MyFilms Date added issue (1 Viewer)

[totopsgr]

Hi guys,

I add movies to my collection quite often. I do so via EAXmovie Catalogue, by converting to XML file and then running Myfilms Config in order to save the new XML file with the new movies included. This results to an updated catalogue within my films. The problem is that to my films all movies were added on the same date, that is the last date that i imported the xml file, so it is impossible to see them in a "date added" order.

Any solutions out there?

Regards

AT

 

[Dadeo]

H- totopsgr - afaik MF is impors 'EntryDate' to Date field in My Films. Can you confirm the dates in EntryDate are correct in your EAX XML?
You can check if they match in the tmp file that MF creates - IIRC should be [configname]_tmp.xml in the same folder as your EAX catalog/XML.
That's a first step at least, then based on that we may need logs and your XML file to find the issue.

 

[totopsgr]

H- totopsgr - afaik MF is impors 'EntryDate' to Date field in My Films. Can you confirm the dates in EntryDate are correct in your EAX XML?
You can check if they match in the tmp file that MF creates - IIRC should be [configname]_tmp.xml in the same folder as your EAX catalog/XML.
That's a first step at least, then based on that we may need logs and your XML file to find the issue.

Hi Dadeo,

I opened the two XML files. Medialibrary.xml and Medialibrary_tmp.xml in the data directory of EAX. It seems that the field "EntryDate" in the EAX Xml has different format than the filed in the tmp file. On EAX xml is something like "40224" which I can not figure out how does it represent a date. but the value is different for all movies and in the tmp file it presented properly as a date like 11/27/2012 but all movies have the same date. It is the date I run the last import on myfilms from the config.

Any Ideas?

 

[Dadeo]

Ok getting warmer

I just checked my test catalogs for EAX - it seems that you get EntryDate in that odd format when you export the file to XML. Try just saving your catalog in XML format in EAX 3. In my test catalog that uses a proper date format for EntryDate then, so no need to even export the file. Just point to your EAX XML db file as your catalog file.

Did you have this issue in My Films 5 or only since using My Films 6? I doubt EAX has changed since it is no longer in development (dino only updates scrapers)

If you can confirm I will make that clearer in the Wiki - it only says for EAX3 you don't have to export if you use XML format, not that you SHOULD use XML format (as is the case with AMC).

Perhaps @alexchini, @ysmp, @dino22 - EAX users/testers would know better?

 

[totopsgr]

Thanks Dadeo,

I am not sure if the issue was there before because only recently I got interested in sorting the movies by date added. As you said EAX hasn't been developed for quite a while now so It probably was there. I opened the XML catalogue in EAX and it seems that it is missing the info stored in the columns "Label" (very important for me because i have actual blurays and dvds in my collection mixed with media files so when i play those it points me to the label no so i can find it on the self) and the media format (Blu-ray, DVD or Media File for me since I sometimes look what I have in specific formats). This is weird because I know they are somewhere there since myFilms which uses as a source the particular file is seeing all that info. Creating a new entry in the XML file on EAX seems to work fine and both those fields get populated. Well I might have to manually add the labels and format to the XML file..again.its only 750 movies .

PS. If I use the XML File directly from EAX to register new movies, would it autoupdate on MyFilms when I add an entry like is advertised for Ant? or would i have to save again through MyFilms Config?

Thanks.

 

[Dadeo]

PS. If I use the XML File directly from EAX to register new movies, would it autoupdate on MyFilms when I add an entry like is advertised for Ant? or would i have to save again through MyFilms Config?

Yes, if you use EAX XML format, and your My Films config points to that file as your catalog file, then any time you update in EAX the changes will automatically appear in My Films - you don't need to export the file from EAX. Unfortunately it does not work the other way - i.e. any updates you make in My Films are saved in the tmp file. They will persist until you change EAX XML db again.

In fact, we really wanted to add the same functionality for EAX that we have for AMC since it supports an XML database natively. We were VERY disappointed when development on EAX stopped, and believe me if the source code was available we might have tried to fix a few issues! Personally I was ready to make the switch to EAX - but I don't want to lose all the extra features I get with AMC in My Films.

Yes there is a bug in Eax with the Label field: As the My Films Wiki page on EAX states:

Note: However, there is currently a bug in Eax 3 - the label field (used for movie number) is not supported when exporting from the xml database file. Therefore you should export from the native mc3 database, then the label field will be properly populated.

So you get a choice - correct dates or Labels

If you tell me what it is you want to achieve with the Label field, I (or MF/EAX users) might have an idea of a different method to reach the same goal. My guess from what you described is that you want My Films to tell you which DVD/BRD etc to insert for playback? If so, you can select any field (as long as it exists in EAX XML) in MF Setup for Offline Media Identification on the General tab.

 

[totopsgr]

Thanks Dadeo,

Yes I Think i would keep the labels over the date added anytime. I am using them to point to disks on shelves by getting "Insert Disc No: 252" (and I have all my movies in serial order in the cabinets so its easy to find) when i play one of these entries in my films where "No:252" is the label in EAX. Would love the auto update from EAX Xml and to be able to sort by date added but I survived without these and will keep surviving . Now if there is a way to get this functionality by calling a different field instead of the label field would be most interested to try it.

Thanks for the great support!

Simply..AWESOME. I hope you are getting paid from this, one way or another

 

[Dadeo]

I do exactly the same in AMC - I have all my disks indexed, and use the Media Label field, so whenever I try to play a movie in My Films, it tells me which disk

Now if there is a way to get this functionality by calling a different field instead of the label field would be most interested to try it.

IIRC EAX has some nice export/import features. So I would try them all and see if ANY export format includes the 'Label' field data. If so, I would then import that back into EAX mapping it to a different field, such as the Media Field. Do you use the Media Field now? Once you get the data moved to a field EAX exports correctly, it is simply a matter of selecting that field under Offline Media Identification on the General tab in Setup.

So let's try that first - if there is no export format that exports 'Label' field, I have some other ideas