ProppFrexx ONAIR User-Forum

I have a question regarding the software..

I want to run a specific program every day, that program needs to run a file from a certain folder, and that folder have for example 30 files which are numbered "001 , 002 , 003" etc'..

How or what is the feature in this software that make the program play one of these files everyday at a given time.. only skipping the one that played yesterday?

For example:

Sunday 8pm=001
Monday 8pm=002
Tuesday 8pm=003

I didn't quite get how the history check works, and if this is what i need.
Thank you!

I am not fully sure if I understand exactly what you try to achieve - so can you please try to clarify?
- Do you want to play a different file on each day of the week (kind of rotating all available files sequentially and then start all over again)?
- Do you want to assign a fixed filename to a certain date (e.g. 1st of the month = file 001, 2nd of the month = file 002, etc.)?
- Do you want to play a random file (out of the available), but only exclude/skip the file which was played yesterday?

There are several ways to achieve the one or the other option...and with some a history might be used and with other no history is needed at all.

In general:
A history is simply a collection of tracks.
When querying new tracks, the new tracks might be checked, if they exist in the history...and if...this picked track might be skipped and a new track might be picked instead.
There are 3 histories available:
1) a Media Library related history
2) a Script related history
3) a Global history
1 and 2 are working purely on 'filenames' - meaning they use a quick and fast check by simply comparing the filename.
A such, a track is skipped, if the exact same track (file) is picked again.
3 (the global history) works on much more attributes (see the general settings for details), ie.the filename, title, artist and album optionally using a relaxed or strict matching check.

In addition to the history, you have the following options:
- sequentially (instead of randomly) pick a track from a certain media library
- directly pick a file based on a certain marco value (e.g. convert a day of the week to a number and use that as the filename)

As such there might be various option to your requirement...but as I am not really sure about what exactly you want to do...it is a bit hard to advice the right one

Thank you for your reply

What I meant is this:

I have a folder that contains tracks with sequential titles like so: "001" "002" 003" etc' etc'

I want to create a daily show at a specific time, that will load that folder, and every day the script will play the next track, by skipping the one that was played yesterday.

So I need 001 to be played on Sunday, and 002 to be played on Monday and so on.

Basically a sequential play of the files in the folder, but each day the next file in the list, without me having to manually delete the last one.

How do I go about doing this?

Hope I was more clear
Thank you!

OKi,
you might do the following to achieve this:

- Create a folder-based media library (using the folder containing your entries)
- Set a media library history to a 'History' value of -1 !
(a value of -1 sets the song history to the total number of tracks minus one)
- Optionally set the 'Sorting' option to 'Filename (A to Z)'

Now create script with (at least) the following script-line:
- Sequential, YourMediaLib, Count=1, Options=SupressHistoryCheck+ForceLibraryHistoryCheck

This script-line will by default pick the tracks in sequential order - meaning each time a track is picked from your media library it is picking the 'next' entry and once all tracks have been used it starts back again at the beginning.
At this point not even a history would be needed! As the 'Sequential' action already ensures this!

The media library history is ONLY needed in case you start/stop ProppFrexx (or reboot your machine) in between.
In order to make the media history persistent, make sure to check the option 'Keep Song Histories Persistent' in the general settings, section 'Folders/Libraries'!
The -1 media library history value now ensures, that the history leaves exactly space for one entry not being contained in the history.
And the script-line option (SupressHistoryCheck+ForceLibraryHistoryCheck) ensures, that for this script-line effectively ONLY the media library history is used - but not any other history (e.g. the global history)!

This is from a previous post:

There are 3 histories available:
1) a history related to the media library
2) a history related to scripts
3) a global history
1 and 2 work purely on 'filenames' - meaning they do a quick and fast check by simply comparing the filename.
*****
My Question:
Can the history related to the media library and history to script also get the artist from the filename? Does it recognize e.g. Artist - Title? Or is there another way to definitely not get a repeat of artist when disabling the GLOBAL history.

No - this is incorrect! The history checks are not only based on file names!

See the general settings, section Logging/History and click on the 'More...' button and read the tool tips esp. press the '?' at the top right.
Or take a look to the tutorial video item #11 (viewtopic.php?t=1018)

Ok, yes we already do all this. See the above post from 2013. So that the History from the media library and the history on the script are based on the file name is no longer correct. See the above post. You indicated this at the time, but perhaps with older versions from 2013?
All history (script, media gallery and global) are always based on the settings: Settings and options: History/logging.
So from the moment you click on one of the 3 histories, it will always check for artist and title and others, e.g. album artist.

I am not sure I understand your question. In the above posts a user wanted to play tracks sequentially and probably did not even TAG the files, e.g. it would not even make much sense to perform a history check here? However...

It depends on how you set the "Use Extended History Check" options, which exists for the Global History (see above), the Script History (click on the 'Options' button next to the Script History count and the MediaLibrary History always uses the Extended Check).

However, every history check first checks, if the tracks is already directly contained in the history. And this check uses the "Trackname" to validate, if the track is directly contained in the history. The Trackname is by default the filename. When TAGs are present for the file, the "Artist - Title" is used to construct the Trackname. If no Tags are present in the file, the Artist and Title are guessed from the filename in the same pattern (Artist - Title).
Once it is validated, that the track is not directly contained in the history, the extended history check is performed.

Does that answer your question?

ok and this does every kind of history.
Both the 1. Global, the 2. Library and 3. the Script History.
Each of these 1 2 and 3 checks the file for title and artist and more.

It is mainly because we do supress History on the hooks. This cannot be otherwise, because otherwise the hook cannot play as a full track later. However, we do not want a repeat of an artist who also played as a hook and full HOOKQUE.
On the HOOK we now put Suppress History check and ForceLibary history check.
Is this enough that later the same artist can't play again as the HOOK and HOOKQUE.

I am not sure what you are looking for and why you need a media library history. But basically you set no restrictions on the first load of the tracks, ie. where you use the hook cue-points.

The with the HOOKQUEUE script-line you suppress any history check.