Filtering compared to Moving Pictures (1 Viewer)

[Tante Juut]

Hi,

I want to make the jump from moving pictures to my films because of a) multi-user watched status and ratings b) database flexibility with ANT. The filtering options in My Films are not on the same level as Moving Pictures a.t.m. though. Can someone explain me how to a) create a view (for example) categorie Action and filter this view with languages? Or otherwise. I have global filters which i cannot edit (watched/moviescoring only). I want to extend those global filters. Second example: I want to filter my films on length between 120 minutes and 180 minutes and show them in a view not based on length numbers.

Other issue: I want to build a view which contains movies that both users haven't seen (which can be filtered then), or filter an existing view with my unwatched movies combined with the user state of another user, so I can check if we both haven't seen the movie yet.

The best option would be to edit/add global filters with 3 levels. Start with a) categorie b) filter it with HD/SD movies c) filter it down with watched/unwatched. Etc...

I am a movie user with 1000+ movies. Love your software btw.

 

[Dadeo]

It's an interesting idea Tante Juut - one way could be to add an option to make a filtered view a global filter so they can be applied to existing views the way global filters work in MyFilms. I don't know the code, but if @Guzzi thinks it is possible, it could be a good feature request to add to the Issue Tracker.

It's also a good point about a watched/unwatched filter for all users or even for selected users. An option for the watched/unwatched global filter, to select at least 'all' users (rather than the currently selected user) would 'fit' with and enhance the multi-user watched status in MyFilms nicely.

 

[Guzzi]

Hi,

I want to make the jump from moving pictures to my films because of a) multi-user watched status and ratings b) database flexibility with ANT. The filtering options in My Films are not on the same level as Moving Pictures a.t.m. though. Can someone explain me how to a) create a view (for example) categorie Action and filter this view with languages? Or otherwise. I have global filters which i cannot edit (watched/moviescoring only). I want to extend those global filters. Second example: I want to filter my films on length between 120 minutes and 180 minutes and show them in a view not based on length numbers.

First of all - in general you can define any "freetext" filters to a view in setup, using "manual" filter definitions. However, there is no nice GUI support for that, like dropdowns to select fieldnames and values. So to define "more advanced" views, you can create a standard one and add conditions as you like.
There is also no GUI support for filters - was thinking about that in the past, so users could add at least basicv filters - even multiple - in GUI and just "save".
All this applies to a singel view in a config. ANd you are correct, that the global filters itself cannot be customized.
If you want to filter all views, you can apply such filters manually by using Custom config filters (on general tab) - those will apply to all views, but cannot be disabled from GUI. If you want the latter, you could COPY the config (so you have a new config, that is based on the same underlying DB) and apply such a filter to one config, but not to the other - then you could switch from GUI via change config option.

Other issue: I want to build a view which contains movies that both users haven't seen (which can be filtered then), or filter an existing view with my unwatched movies combined with the user state of another user, so I can check if we both haven't seen the movie yet.

Unfortunately, there is no "nice" support for that. I think it might be possible by setting up some rules against the multi user status field (MUS) - but would need to be done manually and I didn't test that yet. MUS field have format with username, following watched and rating status - so might be possible to define filter accordingly. For "better" support of such a feature, some implementation would be required - e.g. adding a separate field for "total watched" - then you could just choose movies that have no watch = noone has watched them yet.

The best option would be to edit/add global filters with 3 levels. Start with a) categorie b) filter it with HD/SD movies c) filter it down with watched/unwatched. Etc...

We don't have "cascaded" views - as you already noticed, we have some global "overlay" filters, that are hardcoded/limited to watched, trailers and rating.
Current view system assumes, you would define whatever you want as a view. However, applying filters might be a nice idea and allowing that via the GUI would even allow to do that without using setup. However, it would be limited to "simple" filters - applying more complex filters would require to at least predefine them - see comment below.

 

[Guzzi]

It's an interesting idea Tante Juut - one way could be to add an option to make a filtered view a global filter so they can be applied to existing views the way global filters work in MyFilms. I don't know the code, but if @Guzzi thinks it is possible, it could be a good feature request to add to the Issue Tracker.

Current global filters are pretty much "hardcoded" - they had been added long before we even had views availalable.
So to achieve what you say, we'd have to change them to be dynamic (similar to the views). Actually, filters could be either used/applied as global filters - or only for a single view. They'd work the same way, except global filters affect all views. Need to have a look into code to see, what would be best - but could be added as request to the tracker and see, if there is common interest for it ...

It's also a good point about a watched/unwatched filter for all users or even for selected users. An option for the watched/unwatched global filter, to select at least 'all' users (rather than the currently selected user) would 'fit' with and enhance the multi-user watched status in MyFilms nicely.

Would probably need to export the total watched into a separate filed to allow filtering (could be dynamically) - currently we only populate the global watched for the selected film - which is not enough for applying "DB filters".

 

[Tante Juut]

Thank you both for the interesting reply. Drilling the database with 3 levels is also not possible in Moving Pictures . I know that you can create all kind of filtered views in the view setup or create different kind of config filters to start with. Even without nice GUI. The best way in my opinion is to create custom filters that can be used from the context menu in any view. It's a usability question at the end. It's like asking "Give me a list which show x movies, with y characteristics and z specialities". I don't want to build a custom view every time. I want to answer my question directly from the couch with filtering/drilling options at my disposal. Maybe you can look at Moving Pictures implementation and copy it/use it as inspiration. I like nice GUI's, that's why I love mediaportal, otherwise I could start every movie from the command-line