[Vombatidae]

(This started in Tips & Tricks in an old thread, realized it really belongs here.)

Here is our scenario:

1. We have a .pdf library. Every song it has the filename <ID>_<Title>-<Inst>.pdf - for example, J01_NationalAnthem-Tuba.pdf 
2. We need a sub for a gig. They get a .zip file with just their parts needed for that gig.
3. We would LIKE to give them an .mss file with the setlist(s) (...and .4ss, but that's a different forum with different problems  )

...but we have no clue what the Title will be once they import it, since the guess name algorithm inserts spaces in ways that are tough to predict. I know, we could tell them to use "filename" instead of "guess", but that's prone to user error.

Any suggestions?

It would REALLY make my day if we could allow them to import the .zip in one step and pull out .pdfs, .mss file(s), and a metadata file that names the collection and sets the import option to filename to avoid the .mss Title problem. 

Thanks!

[Zubersoft]

I'll post the same response here:

I see you said in your other post that you can't use song ID. Then I don't really have a recommendation for you at the moment, because you are asking if setlists can be matched just on file names even though all the file names are different and include the instrument name. So I'm really not sure what you are asking me to do. The song versioning feature may solve this if you set up a central library correctly, but that is still a ways away I'm afraid.

You said you want a zip file - why can't you just export the setlist to .msf and have them import that .msf? That is the equivalent of a zip containing the pdfs, the song data, and the setlist information. If they are a MobileSheets user, then they wouldn't have to figure anything out. If they are a forScore user, then you are going to have to set up something different for them anyways.

Mike

[BRX]

You said you want a zip file - why can't you just export the setlist to .msf and have them import that .msf? That is the equivalent of a zip containing the pdfs, the song data, and the setlist information. If they are a MobileSheets user, then they wouldn't have to figure anything out. If they are a forScore user, then you are going to have to set up something different for them anyways.

I was going to write that, too.

[Vombatidae]

Thanks for the reply!

Our member and sub lists are about 50% Mobile sheets, 40% ForScore and 10% paper/other. (don't ask)

.zip works for all of those cases, but I'm trying to encourage people to move to MobileSheets since it's cross-platform and IMHO just plain better. One way to do that is to give them .mss files.

The .zip file creation process is automated - I wrote web tools that build the custom .zips from our .pdf library in cloud storage via S3. I have added code to generate the .mss xml on the fly for that setlist for that instrument based on the filenames. ...but this only works if they select "Use filenames" when importing the .pdfs and that seems to be too much for some of them. 

Most of the players already have 12 copies of "Fly Me to the Moon" (or whatever) in their collections, so we are trying to make our library very clear with our chart numbers and instruments to avoid the name duplication problem. You would be shocked how much of rehearsal is taken up with "Which Key?", "Niehaus or Nestico?", etc.

Hope that helps explain the situation.

[Zubersoft]

The one thing I'll say is that one the "Use filename" option is selected for determining the title, that selection is saved from that point on and always used as the default. So you just need to get those users to change it once...

Mike