tagformat - Once again

[Oliviander]

Hi Simon,
once again I am experimenting with the tagformat function in minimS
An once again I am encountering limitiations that I don't fully understand.
Obviously there are limititions in which tags can be manipulated by

tag.indexFormat and tag.displayformat

I was searchin for a list which tags can be used and maybe where I could find reasons for the existing limitations.

For custom tags .displayformat failed and therefore my guess is that there are no
controlpoints discerning between these values of custom tags.

the log says:
MinimServer: incorrect tag 'ORIGINAL_ALBUM' for option 'displayFormat' in property 'tagFormat'

For exisiting custom tags .indexformat failed too:
for
ORIGINAL_ALBUM.indexFormat={$ORIGINAL_YEAR^[^] $ORIGINAL_ALBUM^ ^}
tho log says
MinimServer: incorrect tag 'ORIGINAL_ALBUM' for option 'indexFormat' in property 'tagFormat'

but when applying the same instrucions to complete new tag
ORIGINAL.indexFormat={$ORIGINAL_YEAR^[^] $ORIGINAL_ALBUM^ ^}
.indexFormat works

I don't understand why this is so, but my example is already the solution for what I am trying to do.

But the following seems a real limitaiton to me:

ALBUM.indexFormat doesn't work.
As i tried ALBUM.displayFormat I realized, the in the Album list
of the Controlpoint the manipulations were visible, so I
fear that there actually is no spearate ALBUM.indexFormat
and the Album list is using the ALBUM.displayFormat
This is actually a pity because I tried to add
the #AudioData to the list view of Albums but
I don't want this Information in the Playing now View of the controlpoint.
But I guess there is no way - this could be done.

So i tried to circumvent this by adding a Custom IndexTag ALBUMM
ALBUMM.indexFormat={$ALBUM^^ $Date^ (^) $#AudioData^ <^>}
but this solution has 2 limitations:

1. You'll have to use listViewAlbums=1 or otherwise
you will end up in the standard Albumview without seeing the additional Information
- so this sometimes will afford a click more than really needed

2. and even worse
when you select an ALBUMM you won#t see a list view of titles
as you would see it if you choose the corresponding ALBUM entry,
but you will come up with a single entry for the actual Album
that you have to click once more to get a titlelist view

So here are my actual questions:

Is there a possibility to circumvent the ALBUM.indexFormat limitation
that I didn't see ?

And if not

Is there a possibility to force a titlelistview if there is only 1 Album left to select
for any index selection. (like if you were selcting an ALBUM directly)

THX for your patience with a naughty User

[simoncn]

I am away from home at present. I will reply to your questions in the next few days.

[simbun]

(27-05-2024 22:06)Oliviander Wrote:  For custom tags .displayformat failed and therefore my guess is that there are no
controlpoints discerning between these values of custom tags.

The documentation states:

Quote:Any displayFormat actions in tagFormat do not change tag values. They are applied to metadata sent to the control point when this metadata is requested.

So your assumption makes sense to me. You can see exactly what's being sent to the control point by setting MinimServer logging to Trace, but I don't know of a way to map those back to the underlying tags themselves (although most will be obvious except for things like discsubtitle, comment and the various artist tags).

(27-05-2024 22:06)Oliviander Wrote:  For exisiting custom tags .indexformat failed too:
for
ORIGINAL_ALBUM.indexFormat={$ORIGINAL_YEAR^[^] $ORIGINAL_ALBUM^ ^}
tho log says
MinimServer: incorrect tag 'ORIGINAL_ALBUM' for option 'indexFormat' in property 'tagFormat'

I think it's just telling you that whilst you've specified an indexFormat for ORIGINAL_ALBUM it's not included in indexTags.

Having said that the documentation states:

Quote:The indexFormat option doesn't replace any existing tags in the item. For example, the option
WorkByTitle.indexFormat={$title$tonality$opusnumber$subtitle}
would add a WorkByTitle tag if it doesn't exist in this item. No tag would be added if the item already has a WorkByTitle tag. This limitation doesn't apply to the Artist tag.

So it's likely that you'll want to apply it to a new tag anyway.

(27-05-2024 22:06)Oliviander Wrote:  So i tried to circumvent this by adding a Custom IndexTag ALBUMM
ALBUMM.indexFormat={$ALBUM^^ $Date^ (^) $#AudioData^ <^>}
but this solution has 2 limitations:

1. You'll have to use listViewAlbums=1 or otherwise
you will end up in the standard Albumview without seeing the additional Information
- so this sometimes will afford a click more than really needed

2. and even worse
when you select an ALBUMM you won#t see a list view of titles
as you would see it if you choose the corresponding ALBUM entry,
but you will come up with a single entry for the actual Album
that you have to click once more to get a titlelist view

Enhancements to ListViewAlbums have been discussed before, although taking you straight to track view when an index selection only leaves a single album wasn't really part of the proposed solution.

[simoncn]

My apologies for the delay in replying to this.

The following tags are sent to the control point as metadata properties and can be customised using displayFormat:
Album
AlbumArtist
Artist
Comment
DiscSubtitle
Genre
Group
Label
Title
Rating
any role tags specified in the upnpCustom property

Some tags that are sent to the control point as metadata properties cannot be customised using displayFormat:
Date
TrackNumber

I will add this information to the User guide.

Album.indexFormat is a valid option but it doesn't do what you are expecting. The "n albums" list is not a MinimServer tag index, so indexFormat can't be applied to the cointents of this list. Thie option could be used if you create a tag index with the name Album.

Album names are sent to the control point using two DIDL-Lite metadata properties:
1) the dc:title property of a DIDL-Lite musicAlbum element
2) the upnp:album property of a DIDL-Lite musicTrack element

These are set to the same value and this value can be customised using the Album.displayFormat option. It would in theory be possible to make a change in MinimServer to enable setting these to different values but I am very reluctant to do this because it feels wrong and it might cause problems with some UPnP control points.

Regarding your other suggestion of making a track list appear directly underneath a selection from your ALBUMM index, this is likely to cause problems because the ALBUMM index (like all tag indexes) contains generic DIDL-Lite containers, not DIDL-Lite musicAlbum containers. Most control points have special treatment for DIDL-Lite musicAlbum containers (displayed in a nicer format, having a simple way to queue all tracks for playing, applying album artwork, providing information about the albums in your library) and some or all of these features would almost certainly not work correctly if generic containers were sent to the control point by MinimServer instead of musicAlbum containers.