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Importing Episodes
nostra:
I found Firebird Maestro to be pretty good, but it is not free. The database is not encrypted.
rick.ca:
Nostra, could you could provide a simple script to run in the SQL window? All that's needed is something that would add one dummy series record with an arbitrary number of seasons and episodes—like 10 seasons of 50 episodes. Those numbers could be changed in the script by the user, and, in any case, excess episodes are easily deleted. When this record's Title is set to the actual series name, the scanner should be able to assign the files to the proper episode record—and add the episode title, if it's included in the filename.
nostra:
It is not so simple as you might think:
To add a series:
--- Code: ---SELECT gen_id(gen_mid, 1) from rdb$database
--- End code ---
--- Code: ---INSERT INTO movies ("mid", "title", "origtitle", "year", "series") VALUES(MID, 'NewTitle', 'NewOrigTitle', 'NewYear', -1)
--- End code ---
Where MID is the result of the previous query.
Then for each episode you add a movie record similar to series and an episode record:
--- Code: ---SELECT gen_id(gen_mid, 1) from rdb$database
--- End code ---
--- Code: ---SELECT gen_id(gen_epid, 1) from rdb$database
--- End code ---
--- Code: ---INSERT INTO episodes ("epid", "mid", "epnum", "season") VALUES(EPID, MID, EpisodeNumber, SeasonNumber)
--- End code ---
Where MID is the result of the first query and EPID of the second one.
--- Code: ---INSERT INTO movies ("mid", "title", "origtitle", "year", "series", "epid") VALUES(MID, 'NewTitle', 'NewOrigTitle', 'NewYear', 0, EPID)
--- End code ---
Where MID is the result of the first query and EPID of the second one.
To create N episodes automatically you will need to create a stored procedure, so it is more complicated and I not in the mood of writing one right now ;)
rick.ca:
--- Quote ---It is not so simple as you might think:
--- End quote ---
You could have convinced me with just two lines of code. ;)
I was just fishing for a quick 'n dirty solution to the immediate problem. If and when the ability to attach/detach episodes (i.e., convert movie records to episodes and vice versa) is added to the program, this should be considered as a complimentary program function. That is, a Movie menu item to create series with X seasons each with Y episodes. There would then be a number of different ways to create series records in situations where there is no online source.
In the meantime, the best solution to the problem at hand depends on which aspect is more important: (1) creating episode records and attaching files to them (possibly capturing Title and Year in the process), or (2) importing other information about each episode. Unfortunately, both are not possible.
If (1), I would manually create the 126 episode records using New Episode (tedious, but it would only take a few minutes). I would change the filenames to include Episode title and Year, if they didn't already, and then run the file scanner to attach the files and add this information.
If (2), I would abandon the idea of recording these episodes as a series, and import them as movie records instead. Doing so allows any available information to be imported using the CSV or Excel import plugins. See this post for more about how to do this.
Testing_Business:
--- Quote ---If (1), I would manually create the 126 episode records using New Episode (tedious, but it would only take a few minutes). I would change the filenames to include Episode title and Year, if they didn't already, and then run the file scanner to attach the files and add this information.
--- End quote ---
This would be easier if there was a counter in the 'add episode' option that would automatically increment when I pressed the icon rather manually numbering each episode. Or an option to create x amounts of episode etc. Then if there was an option of taking the title of the episode from the filename when I press 'organise files', the filename could fill the title of the episode field.
As most file names of episodes correspond to their titles anyway would solve a part of the problem. There are plenty of tag/rename utilities out there to prepare the filenames before importing.
--- Quote ---If (2), I would abandon the idea of recording these episodes as a series, and import them as movie records instead. Doing so allows any available information to be imported using the CSV or Excel import plugins. See this post for more about how to do this.
--- End quote ---
I did that and it is ugly! Basically the 'plain view' of the database fills and looks very muddled. There are always too many episodes of series.
The other way is using the text plugin as suggested. Obviously the program imports episodes from the imdb site. And if thats the same for importing from the text file, I would appreciate a text file with filled dummy fields so that I could see how this being done.
Its then 5 minutes in excel with cut/paste/replace to make my episode list resemble an IMDB download.
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