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[Ashfall]

Would it be possible to allow us to select more Library Fields for sorting categories? Especially custom user created fields.

The list of options in the circled dropdown list is limited.  I'd like to be able to group categories by one field while sorting by another.

[blgentry]

Instead of using "Library Field", instead try "Expression".  In that dialog you can enter an expression to group by and another to display.  By including your sorting field, in the grouping expression, it will effectively sort by this field.  Unless I'm mistaken.

Give it a try and see if it works for your needs.

Brian.

[Ashfall]

Instead of using "Library Field", instead try "Expression".  In that dialog you can enter an expression to group by and another to display.  By including your sorting field, in the grouping expression, it will effectively sort by this field.  Unless I'm mistaken.

Give it a try and see if it works for your needs.

Brian.

Thanks Brian.  I went down this path, but I'd like to decouple the grouping and sorting.  I'm using a custom field "Disc Subtitle" for audio files.  It's something MusicBrainz tags them with, so I'm seeing what can be done with it.

In the expression field I have:

Code: [Select]

If(IsEmpty([Disc Subtitle]),, [Disc #][Disc Subtitle])
And the view field is:

Code: [Select]

[Disc Subtitle]
This works well for most cases.  When drilling down you get Artists->Albums->Disc Subtitles->Track List.  And the Disc Subtitles level is sorted by the Disc # field.

Where it doesn't work is when multi-disc albums have the same Disc Subtitle.  In this case for example, Depeche Mode 101 is 2 discs.  I've subtitled both discs as "5.1 Mix".  And another set of both discs as "Stereo Mix".  With the above expression and view it gives me two of each.  I'd like tracks from disc 1 and disc 2 of each mix grouped together.

I know there are other ways to get some of this done, such as fudging the album names, but I like the clean look of drilling down to get to what I want.  I could just subtitle this specific case as "5.1 Mix Disc 1", etc, but that groups the discs separately.  This method gives me more control, since clearing the Disc Subtitle field results in a combined tracklist of both discs.

This brings me to this expression:

Code: [Select]

If(IsEmpty([Disc Subtitle]),, [Disc Subtitle])
That groups by Disc Subtitle if the field is populated.  But how do I then sort those groups by [Disc #], if that field is populated?

[blgentry]

I confused by your goals, but I think all you need to do is set a sorting method on the final results.  That is, you'll get a track list at the end.  In the lower pane with the track list, set sorting to default.  Default sorting sorts by disc #, track #, so it should work.

Brian.

[Ashfall]

I confused by your goals, but I think all you need to do is set a sorting method on the final results.  That is, you'll get a track list at the end.  In the lower pane with the track list, set sorting to default.  Default sorting sorts by disc #, track #, so it should work.

Brian.

I think I was trying the wrong approach using disc subtitles for this.  I'll try a custom field called "Mix" to designate various mixes of an album. I was just running with how MusicBrainz puts the mix information in the Disc Subtitle field for a lot of releases.  I already have a method for separating different releases of an album, this will just be another layer.

In theater view it would go something like this:

Artists
 |
Albums
 |
Releases (concatenating fields release year, label, release country, media type)
 |
Mix (new custom field)(Stereo, 5.1, etc.)
 |
Disc Subtitle (if present.  Great for box sets)
 |
Track listing

BTW, I originally tried using the "Channels" field to group various mixes of an album, but I have a few albums that are 5.1 with 1 or 2 stereo bonus tracks that I don't want in a separate group.

I know this is confusing and might be crazy or OCD.  Once I get this how I want it I'll post some screenshots.

[Ashfall]

Final result, using an extreme case example of drilling down.

[blgentry]

That's a very nice result. 

I was working with someone recently who has many versions of some albums.  We ended up tagging them all with individual unique album names to distinguish versions.  Like Dark Side Of The Moon (SACD) for example.  This was mainly for compatibility with JRemote searches.  It just makes things more simple for things like that.

But your setup looks really nice.  Good job.

Brian.

[marko]

In addition to this (I speed read the thread and didn't see it) the original question does actually have an answer, as well as the discussed alternative...

If, in another view, you explore the sorting options in the view header, once set, you have the option to save that sort rule as a preset, and when you do that, those saved presets are available in the aforementioned drop-down...

[Ashfall]

Excellent!  Thanks Marko!