My third wish

[simoncn]

(04-08-2023 09:57)simbun Wrote:  When MinimServer performs the processing to group albums it reads the incoming Album tag, the only way I can affect that processing is by using aliasTags because all other processing is performed post album grouping.

I am not seeing this. When I specify Album.default or Album.replace, these changes are reflected in album grouping.

[simbun]

Apologies, it's been so long since I had to address my album grouping dilemma that I'd completely forgotten the underlying problem, which must have been that Album.displayFormat is only evaluated at run-time, as it's the concatenation of multiple tags (in my schema) that make an album unique.

In which case AlbumGroup.default={} doesn't sound like it would be an issue, making it a really flexible solution.

[simoncn]

The displayFormat option only changes what metadata is sent to the control point. It doesn't affect how MinimServer groups albums or anything else that would change the browsing structure on the server side.

[x-stefan]

I'm still in the process of retagging my library and now have a problem with a disc that is part of two series. Using mp3tag it was no problem to make multiple tags for albumgroup and albumgroupsort. This makes the disc show up in both series but for sorting the first tag named albumgroupsort is used - what is wrong for the second series.

Any hint how to fix this?

[simoncn]

This should work as you are expecting. I will investigate and post back here when I have more information. Do you see any warning messages in the log about sort values when you do a rescan?

[simbun]

(15-09-2023 11:30)x-stefan Wrote:  I'm still in the process of retagging my library and now have a problem with a disc that is part of two series. Using mp3tag it was no problem to make multiple tags for albumgroup and albumgroupsort. This makes the disc show up in both series but for sorting the first tag named albumgroupsort is used - what is wrong for the second series.

I've often wanted the ability to do this, but it would be difficult enough to configure let alone code!

Essentially you want a different album sort order for each value of each index...I think e.g. With an index of Album Charts, with values 'UK Top 10 Albums 2023', 'USA Top 10 Albums 2023', where you'd want to see the albums within each ordered from 1 to 10 (given the possibility of an album appearing in both in different positions). Is that right?

Would be good to see some examples if I've got that wrong.

[x-stefan]

I investigated further details and maybe a disc belonging to more than one series or box is not possible with the albumgroup concept.

The disc is vol. 20 of the Vivaldi-Edition which is also part of the Voix Baroque series, where it is vol. 50.

The tagging is

Code:

comment[3]: ALBUM=Arie d’Opera
comment[12]: ALBUMGRP=Vivaldi-Edition
comment[13]: ALBUMGRP=Voix Baroque
comment[16]: ALBUMGRPSORT=Vivaldi-Edition Vol. 20
comment[17]: ALBUMGRPSORT=Voix Baroque 50

When browsing Voix Baroque via the albums index, the Vivaldi-Edition disc are shown fist, followed by the Voix Baroque discs. I think this is the described behavior (due to tagOptions: Album.sortTags={AlbumGrpSort, Album}). Using the albumgroup index the two series are show and not the album list, what is also the described behavior.

Due to the fact that everything works like designed, there are no messages related to sort values in the log.

What I like to see when browsing Voix Baroque is the list of albums with the tag albumgrp=Voix Baroque, sorted by albumgrpsort=Voix Baroque

[simbun]

(15-09-2023 21:54)x-stefan Wrote:  I investigated further details and maybe a disc belonging to more than one series or box is not possible with the albumgroup concept.

It's possible to belong to multiple lists, but it isn't possible to control the sort order of the albums within those lists independently e.g.

# ALBUMGRP > Voix Baroque
Album 1
Album 2
Album 3

# ALBUMGRP > Vivaldi-Edition
Album 3
Album 2
Album 1

You can only control the album sort order with Album.sortTags={} and that applies everywhere.

With multi-value tags in AlbumGrpSort, Album.sortTags={AlbumGrpSort, Album} is either just taking the first value from AlbumGrpSort or more likely concatenating both values into a single string ("value1,value2") and then using that value to sort.

[simoncn]

My apologies for musunderstanding this question. I had thought it was about using the tagValue property to apply an ALBUMGRPSORT tag as the sort value of an ALBUMGRP tag. This should work with positional matching of multiple ALBUMGRP and ALBUMGRPSORT values as I described.

As simbun has explained, multiple ALBUMGRPSORT values can't be used in Album.sortTags. In this case, only the first value is used for sorting.

[x-stefan]

I think I now understand (thank you both for the patience with me) the limitations of MinimServer and ALBUMGROUP - what leeds me back to the initial posting, a sorting option per index would be fine.

Having the albums for a series or box not sorted by the sequence of the series is not really satisfying (MinimServer without ALBUMGROUP). But using ALBUMGROUPS is also unsatisfying when having discs that are part of multiple series or boxes.

With ALBUMGROUP you get a sorted list of series or boxes but the albums index get useless (a quarter to a third of my library is part of series, with single series up to 50 or more disc - so there is a long list of these ALBUMGROUPs at the top of the albums index list). But you also get the ALBUMGROUP index what looks like a real world CD shelf (in particular for boxes) with alphabetical sorting of the disc. This is a good replacement for the lost albums index.

But with the limitation shown now (disc is part of multiple series) over all the sorting using ALBUMGROUPS looks somehow erratic - especially for the other family members.