[Petra-Kathi]

Hello @all,

after i create a snippet - which is according to the manual derived new song: Where do I find it in the file system?

I do understand that all annotations and further properties are related to a "song document" by respective data tables instead of creating new files. But as the new snippet is, at least in my understanding, a new song that is derived, but not identical, to the old one I would expect a new document to be created accordingly, administering its own set of properties and annotations independently from the original source.

In addition it would help and streamline the process of snippet creation significantly, imho, if the new song/snippet title would be algorithmically derived from the old file name, like attaching a "-sn4" to a newly created filename's basename for the 4th snippet derived from the original one.

Kind regards,
Petra

[Zubersoft]

A snippet is designed to use the original file and not to generate a new one. This is desired when working with a large fakebook with hundreds of pages so that a duplicate file is not generated. While I could generate a new file that uses only the pages specified by the snippet, that would also use disk space which may not always be desired. In order to support having a separate file generated, I would need to add a new setting to control this. 

I don't track the relationships between snippets and the original song they were created from, so it would be difficult to append something to the name like you are describing, as I don't have a way of counting how many snippets may have been created. If there is some other pattern you think would be helpful, I can certainly look into changing it to that.

Mike

[Petra-Kathi]

Hi Mike,

thanks for the fast and detailed answer!

I do understand the argument about the large fakebooks. But from an "object" oriented perspective I am still wondering, what a snippet is in the end if it is not a (split-off) object of its own, since it will start to diverge from the main underlying base file with every change that is performed relative to another, potentially parallel snippet path that evolves separately.

But maybe those snippets aren't what I really want to create after all in my striving to get a peaceful co-existence of files on my main comp and the tablet display variants. Since my exploring the ropes is still ongoing, please do not feel rushed into developing something new at this point.

This brings me to another question, though: What happens if I do not ask MS to take over the base pdf file administration but tell to use an existing file hierarchy, and I replace this file with a newly uploaded version with changed contents?

Cheers,
Petra

[Zubersoft]

A snippet is nothing more than a new song that adds the same file that was being used by the source song with a different page range. That is basically how it is implemented in the code.

If you replace an existing file that is used by a song, MobileSheetsPro will detect this, scan the file to see if anything has changed such as the number of pages, and if so, account for those modifications. It will display the new file without any problems though.

Mike

[Petra-Kathi]

Hmm.

My typical use cases:

# implement hand-written annotations to some songs by MuseScore and re-export the "refurbished" sheets again to the tablet. => will both kinds of annotations be shown then: the manual ones and the re-done ones by my MuseScore editing? It may presumably happen that the system lines will appear with a slightly changed setting on the pages due to the introduction of further "printed" remarks.

# When I rework some pieces I'll certainly linearize them as well, as this feature is now available in the MuseScore 3.x series (opposite to the 2.x ones) and is the best fit for the linearized scrolling on the tablet. If I re-transmit them to the tablet under the same name as before, will the snippets be confused by the completely changed page layout?

Kind regards, and thanks for the continued explanation efforts!  :-)

Petra

[Zubersoft]

Yes, both annotations would be shown if you replaced the file after exporting from MuseScore (assuming you mean annotations created in MobileSheetsPro when you say "manual ones"). 

If the number of pages changes, or content moves from one page to another, then yes, the snippets may become invalid. If they reference invalid pages, MobileSheetsPro will adjust for this and clamp them to the last page found. Otherwise they may just reference the wrong page range. It all depends upon the modifications you are making to the file.

Mike

[Petra-Kathi]

In the meantime I entered the realm of "PC oriented scores administration and distribution"  

And I guess the best approach for me and my usage variant is the following one:

I administer my different genre and group scores with respective hard links (on Linux) on the PC, and export the respective PDF exports from the highly structured file system on the PC to respective flat subdirectories for playgroups on the tablet.

If I annotate a file on the tablet during a music session I fetch it back to the PC after the session into the respective deep file hierarchy, to keep track and to have it there for re-working MuseScore files appropriately.

After revisiting/adapting the PC file the new PDF is exported once again to the respective directory on the tablet with a slightly modified name, like Piece(1).pdf. As this filename isn't yet known to MSP, re-importing it and getting rid of the old version is a quick effort, thus avoiding confusion of annotations at the wrong place, etc.

Cheers,
Petra