importinspect.rst

Import Inspect Plugin

The importinspect plugin lets you inspect the metadata changes to be applied when importing.

This is particularly helpful when you have many candidates with similar information, as it gives you enough detail to differentiate, for example the total number of tracks, month/day, albumdisambig, etc. The display is the same as that used by beet-modify and others.

Enable the importinspect plugin in your configuration (see using-plugins) and then use beet import as usual.

Interactive Usage

The importinspect plugin is invoked during an import session. If enabled, it adds a new option to the user prompt:

[A]pply, More candidates, Skip, Use as-is, as Tracks, Group albums, Enter search, enter Id, aBort, iNspect changes?

This option enables inspection of the changes to be applied by the specified candidate. If the on_apply option is enabled (it is by default), selecting [A]pply will also show inspection output and prompt to accept the modification.

Configuration

To configure the plugin, make an importinspect: section in your configuration file. The available options are:

• on_apply: Enable inspection when applying a candidate. Default: yes.
• timid: Enable a confirmation prompt when applying a candidate, after viewing the inspection. Defaults to the value of the beets timid option.
• ignored: A list of item fields to ignore.
• ignored_new: A list of fields to ignore only when they're new.
• ignored_existing: A list of fields to ignore only when they're not new.

Example Output

Gary Go - Gary Go (Bonus Track Version)
album: Gary Go (Bonus Track Version) -> Gary Go
albumartist_credit:  -> Gary Go
albumartist_sort:  -> Gary Go
albumdisambig:  -> Exclusive Amazon MP3 version
albumtype:  -> album
day: 11 -> 15
month: 08 -> 09
original_day: 00 -> 25
original_month: 00 -> 05
original_year: 0000 -> 2009
Gary Go (Bonus Track Version) - 04 - Gary Go - Wonderful
artist_credit:  -> Gary Go
tracktotal: 13 -> 12

Example Configuration

importinspect:
  on_apply: yes
  ignored: month day original_month original_day
  ignored_new:
    # When inspecting candidates, it's a given that release fields will
    # be added, and a number of these are shown already by the import interface,
    # so focus on non-release fields. Changes to existing release fields will still
    # be shown, as that's useful when retagging an existing item.
    - albumstatus
    - asin
    - barcode
    - catalognumber
    - catalognum
    - country
    - data_source
    - discogs_albumid
    - isrc
    - label
    - language
    - mb_albumartistid
    - mb_albumid
    - mb_artistid
    - mb_releasegroupid
    - mb_releasetrackid
    - mb_trackid
    - mb_workid
    - media
    - releasecountry
    - releasestatus
    - script

Screencast