Comments on: All Along the Watchfolder

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 22:08:12 +0000

wow. just got the hendrix reference… All Along the Watchtower.. damn im slow.

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 07:34:36 +0000

It’d be great to be able to set multiple watch folders, as well as specify the types of content to watch for.

By example, being able to say:

Watch: E:\Media\Music\*.mp3 [X] Recursive
Watch: E:\Media\Movies\iPod\*.mp4 [ ] Recursive

etc.

By: Spike-X

Spike-X — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 13:37:45 +0000

I’m looking forward to this feature being added, it’s the one I’ve most wanted/needed!

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:56:25 +0000

I’ll also add that their implementation does seem better then a certain competitors (as it is instantaneous, and uses the proper API to know what has changed, instead of scanning every file manually). So will be better for people with larger collections I’d imagine, and people who want new music to be added immediately, instead of having to wait a while

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:54:41 +0000

Wait.. do you mean /bleh/XXXX/
/etc/xxxx/

or /bin/1/
/bin/2/
/bin/3/

The second works fine (you simply need to watch /bin, do the import once. It wont automatically import the existing files, which is why an initial import is needed. Any folders and such added after that though will automatically be noticed. I noticed a patch has been added now that will ask you if you would like to import it when you set the directory intially.

The first option I’m not sure whats happening with that, as I’m not part of the development team.. Although, the development team seems like a pack of “fonzies” to me (ie very cool), so I’d imagine the ability to add multiple watched root folders would be on the cards (But I’m not on the team, so my word is useless).

By: Caleb

Caleb — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:55:12 +0000

I don’t have time to test it, but one possible pitfall that has bothered me that I’ve seen in other media players with this functionality is that if you point it at a removable or network storage that happens to be unavailable, it acts as if all of those files were deleted and removes (or as it sees it “syncs”) them from your collection.

Again, I don’t have time to test this, but please make sure to be very careful when a “watched” folder (or subfolder) is suddenly empty before you decide to “clean up” the collection. Perhaps opening a dialog notifying the user about empty “watched” folders and asking them if they indeed want to sync the collection to reflect the missing files would be enough. Bonus points if this behavior can be auto configured (so you’re not bothered with the dialog box all the time).

By: Forest

Forest — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:55:56 +0000

@Andrew

It’s good to know that Songbird is not importing subdirectories because of a bug (and not a “design feature”.) Still, manually importing the subdirectory is not an option for me. Once the files are in that directory, they’re never going to move so that’s the entire point of Watch Folders for me, to be able to add new music to my music folder and not have to manually import it.

The 967 build is slower for me. The main problem seems to be that it’s slow to load the Concerts screen from the Songkick Addon so maybe that’s just a problem with the addon?

Anyhow, keep up the great work Songbird team. As time goes by, I am using Songbird more and more and other media players less and less, and I see that trend only continuing.

By: Andrew Luecke

Andrew Luecke — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 11:51:06 +0000

@Forest: Watched folders does watch subdirectories too if you use the latest builds. If watched folders isn’t working, you have to import your collection manually first (it seems to be a known bug, that will probably be fixed soon).

Mines arranged in subdirectories too. But if you manually import the folders first, everything works fine.

By: Andrew Luecke

Andrew Luecke — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 11:47:04 +0000

In other news, build 967 has gotten REALLY smooth compared to 966. Starts up much quicker, filtering is a lot smoother, and everything just seems a lot better all of a sudden..

Amazing..

By: Forest

Forest — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 03:09:23 +0000

This is a great way to get the community involved.

For me, the watch folder feature doesn’t seem to watch subdirectories? Is that true/intentional? All of my music is organized into subdirectories in my music directory. It’d be nice if Songbird imported new songs as I add them (and their respective subdirectory) but so far it hasn’t done that for me.