Index Artwork

[simoncn]

(28-12-2022 21:14)simbun Wrote:  I just caught that I wasn't actually indexing AlbumArtist, I was using AlbumArtistSort instead (and labelling it) because I thought it would be a lighter operation to just change the .displayFormat rather then the .value and .sort attributes.

It makes no difference which index tag you are using. The implementation is the same for all index tags. **

Quote:This bit confused me, but from what you said subsequently I assume you just meant that it's based on entries from the [n] items and not from [n] albums index, even though that index may not actually be shown because of the listViewAlbums setting?

That's correct.

Quote:I hadn't compared it to the Artist index before because I don't use it, but I'm not seeing any difference, is that correct bearing in mind the original quote?

Yes, see ** above.

Quote:If the Artist index is supposed to show Album artwork I find it surprising that the AlbumArtist wouldn't given that the Artist index could include track artists. If Artist is supposed to work I could easily use this instead of AlbumArtist as I always have AlbumArtist populated.

Again, see ** above. I think there is some confusion from my Pink Floyd example. The image can be any artwork image for any item in the contents underneath the index entry. For indexes containing audio files (for example, Artist, AlbumArtist, 'n albums', 'n items' and folders), this includes images for audio files, groups, discs and albums. For indexes containing playlists (for example, 'n playlists' and folders), this includes images for playlists. The same principle applies to indexes containing network streams and/or folders. The typical case will be to show an album cover but all other image types are possible.

Quote:Given how performant MinimServer is I thought you might be storing the sort order during the initial file index, but if you're doing it realtime then I completely understand!

Every index in MinimServer is created dynamically because of intelligent browsing. For example, if Genre is selected before Composer, the Composer index for Genre > Choral > Composer will have different contents than the Composer index for Genre > Concerto > Composer, so each of these Composer index entries needs its own bespoke image selection. There is some caching of images once they have been computed but switching to a different container clears this cache. For example, cached images for Genre > Choral > xxx are cleared when the user switches to Genre > Concerto.

The top-level index images are cached until the next rescan but it would not be reasonable to have a different scheme for selecting these images than the scheme for selecting all other images at lower levels.