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Topic: How to display custom fields in Playlist View? (Read 9323 times) previous topic - next topic
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How to display custom fields in Playlist View?

Thanks to help received here, I've created 3 custom fields. In the attached screenshot one of those fields (Subgenre) is displayed in the Metadata area of the Default User Interface. How do I get that custom field to appear in the Library and Playlist sections?

Re: How to display custom fields in Playlist View?

Reply #1 –
For Playlist View > right click on top of playlist columns and create new custom columns you want with its custom field pattern you've created.
Somewhere, there's someone dying in a foreign land
Meanwhile, the world is crying stupidity of man
Tell me why, tell me why

Re: How to display custom fields in Playlist View?

Reply #2 –
Ahh, it was the Pattern piece I didn't know to do. Thanks Vicas!

How about the Library/All Music Area? Is there a way to make Custom Fields visible there also?

Re: How to display custom fields in Playlist View?

Reply #3 –
^ Yes, modify the view pattern in File > Preferences > Media Library > Album List > under Views. In your screenshot you are using the view "by artist/album". So edit the pattern for that view to add [%subgenre%] where you want it. Or create a new view if you like with the 'Add New' button. Note that using | in the pattern creates a new branch.

Foobar uses "title formatting" to format display of tags however you like, for more info see Help menu > Title Formatting Help. Or the more in depth Title Formatting wiki.

Incidentally, sites like AllMusic and Discogs commonly use %style% as the tag to identify "sub genres" (not that it matters really). For a standard tag reference see Tag Mapping.

Cheers

Re: How to display custom fields in Playlist View?

Reply #4 –
Thank you anamorphic, that was very clear and helpful. However, I seem to be missing something: I can't change the Media Library view. First I created a new view (to avoid corrupting the existing ones) but couldn't get it to display. So I decided to view it by year. I moved that one to the top and hit apply (please see screen shot), but nothing changed. Can someone tell me what I'm not getting?

Re: How to display custom fields in Playlist View?

Reply #5 –
Moving it to the top just changes the order they are listed in on the drop-down menu. Once you make changes and click OK, switch to the view you just edited using the drop-down menu beneath the Album List.

(Edit: I should've looked more closely at the screenshot)

I see you added "by artist/album/title" view. You might want to add some spaces to it (note the " - " between fields in the other views to make things look tidy). And probably put %tracknumber% before %title%, otherwise the tracks will be sorted alphabetically by title. (The view pattern also determines how tracks are sorted in the playlist). And lastly, probably better to add a tree branch (with | character) to separate albums and tracks.

Example -
Code: [Select]
%<artist>% - ['['%date%']' ]%album%[ - '('%genre%')']|[[%discnumber%.]%tracknumber% - ]%title%

Re: How to display custom fields in Playlist View?

Reply #6 –
You know, I never noticed that little drop down in the lower left corner! I want to thank you, anamorphic, for all your time and effort to help me. I really appreciate it.
I've gone back and forth with the tree branch now, deciding which way I like better (and where to place it (or them). What I really like is the tabs in the playlist view, so I can sort on different fields instantly. I guess there's no way to do that in the Library view. I know I can make a playlist of the entire library (it will be 20K+), but I'll have to update the playlist every time I add a new album. Or is there a way for a playlist to monitor the library?

Re: How to display custom fields in Playlist View?

Reply #7 –
Quote from: rohbear on
What I really like is the tabs in the playlist view, so I can sort on different fields instantly. I guess there's no way to do that in the Library view.
Well, the default Album List is a tree-based library viewer. Perhaps you would like to look at Facets, a column-based library viewer.

Quote
I know I can make a playlist of the entire library (it will be 20K+), but I'll have to update the playlist every time I add a new album. Or is there a way for a playlist to monitor the library?
Sure you could make an auto-playlist of the entire library, but it would be a very inefficient way of browsing that many tracks. Better to use a proper library viewer...

Here is a screenshot of Facets to give you an idea. You can have as many or few columns as you like (default is three), and each one acts as a filter - when you click an item in one column, the following ones show only items with that tag. You can setup custom columns similar way to the playlist - right-click the column header. See the documentation for more.

(And feel free to ask questions, plenty of help around here to go around  ;) )

Cheers

Re: How to display custom fields in Playlist View?

Reply #8 –
Oh yeah, that's very cool! Thanks for the suggestion! I just wish it was possible to have more than 3 viewing panels, or to have a horizontal scroll bar at the bottom. I have too many custom fields already (5) to fit them into the space available.

Which brings up my next question: If you look at the screen shot attached, my custom field for Produced By is blank, but the properties pop up box shows I have a value entered for that field. I checked the formatting, and it doesn't look any different than the other fields: [%PRODUCEDBY%] This is the last custom fields I created, and it doesn't work. Any ideas?
 

Re: How to display custom fields in Playlist View?

Reply #9 –
You can try to use $meta(Produced By) function.

Re: How to display custom fields in Playlist View?

Reply #11 –
Spaces are important ;)

Quote from: rohbear on
Oh yeah, that's very cool! Thanks for the suggestion! I just wish it was possible to have more than 3 viewing panels
You can, my screenshot above has 6 panes. You have to go into View menu > Layout > Enable Layout Editing Mode, and right-click Facets to add or remove panes.

While you are in Layout Editing Mode, you could put Facets into your actual layout (replacing Album List?) rather than using it as a pop-up window. If you are not familiar with Layout Editing, here is a video (using the Scratchbox but similar method). You can right-click and Cut/Copy/Paste UI Elements to move them around, and Replace UI Elements with Splitters to divide sections in two. And remember to switch off View > Layout > Layout Editing Mode when finished (the menu command is an on/off toggle).

Also to get the most out of Facets, you do not need too many columns in one pane, otherwise you limit the sorting and cross-referencing that makes it useful. The playlist should still be used to display certain columns, such as the tracklist. Facets is best to filter Genre / Artist / Album, and then show the resulting Tracks in the playlist. By default what you click in Facets is what gets added to the playlist, so there is not much point filtering to a Track column, as you would only be playing one track.

(I hope that makes sense :D )

Cheers

Re: How to display custom fields in Playlist View?

Reply #12 –
Thank you Rollin and anamorphic. You are right, putting in that space fixed it. I guess I got confused because in Preferences/Advanced/Display/Properties/Standard Fields all the field names in CAPS have the words run together without spaces. Foobar has a significant learning curve. I'm grateful for everybody's help.

anamorphic, Good point about not needing to filter on Track Number. With Produced By, I envision creating a playlist of music by the same producer (Eno, Rundgren, Lanois, Mitch Easter, etc.). And I understand and agree that I don't want many columns in one pane.

I followed you up to "right-click on Facets". When I right-click on the Facets pop-up window frame I get 3 choices: Import Settings, Copy Settings, and Paste Settings (grayed out).  Clicking on the field headers doesn't offer anything new. Where do I get the option to add panes?

Re: How to display custom fields in Playlist View?

Reply #13 –
Oh, my mistake. It is slightly different for the pop-up version of Facets, and I should've said right-click the pane/column.

So, for pop-up Facets -

Library menu > Facets > right-click the toolbar > Layout Editing Mode (which puts a button on the toolbar) > click the new button to toggle Layout Editing Mode on > now right-click a pane/column for options. (And when finished turn Layout Editing off and remove the button if you like)

Or, for layout Facets -

View menu > Layout > Enable Layout Editing Mode > right-click a pane/column for options.

See, I've been using foobar for years and I'm still learning new things. :D The learning curve gets a little better after a while (or so I like to tell myself) ...

Cheers

Re: How to display custom fields in Playlist View?

Reply #14 –
No worries. That worked! Now I have 9 panes. LOL I did have to remove the multiple columns first in order to add another pane. Also, it appears that it's not possible to click and drag a column to reposition it. Is that true? For instance, my column order is Artist/Album/Title/Date/….. If I want to sort by Date to get a playlist of songs from 1977, I have to rename the left-most column to Date and rename the date column to Artist. Or is there another way? Thanks as always.

Re: How to display custom fields in Playlist View?

Reply #15 –
Pretty much...

Yes, you can only click and drag columns within the same pane (does not effect filtering). And it only filters left to right (or top to bottom if you have it vertical)...

So yes, you would have to have date on the left to filter artists/albums with that date, but that does not apply to the playlist. For example, no matter what position the Facets date column, if every other column is on "All" and you click date to 1977, the playlist now only has tracks from 1977 - quick and easy! Even so, for just browsing your library in Facets it might be better to have a date/year column more to the left.

In fact, for an individual date column, it works best to show only the year, rather than the full date in YYYY-MM-DD format. That way, everything is grouped nicely by year, without multiple different values of month and day. (Of course you can still display the full date elsewhere). In other words, you could make a Year column /pane on the left. If you like, go Preferences > Media Library > Facets > under Columns > Add New button, name it Year, and use either one of these for the pattern -

Code: [Select]
$year(%date%)
$left(%date%,4)

(The $left one might be needed for incorrect date formats - dates with a slash instead of a dash. Or alternatively foobar can correct the tags quickly)

Then make the left most pane, Year. Then if you want more of my advice :D , remove your other date pane, and just put a date column next to album (like in my previous screenshot) - you'd have to right-click Album > Columns > enable 'Multiple Columns'. It helps to consider how fields are grouped - typically all tracks on an album should have the same date, so album + date go together well, but title + date is just repeated information.

Anyway, there are tons of usage scenarios with Facets. I would say keep using it more and you'll figure out how best to use it. ;)

Cheers

Re: How to display custom fields in Playlist View?

Reply #16 –
Good information as always, thank you.

First question, why is using a slash in date formats "incorrect"?  It figures, that's the way I've been entering them. I'm researching and entering full dates when known, and sometimes just year and month.

Which brings me to my second question, I notice that unfortunately when I click 1977, Facets obviously only includes songs when only the year is given, and excludes those with month and/or day. Is there a sliding match tool? If not, I'll take your advice and create an additional column for just the year.

Re: How to display custom fields in Playlist View?

Reply #17 –
Quote from: rohbear on
First question, why is using a slash in date formats "incorrect"?
Foobar follows the ISO 8601 date standard for parsing dates, such as %last_modified%. Someone more technically inclined than me might explain it better, but the upshot is compatibility across regions, other software, portable audio devices, etc. Most tag databases I've seen use the same format for that reason.

Perhaps "non-standard" would have been a better descriptor than "incorrect" - of course we humans are free to read/write a date however we like, but computers like a certain consistency I guess. ;)

Quote
Which brings me to my second question, I notice that unfortunately when I click 1977, Facets obviously only includes songs when only the year is given, and excludes those with month and/or day. Is there a sliding match tool? If not, I'll take your advice and create an additional column for just the year.
A year column is probably the quickest and most convenient way. While you can ctrl key + click to select multiple values in a column, or click and drag for a box selection, having to do that too often is not ideal. I'm not aware of any better way than to correlate all dates into a year, in Facets.

Outside of Facets, you would use Library menu > Search, and type using Query Syntax (click the question mark button in the search box for help, or see the more in depth Query Syntax wiki page). You could also type into the Album List filter box, or Facets search box (though be warned long strings in the Facets search box have been known to crash foobar!)

For example, typing date HAS 1977 should get you every date tag with 1977, months or days included. Then click the '...' (or Facets down arrow) to the right of search box to create a playlist / auto-playlist of the results. In the same way, you could make decade auto-playlists of 70s, 80s, etc - %date% AFTER 1969 AND %date% BEFORE 1980 - would cover the 70s. (Er, although I suspect that would not work with non-standard date formats - as described in the Query help, and the note under "Time Expressions" - another reason for correct tags, as time queries can be really useful).

Finally, getting back to the Album List way, you could change the view drop-down menu to "by year", and edit the pattern in preferences to show only years, same as Facets year column - replacing %date% with $left(%date%,4)

Cheers

Re: How to display custom fields in Playlist View?

Reply #18 –
anamorphic, thank you for your detailed reply. 

"ctrl key + click to select multiple values in a column, or click and drag for a box selection"

I never thought to try something as simple as that. I guess I'm used to other players that can't do anything.  For now, click and drag will be enough for me until I decide to tackle learning syntax. My only 'programming' experience is a semester of Fortran back in 1974. Really showing my age here.  :)  But like you say, by using Foobar I'll eventually pick up things. I'm grateful for your help in getting me started.

Cheers!