Re: [Rhythmbox-devel] [RFC] Multiple library locations

[Jonathan Matthew <jonathan d14n org>]

On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 07:01:36PM +0100, Christian Becke wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> currently, if you use multiple library locations, browser state for
> additional library sources is lost when rhythmbox is restarted.
> I made a patch making additional library sources preserve state across
> restarts[1].
> 
> Until now, additional library sources can only be added by editing the
> gconf key "/apps/rhythmbox/library_locations" using e.g. gconf-editor -
> so I am planing to edit the preferences dialog to allow selection of
> multiple library locations (see attached python demo).
> 
> There are some implementation details that have to be decided upon:
> 
> * If you have configured multiple library locations, and you choose to
> remove one of them, what should happen to the songs from the removed
> location? Should they be removed from the library or should they be
> kept? If they are removed, what about the metadata (play counts,
> ratings, etc.)?

If you remove the songs from the library, play counts and ratings and
everything else are also removed.  There's no way to separate them.

I think there are use cases either way.  Imagine you permanently lose
access to a network share you were playing music from - there's no point
keeping the database entries, as you'll never see the files again.  On
the other side, maybe you just don't want a particular location to show
up as a source any more, but you still want to keep the files in your
library.

So, I guess the solution is to ask the user when removing a library
location.  I'd want confirmation for an action like that anyway, since
it could result in loss of a lot of user data with no means of recovery.

> Currently, if you remove a song from the library (by right-clicking a
> song and selecting "Remove"), the removal time is recorded in RhythmDB
> and metadata is kept for a certain time (configurable via the gconf key
> "/apps/rhythmbox/grace_period"). So if you add the song again to your
> library during grace_time, metadata will still be there. Should this
> apply to songs from a removed library location as well?

That's not how it works.  If you remove a song from the library that
way, the metadata is deleted too.  The grace period only applies if the
file goes missing.  The track is moved to the 'missing files' source,
where it remains for the length of the grace period.  If, on startup, it
hasn't been seen for that long, the entry is removed and all metadata is
deleted.

> * If you rip a CD using rb, where should the files be saved? Currently,
> they are put in the first library location. Should there be some ui to
> choose where to put them?

There should be a way to select which location is used, yes.  I think
library monitoring should be a per-location setting too.  This would
require some more substantial changes, including changes to the way the
information is stored in gconf, but I think it's worthwhile.
 
> * Should there be drag and drop support, allowing to move files between
> different library sources within rb?

I'm not sure about this one.  Drag and drop between sources usually
copies (device to library, library to playlist, library to device),
rather than moving.  Maybe a 'move to other location' menu, similar to
the 'add to playlist' menu would be a better way to do this.

> Please try the patch from [1] and the attached python demo of the new
> preferences dialog I have in mind, and tell me your thoughts.

Looks OK, except 'put new files here' is a bit awkward.  I'm not sure
how to say it, though.