Feature Improvement Request - Category Assignments

[Dub2Dat]

Being able to assign a track to multiple categories is one of the great features of OTS software.  I make extensive use of this feature.  Each track that I add to my data base is assigned to at lease 3 categories.  Some tracks may be assigned to as many as 6 categories.

To assign a track to a category you have to open the track info box, select category, then select the category you want to assign the track to.  At this point the category selector box closes.  To assign multiple categories you have to do this loop over and over again.  If I am adding 10 tracks to the data base and each one gets assigned to 6 categories that's 60 times I have to do this loop.

It would be a big time saver if while the category selector box is open you can assign or de-assign all the categories you want at one time and then close the selector box.  This way I would only have to do my category assignments 10 times to add 10 tracks.

[Bryan Durio]

A better solution is to assign the categories for each song in Ots Studio. You type them, separated by commas, into the Genre info line. Simply type whatever categories you want for a song and save the .ots file. Then in OtsAV you import/refresh the .ots file (album), use the Media Library to list the album, right-click on the album, and select Category -> Assign by Genre Info...

Voila. All done in just a few clicks.

[Jumpin' Jeff]

Yep! I'd go Bryan's route too! Then if for some reason you lose your OML file, you can quickly and easily recover from the info in the Ots files.

[Dr.J]

The only downfall with that methodology is if you use temporary categories (ie. Top10, Current, Hot, etc.) which will change over time. I guess the best way would be to assign static categories within the .ots file, then assign temporary categories within OtsAV.

With that being said, I too would like a category input box that remains open until manually closed.

[Jumpin' Jeff]

Not that I have many Temp categories, but that is what I would recommend when using such Dr.

[Dub2Dat]

Hey Bryan,

I didn't know you could assign cats like that.  I followed your instructions to the letter and found out something else too.  If you type in a genre/cat that does not exist that OTS will ask you to create the new cat.  So I tried this with a new genre/cat named "Bryan" and like magic it was done!  The new track was assigned to now all 7 categories.  Thanks Bryan.

A second way to add a cat and to make cat assignments is a good thing.  Is there a way to set rating within studio as well?

But still I was concerned about the math.  So to add 10 new tracts to 7 different categories each, using the type in genre method comes out to about 450 key strokes (assuming 100% accuracy each stroke) vs 70 clicks if the cat assign box stayed open. 

This is not a big deal to me.  I can live with it the way it is.  I would much prefer OTS spend time putting a full court press on developing a more user friendly scheduler.  For this user that would be job one.

[Jumpin' Jeff]

I've always considered a genre Autohotkey creator that would be similar to the OMQL query buttons, but for use with Studio to ease that concern, but searching through 128 buttons would be the next concern.

[Bryan Durio]

There isn't a way to set the rating in Studio. That is an OML setting as far as I know.

[Dj Buik]

I created a category batch edit script for Studio.

Look at this thread:
http://www.otsusers.com/forum/index.php?topic=13076.0

[DJMartin]

Somewhere is a thread about the same where I described a good way to handle the entire category stuff.

Assigning categories in the media library only is some risk. Easily you spend dozen of hours to assign them. A small glitch, and all work is gone. I do see the category data also stored in OTS studio and down in each .ots file as described above by Bryan. A downside argument is that filling the genre field manually leads to typos and that ends in an own category for each wrong written name.
Better would be to either have a script or a programmable keyboard to ensure proper writing. A possible downside argument is data redundancy by having the same text stored over and over again (following normalization rules in relational database design). The redundancy cannot be avoided completely because we do use two independent programms. OTS studio to prepare the .ots files and OTSAV itself to maintain the media library.

A possible way would be to maintain the categories only in OTSAV and assign them to the songs there. It would require a batch process to write down /sync the media library content down into the individual .ots files.

Another way would be that OTS studio can access the defined categories in the media library or even add new ones there. Within studio, this list is then available as a select list while categorizing a song.

I do hope you can follow my thoughts.

[Bryan Durio]

It's easy to pinpoint a malformed category name in OtsAV. When you're refreshing Ots, any new category discovered will cause it to prompt you to create that category. Just click YES and then bring up that category. The song(s) that have the category show up in the ML. Correct it (them) in Studio and refresh Ots. Delete the malformed categories (Edit -> Manage Categories...) and you're done.

[DJ M]

I've always considered a genre Autohotkey creator that would be similar to the OMQL query buttons, but for use with Studio to ease that concern, but searching through 128 buttons would be the next concern.

Why use 128 buttons when you only need 26. The letters on a keyboard! ( )

It would be handy if studio knew which categories you already had and auto looked them up as you started to type. Bit whichever way you do it, manually adding them somewhere is always going to be needed. I always put mine in studio

[Jumpin' Jeff]

I can already extact the cats from the OML, so it' a matter o reading them into AHK at that point.