Autofill Method

From Winamp iPod plugin ml_iPod

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Contents 1 General 2 Enabling Autofill 3 Customizing Autofill 3.1 Autofill using Rating Distribution

General

Autofill is a feature mainly invented for the iPod shuffle. It's function is to select songs randomly from your Media Library and transfer them to the iPod shuffle. First it will remove all played songs on the iPod then refill it with new songs.

It works like this:

• First it determines which songs shall be removed from the iPod:
  • If you have selected any songs manually, only these are removed, all others are kept
  • Otherwise (if none are selected), remove the ones played since last autofill
  • Exception: If nothing has been played, remove all
• Next, the free space on the iPod after removing the files is calculated
• Now we randomly select songs to fill this empty space.
  • This is done by utilizing a Winamp query.
  • The query can be customized in the preferences, see below

Enabling Autofill

To use Autofill:

• Go to the iPod view in the Media Library
• Click the Autofill button at the bottom of the Media Library

Customizing Autofill

Autofill can be customized by opening the ml_iPod preferences and selecting the Autofill tab on the iPod Support page.

• Source: This allows you to choose which playlist or smart view to choose tracks from. Note that you cannot specify both a source and a query; the features are mutually exclusive.
• Query: Here you can select which tracks might be used for Autofill. Usually this will be a subset of the general sync query, so the Combine this query with the sync query checkbox is checked. If you don't know the Winamp query language, you can hit the Edit Query button. That lets you build the query interactively.
  Some examples should make this query stuff a bit clearer:
  • Your general sync query is filename ends ".mp3", your Autofill query is empty, "Combine this query with the general sync query" checkbox is checked
    => All *.mp3 files in your Media Library might be selected in Autofill
  • Your general sync query is filename ends ".mp3", your Autofill query is length > 60, "Combine this query with the general sync query" checkbox is checked
    => Only *.mp3 files that are longer than 60 seconds might be selected in Autofill
  • Your general sync query is filename ends ".mp3", your Autofill query is length > 60, "Combine this query with the general sync query" checkbox is not checked
    => All tracks (not only *.mp3) that are longer than 60 seconds might be selected in Autofill
• Choose sorting method: Click here to change the method ml_iPod uses to sort tracks. This is very helpful if you use an iPod shuffle, as that device doesn't have a screen. The default is Randomize, which mixes up the tracks randomly.
• Space to fill: This selects how much space of the iPod will be occupied after the Autofill
• Transfer full albums only: If one song is selected for transfer in the Autofill algorithm, the whole album will be transfered. That way, you always have full albums on your iPod, randomly selected. Some people find this useful, others don't. If space is tight, this will not work reliably.
• Fill empty space only: If this is selected, no tracks are removed from the iPod. This is helpful if you want to fill your iPod manually first to some extent, and then have Autofill fill the rest. This way, Autofill is even helpful for larger iPods, like the nano and mini.
• Automatically perform autofill on this iPod when connected: Instructs ml_iPod to automatically autofill the selected iPod whenever it is connected.

Autofill using Rating Distribution

• Distribute track ratings proportionally when autofilling this iPod: This instructs autofill to select tracks in a given proportion, based on their ratings. This is very helpful if you use the rating system extensively. To customize the proportions, click Choose ratings proportions.
• Choose ratings proportions: Click this button to change the proportions for proportional autofill.