IDEA: Need an .MPCPL file editor

[skwire]

Okay, so let me give you the short version of the results. It works great! I'll admit it threw me for a moment when I loaded up an MPCPL file that used LABEL and SUBTITLE because each "line" is in a separate column. But admittedly, that probably makes it even easier to code. If the column is blank, you don't need to "write" that line to the final file. Very elegant.

-fdwojo (April 03, 2018, 03:17 PM)

Correct.  At first I was going to code it using a treeview but shifting lines in a listview is a lot easier than a treeview (with its parent and child components).

Now, being the kind of person that I am, I'd like to request one more feature. Is it possible to either allow creating new lines? Or better still, allow dragging and dropping media files into the window so that they simply get added in as lines (probably at the bottom of the list)? True, you'd (by default) only fill in TYPE and FILENAME, but that's okay. If I need to I could add the LABEL when necessary and/or add a SUBTITLE file if needed. Aside from that, it really works great!

-fdwojo (April 03, 2018, 03:17 PM)

This is already in my private build that I haven't uploaded yet because I'm not quite decided on how to handle things.  Here are some thought points:

• Do I restrict the dropped files to known media file types?  MP3, MP4, AVI, MKV, etc.  If so, who handles this list?  Me, internally?  The user?  What happens when a new format comes out? Either I have to create an update to add or the user has to remember to add the new extension to a list (probably would not happen).  Neither is an elegant. 
• Or, do I just go ahead and add anything the user drops and let them delete files they didn't intend?  This is probably the way I will go.  Basically, only the filename and type columns will get populated but you will be able to add label and/or subtitle data like you can now.
• Now...how to handle MPCPL files that are included in a group of media files?  Just skip?  Or, add the MPCPL contents to the list, too?

Oh, the joys of trying to predict and handle user interaction...so you want to be a programmer, eh?   

On a weird side note, I tried dragging a media file into the editor, and it DID give me the cursor with a (+) symbol beneath the arrow just like if I was dragging a file from one folder to another. But when I let go of the mouse button, nothing happened. I'm guessing that's only because of the window class that you used that the (+) sign got carried along.

-fdwojo (April 03, 2018, 03:17 PM)

Yep, right now it's coded to only process the first MPCPL file it sees out of whatever you drop.  I plan to change the code to process all MPCPL files that are dropped, adding all the contents to the list.

P.S. What caused the error, by the way?

-fdwojo (April 03, 2018, 03:17 PM)

I realised that I had forgotten to update the Help > Contents section so I quickly updated it and recompiled without testing it.  Unfortunately, I was missing an end parenthesis ")".  Boom.     Again, so you want to be a programmer?   

Oh, one more thing. I really like the fact that you provided an INI file, because I really wanted to put the LABEL column to the RIGHT of the FILENAME column, and I CAN!.

-fdwojo (April 03, 2018, 03:35 PM)

You can simply drag-and-drop the columns around and their order and width should be saved.  No need to manually edit the INI file.

I've tested it out on over a dozen (copies) of my MPCPL library, and no problems at all.

-fdwojo (April 03, 2018, 03:35 PM)

Awesome.  That's encouraging to hear at this early stage.

Oh, by the way, just for aesthetic purposes, you might want to make the "Save MPC Playlist" line instead say:

"Save MPC Playlist as"
That way it more closely indicates what it does, because the first time I saved it, I worried for a minute... "Is this going to overwrite the original?"

-fdwojo (April 03, 2018, 03:35 PM)

I actually waffled back and forth on this a bit.  I've added the "as" back in my build.

maybe make the CTRL-S key combo work for that? I mention that last because CTRL-O opens an MPCPL file, so CTRL-S would be a perfect match to it.

-fdwojo (April 03, 2018, 03:35 PM)

This was an oversight on my part and has been added to my build.

[skwire]

I've uploaded the v1.0.1 build with the following:

v1.0.1 - 2018-04-05
    + Added ability to handle multiple MPCPL files dropped on the form.
    + Non-MPCPL files get added to the list now as well.
    + Added "Always on Top" option to the View menu.

Get it here: http://www.dcmembers.../mpcpled/MPCPLed.zip

[fdwojo]

So, after an unforgivably long absence, I'm back again. And as I mentioned in my direct reply to you, Skwire, I did note that there was an updated version of MPCPLEditor which I now downloaded and tried out.

Sadly, things when from good to bad. Of course, I still have the old EXE that I can run and open MPCPL files just fine. However, with this new version (dated 04/05/2018), it won't open the MPCPL files. When I choose FILE -> OPEN, and then select the appropriate MPCPL file, the app briefly loses focus and then… nothing. Granted, I'm not any kind of a programmer, so I'm at a loss as to what's wrong. I thought originally that it might be because I've had my computer running continuously for the last week, and even though I've got lots and lots of RAM, HD space, and low CPU usage, I figured: What the heck, reboot the PC.

So I did that and tried the new MPCPLEd.exe. Same problem. The next step I tried was to temporarily disable ALL programs that start up on my PC automatically, no matter how unlikely it is and then reboot and try again.

So I did that, too, and when I open MPCPLEd.exe now, it *still* doesn't work. I guess I'll need to put the ball back in your court, Skwire. Please let me know how things go, and I'll keep in touch for the next week or so. I hope I can figure out what's not working.

If it helps, my system info is listed below my signature. And as I mentioned in the previous tests mentioned above, I rebooted with all off except for my Anti-Virus (Avast Premier). Also, with regards to the MPCPLEd.exe program I'm using, the HELP -> ABOUT screen shows the exact same for both versions. The only diff I can see is that on the older version, my screen handle is misspelled which helps me tell them apart because the are both the same "v1.0.1 build 1" and the two executables are slightly different sizes.

Thanks…

FDWojo

[skwire]

Should be fixed now:

v1.0.2 - 2018-10-11
    ! Files open via the File > Open method weren't parsed properly.  (Thanks, FDWojo)

Get it here: http://www.dcmembers.../mpcpled/MPCPLed.zip

[fdwojo]

Okay, Skwire, I'm not exactly sure of what you did, but you fixed it! It works, it can load AND OPEN the MPCPL files, and did several drag-and-dropped files (once with over 2 dozen at one drop!) and had no problems at all. Lastly, I went to save it and it saved without corrupting the information, and was able to be loaded into MEDIA PLAYER CLASSIC as smoothly as if it had been saved from MPC.

That was fabulously done. I'm going to see if I can find out if I can make sure the folks over at MPC that this tool is available. I'd imagine that I'm not the only one who could have used this.

Thank you again.

FDWojo