Auto watch folder live update

[friso]

Scenario:
Onair station with PFOA
Plan system with PFOA

On the plan system requests are added for people calling the studio
Now i want that those songs are auto added to the current playlist of the DJ who is on air.
Like an auto watch\refresh playlist.

Is this possible.
We are making a request 48 hour marathon with requests for money.

Thanx

[radio42]

Yes and No.
Maybe not exactly as you described it, but maybe similar...

The issue with a two-sided 'request' system is, that the 'Plan PC' receives and edits the requests and maintains a list.
Once this list is 'transferred/loaded' by the 'OnAir PC' that list must be deleted in order to ensure, that the same entries are not loaded again.

So a two-way sync needs to be somehow done.
The playlist window itself doesn't contain such feature, but there are several options.

The first thing I must assume is, that both PC are using the exact same audio data and the paths to it.
At least they share and access the same media libraries (or use the same media library server).
This to ensure, that when a track (filepath or guid) is submitted to the other PC, those media entries can be loaded and accessed!

Further I assume, that the 'Plan PC' basically uses the Find Window to resolve the music requests and my be use a playlist window to which those requests tracks are finally added.

And your enabled on both PC the TCP/IP remoting server feature (see general settings, section 'GPIO').

The idea I have in mind is the following:
- the 'Plan PC' maintains a fixed playlist at a shared location, "E:\share\request.pfp"
- on the 'Plan PC' this playlist starts growing and after some time it should be submitted
- so it is saved to a file
- you created a custom user command button (see the User Commands window) which sends a command to the 'OnAir PC' to append that playlist file to its current playlist
- i.e. use the PLS_CURRENT_APPEND_PLAYLIST command
- once the user pressed the user command button the playlist entries might be removed (manuall task, e.g. CTRL+A to mark all and then SHIFT+Del to remove all entries
- now on the 'Plan PC' this playlist starts growing again...
- etc.

The main task is therefore to create the User Command button on the 'Plan PC' and assign the right command:
Sending control-commands to a remote PC is explained here: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=12

But in short the following should do the job:

Code: Select all

EXEC_SEND_TCP 192.168.1.17:8052|AUTHORIZATION password${CRLF}${CRLF}PLS_CURRENT_APPEND_PLAYLIST E:\share\request.pfp${CRLF}${CRLF}

Note, that you must replace the IP-address and port number as well as the password with YOUR respective values.

Let me know if that works for you.

[radio42]

Side note, if you work with different folder paths on both PC, but still access the same media libs, try to enable the following option on the 'OnAir PC' - general settings, section 'Playlist Settings' - 'Try to resolve Broken Playlist Entries via GUID'.
...just if you encounter any issues!

I just made a quick test here and it works quite well...it is not fully automatic, but quite good. And the sync is actually an active 'push' from the 'Plan PC'.
The only thing you really need to take care of is, that your on your 'Plan PC' you:
- save the request playlist before using the user command button
- remove all entries once done to ensure you do not re-submit the same entries again

Also note, that you can enable the following global history settings (on the 'Plan PC') in this scenario (general settings, section 'Scripts/Scheduler' - 'More Global History Options...'):
Consider manual added Tracks:
- Add to Global History : Always
- Check Global History : Always
- Check in Find Results: Perform Full Check
- Ask for detected Duplicates : checked
This way on your 'Plan PC' you have a duplicate check enabled for all manual tracks giving you a warning when adding duplicate requests....

[friso]

Bernd

Thanx for the excelent tutorial.
I think this will work. I use the same strategy to remote stop the streaming server on the non-stop system when i go live on my other system.

I will test it

Friso