Critical request: copy between albums

Today, with all different editions (MFSL, LP, XRCD, Remastered, Non-remastered etc etc) of one particular album it's essential to have the opportunity to copy ALL entered items/information between albums.

It is pathetic to have to enter ALL information up to 4-5 times.

The only "easy" way is to "duplicate album" but that is a very blunt instrument. The other option is to copy/paste rows. This is also a useless tool because it doesn't handle the information at track level!

I would like to be able to copy following information, AT TRACK LEVEL, in one move:

* Credits
* Musicians
* Notes
* Custom Fields

As I have requested A LOT in the past, and seen none of it being implemented, I don't have much hope on this one either. Maybe this one is "too difficult" to handle also ...

I would like to second this request. Either a way to "link" two (or more) tracks or even albums so that information entered in one place is reflected everywhere, or a way to one button copy information from one track or album to another would be a really useful feature for me.

I have an number of compilations that represent particular eras and/or genres of music, and this feature would save a great deal of time when entering the tracks that happen to be duplicates.

What I would propose is a button somewhere in the Track Properties dialog which would bring up a list of tracks by the same Artist. Select/OK or double-clicking a track copies the data from it, overwriting whatever is present. A button to load *all* tracks from the database (in case the Artist field differs or is empty) would be a nice touch. The reason not to load all tracks initially is to keep the number of choices manageable and to keep Orange from spending a great deal of time initializing the dialog when in most situations that effort would be wasted. Even cooler would be sorting the dialog so that tracks with a matching Title appeared at the top.

Thanks in advance if you can implement this.

So, basically, you want automatic (or semi-automatic) population of track data, based on information already in database?

This is interesting and probably not so hard to implement, but my concern that it's hard to verify accuracy of auto-populated data. If there's any error, you probably won't discover it until much later. Also not clear what to do if there's conflicting data in database - e.g. different credits on different albums (typos on covers, etc.) Still, I like the idea.

Andrei

Quote:

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Originally Posted by andrei_c

So, basically, you want automatic (or semi-automatic) population of track data, based on information already in database?

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I think that's accurate. What I'm asking for is the ability to copy the data that one would normally enter using the Track Properties dialog from one track to another. My proposal would go something like this:

1. Open Track Properties for track you want to fill (the 'copy to' track).
2. Click a button on one of the pages, or use some other means.
3. OrangeCD finds Tracks by the same artist and puts them in a dialog box similar to the 'Import from OrangeCD' dialog box that comes up when you want to import albums, except of course it would contain tracks and not albums.
4. User clicks on or otherwise selects a track (the 'copy from' track) and clicks OK.
5. Orange fills the 'copy to' track's record(s) with the data from the 'copy from' track's record(s).
6. Optionally, if this would overwrite data in the 'copy to' track, Orange could display a warning and offer a chance to abort.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by andrei_c

This is interesting and probably not so hard to implement, but my concern that it's hard to verify accuracy of auto-populated data. If there's any error, you probably won't discover it until much later. Also not clear what to do if there's conflicting data in database - e.g. different credits on different albums (typos on covers, etc.) Still, I like the idea.

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For whatever they're worth, here's my answers:

1. It's on the user of this feature to verify the accuracy of the source track, or to use its data as a starting point, making any necessary changes in the destination track (for example, if the destination track had an extra verse of lyrics, the user would have to edit that in using the regular methods). I can't see how OrangeCD could reasonably be expected to account for variations; that's got to be a user's job.
2. If OrangeCD cannot find a source track because there's a typo somewhere and the destination track's Artist or Title fields don't match, again, I see that as a user problem. About the only way around it would be some kind of SOUNDEX-type matching, and you generally see that capability only on server based databases (okay, and SQLite). To the best of my understanding, Orange uses proprietary and home grown database technology which may not offer this kind of support.

Hope that helps, and thanks for considering this idea.

Nice to see that someone other than me find these functions very useful.

First ... a note to BALOK!
Before you continue to hijack my post, i'd like to emphasize that there's a lot more to this than click on a button to "copy information between individual tracks" ..... wich seems like a bad idea.

Picture it this way:

1. In the content list to the left, you click on the desired artists name. All albums will then be visible in the main window.

2. Click on/mark the "source album" (the album containing ALL entered data).

3. In the Toolbar, choose Tools -> Copy Album Details

4. Mark the target album(s) [you can choose several albums by holding down the Ctrl-button on your keyboard]

5. Again, navigate to the Toolbar, choose Tools -> Paste Album Details


This goes for ALL composers, songwriters, band members, guests, production details, notes etc etc down to TRACK LEVEL.

After step 3, you can opt for a message box asking WHAT to copy (if not all). You can insert following actions:

[] All

[] Credits
[] Musicians
[] Notes
[] Custom Fields
[] Rating

As of today, I have several hundred albums just waiting for this to happen. I only fill out 1 album, the rest (of the "duplicates") I leave empty ....

There was no intention of "hijacking" your thread. I misunderstood what you wanted, and since I wanted the same thing, I felt that adding a new post to an existing thread was better than creating a new thread. Now andrei has both ideas and can decide what he wants to implement (if either).

And on a personal note: you should consider that the way you ask for things might have something to do with getting ignored. Were this my project, I would without hesitation ignore someone who asked for a feature in the rude way you did in post #1. It's pervaded by a sense of scorn for the product and a sense of entitlement for yourself.