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More => Old Versions => Media Center 12 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: llafriel on March 10, 2008, 01:48:59 pm

Title: Playlist for albums
Post by: llafriel on March 10, 2008, 01:48:59 pm

I want to create a playlist showing the best albums of various years. Is it possible to create playlists of albums like with single songs?
I'd like to be able to browse them like the picture below, and like playlists set their albumorder.

Is this possible?

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g247/llafriel/pic-2.png

Title: Re: Playlist for albums
Post by: llafriel on March 10, 2008, 02:49:45 pm

I've almost got it to work. I added a user field called "Best Of" and "Rank", and a viewscheme, where "Best Of" and "Year" are included and sorted by "Rank". This way I can tag an album with "Best Of">Metacritic and "Rank">1 etc. This works.  :)
One problem though. I'd like to view the files by album thumbnails or if by details, I'd like to group them by album. When I do this though I loose the ability to sort by my "Rank" field. Instead it's sorted by artist.
Is there a way I can fix this?

Title: Re: Playlist for albums
Post by: llafriel on March 12, 2008, 08:19:17 am

Got it working. I love the flexibility of this program!

http://s58.photobucket.com/albums/g247/llafriel/?action=view&current=pic2-1.png
http://s58.photobucket.com/albums/g247/llafriel/?action=view&current=pic3.png

Title: Re: Playlist for albums
Post by: Frobozz on March 13, 2008, 12:56:58 am

How did you end up doing it?
I'm new to MC and trying to learn some tricks.

Title: Re: Playlist for albums
Post by: llafriel on March 14, 2008, 11:17:41 am

I added several "user library fields". One for the name of all the lists wich I called "Best Of." Then one field per list wich contains the ranking. "RankPF", "RankMC", "RankRS" etc.

Tools > Options > Library & Folders > User Library Fields > Add Field ...
"Best of": Change name accordingly, remove flags except "Audio" and change "Data Type" to "List".
"RankXX": Change flags and set "Data Type" to Integer since this field will store numbers.
Repeat the last one for each "best of" list you want to add.

I then added viewschemes:

Right click "Audio" > Add View Scheme
Under step 1:
   Add one or two fields here, click "Add" for each.
   Year - Type:Library field, Field:Album < Only for lists where year is of concern.
   Album - Type:Expression, Name:Album, Expression:[RankXX]. [Album] < Adds the ranking    before the album name.
Under step 2:
   Change to the name of the list e.g. "Pitchfork Top 50"
Under step 4:
   Click "Edit Included Files"
   Rules:
   "Best of" - is not any - <empty>
   "Best of" - is any - "list name" < You'll have to tag some albums first for the list name to show up.
   Modify results:
   Remove all and add:
   Sort by - Rank(a-z)

When viewing your new scheme: Click "Pane" And change "details" to "album thumbnails". Click pane again and choose "Customize Current View" and replace the code under "Thumbnail Text" to this: "[RankPF]. [Name]
[Artist]" (without the brackets)

Harder to explain than to setup really.

Title: Re: Playlist for albums
Post by: Frobozz on March 15, 2008, 11:50:00 am

Cool.  I haven't even looked at expression fields yet.  I can see some possibilities there.

Your steps mentioned changing the text under the thumbnail views.  I was wondering where to change that default.  Now my album thumbnails have:
[Album Artist (auto)]
[Name]

Ah, much better.  :)