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View Full Version : The "other" node to the playlist keyword hierarchy



Olli-Pekka Isola
04-01-2012, 07:19 PM
Dear development team,

I have a development idea that could help the customers with lot's of tracks.

Let's imagine that I have a playlist with following keywork hierarchy:


Genre
Album

Let's also imagine that I have plenty of tracks with both "Genre" and "Album" attributes set. Those tracks will show up under the correct node in the playlist keyword hierarchy.

But I also have some tracks with "Genre" or "Album" or even both attributes unset. (We are living in the incomplete world, aren't we?) Thos tracks don't show up in the hierarchy.

I suggest you to add a new checkbox control to the active playlist specification window (and to the smarlist specification, too) which says "Substitute missing value with fixed value" and a textbox after it for user to specify her or his own substitute value (for instance: "<unknown>", "missing", "other", "miscellaneous", etc).

This could also be located at general options but I think it's more flexible if it's controlled playlist per playlist.

I could get the following playlist if the option is present and subsitute value is set:


Audiobook
Hercule Poirot - Cards on the Table
Hercule Poirot - Death on the Nile
<unknown>
Classical
Harmonica Classica
Ristori: Divoti affetti alla Passione di Nostro Signore
<unknown>
<unknown>
Hercule Poirot - Murder in Mesopotamia
<unknown>

In the example above, there are two tracks having "Genre" set but missing value in "Album" attribute (see categories Audiobook and Classical). There are also one track having "Album" attribute but missing "Genre" (see "Murder in Mesopotamia"). And finally there is one track missing both "Genre" and "Album" attribute (see <unknown>/<unknown>).

I natural location of the "other" node is in the bottom of each branch in the keyword hierarchy, I think. Anyhow, it is not that important as long as it exists. SO, It could be in the top of each branch or been sorted alphabetically along with other values.

I have used "Genre" and "Album" in the sample above this applies to all attributes.

I hope you are able to grasp the idea.

Happy coding!


Kind regards,
Olli-Pekka Isola

Paul
04-02-2012, 06:54 AM
Nice idea! We'll discuss this more here and add it to our development plans. Thanks again.