Import and Layout
Autoscan
The typical way to get you files loaded into the library is by defining autoscan folder either via web UI (Edit Dialog) or via (Autoscan Configuration). On startup each autoscan directory is fully scanned for new or changed files (not manual).
For manual autoscans Scan Now has to be used whenever the filesystem should be scanned again.
For timed scans the scan is repeated after the set interval.
For inotify new files are imported as soon as they show up on the disk (only if compiled in and support by the operating system).
In all cases the file is created in PC Directory and the virtual layout is created or updated.
There also is the option to overwrite autoscan settings for subfolders (Tweak Dialog) to change the expected character encoding or other import flags. Tweaking only is effective for the next scan, i.e. you have to force a rescan of the folder by deleting the respective PC Directory entries.
PC Directory
PC Directory is simply a special non-removable container. Any media file added will have an entry inside the
PC Directory tree. PC Directory’s hierarchy reflects the file system hierarchy, all objects inside the PC Directory
including itself are NON-VIRTUAL objects.
All other entries are virtual objects and may have a different title, description, etc., but they are still referencing to objects in the PC-Directory. That’s why it is not possible to change the phyiscal location property of a virtual object - the only exceptions are URL items.
If an entry is deleted from the PC Directory all its referenes in the virtual structure are deleted as well.
If your virtual layout is the only thing needed, the PC Directory can be hidden completely from browsing.
Virtual Layout Basics
This section will give you some overview on how virtual objects work.
Understanding Virtual Objects
When you add a file or directory to the database several things happen.
The object is inserted into the
PC Directory.Once an item is added to the PC Directory it is forwarded to the virtual object engine. The virtual object engine’s mission is to organize and present the media database in a logical hierarchy based on the available metadata of the items.
Each UPnP server implements this so called virtual object hierarchy in a different way. Files are usually sorted by artist, album, some servers may just present a view similar to the file system and so on. In Gerbera we try to allow changing this by a scriptable virtual object engine.
Theory of Operation
After an item is added to the PC Directory it is automatically fed as input to the layout creation. This creates one or more virtual items for the given original item. Items created from layout are always marked virtual.
When a playlist item is encountered, it is automatically fed as input to the playlist script. The playlist script attempts to parse the playlist and adds new item to the database, the item is then processed by the import script.
Updating items only works in import-mode grb.
Virtual Layout Options
The type of virtual layout can be selection by option virtual-layout.
Builtin Layout
In order to provide the basic virtual layout you can find elsewhere and for really low key systems. Builtin layout is hardcoded and cannot be changed without a new gerbera version but it also offers some configuration options via Boxlayout Configuration.
js Layout
To implement more sophisticated layouts and populate additional metadata fields we integrated a javascript runtime engine. For more details see Scripting.
At the moment there are three different layout functions for audio files and one for videos and images. The layout function can be set in configuration of Import Function.
Layout Function |
Description |
Code |
|---|---|---|
importAudio |
Create default audio layout similar to builtin layout |
da |
importAudioInitial |
Create a folder for each album artist. Suitable for large collections |
ia |
importAudioStructured |
Create boxes for a group of initial letters in one box |
sa |
importVideo |
Create video layout similar to builtin layout |
dv |
importImage |
Create image layout similar to builtin layout |
di |
Playlists
When a playlist item is encountered, it is automatically fed as input to the playlist function importPlaylist. The playlist function
attempts to parse the playlist according to its file type and adds new items to the database, which item is then processed
by the import script. Changing size for boxlayout Playlist/allDirectories changes the depth of the hierarchy under the Directories node.
Layout Configuration
Boxlayout
In order to avoid changing scripts or code, layout configuration allows, e.g., setting the captions of entries in the virtual layout tree.
Each box allows to disable it by setting the attribute enabled="false". If a parent box is disabled all child boxes will disappear from the layout.
Boxes in AudioStructured support setting the size which means the number of initials in that box.
The following table lists the settings that are handled by the respective layout. The codes in js layout column refer to the Code column above.
Box |
Default Caption |
js layout |
builtin layout |
|---|---|---|---|
Audio/allAlbums |
Albums |
da, ia |
yes |
Audio/allArtists |
Artists |
da, ia |
yes |
Audio/allAudio |
All Audio |
da, ia |
yes |
Audio/allComposers |
Composers |
da, ia |
yes |
Audio/allDirectories |
Directories |
da, ia |
yes |
Audio/allGenres |
Genres |
da, ia |
yes |
Audio/allSongs |
All Songs |
da, ia |
yes |
Audio/allTracks |
All - full name |
da, ia |
yes |
Audio/allYears |
Year |
da, ia |
yes |
Audio/audioRoot |
Audio |
da, ia |
yes |
Audio/artistChronology |
Album Chronology |
da, ia |
yes |
AudioInitial/abc |
ABC |
ia |
no |
AudioInitial/allArtistTracks |
000 All |
ia |
no |
AudioInitial/allBooks |
Books |
ia |
no |
AudioInitial/audioBookRoot |
AudioBooks |
ia |
no |
AudioStructured/allAlbums |
-Album- |
sa |
no |
AudioStructured/allArtistTracks |
all |
sa |
no |
AudioStructured/allArtists |
-Artist- |
sa |
no |
AudioStructured/allGenres |
-Genre- |
sa |
no |
AudioStructured/allTracks |
-Track- |
sa |
no |
AudioStructured/allYears |
-Year- |
sa |
no |
Video/allDates |
Date |
dv |
yes |
Video/allDirectories |
Directories |
dv |
yes |
Video/allVideo |
All Video |
dv |
yes |
Video/allYears |
Year |
dv |
yes |
Video/unknown |
Unknown |
dv |
yes |
Video/videoRoot |
Video |
dv |
yes |
Image/allDates |
Date |
di |
yes |
Image/allDirectories |
Directories |
di |
yes |
Image/allImages |
All Photos |
di |
yes |
Image/allYears |
Year |
di |
yes |
Image/imageRoot |
Photos |
di |
yes |
Image/unknown |
Unknown |
di |
yes |
Trailer/trailerRoot |
Online Services |
dt |
yes |
Trailer/allTrailers |
All Trailers |
dt |
yes |
Trailer/allGenres |
Genres |
dt |
yes |
Trailer/relDate |
Release Date |
dt |
yes |
Trailer/postDate |
Post Date |
dt |
yes |
Trailer/unknown |
Unknown |
dt |
yes |
Playlist/playlistRoot |
Playlists |
dt |
no |
Playlist/allPlaylists |
All Playlists |
dt |
no |
Playlist/allDirectories |
Directories |
dt |
no |
The complete list of configuration options can be found in Boxlayout Configuration.
Script Options
Furthermore there are some script options that allow tweaking the layout. The script options and their interpretation depend on the layout function. The options can be set in the config.xml section script-options
Option |
Layout Function |
Description |
|---|---|---|
trackNumbers |
da, sa, ia |
Use ‘show’ or ‘hide’ to add track number in front of the track title the default behaviour depends on the function. |
specialGenre |
ia |
Add disk number to tracks matching this genre (regular expression) |
spokenGenre |
ia |
Do not add tracks to ‘All’ section if the genre matches (regular expression) |