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[deone]

I'm running MC 25 on my mac and using my android devices to control the MC.  Playing music with this setup is not a problem but doing anything more than that is painful.  E.g.,
1. If I want to see the metadata for a song/album on Panel, there is no way for me to do that
2. I cannot search for metadata on Panel
3. When I do a search on Panel, it gives me songs; now if I want to see (and listen) to the album that contains the song, there is no easy way to do that (besides trying other searches).

Am I missing something?  Is there a remote that supports this on android?

[Scobie]

Have you tried Mo 4Media https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,114964.0.html or JRemote?

[deone]

I bought and tried jremote but it does not have this functionality...maybe there is a way of customizing it but I did not discover it.  Am I missing something?
But your suggestion for Mo 4Media is brilliant...its search is awesome!

[Scobie]

I don't think you can search by metadata in JRemote but it certainly can display it.

A long tap on the track or title will bring up a sub menu where you can view metadata.

[deone]

Mo 4Media is unfortunately proving very flaky: hitting play in it often starts playing what was "Now Playing" rather than the song I'm asking for.
The search in Mo 4Media is awesome so I'll keep checking it in case they fix their playback issues.

[BradATIMA]

You can search by metadata in Panel, you just need to specify the parameter in the search field. It's formatted as [<Field>]=[<Search Value>]. For example: [File Type]=[flac] or [Genre]=[Classical] [File Type]=[flac].

[RoderickGI]

Mo 4Media is unfortunately proving very flaky: hitting play in it often starts playing what was "Now Playing" rather than the song I'm asking for.
The search in Mo 4Media is awesome so I'll keep checking it in case they fix their playback issues.

I haven't found MO 4Media flaky at all. If hitting play often starts playing what was in "Playing Now", then you had the wrong Zone (target audio device) selected when you hit play. I'm still using the free version, which will only play 30 minutes of media or something like that, but all testing has been good. MO 4Media must use the MC Zones paradigm, so you just need to learn how that works.

[RoderickGI]

You can search by metadata in Panel, you just need to specify the parameter in the search field. It's formatted as [<Field>]=[<Search Value>]. For example: [File Type]=[flac] or [Genre]=[Classical] [File Type]=[flac].

I think it is great that JRiver provides the technical capability to use a sophisticated search mechanism in Panel... However, this is why people keep on commenting on the UI of JRiver products.

I mean, really? A user has to memorise all the field names, and all the values set for those fields, to do even a relatively simple search in Panel? With no field name or value lookups, no obvious indication in the UI that this sort of search is possible, and no way to set up a search and save it, do you really expect people to use this search capability?

And now that JRiver for Android uses Panel as its UI, the user has to key in that search expression on an Android device, probably a phone?!

About 2% of all users will even know that functionality exists. Of that 2%, about 1% will use the capability. So 0.02% of the user base, or about two people, whichever is the lesser.

If I knew about this capability, I had forgotten. I've complained about the lack of Context in the Panel search functionality before, and I don't think anyone has ever mentioned searching using expressions. Maybe I just forgot this information, because I decided it was all but unusable.


Panel has been around for a long time now. It should be entering maturity. There should be an assisted search capability built into it, that allows selection of multiple search terms, and values available within those terms.

Come on JRiver. I know Cloudplay may be fun, but finish the job with JRiver for Android and Panel. Make them best of breed applications. Please.

[JimH]

Come on JRiver. I know Cloudplay may be fun, but finish the job with JRiver for Android and Panel. Make them best of breed applications. Please.

We're still working on both Panel and JRiver for Android.  Don't sweat it.

They're all part of our top secret WAF plan.

Listening to: 'Hotwax' from 'Odelay' by 'Beck' from 'A Bit of Everything' by 'atom82' with JRiver Media Center 25 via Cloudplay

[JimH]

Running MC24.0.57 from 16 October 2018, and updating regularly Jim!

Sure.

[RoderickGI]

Sure.

Ha! I thought about updating that again recently, but now I think it will just have to stay that way for a while... But you are deflecting again!

I know you are still working on both, but I would really like to see some more thought, and design, on the usability side. Perhaps even some design principles applied to all products, Cloudplay, Android, Panel, such as user-friendly search capabilities always being an early feature. Cloudplay's search also leaves something to be desired. https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,120378.msg832377.html#msg832377

[JimH]

Point taken.

[deone]

Thanks for the responses.
BTW, I tried
[Genre]=[Classical]
In the search box in the Panel and it did not find anything (and yes I have a lot of music with Genre = Classical).

The other thing that is fantastic about MO 4Media is that when I search it gives me different categories of results: e.g, if I search for "Drum", I can pick between albums with the word Drum in their name, I can pick Songs with the word Drum in their name, I can pick Style, Composer, Artist that also have metadata that contains Drum.  This is brilliant.

In Panel I just get a long list of songs that match...but I cannot navigate to an artist or album, just to songs.

W.r.t., flakiness of MO 4Media, I am 100% checking that I have the right target device selected before I do a play.  But right now it is working...so I will surely keep trying.

[BradATIMA]

Thanks for the responses.
BTW, I tried
[Genre]=[Classical]
In the search box in the Panel and it did not find anything (and yes I have a lot of music with Genre = Classical).

What specific version of Media Center are you running? You need to be running 25.0.17 or later.

[deone]

I just upgraded to 25.0.18 yesterday and searches of the form [Genre]=[Classical] now work!
Is there a way for me to navigate to an album containing a song or just see the albums that match a search?

[Matt]

I just upgraded to 25.0.18 yesterday and searches of the form [Genre]=[Classical] now work!
Is there a way for me to navigate to an album containing a song or just see the albums that match a search?

Just a note that you can also do g=[Classical].

It's a little shorter.

[deone]

Thanks and c=[xxyy] works for comments.
Are these shortcuts documented anywhere?

[JimH]

There are a few here:
https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php?title=Search_Language (at the bottom at least)

[RoderickGI]

Are these shortcuts documented anywhere?

Yes. They are all documented in the Library field definitions. See "Options > Library & Folders > Manage Library Fields" > select a field and then look at the Search Keywords values.

For example, [Genre] has Search Keywords of "genre=;g=", which means you can search using genre=xxx or g=xxx, rather than [Genre]=xxx. You can also add your own Search Keywords if you wish, though I have never tested that capability.

[deone]

Thank you.
Finally, is there a way to specify the output?  E.g., if I just want the search results to return albums that have a match in them rather than individual tracks?

[RoderickGI]

https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Search_Language#Modifiers  See ~a.

Example:
A search in my Library using;
n=Genisis
Which means [Name]=Genisis, finds one track, Genisis from the Album "Immersion" by Artist "Pendulum". Note that the form "[Name]=Genisis" means just find any track that includes "Genisis" in the name, while "[Name]=[Genisis]" means find a track named "Genisis".

Add ~a to the search;
n=Genisis ~a

Which means find any tracks that include "Genisis" in the [Name], and expand the list to include all tracks in the Album for which a track was found.

The above doesn't result in just a list of Albums, but all tracks in all Albums that match the criteria. If you "Play All" that list, you get all tracks in the selected Albums.

Close enough?

[deone]

Thanks that helps if I have that song only in one album...if not then it is still manageable but not ideal.