Make the output of audio files appear chronologically with Tools

[Sergius]

Hello friends, I am writing to you about 5 audio files that I program every week for the radio from Monday to Friday

Here are the names of the 5 audio files: I program in Mp3tag a different date per audio file, from Monday to Friday

The Mp3tag program places the 5 audio files in chronological order

E003a.mp3
E003b.mp3
E003c.mp3
E003d.mp3
E003e.mp3

When I click on the Tools CRTL+2, to display my 5 audio files on the screen with BSI Info Editor (Tags), to see if my dates have been written correctly, the 5 audio files appear one on top of the other, it's perfect...

It doesn't appear in chronological order, it's always mixed up, it can appear like this:

E003b.mp3
E003d.mp3
E003a.mp3
E003c.mp3
E003e.mp3

Here is how the Tools was programmed:

Name: Start BSI InfoEdit with the selected file (CTRL+2)
Path: C:\BSI32\InfoEdit.exe
Parameter: "%_path%"

With Parameter: Can I program the output of files in chronological order?

[Reason]

@Sergius

BSI Info Editor

My first thought is that BSIIE isn't sorting by name. Is that configurable?

[LyricsLover]

@Sergius

It doesn't appear in chronological order, it's always mixed up, it can appear like this:

You can try to click at the column header Name in "BSI Info Editor" to sort the content in ascending or descending sort order:

It seems that you have to repeat that column click every time you change the list with music files. "BSI Info Editor" seems not to sort new items automatically according the visible little arrow (up or down).

BTW:
If think you mean "alphabetically" in your example, not "chronologically"?
Do you want to sort your 5 files by file name (alphabetically) or by file date or any other date inside your tracks (chronologically, by time)?

[LyricsLover]

@Sergius

With Parameter: Can I program the output of files in chronological order?

The %_path% parameter is passing the content (the file name with path) in the same sort order as you call it from Mp3tag. It does not change the current sort order choosen in Mp3tag during the transfer.

But Mp3tag has no control how the target software - in this case BSI-Info Editor - shows the given filenames.

[ohrenkino]

@LyricsLover

But Mp3tag has no control how the target software - in this case BSI-Info Editor - shows the given filenames.

There are a number of threads that deal with external storages for car stereos where some of these devices seem to have problems with any actual metadata so the order from the FAT is taken.
See e.g. here:

Need Help Saving Changed order for car USB

This tool claims to be able to manage the sort order for such car audio players and on USB sticks formatted in FAT12, FAT16 or FAT32:

So it could be necessary to sort the directory first.
Alternatively, it may be ncessary to delete the old files first and write the new names to get them into the correct order.
But all these are problems that can only be solved locally by trial and error.

[Sergius]

Yes thanks for the correction @LyricsLover, I meant "in alphabetical order"

Hello @Reason, your question is relevant: The way the Tools is programmed, it opens 5 independent windows of BSI Info Editor, for the 5 files that I modified...

Thanks LyricsLover, for your research and your excellent explanations...

Thanks @ohrenkino, for your intervention on a writing of LyricsLover, which I find very interesting...
This tool claims to be able to manage the sort order for such car audio players and on USB sticks formatted in FAT12, FAT16 or FAT32:,,,

LyricsLover, your image of BSI Info Editor gives me an idea, it would be simpler for me, is it possible, to open a single window of BSI Info Editor with the Tools, which would include my 5 files modified in Mp3tag which would be in "alphabetical order" thanks to the BSI Info Editor program...

[LyricsLover]

@Sergius

it would be simpler for me, is it possible, to open a single window of BSI Info Editor with the Tools, which would include my 5 files modified in Mp3tag which would be in "alphabetical order" thanks to the BSI Info Editor program

If you ask me, if this is possible:
You have to test it in your environment. You can try to use %_directory% instead of %_path% if all 5 files are saved in the same directory.

Or you could ask BSI if their "InfoEditor" from 2003 has any other possibility to be started with something else then a single music track.

Maybe the most simple and fastest way:
a) Save the 5 files in a target directory like \ManipulateWithInfoEditor\
b) Open the InfoEditor.exe manually and manually change the directory in the visible left side (explorer folder selection) to above directory

c) Click on the column header Name inside InfoEditor to sort your tracks in the \ManipulateWithInfoEditor\ alphabetically.

[Sergius]

@LyricsLover

You have to test it in your environment. You can try to use %_directory% instead of %_path% if all 5 files are saved in the same directory.

Or you could ask BSI if their "InfoEditor" from 2003 has any other possibility to be started with something else then a single music track.

Maybe the most simple and fastest way:
a) Save the 5 files in a target directory like \ManipulateWithInfoEditor\
b) Open the InfoEditor.exe manually and manually change the directory in the visible left side (explorer folder selection) to above directory

Hello @LyricsLover,

Your 2nd method with BSI Infi Editor, I knew it would work well

Your 1st method, with Mp3tag Tools, I thought it would work well too, unfortunately not, there is an error message, see my 3 images:

Thanks for your help

[LyricsLover]

@Sergius

Your 1st method, with Mp3tag Tools, I thought it would work well too, unfortunately not, there is an error message, see my 3 images:

Thanks for your help

Unfortunately, I cannot help you further as long as we do not know what kind of parameters the infoedit.exe accepts. You could ask some of your radiostation friends if they know some accepted parameters or even ask BSI about it.

[Sergius]

Hello @LyricsLover, I did a search on the Mp3tag Tools page, I tried all the parameters, I found

"%_folderpath_rel%"

Which allows you to open a single window of BSI Info Editor, with all the titles, however it does not open the window where the audio files are, you have to look for the folder on the disk, but it works with BSI... The audio files are placed in alphabetical order with this program

Regarding the Tools page: I copied and pasted the parameters, one after the other, my Tools no longer worked, even the %_path% no longer worked

I noticed that the Quotation marks "at the beginning and at the end were missing: "%_path%", which I placed at the beginning and the end of the data and the Tools worked again

I am surprised that the Quotation marks "", are not written on the WEB page, I don't think that Florian would have forgotten to place the Quotation marks in his settings...

[ohrenkino]

@Sergius

the Quotation marks "", are not written on the WEB page

As the parameters are interpreted by the called application, you have to submit the parameter string in a format that the called application accepts.
In your case this was to enclose the path string in quotation marks.
Admittedly, quotation marks are fairly common additional characters but they do not apply to all applications.
So it is not an MP3tag problem but one of (the documentation of) the called application.

[LyricsLover]

@Sergius

that the Quotation marks "", are not written on the WEB page,

In most cases this quotation marks are necessary if the given content contains a space.
If you try to pass %_path% with something like
C:\Temp\My path with spaces\to my\mp3 collection\my song.mp3
some programs would receive 7 different parameters like
C:\Temp\My
path
with
spaces\to
my\mp3
collection\my
song.mp3
None of this 7 parameters really exists as path or as song name and the receiving software would give you an error message because it can not find any of this path-parts.

As you don't know if - for example - an ARTIST or ALBUM field or the %_path% contains a space, some software expect to get the content enclosed in "" to clearly give a start and an end position of the parameter.

This also leads to the next problem:
What about " inside the content?
At least the example fields ARTIST or ALBUM could contain something like
I like this "ice cold" song

The most important information is

@ohrenkino

So it is not an MP3tag problem but one of (the documentation of) the called application.

Mp3tag can pass on any information in the form required by the receiving software.

[Sergius]

@ohrenkino

As the parameters are interpreted by the called application, you have to submit the parameter string in a format that the called application accepts.

@LyricsLover

In most cases this quotation marks are necessary if the given content contains a space.
If you try to pass %_path%

Hello @ohrenkino, @LyricsLover, thank you for your explanations...

I often watch your interventions in Mp3tag Community, you have excellent experience in this field, you sometimes do data calculations that are complex, I find it incredible...

It is not always obvious to us, to know if we should place or not place the quotation marks in a data like %_path% ...

For most of us, we do not have your knowledge, and a big thank you to you both and to all the other members for helping us to maximize, according to the needs of each, the marking of our Tags and images, the Tools, the Actions commands and etc...

[ohrenkino]

While we discuss the sorting in a file selection dialogue ...
Does you application allow to load several files at a time (at all) or can it cope with just a single file in the current session?
Or does the program allow to run several instances at once?
If the answer is "no" to all these functions then I see the varying orders as some kind inconvenience that has nothing to do with MP3tag but is a question how the external program communicates with the OS.

[Sergius]

Hello @ohrenkino, excellent question, the BSI program, allows to manage a file and files at a time in a session.

The BSI program is 21 years old, since that time it has not been updated.

We have shared a lot of things, here is a short summary:

I am very happy to see that it works very well with a Tools: With the programming of the data: "%_path%", if I choose 5 audio files, with the Tools, it will open 5 BSI audio windows (not in alphabetical order) with the data that have been modified in Mp3tag, without problem (including the 2 BSI Tags: BPM and Comment, thanks to the id3.exe program and a CMD file)

The Tools does not work with the data "%_directory%" unfortunately, BSI does not recognize it...

If I program in my Tools: With the data "%_folderpath_rel%", to open a session with several audio files, it works very well, but I always have to choose in the BSI program, the Folder where my audio files are placed on the hard drive, which allows me to to have my audio files in alphabetical order, thanks to the BSI program...

[ohrenkino]

@Sergius

With the data "%_folderpath_rel%", to open a session with several audio files, it works very well

I am still puzzled that %_folderpath_rel% should work as this is a variable that should only be filled in an export and describes a path relative to the current export file.
So if %_folderpath_rel% is actually empty, you could call just as well the application without any parameters.
This would even more convince me that the editor does not interpret any command line parameters but is simply opened just like a double click on the desktop and then you are confined to the functions of that application.
Or to put it in another way: The problem to open files in a certain order is not a thing of the way MP3tag calls the program but the way that program interprets the call. In this case I would see it as "ignore parameters".

[Sergius]

@ohrenkino, I removed the data from Tools: "%_folderpath_rel%" and left the box empty, without any data

Tools:
Parameter: (Empty)

You're right, it gives me a session, with a window with several audio files

Here is the result with the 7 data for the Tools parameters: (I tested 2 times each)

I chose each time 1 audio file with Mp3tag and a Tools

Tools:
Parameter: (Empty)
Opens a session, with a BSI window with several audio files

Parameter: "%_path%" ==> Full file path
Opens 1 BSI window that can contain a single audio file with the data...

Parameter: "%_filename_ext%" ==> File name
Opens 1 BSI window that can contain a single audio file with the data...

Parameter: "%_filename%" ==> File name without extension
Opens 1 error window with the message next: Error Reading tags:ERangeError-
Opens 1 BSI window that can contain a single audio file, without any data...

Parameter: "%_filename_rel%" ==> Relative file path
Opens 1 BSI window that can contain a single audio file with data...

Parameter: "%_directory%" ==> Directory
A window opens: Message: Error Reading tags:ERangeError-
Opens 1 BSI windows that can contain a single audio file, without any data...

Parameter: "%_folderpath%" ==> Folder path
A window opens: Message: Error Reading tags:ERangeError-
Opens 1 BSI windows that can contain a single audio file, without any data...

Parameter: "%_folderpath_rel%" ==> Relative folder path
Opens a session, with a BSI window with multiple audio files

[ohrenkino]

To see what a variable or expression returns I recommend Convert>Tag-Tag with its preview. That preview shows you what would be the output.
I am pretty sure that this information would help to get the parameters and their format right.

But back to the original problem of getting files to be displayed in a preferred order in this particular target application seems to fail due to the lack of functions in the target application.

[Sergius]

@ohrenkino

To see what a variable or expression returns I recommend Convert>Tag-Tag with its preview. That preview shows you what would be the output.
I am pretty sure that this information would help to get the parameters and their format right.

@ohrenkino, thanks for your idea, Convert>Tag-Tag

What should I write as data, in:
Field:
Format string:

[ohrenkino]

The field does not really matter - or if you intend to see what the outcome for a filename or folder would be, use _FILENAME or _DIRECTORY
The format string would be e.g. %_folderpath_rel%
Do not click OK, just admire the preview.