# Preferences - Export Sets

Export sets are used by the Create Album Database and Create Track Database action functions. The sets define what fields are to be placed into the CSV file. These fields include standard Yate fields and special fields.

Every export set item consists of a Field, a Header and optionally a Qualifying field. The Field defines which Yate or special field is to be included. The Header is the column header to be used. The Qualifying field is only used with UDTIs, UDURLs, UFIDs, Comments and Named Variables. With these item types the Qualifying field lets you specify which item you are mapping to. Of the preceding types, only Comments can have an empty Qualifying Field. You can drag and drop items to change the order of the columns in produced database files.

Note that special fields are displayed in a separate section at the top of the field popup list. A special field is any field which cannot be edited or is not intended for both Album and Track databases. Special fields are read only unless specified otherwise. The following special fields are available.

> A/V
>   Video for a file containing video, otherwise Audio.
> Actual Track Count
>   This is the counted number of tracks in an album and does not represent the metadata value. This field is empty in track databases.
> Artwork Count
>   The number of artwork items in a file.
> Artwork Size
>   If available, the width x height of a file's default artwork item.
> Average Rating
>   The average rating of all tracks in a album. Note that ratings are exported with ✮ characters when the database file is encoded as UTF-8, otherwise they are exported as * characters. This field is only meaningful in Album Databases and will be empty in Track Databases.
> Audio Container
>   The type of audio container. AIFF, DFF, DSF, FLAC, M4A (includes MP4, M4B and M4V), MP3 or WAV.
> Audio Stream
> Bit Rate
> Channel Mode
> Creation Date
>   As implied by the name.
> db
>   The database linkages as displayed in the main window's db column.
> Disc Combined
>   The Disc field as displayed in the main window. ie. n of m. Note that editing this field requires that you format as n of m or n / m. Any other format will clear the Disc Count field when applying changes.
> Duration
>   This field will display the length of a track in ms in Track databases. It will display the total length of an album in Album databases. This field is based on the duration extracted from the audio stream. This differs from the Length field which is a user editable field.
> File Name
>   The file name with extension.
> File Path
>   The full path to a track. This field should always be present in Track databases. The field is meaningless in Album databases.
> File Tags
>   The textual representation of a file's associated Finder tags. Note this field can be edited but it cannot currently be applied back to a file.
> Folder
>   The full path to the album's containing folder. This field should always be present, along with the Album field, in Album databases. The field is redundant in Track databases.
> Folder Tags
>   The textual representation of a file's containing folder's associated Finder tags. Note this field can be edited but it cannot currently be applied back to a file.
> Free
>   The amount of free space in a track.
> Highest Rating
>   The highest rating found on any track in the album. Note that ratings are exported with ✮ characters when the database file is encoded as UTF-8, otherwise they are exported as * characters. This field is only valid in Album Databases and will be empty in Track databases.
> Incomplete
>   This field is only valid in Album databases. It is intended to assist in the identification of albums missing tracks. An empty value implies that no errors were found. The following error messages can be displayed, in decreasing priority:
>   - Missing Disc(s) if one or more discs are missing.
>   - Duplicate Track Numbers if more than one track on the same disc has the same track number.
>   - Zero Based if a track is numbered zero.
>   - Missing xx% (yy) where xx is the percentage of missing tracks and yy is the number of missing tracks.
> Lowest Rating
>   The lowest rating found on any track in the album. Note that ratings are exported with ✮ characters when the database file is encoded as UTF-8, otherwise they are exported as * characters. This field is only valid in Album Databases and will be empty in Track Databases.
> Modification Date
>   As implied by the name.
> OOB
>   OOB for Out of Bounds is used when you want a field in the database which is only written to external to Yate. Yate creates these fields as empty.
> PID
>   The iTunes so called permanent ID. Note that this is the transient PID extracted when Yate is linked to iTunes. If you wish to export a retained PID, add a User Defined Text Info item with a name of iTunes PID
> Position
>   The symbolic position of a track in an album.
> Rating
>   The rating of a track in a Track database. Note that ratings are exported with ✮ characters when the database file is encoded as UTF-8, otherwise they are exported as * characters. This field is meaningless in Album databases.
> Sample Rate
>   As implied by the name.
> Size
>   The size of an audio file.
> Time
>   The calculated total display time, (hh:mm) of the album in Album databases or the display time of the track in Track databases.
> Track Combined
>   The Track field as displayed in the main window. ie. n of m. Note that editing this field requires that you format as n of m or n / m. Any other format will clear the Track Count field when applying changes.
> Video Size
>   The width x height of a file containing track.
> Yate Album ID
>   A unique identifier that can be generated to help match content to Album databases.
> Yate Track ID
>   A unique identifier that can be generated to help match content to Track databases.

If you want to synthesize data not contained in a field or special field, place the data in any of the Variable fields. When a database is first written, the contents of the Variable fields will be written as expected. However, after initially writing the database, all Variable columns are treated as OOB columns.

Export items are saved in sets.

To create a new set click on the + button under the leftmost table. You can choose from a new empty set or from a list of canned templates. You can also also create an export set based on an existing database.

To delete a set, select the set you want to delete and click on the - button under the leftmost table.

To duplicate a set, select the set you want to duplicate, and click on the ❐ button under the leftmost table.

To rename a set, select the set and click on the ✎ button under the leftmost table.

To export one or more sets so that they can later be imported, select one or more sets in the table and click the ⇒ button under the leftmost table. When exporting, if you select a file which already exists and enable the Merge option, the sets will be written to the existing file overwriting any sets which were there already.

When a single export set is selected, selecting the ⇒ button will display a menu with the following items:

> Export as Export Set
>   This is the standard export function used to export the actual set.
> Export Sidecar File
>   This is useful if you want to associate an externally produced database file (CSV/TSV) with the appropriate field mappings. A .plist file will be created. Note that the created plist file is never marked as being standalone. If you wish to create a plist file for a standalone database, simply open it in the Database Viewer.
> Export as Empty Database
>   This might be useful if you want to populate the database in a different application. The database is not marked as being standalone. The Database Viewer will process all columns according to their type in the export set. Depending on the fields in the export set, the database might be able to interact with files open in the main window. (ie. if it's a Track or Album database).
> Export as Standalone Empty Database
>   This might be useful if you want to populate the database in a different application. The database is marked as being standalone. The Database Viewer will treat all columns as editable and will not allow any interaction with files open in the main window.

The menu allows you to choose the standard export functionality described in the previous paragraph or you can elect to export the set as a sidecar (plist) file. This is useful if you want to associate an externally produced database file (CSV/TSV) with the appropriate field mappings. You can also choose to export the set as an empty database.

To create a new export set item, click the + button under the rightmost table. Choose the field or special field that you want to add. A default name for the header.

To remove export set items, select one or more items and click the - button under the rightmost table.

To modify the header of an export set item, select a single set in the table and click the ✎ button under the rightmost table. Alternately you can directly edit the header by double tapping on the header field.

To change the field associated with an export set item, select a single set in the table and click the F button under the rightmost table. Alternately you can directly edit the header by double tapping on the field name.

To change an export set item's qualifying value, select a single set in the table and click the Q button under the rightmost table. You can choose to edit the field or pick from a few convenience names. Alternately you can directly edit the qualifying value by double tapping on the qualifying field name.

The width of the two tables can be adjusted by dragging the border that separates the two tables.

Click here for additional information on the Create Album Database and Create Track Database action functions.