Yes I think the Keywords field would work for this, and that's a tag written to the file as well. I didn't notice that one. I can probably implement that in MM before I import into MC.
The report is a VBS script that is run from MM which then exposes the Application Object in MM.
The report file is written to a file in the RTF format where I can control pagination and a few other RTF codes.
So page one of the report is for Box 1. Here's how it starts out. Each Box is written to it's own page.
***** Box #1 **********
ARTIST NAME ALBUM NAME
2 Unlimited No Limits
A. J. Croce A.J. Croce
Acoustic Alchemy Blue Chip
+Natural Elements
+Reference Point
+The Beautiful Game
+The New Edge
Adele 21
Air Supply Greatest Hits
Al Di Meola Kiss My Axe
Al Jarreau All Fly Home
Alabama Twentieth Century
Alan Jackson Good Time
America America
Also, I use ClickBook by Blue Squirrel to print it out as a 5 1/2 x 11" booklet. So all in all it's a nice archiving process to stow away my CDs since I never play them anymore just the digital copies.
some sample code from the script;
Select Case record_type
Case 1
'Just the classical and christmas, Box 10
sql = "SELECT DISTINCT Albums.Artist, Albums.Album " _
& "FROM Albums INNER JOIN Songs ON Albums.ID = Songs.IDAlbum " _
& "WHERE ((Songs.Genre LIKE '%Classical%') " _
& "OR (Songs.Genre LIKE '%Christmas%'))" _
& "AND (NOT (Albums.Comment LIKE '%Download%') " _
& "OR NOT (Albums.Comment LIKE '%Cassette%') " _
& "OR NOT (Albums.Comment LIKE '%Missing%') " _
& "OR NOT (Albums.Comment LIKE '%Vinyl%')) " _
& "ORDER BY (Songs.Genre)"
boxnum=10
That helps. I get the MCWS now although I don't see a connection between that and the Expression Language.
Maybe a little more help here will get me on my way.
I created some custom views as you suggested and between that and playlists I was able to set a couple Keywords marking library entries as "Vinyl" and "Tape". Is there a way to use an MCWS call to retrieve a list of Artist and Albums whose Keywords equals Vinyl?
This works but I'd like an ordered list showing the Artist and the name of the Albums for that Artist.
http://localhost:52199/MCWS/v1/Library/Values?Filter=Vinyl (http://localhost:52199/MCWS/v1/Library/Values?Filter=Vinyl)
This is returning what looks like a jumbled list with no obvious relation between the Artist and the Albums.
this is a partial of what I get back.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="true"?>
-<Response Status="OK">
<Item Name="Keywords">Vinyl</Item>
<Item Name="Artist">Linda Ronstadt</Item>
<Item Name="Artist">National Lampoon</Item>
<Item Name="Album">Garden Of Delights</Item>
<Item Name="Album Artist">National Lampoon</Item>
<Item Name="Comment">Recorded from record album.</Item>
<Item Name="Album Artist">Linda Ronstadt</Item>
<Item Name="Comment">Recorded from record album. Noisy</Item>
<Item Name="Album Artist">Gordon Lightfoot</Item>
<Item Name="Artist">Gordon Lightfoot</Item>
<Item Name="Comment">Recorded from record album</Item>
<Item Name="Comment">Recorded from record album. Noisy.</Item>
I tried this but I didn't get a list back.
http://localhost:52199/MCWS/v1/Library/Values?Filter=Vinyl&Field=Artist,Album (http://localhost:52199/MCWS/v1/Library/Values?Filter=Vinyl&Field=Artist,Album)
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="true"?>
<Response Status="OK"/>
thanks, -phil
That helps. I get the MCWS now although I don't see a connection between that and the Expression Language.
We're having several conversations at once, so that's creating some confusion. You've asked about how to get some structured information about your library, and I gave some pointers as to several possible methods.
Since I wrote the expressiona language page, I don't think I can do any better explaining it here. It does cover the connection you're looking for along with the MCWS page. In brief, MCWS can query the MC database, and those queries can utilize the expression language just like Search queries in MC. Maybe you'll also need to understand Search better:
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Smartlist_and_Search_-_Rules_and_Modifiers (http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Smartlist_and_Search_-_Rules_and_Modifiers)
I created some custom views as you suggested and between that and playlists I was able to set a couple Keywords marking library entries as "Vinyl" and "Tape". Is there a way to use an MCWS call to retrieve a list of Artist and Albums whose Keywords equals Vinyl?
This works but I'd like an ordered list showing the Artist and the name of the Albums for that Artist.
http://localhost:52199/MCWS/v1/Library/Values?Filter=Vinyl (http://localhost:52199/MCWS/v1/Library/Values?Filter=Vinyl)
This is returning what looks like a jumbled list with no obvious relation between the Artist and the Albums.
this is a partial of what I get back.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="true"?>
-<Response Status="OK">
<Item Name="Keywords">Vinyl</Item>
<Item Name="Artist">Linda Ronstadt</Item>
<Item Name="Artist">National Lampoon</Item>
...
<Item Name="Artist">Gordon Lightfoot</Item>
<Item Name="Comment">Recorded from record album</Item>
<Item Name="Comment">Recorded from record album. Noisy.</Item>
I tried this but I didn't get a list back.
http://localhost:52199/MCWS/v1/Library/Values?Filter=Vinyl&Field=Artist,Album (http://localhost:52199/MCWS/v1/Library/Values?Filter=Vinyl&Field=Artist,Album)
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="true"?>
<Response Status="OK"/>
Maybe this explains it:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=66214.msg444338#msg444338 (http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=66214.msg444338#msg444338)
I haven't thought about the technique or algorithm you'd need to accomplish what your MM report does. You can probably just ask for all entries to be returned including the Fields you want. This will come back as a structured MPL, which you parse and present. Or you might want to request only a subset of those values based on a Filter. See the GetInfo command in MCWS.
I'm running short on time right now, but can expand later today if you want more help.