How to use a different album_path for compilations?

[ali-ramadhan]

I am trying to place compilations (and eventually soundtracks) in separate directories which in beets is achieved by conditioning the album path on the album type. I don't think this is currently possible with Moe but I'm wondering what features are needed to be able to do this.

Not sure how specifying different album paths under certain criteria should work. Can a plugin be used to do this? The beets approach of specifying conditional album paths in the configuration file seems fine to me but it might not necessarily be the best or most flexible.

The other missing piece is having the album type be a MetaAlbum and Album property which can be grabbed from Musicbrainz. This should be pretty straightforward to implement I think? Happy to give it a shot if so. It should then be easy to implement the functionality of the beets albumtypes plugin using Moe plugins.

[jtpavlock]

Could you give some examples of your desired end-result paths?

[jtpavlock]

If you're interested in implementing the new hook, it shouldn't be too hard and I can layout the steps if you like.

[ali-ramadhan]

Happy to give it a shot! Any tips on how to start would be great.

[jtpavlock]

Alright! I think the following steps should cover most of it, but don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions:

1. Create a new hookspec in the move_core.Hooks class (follow the create_path_template_func one as an example). I think the name should actually be override_album_path_config to be more explicit on what is being overriden.
   a. Try to include an example of how to use the hook in the docstring of the hookspec.
2. In test_move_core.py add a hook implementation to the MovePlugin class and then add a new test class for testing the hook itself. Testing should probably just call `fmt_item_path(album) and test the path is changed per the hook implementation you added.
3. In _fmt_album_path() you should execute the hook and see if there are any results before defaulting to the configuration setting. Running the hook is accomplished by calling config.CONFIG.pm.hook.override_album_path_config().
4. There should be some allusion to the new hook in the move.rst docs. Maybe we need some advanced configuration section that talks about creating a local plugin to implement one or both of create_path_template_func and override_album_path_config hooks linking to both. Not sure what the best approach is here, but whatever you think would be helpful for someone new going through the docs and trying to extend the functionality of their path templates.

(steps 2 and 3 can be swapped based on your preference of TDD)

[ali-ramadhan]

Sorry I haven't had a chance to give this a try yet, been busy with work and other obligations. Hoping to revisit when I have more free time some time in the next few weeks!

[jtpavlock]

No worries! Thanks for checking back in, I certainly understand how open source hobbies need to take a back seat to real life at times.

[ali-ramadhan]

Hey @jtpavlock! Taking another stab at music tagging so I'm revisiting this discussion after almost 2 years lol.

I'm thinking of opening a PR implementing your suggestion for an override_album_path_config hook (from your comment here: https://github.com/orgs/MoeMusic/discussions/231#discussioncomment-4069614).

Just feeling a bit rusty. Could you just remind/explain how this hook differs from create_path_template_func? Or do you think a different solution would be better now?

I know you explained the idea a bit more in https://github.com/orgs/MoeMusic/discussions/229#discussioncomment-4052613. Is the main idea that override_album_path_config would use a different _eval_path_template function that doesn't sanitize first (or at all)?

If it doesn't sanitize that might be good because sanitation could be manually invoked on e.g. artist names in case they have /?

[jtpavlock]

Welcome back @ali-ramadhan!

I honestly had to refresh myself as well on the ideas we talked about. It seems like you have it correct though i.e. the create_path_template_func provides access to functions that evaluate prior to path sanitization, so there's no ability to specify custom sub-directories within them as any '/' would get sanitized out, while the proposed override_album_path_config would allow the user to provide different path templates entirely based on custom logic.

So I think it should work something like this:

In your plugin:

@moe.hookimpl
def override_album_path_config(album):
   if album is soundtrack:
      return "Soundtracks/{album.artist}/{album.title}"  <--- path template format string
   else:
      return "Albums/{album.artist}/{album.title}"  <--- different path template format string

Then in moe, in move_core.fmt_item_path, call the hook, and change the album item_path to call _eval_path_template on either the configuration value, or the returned path string from the override_album_path_config if it exists.

Let me know if you think this would work or if you have other ideas.