Multi Library on SBR?

[stevedresden]

Has anyone got this working using the SBS plugin?

I currently have one music library in directory e:\A - but I'd like to be able to occasionally connect to a second music library in e:\B

Trying to read the various threads and wiki pages and there doesn't seem to be an idiots guide.

and i am an idiot..


Can anyone explain the process in laymans terms?

[erland]

Can anyone explain the process in laymans terms?

The principles is:
1. You need to install both Multi Library plugin and Custom Browse plugin. Multi Library plugin provides the library separation and Custom Browse provides the menus that makes it possible to browse each library separately.
2. You setup SBS as usual so it sees the complete library containing all the music files for all sub libraries.
3. You configure each sub library in Multi Library plugin. Each sub library is a subset of the complete library.
4. When you configure the library in the Multi Library plugin, you will also get some options to create menus for that library. Check the menus you like for each library.
5. Restart SBS and restart the Radio.
6. You will get a new menu under "My Music" for each library and this menus have sub menus for "Artists", "Albums" and similar things based on which checkboxes you checked in point 3.

Due to a bug in SBS, you can't get rid of the normal browse menus on the Radio, so these will continue to show the complete library.

[stevedresden]

Cool - many thanks Erland. That makes perfect sense.

I will give it a go and let you know how I get on!

[stevedresden]

OK - so I sort of have this working to a point

I moved the folder I wanted to be a separate library to be in the same folder structure as the main music library

I then set up two custom librarys - one to include only the new library and one to exclude the library

These both appear in my menu now when I start the SBR

If I choose one of them I can go in and browse the structure (artists/albums etc) and it all looks correct

However - if I choose "Play All" then it just hangs, eventually gives up and then I can't connect to either the SBS or Mysqueezebox and I have to reboot everything

All I really want to do is be able to do a "song mix" on each library - is that even possible?

[erland]

OK - so I sort of have this working to a point

I moved the folder I wanted to be a separate library to be in the same folder structure as the main music library

I then set up two custom librarys - one to include only the new library and one to exclude the library

These both appear in my menu now when I start the SBR

If I choose one of them I can go in and browse the structure (artists/albums etc) and it all looks correct

However - if I choose "Play All" then it just hangs, eventually gives up and then I can't connect to either the SBS or Mysqueezebox and I have to reboot everything

All I really want to do is be able to do a "song mix" on each library - is that even possible?

If you only want the song mix functionality, I suggest that you:
1. Uncheck all menu checkboxes in the library configurations, so you libraries menus aren't shown. No reason to have them if you aren't going to browse per library as they will affect the SBS startup performance.
2. Install SQL Playlist and Dynamic Playlist plugins and create two new playlists which is limited to the respective library.

This will give you two smart playlists, similar to the standard "Random Mix" functionality, that is limited to the respective libraries. The advantage of this solution is that it will dynamically add/remove tracks from the current playlist to avoid many tracks in the current playlist. SBS is generally bad at handling large playlists and solutions such as "Random Mix" and "Dynamic Playlist" corrects this by making sure to add/remove tracks to the playlist automatically when needed.

[stevedresden]

Wow - this is workig like a dream now - thanks so much.

One more stupid question though..

If there is an Artist/Folder in Library A that I also want to appear in Library B - is there a simple way to do it?

I tried to put a windows shortcut to the Library A folder in the Library B folder but that deosn't seem to work.

I know I can include the folder in the Library settings "Included Directory" but it only gives me boxes to included 4 directories and if I get this working there will be more like 30 or so folders that I want to include

[erland]

There are a number of alternatives I can think of:

1.
You can create a playlist with all tracks in library A which you also want to appear in library B. Then create a separate library C for which you don't check the menu buttons. Create a library D that is of the type "Dependent library", and configure it to include "Library B" + "Library C".

2.
You can tag the tags in library A which you also want to appear in library B with a specific Genre or Comment tag. Then create a separate library C for which you don't check the menu buttons. Create a library D that is of the type "Dependent library", and configure it to include "Library B" + "Library C".

In both alternatives, you want to uncheck the menu checkboxes on Library B and instead check them on Library D.

The result will be:
- Library A: That looks like it does today
- Library D: That contains the current content of Library B + the content of the new Library C.
- Only Library A and Library D will be visible in the menu after you have changed the settings and restarted Squeezebox Server and the Radio.

[spc337]

I've read the above posts but still struggling to get multi library to work. I'm trying to do the basic setup of Library A and B which are completely separate.

MusicFolder: /squeezemusic/music
/squeezemusic/music/flacfiles (Library A)
/squeezemusic/music/customtracks (Library B)


First - Do all the Libraries need to reside in the library directory specific on the SqueezeCenter->Settings->Music Folder (example above).

In Multi-Library settings, I'm creating a library B and putting the directory name "customtracks" in the Included Directory 1 and flacfiles in the excluded directory 1. Is this correct?

After I save this, I get a screen that says - Library B (Number of songs: 0)

So I'm assuming I've done something wrong. Do the director names in Include/Exclude need to be full path names or just relative the the Music Folder path?

Other ideas?

[erland]

So I'm assuming I've done something wrong. Do the director names in Include/Exclude need to be full path names or just relative the the Music Folder path?

You should specify the full directory path.

Also, since you asked, the Multi Library plugin can only create virtual libraries based on the files which have been scanned by standard Squeezebox Server scanner, so you can't point it to directories which aren't scanned by the standard scanner. However, I think it might work with shortcut, so if you have a shortcut/soft link:
/squeezemusic/music/somedir
Which points to:
/othermusic/someotherdir

It might work in Multi Library to also specify /othermusic/someotherdir, but I haven't tried this myself.

[spc337]

You should specify the full directory path.

Also, since you asked, the Multi Library plugin can only create virtual libraries based on the files which have been scanned by standard Squeezebox Server scanner, so you can't point it to directories which aren't scanned by the standard scanner. However, I think it might work with shortcut, so if you have a shortcut/soft link:
/squeezemusic/music/somedir
Which points to:
/othermusic/someotherdir

It might work in Multi Library to also specify /othermusic/someotherdir, but I haven't tried this myself.

I've put the fully qualified path in and still no joy...


MusicFolder: /share/SqueezeMusic/Music <-Settings Basic Settings

ls -l /share/SqueezeMusic/Music
drwxrwxrwx 779 admin administ 90112 Feb 23 2010 FlacFiles/
drwxrwxrwx 3 sean everyone 4096 Mar 25 23:12 iTunes/

Multi-Library settings

Include Directory 1: /share/SqueezeMusic/Music/iTunes
Exclude Directory 1: /share/SqueezeMusic/Music/FlacFiles


For include Genres, I checked all of them just in case.

Still get 0 files..