[further infos missing] Linked folders not importing (1 Viewer)

sridharb

Portal Pro
October 13, 2007
58
0
Home Country
India India
I organize some movies using junction links. For e.g. H:\Movie1 contains the movie. Another folder, say, H:\Star\Movie20 is linked to H:\Movie1 so as to avoid having the same movie in two places.

I use the command mklink /j "H:\Star\Movie20" "H:\Movie1". In explorer, everything looks fine. That is, if I navigate to H:\Star\Movie20, I see the contents of H:\Movie1.

I have also followed the instruction about enabling SymlinkEvaluation in fsutil. All varieties are now enabled.

However, in MP, I don't see anything when I navigate to the folder Star\Movie20 in Movies. I use Folder View.

Thanks,
Sridhar
 

HTPCSourcer

Retired Team Member
  • Premium Supporter
  • May 16, 2008
    11,418
    2,335
    Home Country
    Germany Germany
    However, in MP, I don't see anything when I navigate to the folder Star\Movie20 in Movies.
    I don't know at what level the hard link is established. In theory the redirection happens at file system level. MediaPortal is using information from Windows and is of course not having its own file system. So anything not working would be subject to Windows not behaving as supposed.

    Did you check the logs if there is maybe an access privilege issue? Did you define credentials in the MediaPortal settings?
     

    sridharb

    Portal Pro
    October 13, 2007
    58
    0
    Home Country
    India India
    As I mentioned, the hardlink is established at the windows level and it is working well through windows.

    Don't see any access privileges problems in the log. How do I define credentials in Mediaportal settings?

    Thanks,
    Sridhar
     

    HTPCSourcer

    Retired Team Member
  • Premium Supporter
  • May 16, 2008
    11,418
    2,335
    Home Country
    Germany Germany
    Don't see any access privileges problems in the log.
    Please create logs as described here: Bug Reports and Log Files

    How do I define credentials in Mediaportal settings?
    See Wiki: Media sources

    The question is if the MP2 Server process has the privileges to access the folders in question. If MP2 Server and folder are on the same PC, then yes. Otherwise you need to provide credentials for the MP2 Server Service to be able to access the share.
     

    sridharb

    Portal Pro
    October 13, 2007
    58
    0
    Home Country
    India India
    Ok for the log. The folders are in different physical drives, but on the same server as the MP2 server.
     

    HTPCSourcer

    Retired Team Member
  • Premium Supporter
  • May 16, 2008
    11,418
    2,335
    Home Country
    Germany Germany
    but on the same server as the MP2 server.
    That excludes access right problems.

    Now about semantics: "Importing" applies to shares that you have defined in the setup. The respective views are available in Library view. Folder view is independent of your shares and allows browsing through your physical directory structure. Then there is the "Browse media" dialogue, which is again something different, but this depends on the files getting imported by MP2. Automatic imports requires the Share Watcher to be active (see share setup in the settings section).

    command mklink /j "H:\Star\Movie20" "H:\Movie1"
    As you are in folder view, can you navigate to H:\Movie1 and see your movies there?
     

    sridharb

    Portal Pro
    October 13, 2007
    58
    0
    Home Country
    India India
    The idea is that mp2 sees only the h:\star folder and its subfolders. Doesn’t have access to movie1 folder in the sense that it is not exposed as a folder location.

    Movie20, whether it is actually in h:\movie1 or g:\movie2, I don’t want to know. I want mp2 to show me movie20 in the star folder and when I navigate to that, I want to see movie1.

    Now, generalise the idea and see that I want to create a hierarchy under h:\star where I want to see all my movies no matter where they are physically located.
     

    HTPCSourcer

    Retired Team Member
  • Premium Supporter
  • May 16, 2008
    11,418
    2,335
    Home Country
    Germany Germany
    In the above mklink syntax Movie20 is a sub directory of folder star.
    Movie20, whether it is actually in h:\movie1 or g:\movie2, I don’t want to know. I want mp2 to show me movie20 in the star folder and when I navigate to that, I want to see movie1.
    This is what the library view is for.

    Now, generalise the idea and see that I want to create a hierarchy under h:\star where I want to see all my movies no matter where they are physically located.
    I don't really understand what you want to achieve. Some screenshots might be helpful, so that I can try to reproduce it here. Please no generic description but a step-by-step process.

    Instead of using mklink you simply could add your directory as an additional (movie) share. Sub-directories of this additional folder will be read.
     
    Last edited:

    sridharb

    Portal Pro
    October 13, 2007
    58
    0
    Home Country
    India India
    Sorry for the delay in replying HTPCSourcer.

    Let's take a simple example.

    The movie Titanic is an Oscar winner, director: James Cameron and star: Leo Di Caprio and say that it is in IMDB Top Ten.

    Let this movie be in H:\Movies\English\Titanic.

    I would create folders called G:\Movies\Oscar, G:\Movies\James Cameron, G:\Movies\Leo, G:\Movies\IMDB Top Ten.

    Then, I can link H:\Movies\English\Titanic to these folders so that G:\Movies\Oscar\Titanic points to the contents of H:\Movies\English\Titanic and G:\Movies\IMDB Top Ten\Titanic points to the contents of H:\Movies\English\Titanic and so on. I specifically use different drives for these "real" and "symbolic link" folders because I want the flexibility of being able to keep the real folders in different physical drives and have Mediaportal index the contents of a G:\Movies folder that could contain a mix of real and linked folders.

    This way, I can go to folder view and see all the movies that are in the IMDB Top Ten list or Oscar winners instead of having to replicate these movies in these folder hierarchies. Essentially, it is the concept of Library view which shows movies sorted by Actor, Year, Genre etc. But, I want to be able to customize this with my own tags. Tags could be Oscar, IMDB Top Ten etc., anything.

    I hope this explains this.

    Given that the Library view is not very customizable, I am trying to create a custom Library view through symbolic links and using Folder view.

    It is this folder view that is not working properly.

    Regards,
    Sridhar
     

    sridharb

    Portal Pro
    October 13, 2007
    58
    0
    Home Country
    India India
    I thought I saw a reply by HTPC Sourcer asking what is missing when I said that the Library View is not customizable.

    What I am missing is detailed in my response above. What I would like is custom tags like Oscars, IMDB Top Ten etc. I would like to tag certain movies with these custom tags that I should be able to use in Library view to group items. That is if I tag a set of movies with Oscar Best Picture, then this tag should be available in Library view as a filter. If I chose this filter, then all movies tagged with this tag should be selected and then it should allow me to sort by Actor/Year/Genre etc.

    This is kind of thing that I am trying to accomplish using symbolic links and Folder View.

    Regards,
    Sridhar
     

    Users who are viewing this thread

    Top Bottom