[SOLVED] tagValue Artist.merge does not work with certain tagUpdate file?

[zym1010]

Hi,

Thanks for the prompt reply.

"ArtistIndividual" is my way of dealing with compatibility with iTunes and other players not supporting true multi artist tagging. Basically

1. each file only has ONE Artist tag physically, where multiple artists are separated by semicolon. Example: "A; B; C". Then I pass all files through some processing
2. if there's no semicolon in the Artist tag, then my processor ignore such files
3. otherwise, add multiple "ArtistIndividual" tags into the file.

By setting up "ArtistIndividual:-Artist", i ensure that after mapping, each Artist is alway some individual artist, not multiple artists concatenated together. This trick is very rewarding as it allows me browsing the library much more easily.



Now, back to your statement that "This is causing all your ARTIST tags (both those in the audio file and those added by tag update) to be removed and replaced with your ARTISTINDIVIDUAL tagged values.", I think this is the CORRECT behavior. tagUpdate's tags should act as physical tags.

The problem, IMO, is that I think tagValue should apply after "aliasTags" is done and does not care about physical tag any more (I feel this is how "Artist.displayFormat" works; I feel it treats all physical ARTISTINDIVIDUAL as ARTIST); or maybe I'm wrong here. But in any case I feel the relationship between aliasTags and tagValue is not cleanly explained in the doc and I can only make educated guesses.

Overall, I feel the MinimServer doc is lacking about the order in which all options take effect and the dependencies among options. From a user's perspective, as long as these are explained clearly and the implemented behaviors can satisfy users' requirements, it's ok.

(07-11-2022 08:33)simoncn Wrote:  Edit: updated this post as the original information posted was incorrect.

Thanks for the very helpful small example.

The problem is caused by your aliasTags setting: ArtistIndividual:-Artist

This is causing all your ARTIST tags (both those in the audio file and those added by tag update) to be removed and replaced with your ARTISTINDIVIDUAL tagged values.

I have thought about whether this should be changed to only remove ARTIST tags in the audio file. Because tags added by tag update are processed by the aliasTags setting, I think MinimServer should be consistent and apply "minus alias" processing in the same way.