RadioBOSS can have playlists created from a preset instead of you putting them together by hand. The command for that is a line of text with a lot of details in it, and several presets in one line quickly become hard to follow.

The generator wizard shows that line as a table: one row per preset. It builds the command line from the table and takes an existing line apart again.

Playlist Generator Pro must be installed on the RadioBOSS machine.


Where the wizard is opened

The generator wizard is part of the command wizard. Open that one as usual and press the "Generator wizard..." button at the bottom right.

The button is available when you have chosen one of the two generator actions, or when the existing line already is a generator call. On closing, the line produced returns to the command wizard.


The two modes

At the top you choose between two possibilities. They are not settings of the same thing but two different commands:

- Create and play (generate): Creates the playlist and plays it right away. Exactly one preset is possible, and there is no target file.
- Create and only save (Playlist Generator Pro): Creates one or more playlists and writes them to file without playing them. Here several presets with their own target file are possible.

Switching the mode discards the table. That is intentional, because the two commands cannot be converted into one another.


The table

Each row stands for one preset and has four columns:

- Preset: The name of the generator preset, spelled exactly as in RadioBOSS. The names cannot be retrieved through the interface, so you have to type it.
- Lists: How many playlists this preset produces. Empty or 1 creates a single list.
- From number: The first number for numbering the file names. Empty starts at 0.
- Target file: The full path of the playlist on the RadioBOSS machine, with the extension m3u8.

Below the table the same four fields are used to edit the selected row, next to them three buttons:

- Add: Appends another preset.
- Apply: Writes the values of the fields into the selected row.
- Delete: Removes the selected row. The last row cannot be deleted.

Next to the "Target file" field, a button with three dots opens the file picker on the server. Only the directory is chosen there; the file name you type yourself afterwards, because the playlist does not exist yet.


The counter in the file name

If a preset produces several lists, the file names need a counter. Without one the generator writes every list into the same file, and each overwrites the previous one. Afterwards nothing about the result shows that lists are missing.

There are three ways of writing it:

- Percent sign n: counts without leading zeros, that is 1, 2, 10, 100.
- Percent sign n n: with one leading zero, that is 01, 02, 10, 100.
- Percent sign n n n: with two leading zeros, that is 001, 002, 010, 100.

All three count as far as needed; nothing breaks either way. What differs is the sorting by name: with the first form the files sit in the directory as 1, 10, 11, 2, and that is exactly the order RadioBOSS plays them in when you insert the directory as a whole.

The wizard points out a missing counter and offers to insert it for you. It is placed in front of the extension, so "Music.m3u8" becomes "Music_" plus counter plus "m3u8". The wizard picks the form from the highest number that actually occurs.

You are asked at two points: when applying the single row, where only that one is concerned, and when applying the whole window, where every affected row is taken care of.


Templates in the file name

Next to the "Target file" field a button with a question mark opens the templates of the scheduler, such as "?yyyy-?mm-?dd". RadioBOSS replaces them only when the event runs, so a single event writes a differently named playlist every day. The full list is in the chapter "Command wizard".

Counter and template can be combined: the counter tells apart the lists of one run, the template the runs of different days.

?noeval and the date shift are not on offer here. They belong at the end of the whole action line and have no effect inside the target file; they are therefore set in the command wizard, which owns the line.


The details for the whole run

Below the table there are three fields that apply to all presets together:

- Start time: The expected start time of the first playlist, as hour colon minute, or the word now for right away. Following lists move along in time automatically.
- Start day: The expected weekday of the start.
- Shift (minutes): Moves the start time by that many minutes. 1440 is one day; with it you create the list for tomorrow.

You only need start time and start day if the preset uses dayparting, that is, picks different tracks depending on the time of day. If either is missing, the generator skips dayparting silently and still creates a list. The wizard points this out in the notice field.


At the bottom of the window

The "Generated line" field shows at all times exactly the line that will come out when you apply. You can reach it with the tab key and read through it with the arrow keys, even when the line is wider than the window.

Below it sits the notice field. It reports a missing counter and incomplete dayparting as soon as either case occurs.

- Read out: Reads the produced line out in full.
- Apply: Takes the line over and closes the window.
- Cancel: Closes the window without changing anything. The Escape key does the same.


Notes

Repeat protection belongs to the preset and to the library, not to the call. All lists of one run share it; it cannot be set in the wizard.

With several target files only the first carries the full path, the others take its directory.

If the call is used in a batch file, the percent sign has to be doubled there. That applies to that case only, not to what you type in the wizard.
