Columns UI

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Reply #6450 – 2011-07-04 19:59:06

Quote from: garbanzo.bean on 2011-06-29 13:21:51

no, grouping can't be conditional like that.

but here's what i do to sort of get around that. i wanted a second grouping script that showed disc number when an album has multiple discs, but i didn't want it showing up for single disc albums. so i just put a conditional disc number grouping, then used the $tab() to add further info (genre, style country) on the right side of the group that always shows up. works pretty well

in fact, as i post this, i just realized i could make the right-hand information only show up for disc one - that would look even better!

That's a good solution, and looks great with your setup. Ultimately, though since my right-hand column is so much more narrow, it just doesn't work.

Ultimately, I think I'm settling on the following compromise:

First level of grouping:

Code: [Select]

$rgb(0,0,0)$if($stricmp(%genre%,classical),%composer%,%album artist%)

Second level of grouping:

Code: [Select]

$rgb(0,0,0)$if($stricmp(%genre%,classical),%date% - %album% '('%album artist%')',%date% - %album%)

This way, when the genre is classical, all albums of a particular composer will be shown under one group. When the genre is not classical, it just shows the normal album artist. On the second level of grouping, I group by date then by album and the script also inserts the name of the orchestra or recording artist for classical recordings. It's not perfect (because the orchestra name will inevitably get cut off), but it's more elegant than awkward blank spaces whenever the genre is not classical.

This brings me to a follow-up question:

When I have any playlist other than Filter Results selected, I do not use grouping. Instead I simply return an ungrouped list of tracks with their list index number next to them, which I feel is more "playlist-like". I was wondering, however, is there any way to put the title of the particular playlist (and perhaps the number of songs therein) at the top of the list of tracks?

In the playlist switcher and playlists dropdown components, the tag for the playlist name is %title% and the total number of items is %size%. When I use these tags in the NG Playlist grouping script, it returns the title of the song (which makes sense) and a question mark, respectively.

Columns UI

Reply #6451 – 2011-07-05 02:31:34

Is there a way to set a column that displays an icon on the currently playing song, like in the default UI?
Like this: http://i.imgur.com/FqObX.png

Thanks in advance.

Columns UI

Reply #6452 – 2011-07-05 05:21:39

Quote from: yafho on 2011-07-05 02:31:34

Is there a way to set a column that displays an icon on the currently playing song, like in the default UI?

Its not possible to display graphics in a column*. But you can simulate it using text, and if you use certain fonts in the playlist you can display icon'ish symbols - some very much like the arrow in the default UI. (see reply to this post for example)

* at least not in a standard Columns UI playlist column. Not sure about other 3rd party playlist panels.

Columns UI

Reply #6453 – 2011-07-05 06:08:48

Quote from: trout on 2011-07-05 05:21:39

Quote from: yafho on 2011-07-05 02:31:34
Is there a way to set a column that displays an icon on the currently playing song, like in the default UI?

Its not possible to display graphics in a column*. But you can simulate it using text, and if you use certain fonts in the playlist you can display icon'ish symbols - some very much like the arrow in the default UI. (see reply to this post for example)

* at least not in a standard Columns UI playlist column. Not sure about other 3rd party playlist panels.

Thanks for the reply, this will do.

Columns UI

Reply #6454 – 2011-07-15 00:03:32

Hi all!

I have searched for a while but couldn't find a solution ...

I use the NG_Playlist and group my albums with this formatting string:

$if2(%album artist%,<no artist>) | %date% | $if2(%discname%,%album%)

the grouping is correct but it sorts different albums only by the album artist and not by date.
This means when i have multiple albums from a specific artist there is no chronological order.
I haven't found a sorting string so i assume it should be sortet the same way it is grouped.

Thanks in advance.
Tommy

Columns UI

Reply #6455 – 2011-07-15 00:32:03

Try to get pipes in apostrophes: $if2(%album artist%,<no artist>) '|' %date% '|' $if2(%discname%,%album%)

Columns UI

Reply #6456 – 2011-07-15 08:31:45

Thanks for the reply, but unfortunately it doesn't change the behavior. Even if I completely remove the pipes the problem is the same. Thats really strange because if there is an album with multiple discs it sorts correctly by discname.

Any other suggestions?

Columns UI

Reply #6457 – 2011-07-15 08:44:23

grouping is not sorting.

if you add files from explorer, you need to change the sort string under file>preferences>shell integration.
if you use columns UI filters, then look at preferences>display>columns UI>filters tab.
or if you use an alternative library viewer then check it's options.

Columns UI

Reply #6458 – 2011-07-15 09:01:02

Thank you very much. I didn't find the sorting preferences for the filter in the first place. Now it works like a charm.

Kind regards ...

Columns UI

Reply #6459 – 2011-07-15 14:34:02

The previous couple of posts made me want to "Read The Columns UI Manual"...
The vagueness relating to usage of the "Pipe" character is surprising to me; It all seems like guesswork from the users (and myself) !!
I especially want to know more about the exact title-formatting syntax used in the "Sort" tab of "NG Playlist" (if "Use custom sort script" is enabled).

So I went to the "Columns UI" homepage to RTFM...
and the only thing I could find on the subject was one line on one page !! Here:

Code: [Select]

http://yuo.be/wiki/columns_ui:config:playlist_view:columns#use_custom_sort_script

If a user was becoming more advanced and decided to tweak the settings a bit more, what hope do they have with that info? ...not much.
Where is the documentation on the "Pipe" character?
Does the "Sort" field of "Columns UI" have a different syntax scheme to the "foobar2000" syntax scheme? ...What exactly is different?
A few examples in in each section of each page of the "Columns UI" manual would have made it MUCH more user friendly.

In my case, the ""Sort" section could have had 3 or 4 examples like so:
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Sort tab

The title formatting expression used when sorting by this column. Applies only when Use custom sort script is enabled.

Example sort scripts:

Code: [Select]

 // the pipe character does this...
$blah(.....)|$blah(.....)

// The blah character modifies bleh...
// note: NOT using the pipe character in this case forces the output to render as...
$blah(.....) $if($blah(blah),$bleh(.....))

// etc etc

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

As a matter of interest to all the users trying to customize their own foobar2000 with Columns UI...
My NG Playlist viewer has this sort script for all columns...

Code: [Select]

// Sorts "NG Playlist" view by lossless files first (and then lossy),
// and lists the album groups by "Album Artist" tag (swapping the prefixes: "A" and "The")
// and if no other choice, sort by "Path".
$info(encoding),lossless $swapprefix(%album artist%) %path_sort%

$info(encoding),lossless just doesn't seem right does it? ...but it works!

Columns UI

Reply #6460 – 2011-07-15 15:20:53

Quote

Where is the documentation on the "Pipe" character?

when sorting, the pipe character is completely arbitrary. separating tags with just spaces might lead to undesired results so people use characters that are unlikely to appear in any title formatting. you could use anything really.

the only special use case it has is when configuring "album list" where it's used to create "branches" in the tree like structure.

Quote

Does the "Sort" field of "Columns UI" have a different syntax scheme to the "foobar2000" syntax scheme? ...What exactly is different?

why would anyone think it uses a different syntax?

Columns UI

Reply #6461 – 2011-07-15 15:39:14

@marc2003, I take that answer (about sysntax differences) as a "NO", and I accept that as the official line, thanks.

The answer you gave about the "Pipe" character was informative, thanks (a pity I had to dig so far to discover this...).

So according to you, in the case of my "NG Playlist" columns sort script...
this may give undesirable results --> $info(encoding),lossless $swapprefix(%album artist%) %path_sort%
but this gives less chance of undesirable results --> $info(encoding),lossless|$swapprefix(%album artist%)|%path_sort%

Can you explain why my own sorting script works? (it doesn't seem right at first glance)
Can you provide some more sorting theory and examples for educational purposes? for instance, what would SILLY sort scripts look like, compared to USEFUL sort scripts.

Columns UI

Reply #6462 – 2011-07-15 18:06:54

I have just completed an intense little test and here are my results (and opinions)...

--- THE TEST ------------------------------------------

Search for the word Johann with the "Quick Search" (foo_quicksearch) component, using my "Standard" search string for this component:
%artist% %album% %title% $directory(%_path%,1) $directory(%_path%,2) %date% %genre% %comment%

and compare the views in "NG Playlist" using 2 different columns sort string methods (note: all columns are set to this same sort string):
Method (A) - $info(encoding),lossless $swapprefix(%album artist%) %path_sort%
Method (B) - $info(encoding),lossless|$swapprefix(%album artist%)|%path_sort%

NOTE: If you notice that the view in "NG Playlist" is sorting by "path" after you type your search word in "Quick Search" component,
then click on the column headers on "NG Playlist" and the view will refresh and sort with your specified syntax string.

--- THE FINDINGS ------------------------------------------
Method (A) is correct, it outputs the expected result.
Method (B) is not correct, it outputs only as "path_sort" and ignores the whole sort string.

--- MY THOUGHTS ---------------------------------------
If you are creating a compound syntax sort script for your "NG Playlist" columns, DO NOT USE "Pipes" between each Title-Formatting Syntax Field; ONLY USE "Spaces" .
My findings in this matter are the opposite of what was explained to me in the previous post by ~marc2003 .
It was an interesting test, and it has helped me tweak my "foobar2000 with Column UI and NG Playlist" to a better level,
I hope it has helped some members here too,
Thanks for reading.

Columns UI

Reply #6463 – 2011-07-21 19:01:07

I've encountered a problem and I don't know if it's me, the Columns component, or something else:

- I have a few library filters, and I've selected "auto-send selection to playlist"
- I use the NG Playlist
- I have set the status pane double click action to "View/Columns playlist/Activate now playing"
- Normally, if I have a playlist already playing a bunch of songs, I'm used to being able to left single click on a filter, seeing that result in the NG Playlist, and then being able to double click in the status pane area to return the playlist display to the playlist that is playing

all good so far.

But frequently, after bouncing around a bunch of times between displaying filter results or viewing other playlists and displaying what is playing, the double click action to display what is playing stops working. There is no interruption in what is playing, the issue is that I can no longer get NG Playlist to return to displaying what is actually playing.

If I shut down and relaunch Foobar, behavior returns to what I consider normal.

Is this a bug, inherent limitation in the component and my settings, or is there something I'm missing? Thanks for any suggestions.

Columns UI

Reply #6464 – 2011-07-21 20:15:42

I also noticed that when double-clicking in the status pane doesn't return the playlist display to what is playing, that the active playlist and the queue contents do not clear when I double click on a new album in my library (filter set to send to playlist and play when I double click , so anything playing or queued should be cleared and just what I double-clicked on should be the active playlist and be playing).

I did see that if I manually cleared the queue, expected behavior returned. Lastly, I saw that if I countinued to double click on albums to send to the playlist, then the queue would play the next song in the queue until empty (without displaying what was playing from the queue other than in the queue viewer) and then the expected behavior returned.

I saw no change in behavior with the queue playlist enabled or not enabled.

To put it another way, I thought that by "sending" my library selections to the active playlist (as opposed to "add" ) then those would play and only those selections would play and wipe out anything currently playing or in the queue.

Columns UI

Reply #6465 – 2011-07-21 21:48:09

Quote from: godrick on 2011-07-21 19:01:07

I've encountered a problem and I don't know if it's me, the Columns component, or something else:

My main CUI layout simply consists of the NG Playlist. Jumping to the now playing track via keyboard shortcut sometimes fails if before I either was viewing other playlists or performed file operations on other tracks within the period of time that I have chosen as Buffer length in foobar's Output preferences.

The 'Activate now playing'-command begins to work again with the next track opened by foobar2000, there is no application restart necessary on my computer.

Columns UI

Reply #6466 – 2011-07-21 22:54:37

I'm a relatively new foobar user and have been customizing the GUI to my liking.

This is not the case for all of the albums shown in playlist_ng, but there are quite a few albums that's songs seem to be automatically ordered by song name, not song number.

What can I do to amend this? I'm guessing it has something to do with grouping but I'm not quite sure how to manipulate to script.

Columns UI

Reply #6467 – 2011-07-21 23:00:38

Under File>Preferences>Columns UI>Filter>Behaviour, check "sort incoming files by" and insert "%album artist% | %date% | %album% | %track%" (without the quotes). Change the order as desired - the key is to have it sort at some point by the track number.

Columns UI

Reply #6468 – 2011-07-22 01:25:06

Quote from: godrick on 2011-07-21 23:00:38

Under File>Preferences>Columns UI>Filter>Behaviour, check "sort incoming files by" and insert "%album artist% | %date% | %album% | %track%" (without the quotes). Change the order as desired - the key is to have it sort at some point by the track number.

That doesn't seem to fix the problem

Columns UI

Reply #6469 – 2011-07-22 01:52:36

By default Album List Panel will send tracks to a playlist in the order they appear. Either make sure that your view string has %tracknumber% before the title or you can force it to use the setting described by godrick by checking the option "Apply core sort settings to added items" under Preferences -> Album List Panel -> Advanced.

You may also want to set a similar setting under Preferences -> Columns UI -> Filter since it looks like you are also using the Filter Search Panel. (I can't be sure since you picture got squashed a bit by image shack.)

Columns UI

Reply #6470 – 2011-07-22 03:03:51

Quote from: Purple Monkey on 2011-07-22 01:52:36

By default Album List Panel will send tracks to a playlist in the order they appear. Either make sure that your view string has %tracknumber% before the title or you can force it to use the setting described by godrick by checking the option "Apply core sort settings to added items" under Preferences -> Album List Panel -> Advanced.

You may also want to set a similar setting under Preferences -> Columns UI -> Filter since it looks like you are also using the Filter Search Panel. (I can't be sure since you picture got squashed a bit by image shack.)

It doesn't seem to work at all. Am I doing it wrong?

Columns UI

Reply #6471 – 2011-07-22 16:30:23

You've made an error that I sometimes make, in the preferences tree under Media Library there are two nodes:

The first "Album List" is the options for the Default UI Album list and UI Element. This one you can invoke from the Library main menu item, and since you are using Columns UI you won't have it as a UI Element.

The second "Album List Panel" is the options for the Columns UI Album list. This album list is only available by adding it to a layout, and is the one that is visible in the screen shot in the original post.

Just make sure that you are looking at the "Album List Panel" options. It is a bit confusing since the differences are difficult to spot initially.

Columns UI

Reply #6472 – 2011-07-22 19:20:08

Go to "Preferences > Columns UI > Playlist view > Columns" and set your "Display" scripts for your "NG Playlist" viewer.

In each "Scripts > Display" tab for each "Column", compare what you have to mine:

Code: [Select]

Column       Display
-----------------------------------------------------------------  
Artist      [%album artist%]

#           [%discnumber%'.'][%tracknumber%'.']

Title       [$replace($swapprefix(%track artist%,the),The,the) - ][%title%]$iflonger($meta(album artist),0, '//' $replace($swapprefix(%album artist%,the),The,the),)

Album       [%album%]

Click on a header of any column of your "NG Playlist" viewer, and it will refresh.

Columns UI

Reply #6473 – 2011-08-06 16:11:48

Each time I import a FCL, I have a new directory with all my pictures inside.

I have this directory:

c:\foobar2000\image\MyFancyButton\
...
abc.png
efg.png

I customize somes buttons with those picture and I save my FCL.

When I reimport this configuration file, I have a new directory inside "MyFancyButton" like "1082896426"

c:\foobar2000\image\MyFancyButton\
...
abc.png
efg.png

\1082896426\
...
abc.png
efg.png

Any manner to not duplicate the pictures ?

Columns UI

Reply #6474 – 2011-08-20 15:05:42

Quote from: godrick on 2011-07-21 19:01:07

I've encountered a problem and I don't know if it's me, the Columns component, or something else:

Since I replaced the Playlist view's Globals Style default code from an older CUI version with that from the current one, my similar issues which I reported below your post seem no longer to occur.

Menu Preferences, Display, Columns UI, Playlist view > tab "Globals" > tab "Style": the default code for CUI v0.3.8.8 is:

Code: [Select]

$if(%_themed%,,$if($and(%isplaying%,$not(%_is_group%)),

$puts(back,$offset_colour(%_back%,$offset_colour($calculate_blend_target(%_back%),ff0000,20),25))
$puts(back-selected,$offset_colour(%_selected_back%,$offset_colour($calculate_blend_target(%_selected_back%),ff0000,20),25))
$puts(back-selected-no-focus,$offset_colour(%_selected_back_no_focus%,$offset_colour($calculate_blend_target(%_selected_back_no_focus%),ff0000,20),25))
,

$ifequal($mod($if2(%_display_index%,%list_index%),2),0,
$puts(back,$offset_colour(%_back%,$calculate_blend_target(%_back%),12))
$puts(back-selected,%_selected_back%)
$puts(back-selected-no-focus,%_selected_back_no_focus%)
,
$puts(back-selected,$offset_colour(%_selected_back%,$calculate_blend_target(%_selected_back%),7))
$puts(back-selected-no-focus,$offset_colour(%_selected_back_no_focus%,$calculate_blend_target(%_selected_back_no_focus%),7))
$puts(back,%_back%)
)

)
$set_style(back,$get(back),$get(back-selected),$get(back-selected-no-focus)))

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