Is the TrackStat plugin still working with LMS 8.x?

[carsten_h]

Hello!

I am searching for something that gives me a rating mechanism inside LMS. I have ratings in my mp3 files but the filesystem is mounted readonly in LMS (piCorePlayer installation with a HFS+ SSD).

So I found TrackStat which seems to be exactly what I want because it saves the ratings when a full database scan is done and restores it afterwards.
But I am lost when it comes to installing it. It should be found in LMS plugins when you add Erlands repository, but there is no TrackStat.
So my question is: Does it still work with LMS 8.x?
Is someone using it?

Thank you!

[Jeddie]

found this > https://forums.slimdevices.com/showt...8-0&highlight=

Seems Erlands plug ins won't work in 8.x

[bpa]

This post indicates that Erland plugins are not shown as available for 8.0 (i.e. not in the 8.0 repository of plugins) but can be manually installed if downloaded direct from Erland site.
https://forums.slimdevices.com/showt...l=1#post984487

[carsten_h]

Ok, I see.

Maybe there is another plugin that can be used for ratings?

[Roland0]

I am searching for something that gives me a rating mechanism inside LMS.

LMS supports ratings out of the box, no plugin required

So I found TrackStat which seems to be exactly what I want because it saves the ratings when a full database scan is done and restores it afterwards.

LMS doesn't delete ratings during a full database scan

But I am lost when it comes to installing it. It should be found in LMS plugins when you add Erlands repository, but there is no TrackStat.

No need to add Erland's repository, his plugins are included in the official repo (3rd party plugins)
The issue is that Erland's plugins have their maximum version set to 7.*
You can still download the zip file and install it manually.
Or, if you want to get more fancy, set up your own repo referencing the downloads (with maximum version set to 8.*)

So my question is: Does it still work with LMS 8.x?

Probably, just give it a try.

[erland]

See the following post for current status of my plugins and 8.0
https://forums.slimdevices.com/showt...l=1#post984145

Basically they might work but I’ve personally no idea since my own production and development setup is too old to run anything later than 7.8. I refuse to try to distribute something I can’t run myself since it will be impossible to support users. My plan is still to try to setup something new unless someone else take over the maintenance of my plugins but due to the current family situation it’s likely going to take months (or years) until I can prioritize to look at it myself. To be realistic it’s probably unlikely that someone will take over the maintenance since I’ve asked for volunteers for a few years now, so the best hope is probably that someone writes a new plugin that adds the functionality missing in core LMS. My plugins contains a bit too much flexibility to support and maintain on longer terms. It was a different situation when I spent many hours per week on my spare time to develop the plugins and they were my main hobby but this isn’t really the case anymore.

Sorry for any inconvenience this causes.

[erland]

LMS supports ratings out of the box, no plugin required

Does it have support for anything else than storing the ratings ?
Sorry if it’s a stupid question but haven’t used 8.0 release myself and wasn’t aware that it might have added more functionality related to ratings since I last looked at it. In my mind to support ratings you should at least be able to browse your library by ratings and use them in random mix, is this the case in LMS 8.0 without any third party add-ons ?

LMS doesn't delete ratings during a full database scan

As long as you don’t move your music library to a different disc/path since the file URLs must be the same before and after the rescan for the ratings to remain.

[carsten_h]

LMS doesn't delete ratings during a full database scan

Are you sure?
When I start "Clear Library and rescan everything" the database will be deleted. Where are the ratings stored so that they are not deleted?

[carsten_h]

Sorry for any inconvenience this causes.

Everything is fine! I can fully understand that if the family situation of someone who spends his free time for developing such things changes no more development is possible.
Since my children are there the days have totally changed and they get the full attention. That is more important than to write and maintain software!

[erland]

Are you sure?
When I start "Clear Library and rescan everything" the database will be deleted. Where are the ratings stored so that they are not deleted?

There are two databases:
- library.db: Contains all scanned data
- persist.db : Contains data created during LMS usage

library.db is deleted during full rescan, persist.db isn’t.

persist.db contains:
- Rating, play counts, last played time for core LMS
- Rating, play counts, last played time for TrackStat

The data in the two databases are bound together using the music file url (full path to music file). If a file path changes during rescan the information in persist.db is lost (or actually just invisible). File path might change if you rename a file or move your music to a new disc. TrackStat have some functionality to find the invisible data as long as the complete music library has moved to a new place or you have musicbrainz tags in your music files, this functionality does not exist in core LMS. TrackStat also have functionality to take daily backups to xml files but you can of course accomplish this with core LMS also by taking a backup of the database files using the backup utility of your choice.

TrackStat also have some smart logic around play counts and last played time so the aren’t updated if you skip to next track early when the track almost haven’t been played. This is why TrackStat stores its data in separate tables in persist.db.