The Watch Folder Loader Module

I have made a Modul8 module that will automatically load newly added files from a specified folder into the media set.

Areas of use: You might create or download videos on the fly and want them to automagically appear in Modul8’s media set as soon as they are downloaded/saved to a specific folder.

Registered Modul8 users can download the module form the online module library.

When the “Watch Folder” button is pressed the module will check the specified folder (“Folder Path”) for new files every n seconds (“Check Every n Seconds”). If a file is already in your media set, the module will not try to load it.

If you press “Load Now” all the files in the specified folder will be loaded as long as they don’t already exist in the media set.

“Check Every n Seconds” is the setting for how often the module should check your folder for new files. Checking too often would probably take a toll on Modul8’s performance.

“Folder Path” is the OSX file path to your watch folder. It should start and end with a slash (“/”). If you are unsure on how to write the path, just launch the Terminal app and drag your folder into the Terminal window and the folder path will be printed out. This field can not be left empty. The default path is “/VJ_media/ready/” which means that right in the root directory on the hard drive there is a folder called “VJ_media”. Inside that folder there’s another folder called “ready”. You have to create these folders yourself or create folders else where and update the “Folder Path” field to match.

Under “Media Set Import Settings” you can select where in the media set you would like to start and stop importing files. Remember that the first media slot is 0 and the last one is 127. The start position will increase every time you import files so that the existing files won’t be overwritten.

The “Clear Media set” button will clear media from the media set. This function honors the Media Set Import Settings (start at, end at). You will need to press the “Confirm” button in order to complete the clearing process.

If you are having any problems with the module, open Modul8’s script output window (Modules/Script/Show Script Output or alt+cmd+o), press the “Debug” button and send me the output including any error messages marked with the module’s name. It’s always wise to turn of all other modules and test that there is no conflict between modules if you are having problems.

The “Info” button will take you to this page.

Note: If you want to load still images you might consider not using this module and just drop a folder into Modul8’s media set. The folder will be treated like a video where each still image becomes a frame.