Playlist can't be removed from root

[dominikabra]

Hi all!

I think I might have found a bug regarding the playlists. I'll tell you my story so far to throw in some context.

I recently downloaded a full MAME set version 0.222 (tried the merged set but many roms were missing and a lot wouldn't work) and imported into Launchbox. De-selected all the "skip XXXX games" in the dialog and after a whole day of importing, I had over 17.000 games. I though that 17K+ games would be a little too much, considering that most of them weren't even games and lots were non-interesting or unplayable. So I went and did an import using the default filtering that is offered at the initial scraping and created another MAME platform so I had that nice filtering applied (didn't find a way to do it after scraping). See question 1.

After that, obviously, games would appear duplicate under "Arcade" so I went and created a custom playlist based on the filtering the import wizard does, editing the XML so the folders would point to the "MAME" platform. Now we're ready to clean things up and I create a playlist category to put all the initially generated playlists inside (see question number 2), leaving only the platform "MAME", category "MAME Playlists" (full of the automatic playlists) and custom playlists created from the two initial scrapings.

When I deleted the "extra" MAME platform, all the playlists that took forever quite a while to move one by one, popped up under the root folder. I thought "damm, they were attached to the platform I deleted. Of course, it was a 50/50 change but Murphy never rests". Thing is, when I try to modify the "parents" attribute (right click, edit, parents) and uncheck the "root" folder and check the "proper" one the playlists will appear in both places. No matter how many times I try, they will remain stubbornly attached to the "root" folder (see question 3). I assume it's got something to do with the "parents.xml" not being updated after all the shenanigans I did with the platforms and playlists. But hey, that's what beta-testing is all about!

Now for the questions:

1 - Is there a way to automatically create the playlists for a MAME set (Capcom classics, Cave, Midway Classics, etc.) AFTER the initial scraping? When I select the "auto-generate playlists" it only covers number of players, genres, etc. but I saw no option to create those fancy playlists again.

2 - Is there a way to bulk move playlists from one place to another? Having to go one by one with the almost 40 playlists generated is a PITA. Maybe allowing for a simple "drag and drop" that updates the parenthood? That would only be feasible if the playlist is children of a single item, of course.

3 - How can I remove the playlitst from the "root" category?

Thank you very much!

[dominikabra]

Bump?

[dominikabra]

No bump for me it is, then... ☹️

[dominikabra]

Any ideas anyone? Any admin/mod I should summon?

[sundogak]

1. Just right click the MAME/Arcade platform at the left of screen and will bring up this window to generate the playlists post import.   Sorry, just reread what you asked and you said you wanted the playlists for subcategories and you tried the right-click.  So no, you would need to rerun the importer for that feature as far as I know. 

2. No bulk change ability I am aware of in front end.  Might be able to edit XML directly, but never did it for this purpose, so cannot give any input there.

3. Edit platform and remove the checkbox for the playlist from the "ROOT" box.  Check any others you want on/off.

 

Edited August 19, 2020 by sundogak
Edited first answer

[dominikabra]

Hi @sundogak, thanks for the reply. You confirmed what I was afraid of. As for the third question, that very same editing wouldn't "work" as inteded, I assume because of the platform shenanigans I did before that. I guess it's not something the code foresaw.