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[rmilewsk]

How do I set MC album name view to not filter names on certain beginning words or characters? Such as ( or . or The, A, An. In other words I want the album title "The Beatles" to show up under "B" not "T".

[glynor]

Options -> Tree & View -> Sorting -> Ignore articles.  I believe enabled is the default, but I could be wrong on that.

[rmilewsk]

Thanks for the info. Now, how do I add things to the list like periods and ( ?

[Matt]

Thanks for the info. Now, how do I add things to the list like periods and ( ?

It's not configurable.

You could rename the values. 

Or if you like complicated problems, you could make an expression field that builds a sorting field by removing certain leading characters with an expression.

[Matt]

A coming build adds this expression function:
NEW: Added expression function RemoveCharacters([value], [characters to remove], [mode]).

So for example, you could sort by this expression:
RemoveCharacters([Artist], ./,;-$%, 1)

This returns the artist, but with the listed characters removed from the front.

[marko]

I seem to remember working with glynor on a complex "if(isequal(..... replace(...." expression to achieve this result some time ago!!

This brings to the fore a very valid alternative use for a library field.

Allow me to be a little presumptuous when I say that most people associate library fields directly with file tags. MC library fields can be put to use in ways such as this too. I have quite a few fields in my library that are never meant to be seen, or used for tagging.

For example, several fields I have created give me my own custom grouping options. I use these predominantly in my image views, but a simple example of what I'm talking about would be a library field called "Audio Tagging". Set it using calculated data, using the expression: if(isempty([genre]),Untagged,Tagged)
Now list all audio and set the list to group by "Audio Tagging" (z-a) and all the music with no Genre will be grouped at the top. Include a Genre pane, and it will be populated with all genres that currently exist in your library by virtue of the fact that all audio is contained within the view. Select tracks for tagging, press F4, and tag to your hearts content using the tick boxes in the genre pane.

You can create fields to help with things such as sorting, grouping, thumbnail text or dynamic expression functions.  A very handy tip indeed. There may be other ideas for levering alternative functionality from a library field... if you have one, why not post it? I remember way back, I had a couple that actually wrote a portion of a webpage for pix01... so the information on the right of these is all produced from a library field. This was the start of a now shelved project, but it demonstrates the kind of stuff you can get up to with library fields!!

Matt, what modes are available for RemoveCharacters()?

-marko

[Matt]

Matt, what modes are available for RemoveCharacters()?

0: all occurrences
1: occurrences at the front of the value
2: occurrences at the end of the value

[marko]

Thanks Matt.

While updating the wiki, it occurred to me that it might have been easier to beef up the existing Replace() function instead of adding a whole new one.

Currently, if you use the Replace() function to test for a string, but don't specify a value to replace it with, then if it is found, the string is removed. All it needs then, is the ability to test for multiple strings, and the three mode switches. Or is it not quite as simple as that?

[rmilewsk]

That's a real shame this is not included in the current product as other products such as squeezecenter allow this sort of configuration out of the box.