'll be able to narrow down the issue.
- George
This is a great add-on, I don't know how I missed it! Thanks! There's going to be Compilations in my SB tonight! :-)
... Is there any chance of adding additional tag-moving tools to the current Artist-->Album Artist tool? I'm thinking of a more general "Put this tag in that tag" set of options. I got really used to having a set of Applescripts for iTunes that did this (from "Doug's Applescripts.com") and was actually considering making an add-on for SB to mimic them.
Thanks again!
When I select, "Copy metadata from file," while having multiple files selected, the addon only seems to process one file. I wish it did them all at once; I'm wondering if another addon could be interfering?
Hey George,
Any luck on seeing why metadata is written to the file when when copying Artist over to Album Artist. (klints issue)
You might want to look at these add-ons to see how they implemented it:
http://addons.songbirdnest.com/addon/1458
http://addons.songbirdnest.com/addon/1554
They both have separate "save to file" features, so thats kinda giving me a hint ;-)
Hi George
any update on the writing-to-file bug? Your extension is actually extremely useful, not to say mandatory for a good compilation by Album Artist management.
In addition, maybe you could also consider another need I have noted: a feature that would take a selection of songs (up to the entire library), and would go through each song and each tag in the SB db, check the actual tag in the file, compare it to the tag in the SB db, and overwrite the tag in the file if different from the DB (because I have a lot of discrepancies like that... far too many).
Thanks
Hi George
any update on the writing-to-file bug? Your extension is actually extremely useful, not to say mandatory for a good compilation by Album Artist management.
In addition, maybe you could also consider another need I have noted: a feature that would take a selection of songs (up to the entire library), and would go through each song and each tag in the SB db, check the actual tag in the file, compare it to the tag in the SB db, and overwrite the tag in the file if different from the DB (because I have a lot of discrepancies like that... far too many).
Thanks
Any progress on getting this thing to actually read/write ALBUM ARTIST tags instead of BAND tags?
Hey! I can't get the album artist add on to work? Does it work with the latest Songbird? Wuld be very happy with an answer
2 things
I cannot get download to run. It looks like it wants to open in firefox, I get a message that I have the wrong version. I have firefox 3.5.3
Will a change to meta data made to album artist be permanent? if I have to rescan my music library or use itunes for example. I lost a couple hours work laboriously adding album artist not realizing that it would not stick.
@tomormarion
sad to say, but this add-on has not evolved for some time, while another addon has been enhanced greatly in the field of tag management. Check out the Tagger extension.
It has a similar feature (you can copy any combination of tags in a target tag, and of course write the tags to the files in addition to write them to songbird database) and more.
This extension has one advantage, it is reachable from the right-click. But does not save data to files. So anyway, you have to use the Tagger one.
based on 9 ratings
stevel
Nice job :) These will be really handy to have.