Feature suggestion: customise abum, title inside groups

[Oliviander]

(20-04-2013 20:46)simoncn Wrote:  You can define GROUPARTIST yourself and tag your groups with this. If you do this, you would need MinimServer to provide a way to use GROUPARTIST if it is defined, and use ALBUMARTIST if GROUPARTIST isn't defined.

This capability could be supported by adding the following syntax:

AlbumArtist.displayFormat={$groupartist|$albumartist}

The or sign '|' indicates that the value(s) following it should be used only if the previous value(s) aren't present.

Hi Simon,
I will try how this works, but I don't think this is what I meant.
Because in my scenario I have always a GROUPARTIST
and an ALBUMARTIST TAG existent.
And therefore i guess the Groupartist would always be used.
But I still want to see the original ALBUMARTIST
in the ALBUM list view. (details see below)
But as I said, this is not a major concern.

Quote:Could you explain the scenario where this isn't useful? Would it be possible to get what you want by aliasing Group to something else?

Hi Simon,
ok you asked for it:
I think to really make someone understand
what I'm thinking and doing, I have to tell the whole story:

I have 2 MinS instances running serving my classical Collection.
(Classical Music only, I have other instances for the other music).

I have done this because in my opinion it is very different if

1st case, I call it "AlbumSearch"
I want to select an known Album. (in this case most of the time
I visualize a CD when selecting the music and in physical means
I would know how the CD looks like and where its place in the shelf is.)

Or if 2nd case, I call it "WorkSearch" :
I am searching for a something I don't know whether it is buried
in my collection or not.

The first MinS instance is strictly for AlbumSearch
and I have only 2 Search indexes
(Last but not least I do this because of the Wife Acceptance Faktor)
ALBUM_ARTIST_SORT
ALBUM_COMPOSER_SORT

I have these 2 Tags (multiple entries possible) always identical for all tracks of an album.
(For these TAGS I strictly use only the big lettered Front Cover info)
So the selection always leads to the complete album.
In this case I like to have the ListViewAlbums at rather
large value (like 50).
So this is like going to a row of my shelves and the picking the album.

For Display purposes of a playing file I have aliased WORK:GROUP
(alias Tags = WORK:Group)
so in the playlist I don't have the Album any more but the Work
as a Header.

So for this use of Group it is great to send the Group Tag
instead of the Album Tag to the Control point, like it is now.

But I have some problems with the ALBUMARTIST TAG.

I have the following TAGS for View prposes

ALBUM_ARTIST : multiple entries and identical for all tracks of an album
ARTIST : multiple entries and identical for all tracks of a group (WORK)

When I set ALBUMARTIST to display ALBUM_ARTST
and see an Album list to select from
I have the ALBUM_ARTIST Tag in the second line (Kinsky)
which is exactly what I want.

But when I play a Track it is still the ALBUM_ARTIST Tag
displayed below the Group in the playlist.
And sometimes this might be either a wrong information.
(When not all ALBUMARTISTS are ARTISTS too)
Or rather incomplete Information
(When there are ARTISTS I want to see displayed that
are not ALBUMARTISTS)
The same problem occurs when I select a GROUP out of an ALBUM
it is still the same ALBUM_ARTIST displayed while the ARTIST
would be the correct information.

So while this is rather a minor nuisance for me, I think
you should consider a distinctive treatment of these 2 cases
as I understand that you want to encourage
different and creative uses of the GROUP functionality,
and therefore it is not consistent to combine the display
an ALBUM property with a GROUP property in a list.

My second MinS instance is strictly for WorkSearch.
here I have aliased the Works to an Album,
so the original Albums do not show up anymore.
alias Tags = WORK:Album
for easier selection I have some WORKS
Grouped in parts with a PART Tag
alias Tags = PART:Group

This can have different uses
as Acts of an Opera or Part of an Oratorium.
But it is not used where one Track
contains 1 Movement (too much work for too much redundance)

In this case I have no problems with the artist line,
as in the Album list and in the Group List
the ARTIST tag is used and correct for both cases.

But now when a track is selected

WORK: Parsifal (as album)
PART: 1.Akt (as group)

only PART is send to the controlpoint as a header
while here still the WORK would be that what I want.

I know how to, and I do for now circumvent this
by Tagformating the
Group to ($Work - $Part)
but then I do this, it is the formatting in the Albumview too
and there it is rather a nuisance because the group entries
are now all including the header.

But I would prefer :

Parsifal
1.Akt
2.Akt
3.Akt

over the now displaying

Parsifal
Parsifal 1.Akt
Parsifal 2.Akt
Parsifal 3.Akt

especially with much longer WORK names as
"Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg"

on the other hand I have no real use for the
PART suffix which now shows
in the playlist.
As I have these Info already as a Prefix in the TITLE Tag

Conclusion for Elegance Purposes:

With a seperate GROUPARTIST handling
and the OPTION to send the ALBUM or the GROUP as
a header to the Playlist I would be able
to let show up the items of the Playlist
in exactly the same form not depending
whether they are selected by my
AlbumSearch or my WokrSearch instance

And I think this freedom could encourage uses
of groups I am not even thinking of