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[wer]

I've tried to solve this but have struck out.  Perhaps someone else has a clever idea...

Is it possible to get a standard-view category view to skip single-result levels, the way theater view does?

What I mean is this: If a certain level of a view in theater view returns only one result, theater view will skip through it and display the next level (which might just be the files).  This is commonly experienced if you go into an Artist/Album view where the Artist has only one album: as soon as you drill into the artist, you get the list of tracks, not an icon of the lone album to click.  (I know, some people don't like that behavior, but I rely on it and appreciate it.)

I would like to get standard view to do this.  I have some views (in theater view) that have some rather complicated expressions that I use for grouping albums and compositions.  These views cannot be used reasonably in standard view, because sometimes several extra clicks to go through superfluous (single-result) levels are required.

I've tried implementing conditional expressions in the standard-view version, but that doesn't work.  Standard view seems to slavishly insist on drilling into every single level individually.

Any ideas?  Thanks!

[wer]

Somebody must know... Even an "it's impossible" would be useful info.   

[Moe]

I never use category views in standard view, but I just ran a test and I couldn't get it to work either.  I didn't spend a whole lot of time but I think it may be impossible as I assume you've tried and failed.

[RoderickGI]

Is it possible to get a standard-view category view to skip single-result levels, the way theater view does?

No.

Well, that is the simple answer. A more correct answer is that Standard View works differently to Theatre View. For example, Standard View, even Category Views, can displays two levels at once. One in the top pane and one in the bottom pane. So it does. (Yes, Standard View categories Views still have panes. A top pane and a bottom pane, usually.) The Album in the top pane and the Tracks in the bottom pane.

Even with the Shows View that uses TVInfo(SeriesDisplay) and TVInfo(SeasonDisplay) for the Categories Series and Season respectively, two panes are shown.

If you don't see two panes, then one is closed. Use the Disclosure Triangles to expose it.

So I guess the answer is to learn to love it the way it is... or if I have misunderstood, show us some images or video of the issue.

[wer]

Moe, thanks.  Yes I tried several ways.

Rod, Hi have we met? Yes I'm aware of the top pane and the bottom (file list) pane. But it's not accurate to say it shows two levels.  It shows one level (above) and the lower pane shows as files the sum of everything selected in the top pane.

So there will be no misunderstanding, I'll describe what I'm trying to do.  First, some definitions, although I'll simplify a bit.  First, I am using for this view a couple of user-defined fields:
Composition: this is a calculated field, and is a group of tracks that make up a single classical composition
Grouping: this is a group of albums (all albums that share the same value of [Grouping])
GroupSet: This is a set of Groups (via the [Grouping] field).

For example, an album of Mozart Piano Concertos may have 40 tracks, but 10 Compositions.
Further, each of the Mozart symphonies is in its own Album.  Since there are more than 40, it makes for a less cluttered view to group them.  So I have a group of "Mozart Symphonies (Gardiner)".  There's another group of "Mozart Symphonies (Solti).  Those two groups (along with others) can be in the GroupSet "Mozart Symphonies".

So I have a 5-level view defined as you see here:



The actual definitions are:
Album Artist (auto) = [Album Artist (Auto)]
GroupSet Expression = FirstNotEmpty([GroupSet],[Grouping],[Album])
Grouping Expression = FirstNotEmpty([Grouping],[Album])
Album = [Album]
Composition = [Composition]

So in this next image, you see after drilling into Mozart, the top pane is showing albums (wich are not in groups) along with the GroupSet "Mozart Symphonies".



You can drill into Mozart Symphonies and you see "Mozart Symphonies (Gardiner)" and "Mozart Symphonies (Solti)" etc. Then you drill down to the album level, and finally to the composition level.

The problem comes when you drill into something that is NOT in a GroupSet or Group, just an individual album.  If you do this in theater view, it drops right to the bottom level, Compositions.  Wonderful!  But look what you get in Standard View if you instead drill into an individual album "Mozart Wind Concertos":



Look at the legend up top.  You have to drill through those two extra levels (GroupSet and Grouping) that both have only one entry, before you can get to the compositions.  The list of Compositions is NEVER displayed in the bottom pane in standard view, because Compositions isn't a file, it's just a construct.  That's fine.  If you click on one of those compositions in the top pane, it shows you just those 3 tracks that match it in the bottom pane.  That's great too.

The only problem is that Theater View intelligently skips useless levels, and Standard View does not, as far as I can tell.  I consider this pedantry on the part of Standard View to be a shortcoming, that makes me click extra times needlessly.

So now you know exactly what I mean.  Can you come up with something clever, or is your answer still the same?

And yes I used your attachment trick!

[RoderickGI]

I'm afraid the answer is still No, to the best of my knowledge.

The functionality you are seeking is embedded in the code, and not part of a View construct. Based on my observations and experience. That is why I said Standard View works differently to Theatre View, and to clarify, the difference is in the Code.

Maybe JRiver could change that behaviour, but I can't think of a way to make it work just using a View definition. I thought about just leaving GroupSet and Group levels empty for Albums that don't have values for those, rather than using the FirstNotEmpty function you are using. But I think that would just result in "Unassigned" levels to drill down through. I'm sure you tried that anyway.

I'm out of time now, but will think about it. Maybe someone who is more expert on managing Classical music will have an alternate way of handling what you are trying to do. I've never implemented anything special for it. Classical has been discussed many times on the forum.

[wer]

Yes, that's what I thought.  I did try an expression that returned null if the grouping fields weren't set, but that just left an "Unassigned" mess as you suspected and did not affect the number of levels you had to drill through.

I utilize many things like this in theater view, this is just one simplified example.  Theater view is actually my main mode for day-to-day use of MC; I just use standard view for tagging and maintenance.  But I found the grouping functions so handy I wanted to replicate them in a standard view...

I think this is a type of intelligence it would be nice for standard view to have.  They already implemented it for theater view.  It's very handy for people who construct complicated view schemes, and for people who have large collections, especially classical.

Thanks,

Will

[RoderickGI]

Someone else may have some idea how to do it.

A Pane View for tagging and maintenance in Standard View may work better.

[blgentry]

This is something that comes up from time to time.  I've played with it myself.  ...and of course found that it's not possible to do in MC's Standard View.

This is one of those limitations that changed my workflow.  Because it's not possible, I stopped doing certain groupings that I thought would be really cool.  Now they just aren't super cool, but they work consistently.

JRiver could almost certainly do a code revision which would allow this.  It seems like a fairly easy change (maybe a few man hours?), but I am totally guessing.  If Theater View can do it, then we know it's possible.  Though there might be some thorny hard stuff lurking in the background because Standard View is quite different than Theater View in it's logic and implementation.

If you really like the idea of optional groups and quick navigation, your best alternative is Panes views.  Panes are not nearly as sexy as Category views.  There's this organizational appeal to Categories almost like opening layers and layers of boxes embedded inside each other.  It's all very elegant and satisfying.

Panes don't have that same super clean appeal, but boy are Panes FAST!  You can really drill to what you want quickly with a nicely put together set of Panes.  Once you learn that you can set the Advanced Option to "filter in both directions" Panes become even more powerful.

...and while it's not part of this discussion, it's worth mentioning the killer power feature of Panes:  Saved Searches.  Saved Searches make things possible like my Duplicate Finder view, my Cover Art review, and some others that I haven't shown to anyone.  You can really do a lot with saved searches in Panes.

Brian.

[Moe]

...and while it's not part of this discussion, it's worth mentioning the killer power feature of Panes:  Saved Searches.  Saved Searches make things possible like my Duplicate Finder view, my Cover Art review, and some others that I haven't shown to anyone.  You can really do a lot with saved searches in Panes.

I don't know if you have any interest in Wer's proposed JRiver User's Group but I'd love to see what you're doing with saved searches.  It's a feature I have never explored and I think that would be a cool thing to share.

[wer]

Brian, yes of course I'm familiar with panes views and saved searches, and use them all the time.  I use different types of views depending on the task, and sometimes I prefer the graphical nature of the category view.  Thanks for your confirmation on the not possible.

Moe, I agree both of these topics would be good for the group... Using clever expressions to get theater view and standard view to do things they can't normally do, and some of the nifty things you can do with panes views.

-Will

[blgentry]

The Squirrel talking to the Banana is kind of freaking me out. 

Brian.

[JimH]

Hey, where's your avatar?

[Moe]

I made Brian a new avatar

[wer]

Come on, Moe.  Be realistic...

[Absinthe]

I made Brian a new avatar

Be afraid, be very afraid

[blgentry]

LOL

I am highly amused. 

Brian.