Strategy for Merging Libraries

[MonsterSe7en]

I have a main library and am planning to create a temporary folder for images and videos required for my immediate project. I will use tags to organize these files and eventually move them to the main library. I'm considering this approach since there isn't currently a way to segregate or group files based on date, type, or folder structure.

Questions:

1. What potential issues might I encounter when merging the libraries?
2. Is there a script available to handle this process? I don't see any merge option in version 9.4.2 Alpha.
3. If I need to merge manually, what elements in the JSON file should I pay attention to for successful data migration?

[CyanVoxel]

Hello, I'll try to answer your questions here while giving some info on what's planned for the project in the near and not-so-near future:

0. Starting in 9.5 we'll have moved away from the JSON save format in favor of a new SQLite save format. The large gap in-between updates has been due to working on this transition and making sure that everything's done right.
1. Besides save file corruption that can occur when manually editing the save files, the only other major thing to consider is just keeping in mind that the JSON save format is going away in the next update.
2. Unfortunate there's no script or built-in process that merges libraries in either 9.4.x or 9.5.x. Having multiple root folders for libraries was originally planned for 9.5 and was being worked on in feat: allow multiple directories per library #563, however development on this feature was stopped and the feature is now planned for 9.6 or later.
3. If you choose to manually edit your JSON save file, first and foremost make sure you save some backups! After that the main thing you'll need to pay attention to is the IDs for both file entries and tags. IDs need to be unique, and tag IDs from 0-999 are reserved by TagStudio for built-in tags. For file entries you'll also want to make sure that the file paths match the new paths to where you're moving the files. You may also be able to just use the "Fix Unlinked Entries" feature to re-link the internal entries to the new file locations on disk, assuming all filenames are unique in your folder structure. Tags though will still need to be manually combined in either case. These tag IDs are also referenced by tag fields present in the entries section, and any tag IDs that change will also need to be changed in these references as well.

Along with our plans to support multi-root libraries, the ability to merge libraries as well as the ability to export and import tags across libraries are all planned for the future.

[MonsterSe7en]

Wow!! Thank you