Uses for Group By / Sub Grouping in Album Covers view

[Bee-liever]

Originally posted as "$SortAs function" in "MusicBee Wishlist"

Would it be possible to add a $SortAs(text,sort text) function for virtual tags.
With the new Group By sub-grouping I could have my sub-grouping headings as:

Albums
Live Albums
EP
Singles
Compilations
V/A Compilations
Bootlegs
Video
Miscellaneous

by using $SortAs("Albums","1") etc
without actually having to do this:

1: Albums
2: Live Albums
3: EP
4: Singles
5: Compilations
6: V/A Compilations
7: Bootlegs
8: Video
9: Miscellaneous

and if a particular artists doesn't have releases in all the sub-grouping categories I don't get:

1: Albums
4: Singles
6: V/A Compilations

[Bee-liever]

I see now (with the sub-group sort working properly) that I don't need this.

If you use a virtual tag to display the sub-group heading, MB still uses the actual sourced tag for the sort.

I can add a new grouping tag, G#, and use the virtual tag

Code

$If($First(<Grouping>)="G1","Studio Albums",$First(<Grouping>)="G2","Live Albums",etc...

and MB will sort them as:

Albums
Live Albums
EP
Singles
Compilations
V/A Compilations
Bootlegs
Video
Miscellaneous

Bloody fantastic!

@ Steven
If this is a mistake on your part
Please Don't Change It

[ChristoMorse]

I see know (with the sub-group sort working properly) that I don't need this.

If you use a virtual tag to display the sub-group heading, MB still uses the actual sourced tag for the sort.

I can add a new grouping tag, G#, and use the virtual tag

Code

$If($First(<Grouping>)="G1","Studio Albums",$First(<Grouping>)="G2","Live Albums",etc...

and MB will sort them as:

Albums
Live Albums
EP
Singles
Compilations
V/A Compilations
Bootlegs
Video
Miscellaneous

Bloody fantastic!

@ Steven
If this is a mistake on your part
Please Don't Change It

Oh, man, I can't make it work!!

I'm trying a lot of things but non of them work, it's so frustrating.

There's something in your post that's obvious for you and apparently not so obvious for me and my knowledge.

Sorry to waste your time, Bee-liever.

[hiccup]

Oh, man, I can't make it work!!

Are you using the virtual tag to display the values, and the grouping tag for sorting them?

[hiccup]

Code

$If($First(<Grouping>)="G1","Studio Albums",$First(<Grouping>)="G2","Live Albums",etc...

@Bee-liever, shouldn't your formula use nesting for this to work? So:

Code

$If($First(<Grouping>)="G1","Studio Albums",$If($First(<Grouping>)="G2","Live Albums",etc...

[Bee-liever]

Sorry for the disjointed nature of the guide, but it originally started life as a Wishlist item.

You should also read this post: https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=22674.0, as this is what started me trying to sort this out.

Oh, man, I can't make it work!!

I'm trying a lot of things but non of them work, it's so frustrating.

There's something in your post that's obvious for you and apparently not so obvious for me and my knowledge.

Sorry to waste your time, Bee-liever.

If your gonna give me praise like this:

Bee-liever has done it again, this guy is just brilliant

don't ever worry that you're wasting my time    

OK. Christo (and others) I have been able to use the Covers view to group my VA releases into release/genre types and sub-group them by release series:

VA Christmas Albums and Album Series


while also grouping Artists into Studio Albums, Live Albums, EP's, Singles, etc


As shown in the other linked thread, I've used the Grouping tag to hold this info.

VA Christmas album


VA Christmas album Series


Standard Artist single


I've then used two virtual tags to split up the Grouping tag:

Group Sorting

Code

$If($First(<Grouping>)="G6",$Split(<Grouping>,;,1)$RSplit(<Grouping>,],1),$First(<Grouping>))

Release Group

Code

$If($First(<Grouping>)="G1","Studio Albums",$If($First(<Grouping>)="G1a",Soundtracks,$If($First(<Grouping>)="G2","Live Albums",$If($First(<Grouping>)="G3",EPs,$If($First(<Grouping>)="G4",Singles,$If($First(<Grouping>)="G5","Compilation Albums",$If($First(<Grouping>)="G6",$IsNull($Split(<Grouping>,;,4),$Split($Split(<Grouping>," [",1),"; ",2),$If($Contains(<Grouping>,ⁱ)="F",$RSplit($Split(<Grouping>,ⁱ,1),"; ",1),$Split(<Grouping>,;,4)": "$RSplit(<Grouping>,ⁱ,1))),"Undefined Sources")))))))

so that the info can be used in my custom sorting:
Album Artist/ Group Sorting/ Release Sort Index

and my 'Group By' (Sort Album Artist) and 'Sub Grouping' (Release Group) settings.

[ChristoMorse]

Thank you so much for this, Bee-liever.
And sorry for missing on your post and taking so long to answer, I'm having issues with the notifications.

All this works for me, it's so useful. You're a genius and very generous for taking all this time.

Also, the Grouping splitting is a terrific idea.

This is so appreciated, Bee-liever!!!!!!!!!

[pps888]

Hello,

Do you know why sub-grouping is inactive?



Ok nevermind. I had to uncheck "group by first letter"