Linked (shortcut) directory support

[lexisdude 145]

All;

 

Really enjoy your product for the Win8 OS - - but I have noticed something which is very grevious in my personal usage of directories and media structure.

 

I have alot of shortcut directories nested in my media system.

 

MB for windows 7 or even earlier versions allowed for linked/shortcuts to remote directories - where I could have multiple NAS storage devices attached to my network, create a logical drive to these locations, and then add shortcuts to directories which housed in a main directory for a box set , or series. Once MB accessed these shortcut links to the directories, the data, pictures, and all other relevant files + the movie were made available to the server. It didnt care whether the directories were local, or if they were shortcut links.

In this build, the system identifies any files that are located in the local directory (backdrops and/or image files pertaining to the boxset) - but when it hits the links, it does not process them.

The system should be able to recognize the links/shortcuts as just another directory - as long as it is online/available - but it does not.

In the log window it hits the link/shortcut and suggests that it is unable to find linked item at z:\yada\dada
 

But it does seem to acknowledge the shortcut later in the log "debug, baseitem, found shortcut at z:\yada\dada"
 

--

 

it appears the system is looking for an item of value (a movie or item) rather than looking at the link as just a "follow to" .. I am sure that if I changed the link to have the movie instead of the directory it would hit and show up .. But this presents two problems for me..

The first, any metadata - trailers, screen art, etc - would have to be contained in the local directory , which would mean that there would be no specifics for any of the movies.. And two - it would use the same dvd icon for every movie, and the only way to tell them apart would be by the filename.

!!
 

Is there any way to get this corrected? Instead of it looking for files at the end of the rainbow, it just follows shortcuts blindly until it finds values that it needs to process whatever it finds?

Thanks!!
 

Edited January 7, 2014 by lexisdude

[Luke 42077]

shortcuts have to point to existing library items, with the path matching exactly. that's why we are seeing them but not matching them up. the wiki goes over this. you'll need to provide a log with concrete examples for additional explanation.

[ebr 16169]

In other words, you can't do it exactly like you did in MB2.

 

You may be able to accomplish the same thing, however, by using hard links instead of shortcuts.  That would handle it at the OS level and MB would see them simply as the pointers you wish.

[ebr 16169]

I meant symlink

 

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

 

[lexisdude 145]

Hnmm .. Well hardlinking from say z:\blah.avi to lets say g:\blah.avi is impossible (isn't it?) Since you are limited to the same drive ; rather than being able to use remote/local specs. I may be wrong on this, as my hardlinking experiences with windows is very limited. HOWEVER - by you suggesting that, I tried removing the shortcut links to the directories and created SYM links in place of them - and EUREKA, it worked. So while the program does not like shortcuts, it works perfectly when a symbolic link is created for the directory.

Thank you for the poke in the right direction.

[Koleckai Silvestri 1154]

I hardlink directories across multiple drives all the time.

 

My media directory is located on one drive location named \\Wayne-PC\Badger\Media. Its some of its sub-directories are on drives named Otter (television and music), Weasel (Movies) and Mink (Movies). I only point Media Browser to Badger\media though.

 

Do the same thing with large games like World of Warcraft. I have their assets on a data drive (Badger again) and hardlink from their installs on \\Wayne-Pc\System\games\

 

Type mklink /? at the command line for the help.