Link Folders | Link mods, OSTs, save backups + more to games

[OneAngryGamer]

WARNING: I created this extension for my own use so it is not user friendly. I have provided instructions below on how to configure and use this extension.




What this does:

• Automatically detect/link matching folders to games in Playnite.
  
• You can choose what folder trees you want to link and how it is described and tagged.
  
• You can tag games with linked folders for searching and filtering.
  
• Allow quick access to linked folders for any game.
  

Requirements:

• Playnite 7 or 8 (Playnite 9+ not supported)
  
• You have a program that can be used for editing JSON files. (If you are unsure what this is, download and install any advanced text editor. I recommend Notepad++.)
  
• The default open action for JSON file extensions is set to this program. (Recommended but not required. If you don't set the default open action, you can open the data directory and manually open the JSON file in the editor.)
  

How to install:

1. Download the extension and the example zip file
   
2. Install the extension
   
3. Refresh the menus by using F12 or restarting Playnite
   
4. Open the data directory for this extension (You can access through Settings or through 'Link Folders' in the main menu)
   
5. Extract the example archive into the data directory
   
6. Refresh the menus by using F12 or restarting Playnite
   

How to configure:

1. Select 'Open JSON for editing' from 'Link Folders' in the main menu
   
2. Edit the JSON to replace the example values with your own (see bottom of this post for details)
   
3. When you have finished editing the JSON, Refresh the menus by using F12 or restarting Playnite
   

How to use:

• Use the report options in 'Link Folders' to report all folders that don't match the path structure for the platform filter option chosen. Manually fix these then re-run the report.
  
• After renaming the folders, Tag the linked folders using either Add Tags or Link Folders in the main menu. The first time you run this, it will take a very long time to process depending on performance of your system, the number of games you have in Playnite and the number of folders in the linked foldertree. Tagging is an optional feature of this extension.
  
• Select Open Location in the game menu then select the linked folder you want to open.
  

Known Issue:

• The extension will always show all linked folder options you have set up in 'Open Location'. For performance reasons, it will not attempt to hide any options that the game does not have a folder for.
  

Notes for the Dynamic Menu JSON:

• descmenu = how you want the content described in the Playnite menu
  
• desctag = how you want the content described when adding tags
  
• platformfilter 
  

0 = no platform filtering. foldertree structure must use basefolder\platformname\gamename\ (e.g. E:\Music\OST\PC\Deus Ex\)
1 = PC only. foldertree structure must use basefolder\gamename\ (e.g. E:\Music\OST\Deus Ex\)

• iconfilename = optional. for this to work the filename must match that of the image that you place into ExtensionsData\tbwLinkFolders\DynamicMenu\Icons\
  
• path = add the base path here. All \ must be doubled (e.g. E:\\Music\\OST\\Deus Ex\\ )
  

If you found this extension useful, you can find more of my extensions here

[OneAngryGamer]

• When downloading the extension, make sure to download the example zip. You will need to edit its contents for the extension to work.
  
• (ADVANCED USERS) It is possible to add more than one path for any content type. This is not recommended as it will increase the time it takes to process the folders. If you do decide to use multiple paths, do not have a game folder in more than one path for the same content. If you do, the open folder feature will only open the first matching folder for that game.
  
• (ADVANCED USERS) There are more platform filtering options available than what I described in the opening post. I didn't explain all the options as I will probably end up changing these in future.
  

[OneAngryGamer]

• If you are having difficulty getting the folder name to match for a game. Edit the game in Playnite. Copy contents of the title (name) field. Open the path to the desired folder tree. Create new folder and paste the game name into the new folder. This will create a working linked folder for that game for that linked content.
  
• (ADVANCED USERS) This extension uses my dynamic menu system so there is no upper limit on the number of content folder trees that you can link. There is a performance cost the more folder trees you link as it will increase the number of menu items added at runtime.
  
• (ADVANCED USERS) The performance hit of more menu items should not be noticeable but you can reduce the number of content types by linking multiple paths to the same content. For example you could have a folder tree for OSTs and a folder tree for music game rips and you could group both of these folder trees under a single content 'Music'. The disadvantage of having multiple folder trees for the same content is that it will greatly increase the amount of scanning time and you can not have the same game folder in multiple linked paths or the open folder feature will only open the first match.