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[rick.ca]

honestly Rick, in standard view it's isnt  abig deal...

I wasn't really interested in why you want it that way. I did, however, go on to explain exactly what you missed and how to fix it...

In order that albums are not split up because of the exact time their tracks were imported, we sorted the file list by the day imported, then by [Artist] and [Album]. Now you've added an [ArtistS] pane and sorted it just by day imported. They should be sorted by the same preset you used for the Album pane.

If the sorting for the Artists column is not correct, then your sort Preset is likely not correct.  I see from this thread that you had trouble creating that.  Have you verified it?

MrC, if he hasn't done anything to it in the meantime, there should be nothing wrong with the preset. He just hasn't used it as instructed.

[MrC]

We worked out the issue.

There was some confusion about how a category is a single bucket, which cannot be used as a multi-bucket sort.  By adding the imported date to the end of the category, sorting by import date is then effective.

As an aside, we created a [Date Acquired] field, initialized it with [Date Created], and modified some views to utilize this field.  This allows xtacbyme to maintain a permanent, yet modifiable date for organizing newly imported media, independent of Date Created and Date Imported.

[rick.ca]

We worked out the issue.

By adding the imported date to the end of the category, sorting by import date is then effective.

I don't follow. It seems to me the import day needs to be added to the beginning of [whatever] for the resulting list to be sorted by import date. The Album pane in my suggested view, for example, where the sort is...

• FormatDate([Date Imported,0], yyyy-MM-dd) (descending)
• [Artist] (ascending)
• [Released] (custom field—optional)
• [Album]

...for the result (I assumed) xtacbyme wanted.

[MrC]

So long as there are distinct categories, the sort criteria can work.  The problem was that, an Artist X, had two different albums Y and Z, each with different import dates.  So it was not possible to sort an Artist category by Import Date.  By adding a date anywhere to the Artist category name, it splits the Artist category into X (Dy) and X (Dz), sorting the entire category list can work (there is now a 1-1 match with the sort buckets and the number of categories).

[HTPC4ME]

Rick i sense a little frustration having to deal with me, and i apologize for that. i was trying my best... it's just a bit overwhelming.
MrC spent a couple hours explaining, and remoting with me. which although overwhelming as well, did shed some light.
I always knew the options within jriver were quite extensive. But from what MrC had accomplished it really blew me away. he managed to help setup my recently imported as a recently acquired. which i've been hoping for for some time. ( i never asked for this in this topic. but it came about in passing during our remote session) He also explained to me grouping, and how "not to think "Abstractly" (which was one of my huge issues... i was thinking like a human, not  a computer) once i get all my recently imported (acquired) (5 star'd) re-set up for all views.. this will be perfect for our family.

Thanks again guys.
And MrC thank you for your time, explanations, and above all great patience with me.


Rick i would like to offer cookies as MrC suggested. (if you would pm me your paypal address, I'd be happy to send over some $ for your time and help. (this issue of mine took alot of your time)

MrC I'd still like to reimburse you for your time and efforts as well, And if you have more time in you. I would love to tackle these other views (standard view images, video's all set to acquired and tackle this 5 star view) once i have these completed.. i think i can accomplish the theaterview, and gizmo views by cross comparing our steps. (and would actually like to tackle those on my own so that i can hopefully learn these expressions, and how to handle these views and rules on my own for future additions i may need) and who knows maybe be able to help lighten your guys loads, and help others in the community There really is this sense of gratification when you can get jriver to sort to your liking.

[HTPC4ME]

i would like to ad one more thing...
A request. to have an auto date aquired field. For us less advanced. this view is REALLY cool!
if our systems, crash, or we have to redo our libraries... it remembers when items were written to disk, so that our recently imported is always upto date.. I've been battling this issue for some time. and i always hear it from the family. well how come nothing is set up as recently imported? you just redid everything now all the files are mixed up again (i'm seeing files in recently imported that ive seen years ago, where is the order chris)

I know jriver gets lots of requests. But i think this would be one feature that would really benefit us less advanced. (from what MrC has explained as long as i tag all new files with date aquired... any crashes or new installs. those files will show up in my library as when they were written, not when they were imported into jriver. allowing friends, family, and myself to go back a month, year if need be (even though system was just installed) and see what was imported then.

[HTPC4ME]

MrC.. i think i understand now what you mean by acquired will work until files have moved from one drive to another. i managed to get all video files sorted by date acquired ( but starting 4/6/2012 while looking at All Files in order of date acquired) all my personal, family, self help, and funny vids from around the net videos are showing up in the list right away at the 4/6/2012 date location... This is due to increasing the size of that family drive to a 3 tera drive...so therefor creation (acquired) starts from that copy..correct? I looked at the properties of one of the files in question, and the earliest date for it is 4/6/2012

but now that we have acquired in place. as long as i fill in =FormatDate([Date Created,0],Date) for all new imports. if there is a crash OR i upgrade my drives to large ones then jriver will read that sidecar file of Date Acquired. and i should be good from here on out?

I think i may get lucky on all these videos because (for some reason the date/time is showing correctly in jriver, even though they are no longer in the file properties!) maybe it's possible to use those dates/times to save that whole Tera and a 1/2  of Date/Time Dates?
Notice the file highlighted says date Acquired, and Date created 4/6/2012, but the Date says the Correct date of 12/4/2004


I think I should be able to open up all files in jriver, chose sort by filename, then goto the family HDD, and select those folder years, then maybe chose move date to date created? then follow that up with a =FormatDate([Date Created,0],Date) in date acquired?

this seems a tad risky to jump into on my own... But from the looks of it.. i may have gotten lucky

[MrC]

We created the Date Acquired field so that you can manage and maintain a date that is distinct from Date Created and Date Imported.  It means:

   "What date did xtacbyme acquire this file?"

Date Created is the date that Windows (or other OS) sets on the file's properties when the file is created.  This date can change when you copy the file from one location to another.  So it isn't reliable for your purposes of ensuring the actual date when you acquired the media file.  MC captures this initial date when it imports a media file, or when you update properties from a file.

Date Imported is managed by MC, and doesn't change.  It is the date that MC imported the file into the current library.  A new library means a new Date Imported.  So it too is not reliable for your purposes.

With your own Date Acquired, you initialize it once per media file.  You can use any date you want, but we used the Date Created to prime the pump.  From here on out, you don't need to change this date for a given file (unless you want to).  For new media file imports (e.g. new files you acquire), set their Date Acquired field either manually, or via the method we worked out yesterday (which you describe above).

[rick.ca]

So long as there are distinct categories, the sort criteria can work.  The problem was that, an Artist X, had two different albums Y and Z, each with different import dates.  So it was not possible to sort an Artist category by Import Date.  By adding a date anywhere to the Artist category name, it splits the Artist category into X (Dy) and X (Dz), sorting the entire category list can work (there is now a 1-1 match with the sort buckets and the number of categories).

OIC, I think. This sort of detail often doesn't stick with me, and I suppose my recently imported files don't illustrate the issue well. But I've run into a strange issue in trying to change my view. I can't find it now, but it seems to be the same thing xtacbyme ran into at one point. That is, I'm unable to save the revised sort in a preset. As stated above, the preset I used was...

• FormatDate([Date Imported,0], yyyy-MM-dd) (descending)
• [Artist] (ascending)
• [Released] (custom field—optional)
• [Album]

So based on your explanation (although I'm not completely sure this how to do it) I replaced (2) with the expression field [Artist] [Date Imported] (which I later changed to [Artist] [Date Imported, 0]). Each time I attempted to do so, (2) reverted to [Artist] (descending). I tried everything I could think of to make it stick—deleting the preset and starting from scratch, saving it with a different name, changing views (to force it to be saved) and restarting the program at various points in the attempt, attempting to save it in a different view—nothing worked. Further testing indicates the problem is with (2) alone—it doesn't matter whether the other fields are included or not.

This really seems like a bug, but I wonder if I'm missing something obvious.

Rick i sense a little frustration having to deal with me, and i apologize for that. i was trying my best... it's just a bit overwhelming.

Sorry if that showed. Instead of cookies, I'll accept your indulgence in considering my unsolicited advice...

Frustration is the first step to nowhere. Declaring yourself stupid means you're there and unlikely to return.

I know these things are frustrating (like whatever it was I just experienced and could not resolve), but I suggest you try this. When you ask for, and someone offers help, try to use that as an opportunity to let the frustration go. Try to forget the outcome your hoping for, and let the helper worry about that. Your job it to focus all your attention on following the instructions as carefully as you can, and then reporting the outcome. The helper is not going to mind if you did your best, but didn't get the same result. If you can calmly report what you did and what happened, we can usually zero in on what went wrong. The problem might be ambiguous instructions as likely as how you followed them. Neither is perfect.

You might also get the result the helper intended, but that's still not what you want. It's okay to say so. But the helper needs to know you were able to do what they suggested, and now are now trying something, or need more help to do so.

As for the stupid thing, you're not. No one who manages a computer network and a massive media collection with MC is stupid. You might think differently than me, but that doesn't make me smarter. In fact, I don't have a high IQ. I'm just stubborn and enjoy learning how to do things. Hopefully, I can use that to my advantage, and sometimes help others. And of course, it works both ways. I can't regex my way out of a wet paper bag. But I don't need to—I've got MrC for that.

[HTPC4ME]

i just wanted to touch base with both of you.. I've had to put this on the back burner for the time being.
Mr.C, Rick.ca thank you for all the time and help.
I will revisit this hopefully in the upcoming weeks.
Rick.ca thanks for advice.