
Smart Playlist Plugin
*********************

"smartplaylist" is a plugin to generate smart playlists in m3u format
based on beets queries every time your library changes. This plugin is
specifically created to work well with MPD's playlist functionality.

To use it, enable the "smartplaylist" plugin in your configuration
(see *Using Plugins*). Then configure your smart playlists like the
following example:

   smartplaylist:
       relative_to: ~/Music
       playlist_dir: ~/.mpd/playlists
       playlists:
           - name: all.m3u
             query: ''

           - name: beatles.m3u
             query: 'artist:Beatles'

You can generate as many playlists as you want by adding them to the
"playlists" section, using beets query syntax (see *Queries*) for
"query" and the file name to be generated for "name". The query will
be split using shell-like syntax, so if you need to use spaces in the
query, be sure to quote them (e.g., "artist:"The Beatles""). If you
have existing files with the same names, you should back them up---
they will be overwritten when the plugin runs.

For more advanced usage, you can use template syntax (see *Path
Formats*) in the "name" field. For example:

   - name: 'ReleasedIn$year.m3u'
     query: 'year::201(0|1)'

This will query all the songs in 2010 and 2011 and generate the two
playlist files *ReleasedIn2010.m3u* and *ReleasedIn2011.m3u* using
those songs.

You can also gather the results of several queries by putting them in
a list. (Items that match both queries are not included twice.) For
example:

   - name: 'BeatlesUniverse.m3u'
     query: ['artist:beatles', 'genre:"beatles cover"']

Note that since beets query syntax is in effect, you can also use
sorting directives:

   - name: 'Chronological Beatles'
     query: 'artist:Beatles year+'
   - name: 'Mixed Rock'
     query: ['artist:Beatles year+', 'artist:"Led Zeppelin" bitrate+']

The former case behaves as expected, however please note that in the
latter the sorts will be merged: "year+ bitrate+" will apply to both
the Beatles and Led Zeppelin. If that bothers you, please get in
touch.

For querying albums instead of items (mainly useful with extensible
fields), use the "album_query" field. "query" and "album_query" can be
used at the same time. The following example gathers single items but
also items belonging to albums that have a "for_travel" extensible
field set to 1:

   - name: 'MyTravelPlaylist.m3u'
     album_query: 'for_travel:1'
     query: 'for_travel:1'

By default, each playlist is automatically regenerated at the end of
the session if an item or album it matches changed in the library
database. To force regeneration, you can invoke it manually from the
command line:

   $ beet splupdate

This will regenerate all smart playlists. You can also specify which
ones you want to regenerate:

   $ beet splupdate BeatlesUniverse.m3u MyTravelPlaylist

You can also use this plugin together with the *MPDUpdate Plugin*, in
order to automatically notify MPD of the playlist change, by adding
"mpdupdate" to the "plugins" line in your config file *after* the
"smartplaylist" plugin.


Configuration
=============

To configure the plugin, make a "smartplaylist:" section in your
configuration file. In addition to the "playlists" described above,
the other configuration options are:

* **auto**: Regenerate the playlist after every database change.
  Default: "yes".

* **playlist_dir**: Where to put the generated playlist files.
  Default: The current working directory (i.e., "'.'").

* **relative_to**: Generate paths in the playlist files relative to a
  base directory. If you intend to use this plugin to generate
  playlists for MPD, point this to your MPD music directory. Default:
  Use absolute paths.
