(From a non-beta-tester) Quickly add already-imported games to the new custom playlists?

[EazyCheeze1978]

Hi all! Am wondering something about the impending release, and I ask here because I think people beta-testing would know... does anyone know if there'll be a fast way to add currently-existing (post-imported) games to the new custom playlists? I'd rather not have to re-import all my games to add them. That multiple-edit thing could work if I sort by company, but in case the metadata isn't complete and thus some games in a group aren't selected, is there a guide to the new lists we can use?

I ask because I'm fairly excited about linking up Company Theme videos made by a certain very prolific and talented graphic artist to the games I have. If I have to, I will re-import them, but I have just spent several hours (over last night and this morning) sifting through my list and marking Favorites, and I'd rather not lose those.

Thanks in advance! Love this community very very much. Take care all!

[angelobodetti]

Nothing yet. But I agree. I don't want to reimport thousands of Arcade games so I can use the "arcade classics" playlists. 

I think Jason's thoughts are that people can share XML files with each other.  

[EazyCheeze1978]

Are the Favorites kept separate from the other XML files? Just checked, and it is actually kept alongside the other variables in the Platform XMLs; but is a backup record kept somewhere of the Favorites? If not, might be a handy feature to consider, or at least an Export function for that. Then I could use that, delete my currently-existing non-playlisted games, reimport them all using the existing media, import the Favorites... but that just seems really time-consuming in itself. Better, if possible, to have a way to scan for existing games to add to the playlists, or, as you say Jason is planning, have a method of sharing the playlist XMLs which would be user-independent, not connected to any one user's installation. That'd be best, actually

Thanks, Angelo

[Zombeaver]

On 3/4/2017 at 6:24 AM, EazyCheeze1978 said:

Hi all! Am wondering something about the impending release, and I ask here because I think people beta-testing would know... does anyone know if there'll be a fast way to add currently-existing (post-imported) games to the new custom playlists? I'd rather not have to re-import all my games to add them. That multiple-edit thing could work if I sort by company, but in case the metadata isn't complete and thus some games in a group aren't selected, is there a guide to the new lists we can use?

I ask because I'm fairly excited about linking up Company Theme videos made by a certain very prolific and talented graphic artist to the games I have. If I have to, I will re-import them, but I have just spent several hours (over last night and this morning) sifting through my list and marking Favorites, and I'd rather not lose those.

Thanks in advance! Love this community very very much. Take care all!

There's nothing stopping you from adding already imported games to a playlist (that's, in fact, the only way to do it currently). Right-click on one in your library, add to existing or new playlist, indicate whether or not you want it to show up in your platforms or have it separate in your playlists.
 

On 3/4/2017 at 7:12 AM, angelobodetti said:

Nothing yet. But I agree. I don't want to reimport thousands of Arcade games so I can use the "arcade classics" playlists. 

I think Jason's thoughts are that people can share XML files with each other.

I don't think you're going to have to reimport anything for that. The impression that I had was that it was simply a list of known titles that, if they match titles you actually have in your library, will automatically be pulled into the relevant playlist. Auto-playlists work on criteria you specify rather than specific metadata/titles but they populate based on your existing library so I don't see why the same couldn't be done for the predefined playlists like "Arcade Classics" - it'd just be If Title=[relevant titles] rather than If Genre=RPG or whatever.
 

On 2/23/2017 at 8:25 PM, Jason Carr said:

Alright guys, beta 6 is out, with the auto-populate functionality for playlists. It's a whole lot more flexible than the custom filters were, and it doesn't have the performance issues either, so we should be in good shape with it.

On 2/24/2017 at 1:03 PM, Jason Carr said:

Thanks for the discussion guys. To clarify, this auto-populate feature is separate from the one that will create playlists for arcade, like Capcom Classics. That feature is still planned, and will not use this auto-populate stuff. We're simply going to include metadata as to what goes in what playlist, and create them on importing Arcade.

On 2/27/2017 at 7:01 PM, Jason Carr said:

Finally, I added a number of new comparison types to help with certain situations:

- Has All Values (for multi-item fields like Developer, Publisher, and Genre)
- Has None of the Values (same, for multi-item fields)
- Has At Least One Of (same, for multi-item fields)
- Is Between (for dates and numeric fields)

 

On 3/4/2017 at 7:20 AM, EazyCheeze1978 said:

Are the Favorites kept separate from the other XML files? Just checked, and it is actually kept alongside the other variables in the Platform XMLs; but is a backup record kept somewhere of the Favorites? If not, might be a handy feature to consider, or at least an Export function for that. Then I could use that, delete my currently-existing non-playlisted games, reimport them all using the existing media, import the Favorites... but that just seems really time-consuming in itself. Better, if possible, to have a way to scan for existing games to add to the playlists, or, as you say Jason is planning, have a method of sharing the playlist XMLs which would be user-independent, not connected to any one user's installation. That'd be best, actually

Thanks, Angelo

Favorites are stored in the Data -> Platforms -> [specific platform].xml in the form of <Favorite>True</Favorite> or <Favorite>False</Favorite> for each game in that platform. There is no such indicator in the playlist xml but I think it still shows it in your actual playlist in your library - presumably pulling from the relevant platform xml. I can verify that tonight if someone else doesn't earlier.

[Jason Carr]

Before we're done, there will be a package available on the forums to download all the arcade playlists and they should just work with an existing collection by dropping them into the playlists folder.

[EazyCheeze1978]

AH! That's wonderful; thank you, Jason!