Configure library browsing Questions

[agisthos]

I have Minimserver on a QNAP and use JPlay as the control app and this seems like a great combination.
All my music files are fully tagged.
I have no experience with Minimserver configuration so forgive me if what I am about to ask is actually a JPlay setting issue.

I just want the control app browsing to mimic JRiver...
Genre > Artist > Albums

By adding the Genre tag to index tags i.e
indexTags = Artist, Genre
...this seems to do the job.

Q. But how do we make the albums of a particular Artist display in sort order of 'year' tag, not alphabetically?

Q. Between clicking on 'Genre' and seeing the Artist list within that Genre, there is an extra step showing 3 choices "xxx albums, xxx items, Artist".
Is it possible to skip this step and go straight to Artist list?

Q. I saw you can do exclusions. Can exclusions just apply when browsing into Genre (or artist) but when using [Folder View] be still available to see/play?
Can exclusions only apply to one Content Directory but not others?

Q. Is there any suggested settings for JPlay specific peculiarities?

[simoncn]

(30-03-2025 11:22)agisthos Wrote:  Q. But how do we make the albums of a particular Artist display in sort order of 'year' tag, not alphabetically?

To do this, set the tagOptions property to Album.sortTags={Date, Title}

Quote:Q. Between clicking on 'Genre' and seeing the Artist list within that Genre, there is an extra step showing 3 choices "xxx albums, xxx items, Artist".
Is it possible to skip this step and go straight to Artist list?

It isn't possible to skip this step.

Quote:Q. I saw you can do exclusions. Can exclusions just apply when browsing into Genre (or artist) but when using [Folder View] be still available to see/play?
Can exclusions only apply to one Content Directory but not others?

The excludePattern property is a global setting for your entire MinimServer library.

Quote:Q. Is there any suggested settings for JPlay specific peculiarities?

You can use JPLAY in two different modes. It sounds like you are currently browsing using Local Network/By Folder. This shows the MinimServer browsing interface and there are no special JPLAY settings for this. If you browse using Home in JPLAY, this shows the JPLAY browsing interface and you should ask JPLAY what MinimServer settings they recommend for this.

[agisthos]

Thanks.

I did add
Album.sortTags={Date, Title}
to the tagOptions and get the red error - Incorrect tag name 'Date' in option 'Album.sortTags' in property 'tagOptions'

I did try changing 'date' to 'year' as that is what the exact tag is called in my wavs but it made no difference, just giving same error with the word changed to 'year'

[agisthos]

I found someone else saying change tag options to...

Album.sortTags={Artist, +Date}

and that one comes up with the same error.

[simbun]

Try adding Date to itemTags

From the documentation:

Quote:The itemTags property specifies a list of additional tags that MinimServer will read from your audio files in addition to the tags listed in the indexTags property. These additional tags can be used for sorting (see the List sort order section) or for tag formatting (see the Tag formatting section).

[agisthos]

Right, and add Title. Its perfect, and add + to reverse the sort order from ascending to descending.

My only questions now is....
what is the difference between these two?

Album.sortTags={Date, Title}
Album.sortTags={Artist, Date}

Both seem to do exactly the same thing when I browse the artists and albums within the Genre folder view.
Im interested to know how its supposed to differ.

[simbun]

(04-04-2025 14:41)agisthos Wrote:  what is the difference between these two?

Album.sortTags={Date, Title}

I don't know why @simoncn put Title in there, without it albums will be sorted first by Date then by Album name.

(04-04-2025 14:41)agisthos Wrote:  Album.sortTags={Artist, Date}

Albums will be sorted by Artist (AlbumArtist), Date and finally Album name.

(04-04-2025 14:41)agisthos Wrote:  Both seem to do exactly the same thing when I browse the artists and albums within the Genre folder view.

Assuming that the selection of a Genre results in albums from different album artists the order of the lists should differ. It's easiest to see the effect of the configuration by viewing the '[n] albums' index.

You may also want to customise the album display:

Code:

tagFormat: Album.displayFormat={$Date^^ - ^$Album}

[simoncn]

(04-04-2025 16:16)simbun Wrote:  I don't know why @simoncn put Title in there, without it albums will be sorted first by Date then by Album name.

I had intended to put Album in there, not Title. As you said, this isn't required because sorting by Date followed by Album is the default if only Date is specified.