Feature Request: Tag Update Tag Referencing

[simoncn]

Regarding the original question from the OP, I think a future solution would involve enhancing tagValue or tagFormat processing rather than allowing tag values to be used in tagUpdate instructions.

[paultaylor]

(15-09-2017 10:03)Pepsican Wrote:  Just to be clear, the track "Diamonds on the soles of her shoes" from the "Graceland" album by Paul Simon.

AlbumArtist = Paul Simon
AlbumArtistSort = Simon, Paul
Artist = Paul Simon; Lady Black Mambazoo
ArtistSort = Simon, Paul; Lady Black Mambazoo
Composer = Paul Simon
ComposerSort = Simom, Paul
AlbumTitle = Graceland
AlbumTitleSort = Graceland

This particular example is open to intepretation. When I look at the sleeve notes at https://www.discogs.com/Paul-Simon-Grace...ster/55658 it seems that whilst Joseph Shabala of Lady Black Mambazoo has a writing credit for this track, Ladysmith Black Mambazoo itself has only a vocal credit, and this is of no higher precedence thane the credits given for Bass, Drums or Trumpet. So personally I would not have Lady Black Mambazoo added to the track artist field just a performers field. I may possibly add Joseph Shabala to the track artist but probably not. After all many Pop albums have tracks written by a team of people but you would expect only the Pop Artist themselves to be listed.

Pepsican Wrote:

(12-09-2017 16:37)paultaylor Wrote:  Great, but can it say 'set Track Artist to Composer but only if the release is a Classical release'.

yes, it can. It has IF...THEN...ELSE logic.

The difficultly is what to put in the IF section, how do you know if it is a classical release ?

[qblack]

(20-09-2017 20:59)simoncn Wrote:  Regarding the original question from the OP, I think a future solution would involve enhancing tagValue or tagFormat processing rather than allowing tag values to be used in tagUpdate instructions.

Hi Simon,

Thanks for your input. In trying to nut out my perfect tagging solution, I was heartened to see just now that you yourself suggested a while ago some enhanced logic in the displayFormat option in this post http://forum1613.minimserver.com/showthr...uping+tag, where you proposed AlbumArtist.displayFormat={$groupartist|$albumartist}. I'm glad therefore that my original idea is not seen as too outrageous!

Meanwhile, I think I've refined my approach to my problem and propose the following:

1. Use the Compilation tag to flag all tracks in "classical" albums that contain music of more than one composer. (In the vast majority of cases the Album title already contains the composer's name for one- or two-composer albums and will already be visible on the control point/streamer.) It doesn't have to be the Compilation tag, but this seems to have relatively little use in classical music albums; am I right?

2. Query this Compilation tag in the Title.displayFormat string and return the Composer, embedded in the string, if it's true.

So far, I have only half-heartedly implemented Compilation this way, but am in the process of manually updating (with a tagging script) all Titles in my collection to reflect its use. The result seems to be just enough composer information.

[simoncn]

I think your solution is workable but I don't understand why you have chosen Compilation for the tag name. As I understand it, the added tag value would be a list of composer names. By convention, the Compilation tag is effectively a boolean with 1 indicating that the album is a compilation. Rather than reusing this tag name for a completely different purpose, I think it would be preferable to create a new tag such as TitleComposer.

[qblack]

(21-09-2017 17:54)simoncn Wrote:  I think your solution is workable but I don't understand why you have chosen Compilation for the tag name. As I understand it, the added tag value would be a list of composer names. By convention, the Compilation tag is effectively a boolean with 1 indicating that the album is a compilation. Rather than reusing this tag name for a completely different purpose, I think it would be preferable to create a new tag such as TitleComposer.

I chose Compilation because I wanted a boolean value to indicate that for this track (where Compilation is true) MinimServer would prepend the Title tag with the Composer. I.e. the formatting of the Title tag will be dependent upon the value of Compilation: either with or without Composer. I didn't envisage any further "list of composer names": just one composer per track.

Also, my ripping software has Compilation that I can set when I rip. It won't allow me to create other tags.

I hope that's clearer?

Edit: and I don't use Compilation for anything else, not really sure of its use otherwise.

[simoncn]

I don't think there is any way at present to make the formatting of the Title tag dependent on the boolean value of Compilation. I thought you were going to use the extra tag to hold the Composer value(s) but only for albums with multiple composers. What are you planning to do with Title.displayFormat?

[qblack]

I think I confused you by finishing my second-last post talking about the manual update of tags I'm undertaking in the absence of an automatic method. This is a script that trawls through my classical files and, finding a Compilation tag set to true, copies the Composer (in first last format) to the start of the Title tag. Saves file.

The point I'm trying to make (as per first post) is that it would be great if this could be done within MinimServer without actually changing any files' tags. Still by referring to the Compilation tag, I figured that maybe MinimServer could interpret logic in the Title.displayformat. Something like Title.displayFormat={($compilation==1?$composer^^ • $title^$movementnumber^: ^. $movement}. I'm making up the syntax, but you get the drift? If the file's Compilation tag is true (1), write Composer, if not, write nothing (blank after the colon). If the result of this bracketed expression is nothing, ignore this expression's suffix also ( •), but continue with Title, Movement, etc., etc.

Maybe I confused you further by insisting on using these Compilation tags, which I'm not sure I know what to do with otherwise! They seem to be asking for something to do...

[simoncn]

I hadn't understood that the Compilation=1 tag would be used to control an external script rather than beng used by MinimServer. Now that I understand this, your scheme seems reasonable.

I understand your other proposal but I think the syntax is too complicated for most users who don't have programming experience. My current thought (still at a very early stage) is to introduce the concept of filters and actions in a fairly general way. Returning to your original requirement and excluding punctuation, the filter would be [Genre='Classical'] or perhaps now [Compilation='1'] or [Compilation] and the action would be Title.displayFormat={$composer$titletag$movementnumber$movement}. You could also have another filter [!Genre='Classical'] with a different formatting action for that.

This requires more typing than your proposed syntax but it is a simple concept that could be applied in many places and could perhaps in future be used in a UI that composes filters (from a list) with actions (from another list).

I am not keen on extending tagUpdate processing because editing a text file to make things happen isn't really a suitable UI for most users.

[qblack]

This sounds spot-on. You had me at the word "filter". Much better idea. And yes, as you've done with other properties, allow a refining progression of tests, processed in the order they are entered. I wasn't game to ask, but yes, needed!... With conditional formatting like this you could surely accomplish anything.

Agree that the tagUpdate process needs a little more nerdery, which turns some people off.

Sorry I was so long-winded to get the concept across. And thanks for your genuine interest in how people interact with your excellent product.