Everything I am about to write related to Picard v1.4.2 running on Windows 10, Build 1709. I literally just started scripting an hour ago so I know next to nothing on how to do anything advanced.
The documentation page on scripting covers script syntax but doesn’t seem to cover anything on how to run a script. I don’t know if that’s by design or just nomatter figured it was worth documenting. Or maybe it’s in another part of the documentation that I couldn’t find.
But man is it confusing to scripting newbies. Since I just finally got a script to work I thought I would document the three things that helped me most all in one post so it is easier to get people started working with scripts. Thank you to the people in the forums who posted this info originally.
1.) Tag Field vs Tag Value
%tagname% means use the value found in that tag called ‘Tag Name’ in the script
tagname means use the tag ‘Tag Name’ field in the script
so when you write $set(albumartist, %artist%) it will set the value found at the tag ‘Artist’ to the tag ‘Album Artist’ field.
2.) Why is my script not running?
First, the script only runs when you actually process the file. If you’ve already processed and saved the file before you’ve written your script, it may not run the script no matter what you do.
Second, there is no GUI element on the main window to select a script to make it run. Scripts are only shown in the options window. Don’t bother looking for a way to run your script in the main window.
Given those two facts, how do you make it run then? Right click on the ALBUM (not the song) and select Refresh. This will cause the script to run.
3.) How do I manage my scripts?
You don’t see a list of your tagger scripts that you added in the options window because of a UI bug. There is actually a list of scripts to the left of the script window. You have to drag your mouse over it to resize the list so you can actually see the list. Then you can do things like set priority or delete scripts.
I hope this helps other people have a less frustrating experience with scripting than I did. If it wasn’t for the forums, I don’t know how anybody would even start scripting with Picard.