Add Time of Year Media Folders to Library

[cypher0117 4]

Right now I have a cron task running on my server to move over movies/tv shows that are holiday related into my current media folders.  I did try symbolic links but Emby didn't seem to want to play those, so I'm literally moving files from folder to folder.   It would be nice to have a feature built into Emby that allowed you to add a "time based" folder to your library and have Emby just add it when the time comes.  This would eliminate moving of files on the hard drives periodically throughout the year.

[Luke 37262]

Hi, so you're saying you want them completely gone the rest of the year?

[cypher0117 4]

That is correct.  There are things that my family for sure watches during the holidays but would never touch in the middle of summer.  It would be neat if this hypothetical folder would also put this media in the "recently added" section regardless of the timestamp it was actually added to the hard drive as well.

[yaksplat 58]

I make playlists for each holiday.  Would that not suffice?

[Guest]

Really though it is best per design of user/usage scenario.. as each library and its contents are added.. IMO..

Or why not make a Seasonal Collection...

Creating those folders just means that in order for that to work.. you will have to rescan your library... and then add a separate library for those files.. A Collection named or created for whatever purpose can be created from the existing.. and without duplicating files... they can search the entire collection of videos using genres so on.. or use Collections... while maintaining your physical archive remains in place as well as your library for emby..

You could also use genre tags and make them disappear by disabling access to a certain genre per user. ( in the metadata of the file )

I see your usage scenario.. Like unpacking the decorations and putting the Christmas Movies on the shelf with the others ones.. as they go back in the box when it all comes down.. and could get added to during the season... sort of different..

Adding the new folder would actually allow you to turn it off and on each holiday as a Library.. therefore giving a complete line of new 'Latest Holiday Movies' library shown on the front page.

You can also list by release date as well BTW.. just a heads up..

and a few thoughts

Edited March 17, 2021 by Guest

[ebr 14959]

20 hours ago, cypher0117 said:

There are things that my family for sure watches during the holidays but would never touch in the middle of summer.

So, couldn't you just put all of them in their own library and add/remove access to it as desired?

[cypher0117 4]

1 minute ago, ebr said:

So, couldn't you just put all of them in their own library and add/remove access to it as desired?

I can, and that is probably the desired approach rather than putting them in my current libraries.  Making that automated, or giving the option to make it automated, would be nice, though I'm not sure how complicated that would be to accomplish.  Maybe it could be a library type, instead of "movies" or "tv shows", it could be a "seasonal" type that gives you the option to grant/remove user access at whatever defined points throughout the year.

[ebr 14959]

I think you will eventually be able to achieve what you want - without moving files around - with:

 

[cypher0117 4]

Will this be pulled into Emby at some point?  I was able to install the plugin, but haven't successfully added anything to a smart playlist yet.  Not sure if it's because it was last built for 4.3.1? 

While this does help consolidate all different types of media into a collection, there would still be admin intervention to share/remove access at certain points of the year.  I dug around in the Scripter-X plugin as well, but didn't see any options to add/remove user access to the smart playlist. 

All things considered, I think what I really want is for Emby to automate sharing/revoking access to certain libraries/playlists under user-defined conditions.  These user-defined conditions could be date/time, or maybe even have certain libraries shared for local connection only - meaning the same user when connected remotely, doesn't have access to certain libraries.  I'm not entirely sure all the use cases that could be defined to make a feature like this more versatile and not just specific to my use case.

edit: I did think of a potential use case for conditional library access.  Say for instance you have a large music library that is entirely flac/HD audio.  Say that user could have a duplicate library where the files are smaller mp3.  You could have Emby conditionally share to that user the flac, while local, and the mp3 library when connected remotely.  This could be useful since I don't think you could set the bandwidth low enough to force Emby to transcode the flac to a less bandwidth heavy format, while still allowing movie stream capability. 

Edited March 17, 2021 by cypher0117

[laie_techie 12]

On 3/17/2021 at 5:18 AM, Hxemby001 said:

Really though it is best per design of user/usage scenario.. as each library and its contents are added.. IMO..

Or why not make a Seasonal Collection...

Creating those folders just means that in order for that to work.. you will have to rescan your library... and then add a separate library for those files.. A Collection named or created for whatever purpose can be created from the existing.. and without duplicating files... they can search the entire collection of videos using genres so on.. or use Collections... while maintaining your physical archive remains in place as well as your library for emby..

You could also use genre tags and make them disappear by disabling access to a certain genre per user. ( in the metadata of the file )

I see your usage scenario.. Like unpacking the decorations and putting the Christmas Movies on the shelf with the others ones.. as they go back in the box when it all comes down.. and could get added to during the season... sort of different..

Adding the new folder would actually allow you to turn it off and on each holiday as a Library.. therefore giving a complete line of new 'Latest Holiday Movies' library shown on the front page.

You can also list by release date as well BTW.. just a heads up..

and a few thoughts

I create holiday based libraries (Christmas Movies, Christmas TV, Christmas Music, Halloween TV, etc).  Using simple collections means these seasonal media would be visible in others places outside the collection. It would be nice to highlight a collection based on calendar date.