Feature Request: Bulk Audiobook Import from Selected Directory

[kerbymart]

Description:

Currently, adding audiobooks to Ambry requires uploading them one by one through the dashboard, which can be time-consuming and inefficient for users with large collections. It would be much more productive to allow bulk importing from a selected directory, similar to how Emby Server handles media.

Proposed Feature:
• Enable users to specify a directory from which Ambry can automatically load audiobooks.
• Support for various audiobook formats, including:
• Single MP3 files
• Multiple MP3 files within a directory (representing a single audiobook)
• Bundled or archived audiobooks in supported formats

Use Case:
Users with extensive audiobook libraries could add their collections quickly and efficiently without manually uploading each file through the web interface. This would streamline the process and improve usability.

Additional Context:
Many media servers, such as Emby, already offer similar functionality, making it a familiar and expected feature for users. Adding this capability would significantly enhance Ambry’s practicality for audiobook enthusiasts.

[doughsay]

Hey, thanks for the detailed feature request. I know this is the top blocker for adoption for Ambry, but it's not so easy to actually implement.

The biggest reason right now being that Ambry doesn't play any format; it actually specifically needs HLS/MPD streaming format. The web client and mobile client are only set up to be able to play this specific format, so every audiobook added to the server needs to be re-encoded and packaged into HLS/MPD format. So it's not just about auto-importing/adding all your audiobooks, it would also need to auto-re-encode all the audiobooks.

The second biggest reason is that I'm basically solo-developing this, and this all takes a lot of time and effort 😅. Since I started with an empty audiobook collection and am building it up slowly over time, I never needed this feature.

Thirdly: There is a feature to be able to directly add audiobook from a server-mounted file system, so you don't need to actually upload the files through the browser. This saves a lot of time and effort, but it's still one book at a time.

And maybe lastly: There's no automatic metadata magic going on. You can do searches on GoodReads and Audible to import metadata, but it's a manual process, there's no automatic heuristcs for guessing the right book. I think it would be way too error-prone; I want a human in the loop making sure the right book is being selected.

All this is to say: I don't think it's impossible to one-day have batch/auto-importing. It's just a very large project with a lot of blockers in the way.

[kerbymart]

I'll look into the code and see if I can dig it. Reason is I have about 1000+ audiobooks (and that's non-fiction) in my library.
We can also share about Amby on https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder and https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted and probably there are developers there who might want to hop in.