OK, so this is my theory on how I could add per-artist, per-extension counters:
1. Firstly, to avoid a naming collision between the same Artist on the same day, the files would be named with the full 'ReleaseTime' tag (time is square-bracketed).
Eg: '2012.06.01[105646].mp3'
- The files would then be organized into seperate folders based on file/tag properies, in a structure like so:
Parent Directory>
Extension>
Artist>
Files
3. The Action then would use the Export function to Export a list of each folder's filenames to a per-directory TXT file. The TXT file would contain a list like so (with the first file of each folder left blank):
2012.05.31[124208]|2
2012.05.31[165546]|3
3. By then using DetlevD's lookup table action the Export file (all named 'Counter.txt') would be Imported, and if the filename of the track matches the filename in the list the number to the right of the '|' delimiter would be added to a tag named 'Counter'.
4. The Action would then reformat the filenames to 'DDDD.DD.DD %artist%['-'%counter%]', and replace all whitespaces to underlines, which would look like:
2012.05.31_Artist_Name-2
2012.05.31_Artist_Name-3
5. After this the Action would relocate all the files in the child directories back into the original parent directory and run a script which would delete any folders named 'flac', 'mp3', etc.
Issues I'm having with this concept:
1. When the action is completed the following error message pops up from Mp3Tag (repeated for as many files as processed):
Import text file "Counter.txt": LOOKUP_RESULT: File [Path to directory/sub-directory]\Counter.txt cannot be accessed.
Two things aren't happening. The first is that only one 'Counter.txt' is being created (in the parent directory), even though 'One file per directory' is checked. The second is the following:
An Export file is created when I check the parent directory, so I presume that what is happening is the Action runs so fast that when it reaches the Import Text File function the 'Counter.txt' file hasn't had enough time to be created on the disk yet.
Note: If I run the Action again (after the 'Counter.txt' file has actually been created) then the Action does Import from the txt (only if no sub-directories have been created, though). So the the question is:
Is it possible to Export and Import in the one action (Exporting one file to each sub-directory created earlier in the Action, and Importing one file from each sub-directory)?
2. In the Action, after the Lookup Table functions, I reformat the names of the files to the format mentioned in point #4 of the concept section. The problem is that because of the Export TXT file not being created in time the Export list is named after the reformatted filenames, even though the Export function was invoked prior to the reformatting function.
Therefore the Lookup Table function is trying to match the pre-formatted filename with the re-formatted filenames stored in the delayed Export file, which don't match at that point in the Action.
This all seems a_bit_much when all I think I would need is a 'Reset counter per directory' parameter available as a new feature when using the %_counter% placeholder.