How to use ComposerSort INSTEAD of Composer

[paultaylor]

Hi Simon

Im just trying to configure a default MinimServer instance so it uses the value of the ComposerSort field rather than the Composer field (all my files have a value for ComposerSort if they have a value for Composer) , and hence using the Linn Kinsky control app on Windows I want it to display the ComposerSort value rather than the Composer value when you open Composer

My first approach was set:
aliasTags:ComposerSort:Composer

Now each composer is listed twice once using ComposerSort value and once using Composer value, but I understand why that doesnt work as I have simply added ComposerSort as another value to use as Composer (rather than replace the value)

So I reverted that change and tried changing

indexTags:Artist, Date, Genre, All Artists, Composer, Conductor, Orchestra

to

indexTags:Artist, Date, Genre, All Artists, ComposerSort, Conductor, Orchestra

But MinimServer complains Incorrect tag name ComposerSort in property tagCustom

So I reverted that and tried adding

itemsTags:ComposerSort
tagValue:Composer.value.sort={ComposerSort}, Composer.default={ComposerSort}
which I took from a forum post, the options were accepted, but after rescanning it made no difference

I spent some time reading the manual, but Im clearly misunderstanding something.

thanks Paul

[simoncn]

You were very close with your first attempt. The aliasTags property should be set to:

ComposerSort:Composer, Composer:nil

This will cause MinimServer to ignore all Composer tags and treat all ComposerSort tags as if they were Composer tags.

[paultaylor]

Great, thankyou that works

For my understanding am I right thinking that in this line

ComposerSort:Composer, Composer:nil

that the first Composer refers to a MinimServer level final field, whereas the second Composer reference refers the logical MinimServer name for the COMPOSER field in Flac, TCOM in ID3 etc.

Second question, what is the solution if I still want to display the value of Composer rather than ComposerSort as per the defaults, but I want the Composers to be sorted according to the value in the ComposerSort field.

[simoncn]

There isn't really a distinction between logical and physical names. MinimServer treats all tags internally as name=value pairs. For ID3v2 and iTunes tagging, ID3v2 frames and iTunes atoms are mapped to name=value format as described in the Tag mappings section of the User guide. For FLAC/Vorbis tagging, all name/value pairs are used exactly "as is". ID3v2 and iTunes mapping happens before aliasing is applied, so aliasing always takes a list of name=value pairs as input and produces another list of name=value pairs as output.

With the settings

ComposerSort:Composer, Composer:nil

the input

COMPOSERSORT=Bruckner, Anton
COMPOSER=Anton Bruckner

is converted to

COMPOSER=Bruckner, Anton
NIL=Anton Bruckner

The NIL tag is then ignored because it isn't in the indexTags or itemTags list.

To use the ComposerSort tag as the sort value only, see the description in this section. In this case, you should not have any aliasTags settings.

[paultaylor]

Ah right, now understood, But sorry begs another question if I have an ID3 field not in the Tag Mapping list (such as the various TXXX fields) how can MinimServer use them ?

Now got Sorting working okay as follows:
itemTags:ComposerSort
tagValue:Composer.value.sort={ComposerSort}

[simoncn]

TXXX is mapped to the name/value pair that it contains. This should be mentioned in the Tag mappings section and I will fix this. The equivalent iTunes atom '----' is handled in the same way. Any other ID3 tags that aren't in the list can't be used in MinimServer.

[paultaylor]

(16-03-2017 14:05)simoncn Wrote:  TXXX is mapped to the name/value pair that it contains. This should be mentioned in the Tag mappings section and I will fix this. The equivalent iTunes atom '----' is handled in the same way. Any other ID3 tags that aren't in the list can't be used in MinimServer.

Thanks got it working, example includes sorting by TXXX:Conductor Sort field (note the space between Conductor and Sort)

itemTags:ComposerSort, Conductor Sort
tagValiue:Composer.value.sort={ComposerSort}, Conductor.value.sort={Conductor Sort}