English > Support

Episodes or child pages - setting up folders and files for scaning by PVD

(1/3) > >>

chase:
Hi -

New to PVD and have started creating a db of all my tutorials and personal vids.

My question conserns child pages or "episode" pages and how do I set up my files and folders so I can just scan them for new movies and have it auto add them to the correct Parent DB page?

Right now I have them named
01. XYZ.FLV
02. XYZ.FLV
03. XYZFLV
and so on

Folders are set up like so:

Tutorials
- Cinema 4D
-- Maxon Videos
--- Quick Tips
---- C4D R13
----- 01. XYZ.movie file
----- 02. XYZ.movie file
----- 03. XYZ.movie file
---- C4D R12
----- 01. XYZ.movie file
----- 02. XYZ.movie file
----- 03. XYZ.movie file


- Blender 3D
-- CG Tuts
--- Create XYZ in Blender

Problem is I can't figure out how to get them to scan as episodes when set up this way.

They all come in as seperate video's and I have to manually put them in - adding a new child page or episode page for each video.

I did do an experiment in which i scanned my main tutoral file folder - all my tutorials and it did set a couple of them up with child / episode pages with the appropriate video.

But there was no label nor the correct "season"

And I couldn't see what difference in the way they were named for a reason as to why it put them in a child page or "episode" or what makes it a "season" number.

I could use some help on this as I'm currently going through all my tutorials - naming them appropriatley - sorting them etc etc.

Oh - one other question - In regards to the 1000 limit - does a child page count towards that 1000? or is that limit for number of parent pages only and you can have as many child pages as needed?

I ask because - In some series of videos - I have say 100 episodes that go with that 1 series.

So... does that leave 999 records i can add to the DB still or only 899?

tia
- chase -

PS: I just printed / saved pdf's of your help and manual files - do you want a copy of the pdfs?
Your welcome to them incase someone wants to download the help manual
- I did
.. stating the obvious, that's why i made the pdfs...

let me know and I'll attach them to a thread.

Chamuelm:
hi! i have this problem too.
please answer  :)

nostra:
In Preferences  -> File Scanner, you can define how PVD handles file names using regular expressions and a couple of options.
It could be a little tricky thou with such short and similar names...

chase:
Thanx Nostra - I'll take a look and see if i can figure out something.

btw - those are not actual files names - just a sample of how they appear. Most are longer.

Can I have PVD use a folder name and sub/episode all file inside that folder?

I have some of my folders labeled (for intance) by program version.

In the case C4D for example:

The tutorial site / maker labeled folder like "Cineversity"
then inside
"Quick Tips"
Inside that - by app version such as R11, R11.5, R12, R13

and the files or "eppisodes" or tutorial movies for that software version inside that folder.

Can it be set up to list movies like the following:

Maxon Videos
Quick Tips (main heading or original title)
(Season)R11.5
(Season)R12
(Season)R13

and then the file names/movie names /episodes inside each "season"?

I take it with the proper scripting it can?

rick.ca:
Regular Expressions work by recognizing patterns. While default are regex provided, they're designed to recognize a variety of different file naming patterns for movies and series. They won't be of much use in this unique situation—other than perhaps serving as a guide for files organized in a way similar to series. For example, if your files were organized by [Series] - [Season] - [Episode]. [Episode Title] (where [Season] and [Episode] are integers, but all fields are used for whatever you want them to mean) then one simple regex would recognize the pattern and effectively capture those values. Handling variations in the pattern is a little more challenging, but still possible. That's done by adding another regex that matches the different pattern, and then making sure the two regex are mutually exclusive or if they're not, they're placed in the correct order so the right one is applied (the processing stops when a match is found).

It seems this would require some renaming of your existing files. Applying a series structure PVD will understand suggests...

SeriesMaxon Videos - Quick TipsSeason1, 2, 3... instead of R11, R11.5, R12...Episode1, 2, 3... arbitrary or meaningful, but requiredEpisode Title     Whatever you want it to be
Thus far, I haven't said anything meant to imply exactly what the file pathname pattern should be—only that these elements must be identifiable in the pattern. The current pathname of...

..\Tutorials\Cinema 4D\Maxon Videos\Quick Tips\C4D R13\01. XYZ.ext

...could be handled by one regex—if it's consistent. By that I mean (counting folders from the end)...

SeriesFolders 3 & 2 (yes, the title would include a '\')SeasonOne or more digits at the end of folder 1EpisodeOne or more digits at the beginning of the filenameEpisode Title     Filename following any number of digits and '. '
There can be any number of different variation handled by different regex. If, for example, folder 2 doesn't always end in a release number (i.e., there is only one release, or it's not applicable), a regex based on it's existence would fail. Another one that ignores folder 1 and doesn't attempt to capture [Season] would be used. Matched episodes would end up in Season 0.

I don't know how you intend to use this information, but Tutorials, Cinema 4D, Maxon Videos and Quick Tips can all be entered in separate existing or custom fields (e.g., [Genre], [Studio], [Medium], [Type]) for grouping, sorting, searching, etc.).

If you don't already have something in mind, consider how you might use the People fields to maintain useful data related the videos. Your videos probably don't have actors, but they might have different people involved in some capacity. More likely, there are tools or techniques involved in their production you might want to keep track of. Then the database can answer questions like, "What videos did I use this technique in?"

You probably already know you can create or modify an existing skin to suit this data. What's not so obvious is you can modify a language file to change the captions in the program to ones more appropriate for what you're using the program for. For an illustration, see Personal Anything Database?

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page