# Can't point pointer at tag values or output buffers?

**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/cant-point-pointer-at-tag-values-or-output-buffers/69907
**Category:** Web Sources Discussion
**Created:** [September 30, 2025, 9:37pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/cant-point-pointer-at-tag-values-or-output-buffers/69907 "2025-09-30T21:37:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 3

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### Author: ![arb](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/41988e/32.png) [@arb](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/arb)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2025, 5:04pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/cant-point-pointer-at-tag-values-or-output-buffers/69907/3 "2025-10-03T17:04:12Z")

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Got it. Played around a lot more until I made better sense of things, then found this:

> [@An efficient method for assigning numeric inputs into %output%](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/an-efficient-method-for-assigning-numeric-inputs-into-output/63206):
>
> I had been working on a way to select/input cover size for an iTunes source script for quite some time; and with the new features of Mp3Tag v3.22+, I developed a method to do it (more or less). Since this method can work with any number, and I was unable to find any topic (other than my [own](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/suggestion-splice-command-for-ws/61854)) regarding this subject, I've created this topic to explain how I did it, so other authors can benefit from it. Until v3.22, there was only one field available for direct user input - [SearchBy]. With v3.22…

Finally found a command that can load whatever you want into the pointer:

> [@An efficient method for assigning numeric inputs into %output%](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/an-efficient-method-for-assigning-numeric-inputs-into-output/63206/1):
>
> First, we clear the current buffer; this can be achieved with a [regular expression](https://docs.mp3tag.de/regex/) (you may want to learn about those too) like
> 
> ```auto
> RegexpReplace "^.*" ""
> 
> ```
> 
> Next, we write a JSON-formatted array into the buffer; for efficiency, I'm adding this step into the previous one, like
> 
> ```auto
> RegexpReplace "^.*"
> 
> ```

BIG thanks to @rboss. I reattempted @anon40688970’s trick of a dummy parameter and got the whole thing working. I’ll post in the original TMDB thread with my version and any other findings in a day or so, working on stuff like a .settings file for storing the API key, language and tag mappings (prefer using %album% rather than %tvshow%).

I’d still vouch for a simpler way to point at things other than a website’s response; even though the point of a web source IS to look explicitly for new values, there’s sometimes only so much you can do with that given dataset.

Maybe a new command like `PointAt` that supports ID3 %placeholders% or output buffers from previous parser blocks to use as parameters or even save as tags at any part of the process…

Or a second prompt like `[SearchAlbumBy]` to let the user manually state more values after the first search phase to expand upon/combine results from the chosen results URL (seasons, episodes) or even during the search phase to carry values past it and straight into `[AlbumURL]`.

Also bigger thanks to @RobertM for getting the ball rolling 😀

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