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[Fred1]

I'm using RegExes very frequently to maintain my MC library.
Therefore i have to type in the sometimes complicated expressions ever and ever again.

It would be very time- and error saving if we had a repository of user defined expressions that we could insert when in column edit mode (F2).

Perhaps a combined keystroke (Shift Control ArrowDown) or something else could open a combobox with the available expressions as it works already for choices of other items.

A few predefined useful expressions and RegExes in this repository would be appreciated.

[kstuart]

+1 on this.

Here is an example.  MrC came up with a long and complicated regex that takes "album" tags and separates out that the true Album name and Version information to put in Album and Description respectively.  In other words:

Album: Dark Side of the Moon [30th Anniversary Remaster]

would become:

Album:  Dark Side of the Moon
Description:  30th Anniversary Remaster

(you can find this by searching the Forum for Description)

Every time I want to use this, I have to find the regex, so I have to save it in a .txt file or something.  It would nice to have these regex's available in MC18 - I agree with Fred!

[6233638]

I agree, it would be nice to save our own presets.

Album: Dark Side of the Moon [30th Anniversary Remaster]
would become:
Album:  Dark Side of the Moon
Description:  30th Anniversary Remaster

I just cheat it using Fill properties from filename… rather than figuring out an expression for that sort of thing.

[MrC]

MC's Notes are a reasonable workaround for now (better than text files).

[Fred1]

Notes are a temporary solution - not ideal for this task (but better than a text file somewhere on the filesystem, i agree).  

[Fred1]

I have to revise my opinion about Notes and tagging with expressions:
It's highly unnerving to switch between Notes and your (selected) titles.

It is more comfortable to use a text file to store your expressions.

 

[MrC]

Even when Notes is open in its own tab?  (Ctrl-Tab and Ctrl-Shift-Tab cycle tabs for fast access).

[kstuart]

I agree, it would be nice to save our own presets.
I just cheat it using Fill properties from filename… rather than figuring out an expression for that sort of thing.

Fill Properties from filename has to be setup individually for each syntax.   It's an effective use of time if either a) all your folders use the exact same syntax, or b) most of are all the tags are missing or incorrect.

For just moving Album tag information to Description, MrC's expression works very well, it is:

=RemoveCharacters(Regex([album], /#^(.+?)(?:\s*[[({](.+)[\])}])?$#/, 1),/(/)[]{})

=RemoveCharacters(Regex([album], /#^(.+?)(?:\s*[[({](.+)[\])}])?$#/, 2),/(/)[]{})

Both are the same expression, with just the capture value changed - 1 for Album, 2 for Description.
You can setup two expression columns to see that it works.

Complete discussion at:

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=78518.0

[6233638]

That's true, but sometimes a little manual work (say there are two or three "systems" in use) is quicker than figuring out how to do it in a fully automated manner.

I'm still working on getting my classical music displayed correctly, and trying to figure out an expression that will handle renaming for all my files.
Right now I have a couple of presets, but still do some quick manual renaming for outliers, and I would like to combine it all into one expression.


With your example of Dark Side of the Moon [30th Anniversary Remaster]
That is trivial to fix using Fill properties from filename…
[Album] /[[Description]/] for example.

[MrC]

[ Tangent alert - we can follow-up in your referenced thread if you want ]

What's missing / not working?

[Samson]

User defined expression repository and some user friendly GUI/Wizard for insertion is a seriously great idea.

Anything that makes MC's advanced functions,like expression language, look less intimidating to new and intermediate users has to be high on the priority list IMO.

On a releated note it would be great to see an additional wiki page on expression language with groupings of functionality in a more user friendly way.Things like "Replace(...): Replace or remove strings from a value" are not user friendly to newcomers. Groupings like "useful expressions for tagging on import" example "TV shows without series or seson info" , or "useful expressions for renaming files" example "adding a suffix to an album name".
 

[kstuart]

Classical Music is quite different from all other music - in exactly those aspects that one uses to group, sort and select music.

MC18 really needs a "Classical Music Button" that you press and all sorts of things change.

There are some really, really long web pages out there for setting up MediaCenter (and other players) for classical music.

For me, I limited it to using the Composer tag in Classical and then having a Classical view based on Composer instead of Artist.   

And, in fact, in the Retail World, there is no different system needed, since sales are based on Artists like Yo-Yo Ma rather than Composers like Mozart...