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Auto Name Duplication Issue

 
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JohnM



Joined: 27 May 2007
Posts: 11

PostPosted: Sun May 27, 2007 9:15 pm    Post subject: Auto Name Duplication Issue Reply with quote

I'm using PFrank 1.97 on Windows XP.

I'd like to use PFrank to rename a large folder of MP3s based on their ID3 tags. One of my goals is that when PFrank encounters an error, the original file name should remain unchanged.

In trying to achieve this I've run into an "anomoly". Some of the files in question are missing ID3 v2 tags. Let's call these files the "no-v2" files. PFrank considers this an error, tentatively proposes the name %artist% - %title%.mp3, but since an error has occured, it leaves the file name unchanged. Good.

However, if I run PFrank on two no-v2 files, PFrank proposes the name of %artist% - %title% for both files (presumably classifying it as an error ), but then PFrank "repairs" the errors by adding "PF000" and "PF001" to each filename. Since this "repair" has fixed the problem it classifies the situation as a "WARNING". This "WARNING" flag appears to override the "ERROR" flag so PFrank goes ahead and renames the files. Not good, because the original filename has been wiped out.

This seems somewhat inconsistent, and for my situation, presents a real problem. I can get around it by disabling Auto Name Duplication, but that feature is essential for this application.

Any suggestions?
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admin
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Posts: 448
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PostPosted: Sun May 27, 2007 11:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You can't disable the auto detection but you can disable the auto-repair.
In the options window, select 'Miscellaneous (dupe handling, svn, unicode)'
Then in the resulting right-side panel, uncheck the 'auto resolve name duplication' box and press apply.

Now if there are duplicate names detected in a scan, no repair will be attempted, the result will be flagged as an error and the file cannot be renamed.

fyi - you can also configure how you want missing tags handled. ie. you can insert nothing instead of a dummy tag and you can configure a warning, error, or neither.

Let me know if you have any problems with this.

Peter.
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JohnM



Joined: 27 May 2007
Posts: 11

PostPosted: Mon May 28, 2007 1:02 am    Post subject: Auto Name Duplication Issue Reply with quote

I am working with sets of files in which I know there will be many duplicate names in the ID3 tags. So if I disable duplicate name correction, that solves the problem for the "no-v2" files, but leaves me with many other files whose names will not be changed because to do so would cause name collisions. I'll end up with a large folder where perhaps 20% of the files were not renamed for one reason or another.

If I'm faced with that issue, the next problem will be how to separate those files which were correctly renamed from those whose name was unchanged. I suppose I could insert some identifier such as "ZZZ" before the prefix of all filenames that PFrank changes. Then I could move the ZZZ files to a separate folder and strip off the ZZZ.

Once I've segmented out those files which had errors, I'll have to try to figure out what caused the errors. Those which only had name collisions (If I could identify which ones they were) could be reprocessed through PFrank with name duplication correction enabled. Those which had other errors might require manual intervention.

Maybe that's the best I can hope for, but what started out looking to be a simple automated solution is no longer looking that way.
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admin
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PostPosted: Mon May 28, 2007 1:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

You could also add a line using the path builder feature. This could be used to move off the correctly renamed files into another folder. That would leave the original folder with the problem files.

To use the path builder feature add a line like the following to the end of the custom list:

Search: (?B)(.*)
Replace: ../New Folder/\1

Peter.
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admin
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PostPosted: Mon May 28, 2007 2:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Darn, I forgot that the path build feature broke in 1.97. To use the path builder feature, you would have to use the new 1.98 which will be officially released in a few days.

Last edited by admin on Tue May 29, 2007 3:45 am; edited 1 time in total
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JohnM



Joined: 27 May 2007
Posts: 11

PostPosted: Mon May 28, 2007 8:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'll give 1.98 and pathbuilder a try. That sounds like a good workaround. Thanks for your prompt replies.

Also, I've been wondering, for the "Restart Resolver Counter" option, what constitutes a "group" of duplicates? Is there a set order in which the files are processed so that, say, 3 duplicates could be expected to all fall in the same group as opposed to separate groups?
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PostPosted: Tue May 29, 2007 3:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

If the newnames have the same prefix, then they are considered to form a group.
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JohnM



Joined: 27 May 2007
Posts: 11

PostPosted: Tue May 29, 2007 2:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Then I don't understand why several of my files have errors saying "Duplicate.FAILEDAutoFix.nnnn.mmmm" ? (Auto Resolve Name Duplication is enabled and Restart Resolver Counter for Each Group of Duplicates is checked. Use 'Insert Counter Option' ... is unchecked, and the Insert Name Duplication Resolver String is set to After Prefix.) None of the files are Read Only.

I had assumed the error happened when the potential duplicates were not processed as a group, but if grouping is based on "same prefix" it would seem that by definition all potential duplicates would be processed as a single group so autofix should never fail?
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PostPosted: Tue May 29, 2007 4:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The auto fix could still fail depending on the names of the files. ie. after fixing, the fixed name may end up to be the same as one of the other names.
Also, the grouping feature isn't perfect; there are dependencies on how the original filenames are sorted (see the help pages for more details). Are you working on a networked drive or is it local?

If there are just a few files in error, you could just manually edit the newnames. Would that resolve your situation?

If not, then maybe I can try to replicate. But you would have to send me a saved summary file (alt-s on main window). Also export the preview list to a csv file (ctrl-E on the preview window) and send that to me too. A copy of your PFrank.log file which is located in your 'application data/pfrank/ folder would be useful too.
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JohnM



Joined: 27 May 2007
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PostPosted: Wed May 30, 2007 1:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Manually editing the names is, in the long run, not practical because I hope to process a large number of files. I am working on a local hard drive.

I'll work on gathering the files you requested, and I'll mail them to you at the address listed under Help...About...

Some of the failures are occuring when the proposed new names differ only in capitalization. For others, I could see no obvious pattern.
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PostPosted: Thu May 31, 2007 6:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've looked at the logs you sent and I can see what is happening and that all is actually as expected.

One thing that needs explaining, that I had forgotten about, was that for the grouping to work, not only do the new names in the group have to have the same prefix, they **also** have to be processed in consecutive order or else you will end up with more groups than you expect.

Keeping that in mind, consider doing the following:

1)
Disable the auto resolve name duplication option. Use the path builder option to move off renamed files to a new folder. Any problem files will be left behind.

2)
For the problem files that are left, re-enable the auto resolve name duplication option. enable the grouping feature and scan. You will end up with various names, some of which are fixed and some that aren't. What has happened is that more groups than you expected were created because the resulting new file names resulting from insertion of the meta data were not in any particular order. In order for grouping to succeed, the groups of files must be listed in order.

3)
Now sort the problem files by newname. then rescan using the rescan button on the preview window. What the rescan does is reapply the custom renaming but only to whatever names you have in the preview list and the renaming is applied to the names starting with the first row and moving down to the end in that order. You should end up with all the files grouped the way you wanted.

4)
What to do at this point as far as fixing things is up to you.

5)
One thing to note is that there is an option to modify the comment field of mp3 tags - this is selected by right clicking on the preview list. Using this feature you can insert the oldnames into the comment field so in case something goes wrong, you can rename the files back to their original names with the 'insert music data' option and select the %comment% field for insertion.

Hope all this makes sense. If not, then let me know.
Thanks for sending me the logs; they were very useful.

One thing to come out of this from my perspective is that
I think it would be worthwhile to add an option to treat fixed duplicates as errors instead of warnings so that people in situations similar to yours don't have to change options between scans.

Peter.
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JohnM



Joined: 27 May 2007
Posts: 11

PostPosted: Thu May 31, 2007 6:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I need clarification on what is probably a dumb question, but I want to make sure I follow your instructions exactly. At one point in your last reply you said to enable the grouping feature. I found the term "Grouping" in the help file, but I couldn't find anything labelled "Grouping" in the options. Is Grouping the same as the option "Insert the same music meta data for names with the same prefix?" (I have never had that checked before. I used the word group or grouping in an earlier post but I was using it in a generic layman sense, not realizing there was such a thing as a Grouping option).

Ignoring that issue, and given the fact that I'm still working with 1.97, I forged ahead and experimented with sorting and rescanning. It looked like most problems were corrected. I still have errors on capitilization issues --- "Only a Paper Moon" and "Only A Paper Moon" show failures. Perhaps 1.98 and grouping will correct that.

By the way, congratulations on an excellent Help file. So much shareware and freeware is out there with Help files almost completely ignored.
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 3:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sorry I should have been clearer.
The grouping feature i was referring to was not the meta data insertion feature; I was referring to enabling the 'restart resolver counter for each set of duplicates' feature which is located on the 'miscellaneous (Dupe handling, SVN ...) option panel.

The capitalization problem is a Windows issue. Windows doesn't allow filenames that differ only in letter case; try manually to create 2 files that differ only in letter case and you'll find that Windows will reject the 2nd one as a duplicate.

That should take care of all the issues you addressed. If not or if anything else comes up then let me know.

Cheers,

Peter.
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JohnM



Joined: 27 May 2007
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 7:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've followed your suggestions and everything seems to be working fairly well now. Version 1.98 & the pathbuilder option successfully separates the successfully named files from those with errors.

The issue of Windows vs. Unix capitilization turned out not to be a problem for me, since I decided to convert anything to sentence case anyway.

I would welcome the option you mentioned to treat fixed duplicates as errors. Actually, the idea that an error designation might ever be converted into a warning (unless the error is fixed) sort of rubs me the wrong way, although I can see where you might need to retain that option for backward compatibility.

The extra step of resorting the filenames and rescanning is an acceptable solution, although I'm wondering whether it should be necessary. If auto-resolve name duplication only works when the new filenames are sorted, wouldn't it be more natural for the program to automatically do the sorting? (I'm satisfied with the way it works now, I'm just wondering if auto sorting might save you and other users a lot of headaches.)
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 4:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Good to hear things are working!

The option to configure dupe fixes as warnings or errors will be in 1.99.

The problem you mention with the auto resolve is only if you also enable the
'restart resolver counter for each set of duplicates' feature. I will add the automatic presorting for that situation in a future release; thanks for that idea!

Peter.
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JohnM



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PostPosted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 8:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for your help.

John
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