The Playlist Helper

The purpose of this program is the help make playlist editing for ENCO DAD easier for CapRadio employees. Current Features include:

• Creates a spreadsheet Database of all cuts in Library (from DAD XML file)
• Creates a spreadsheet representation of a playlist
• Creates a text file from a Spreadsheet that can be imported into DAD as a playlist.
• *NEW* Creates chained dated playlists from default weekly playlists for a specific date range.

---

Environment

This was developed using

• Windows 10 Machine on WSL Ubuntu 20.04.
• Python 3.8.5

---

Setup

1. run environ from root project directory

   $ . environ
   

   You also may have to make it executable.

   $ sudo chmod +x environ
   

   If you have not set up a python virtual environment, this will do it for you.

2. Install python library requirements

   $ pip3 install -r requirements.txt
   

3. Run once with no input.

   $ python3 -m run
   

   This will create all necessary folders for input and output.

4. run DCL commands in ENCO DAD system to generate XML files (if needed)

   • EXTRACT XML CUTS to generate an XML file with info for the entire library (this may be very large)
   • EXTRACT XML PLAYLIST <playlist name> to generate an XML representation of a specific playlist
     • To use the new chain feature you will need to use EXTRACT XML PLAYLISTS for each of your default playlists and store them in the ./input/default_playlists_xml/ directory

5. If needed, create an Excel file for a specific playlist that you are trying to create (NOTE: excel files that are output from step 4 can be used as input for this step)

6. Place files into the appropriate input directory

   • The ./input/excel_to_text_playlist/ directory is for spreadsheet to text import file conversion
   • The ./input/xml_cuts_to_database/ directory is for an entire XML cuts library to be converted to spreadsheet
   • The ./input/xml_to_excel/ directory is for XML playlists to be converted to Excel.

7. Run again to process everything put into each input directory

   $ python3 -m run
   

   (NOTE: This application will currently not move files out of the input directories. You may have to do this manually)

---

How to Use This Program

• To use this program for converting cuts library, for converting XML playlist to spreadsheets, and converting spreadsheets to text files, simply run run.py in the top level directory of this repo.

  $ python -m run
  

• To use the new chain feature, pass parameter chain when you run the program on the command line.

  $ python -m run chain
  

  The application will then prompt you for the start and end dates for you playlist chain.

---

Possible Feature Ideas

• Proper Database for Cut info
• Send DCL to DAD via raw UDP to trigger generation of XML files.
• Utilize INJECT XML to change playlists and cuts
• Google Sheets integration
• Ability to get x number of sequential unused cut numbers
• Ability to get list of all available cut numbers.
• Slack integration

---

Contact

james.tejada@capradio.org