Folder Shortcuts in Music Database? (1 Viewer)

[Phatteus]

One of the greatest things about MP (IMHO) is that it can use folder names as artist/albums. I am meticulous about my file storage- I find it is much easier than standardization of ID3 tags.

I have several main music folders that I use for organizational purposes. The same artist can appear in each folder (trust me, there is sound logic to my approach!)

For instance:

Folder A
Beatles
Beatles - 1966 - Revolver
Beatles - 1967 - Magical Mystery Tour


Folder B
Beatles
Beatles - 1969 - Abbey Road


The problem is that I must navigate to several top-level folders, instead of having all my music appear within one folder. If I am deep within Folder A and want to play Abbey Road, well, you see my dilemma -- all the way back up, into Folder B, and back down.

Is there any way using MP that I can list all my Beatles albums in the same folder without changing my file/folder structure? So it appears as follows:


Beatles
Beatles - 1966 - Revolver
Beatles - 1967 - Magical Mystery Tour
Beatles - 1969 - Abbey Road


I tried creating a new main folder and adding shortcuts to all my subfolders (this is how I did it back in the day with SlimServer), but MP does not see/follow the shortcuts.

I hoping there is something obvious that I am missing... Any ideas?

 

[hwahrmann]

nope, not possible.

The way you describe it is done in the Artist view, with correctly Tagged files of course.

we would need to scan the complete share every time you enter it. too time consuming.

 

[CHli]

If you're so meticulous about the way your folders are named you can easily convert path and file name to ID3 Tag using some tagging program.

 

[Phatteus]

Greetings hwahrmann and CHli -- I've read so many of your posts over the last few weeks.... always helpful.

I think I understand what you mean about scanning everytime- that would suck. I was thinking that there might be a way of consolidating the top-level music folders when displaying them. Even duplicate entries would not matter if behind the scenes each entry pointed to the correct file (which in fact was not a duplicate).

I could go the ID3 route as you mentioned, CHli, but there are special cases, such as soundtracks, classical compilations, and various artist recordings where I am more concerend about the album than the artist....

e.g. When I want to hear "Man of Constant Sorrow" I head for my soundtracks folder and pull up the "O Brother Where Art Thou" soundtrack, rather than look for the "Soggy Bottom Boys" (or is it "The Soggy Bottom Boys"?) in my list of artists.

I guess I'm different from most users in that I think in terms of albums instead of tracks. Am I showing my age????

Thanks for the comments anyways, and for the quick responses as well.

 

[Phatteus]

After looking through the database, I see that the "Share" listings I see in the MP UI are not stored there- rather, MP is pulling directly from the file system. Ahaaaa....

My solution would then be NTFS junction points (reparse points) if they supported multple targets: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_junction_point

Looks like I'd have to use Server 2003... crap!

I just don't like to give up this easily.....

 

[trosty]

I could go the ID3 route as you mentioned, CHli, but there are special cases, such as soundtracks, classical compilations, and various artist recordings where I am more concerend about the album than the artist....

e.g. When I want to hear "Man of Constant Sorrow" I head for my soundtracks folder and pull up the "O Brother Where Art Thou" soundtrack, rather than look for the "Soggy Bottom Boys" (or is it "The Soggy Bottom Boys"?) in my list of artists.

I did that by naming the artist "Soundtrack" and giving the soundtrack's name to the "album"-field. That way I have to scroll to "S" > "Soundtrack" > "Name of Soundtrack" and than in the music-title I have "Title (by Band)". That is a very convenient way for me and with good organized ID3-tags (which are produced easy that way from a good folder structure through various tag-editors) it is not to complicated to sccomplish .

 

[Phatteus]

trosty, my good man, thank you. You are absolutely correct. And perhaps that was the final kick in the butt that I needed.

I spent the day re-tagging my collection, focusing on soundtracks, VA's, and sound-effects --- using your suggestions as a starting point.

Now my MP music library is tidy, consistent, and centralized, woo hoo!


FYI, I use ID3TagIt (http://www.id3-tagit.de/) and find its capabilities exceptional, YMMV as there are a gazillion other tag editors out there.

Thanks to all for your help on this....Peace.

 

[trosty]

trosty, my good man, thank you. You are absolutely correct. And perhaps that was the final kick in the butt that I needed.

You are very welcome .