Messages

1

Questions / Re: Ignore words in Virtual tags when sorting (but keep them in the display)

« on: March 06, 2023, 03:36:21 PM »

Thank you for all the suggestions. I have added the request to the Wishlist section.

https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=38931.0

2

MusicBee Wishlist / Ignore words when sorting (The, etc..) for other fields, including Virtual Tags

« on: March 06, 2023, 03:34:37 PM »

This issue came up in the following topic.
https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=38895.0

When creating a Virtual Tag that uses the <Album> tag, it will no longer ignore the selected words in the Preferences > Sorting/Grouping Tab when sorting.

The $Sort function or <Sort Album> tag will sort the albums as intended, but changes the display of the album names, displacing the ignored words to the end, preceded by a coma (eg. Rolling Stones, The).

It would be great if the ignored words could also be applied to other fields besides Album, Artist and Title.
When creating a Virtual tag, there could be a checkbox to chose if it should ignore the words when sorting, or not.

3

Questions / Re: Ignore words in Virtual tags when sorting (but keep them in the display)

« on: March 03, 2023, 04:24:17 PM »

Any ideas?

Please take this as just an impulsive response without me having read very well what you are exactly aiming for:
Perhaps tale a look at the $Sort function?:
https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=35868.msg196258#post_func_sort

I've tried using the $Sort function. The result is the third column in my screenshots. The albums are sorted properly, but it also changes the display, moving the 'ignored' words and symbols to the end of the name.

What you're requesting is not currently possible, as far as I can tell.
For columns showing Virtual Tags, sorting is strictly alphabetic, hence the Sort() function.

Yeah, I guess maybe it's not possible.
Anyway, it's a suggestion for the future. To have a checkbox when creating a virtual tag, to chose if it should ignore the words in Preferences > Sorting/Grouping when sorting, or not.

4

Questions / Re: Ignore words in Virtual tags when sorting (but keep them in the display)

« on: March 02, 2023, 06:35:16 PM »

Any ideas?

5

Questions / Ignore words in Virtual tags when sorting (but keep them in the display)

« on: February 26, 2023, 03:02:10 PM »

Following my last two posts and the feedback I received here, I've reorganized library and now it's almost working as I want it.
There's only one thing left.

In the column browser, in the column for albums that uses a virtual tag, I want the entries to be sorted ignoring the words I've entered in the settings, but keeping the display unaltered. This is the default when using the album tag.

I've seen other posts with similar questions, and the answer is to use the <Sort Album> tag, or the $Sort function, and I tried both. The problem is that even though the albums will be sorted properly, the display will also be changed, with the ignored words or signs moved to the end of the name, after a comma.
Here's an example:



What I want is to have something like the first column, but using a virtual tag. The albums are sorted correctly, ignoring words like 'The', but on the display the words are still there.
Using <Sort Album> or $Sort (last column), the albums are sorted correctly, but the ignored words are moved. This is not so bad with 'The', but it gets weird if what is ignored is not a word, but a symbol (like (, ), #, !, etc.). Like the first entry here:



So the question is: for a Virtual Tag, is there a way to ignore the words on the list for sorting, but keep the display unchanged?

6

Questions / Re: Prevent Virtual tag to use semicolon as separator

« on: February 25, 2023, 11:04:02 AM »

Copy and paste this to your virtual tag:

Code

$Replace(<Album>,;,;)

Edit: Forgot to add in the explanation on why it would work (depending on ur definition of work).

Computers do not recognize the second-last character in that formular as a semi-colon - they read it as a Greek question mark.

It works perfectly!
Thanks

7

Questions / Re: Prevent Virtual tag to use semicolon as separator

« on: February 25, 2023, 01:01:43 AM »

As I've said, I don't want them to be multi-value. I just want to be able to use a semicolon as part of an album name.

Here's a screenshot to make it clearer.



This is my column browser. When the column is set to Album, it displays the Album name correctly, without splitting at the semicolon.
But when I used a Virtual Tag, it will split it in two. For simplicity, I have set Virtual7 to just <Album>, and this is still happening.

If nothing else, I'm sure there's a way to write a function (for the virtual tag) to make it work, I just don't know how.

8

Questions / Re: Prevent Virtual tag to use semicolon as separator

« on: February 25, 2023, 12:24:27 AM »

It's quite simple, really.
Semicolons are used as multi-value separators for tags, but before that they were used as separators in common written language.
That's how I use them in the album tag. Not to separate different values that should be split apart, but as a separator for reading.
It occurs mostly with Classical music, but not only. For example, a cd that reissues two LP albums together, the album tag will include both album names separated by a semicolon.

And by default, MusicBee understands that. It doesn't split names with semicolons in the album tag (like it does with the Artist tag, for example).

The problem only occurs when I try to use the album tag to generate a virtual tag.
I hope it is clear now.

9

Questions / Re: Prevent Virtual tag to use semicolon as separator

« on: February 24, 2023, 11:38:09 PM »

I don't want the album to be multi-value, that's the thing. The semicolons are there just to separate different works on the same album (since most classical albums don't have proper names). And that's how it works for the album tag, when used on it's own. It treats the album name as a single value, even if there are semicolons in it.

But if I try to use album in a virtual tag, then the semicolons will be identified as separators for multiple values.
Is there a way to avoid this? Without having to re-tag my whole library again?
Since some fields will treat semicolons as separators and others won't, it seems strange that there's no way to decide what will be the behaviour on virtual tags.

I do use 'works' and 'grouping' for classical music too. But the album concept is still useful to keep together several works that are bundled together for some reason (same performers, a concept, whatever).

10

Questions / Prevent Virtual tag to use semicolon as separator

« on: February 24, 2023, 10:29:01 PM »

I'm using a virtual tag to display the album names together with information from another tag on the column browser.
Some of the albums use semicolons in the album name (eg. Classical Music albums with multiple works).
When I used the album tag in the column browser, that wouldn't be a problem, the whole album name would be shown,
But when I try to use the virtual tag, it will interpret the semicolons as separators, a create multiple entries from the same album.
Is there a way to prevent this?

11

Questions / Re: Editing what to search when looking for artwork

« on: February 24, 2023, 10:25:17 PM »

Welcome to the forum Pai_Natal.

I am pretty sure that cannot be done.
It would be much more advisable to keep the Album field populated as it is supposed to be; only the correct album title.
Any additional information on an album could—and should—go into a custom tag.

Then for displaying the album title and the additional information together under the album art, use a virtual tag.
Something like this: <Album> [<Additional info>]
(or whatever you name the relevant custom tag)

Ok, so I rearranged my library as suggested. The album tag now only has the album name, and all the rest is stored in a custom tag called <Additional info>. Then I use a virtual tag to display both together. It works fine, except for one thing. Some of the album names have semicolons (eg, classical albums with multiple works).
When I use the album tag on the column browser, the full album name is displayed as a single album.
But when using a virtual tag, it will interpret the semicolons as separators, a created different entries.
There must be a way to prevent this? How can I do it?

12

Questions / Re: Editing what to search when looking for artwork

« on: February 23, 2023, 09:40:20 AM »

Could you search for the album cover before you alter the album title?

That's what I do for the new albums. But I don't want to do it for the 20k+ albums already in my library.

I wouldn't focus on making changes to "good" data in my library to satisfy a less capable player. Even if it is just for your phone. But perhaps a suggestion - use the Auto-playlist function in MusicBee that can work with the additional virtual and custom tags for you, before you transfer these to your phone - is a solution?

In the end, that's probably what I'm going to do, reorganize my library using virtual tags. But still I think a more flexible artwork search could be a useful feature, and not so difficult to implement.

I have created a wishlist topic for this:
https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=38875.0

Perfect!

Thanks to all for your suggestions

13

MusicBee Wishlist / Re: option to manually define an album art search query

« on: February 23, 2023, 09:34:21 AM »

+1

14

Questions / Re: Editing what to search when looking for artwork

« on: February 22, 2023, 09:12:59 AM »

HI hiccup, thanks for your answer.

That's an interesting workaround. The only problem is that when I play my music on another, less sophisticated player, as in my phone, I won't have access (at least no easily) to that information, which is why I ended up putting it in the album field.
Maybe I'll have to live with that.
But MusicBee is so flexible and customizable in so many ways, it seems strange that for album art search you are limited to a predetermined patterned based on predetermined fields. It would be good if you could at least use other fields for the search (then I could use the custom field to search, and keep my album field intact), and if no relevant results are found, just type directly what should be searched. Instead of going to google.
That's a suggestion

15

Questions / Editing what to search when looking for artwork

« on: February 21, 2023, 03:30:33 PM »

I've tried different searches to see if this was addressed in any topic previously, and couldn't find anything.

For some albums, I like to keep some additional information, usually under [ ] brackets, besides the album name, in the same field.

The problem is, when I try to use MusicBee to automatically search the internet for the album cover, it will run a search with the entire thing under the album field, including what's inside the brackets, so it generally won't find any images.

Is there anyway to customize exactly what is used for the search? And I mean not just the field, but to filter it using RegEx patterns or something like that?

Thanks!