tiddl/docs/templating.md

📝 File Templating

Templates are text strings that describe folder and file structure. They use placeholders (in {curly_braces}) that get replaced with actual metadata values from:

• Track / Video → item
• Album → album
• Playlist → playlist
• Plus any custom fields

A template like:

{album.artist}/{album.title}/{item.title}

becomes this:

Daft Punk/Discovery/Harder Better Faster Stronger

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🧩 Template Variables

Each object type exposes fields you can use inside templates.

item (Track or Video)

Field	Description	Example
item.id	Track/Video ID	123456
item.title	Title	Harder Better Faster Stronger
item.title_version	Title + version (if present)	One More Time (Radio Edit)
item.number	Track number	3
item.volume	Disc/volume number	1
item.version	Version string (track only)	Remastered
item.copyright	Copyright info (track only)	© 2023 Sony Music
item.bpm	Beats per minute (if available)	120
item.isrc	ISRC code (track only)	USQX91501234
item.quality	Audio/video quality	HIGH
item.artist	Primary artist name	Daft Punk
item.artists	All main artists	Daft Punk, Pharrell Williams
item.features	Featured artists	Pharrell Williams
item.artists_with_features	Main + featured artists	Daft Punk, Pharrell Williams

---

album

Field	Description	Example
album.id	Album ID	98765
album.title	Album title	Discovery
album.artist	Primary artist	Daft Punk
album.artists	All main artists	Daft Punk
album.date	Release date (datetime)	2001-03-13

---

playlist

Field	Description	Example
playlist.uuid	Playlist unique ID	b8f1d9f8-...
playlist.title	Playlist name	My Favorites
playlist.index	Track index within playlist	5
playlist.created	Creation date (datetime)	2024-01-15 10:42:00
playlist.updated	Last updated date (datetime)	2024-03-02 09:00:00

---

extra and custom fields

You can also use:

• now → current datetime
• Any key passed as extra in code.

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🧼 Sanitization

All template segments are sanitized:

• Invalid filesystem characters are removed or replaced.
• Empty placeholders are skipped cleanly.
• Each path component is treated separately (split by /).

---

⚙️ Configuration Example

Your [templates] section in config.toml defines templates per media type.

[templates]
default = "{album.artist}/{album.title}/{item.title}"
track = "tracks/{item.id}"
video = "videos/{item.title}"
album = "artists/{album.artist}/{album.title}/{item.title}"
playlist = "{playlist.title}/{playlist.index}. {item.artist} - {item.title}"
mix = "mixes/{mix_id}/{item.artist} - {item.title}"

If no specific template is set, the default one is used.

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🧠 Tips

• You can format datetime fields, e.g. {album.date:%Y-%m-%d}.
• You can build nested folders safely using / separators.

🖥️ Source Code

Source code is located at /tiddl/core/utils/format.py