[add on] File and Folder Management

[SSDNAdmin]

Author: burthold (http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/private.php?do=newpm&userid=4183)

Short Description: place files in show folders
Long Description: This is a little program I use to organize my shows into folders for those shows. The file name is parsed from that a show folder is created and the shows are moved into that sub folder. Run from the command line [any directory]beyondtvfilemanager.exe [your shows folder] or from a short cut with [any directory]beyondtvfilemanager.exe [your shows folder] in the target field
Version Number: 1.0


Status: active
Last Updated: 10/18/2006
Homepage:
Installation Instructions: Just copy to the file system and create a short cut with C:\beyondtvfilemanager.exe g:\shows in the target.
Release Notes: This parses the file name to create the right folder and then move the show to that folder.
License: GPL
Requirements: NA


Download beyondtvfilemanager.exe (http://www.snapstream.com/ssdn/submissions/burthold/beyondtvfilemanager.exe)
Download beyondtvfilemanager.au3 (http://www.snapstream.com/ssdn/submissions/burthold/beyondtvfilemanager.au3)
http://www.snapstream.com/ssdn/submissions/burthold/beyondtvfilemanager.JPG

[Randyre]

This works great, just what I've been waiting for. I've tried it and it works great, the only problem is if there is nothing for it to move it posts an error, so makes it messy to shedule it in a batch file.

Other than that its great.:applause:

[nrf]

another suggestion, could it not find the folders via the btv API? I have two on different drives!

[dubbedout]

This is an awesome program, good to keep things organized. How do you guys run it though? I ran it from the command line once, and would like to set it up to run after each new recording, but I dont believe thats its possible. So should I just run it as a nightly task to clean everything up?

[burthold]

from the command line you pass in the path you want to clean up.

since autoIT can't run as a service I'm thinking of rewriting this in realbasic instead. I haven't looked at the snapstream API's at all I just hammered this thing out becasue I have a single machine with 6TB of disk space and 7 tuners I run it once a day right now but I'd be more than happy to make any changes to it you guys would like.

Wes

[Randyre]

Right now I would just be happy if it would not return the error when the directory to move from is empty.

The next thing that would be nice is if I could run something like this to automatically knock the date off the end of the file before BTV starts to work on it (showsqeeze etc.) so it would be a little more clean when looking at trhe filenames. I could just reanme them myself, but when I do that I've been told that BTV loses track of it and it will then re-record it.

Randy

from the command line you pass in the path you want to clean up.

since autoIT can't run as a service I'm thinking of rewriting this in realbasic instead. I haven't looked at the snapstream API's at all I just hammered this thing out becasue I have a single machine with 6TB of disk space and 7 tuners I run it once a day right now but I'd be more than happy to make any changes to it you guys would like.

Wes

[joeags]

I haven't run into the error yet, but like Randy says, I'd like to run this as a scheduled activity, so getting rid of the error would be helpful. I run a batch file on it as is, and find this very handy! Thanks!

[Randyre]

Any updates to this yet? Or has anyone figured out how to get it to run after a file is showsqueezed?

R-

[Randyre]

Any updates or more info?

Any updates to this yet? Or has anyone figured out how to get it to run after a file is showsqueezed?

R-

[Darktan]

I've done some scripting work in the past. It should be a fairly easy task to create a gui for some preferences to be written to an ini and then set it to either run manually or silently. Then you can just schedule the exe to run say every 2 hours (whatever your preference. Heck that can be part of the preference gui). If I ever have some free time, I'll look into it.

Peace

[Washy]

Thanks for your time creating such a useful addon. Much appreciated!

S.

[Joey Bugeyes]

This is kind of cool and its got me thinking of how I can use it. I'm just wondering though, why is this better than sorting by series? BTV already does that.
Also, once the folder is created, and then the shows are deleted via BTV, then doesn't the folder still stay? Wouldn't that mislead you in thinking that you have shows when you don't?

Hey, I'm not asking to criticize. I actually like the idea. I'm just trying figure out if this is something I can use.

By the way, do a search here for Snapstreams Postprocessor. With the postprocessor, you can set this up to run after every recording automatically. No need to write a script or schudule a task.

- Joey Bugeyes

[burthold]

I wrote it to help me manage files outside of btv. I've never been a fan of the auto expire feature and I play the files or manipulate them outside of btv in otherways.

I can clean up the error handling no problem. Since I wrote this thing I've done a ton of stuff in C# and think I may rework it under C# add a little configurator gui and the like.

I'll take a peek at the postprocessor task as well.

Cheers,
Wes

[KeeterJ]

burthold,

I have never posted anything in this thread only because your file/folder manager program works just as it should! I use it every day to manage my 7TB of recorded HD programs. I can't imagine leaving several hundred transport stream files in one folder, and really appreciate the way it simplifies organizing all the files by program name.

I guess SnapStream thinks we watch everything within a couple days of recording, then delete it all forever. I delete many shows, but save quite a bit of stuff as a library, and I want it organized. It seems to me like that should be an option in BTV.

Thank you for your program!:clapping:

[burthold]

Thanks for the complement, I'm glad people like yourself find it useful!

[lanenubia]

burthold,

I have never posted anything in this thread only because your file/folder manager program works just as it should! I use it every day to manage my 7TB of recorded HD programs. I can't imagine leaving several hundred transport stream files in one folder, and really appreciate the way it simplifies organizing all the files by program name.

I guess SnapStream thinks we watch everything within a couple days of recording, then delete it all forever. I delete many shows, but save quite a bit of stuff as a library, and I want it organized. It seems to me like that should be an option in BTV.

Thank you for your program!:clapping:


I agree. This program is just what I was looking for to manage the hundereds of files I have in my recorded video folder. I have a scheduled task set up to run daily at 430am to run this utility. I run it at that time so that its less likely to create folders for those temporary "deleteme" files.

And yes, over time you willl eventually end up with some empty folders for videos that have expired or have been deleted. To remedy that problem, I periodically run EmptyFolderNuker on that directory. It automatically finds and deletes empty folders. It can be found at --> http://simonwai.com/developments/empty_folder_nuker/

[Rich A]

My shows are all organised into various folders and have been for some time without any need for an additional application. Most of the things this program does can be done in BTV. (If I understand this correctly)

Here is what I have been doing for quite some time now.

My storage is drive D: That is only used for BTV show storage. I already have folders there setup like this for example:

D:\General Unsorted
D:\Sci Fi \General\Battlestar
........................\Atlantis
........................\Eureka
........................ etc. etc.
D:\Drama\CSI
.............\Cane
..............etc.
D:\Documentary
D:\Comedy
...............\Two & Half Men
................Several other shows ....
D:\Movies\
.............\Action Adventure
.............\Comedy
..............Etc. etc.

Everything goes where it is supposed to go. I believe within the last year SS added a new option in the guide context menu that makes this easy.

When you click on a program, after you've chosen to Record this show. while still on that show you can click it again. One of the new option available is "View and edit details". Simply click on that and you can (right there while still in the guide) edit any of the recording parameters. One of them is the "Record to:" which defaults to your default recording folder. So just click on that and you will be able to drill up or down the list of available folders.

When recording a show for the first time this takes all of 15 seconds to do right there while browsing the guide.

Now the ONLY thing missing that would make this BTV feature perfect would be to add to the "Record To:" options ... "Make New Folder".

So I'm at a loss to understand why we need file/folder management when BTV already does it?

Unless it is because doing it the SS way does require you to manually add any new folder outside of the BTV application.
Now that I think of it, that might be the case?

And that could be taken care of by SS adding "Create New Folder" to the Guide show options.

[lanenubia]

So I'm at a loss to understand why we need file/folder management when BTV already does it?

Unless it is because doing it the SS way does require you to manually add any new folder outside of the BTV application.
Now that I think of it, that might be the case?


That is the reason. I understand your point, but why manually create directories and have to explicitly specify a directory with each recording, when you can automate the whole process?

This utility successfully provides that automation.

[fsmith]

Not sure where to ask this.

Is there a way to make BTV automagicly scan the folders I have added new shows to?

It only does when I shutdown BTV and load it again.

(ie; I have added a shared folder from a networked computer to the btv settings, and I add new downloaded video podcast do the shared folder during the day.)

[jrandeck]

I used to use this regularly then stopped a while back. I'm trying again, but keep getting this error:

Line 0 (File "D:\Program Files\BTVTools\beyondtvfilemanager.exe"):

$arrFolderList[$i2]=_parsename($FileList[$i])
^ERROR

Error: Array variable has incorrect number of subscripts or subscript dimension range exceeded.


Maybe too many files?

[edit] I copied just a few files to a new folder and it still doesn't work on that drive. I also tried renaming the directories in the path so they are all 8 characters or less with no spaces and that didn't work either. It works on the C: drive, but not the G: drive.

[chaos.child]

Would it be possible for me to get a copy of the source for the program? I would like to do some tweaking for a difference directory structure and I'm way too lazy to have to start from scratch. :winkwink:

I promise to credit you on what I do. :bowdown:

..... if it is worth sharing. (though, I doubt it)

Thanks!

-Chris

[sranthony]

I'm getting the same error also on one of my drives about the subsrcipt range exceeded.

It does work find on my other drives.. I don't think this is an issue relating to the number of files, as the other drives have contain allot more files on them.

Great program tho..

It is much easier now to manage the Libraries.

[famewolf]

I'm getting the same error also on one of my drives about the subsrcipt range exceeded.

It does work find on my other drives.. I don't think this is an issue relating to the number of files, as the other drives have contain allot more files on them.

Great program tho..

It is much easier now to manage the Libraries.

I'm another who had the program running fine and is now getting the subscript error.