Download paths question...

[mesadude]

I used to be able to specify one directory to download all my groups to, and Newsbin would add the group name automatically to that directory to create a separate directory for each group. With the last couple of versions, all groups are downloading to that main directory, and the separate folders are not getting created.

What's the proper terminology to have in the 'Options/MainDownloadFolder' to be able to specify a main directory, and have Newsbin create a separate directory for each group in that main directory?

This is what I have in the main download folder window at the moment
C:\nb\$(GROUP)\
I thought this should create the group name from whatever group my file is being downloaded from, but it isn't working. All files from all groups are being dumped in the main directory without any separate group folders being created.
Thanks,
Mesadude

[Quade]

What version are you using currently? That should work for 6.40 but, won't work for 6.34.

It only applies to files you add to download after you made the change though. Existing files already have their paths.

[mesadude]

Hi. Using 6.40.
So, I have to manually add the group folder to my main folder for each group now?
That's what I've been doing, as all files regardless of the group they are from are being dumped into the one main folder, if I don't manually add the group name folder to each group.

Mesadude

[Quade]

I'm not clear what you're asking. If you did what I suggested, which it seems you've already done, the group should be getting placed in the download path in place of the $(GROUP). You should be able to load an NZB or load a group, add a file, see the path listed and it should include the group.

Are you using NZB's, search or headers?

I might hit the edit button. Browse a path, then double-click the $(GROUP) thing from the list. It's not clear if you manually typed it in. $(GROUP) is a variable meaning it gets filled in with the proper group when you add something to the download list.

Do you have paths set in on the groups too? Each group or topic can have a path and these paths will override anything you set in the main download path. Right click "Properties" on the group and/or topic to check. If you add something to download and the group isn't listed with the path, It sounds like it's getting the path from someplace else, maybe the group properties.

[mesadude]

Hmmm. OK. I'll start over.
I go to Options. I browse and set the download folder to C:\nb. I hit the 'edit' button. I double-click on $(GROUP), which makes my download folder show C:\nb\$(GROUP)\. I click OK.

Now I go to a group and set the download path to C:\nb. When I download a file from that group (eg. a.b.sample), it goes to C:\nb, not C:\nb\a.b.sample. On previous versions, the downloaded file would go to C:\nb\a.b.sample.
Does that explanation help?
Thanks,
Mesa

[itimpi]

Hmmm. OK. I'll start over.
I go to Options. I browse and set the download folder to C:\nb. I hit the 'edit' button. I double-click on $(GROUP), which makes my download folder show C:\nb\$(GROUP)\. I click OK.

Now I go to a group and set the download path to C:\nb. When I download a file from that group (eg. a.b.sample), it goes to C:\nb, not C:\nb\a.b.sample. On previous versions, the downloaded file would go to C:\nb\a.b.sample.
Does that explanation help?
Thanks,
Mesa

The fact that you are setting something explicit for the group is over-riding the main download setting which included $(GROUP) that you set for the main download path. If you had nothing set on the individual group you would get what you want.

[Quade]

Exactly. That's sort of what I suspected was happening.

If you want to do "per group" pathing, you can, you'll just have to add $(GROUP) there too.

[mesadude]

Thanks guys. Once I modified all Post Storage to $(GROUP), everything is working as I'm used to.
Mesa

[Quade]

Let me ask you this, are you really setting each group to a different path or is it the same path as the main download path? There's no reason to set it "per group" unless you really want make each group have a unique download folder. It's it's the same path as the main path, you should disable the per group path.

I use "$(GOG)" in my path and don't have anything set in my group options.

[Kaigi]

After a hard drive crash in which a great deal was lost, I upgraded from 6.34 to 6.41.

The difficulty I have with the new method is that I have over-arching folders into which the separated groups go. This may not be easy to describe, so I'll illustrate:

I have the following (not-real) groups, organized into these categories in the Groups List (within the .nbi file):

Celebs
alt.pictures.whatever.a
alt.pictures.whatever.b
alt.pictures.whatever.c

Adult
alt.pictures.whatever.x
alt.pictures.whatever.xx
alt.pictures.whatever.xxx

Wallpapers
alt.wallpapers.1
alt.wallpapers.2

All those from my 'Custom Lists' would go in the same directory, with those things from the group I'd downloaded from going into folders named for that group.

The way download folders would be created was like this:

Newsbin\Celebs\alt.pictures.whatever.a
Newsbin\Celebs\alt.pictures.whatever.b
Newsbin\Celebs\alt.pictures.whatever.c

Newsbin\Adult\alt.pictures.whatever.x
Newsbin\Adult\alt.pictures.whatever.xx
Newsbin\Adult\alt.pictures.whatever.xxx

Newsbin\Wallpapers\alt.wallpapers.1
Newsbin\Wallpapers\alt.wallpapers.2

I've tried adding the new code to the Properties for the "Celebs" grouping. e.g. "D:\2\2-celebs\$(GROUP)\" under "Use download path" within the collected newsgroups' overarching Group Properties. But that does nothing at all: it doesn't 'trickle down' to all those newsgroups within that category like it did previously.

In other words: I have multiple different TYPES of newsgroups that I download from. I collected the multiple types into four major categories. Each of those four categories I wanted to have it's own 'super-folder', with each of the newsgroups downloading into a subfolder named for the newsgroup.

That has been essential for minimizing sorting time after a large download, since picture sets are posted to the same newsgroup, but may not be named well enough for easy sorting. e.g. files may simply be "image_###.jpg" for multiple picture sets of multiple different people; if dumped in one folder together, they have to be manually teased apart which takes huge amounts of time.

But if files are all in the same root download directory, with only the newsgroup-named subdirectories, then multiple different types of files will be jumbled together, thereby making THAT method of sorting far more difficult.

I hope this explains the issue I am having now.

Can this be rectified without manually going in to the Properties for each and every group and manually adding a specific newsgroup-named download path to each and every one? [That, too, would be exhausting!]

Thank you!

[Quade]

I haven't tried it but, I'm thinking you can set a download path at the topic level, the parents of the groups to something like:

Newsbin\$(GOG)\$(LONGGROUP)\

Actually, you could set this as the global download path so, all groups follow it.

[Kaigi]

Thank you. I just gave it a try, and initially that ended up with everything still being in a folder named after the group name, which confused me. But I realized that in the individual newsgroups I'd had the "Download to this directory" checked (which was the prior way of doing it, coupled with the global 'Download to directory named for the newsgroup'). Once I unchecked that (which I could do en masse for each GoG), it appears to work great!

Thanks again! I do apologize for being so verbose in the original.

[Quade]

Thanks again! I do apologize for being so verbose in the original.

It was the perfect level of detail. Normally, I'm left guessing. Not this time.