The "Performer" challenge

[Gdg]

(10-08-2025 21:41)simoncn Wrote:  For showing Performer information when playing a track, your solution of using the displayFormat option is the right approach.

For browsing using combined Artist and Performer information (including By Folder browsing in JPLAY), you can set the indexFormat option of the tagFormat property as follows:

tagFormat: Artist.indexFormat={$Artist$Performer^^^;}

Thank you Simon, but this doesn't work.

I prepared a test environment with just two albums.

1st album is:
. Bill Frisell-2001 With D. Holland And E. Jones (Nonesuch 2001)
.. Artist = "Bill Frisell; Dave Holland; Elvin Jones"
.. Performer= null

2nd album is:
. Wayne Shorter-1965 Speak No Evil (Blue Note Capitol 1999)
.. Artist = "Wayne Shorter"
.. Performer= "Wayne Shorter; Ron Carter; Elvin Jones; Herbie Hancock;"


I set:
. indexTags=All Artists:TrackArtist

CASE A
I set (as per your suggestion):
. tagFormat: Artist.indexFormat={$Artist$Performer^^^;}

1. If I perform a search inside the JPLAY local db, of:
. "Elvin Jones"
I'll obtain as result:
. "Appears on"
Bill Frisell-2001 With D. Holland And E. Jones (Nonesuch 2001)

2. If I browse the folder "TrackArtist" (doesn't matter the app), under:
. Elvin Jones
I'll only see
. Bill Frisell-2001 With D. Holland And E. Jones (Nonesuch 2001)

CASE B
I set (as per my starting idea):
. tagFormat: Artist.displayFormat={$Artist$Performer^^^;}

1. If I perform a search inside the JPLAY local db, of:
. "Elvin Jones"
I'll obtain as result:
. "Appears on"
Bill Frisell-2001 With D. Holland And E. Jones (Nonesuch 2001)
Wayne Shorter-1965 Speak No Evil (Blue Note Capitol 1999)

2. If I browse the folder "TrackArtist" (again, with wathever app), under:
. Elvin Jones
I'll only see (as case A.2):
. Bill Frisell-2001 With D. Holland And E. Jones (Nonesuch 2001)

So, Case B.1 is OK, other cases KO

Any fix for this?

-
Anyway, I still have the concern struck me when I started using "displayFormat".

Let me try and explain.

Maybe this is just a guess, but pretty sure that minimServer is expecting to find, inside my flac, this:

. ARTIST=Wayne Shorter
and
. PERFORMER=Wayne Shorter
. PERFORMER=Ron Carter
. PERFORMER=Elvin Jones
. PERFORMER=Herbie Hancock

to correctly building its indexes for browsing.

Applying this
. Artist.displayFormat={$Artist$Performer^^^;}

we're just flattening anything to
. ARTIST=Wayne Shorter;Ron Carter;Elvin Jones;Herbie Hancock

i.e. something minimServer can't use for indexes building.
And that's why browsing TrackArtist I can't see the 2nd album.

...well, just a guess, sure I'm wrong...


But, why JPLAY (using its internal db and search engine) works fine with the above string?
Just because JPLAY expects *exactly* a string like that from minimServer...
Infact, JPLAY has a couple of Metadata configuration flags to deal with incoming strings "allowed" to be splitten:
. Split using Comma ( , ) ?
. Split using Semicolumn ( ; ) ?

...and, BTW, this is why when JPLAY plays something from the band "10,000 Maniacs" you'll go wondering why the song has two artists:
"10" and "000 Maniacs"...

-

So, Simon, any way to fix the "Browsing by TrackArtist" wish ?

Thanks for your help.

Giovanni, from Italy