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[Tolga]

Context:
This is a request from a Tango DJ who needs to organize many small playlists of 3-4 songs that go well together.

Background:
In previous posts, I have posted comments about playlists being second order citizens in MC. The only way to organize them I know is to use the playlist tree, which is very ineffective for a large number of playlists.

Goal:
I want to be able to tag playlists, and organize them in view schemes like Pane view. For example, i wan't to see all playlists that contain a particular orchestra, or playlists that contain songs with a particular mood.

Current Partial Solution that does not work:

A view scheme can have a playlists pane, which is almost what i want, however, this does not solve the problem because filtering the files this way does not maintain the playlist order.

Proposal
MC should treat playlists as objects of the database and allow them to be tagged. This is similar to the newly implemented notes feature, where the  notes are objects that can be tagged, so I am hoping that the clever MC engineers can find a synergy in implementation.

A related Issue and a possible implementation proposal
If playlists were kept in sync with external playlist files, then those files could be imported to MC as playlist objects and tagged. In the past, I argued a lot about keeping a copy of the playlists outside of the database (i.e. for protection or sharing. There is currently no good way of importing a large set of playlists), so this would solve two problems at once.

[Tolga]

It looks like support for organizing playlists is very close to reality, I hope MC can be tweaked a little bit to get that effect.

It turned out that MC can import playlists as objects. When I import playlists, the playlists show up as database items in the recently imported lists. However, I cannot find them in any other database view. I cannot create view schemes to show them. (even when I try to ignore parent view scheme filters and try to filter playlists based on extensions).

[bunglemebaby]

It turned out that MC can import playlists as objects. When I import playlists, the playlists show up as database items in the recently imported lists. However, I cannot find them in any other database view. I cannot create view schemes to show them. (even when I try to ignore parent view scheme filters and try to filter playlists based on extensions).

I've noticed this too and spent a bit of time trying to figure out what I was missing, but came up blank.

Proposal
MC should treat playlists as objects of the database and allow them to be tagged. This is similar to the newly implemented notes feature, where the  notes are objects that can be tagged, so I am hoping that the clever MC engineers can find a synergy in implementation.

I definitely second your idea of playlists as objects of some sort. Personally, I like the idea of being able to treat playlists and albums as the same or similar entities (in terms of viewing them at least). I think it would open up some interesting uses, yours being a prime and presently practical example. For me, it would put "best of" albums (and subsequent double files) as a thing of the past.

It would certainly be a paradigm shift, but to take the albums/playlists idea from above further it could prove useful for an album-object simply be a playlist. I should stop rambling at this point, as I'm starting to drift from the OP. I still like the idea...

-Jon

[Tolga]

I also want to point out that stacks are a similar mechanism, and this could also replace some role of stacks, but provide more powerful mechanisms used in playlist creation.

[Tolga]

I did some more digging and trial and error and I got a partial solution.

After exporting and importing the playlists, the following allows you to view playlists in view schemes

[Media Type]=[Playlist] ~d=a

I think this a good proof of concept. Now, you can browse them by folder, rate them, tag them and add notes. You can click on the playlist to play it.

Now the remaining problem is that the playlists will get out of sync when you rename them. If MC can provide support for synchronization of external playlists with database playlists, we will suddenly have a very powerful new mechanism for organization.

[HiFiTubes]

How is sequence preserved. That used to be a problem in view schemes IIRC.