Queuing of Last.FM Submissions (Scrobbles)

[Mandrake981]

Hi guys,

I'd like to request that the Last.FM submission process (scrobbling) be modified a bit. I use my phone to listen to music a lot while I'm traveling, at home, etc., and while my server is online, the scrobble process happens fairly pain free. The problem is though that sometimes my server might be offline (I'm constantly working on it, upgrading software, installing new hardware, etc., not to mention dealing with my local network), and as such, any scrobbles that happen during that time are lost. The Subsonic Android app (and DSub as well) will try and reach the server, and when it can't, it just doesn't attempt to do anything else about it to submit the scrobbles. I know that scrobbles can be submitted after the fact (as iPad's can submit scrobbles once they're plugged in using the Last.FM app - once it's plugged up to a computer, so I'd imagine there would be a way to "remember" everything that's played, and submit the data to Last.FM with everything needed to make it as accurate as possible), so my thought would be to build a queue for scrobbles, where the information about played media rolls through that queue to the server. If the server is unavailable, it holds it until it becomes available. Once it is available, the app hands it off to the server, the server makes the submission to Last.FM, and it's added to your scrobbles. It'd probably be a first in, first out sorta' queue, and as such, with a steady connection, the submissions just roll right through it straight to Last.FM...

The other option would be for the app to keep track of how long it's been since it's talked to the server. Over a given amount of time (say 2 hours for example - it could even be adjustable, maybe with a time limit and/or a checkbox for direct submission to Last.FM), the app handles the scrobble submission directly, instead of having to hand it off to the server to hand off to Last.FM. Since the app caches the music on the device, it would be easy to just keep the Last.FM username and password synced from the server to the app on the device, and then once it realizes it's not online, it just submits the track directly and deletes the track info from the queue. Once the server comes back online, the app can be forced to push submissions back through the Subsonic application on the server as normal (if needed or expected).

I've just noticed that due to the irregularity of the underlying server (on my end), I lose a lot of scrobbles, even though the Subsonic application on my phone is playing them. There's no real way to insure the data is submitted, and I think that system should be expanded a bit to include a more failsafe method for insuring all scrobbles are submitted to Last.FM in a timely manner...

Thanks.