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Author Topic: Please explain "group by" within 'Customize View' dialog box  (Read 2265 times)

Gl3nn

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I've got my default Audio view set the way I want it, sorted by Album then track #.  The list is displayed as I would expect when "Group By" is set to NONE.  When I change that choice to ALBUM the entire sort and display order is changed - looks like (I'm guessing) by Artist then by year.  What am I'm either missing or doing wrong?  I'd like the display details to simply be the large album thumbnail alongside the album tracks, sorted by track.... but I'd like the Albums to be in alphabetic order. 

I don't understand what 'group by' is doing here.
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Matt

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Re: Please explain "group by" within 'Customize View' dialog box
« Reply #1 on: July 23, 2009, 08:42:31 am »

Pick 'Album' grouping from the A-Z submenu.  The default 'Album' grouping does smarter sorting that looks at artist, year, etc.
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Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

Gl3nn

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Re: Please explain "group by" within 'Customize View' dialog box
« Reply #2 on: July 23, 2009, 12:30:34 pm »

Perfect, thank you!

I would have never guessed that in a bazillion years.  That preset selection name should probably be altered somewhat.  ;D
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MrC

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Re: Please explain "group by" within 'Customize View' dialog box
« Reply #3 on: July 23, 2009, 01:24:45 pm »

I asked and received a good response regarding sort order and defaults:

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=52512.msg358069#msg358069

I'd like to reiterate my opinion about the value in providing a UI that shows and facilitates discover of these defaults.  It feels mysterious to me.
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MusicHawk

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Re: Please explain "group by" within 'Customize View' dialog box
« Reply #4 on: July 23, 2009, 06:33:55 pm »

Discovering how the so-called "Album" grouping works was an ah-ha discovery for me too, after lots of banging on MC trying to get it to "behave".

Definitely, it should have a name that indicates it is not simply sorting/grouping on Album, much like "Album Artist (auto)" has a name that provides a clue. But even that causes questions. Maybe there should be a naming convention for internal/MC-manipulated fields, bolted-in compound-fields, views, etc. Not sure "Album (auto)" would do it, maybe "Album+Artist+Year" as the name of this special grouping option?

There are similar things going on in MC's Images mode when Album grouping is used for photos. For instance, it seems to insist on sorting newest-to-oldest, which is not how a classic physical photo album would be organized. It's OK to have special handling, but it should be explicitly special and properly named and there should be no restriction on the user overriding it. Since "Artist" isn't a common field for images, I'm still not sure what the Album view/grouping is doing with photos.
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Gl3nn

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Re: Please explain "group by" within 'Customize View' dialog box
« Reply #5 on: July 23, 2009, 07:47:57 pm »

I love MC... and I love the JRiver folks and the website and users' ability to ask questions here and request enhancements... and I have been and will be a lifetime customer of MC regardless... but I'd sure love to see better and more thorough documentation.

I know there's disagreement in this topic but, well, that's just my opinion.  Maybe older folks just RTFM more... :)

Peace!

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taklamakan

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Re: Please explain "group by" within 'Customize View' dialog box
« Reply #6 on: July 23, 2009, 11:19:58 pm »

I couldn't agree more about documentation (and being a lifetime customer).  I wonder if the 'Weird Problems' thread in Jim's sig ever helps anyone.
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