[Music] Extend music view possibilities by allowing multiple root folders (1 Viewer)

[Requiem]

Hi folks,

Mediaportal is great, but when it comes to music views, there are some options (IMHO) missing.
Right now, there is an option to have your music database in different locations (on your local HTPC, on a NAS etc) and this will integrete neatly with MP music views. But if you want to have multiple root folders with different views, there actually is no option to realize that.

Personally, I do not only own music audio files (e.g. audiobook), and even the music files are sorted in a way I like it for myself (in directories).

E.g. I have

- Music
-- Single Tracks
-- Motion Picture Soundtracks
-- Compilations
-- Albums
-- Children
-- Classical
- Audiobooks
- Comedy

I can use this when I use the directory view, but this is really slow, even on Gbit-Ethernet.
I imagine that there's not much to add but an option to "Treat folder as a root folder" in the MP config and have this added to the music database. Eventually you could also edit your view defaults for each root directory to be able to have an albumartist on folder 1, another view on folder 2 (especially useful for classic music)...

Hope you get my point

 

[GeoffC]

This would be great and not just for music. The same could be applied to movies and photos.

 

[jameson_uk]

Can you not simply setup each of these as shares and do not tick a default one? IIRC this means that when you enter shares view it will take you to the root.

Or are you talking about having different database views within different share folders?

 

[kiwijunglist]

unfortunately you can't filter views. an exclusion or inclusion rule set for a music database view (based on file location ) would solve your problem.

 

[kiwijunglist]

Can you not simply setup each of these as shares and do not tick a default one? IIRC this means that when you enter shares view it will take you to the root.

Or are you talking about having different database views within different share folders?

there is no way to divide his collection based on that directory structure within youdatabaseview is there? or are you saying that if all the folders are in the database then is it faster to navigate in npndatabase shares view bc it doesn't have to scan the files?

 

[Requiem]

Correct, currently there's no way to set this in database view modes. If I want to stick with my folder structure, I have to use directory based view, which does not show all fanart and is incredlbibly slow on large directories.
I'd think that it should not take too much additions to the existing database structure to show mulltiple root folders. And if for each the database view mode (list, covers etc) would be saved separate, this would be great too.

Examples:
1. You have a lot of single tracks by various artists, not belonging to albums. In database view they all become distributed all over your music collection by albumartist name. I'd like to view this root folder as single files.
2. You have a large collection of albums. I'd like to order these in database view by albumartist.
3. You have a large collection of classical music, several "double" performances by different conductors etc. I'd like an extra folder with its own view mode for that root folder.
4. You have a folder for your childrens music. I'd like to have these in a seperate folder and view so they don't get mixed up with my other music.
5. You have a folder with audiobooks, which don't follow tags as they are used for music. You want another root folder and directory structure view for that.
6. You have a folder four your Movie OST's , you want them to show seperately...

etc...

Hope my intention is clear. Even if you rape your MP3 collections tags, there's no way to easily structure your collection in database mode.
Another solution (but not as smart) would be caching the directory structure to speed things up, but that has already been refused with hint to the database view mode in another thread.

I still think this is a good idea and should not take excessive additions to the existing database structure (I imagine it being 2 additional values; one for the directory and one for the view mode) plus config options...while it is a great addition to the functionality of the music module.

 

[kiwijunglist]

That would not be a good way to implement. You can't have "root folders for database view" because database view doesn't browse based on folders, that wouldn't really make a lot of sense. If you want to browse via folder you can use shares view.

You would be better to have a rules based system for each view mode that is defined under mediaportal my music. The same way it is done under moving pictures categories.

So for your Audiobooks

View Name = AudioBooks
Rule = [include] [folder] [starts with] [C:\Music]

You could also apply exclusions to all the other existing views to prevent audiobooks being listed in them.

View Name = Album Artists
Rule = [exclude] [folder] [starts with] [C:\Audiobooks]

 

[Requiem]

If I had the possibility to arrage it that way with rules that'd be great. IS there an actual possibility? I have not found this out in the music views configuration.
But I'd like to show all views in the root dir and do not want to switch between them everytime....

As already said, of course you can browse your folder structure. But beneath the fact that not all fanart is displayed then, it is so slow on large directories that it becomes almost unusable.

 

[kiwijunglist]

Yes it's already possible

Add View Audiobooks

Selection:Genre
Operator: =
Restriction: Audiobook
Skip = Yes

Then add the subset of views you want depending on how you want to layout your audio books.

Restriction is case sensitive
This assumes you tag your audiobook's genre as "Audiobook"

 

[Requiem]

Thanks, but I was talking about

View Name = AudioBooks
Rule = [include] [folder] [starts with] [C:\Music]

You could also apply exclusions to all the other existing views to prevent audiobooks being listed in them.

View Name = Album Artists
Rule = [exclude] [folder] [starts with] [C:\Audiobooks]

I absolutely need to do this by the folder structure, not tags. And I still would not like to switch between views but see all possible views as if being in a root folder, just jumping in there. Everything else is fiddling around. ;-)