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[wer]

This is one of those things that seems like MC would have a way to do, but I haven't been able to figure it out:  how to restrict searches by media type when searching from the file info panel in theater view.

Here's what I mean:  When you're in theater view and select a movie, the file info panel will come up.  I've customized mine a bit, so one of the fields I have displayed is "Year".  Now if I click on Year, theater view will show me a list of other media from that same year, which is neat.

But if I'm looking at the file info panel from a Movie, I want the search results to only be Movies.  Currently it shows all media (movies, songs, etc.)  which makes for a very long list.  Likewise, if I searched from year from the file info panel of a song, I'd want the search results to not include movies, only other audio (preferably only albums).

I tried creating a custom library field called "Year Released" (=[Year]) that only movies had, and putting that in the info panel, but when searching on "Year Released" I still get all media, even things that don't have that field.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

[swiv3d]

Try using a field based on =[Media Type] - [Date]
See if it works.

[wer]

Thanks!  That was a good idea.  I created a new field called Year Released=[Media Sub Type] Released: [Year]
and that did the trick.  By setting the file info panel for audio to just show [Year] instead of [Year Released] now searches from audio only find audio, and searches from movies only find movies.

I'll play around with the expression language to find something that looks a little more seamless on screen.

I guess this works because the expression evaluates to something different for movies than it would for other types of files; fair enough. 

But I do still find it quite strange that a search against a field that only movies had still found other files (like audio) that didn't even have the field defined...

[swiv3d]

But I do still find it quite strange that a search against a field that only movies had still found other files (like audio) that didn't even have the field defined...

Don't forget that a library field will be filled in for every relevant file on your system - so searching on [Year] will find all files with that value in the [Year] field regardless of media type. Combining the media type and the year will allow a search to find just those files with that combination of media type + year.

[wer]

If I were searching on the Year field, that would be logical, as all files have that field.

Except when you create a new library field, there is a setting (Flags, in the manage library fields dialog) to determine which file types have the field applied.  If you select video, but not audio, then audio files will not have the field.  This is reinforced by the fact that if subsequently go to a details view for the audio media type, you cannot add a column corresponding to the new library field you created that does not apply to audio.

So when you create a library field that only applies to one media type, it seems obvious that when searching on that field, you should only be able to find files that have that field.  But that does not seem to be the way MC behaves...

Example: Creating "MovieReleased=Released in [Year]" and applying that field only to videos, when you search on MovieReleased MC will still find audio files, even though MovieReleased is not available to add as a column to audio files.

It's a strange and admittedly academic point... Perhaps if Matt sees this he could shed some light on why this happens.

[swiv3d]

I think you are talking about the flag selection Radio, Audio etc. I think you will find that that only limits the places the field will be shown, it doesn't limit the field to only be used by that media type. I created a field flagged for audio, set it to a fixed value. Added it to theatre view info panel and searched via that field - all my movie files, photo files and of course audio files came up showing that field with it's fixed value.

[wer]

Yep, that's mostly consistent with what I was seeing. Except when I searched on Year from a movie, it found audio and video files.  When I searched on Year from an audio file, it only found audio files, no movies, even though movies have that field set.

I have no explanation for that.

But in any case, I have it pretty much doing what I want now.  As I figured in the beginning, MC is capable of practically everything, it's just a matter of figuring out how to get there.

Thanks again for your help!