Bug Report; B2 WebUI Bulk Upload does not work correctly with '.mirror' files present

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Paul,

I have found a problem when using the WebUI Bulk Upload function when '.mirror' files are prenent.

Artist is 'Emmylou Harris'; album is 'Elite Hotel' and has 14 tracks in the primary album folder and 14 tracks in the '.mirror' sub folder

Sequence of events was as follows.

1.  Bulk Upload selected and reported 30 files to upload (presumably (1 x folder + 14 tracks) x 2 folders))

2. Upload started but gave warning message 'Folders hidden by browser for security reasons - music uploaded to Artist/Album Unknown'; then started the upload -- (I think that this is a browser issue; I am using Chrome).

3.  Upload reported uploading 30 files.

4.  I found in artist level 'Unknown' a folder 'Elite Hotel' with 15 tracks only.

5.  After a bit of investigation I found a new artist named 'Elite Hotel' had benn created which contains an album called '.mirror'.

So I think that the upload process is becoming confused when it finds '.mirror' subfolders and files present.

I was able to tidy this up through NAS but it would be more difficult if a user doesn't use NAS.

Regards,

Peter.

[Mark Fishman]

Peter,

At a guess, I'd say the logic employed went thus:

 1. find the lowest level directory containing music and/or coverart

 2. look one level up for the "album" name

 3. look one more level up for the "artist" name

 4. if music or coverart is found at either of those two levels, repeat steps 2 and 3.

Since the Bulk Upload requires that you point the browser at a specific folder, Chrome refuses to look any higher up the tree than that for security reasons, hence the warning and the "Unknown" artist.

When there's a .mirror folder, it results in a directory structure that looks like this:

 artist(dir) -> album(dir) -> tracks + .mirror(dir) -> tracks

To fix that without messing up other kinds of upload, ".mirror" would have to become a reserved name, i.e., it would be treated differently from all other directory names. If anyone starts a band or releases an album called ".mirror" the whole system breaks.

Inasmuch as "Export" doesn't export the mirror files, and "Import" doesn't import them (does it?), perhaps Bulk Upload is the wrong tool to use when you already have them?

Cheers -- m.

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Mark,

Yes, I concur with your thoughts on the logic path.  I also had a thought that the logic could be inverted so that it worked from the top down, limited to two levels but quickly realised that this will not work because the Brennan will accept quite a variation in formats so top down cannot work.

I also agree with you that 'Bulk Upload' is the wrong tool to use in this situation.  I don't use it myself except for one or two situations; I use a mix of Export, Import and NAS to transfer around my various Brennans, so it's not a high priority for me, but I logged the issue in case other users were using this method and also are using '.mirror' folders.  I just happened to use it on this occasion for a one off album transfer and happened to hit the problem!

Regards,

Peter.

[Daniel Taylor]

I suspect the thought was that nobody would want to upload mirror files.  If they already had them on their computer, the whole point of getting them from the B2 was moot.  Or, maybe more likely, there was no thought given to it at all, there were no changes made to the Upload software and it works now the same as it did before the mirror feature was added.

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Daniel,

I think that the explanation is simpler than that.  The WebUI Upload feature was provided long before the 'mirror' file option came into being.  It's just an unintended consequence of expanding the functionality.

Regards,

Peter.

[Daniel Taylor]

Yes, that's what I was getting at when I said " there was no thought given to it at all" etc.

[PMB]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the bug report.

Paul

Brennan Support.