Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Mike Foran]

I am trying to change the default behavior of the JRemote app through Customize Views, under the 'Artist' heading. By default the tree goes Audio->Artist->(Artist List)->(Album List). I would like to modify it so it goes Audio->Artist->(Artist List)->(Choose 'Album' or 'Best Songs')->(Relevant Results).

So I am attempting to add a new choice tier after the 'Artist' choice that will give an option to go to the default album list or a list of all songs by that artist rated 4-5 stars. However, I cannot seem to be able to create this new tier that works. I've tried adding new items to the 'Show Categories In This Order' for 'Name' with a rule, which doesn't show up at all. I've tried adding a new Library sub-categories under Audio->Artist for Albums or Songs, but it pretty much ignores them.

Is there a way to do this, or is JRemote limited to only one tier and one Category? I'd appreciate some assistance on this.

Thanks!

[Arindelle]

Sure you can have as many drill down categories as you want and, in Theater and Remote mode views you can also tick the option to show all which you should experiment with. You can also duplicate the same field (ex. Albums then Expression (Albums only with 4-5 stars or Artists); Artists Grouped alphabetically, A-C, D-F etc, drill down to Artists again, but it would filter just the A-C artists etc.) There are a bunch of ways. Depending on how you want it to show up on the screen.

What you probably want is Album Artist (or Artist depending on how you want to show compilations)=>Album=>an expression to include the Rating field only showing 4-5 stars (set grouping to 1) with the show all option set. You could also have album artist=>Album=>Album (expression based on only 4 or 5 stars).  You have Album Artist=>Album=>Rating as another possibility. Not sure -- why don't you experiment?

The name variable only works for Standard Mode views, if that is what you are referring to. Each tier category (or drill down) you have a bunch of choices when you hit add (field, path, expression etc.)

I'd post expressions for you but don't have the time now. More importantly,  you wouldn't learn anything that way. 

BTW other than the show all option available (only in Remote and Theater mode views), and the thumbnail text display (only in Standard mode category views), I suggest playing around with a new category view in Standard mode first, at least for testing. That way you can then import it directly into the Remote or Theater mode sections -- finally just tweak it if needed (like the show all option, the order, nesting etc.)

[Mike Foran]

Thanks for the feedback Arindelle. I'm still not quite sure where I should add this expression. Here's a screencap of how I am currently doing it (which isn't working). Am I going in the wrong direction?

[Arindelle]

You can use a rule from the wizard but it will not work as you described to give you the option to show 4-5 stars OR All as this will remove tracks rated below 4.

you are adding the field [Name] with a rule not an expression Mike - you usually would not want to add the track ([Name]) in a remote or category type view as it breaks down this way anyways?)

either you add the field [Rating] with a rule, you double up a category (one showing everything and one 4-5 stars - with the option show all), or you add an expression depending on how you want it to look. To use the field name Rating (not Name) you would need to mark the Option "to show all" -- visually though, I'm not sure this is what you are looking for. Where, in what order,  you put this depends, probably at the Album level, not at the Artist level I'd think.

[Mike Foran]

Arindelle, I hope you can continue to help me out on this. I'm trying to follow your directions but I am getting tripped up on the context I think. I'm a bit new to expressions so I hope you can bear with me.

So I am testing this by creating a new view, which I will import into the remote once I get it working. I have a view, the top category is 'Album Artist (auto)' and the second is Expression. In "Expression to group by" I have added [Rating], and I can see how that works- it creates sub categories for each rating so I can select either 1,2,3,4 or 5 stars and see the songs in that group.

But when I try to make the expression more complex I am get tripped up. I'm not entirely sure I understand the context. If I replace the expression with "if([Rating]) > 3" it doesn't seem to do anything. I've also tried it under "Expresion to display" and I don't quite get what that does either. Sorry I know this is all noob stuff but I feel like if I can just see a working example I can understand the context and figure this out. If you don't have time to show me the correct expression, can you point me to a page that shows some sample expressions I can try to parse? The Wiki pages I have found are a little light on working examples. Thanks.

[blgentry]

If I understand what you want it's this on each level:

1.  List of artists.
2.  Two choices:  Albums or Best Of
3.  Albums
4.  Songs

I think you probably also want level # to show just songs if level 2 selected Best Of.  I'm not sure if that's possible.  But I've otherwise got that view working as listed above.

If that's what you're after I can try to help you get there.

Brian.

[Mike Foran]

If that's what you're after I can try to help you get there.

I would love any assistance you can offer. I'd really like to learn this but I'm a bit thick. Thanks.

[blgentry]

Set up a view in Standard View to make this work.  Once it works there, you can copy it over to JRemote view like I think you were doing above.  You'll want a categories view.  Take a look at the attached screen shot for details on what to do.

You can see the second category I've titled "album or best of".  I've got the Edit screen open on that one so you can see the details.  It's a search list.  There are two items in the list:  Albums and Best Of.  Albums is just an empty search.   You don't need to do anything with it at all.  For Best Of, just open the search wizard and enter your rating criteria (4 or 5 stars is what I think you wanted).

When you're done, just OK out of everything and test it out.  It should work essentially as you've described.

Good luck,

Brian.

[Mike Foran]

Thanks blgentry. This is so very close. It creates the two paths and, in the Standard View it works great. However, when bring this view into the remote, after I go down the 'Best of' path I am again presented with albums to choose from. Once I choose an album I only see the higher rated songs, but I don't want to see the album choice at all. 'Best of' should just be a list of highly rated songs from all albums in one list.

EDIT: I see you mentioned that in your post. Sorry for being redundant. If you can think of a solution I'm all ears, but I appreciate the help either way.

2nd EDIT: By removing 'Album' from the Category list, I was able to get the sorting to behave properly for songs only. So I have implemented two library items, "Artists (Albums)" which is the old method, and a new library item "Artists (Songs)" which is for song-only sorting. It's not the most elegant but at least I can do what I want from the remote. Thanks again.