savedformats.rst

Saved Formats Plugin

The savedformats plugin lets you define saved, named format strings by storing them in fields for later reference.

This is similar to inline, except we specify a format string, not python code.

Among other things, you can use this to reduce duplication in your paths or alternatives configuration, make it easier to append to the default format_album and format_item at the command-line, and avoid issues with undefined or troublesome fields.

Enable the savedformats plugin in your configuration (see using-plugins) and then define and use saved formats in config.yaml and use them as you would any other field.

Configuration

To configure the plugin, make album_formats: or `item_formats sections in your configuration file. Every line defines a new field, with the key as the field name and the value as a format string as is used in paths.

Example Configurations

album_formats:
    album_id: '$id'

item_formats:
    artist_title: '%the{$artist} - $title'

Ease additions to the default formats at a command-line:

Configuration:

item_formats:
  format_item: $artist - $album - $title

album_formats:
  format_album: $albumartist - $album

format_album: '$format_album'
format_item: '$format_item'

Command-line:

$ beet ls -a -f '$format_album $albumtotal'
$ beet ls -f '$format_item via $source'

Avoid issues with undefined fields:

Configuration:

album_formats:
  e_data_source: '%ifdef{data_source}'

Command-line:

# This shows an empty string instead of '$data_source' on albums where it's
# not defined.
$ beet ls -f '$format_album $e_data_source'

Ease working with a troublesome field

types:
  missing_tracks: int

album_formats:
  # This lets me use %if{$missing_tracks,foo} without the problems using
  # $missing causes due to being negative when track totals aren't set.
  missing_tracks: '%if{$albumtotal,$missing,0}'