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[Dr Tone]

I have a large music collection and album artist tags are crucial to keep my Artist list under control.  That said I'd like to see compilation albums show up in the album list if the particular Album Artist is an Artist on a track of a compilation.  Is it possible?

This is something that was possible with LMS, but now that it's dead, I'll be moving my main playback system to J River and JRemote to control it.

[Dr Tone]

Anyone know how to achieve this?

[MrC]

I'm not sure how to do this easily.  I read this thread when you posted, and couldn't think of a way, so didn't reply hoping somebody more clever would offer a solution.

Here's the problem:

When you select a list of files clustered by Album Artist (either panes, or categories), you only get the list of tracks where Album Artist is equal to the selected value.  What you want is to have the query then expanded to :

   Find all other tracks where [Artist] = the value of this selected album artist

The query language is a reducing one, not an expanding one (except for the case of the ~a modifier to expand a track into the full album).  So if you don't start with the full list, you can't end up with it.  But this means you see all Artists, exactly what you don't want.

I can imagine a way to use a relational field, one per artist, to designate certain artists as Major, and others as Minor.  This would allow views to be constructed showing only the Major artists.  And I can imagine now that this field could be automatically calculated based upon an artist being in more than some predefined number of albums.

[MrC]

Another option, using Linkable columns, but it is a two step operation, and is essentially the same as using a Search query.

In any Album Artist view, you can click the linkable column link for the Album Artist.  This will bring you to the main Audio view, which will contain all tracks where Artist is the name you selected.  This view can be configured to present Albums, thus giving you all the Albums for a given artist.

[Dr Tone]

I'm not sure how to do this easily.  I read this thread when you posted, and couldn't think of a way, so didn't reply hoping somebody more clever would offer a solution.

Here's the problem:

When you select a list of files clustered by Album Artist (either panes, or categories), you only get the list of tracks where Album Artist is equal to the selected value.  What you want is to have the query then expanded to :

   Find all other tracks where [Artist] = the value of this selected album artist

The query language is a reducing one, not an expanding one (except for the case of the ~a modifier to expand a track into the full album).  So if you don't start with the full list, you can't end up with it.  But this means you see all Artists, exactly what you don't want.

I can imagine a way to use a relational field, one per artist, to designate certain artists as Major, and others as Minor.  This would allow views to be constructed showing only the Major artists.  And I can imagine now that this field could be automatically calculated based upon an artist being in more than some predefined number of albums.

Is there a way to check to see if the Artist tag exists in the complete albumartist list? The file list could be generated with all files that have no compilation tag and files that have a compilation tag and an artist that exists in the albumartist list.

[Dr Tone]

Another option, using Linkable columns, but it is a two step operation, and is essentially the same as using a Search query.

In any Album Artist view, you can click the linkable column link for the Album Artist.  This will bring you to the main Audio view, which will contain all tracks where Artist is the name you selected.  This view can be configured to present Albums, thus giving you all the Albums for a given artist.

I'd need it to work from Gizmo and JRemote.

[MrC]

Is there a way to check to see if the Artist tag exists in the complete albumartist list? The file list could be generated with all files that have no compilation tag and files that have a compilation tag and an artist that exists in the albumartist list.

Not practically.

[MrC]

I'd need it to work from Gizmo and JRemote.

The would have to be programed to do essentially what Linkable columns does; that is, broaden the search from Album Artist to Artist.

[vagskal]

In any Album Artist view, you can click the linkable column link for the Album Artist.  This will bring you to the main Audio view, which will contain all tracks where Artist is the name you selected.  This view can be configured to present Albums, thus giving you all the Albums for a given artist.

Sorry for disturbing, but how do you do this (select what view is shown when clicking)? It is a mystery to me.

As to the OP's question, I do not have a better answer than yours MrC, of course but unfortunately. I too use the links and a view with panes with both album artist and artist.

[vagskal]

I'd need it to work from Gizmo and JRemote.

In JRemote you can do a metadata search by clicking on the metadata field. It does not work when the field contains a list of items, only when there is a single item. I have asked if LesPaul, the author of JRemote, could consider separate metadata fields for each item to allow for search.

[MrC]

Sorry for disturbing, but how do you do this (select what view is shown when clicking)? It is a mystery to me.

It appears to me the root of the audio view is shown.  Just customize that Audio view (container) and you'll have a usable view for Linkable columns.

[vagskal]

Thanks for the reply!

It appears to me the root of the audio view is shown.  Just customize that Audio view (container) and you'll have a usable view for Linkable columns.

It is not working like that for me (with several tabs open). I often come to a filtered view where there are no hits for the clickable link search, or from a panes view to a categories view. I thought it was related to the settings of the view in the tab to the right of the one I am using (or the last view used before the current one) but this is not always the case in my experience. If I in the resulting search result view chose another view in the tree and do Back twice and then the same clickable link search again, I get to the view chosen from the tree. That is my workaround until I understand the logic better. Like I said, it is all a mystery to me.

[MrC]

When there are no Hits, the (category) view shows up as empty.   Making the Audio view a Panes (vs. Categories) view should prevent this.

If the main Audio view does not allow tree selection, then the current view is used.

I'm not aware how to create any other variations.  I use multiple tabs as well.

[vagskal]

If the main Audio view does not allow tree selection, then the current view is used.

Aha! Thanks! That was it.

EDIT: Since Allow tree selection seems disabled by default for the parent Audio item I thought I should explain it a bit clearer if anyone else is as puzzled by the destination for the clickable search links as I was. In the tree (on the right hand side) right click on the bold Audio item and select Customize view. In the resulting dialog enable the Allow tree selection setting and click OK. Now all the clickable links go to this view (even if I click on an audio file in the Playing Now view). You can replace this parent Audio item with any current view by using the save and load views settings. - Thanks again MrC, I did not even know what the Allow tree selection setting was for!