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[Gatherum]

Okay, basically, I have my Video section organised in panes (to the right) with the following categories: [Release Type] (custom field), [Franchise] (custom field), [Series].

I am trying to edit the [Series] pane so that it does not display the "Unassigned" "Series" within the pane for those videos that have no value in said field. In an attempt to do so, I did end up populating the [Series] field for those videos with a generic "No Series." Then, I edited the pane, chose "Expression," named it "Series," and input the following expression:

if(isequal([Series],No Series,1),,[Series])

Instead of removing "No Series" from the pane options entirely, however, it simply returns it as "Unassigned" again. What do I need to put between those two commas to get this to work?

[MrC]

There's no need to change your empty Series values to No Series.  Instead, you can just leave them empty, and test on that value.

If(isempty([Series,0]), No Series, [Series])

[Gatherum]

Hmm, neat. I like that better. Still, I'm wondering if it's possible just to have that value removed entirely. No "Unassigned," no "No Series," or anything, where relevant videos lacking such would be found by searching up one level in the Franchise pane. Even if the entry cannot be removed entirely, I'd go for one with an empty value (putting a space in there just returns "Unassigned" again). Of course, I'll accept the solution provided if this is not possible. Would be handy to know though.

[MrC]

See this thread, since another user and I just had this conversation:

   http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=76086.msg515511#msg515511

[Gatherum]

Ahh, I get it. This is pretty cool, thank you. Just a few kinks to work out.

I removed the [Series] pane entirely and changed the [Franchise] pane to an expression with the following:

ListBuild(1,\,[Franchise],[Series])&datatype=[list]

This results, as you probably know, in a folder structure-type deal:

V [Franchise]
[Series]

Three small issues:

1. Within my franchises is a work called Chaos;Head (yes, literally spelled officially with the semicolon separating the two words). Unfortunately, this is causing two separate items to appear, with the following structures:

V Chaos
Head

V Head
This Folder
Chaos

Both lead to the same files. I actually just depopulated the [Series] field for all items in which [Franchise] and [Series] were identical, removing all of the redundant dropdowns, but that still leaves the two separate items:

Chaos

Head

Interesting to note is that Head is appearing at the very bottom of the list, defying all alphabetical reasoning.

Any language I can input into the expression in order to cause it to ignore semicolons, or, more preferably, to disregard the character contents of each field in general? This might actually become a problem later because this seems to be a naming trend with the company that created the work (Chaos;Head, Steins;Gate, Robotics;Notes, and probably more to come...).

2. All items are sorting alphabetically, but are not ignoring articles (A, And, The, etc) at the beginnings of titles. How is this fixed?

This does not seem to be consistent, though. When "TV Series" is selected as the [Release Type], I see the [Franchises], "The Big O," "The Boondocks," and "The Enchained Spiritual Beast Ga-rei" at the bottom of the list, honouring the article, "The." However, when "ONA" is selected as the [Release Type], the one [Franchise] within has the following structure...

[Franchise]: Haruhi Suzumiya
[Series]: The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya
[Series]: Nyorōn! Churuya-san

...completely disregarding the article. ?

(For context, I have five [Release Types]: "Film," "OAV," "ONA," "Special," and "TV Series." I have the view set to filter in both directions, so selecting "Haruhi Suzumiya" will cause only "Film," "ONA," and "TV Series" to display. Just wanted to point it out so that it is not thought that the problem necessarily rests with the [Release Types] as I may inadvertently imply, but for all I know, it might just be that way.)

3. Is there a way to have the [Series] entries under each [Franchise] entry sorted by season or date without affecting [Franchise]? As in, [Franchise] remains alphabetical, but [Series] is sorted differently? It's a small quip, but I'll provide an example.

V [Franchise]: Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two
[Series]: Ef: A Tale of Melodies
[Series]: Ef: A Tale of Memories

Ef: A Tale of Melodies, chronologically-speaking, depicts events that happen after Ef: A Tale of Memories. Naturally, I'd like the former to appear second as a result, but it won't because the letter "L" comes before "M" in our alphabet.

[MrC]

1. Semicolons are the list separator, so if you'll want to Replace() those to something else (perhaps :

    Replace(ListBuild(1,\,[Franchise],[Series]), ;, :)&datatype=[list]

2. Enable Tools > Options > Tree & View > Sorting > Ignore articles...

3. Change the sorting at the Series level in your Theater View customization.  Perhaps sort by Date.  But this will change the sorting at both levels since a single expression is being used to define two levels.

[Gatherum]

1. Semicolons are the list separator, so if you'll want to Replace() those to something else (perhaps :

    Replace(ListBuild(1,\,[Franchise],[Series]), ;, :)&datatype=[list]

2. Enable Tools > Options > Tree & View > Sorting > Ignore articles...

3. Change the sorting at the Series level in your Theater View customization.  Perhaps sort by Date.  But this will change the sorting at both levels since a single expression is being used to define two levels.

1. Mmm, that definitely suffices. Thank you very much for that one. For future reference, if I wanted more than one character to be replaced in this manner (say, if I wanted all backslashes and forward slashes to be replaced in a given field), would it be possible to do so in one expression, or no?

2. I do have that enabled. However, it seems that the problem fixed itself when I placed the expression you offered into the [Franchise > Series] pane, so I guess maybe it was some odd difficulty caused by Chaos;Head. Thank you though.

3. Understood. Well, it's not that big a deal, so I'll leave it alone. I just wanted to know if there was a way to get the expression to work like that for the sake of knowing. I feel like this conversation has learned me just a bit more about MC's expression language.

Last issue: I am trying to group the tiles by [Season (Modified)] (custom field), which currently functions via the following expression:

ListBuild(1, \, Delimit([Season], \], /Season/ ))&datatype=[list]

This results in season groups appearing as "Season 1, "Season 2," etc, which is exactly what I want. Unfortunately, it's still showing "Unassigned" for files with [Season] unpopulated. I'm guessing that I've mucked up the language somewhere, and I imagine that it's probably obvious.

(Note: Using the expression...

ListBuild(1,\,Delimit([Season], \], /Season/ ),,~)&datatype=[list]

...for now as a placeholder.)

EDIT: Nevermind, I found an alternative. Edited the [Franchises] pane expression to look like this:

Replace(ListBuild(1,\,[Franchise],Delimit([Season], \, /Season/ )), ;, :)&datatype=[list]

Works nicely. Playing around with the [Series] field alphabetisation. I'll see what I can accomplish.

Thank you very much for all of your help!

[MrC]

Regarding the sort issue, create a custom expression field which defines how you want the sort to occur:

   ListBuild(1,\,[Franchise],if(!isempty([Series,0]),[Date],) [Series])

This will define a string that includes Date in front of Series (if it exists), so that string-based sorting gives you the correct order.

Set the expression categories sort order to be Custom > <your custom field's name>.

[Gatherum]

Hmm... is there any way to get it to sort by date or year without said date or year actually appearing there?

[MrC]

Don't use that new field you just created for the view categories.  Instead, just create the calculated field.  Use this field as the Custom sort order, and  use the expression you were using to define the categories.

[Gatherum]

Custom search order, as in, "Group By," "Sort Inside Groups By," or...?

Edit: Nevermind, I figured it out. Unfortunately, it's rather chaotic because each episode has its own unique date because Movie & TV Info pull airdates for each. I doubt I'd be able to, but if I were to sort by date, it'd be preferable to do so by the date of the first episode of a given series. I should have specified this.

[Gatherum]

Oh wow, I just figured out a very, very simple solution that essentially solved all my problems.

I didn't realise that

[Season] could have non-numerical values put into it. So I changed the [Franchise] pane expression to the following:

Replace(ListBuild(1,\,[Franchise],[Series],Delimit([Season], , /Season/ )),;,:)&datatype=[list]

Then, I edited the [Series] and [Season] fields accordingly, so that now, it looks like this (examples):

V [Franchise]: Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two
[Season]: Season 1 (Ef: A Tale of Memories)
[Season]: Season 2 (Ef: A Tale of Melodies)

V [Franchise]: Clannad
[Season]: Season 1
[Season]: Season 2 (Clannad After Story)

(In the latter example, season 1 is named "Clannad," same as the franchise, therefore needing no further specification. In both examples, the [Series] field is depopulated.)

The only problem I could see down the road is when a single franchise has multiple TV series that do not take place in the same chronology, but I'll cross that road when I come to it.

Still, this new expression I have here is very handy, and, once again, I am very thankful for all of the help. [/list]

[Gatherum]

Hello again.

I apologise for gravedigging this thread, but considering that the current issue I'm having is related in concept to the above, I felt it made more sense to simply reply here than begin a new thread.

Basically, I am using two fields: [Genre] and [Style (modified)] (custom field).

Let's say, for an Agalloch album, I populated the [Genre] field with "Rock" and the [Style (modified)] field with "Heavy Metal". I use a thumbnail view, so let's say, in the "Thumbnail Text" window, I enter on one line,"[Genre] ([Style (modified)])". This, of course, results in "Rock (Heavy Metal)".

Now, let's say, for an Antimatter album, I enter "Rock" for [Genre] and leave the [Style (modified)] field blank. This results in "Rock ()".

What expression would I need to prevent those two parentheses from appearing when there is no data in [Style (modified)]?

EDIT: Nevermind, I figured it out using the Delimit expression. It doesn't work with parentheses, and I'm guessing it's because parentheses are part of the expression language. I'll probably just use braces instead.

[MrC]

Forward slash to escape the parens.

Delimit([style (modified)], /), /()

[Gatherum]

Forward slash to escape the parens.

Delimit([style (modified)], /), /()

Oh wow, thanks.

So I'm guessing that the forward slash is a modifier that tells MC to treat whatever occurs directly after it as text, and not more expression modifiers.

I have another question:

Why do the expressions, "FormatDate([Original Date], yyyy-MM-dd)", and, "FormatDate(ConvertDate([Original Date]), yyyy-MM-dd)" not quite work correctly? Say that the [Original Date] field is populated with "1997"; the former expression will produce "1900-01-19", while the latter will produce "0-02-21". I'm trying to get it to produce "1997-01-01", or, if possible, just "1997" (there is no month and day available for the particular release that I'm working with; I imagine that it'll be easier to opt for the former option, since I have a lot of other stuff for which that information is available).

[Original Date] is a custom field that I use for re-issues of older releases, where the standard [Date] field would be populated with the re-issue date.

[MrC]

What type of field is Original Date defined as?

[Gatherum]

Date.

[MrC]

Use [original date,0]

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=71702.msg484382#msg484382

[Gatherum]

Use [original date,0]

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=71702.msg484382#msg484382

Ahh, nice! Thank you, this will help a lot.

There is only one thing left about this that's odd though:

I am working with an Agalloch compilation album called "The Compendium Archive". It is essentially a compilation of their older material, along with some assorted rarities and unreleased mixes.

This follows that multiple tracks on this compilation are going to have different original release dates. The odd part is that the expression, "FormatDate([Original Date, 0], yyyy-MM-dd)" is producing, for this compilation, "2001-11-06". The oldest material on this release is from 1997, whereas the most recent is from 2010-03-20. Is the expression producing an "average" date, so to speak, or is it just getting woefully confused due to the all of the different values?

[MrC]

At the file level, you'll get the exact date.  At the collection (group) level, you'll get an average.

[Gatherum]

At the file level, you'll get the exact date.  At the collection (group) level, you'll get an average.

Okay. I'll have to figure that out then.

Also, how would I tell it to sort albums (and their thumbnails) by [Original Date] instead of [Date]?

[MrC]

For Categories, use the Sort By in the tab's Paul down menu.

[Gatherum]

For Categories, use the Sort By in the tab's Paul down menu.

...Oh wow. I feel stupid, since I've worked with that before.

But thank you, for all of your help. Now, for the long operation of re-entering all of the genre metadata.

[MrC]

...Oh wow. I feel stupid, since I've worked with that before.

But thank you, for all of your help. Now, for the long operation of re-entering all of the genre metadata.

No problem.  In case you want more than genre's, you might find this useful:

   http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=79942.msg561236#msg561236

[Gatherum]

No problem.  In case you want more than genre's, you might find this useful:

   http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=79942.msg561236#msg561236

Hmm, interesting.

By the way, I figured out a way to fix the "average date" problem for compilations:

IfElse(IsEqual([Release Type], Compilation Album), FormatDate(yyyy-MM-dd), 1, FormatDate([Original Date, 0], yyyy-MM-dd))

[Release Type] being a custom field (acceptable values: Full-length Album, EP, Compilation Album, &c.).

Basically, If [Release Type] is Compilation Album, show [Date]. Else if any other [Release Type], show [Original Date].

I'm actually surprised that I got it completely right on the first try.

The only thing it doesn't fix is the sorting. Obviously, the albums are still sorting by [Original Date], which, for the compilation, is an "average date" of 2001-11-06. Therefore, despite the date being displayed as its release date of "2010-03-20", it still appears in the list before, say, Ashes Against the Grain, which was released on 2006-08-08. I doubt it, but is there any remedy for this with the current setup, i.e. telling it substitute the [Original Date] with [Date] for compilations when sorting? Or, even better, telling it to simply go off of the earliest date (which would be 1997, in this case)?

[MrC]

If you create a custom expression field that outputs the date you want, just like you did above, you can sort on that field.

Nice work!

[Gatherum]

If you create a custom expression field that outputs the date you want, just like you did above, you can sort on that field.

Nice work!

Well, I created the field, "[Compilation Date Modifier]" (probably a working title), with the following expression:

IfElse(IsEqual([Release Type], Compilation Album), FormatDate(yyyy-MM-dd), 1, FormatDate([Original Date, 0], yyyy-MM-dd))

It does exactly what it's supposed to: sorts compilations according to their release dates while sorting everything else by [Original Date].

Last question: how would I modify this so that the following can be true?

If [Release Type] is Compilation Album, sort by oldest [Original Date] among all files within. If else any other [Release Type], sort by [Original Date].

[Gatherum]

So now I have another problem:

In Rename, Move, & Copy Files, I enter the following expression into the "Filename" field:

Delimit([Track #], .) [Name] Delimit([Track Version], /), /()

Where [Track Version] is a custom field for specifying what version a track is (I made this specifically for remixes and the like). Naturally, if it is the original version of a given track, it is left blank. Using the expression, "Delimit([Track Version], /), /()" works fine outside of Rename, Move, & Copy Files, but in said window, it projects that it will append all tracks without a value with "Unknown Track Version". Do not want. Does the Delimit function not work in Rename, Move, & Copy Files?

EDIT: Nevermind, changed it to the following:

Delimit([Track #], .) [Name]Delimit([Track Version, 0],/),/ ()

Now, it is working properly. What, exactly, does '0' do, in this case? I'm curious.

[Gatherum]

Sorry for the triple-post, but I am really proud of myself, because I wrote this for the directory Rule field in Rename, Move, & Copy Files:

[Album Artist (auto)]\[Release Type]s\(FormatDate(yyyy-MM-dd)) [Album] Delimit([Album Version,0], /), /()If(IsEqual([Date],[Original Date],),,IfElse(IsEqual([Release Type],Compilation Album),,IsEmpty([Album Version],1),,1,(FormatDate([Original Date,0],yyyy-MM-dd)/)))\If(IsEmpty([Disc #,0]),,Delimit([Disc #],,/Disc/ ))

...And it works. It took some effort, but I got it!

I also modified the Filename field:

Delimit([Track #],.) [Name]Delimit([Track Version, 0],/),/ ()IfElse(IsEmpty([Album Version],1),If(IsEqual([Date],[Original Date],),,/ (FormatDate([Original Date,0],yyyy-MM-dd)/)))

That also works.

...It would take too long to translate that into English.

[MrC]

Now, it is working properly. What, exactly, does '0' do, in this case? I'm curious.

Read "Fields":

   http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Media_Center_expression_language#Fields

[MrC]

Delimit([Track #],.) [Name]Delimit([Track Version, 0],/),/ ()IfElse(IsEmpty([Album Version],1),If(IsEqual([Date],[Original Date],),,/ (FormatDate([Original Date,0],yyyy-MM-dd)/)))

Nice work.

You probably want to move the space inside the Delimit, so that you don't get a space appended always.

Delimit([Track #],./ )[Name]Delimit([Track Version, 0],/),/ ()IfElse(IsEmpty([Album Version],1),If(IsEqual([Date],[Original Date],),,/ (FormatDate([Original Date,0],yyyy-MM-dd)/)))

[MrC]

Last question: how would I modify this so that the following can be true?

If [Release Type] is Compilation Album, sort by oldest [Original Date] among all files within. If else any other [Release Type], sort by [Original Date].

If by this you mean you don't want to use the Average at the categories level, then you'll have to resort to using global variables to calculate and save the old track within an album.  At the categories or group level, MC does some special work for some fields where it makes sense, such as Track #, date fields, # plays, etc.

[Gatherum]

If by this you mean you don't want to use the Average at the categories level, then you'll have to resort to using global variables to calculate and save the old track within an album.  At the categories or group level, MC does some special work for some fields where it makes sense, such as Track #, date fields, # plays, etc.

I can't begin to think of how I'd do this. Example?

[MrC]

I can't begin to think of how I'd do this. Example?

Add this to the Set rules for file display for the view (use the Import / Export button and paste it after a space with the other items there, but on the same line):

[=1save(99999,v_odate_albumkey())]=1 [=1save(math(min([Date,0], load(v_odate_albumkey()))), v_odate_albumkey())]=1

The expression now that will show a per-album old date is:

   load(v_odate_albumkey())

If one of the tracks has no date, the oldest value will be a 0, and this may not be what you want.

[Gatherum]

Add this to the Set rules for file display for the view (use the Import / Export button and paste it after a space with the other items there, but on the same line):

[=1save(99999,v_odate_albumkey())]=1 [=1save(math(min([Date,0], load(v_odate_albumkey()))), v_odate_albumkey())]=1

The expression now that will show a per-album old date is:

   load(v_odate_albumkey())

If one of the tracks has no date, the oldest value will be a 0, and this may not be what you want.

That won't be a problem: no track in my library will ever have no date, except for right now, because I am going through and redoing all the dates.

Thank you very much!

[Gatherum]

Add this to the Set rules for file display for the view (use the Import / Export button and paste it after a space with the other items there, but on the same line):

[=1save(99999,v_odate_albumkey())]=1 [=1save(math(min([Date,0], load(v_odate_albumkey()))), v_odate_albumkey())]=1

The expression now that will show a per-album old date is:

   load(v_odate_albumkey())

If one of the tracks has no date, the oldest value will be a 0, and this may not be what you want.

Sorry to gravedig this, but I happened to try this expression out again as you described, but it's still not quite working. Compilation albums are still sorting by an "average" original date. What do?

Also, requesting that this now be moved to the J River Media Center 19 forum.

[MrC]

I'm working through old mailings I have, and this one popped up.  I see there was no response to your post.  Do you still need help with this?

JimH has moved the thread.

[Gatherum]

Aye, I would appreciate the help, yes.

[MrC]

Reply #35 states that your compilation albums are still being sorted by average original date.  Can you explain which sorting you are referring to (Categories, a Panes column, files within a file list group, or the groupings themselves)?