One feature which I had really hoped would show up in 2.0b3, but doesn't look like it did (unless there is a secret key combo someone can tell me about or something)...is the ability to copy a playlist into another playlist...and have it automatically copy all sub-playlists as well..

For example, I have my artists sorted by artist/album (as most people do). Let's say I want to create a playlist of my favorite albums. If I copy an artist playlist...it shows up as a copy, but the thing is...what is inside it is an album playlist which is the same one as the original (not a copy). What this means is that if I were to remove a song from one of my favorite albums...it would also dissappear in the main artist/album playlist. I can understand that some people want it this way, but it would be nice if there was an option command or something whereby when I copy and paste a playlist I can choose to have it recursively copy all underlying tunes. I guess the possibility is there for an endless loop...and I'm not sure how to get around that...but there must be a way..

-steve

Greetings!

Uh, drag and drop... Hold the control key (I think) down, and you will copy the list. Just like Windows Explorer...

Nah. That won't do it. I think that what's needed is a deep-copy. See http://www.differentpla.net/~roger/empeg/car/v2/shallow_vs_deep_copy.html for some random musings on the subject.

If you create new album playlists with the same name, and copy the songs into them (instead of copying the playlists themselves), then it will do what you're asking.

Hey Tony.

Sure, that is currently the way around this problem, but that can get a pretty frustrating task when you want to copy multiple playlists. Like my favourite albums playlist, it contains about 30 albums, which I needed to create like you said.
It would have been more consistent with Windows interfaces if "Copy" really created a copy of an item. So if I have two playlists A and B, with A containing references to D, E and F, and I copy A to be, this should result in B containing a new playlist (X) that contains references to D, E and F if those are songs, or copies of those playlists (recursing as necessary).
The current behavious is more a "create link here" (actually, it is _exactly_ that). The shallow copy Roger spoke of would be the creation of an exact copy of playlist A (in the above scenario, a playlist X containing references to D, E and F, _not_ recursing into sub-playlists).
I really wonder why emplode still doesn't allow either type of copy (be it shallow or deep) yet. That feature was requested on and off since I first visited this BBS. I don't mind emplode keeping it's default behaviour as-is though, just wished a CTRL-dragNdrop would do a real copy.

cu,
sven

I think you are misunderstanding the request...

If I drag a folder from one place to another in windows explorer.... It will either be moved or copied. And in either case....the files and folders within it are moved or copied as well...

However....in Emplode..if you drag a folder from one location to another and say COPY...then what actually happens is that only the folder gets copied.. In effect what happens is you create the same thing as a windows shortcut in the destination location. Both the original and the copy both reference the same folder. So... if you then add a tune to the destination folder...the added tune also shows up in the original one. This call all be explained in how it works, but its counterintuitive that they call it "copy" when really what it is doing is creating a shortcut....and...there is no way for me to copy (including the contents).

The shift key is used to multi-select items. So I could select two folders that way...or two tunes...or more... But what I am wanting to do is to copy a folder and have all of its contents automatically get copied along with it....

yes of course it will...and I'm midway through doing that already. But what Pain to hand define 200+ favorite albums! It would be a lot easier if there was a simple way to drag and drop the folders I want and have them copied...

I think it would be more intuitive to call the normal operation that happens now "Create shortcut" or something. In windows, if you right-click-drag anything in explorer...you get several options... (Move, copy, create shortcut, cancel). In emplode you get (Move, copy, cancel)...but it turns out that Emplodes idea of copy is really the same as windows idea of "create shortcut".

And by the way, to be clear...if the Empeg had a so called "deep copy", then I don't think it should actually make a second copy of the underlying MP3 file. It should make a copy of the reference to the MP3 file...just as if I had dragged and dropped the Tunes themselves and selected "copy" from the pop up menu...

Essentially...deep copy should do something very similar to what happens now...create a shortcut of the item being copied...but...don't stop at the top item....recursively go down the tree and make shortcut-copies of everything below it...including new shortcuts for the tunes at the bottom of the tree...

You still just want one copy of the song on the player... But if I want to copy a folder tree (and all of its underlying folders and tunes) to a new location...I want to actually COPY those shortcuts...not just create a shortcut to the top level folder that basically references to same tree from the next level down.

And actually, the more I think about it...EVERYTHING in the playlist view is actually a shortcut.. The Soups view has the real MP3 tunes reference. If you delete it there...then its really gone. But in the playlist view....everything is a shortcut(or alias or symbolic link or whatever you wanna call it).. So therefore..the windows analogy makes sense. If you COPY a folder...it should copy everything underneath it as well...as a second set of shortcuts..(where the 2nd set of folder-shortcuts are relative so that they point to their own tree and not to the origination tree) and the tune short cuts get copied outright. And if you want to do what Emplode currently does...you should have something that says "create shortcut" instead of "copy" that actually just copies the playlist in question, having it reference the same set of underlying folders or tunes as the origination playlist...

Well I just got done manually creating playlists for all the favorite albums...it took me 3 hours...what a pain. I did several hundred albums. I sure wish there was a real "deep copy" ability.