Playlist organisation

[simbun]

(18-12-2024 12:01)simoncn Wrote:  An important point to factor into this discussion is that the "n playlists" index in tag view is similar to "n albums" and "n items" in providing a flat list of all playlists.

Whilst it is a flat list like "(n) albums|items" it's only available at the root index and doesn't make use of tags, much like "folder view", so it's a bit of an anomoly really.

(18-12-2024 12:01)simoncn Wrote:  For albums and items in tag view, structured browsing is also available via MinimServer's intelligent browsing using tagged information. There is no such equivalent for structured browsing of playlists in tag view. I think this would be the right place to add some kind of structured browsing of playlists rather than by making changes to how folder view works.

I wasn't suggesting to change how folder view works, just to have a "folder view" of playlists at the root index.

(18-12-2024 12:01)simoncn Wrote:  Also, the "n albums" and "n items" lists have sort orders that can be configured using the Album.sortTags and items.sortTags options. The "n playlists" list is sorted by alphabetical order of playlist title with no way to change this. Some means of configuring this sort order could be useful if the number of playlists is large. For example, a specifying a sort tag such as Artist, Album or Date could tell MinimServer to look for the first occurrence of that tag in the contents of each playlist and use these tag values for sorting the list of playlists.

I'd imagine most playlists contain multiple AlbumArtist, Album and Date tags, and pulling from the first track only reduces flexbility. You could lump a playlist containing multiple AlbumArtists into a Various Artists category, but then you're back in the same boat as before with everything lumped into one list.

If you wanted to use tags it would make most sense to pull them from the playlist file:

Code:

#EXTALB:  Album
#EXTART:  Artist
#EXTGENRE:  Genre

My dad makes extensive use of playlists so I had a quick play to see how folder view could look (used extension .m3u8.m3u8 on one playlist):
   

Ultimately I think he'd have an Artist folder in the root index with "Best Of" playlists within, just to avoid the clutter at the top level, but hopefully you get the idea.


Whilst a tag view of playlists is more aligned with MinimServer I just don't think it makes sense for playlists. I also thought it would take much more work, as for those who store their playlists in a single folder "all that's required" (having no knowledge of what's really required) is a shortcut to it from the root index.