Yate has always had an Import and Export capability. The issue with this legacy functionality is that at least one plist file is required for for each audio file. While common files such as artwork items are shared, a number of files are still required to archive a folder.
This set of actions implement a single archive file based on the earlier functionality. Yate metadata archives have a yatearchive filename extension. If a file of the type is opened in the Finder, a summary of the archive's contents are displayed in a database window. If you right click on the archive's name in the database window you will see the full path to the yatearchive file. The path to the archive is also displayed on the database viewer's status bar.
The actions can be installed or updated via the Help menu's Install Metadata Archive Actions item. These actions are automatically called by the items on the File menu's Import/Export Import from Archives and Export to Archives submenus. If you invoke one of these items and the actions are missing or outdated, you will be prompted to install or update the actions. The actions can also be accessed via the batch processor. When run through the batch processor, the actions run silent but may display additional information in the produced log file if Verbose has been specified in the UI.
The actions to UI mappings are as follows:
| Action Name | UI |
|---|---|
| Export Metadata to Folder Archives | File>Import/Export>Export to Archives>Folder Archives |
| Export Metadata to Selected Archive | File>Import/Export>Export to Archives>Selected Archive |
| Import Metadata from Folder Archives | File>Import/Export>Import from Archive>Folder Archives |
| Import Metadata from Specified Archive | File>Import/Export>Import from Archive>Specified Archive |
| Expand or Show Metadata Archive | When a yatearchive file is opened by any other functionality, the action is called. In these cases, Yate initializes the named variables required by the action before calling it. |
As many files as desired can be selected. The action processes each represented folder separately. A file named Metadata Archive.yatearchive will be created in each folder.
A test is performed to determine if all audio files in the folder are currently selected. If not, you are given the option of including the missing files. If you elect to include missing files, a loaded (but unselected) copy will be used. If a missing file is not already loaded it will be dynamically loaded.
As many files as desired can be selected. You are prompted for the name of an archive file. The following logic is performed for each folder. Every selected file will be archived.
As many files as desired can be selected. There may be less or more files selected than are in the archive. The action processes each represented folder separately. The import process starts for a given folder if it contains a Metadata Archive.yatearchive file. If the file does not exist and you are not running in the batch processor, you will be prompted to select an archive file.
For each folder, once an archive has been located, the process proceeds as follows:
Note that when an archive contains multiple items with the same filename, an auto import will never occur. Further, files will not have Import pre-selected.
As many files as desired can be selected. You are prompted to select an archive file.
The rules for automatically importing and the potentially displayed mappings are the same as in Importing from Folder Archives.
When batch processing, the actions are run silent and do not display anything in the UI. Typically the Specified Archive actions will fail if called when batch processing. You can get around this restriction by setting named variable Archive Path to the full path of an archive file to be used before calling one of these variants.
Actions:
Folder: Metadata Archives
Expand or Show Metadata Archive
Export Metadata to Archive
Export Metadata to Folder Archives
Export Metadata to Specified Archive
Import Metadata from Archive
Import Metadata from Folder Archives
Import Metadata from Specified Archive
Export Sets:
Metadata Archive Columns
Requirements:
Yate v6.19
History:
| Date | Version | Information |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-04-03 | v1.0 | First release. |