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Author Topic: Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!  (Read 12233 times)

sraymond

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Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« on: January 03, 2004, 01:19:12 am »

Scott_r. has released a great plugin called "MC XML Export".  I've put together a collection of preset configurations that, when used with MCXMLExport, give you one-click generation of new ways to see your library outside of MC.

If you want to know more, take a quick look here:  http://pages.sbcglobal.net/scottraymond/Presets.htm

If you have requests for new ways to see your library, let me know.

Scott-
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LisaRCT

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #1 on: January 03, 2004, 08:21:47 am »

Great plugin, Kudo's to the two Scott's for t  :D

Unfortunately I cannot find the 'MC XML Export' plugin on the MC Accessories page to install it.   :-\

Also the preset 'ArtistAlbumListing Download' link is not working either.
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wickesy

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #2 on: January 03, 2004, 09:21:15 am »


Unfortunately I cannot find the 'MC XML Export' plugin on the MC Accessories page to install it.   :-\


Lisa,

You can get the plugin from here: http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/~scottray/MC/xmlexport/mcxmlexport101.msi

ArtistAlbumListing.zip is here: http://pages.sbcglobal.net/scottraymond/ArtistAlbumListing.zip

Scott - If you are reading this, the ArtistAlbumListing file is in your website root directory rather than the Downloads.

Hope that helps.

David
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LisaRCT

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #3 on: January 03, 2004, 10:59:12 am »

Thanks muchly wickesy   ;)
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LisaRCT

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #4 on: January 03, 2004, 11:10:05 am »

I am not sure this is  the correct place to post this, but . . .  .

How do I set the default directory which to export the XML file to?

Also, when I click on 'About' -->> 'Help & Support' I get an error:
'An unhandled exception has occurred . . . '

See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception: The system cannot find the file specified
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.StartWithShellExecuteEx(ProcessStartInfo startInfo)
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start()
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(ProcessStartInfo startInfo)
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(String fileName)
   at ctlXAlbumLib.frmAbout.LinkLabel1_LinkClicked(Object sender, LinkLabelLinkClickedEventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.LinkLabel.OnLinkClicked(LinkLabelLinkClickedEventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.LinkLabel.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Label.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.LinkLabel.WndProc(Message& msg)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)


************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
    Assembly Version: 1.0.5000.0
    Win32 Version: 1.1.4322.573
    CodeBase: file:///c:/winnt/microsoft.net/framework/v1.1.4322/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
System
    Assembly Version: 1.0.5000.0
    Win32 Version: 1.1.4322.573
    CodeBase: file:///c:/winnt/assembly/gac/system/1.0.5000.0__b77a5c561934e089/system.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
    Assembly Version: 1.0.5000.0
    Win32 Version: 1.1.4322.573
    CodeBase: file:///c:/winnt/assembly/gac/system.drawing/1.0.5000.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/system.drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
System.DirectoryServices
    Assembly Version: 1.0.5000.0
    Win32 Version: 1.1.4322.573
    CodeBase: file:///c:/winnt/assembly/gac/system.directoryservices/1.0.5000.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/system.directoryservices.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Messaging
    Assembly Version: 1.0.5000.0
    Win32 Version: 1.1.4322.573
    CodeBase: file:///c:/winnt/assembly/gac/system.messaging/1.0.5000.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/system.messaging.dll
----------------------------------------
System.ServiceProcess
    Assembly Version: 1.0.5000.0
    Win32 Version: 1.1.4322.573
    CodeBase: file:///c:/winnt/assembly/gac/system.serviceprocess/1.0.5000.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/system.serviceprocess.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Data
    Assembly Version: 1.0.5000.0
    Win32 Version: 1.1.4322.573
    CodeBase: file:///c:/winnt/assembly/gac/system.data/1.0.5000.0__b77a5c561934e089/system.data.dll
----------------------------------------
ctlXAlbumLib
    Assembly Version: 1.0.1.0
    Win32 Version: 1.0.1.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Scott%20Raynel%20Software/MC%20XML%20Export/ctlXAlbumLib.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
    Assembly Version: 1.0.5000.0
    Win32 Version: 1.1.4322.573
    CodeBase: file:///c:/winnt/assembly/gac/system.windows.forms/1.0.5000.0__b77a5c561934e089/system.windows.forms.dll
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.VisualBasic
    Assembly Version: 7.0.5000.0
    Win32 Version: 7.10.3052.4
    CodeBase: file:///c:/winnt/assembly/gac/microsoft.visualbasic/7.0.5000.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/microsoft.visualbasic.dll
----------------------------------------
Accessibility
    Assembly Version: 1.0.5000.0
    Win32 Version: 1.1.4322.573
    CodeBase: file:///c:/winnt/assembly/gac/accessibility/1.0.5000.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/accessibility.dll
----------------------------------------
Interop.MediaJukebox
    Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Scott%20Raynel%20Software/MC%20XML%20Export/Interop.MediaJukebox.DLL
----------------------------------------
System.Xml
    Assembly Version: 1.0.5000.0
    Win32 Version: 1.1.4322.573
    CodeBase: file:///c:/winnt/assembly/gac/system.xml/1.0.5000.0__b77a5c561934e089/system.xml.dll
----------------------------------------
GotDotNet.Exslt
    Assembly Version: 1.0.1379.17075
    Win32 Version: 1.0.1379.17075
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Scott%20Raynel%20Software/MC%20XML%20Export/GotDotNet.Exslt.DLL
----------------------------------------

************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just in time (JIT) debugging, the config file for this
application or machine (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.

For example:

<configuration>
    <system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the machine
rather than being handled by this dialog.


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sraymond

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #5 on: January 03, 2004, 11:52:29 am »

Scott - If you are reading this, the ArtistAlbumListing file is in your website root directory rather than the Downloads.

Thanks David...  I'll fix it right away.

Scott-
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sraymond

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #6 on: January 03, 2004, 12:04:11 pm »

Quote
Also the preset 'ArtistAlbumListing Download' link is not working either.

It is now...

Scott-
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sraymond

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #7 on: January 03, 2004, 12:08:30 pm »

I am not sure this is  the correct place to post this, but . . .  .

How do I set the default directory which to export the XML file to?

If you read my XML Primer, there's a section that shows a screenshot of the plugin (well, it's from a beta version, but it's still pretty much relavent) and explains what each option does.

Once you make the changes to the preset, save the preset (click on the ">" to the right) and you'll be good to go the next time.

Scott-
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wickesy

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #8 on: January 03, 2004, 12:59:05 pm »

Thanks muchly wickesy   ;)


Thanks David...  I'll fix it right away.

Scott-

No probs - Call it my good deed for the day.  ;D
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scott_r

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #9 on: January 03, 2004, 05:16:54 pm »

Quote
Also, when I click on 'About' -->> 'Help & Support' I get an error:
'An unhandled exception has occurred . . . '

What version of Windows are you running? Also, what's your default browser. Oh, and what version of the .NET framework are you using (check this by looking in your Add/Remove Programs list.
Thanks for the feedback,

Scott.
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LisaRCT

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #10 on: January 03, 2004, 11:48:29 pm »

Quote
Also, when I click on 'About' -->> 'Help & Support' I get an error:
'An unhandled exception has occurred . . . '

What version of Windows are you running? Also, what's your default browser. Oh, and what version of the .NET framework are you using (check this by looking in your Add/Remove Programs list.
Thanks for the feedback,

Scott.

I am running Win2K, I just installed the latest from Windows Update site today . . . . IE is default but I use both Firebird and IE.
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scott_r

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #11 on: January 04, 2004, 12:55:09 am »

Well thats quite odd. For now, you can go to the help and support site at http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/~scottray/MC/xmlexport/
There's also an MC XML Export thread on the Third Party Plugins forum which would be a good place to report bugs and discuss the plugin itself.
Next version will catch this error nicely.

Scott.

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LisaRCT

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #12 on: January 04, 2004, 09:59:13 am »

Thankie  ;D

And thanks also to ScottRaymond, I will have a look at your XML Primer.
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sraymond

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #13 on: January 05, 2004, 12:27:58 am »

Another Preset Configuration has been added...  MastiffAlbumListing.  Named after, you guess who.

Check it out here:  http://pages.sbcglobal.net/scottraymond/Presets.htm

Scott-
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Nolonemo

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #14 on: January 05, 2004, 08:19:36 pm »

Scott, these are great!  How about modifying the MastiffAlbumListing so it always takes the artist name from "Album Artist (auto)" and treats compilations and non-compliations the same (ie, sorted by Album Artist (auto) under Genre).  Also without the album ID,which I don't use.  I've looked at the scripts and could probably figure out how to do this, but I thought I'd ask you first!   ;D  You could call it NoloAlbumListing   ;D ;D

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sraymond

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #15 on: January 05, 2004, 08:49:40 pm »

Scott, these are great!  How about modifying the MastiffAlbumListing so it always takes the artist name from "Album Artist (auto)" and treats compilations and non-compliations the same (ie, sorted by Album Artist (auto) under Genre).  Also without the album ID,which I don't use.  I've looked at the scripts and could probably figure out how to do this, but I thought I'd ask you first!   ;D  You could call it NoloAlbumListing   ;D ;D

Ooops.  I had meant to replace [Artist] with [Album Artist (auto)], but I forgot.  Thanks for pointing it out; I'll fix it soon.

NoloAlbumListing...  it's got a nice ring to it.  Standby.

Scott-
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sraymond

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #16 on: January 05, 2004, 08:53:36 pm »

Nolo,

Tell me something...  how would you want it to handle an album that has tracks with different genres?  Mastiff wanted to take the genre from Track #1.  This helped speed up the transformation on a large library.  I prefer to see the album listed multiple times - and this takes more "processing power" to generate.  How big is your library?

Either way...  

Scott-
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Nolonemo

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #17 on: January 06, 2004, 10:50:44 am »

Not an issue for me since in each of my albums (so far) all tracks are the same genre.  From an abstract point of view, I guess what I would want would be to create a "multiple genre" genre for those kinds of albums (sort of like album artist auto) . . .   But like I said, not an issue in my case.

My library is just over 9,000 tracks (863 albums)

Nolo
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sraymond

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #18 on: January 06, 2004, 01:39:21 pm »

Nolo...  done.  See http://pages.sbcglobal.net/scottraymond/Presets.htm for details.

Scott-
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Nolonemo

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #19 on: January 06, 2004, 02:46:00 pm »

AArgh!  Too cool!  I have wanted something like this for so long.  Thanks, Scott!   :D :D
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Nolonemo

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #20 on: January 06, 2004, 03:11:45 pm »

Hmmm, I've installed the .NEt framework, and the MCXMLExport plugin (which shows up under plugins in the tree view) but when I try to start it by clicking on the start button I get the following error message in a .NET Framework dialog box:  "An unhandled exception has occurred in a component in your application.  Click cntinue and application will ignore this error and attempt to continue.  Path cannot be the empty string or all whitespace."  If I hit continue the dialog goes away, but nothing else happens.  The "preset configurations" pulldown never becomes active.  (Same thing happens if I set if for autostartup with MC9)  Any ideas?

Thanks


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sraymond

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #21 on: January 06, 2004, 04:39:09 pm »

Nolo,

You might try asking Scott_r. directly in the thread http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=5;action=display;threadid=18079.

The only thing I could think of is uninstalling the plugin and trying again.  Maybe there's a problem loading the "My Last Settings" preset?  

Scott-
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Nolonemo

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #22 on: January 06, 2004, 06:42:52 pm »

Thanks Scott, it's running find on my Win 2k box but not on the Win98se box.  Go figure.

I see that the sort within genres is by album rather than by artist.  I tried to edit your script, but can't see where the sort priorty is determined.  Perhaps you're using some library functions?  It's been a while since I did any programming, so I'm pretty rusty.  Anyway, if you could tweak to sort on artist and then album, I'd appreciate it.
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sraymond

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #23 on: January 06, 2004, 07:04:38 pm »

Thanks Scott, it's running find on my Win 2k box but not on the Win98se box.  Go figure.

I see that the sort within genres is by album rather than by artist.  I tried to edit your script, but can't see where the sort priorty is determined.  Perhaps you're using some library functions?  It's been a while since I did any programming, so I'm pretty rusty.  Anyway, if you could tweak to sort on artist and then album, I'd appreciate it.

(Actually, come to think of it, I changed the "Album" field to a custom "Albums" field I use in MC9.  Would that have affected the sorting?)

At about line 100, you'll find:
Code: [Select]
<xsl:for-each select="key('GroupByGenre', Field[@Name='Genre'])[generate-id()=generate-id(key('GroupByAlbum', concat(Field[@Name='Genre'],'~',Field[@Name='Album'])))]">
     <xsl:sort select="Field[@Name='Artist']"/>
     <xsl:sort select="Field[@Name='Album']"/>
This tells it to first sort on 'Artist' and then sort on 'Album'.   I get the expected results with my library.  But I think I should have made it 'Album Artist (auto)' instead of 'Artist', huh?

Change it and see if that doesn't fix it...

See:  this is another benefit of XML/XSLT.  What works for me might not work for you.  But it's so easy to customzie I don't have to worry about catching all the use cases.

Scott-
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Nolonemo

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #24 on: January 06, 2004, 07:14:48 pm »

I thought I did that, but maybe I got confused.  I'll play some more later tonight.

Thanks again.
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sraymond

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #25 on: January 06, 2004, 07:20:20 pm »

E-mail me your MPL and I"ll make sure it works:  scottraymond@sbcglobal.net.

Scott-
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Nolonemo

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #26 on: January 07, 2004, 10:24:49 am »

Sort is working fine now, I must have done something to the script.  What do I change to remove the page break for each new genre when I print the listing out?

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sraymond

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #27 on: January 07, 2004, 10:34:02 am »

Sort is working fine now, I must have done something to the script.  What do I change to remove the page break for each new genre when I print the listing out?



CSS, my friend...  (you're the friend, not CSS.  I hate CSS!  But only because I haven't mastered it.)

Code: [Select]
               .genregroup {
                  page-break-after:always;
                  }

Just take out the "page-break-after:always;" and you're good to go.

Scott-

Scott-
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hit_ny

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #28 on: January 07, 2004, 12:37:38 pm »

Wow, im quite impressed with the display presets so far. The 2 Scott's are doing a bang up job on this XML thingy.

Now heres what i would like to see.

Album ratings.

Is there a way to calculate the ratings, of the diff tracks and avg them out, so that it could list an album score as an extra column to any of the album listing presets.

i was wondering whether it would be possible to calculate this on the fly, rather than having to create a custom AlbumRatings field and populate it with the score and then display from it.

If an album was not yet completely rated it could be displayed as having a incomplete score, same for an entirely unrated album.

It could then be possible to list albums in a league like display.

3.5 > gold league albums > 5.0

3.0 > silver > 3.5

2.5 bronze > 3.0

incomplete = 0

etc....

is this possible to do guys ??
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sraymond

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #29 on: January 07, 2004, 01:55:59 pm »

hit_ny,

This is certainly feasible with XSLT.  My only concern would be the processing time required for large libraries.

As many have already seen with something as simple as NoloAlbumListing, it can take quite a long time to perform the transformation.  Most of the time is spent in performing the groupings (first genre, then album) - and this can be shortened by reducing the number of tracks exported (i.e. export only Track #1s).

If you want just album scores, based on tracks, that's probably an acceptable performance (we'd only need group on Albums).

So...  you've got my curiosity piqued.  As a proof-of-concept, I will add an Album Score to the ArtistAlbumListing and call it ArtistAlbumScore.  Give me a day or two.

A question:  Incomplete is a case where one or more tracks of an album have a black [Rating]?  Only complete albums should receive a score?

Scott-

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Nolonemo

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #30 on: January 07, 2004, 06:10:03 pm »

hit_ny,

This is certainly feasible with XSLT.  My only concern would be the processing time required for large libraries.

As many have already seen with something as simple as NoloAlbumListing, it can take quite a long time to perform the transformation.  

My library is about 10,000 tracks now, and the NoloAlbumListing transformation took 10 minutes or so with an XP2500+ processor.  Well worth the wait, though....
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sraymond

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #31 on: January 07, 2004, 08:22:22 pm »

hit_ny,

Please e-mail an MPL of your library with all the fields included.  I don't have enough ratings to do testing.  Please zip it and send it to scottraymond@sbcglobal.net.

Thanks.

Scott-
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hit_ny

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #32 on: January 08, 2004, 12:32:43 am »

Quote
As many have already seen with something as simple as NoloAlbumListing, it can take quite a long time to perform the transformation.

What about the ArtistAlbumListing or MastiffAlbumListing ( like this display) performance times ?

Would skipping incompletely rated albums speed things up ?

Quote
If you want just album scores, based on tracks, that's probably an acceptable performance (we'd only need group on Albums).

yes thats what i was thinking of... an album avg score to 1 significant figure (rounded)

Would be nice if it was grouped on Genre/Album, alphabetically.

Quote
A question:  Incomplete is a case where one or more tracks of an album have a black [Rating]?  Only complete albums should receive a score?

Correct...or just skip displaying incomplete albums if it speeds up display time.


Currently i do this in access, was hoping to make the whole process more seamless with MC.

I requested this be done with your plugin, since i'm not sure what interst JRiver would have in implementing an extra calculated album ratings field.
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sraymond

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #33 on: January 08, 2004, 01:07:12 am »

OK, hit_ny...  check out http://pages.sbcglobal.net/scottraymond/Presets.htm and give AlbumRatings a try.

In the process of doing this, I found some silly extra work some of my other XSLTs were doing.  This one should give quite good performance.  Please let me know how long it takes to process.

It's only text-based.  If it's what you want, we can talk about HTML.  Are you familiar with HTML/CSS?

Scott-
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sraymond

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #34 on: January 08, 2004, 01:10:51 am »

Currently i do this in access, was hoping to make the whole process more seamless with MC.

I requested this be done with your plugin, since i'm not sure what interst JRiver would have in implementing an extra calculated album ratings field.

Why should you have to use two databases?

Until (or if) ever JRiver gives us more direct access to the database, I think XSLT might be a good solution.  Scott_r. might do an XMLImport plugin - at which time, you could do the transformation, and then write the results back to MC.

Scott-
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hit_ny

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #35 on: January 08, 2004, 02:49:23 am »

Quote
Why should you have to use two databases?

No reason at all...i was waiting for the plugin to become more stable. Using the lugin will make things more immediate.

just want to comfirm whether this is the right .NET package to use with the plugin ?

i cant use windows update as the MC machine does not have net access.

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scott_r

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #36 on: January 08, 2004, 03:09:18 am »

Quote
just want to comfirm whether this is the right .NET package to use with the plugin ?

Yes, thats the one

Scott.
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hit_ny

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #37 on: January 08, 2004, 09:41:04 am »

Quote
OK, hit_ny...  check out http://pages.sbcglobal.net/scottraymond/Presets.htm and give AlbumRatings a try.

OK i did, installed all the reqd .NET stuff. It works quite fast on a library of approx 15,000 tracks about a minute.

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If it's what you want, we can talk about HTML.  Are you familiar with HTML/CSS?

Yes, pls. WHat would you require me to provide you. i was thinking of something basic, maybe a gold band, all albums that fit in the criteria i described above would be listed below. Then a silver, bronze, not rated one etc.

Sorted in Decreasing order of album score. I was thinking of throwing genre in as well as a column.

- Also maybe in the interests of simplicity, drop the not rated albums or alternatively list them at the end, grouped as not rated.


Some comments bout Nolo's listing
- would it be possible to sort on Artist name, it does it currently but i see VA listings interspersed, so not sure why this happens.
- would it be possible to add an album count to nolo's listing at the genre level..something like

Genre:Rock (count of albums in this genre)

Comments about scott_r's MCXML export plugin.
- after clicking start, it takes 5 minutes to populate schemes. I have removed all disk location view schemes. Wish this could be faster, my library size is 15,000 files.

- When using nolo's preset, it generates the raw XML fine but then seems to take ages to do the transform. i stopped MC, then ran the m$ msxsl cmd line utility and it generated the reqd HTML in a cpl of minutes. Dont know why !!

scott's album ratings plugin ran w/o any problems in MCXML.

my machine is a PIII 700Mhz Celery, 256MB Ram

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Von

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #38 on: January 08, 2004, 01:22:26 pm »

Sorry if I'm missing something obvious here, but I'm having trouble getting this plugin to work. I'm on XP Pro, and have Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 installed.

When I open Media Center and choose this plugin in the tree menu, I can't see any information displayed, and the program seems to hang. If I move my mouse around a bit, bits and pieces of information become visible, among other things the "Start" button. No preset configurations or anything, just a blank screen.

I have skins disabled, but something must be interfering with the display functions. Does anyone have any idea what this is all about? I'm really keen on using this plugin...

Thanks,
Von
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sraymond

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #39 on: January 08, 2004, 02:18:02 pm »

Quote
If it's what you want, we can talk about HTML.  Are you familiar with HTML/CSS?

Yes, pls. WHat would you require me to provide you. i was thinking of something basic, maybe a gold band, all albums that fit in the criteria i described above would be listed below. Then a silver, bronze, not rated one etc.

Just give me a sample HTML document with a few tables manually populated.  The use of CSS will make the final product easier to modify if you change your mind, so I suggest using it as much as possible.

Sorted in Decreasing order of album score. I was thinking of throwing genre in as well as a column.

- Also maybe in the interests of simplicity, drop the not rated albums or alternatively list them at the end, grouped as not rated.


Some comments bout Nolo's listing
- would it be possible to sort on Artist name, it does it currently but i see VA listings interspersed, so not sure why this happens.
- would it be possible to add an album count to nolo's listing at the genre level..something like

Genre:Rock (count of albums in this genre)

Let's get the HTML sorted out first (especially if we end up doing groupings).  Sorting by AlbumRating will require some thought on my part - I'll give it a shot.

If you want to repress not-fully-rated albums, we can do this easy enough.  It will add to the processing time, but the final product would certainly be better.

Regarding Nolo's Listing...  It is currently set to sort on [Album Artist (auto)].  So this is where the "various" are coming from.  If you want to replace that with [Artist], you should be obvious where you'll need to make the changes in the .xsl.  Give it a shot - if you can't figure it out, I'll walk you through it.  I can add album counts to the genre - I'll add it to my list of things to do.

I'll be out of town all next week, so hopefully I'll get a chance to do this soon.

Scott-
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Nolonemo

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #40 on: January 08, 2004, 02:52:33 pm »

Sorry if I'm missing something obvious here, but I'm having trouble getting this plugin to work. I'm on XP Pro, and have Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 installed.


Ask in this thread:  http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=5;action=display;threadid=18079
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scott_r

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #41 on: January 09, 2004, 04:06:21 am »

Please Read Carefully:
This thread is not for reporting bugs while using MC XML Export.
The thread to do this in is:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=5;action=display;threadid=18079

Thanks,

Scott.
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hit_ny

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #42 on: January 09, 2004, 08:38:46 am »

Quote
ust give me a sample HTML document with a few tables manually populated.  The use of CSS will make the final product easier to modify if you change your mind, so I suggest using it as much as possible.

Sent ! adapted Nolo's  listing for ratings.

Thx
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sraymond

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #43 on: January 09, 2004, 07:39:55 pm »

Quote
ust give me a sample HTML document with a few tables manually populated.  The use of CSS will make the final product easier to modify if you change your mind, so I suggest using it as much as possible.

Sent ! adapted Nolo's  listing for ratings.

Thx

OK, now I just need an MPL from you with lots of fully rated albums (sorry, I don't rate).  Please export all the fields - I'll prune out the ones I don't need.

Scott-
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scott_r

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #44 on: January 09, 2004, 11:37:47 pm »

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Comments about scott_r's MCXML export plugin.
- after clicking start, it takes 5 minutes to populate schemes. I have removed all disk location view schemes. Wish this could be faster, my library size is 15,000 files.

You sure you got all the disk location view schemes? There's one under Audio, one under Images, one in Video and yet another in Advanced. I've got libraries of 40,000 files populating in just a couple of seconds without these four view schemes.

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- When using nolo's preset, it generates the raw XML fine but then seems to take ages to do the transform. i stopped MC, then ran the m$ msxsl cmd line utility and it generated the reqd HTML in a cpl of minutes. Dont know why !!

Because I don't get paid to optimise my programs like Microsoft employees do. Also, the MSXSL utility doesn't handle xsl extensions - MC XML Export does (hopefully).

Any more discussion of plugin related topics should be posted in this thread.

Scott.

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sraymond

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #45 on: January 10, 2004, 01:23:11 am »

Quote
ust give me a sample HTML document with a few tables manually populated.  The use of CSS will make the final product easier to modify if you change your mind, so I suggest using it as much as possible.

Sent ! adapted Nolo's  listing for ratings.

Thx

OK, hit_ny (or anyone else, for that matter)...  give http://pages.sbcglobal.net/scottraymond/AlbumRatings.zip a try.  This turned out to be a more complicated undertaking because of the crude nature of the MPL schema.  What I've done is have MCXMLExport create a new XML "data" file conforming to a schema of my choosing.  This new schema is album-centric and calculates the album rating (and track count and track rating sum - for testing purposes only).  MCXMLExport will also embed an xsl:processing-instruction, which allows you to open the result of the export (which, again, is another XML file)  and see the second (and final) transformation which creates the HTML.

There's a downside to this:  with IE6, by default you cannot see the HTML source code or save the HTML.  You can download a Microsoft tool that let's you view the "XSL Output" (i.e. the HTML).  You could then select all, copy to clipboard, and go from there.

I couldn't do rigorous testing of this preset without an MPL chock-full of completely rated albums...  but I think it'll work pretty good.

I take no responsibility for the HTML :-)

Scott-

P.S.  If you give me feedback before tomorrow, I'll try to incorporate it before I leave on Sunday for a week of travel.
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scott_r

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #46 on: January 10, 2004, 01:39:26 am »

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I'll try to incorporate it before I leave on Sunday for a week of travel.
So your bags are already packed then? :)

Where are you off to?

Scott.
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sraymond

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #47 on: January 10, 2004, 01:43:44 am »

Well, I think the Navy feels bad they make me study for 20 hours a week, so they're sending me on a little paid vacation - I'll be in Port Hueneme (about an hour north of Los Angeles, CA) for what is known as a "boondoggle".

Scott-
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wickesy

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #48 on: January 10, 2004, 06:07:08 am »

Hi Scott,

AlbumRatings seems to work perfectly.  If I wanted to change where the 'Gold', 'Silver', and 'Bronze' divisions fall would I change this section of PresentAlbumRatings.xsl

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<xsl:variable name="GoldList" select="AlbumRatings/Album[@fullyRated='yes'][RatingSummary/AlbumRating &gt; 3.49]"/>
   <xsl:variable name="SilverList" select="AlbumRatings/Album[@fullyRated='yes'][(RatingSummary/AlbumRating &gt; 2.99) and (RatingSummary/AlbumRating &lt; 3.50)]"/>
   <xsl:variable name="BronzeList" select="AlbumRatings/Album[@fullyRated='yes'][RatingSummary/AlbumRating &lt; 3.00]"/>

Also would there be any way of excluding albums below say 4 tracks?  This would filter out all of my single track albums and CD singles.

Thanks for the great work on all of your presets.

David
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sraymond

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Re:Do You Want to See Your Library in New Ways? Do It Now!
« Reply #49 on: January 10, 2004, 11:07:17 am »

Hi Scott,

AlbumRatings seems to work perfectly.  If I wanted to change where the 'Gold', 'Silver', and 'Bronze' divisions fall would I change this section of PresentAlbumRatings.xsl

Quote
<xsl:variable name="GoldList" select="AlbumRatings/Album[@fullyRated='yes'][RatingSummary/AlbumRating &gt; 3.49]"/>
   <xsl:variable name="SilverList" select="AlbumRatings/Album[@fullyRated='yes'][(RatingSummary/AlbumRating &gt; 2.99) and (RatingSummary/AlbumRating &lt; 3.50)]"/>
   <xsl:variable name="BronzeList" select="AlbumRatings/Album[@fullyRated='yes'][RatingSummary/AlbumRating &lt; 3.00]"/>

Also would there be any way of excluding albums below say 4 tracks?  This would filter out all of my single track albums and CD singles.

Thanks for the great work on all of your presets.

David

OK...  I"ll teach you to fish with this one:

You have correctly identified where I create a variable which contains a node-set of all the elements we want to output for a given group (gold, silver, or bronze).  It uses fairly simple XPath expressions in the "select" attribute of the for-each.  The first part ("AlbumRatings/Album") says to select all the Album elements that are a child of the AlbumRatings element.  The remaining parts are know as "predicates".  They restrict the node-set by establishing conditions.  The first predicate ("[@fullyRated='yes']") merely says only include those albums that are fullly-rated.  The second predicate ("[(RatingSummary/AlbumRating &gt; 2.99) and (RatingSummary/AlbumRating &lt; 3.50)]") says only include those albums with a specific album rating.  Notice that you can keep adding predicates one-after-the-other and they become "AND" conditions.

You want to add another predicate to say only include those albums with a specific Track count.  I'll give you a hint:  in this case, the track count can be accessed by the XPath expression "RatingSummary/TrackCount".

Give it a shot - if it doesn't work, I'll give you the answer.

Scott-
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