[sciurius]

Something that would be nice to agree upon: sub-separators. For example, a song can have multiple composers, keys, signatures, collections, etc..
There's an (informal) advice to use semicolon to separate the fields (because of commas in page ranges), how about an (informal) advice to use a vertical bar to separate subfields? Bonus points for a space-surrounded bar .

Code:

title;pages;keys;composers;year;signatures;collections;source types;genres
Sunday;9;Bb;Chester Conn|Benny Kreuger|Jule Styne;1926;4/4;The Firehouse Jazz Band Fake Book;Sheet Music;Jazz
Bill Bailey, Won't You Please;10-11;F;Hughie Cannon;1902;4/4;The Firehouse Jazz Band Fake Book;Sheet Music;Jazz

[itsme]

Filename:
We are not the first with the idea of including the filename:
http://www.skrivarna.com/2014/02/automat...books.html
both absolute and relative paths should be possible
and the secondline should contain the column headers
Sub-separators:
separating sub-fields is a great idea, I also vote for a "space surrounded bar" : " | "
PageOrder:
it should be possible to put the content of the PageOrder column directly into MSP

[BRX]

I'm considering it just from the perspective of the "datatypist" now.

Currently I'm still ambitious and want to add as much metadata I can retrieve from the displayed song or elsewhere (so composers, tempos, year and so on). I'm sure that will dwindle, but for now I'm hacking it in (10 finger typing).

For such bulk editing I really dislike the "|" for a sub separator. It's just not that accessible for typing and I much prefer the ";" as I wrote about it in another post already referencing Calibre and Mediamonkey for the same handling.

Maybe the parser can be flexible for the subseparators too? Define it in the CSV somehow if it's a "|", a ";" or whatever else? (of course it can't be the same as the field separator).

[sciurius]

You quickly run out of available symbols. If you use semicolon for subfield separator, what would you use for field separator? Note that using a comma may imply you have to quote certain page ranges.
Although I must admit that far most page ranges will not have commas...
And of course there are ways to trick the definition of a subfield char in the file.

[sciurius]

Some strange things happen...

I've added some fields to the csv: collections, genres and source types. I then imported it into MSPro.
The (new) collection contains all the imported songs. Good.
When I select one of the imported songs from the songs list (long press), and press "edit song" I see the Fields tab, that has all the metadata except for collections. At the Files tab, the PDF and page range is shown.
Back to the main screen.
When I select the collection, and then select (long press) a song, and press "edit song" I see no files. At the Fields tab, there are no fields.

Exit MSPro, restart.
All songs are still there, but the collection is now empty.

Mike, any progress on this one?

[sciurius]

Some strange things happen...

I've added some fields to the csv: collections, genres and source types. I then imported it into MSPro.
The (new) collection contains all the imported songs. Good.
When I select one of the imported songs from the songs list (long press), and press "edit song" I see the Fields tab, that has all the metadata except for collections. At the Files tab, the PDF and page range is shown.
Back to the main screen.
When I select the collection, and then select (long press) a song, and press "edit song" I see no files. At the Fields tab, there are no fields.

Exit MSPro, restart.
All songs are still there, but the collection is now empty.

Mike, any progress on this one?

Ping.

[Zubersoft]

Is this not fixed? I could have sworn I addressed this bug. If I didn't, I'll make sure it gets fixed ASAP.

[itsme]

There's a recent post that looks like reporting the same issue:
http://zubersoft.com/mobilesheets/forum/...p?tid=3317

[sciurius]

The problem definitely exists in 1.4.0.

[Zubersoft]

This will finally be fixed in v1.4.3 - sorry I didn't address it sooner.

[sciurius]

Looking forward to it, thanks!

[sciurius]

Confirmed: It mostly works now.
Mostly -- there's still a small buglet.
When importing a CSV/PDF with songs that go into a new collection, this collection is added to the list of collections. However, the pick list for the collections selector does not include the new collection. A restart of MSPro fixes this, so I guess it's a minor detail.

[Zubersoft]

I've got a fix in place for that now - didn't even think about needing to update the dropdown. Thanks!

Mike

[ilacad.erik]

I'm going to post it here since my concern is about CSVs.

I have a book with a corresponding CSV file. Let's name it BOOK.pdf and BOOK.csv

Here's my normal procedure:
1. I have both files in Dropbox. But I use the MobileSheetsPro Companion to copy the PDF to the device.
2. After copying, I go back to the tablet, then Import > CSV or PDF bookmarks. Select my CSV file from my Dropbox Account.
There will be an error message: "Matching PDF not found for BOOK.csv", though the file is already in MSP.

Then, I realize that the CSV should probably in the same folder as the PDF before import. So I exit the app, go to my Dropbox app, download the CSV file, go to my File Explorer app to transfer the CSV file from the Downloads to the Book folder in the MSP tree (making it stay with the BOOK.pdf file). Then I repeat the CSV import process again but this time from that specific folder, and it works fine now.

Is this really the procedure? It's ok for one or two books but I will be importing more than 50 books, each with their own corresponding CSV files. Can someone suggest a better procedure?

Thanks, guys!

PS
I know that I can import the PDF straight from Dropbox, but it takes longer compared to the Sync to PC method. (Average size of the books is 50MB, and I don't want to consume a lot of bandwidth importing them using Dropbox.)

[itsme]

I use a separate folder on the tablet's SDcard that contains just the fakebooks and their CSVs. I copy directly from the PC to the tablet using TotalCommander for Android with its extension TotalCmd-LAN. This uses only my local WLAN, no internet connection is required. The folder on the PC has to be shared (SMB).