Easy Tip - Randomizing Repeating Linked-Show Smartblocks. This does work But some dont need it :/
  • Vote Up3Vote Down John ChewterJohn Chewter
    Posts: 899Member
    1. Make and save a Smartblock in the normal way.
    2. Make a new empty Static Playlist.
    3. Place the Smartblock INSIDE the static playlist
    4. Save
    5. Add the static playlist to the repeating linked show
    6. Have a beer
    Post edited by John Chewter at 2014-09-30 21:17:42
    No longer using Airtime or Libretime.
  • 20 Comments sorted by
  • Vote Up0Vote Down Bob LarsonBob Larson
    Posts: 61Member
    When you say: "Make and save a Smartblock in the normal way", what is the normal way? Dynamic or Static? I tried creating a dynamic and static Smartblock with the criteria: "Length is greater than 00:00:00" and set it to 24 hours. I haven't seen a way to get the Smartblock to populate tracks without being forced to put in a criteria and "00:00:00" is what came to my mind. The user should not have to put in any criteria at all. I created the Smartblock, added it to the playlist, then upon adding the playlist to the repeating linked show Airtime hangs. I also had to run sudo -u postgres psql airtime -c "delete from cc_show" because it was giving me an overlapping show error message, when there were no overlapping shows. You can click OK and it exits out of the greyed out hanging window, but nothing was ever added.
    Post edited by Bob Larson at 2014-09-20 09:09:14
  • Vote Up0Vote Down John ChewterJohn Chewter
    Posts: 899Member
    What I did, and credit for this tip belongs goes to Peter Stone:

    I made a 55 minute dynamic playlist called 'testdynamic', with a rule that said 'genre' contains 'rock'

    I then made a static playlist of one hour called 'teststatic' to which I added a 5 minutes news mp3 track.
    I then added 'testdynamic' as an item INSIDE 'teststatic' - to complete the hour.

    I then made a new one hour repeating linked show and added the 'teststatic' playlist as the content.

    Each show instance had different content.

    Post edited by John Chewter at 2014-09-20 09:14:00
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  • Vote Up0Vote Down John ChewterJohn Chewter
    Posts: 899Member
    I have no idea why you cannot make a 24hr block - unless you are using crossfade (bug in there somewhere that affects timings).
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  • Vote Up0Vote Down Quentin DivayQuentin Divay
    Posts: 71Member
    Hi John, I can't see the difference between adding a linked show with dynamic smart block and your solution?
  • Vote Up0Vote Down John ChewterJohn Chewter
    Posts: 899Member
    The difference is is that I am adding a plain playlist that CONTAINS a smart block instead of just a Smartblock on its own. When Airtime adds the plain playlist to each show instance, it triggers the generation of a new smartblock - with changed content. This results in changed content for each show instance.
    No longer using Airtime or Libretime.
  • Vote Up0Vote Down John ChewterJohn Chewter
    Posts: 899Member
    .
    Post edited by John Chewter at 2014-09-29 04:34:02
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  • Vote Up0Vote Down Quentin DivayQuentin Divay
    Posts: 71Member
    If I add new audio files, the shows will be automatically updated?
  • Vote Up0Vote Down John ChewterJohn Chewter
    Posts: 899Member
    No. It will give you shuffled versions - which is probably ok if you have like 200 tracks to randomise from for a 1 or 2 hour show.
    So maybe you would do this for a week. And make a new smartblock & playlist for next week. Then the new week would take in the new tracks.
    I think thats as good as you will get with the present Airtime.

    No longer using Airtime or Libretime.
  • Vote Up0Vote Down Quentin DivayQuentin Divay
    Posts: 71Member
    Ok ;)
    John Chewter said:

    When Airtime adds the plain playlist to each show instance, it triggers the generation of a new smartblock - with changed content. This results in changed content for each show instance.



    I always use dynamic smart blocks, which results in different content for each show instance. Sorry, I have trouble understanding...
  • Vote Up0Vote Down John ChewterJohn Chewter
    Posts: 899Member
    So do I now. many on here - and me get the same show.
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  • Vote Up0Vote Down John ChewterJohn Chewter
    Posts: 899Member
    I think you might have provided a clue to nail the mystery Quentin.......
    I wonder if its a caching issue? Pulling the same shows on some and not others? This would explain a lot.
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  • Vote Up0Vote Down Quentin DivayQuentin Divay
    Posts: 71Member
    Oh, this may be still the famous bug (https://dev.sourcefabric.org/browse/CC-5854).
    Try a linked/repeated show for 1 week only, it should works fine. It seems the bug appears from 1 month or more.
  • Vote Up0Vote Down John ChewterJohn Chewter
    Posts: 899Member
    I wonder what happens if one disables posgresql and php caching - selectively - and see what happens.

    I might try that tonight
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  • Vote Up0Vote Down Quentin DivayQuentin Divay
    Posts: 71Member
    Would be interested, thanks!
  • Vote Up0Vote Down John ChewterJohn Chewter
    Posts: 899Member
    Well, its different... Very different... Will try and narrow things down a bit.. Ongoing :/

    Post edited by John Chewter at 2014-09-30 21:18:34
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  • Vote Up0Vote Down Steven MathewsonSteven Mathewson
    Posts: 7Member
    So you are saying this only works for a one week linked show..... so If I have a show  that repeats everyday for a week it will work, but not anything past that?  Have you come up with any other work arounds? your rss importer works perfect.... ;)
  • Vote Up0Vote Down John ChewterJohn Chewter
    Posts: 899Member
    It should work for many weeks - up to 26, I think. The 1 week was an example.
    No longer using Airtime or Libretime.
  • Vote Up0Vote Down John ChewterJohn Chewter
    Posts: 899Member
    Look in Airtime hacks for some more of mine. The RSS program schedule OUT feed works great. I am surprised more did not use it. Most CMS systems (NewsScoop, Joomla, Wordpress, Ghost etc.) can display RSS feeds with ease, so its great for supporter's sites etc. without all the setting up of the JSON stuff. I have some tiny (cigarette packet sized) ARM boxes running Airtime faultlessly now. Being only a regular superhero - I don't have much spare time at the moment for AT Dev. but more will come soon.
    When AT bring out the next stable version - I think I will make available an Airtime Linux Distro - all basically configured and ready to rock, with some extras on it (with very low latency), so it can be used completely stand alone, when run locally. Hopefully that should stop a shedload of install issues for novices. Airtime did not seem very interested, when I discussed it. I had to do this for my ARM machines - it was quite easy (Note. ARM distros are very machine specific and not really suitable for general distribution, even with the same chipsets e.g. there are no standard port numbers and addresses. One would need a degree in fiddleology ;) ).
    Post edited by John Chewter at 2014-11-02 09:23:40
    No longer using Airtime or Libretime.
  • Vote Up0Vote Down Krypton RadioKrypton Radio
    Posts: 78Member
    I tried this and it did not produce a randomized block from one scheduled block to the next:

    1. I created a smartblock with filtered criteria so that it would fill the time with cuts that matched the filter query specified.
    2. I created a playlist, scheduled it for weekly play, set it to "link".
    3. I dragged a copy of the smartblock into it, populating the playlist.

    The playlist populated, but it did not randomize.  It was identical from one week to the next.



  • Vote Up0Vote Down Holly HallHolly Hall
    Posts: 18Member
    I have the same problem I do not understand how to fix it? Any ideas?
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