Feature request: Post-import game/app combination-to-ROM sync

Issue #2929 new
Aaron Solomon created an issue

Post-import auto-combine

As far as I can tell, the combine feature will automatically mass-create combination groups based on the filename when it is chosen as an option on the "Import ROMs" wizard, but if you want to combine ROMs once they are in library, you have to manually select the ROMs you'd like to combine, one game at a time, which can be impractical if there are many of them.

Ideally, users could re-run the "combine" function on the set of ROMs that exist in a platform's current folder at any time. This would allow users to add or remove ROMs or tweak the names of existing ROMs, and then quickly return the platform's ROM set to a nice, consistent state, without having to delete everything and re-import. It would make it easier for a user to "tweak" and customize (rename, reorganize combination sets) games in Launchbox by renaming, adding, and removing the underlying ROMs, and then syncing the UI list to the underlying files. Currently, there is pressure to get everything exactly right at first import, and then losing subsequent work if it has to be refreshed for whatever reason.

A. Platform re-sync/refresh to ROM changes

  1. User selects an "(i.e., combination) refresh" command for a given platform.
  2. Launchbox automatically re-groups ROMs together based on their updated filename(s), according to the same logic it uses in the ROM import wizard.

B. Auto-combine added ROMs during scan

During "Scan for Added ROMs", when a game with the same base name as a newly-added ROM already exists in the library, add the ROM as an "additional app" to the existing game, rather than reject the newly-scanned ROM as a duplicate.

C. Remove additional app rather than whole game during scan

During "Scan for Removed ROMs", if the removed ROM is the default "app" ROM for a game that has other combined ROMs, then remove the additional app rather than the entire game, and re-assign the default to a remaining ROM in the combine list.

Similarly, during "Scan for Removed ROMs", if the removed ROM is an "additional app", remove the app, rather than do nothing because the removed ROM is not a game's default app.

D. Secondary feature: Allow users to select an arbitrary set of games that have already been imported into Launchbox, and re-run the "combine" logic for those games, taking into account any ROMs that match the selected game set (according to combine logic) but have been otherwise added, removed, or renamed.

Note The auto-combine-by-name feature is a massive, awesome timesaver, but since it's only available to be applied to a single ROM import set at a time, any subsequent additions or tweaks to combinations must be done.

Basically, let users re-run the combine algorithm and end up with their game combinations in the state they would be in if they had just imported them fresh, but with any other custom data left intact! :)

Sorry this is such a painfully long explanation. It probably could've been explained in a couple sentences, but I've been thinking about this for a couple weeks, and I've been struggling to lay it out coherently in a feature request.

Thanks again for Launchbox--I love it! Aaron

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