I'm New and Don't Code (I confess My Sins...): Need Help w/Renaming Files

[Skyediver]

I’m so frustrated; I can clearly see how powerful both Jaikoz and SongKong are, but still can’t figure out how to adjust the Renaming Masks without pulling out my hair. Was really trying to dig into it, and do it myself, but still having issues. Using SongKong, I’d like to fix my files and move them into this format:

Folder Structure: Artist - Album Name (Year)
File Metadata Structure within Album (preferably broken out by Original Disk): Track Number.Artist - Song Title

Example of desired Song File: 101.Michael Jackson - Billie Jean

I really wanted to educate myself and work through this… but I’ve failed miserably and I’m left pulling out what little hair I have left! At this point, I was hoping someone could show me what the rename & complication rename should look like for the above, and maybe direct me to a site to learn this so it isn’t Chinese Arithmetic! Thanks in advance.

[paultaylor]

Hi Skyediver

Your right it isnt so easy, but when I I had a very easy system in place Jaikoz it just wasnt flexible enough to meet users expectations. The synatx isnt my own its Javascript expressions so any resource that teaches Javascript would help.

With SongKong (and eventually Jaikoz) I have created a number of preset masks that are good enough for most users or could be slightly modified to provide the required solution.

Buts let try to solve your particular problem.

Go to Filenaming Tab
In Filename Masks combo select the AlbumArtist - Album (Year)/track - Artist - Title and then select Edit.

I think this mask is nearly what you want you just have to add the discno part in, change:

ifnotempty(albumartist,' - ')
+ ifnotempty(album,' ')
+ '(' + (year.length>4 ? year.substring(0,4):year) +')/'
+ ifnotempty(pad(trackno,2),' - ')
+ ifnotempty(artist,' - ')
+ title

to

ifnotempty(albumartist,' - ')
+ ifnotempty(album,' ')
+ '(' + (year.length>4 ? year.substring(0,4):year) +')/'
+ discno
+ ifnotempty(pad(trackno,2),' - ')
+ ifnotempty(artist,' - ')
+ title

Click Ok
Now select this mask for the Rename Mask and Compilation Rename mask combos and that should be it.

[Skyediver]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the quick reply. Looks like I’ll need to put my Lynda.com membership to use; they do have a Javascript for Beginners class. I do appreciate you making it easy for me to get started with my music organization project though by providing clear directions.

One quick additional question if I may? I’m realizing that from an organizational standpoint for the file structure setup, actually having the year in parentheses before Album name is more to my liking. What would be the (assuringly slight) tweak to provide that automated structure?

Thanks again for your efforts in providing such a needed resource, and being responsive!

[paultaylor]

Hi try this

ifnotempty(albumartist,' - ')
 + '(' + (year.length>4 ? year.substring(0,4):year) +') '
+ ifnotempty(album,'/')  
+ discno
 + ifnotempty(pad(trackno,2),' - ')
 + ifnotempty(artist,' - ')
 + title

[Fishie]

The preset masks are now gone was this part of the update or is something wrong on my end?

[paultaylor]

Hmm, something gone wrong at your end.

The simplest thing to do would be just to:

• Stop Songkong
• Delete your songkong.properties from yoour user folder (not the Songkong install folder)

OSX
From Finder, hold down Option Button and select Go menu
Select Library from the list
Preferences : SongKong
Delete songkong.properties

Windows
Go to C:\Users\username\appdata\Roaming\Songkong
Delete songkong.properties

Linux
Go to $HOME/.songkong/Prefs
Delete songkong.properties

• Restart SongKong
• Renter license details

and that should fix it although your preferences will have gone back to default