Favorite Actor view (1 Viewer)

mbb

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Hi,

The actor view is a quite interesting concept, but in his actual form it's unusable ...

If you have let says 50 films in your database, you have 10 actors by film, of course some of them play in several films, the list in actor view would be about 40 x 10 = 400 items sorted by first name, name.

and only 10 % are well known.

is it possible to have a favorite actots view ?

Thanks

mbb
 

Dadeo

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    It's an interesting idea mbb - how do you want to define your favorite actors? Do you want to go through all actors and add each one as favorites? Or are there specific criteria that could be used to define 'favorites' (and filter the actors list), such as actors which appear in 5 or more films, etc. Guzzi has already started a major improvement of the Actors feature for a future release, so now would be the time to provide input! (and you are correct, the current actors feature is only the first step)
     

    TLD

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    Perhaps you could filter to view actors the are in X amount of movies in your catalog as you are likely to have many movies with your favorite actors in them.
     

    mbb

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    The search tool is usualy enough for me even if the virtual keyboard with a remote control is not so easy, but this request is for my step mother (79 yo).

    The criteria of appearance is not so efficient because she doesnt care about a lot of actors of action movie for example that I have in the database
    A short list (30) of her favorite actors with picture and maybe some information would be easier for her to find a film (I have more than 500)

    The other anoying thing in the actual actors view is the first name, name presentation. I know it came in that way from web sites. But it's realy not easy to identify your actor in a list of john.;)
     

    Guzzi

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    AW: Re: Favorite Actor view

    The search tool is usualy enough for me even if the virtual keyboard with a remote control is not so easy, but this request is for my step mother (79 yo).

    The criteria of appearance is not so efficient because she doesnt care about a lot of actors of action movie for example that I have in the database
    A short list (30) of her favorite actors with picture and maybe some information would be easier for her to find a film (I have more than 500)
    Indeed, that is currently not possible efficiently. You could use a copy of your config and create userdefined config filters (e.g. Actors like '*loved-actor*') - but you're limited to 2 conditions (that is two actors).
    I will think about that for the "actor rework" (see google issue) to add something like that.

    The other anoying thing in the actual actors view is the first name, name presentation. I know it came in that way from web sites. But it's realy not easy to identify your actor in a list of john.;)
    Yep, there is almost no websites giving back name separated as first/last - I personally mostly use context search or global search, when looking for actor/person stuff - as indeed browsing >10.000 items is no fun ;-)
     

    mbb

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    It's complicated in the GUI to have more than 2 fixed conditions. (you can look at Moving Picture custom categories for a flexible number of conditions)

    Is it possible to alter the xml file and add more condition manualy ?

    An other way for future developpement would be to add the possibility to use a file included a list of values in the condition field

    I have the same request for favorite directors

    thanks for your very good work.

    mbb
     

    Dadeo

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    mbb I really like your idea of having filters for actors view - such as by genre - or perhaps restricting actors to the current view already selected. So if you are viewing action movies you only get actors in those movies, etc. However, I am still not clear what condition you would use or how you would define favorite actors/directors/etc.?The reason I ask is that we can define some preset filters or even search options but only if we can specify a valid condition such as actors in more than 5>10 movies etc.
     

    Guzzi

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    AW: Re: Favorite Actor view

    It's complicated in the GUI to have more than 2 fixed conditions. (you can look at Moving Picture custom categories for a flexible number of conditions)

    Is it possible to alter the xml file and add more condition manualy ?
    I have now added a "freetext" condition for configs - that allows you almost any possible view, inlcuding adding as many actors etc, as you want, but without SetupGUI support (you have to know what to put there, but result field will help you).
    That will at least allow advanced users to do things, GUI does currently not apply - but regardless of that, I think the discussion should be continued and finally something "userfriendly" should be added as feature request and implemented for all users being able to use in a nice way.

    An other way for future developpement would be to add the possibility to use a file included a list of values in the condition field
    Finally, what you're asking for is extending the conditions to support lists for conditions, right? You might want the same for years (2011, 2010, 2009) or categories (actionn, adventure) or any sort of persons (Willis, Celentano).
    This should be quite easy for config conditions, adding the "IN" condition and use those lists in the value field.
    For userdefined views, it would require extending the views by the condition parameter (it is currently always "LIKE").

    I have the same request for favorite directors
    Well, it would work for any sort of field of course.
    In current development version, there is also a virtual field "persons", that includes all persons (actors, director, writer, producer), so using this field with a condition would return you all results where the person is involved, regardless of the role.

    thanks for your very good work.

    mbb
     

    mbb

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    Wonderful!

    the IN condition will be perfect.

    Do you plan a test version soon ? or do I have to compile my own version to try it ?
     

    Guzzi

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    AW: Re: Favorite Actor view

    Wonderful!

    the IN condition will be perfect.
    I added it and tried, but it is not 100% what you are after I suppose - as it processes the "IN-list" for exact matches. Works nice for e.g. years or other fields with single content - but not nice for fields with multiple entries like actors etc.
    Thus I added another option and called it "like in" - that acts like a seqence of conditions, using a list in value field.
    e.g. "actors" "like in" "Willis, Celentano" will process as "actors like '*Willis*' OR actors like '*Celentano*'
    Such a definition would give you a config with all movies that apply to that restriction - however, it does NOT restrict the current actor view to those persons, as the current actor view is a concatenation of the actors present in the allowed movie records.
    However, you get a config that allows all sort of views, filtering, etc. with restricted to movies with those conditions.

    Do you plan a test version soon ? or do I have to compile my own version to try it ?
    If you'd like to have a testversion, drop me a PM.
     

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