Global History Issue

You have a question or need an advice about how to do something? Ask it here!
Post Reply
bebo_saed
Posts: 87
Joined: 16 Sep 2012 20:54
Global History Issue

Post by bebo_saed »

Hi Bernd,

I'm having a very strange issue that i want to share it with you and take your advice with the global history settings

i've made my script with different lines in it as to take 2 songs from a certain library for each line with a certain parameters as by genres or by rate etc.

i've set my global history settings to assure that no song of the same artist, title or album will enter my playlist within an hour or at least 20 songs also i've made my global history track record up to 100 song, also made the library history value 50 and the script history value is 50.

however all of this settings are set i'm still having a problem in scheduler automation mode is that the songs doesn't obey any of this rules, i can see some times that the same song of the same title and artist is picked and played sequently one after another!!!

please could you give me the clue as what is the different between global history, script history and library history settings? and why i'm having duplicates in my playlist although all of this settings are set?

Thanks in Advance
bebo_saed
Posts: 87
Joined: 16 Sep 2012 20:54
Re: Global History Issue

Post by bebo_saed »

Bernd, as i said before you are Genius, i couldn't have a better help on this issue, thank you very much for your detailed answer and i'll check back my media libraries i was sure that fault was mine cause i have a very big trust in PFOA :)
User avatar
radio42
Site Admin
Posts: 8295
Joined: 05 Apr 2012 16:26
Location: Hamburg, Germany
Contact:
Re: Global History Issue

Post by radio42 »

One questions first:
- How 'large' are your media libraries (how many tracks do they contain).

Now to your issues/questions:

The different histories work independent from each other.
The media history works only based on duplicate filenames resp. tracknames.
The global history as well as the script history however offers more smart and advanced checks, i.e. artist, album, title checks (either strict or relaxed incl. cross-checks).

When new tracks are to be scheduled from within a script all these histories (if set and defined) are checked (independenty).
However, depending on your media libraries (size) and your script rules (filters) it might be the case, that theoretically a script-line could NOT be resolved!
This can happen in the following cases:
- no track in the media library is matching your script rule (filter)
- all tracks matching your filter fails the history check (ie. they are already contained within any of the defined histories)
This means either a non matching track or a track which violates the history check is taken regardless.

Let me give you a small example to make this clear:
Assume one of your media libraries (which you are using in a script) only contains 20 tracks.
Your media history is set to 15 tracks and is already 'filled' - meaning only 5 tracks are theoretically 'valid'.
In addition your global history is defined to contain another 50 tracks and is also 'filled'.
It might now be the case, that exactly the 5 remaining 'valid' media library tracks are also 'contained' in your global history.
Note that a tracks might be considered 'contained' within the gloabl history, if it has the same artist, album or title!
At the time when the resp. script-line is executed to schedule new tracks from that media library, you might now end up with a scenario, that finally NO track is 'valid'.

The scenario gets more complex (but also easier to reach) if you are using script-line filters!
E.g. even if your media library contains hundred of tracks, by using a script-line filter you limit the result down to a few tracks only...which now have to pass the history checks.

What to do in such a case?
There are 2 theoretical possibilities ProppFrexx could do in such scenario:
a) the resp. script-line could be skipped (as no 'valid' track could be resolved)
b) the resp. script-line rules might be ignored and a track is taken which 'violates' the rules (history and/or filter)

ProppFrexx is doing a) by default, unless you specify the 'UseLastTrackOnFinalFail' script option!

Caution:
- it might be, that ALL your script-lines are invalid and be skipped, this ends-up in NO tracks being scheduled anymore - the script is kind of 'dead'

So what to do in your case?!

a) In general it is a good advice to NOT use any media and script histories if you are using the global history (as the increase the chance to end up with the above described scenario).
There are only a very few scenarios where you might want to use a media library history (e.g. if you explicitly excluded a certain media type from your global history check and a cetain media library only contains these media types, for example a 'StationLogo' lib).

b) Make sure your script-line filter (where you limit your tracks by genre or rating) results in a sufficient number of 'valid' tracks.
As a rule of thumb you can say, that your filter should result in more tracks than your global history (note, that you might test the filter result directly from within the script editor).
If this is not the case, try to reduce the size of your global history or increase the size of your media library.
If this is not possible, you might consider using the 'SupressHistoryCheck' script-line option and instead use a moderate media history size.

c) Your media libraries should contain more tracks than your global history.
If this is not the case, you might consider using the 'SupressHistoryCheck' script-line option whenever using such media library and instead use a moderate media history size.
If this is not possible, try to reduce the size of your global history or increase the size of your media library.

As a final note: You can monitor and look at your current global history entries from within the 'Tools' ribbon tab.
So in case you discover duplicate artists or tracks being scheduled, take a look at your history entries... so far I have not discovered any issues with the internal history check logic and in really ALL reported cases it was simply a result of the above described 'deadlock' scenario (where all 'valid' tracks are already contained within your history), and as such finally the script-line took precedence of the defined rules and a 'duplicate' track must be taken!
User avatar
radio42
Site Admin
Posts: 8295
Joined: 05 Apr 2012 16:26
Location: Hamburg, Germany
Contact:
Re: Global History Issue

Post by radio42 »

It is not a general fault on your side!
It is just a tricky circumstance how ProppFrexx handles the histories and the theoretical possibility to 'shoot yourself into the foot' with the various options and settings.
That's why I believe it is important to fully describe this behaviour here ;-)

Post Reply