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[Pintu]

I'm new to MC18 and I really like it to finally properly sort my music collection.

However, I have trouble finding a way to sort albums per year rather than alphabetically in Theater View. I've browsed this forum to find a way to accomplish this, without any success. Could anyone please point me in the right direction?

Thanks.

[rhgh]

under options - theater view
since you have the opportunity to adjust your view, fields and sorting

reinhard

[Pintu]

Thats what I tried, but I can't get it to work.

So what I want to do is: Genre > Artist, and when the artist has multiple albums I want to have an option to either sort by alphabetically or chronologically.

I guess the setting is somewhere here, but adding "Year" under details does not work (clearly I'm not understanding all the functions here):

[csimon]

Go into Edit (Bearbeiten?) while the Album item is highlightedm and I think the option should be there to sort by date.

[InflatableMouse]

No, under Edit you can only change whether that field is sorted ascending or descending. There you cannot add fields to sort on.

You need to add a sort rule under 'Regeln fur Dateiansicht setzen...'. There you can add the fields in the order you wish to sort on for the view you're editing. In this case I think 'Date' would be sufficient.

[Pintu]

Go into Edit (Bearbeiten?) while the Album item is highlightedm and I think the option should be there to sort by date.

Yes of course, but that's not what I mean. When I'm in "Album-View" I want a button/switch to change the sorting from alphabet to year. I can create a completely new "Album by Year" branch, but that is not what I want and it is not feasible, because I would need to duplicate all higher order trees (Artist/Genre/Composer etc) just to be able to change the sorting of one particular level.

[Pintu]

No, under Edit you can only change whether that field is sorted ascending or descending. There you cannot add fields to sort on.

You need to add a sort rule under 'Regeln fur Dateiansicht setzen...'. There you can add the fields in the order you wish to sort on for the view you're editing. In this case I think 'Date' would be sufficient.

I tried this as well, but I don't see how this has an effect. So I want to have the option to sort by alphabetically or chronologically:


But is this supposed to work in Theater View...?

[csimon]

No, under Edit you can only change whether that field is sorted ascending or descending. There you cannot add fields to sort on.

I'm not at my MC PC at the moment to look, but I've certainly achieved a chronological sort in DLNA and Web views with the provided facility of choosing Date (Ascending) to sort by. I assumed the same facility was available in Theater View. If it isn't, then this is another case for a Unified View Library! 

[csimon]

You need to add a sort rule under 'Regeln fur Dateiansicht setzen...'. There you can add the fields in the order you wish to sort on for the view you're editing. In this case I think 'Date' would be sufficient.

And on that subject, I've never really understood the difference between the sorting options in the Rules... dialog and the sorting options on individual categories/fields (on that Edit button).  Is it the case that the Rules dialog sorts the actuay files after you've drilled down far enough to no longer have container levels whereas the categories sort is as it says, it sorts the container levels?

[InflatableMouse]

And on that subject, I've never really understood the difference between the sorting options in the Rules... dialog and the sorting options on individual categories/fields (on that Edit button).  Is it the case that the Rules dialog sorts the actuay files after you've drilled down far enough to no longer have container levels whereas the categories sort is as it says, it sorts the container levels?

When you edit a field (Album in this example), you can change the sort method to ascending and descending for that view only (Album). When you go to rules for display, you can add several different fields to sort on, like year, artist, or anything else you'd like. You can create a similar sort hierarchy as you can in every other view (sort first by this, then by that, and finally by that).

I may not have read carefully at first, but now I understand the OP wants something like a button to switch between different sorting schemes, I don't think that is possible, you create a new level for each sorting method though:

Audio
- Genre
-- Sorted by Artist
-- Sorted by Album
-- Sorted by Year
- Artist
-- Sorted by Album
-- Sorted by Genre
-- Sorted by Year
- Etc
-- Etc

Maybe someone else has a way I'm not aware of but this would the only way I know.

[csimon]

When you edit a field (Album in this example), you can change the sort method to ascending and descending for that view only (Album).

Is that unique to Theater View?  In DLNA and Web views, probably Standard view too, this option allows you to select, for example, Date to sort by and also allows you to group items.  Is this not available in Theater View?

When you go to rules for display, you can add several different fields to sort on, like year, artist, or anything else you'd like. You can create a similar sort hierarchy as you can in every other view (sort first by this, then by that, and finally by that).

So how does this differ from the sort specification for, say, Album as you've described above?  If you set Album to display Ascending, but set rules for file display to sort by Date descending, how are the albums actually sorted?

[Pintu]

Is that unique to Theater View?  In DLNA and Web views, probably Standard view too, this option allows you to select, for example, Date to sort by and also allows you to group items.  Is this not available in Theater View?

Not as far as I can see, and I think this is an important missing feature for a HTPC. Every media center software I know of (WMC, XBMC, Mediacontrol) can do that.

[InflatableMouse]

You're right. I was going from the top of my head but I'm checking it now as I'm home, sorry about that. So yes you can (and should) use that but that still doesn't allow switching.

[csimon]

Yeah, I'm home now and have checked and yes there is a panel on the Item/Category to choose a sort order. On Album, I have mine set to Date (Oldest first) so I get a chronological sort not alphabetical. But I'm still confused as to the difference between this sort facility and the one on the top level Rules dialog and the interaction between them. In what situations would you use one and not the other? I've found that the Rules sort facility has no effect in some cases but I can't put my finger on why. I'm probably using it under the wrong circumstances. However, it does appear to be more flexible with regard to the items you can use for sorting and you can define your own presets, whereas the Item sort has a few very specific ones.

But in any case, there isn't the facility to do as the OP wants, and that is to define a sort order within Theater View itself which can override on the fly the views you've already set up.

[MrC]

Remember, a view can be a File List type.  The sort in Set rules for file display controls the order returned of the matched files for a file list - it sets the sort order of the columns.

[Pintu]

Thanks for your feedback. I'm glad that I didn't miss anything, but I'm a bit disappointed by this missing feature.

I'm not yet familiar with the workings of this forum...do developers follow the posts here or can I do something to get heard?

[JimH]

The devs read most of the posts.