Import Ratings

[AFaustini]

A lot of other players store settings in tags within the file, like RATING. It will be cool if Winyl import this. The migration for other players will be a lot easier.

[alexkx]

I thought about this, but the main problem:

1. If we enable it by default and a new user scan his files he is stuck with these ratings. If he doesn't need them he need to unrate all the tracks 1 by 1.
2. And if we disable it by default it won't work for already scanned files because the player preserves ratings when rescan the files. So you need to remove all the files from the library first, enable this options, and scan all the files again. From the perspective of a new user it looks bad.

So 1st solution is a bad experience for a new user. 2nd solution is possible but it looks wrong to me.

I'm curios how other players with such option handle it. Open for a discussion.

[AFaustini]

Won`t be easy to simply pick the rating info in the music file instead of using the library to store this. The other players works like this. Foobar 2000: MusicBee picks the same information:

[alexkx]

We can simply import the rating. I mean should we do this by default or not. What if the user don't want to import the rating by any reason. Anyway, maybe I just overthinking it and we should do this by default without any options.

[smaragdus]

@alexkx

Anyway, maybe I just overthinking it and we should do this by default without any options.

I do not think you are overthinking it- I do not like to import any ratings- once I had unpleasant experience with AIMP when by mistake I added ratings which I had to remove manually. I also do not like the idea of modifying the tags- for me this is destructive.

[alexkx]

Then we still need to find the best solution. I'm out of ideas how to import the rating right.

And about writing the rating to files, it never be by default. I agree that silently modify files is a very bad approach.

[AFaustini]

The best solution in my opnion, is when we add the files to library, look for tags like RATING or RATINGS and copy that information to library.

[hairycactus]

alexkx said:

1. If we enable it by default and a new user scan his files, he is stuck with these ratings. If he doesn't need them he need to unrate all the tracks 1 by 1.

When using Winyl's native skins (eg. I use Dark.wzp), it seems that there is no easy way to hide or remove the Ratings column. So please do NOT force the import of ratings by default upon the user.

For (some) non-native Winyl skins, it is possible to remove the Ratings column by deleting the Winyl\Skin\<NonNativeSkin>\Playlist\Rating\ folder. Or perhaps, by right-clicking the Ratings column & selecting an option to hide the column. The former method has the advantage of removing unnecessary ratings data that might bloat Winyl's working folder.

2. And if we disable it by default it won't work for already scanned files because the player preserves ratings when rescan the files. So you need to remove all the files from the library first, enable this options, and scan all the files again. From the perspective of a new user it looks bad.

For users who choose to enable the import ratings option (if provided), if Winyl is unable (why ?) to import any ratings embedded in the files' tags when the existing library is re-scanned, then a possible workaround is to display a message within Winyl's GUI to inform users that the existing library has to be removed & re-added. Much like how some applications remind users that the application has to be restarted for certain settings to come into effect.

[J-P-]

Hello. I'll offer my two cents.

Creating a library without importing from the audio file all the info the app supports is negligent, at best. If a user does not wish to use the ratings once imported, simply offer an option to remove ratings from the library. I recommend 2 places. The first, per album invoked by a right-click on album-art, and the second, per library basis invoked from the main-menu.

Additionally, ratings should be re-written to tags, invoked similarly from the main-menu. Note that POPM allows multiple ratings, one per a declared user. A user can be any app or a person so it would be good to have a option to select one of the usual suspects: WMP, Winamp, Mediamonkey.

This solves most if not all requirements with regards to ratings. I have numerous albums that are rated and can't continue to use Winyl since I rely on that data. The same audio files I have are synced and used in multiple environments, desktop, mobile, etc.

Thanks.

[ancich]

Why not read in the ratings, and just have a switch in the program that can toggle their visibility on or off. No music player stays around forever, so using ratings in Winyl that do not get recorded in the MP3's file seems like an utter waste of time.