[seemingly abandonware] Columns UI, alternative user interface Options

[canuckerfan]

Far from an expert on CUI, but in the standard playlist colors are straightforward. Changing attributes such as bold I do not think works.

If you want to get a start on it. Quick Search and the Columns wiki

could I request this as a feature under NG playlist?

[DarkScythe]

When I'm sorting by album title...?


Most of my other albums are neatly organized when sorted this way, like so:


It seems to be only certain soundtracks and compilation albums that are doing this, but I don't get why...

Each of your VA artists are different, and the default grouping code takes album artist into account.

[ronpaul]

Any way to change that? It's kind of stupid, especially when I rename every artist with VA in front. When you sort by album, it should be that way, not by artist.

This post has been edited by db1989: Jan 22 2012, 15:29

Reason for edit: removing unnecessary full quote of above post

[tpijag]

What is stupid? 'VA- text one' entered in a field is different from 'VA-text two' entered in the same field. Simple as that.
You can search the forums on VA or various artists. This is easy to remedy. If you want further help in this thread, I would suggest you provide the exact grouping titleformat string you are using and a screen shot of one offending track's propery dialog screen would also be helpful.

[DarkScythe]

There are 2 ways I can think of to "fix" that issue.

The first, and simplest, is to simply remove %album_artist% from the grouping options:
Preferences > Display > Columns UI > Playlist View > Grouping

The second method is, assuming you tag very consistently, to detect when "VA" exists to truncate the rest of the field to force them to be grouped under "VA". I have not tested this method though, and I don't have any files tagged that way, so I can't help you there. The way I have my files is to set "Various Artists" as the album artist, then set each individual track's artist/singer in their respective artist field. This allows me to see who sings each song while all being grouped together under the "Various Artists" label.

[Ellis]

Okay, so what's really odd is that I came into this thread looking to solve the EXACT same problem with the various artists not being grouped together.

When I go to Preferences > Display > Columns UI > Playlist View > Grouping, there's no mention of Various Artists:

$if2(%artist%,<no artist>)[ / %album%]

So, let's take the album Quadrophenia as an example:



Then, the properties dialog of one of the songs in the album:



I'm far from an expert in ColumnsUI or foobar2000 and it's been ages since I've messed about with any of my settings, to be honest, so any help would be much appreciated.

[lvqcl]

Set grouping to

$if2(%album artist%,<no artist>)[ / %album%]

or

$if2($swapprefix(%album artist%),<no artist>)[ / %album%]

[Ellis]

Set grouping to

$if2(%album artist%,<no artist>)[ / %album%]

or

$if2($swapprefix(%album artist%),<no artist>)[ / %album%]

I've used the first one, and it seems to work perfectly! Thanks

[cokebotle]

I'm not sure if this is specifically related to ColumnsUI or not (I'm trying to do this in ColumnsUI, for the record), but is there a way to force components to interact with a specific playlist? Like, I would use one playlist linked to quick search and filters and another for my currently playing list so I can see both at the same time.

This is possible, right? Would I need to do some scripting for it?

[a13xth0rn3]

Hey there.

I have been searching high and low but I don't seem to be able to get a clear cut answer to my problem. I am trying to organise my library grouping. Currently, I have it setup so they are all arranged in order of album but what i really want is to arrange them "album by artist" much like iTunes. The problem I have is that I just dont know how to set this up within preferences. I am aware that i need to make changes within Preferences - Columns UI - Playlist View - Grouping but i just do not know what "syntax"?? I need to use. If this is to complicated, i am more than happy for them to be arranged in the same order as they are in my music folder

My next problem is my compilations... within Foobar they don't arrange themselves in track number order even though they are tagged correctly.

Also within the "Album Artist" field it displays the artist of the track even though i dont have "Album Artist" in the tags for compilation... instead i use "Compilation" (although i think this is an iTunes tag and not used by Foobar)

Hopefully these screenshots will help you understand what i talking about!!!

Thanks in advance for your time... i really want to get this working properly. Foobar is such a great player regardless of how complicated it may seem at first. Im getting there! Peace

[2Rivers]

I'm having a hard time understanding title formatting syntax.
What I'm trying to achieve is:

Alvin Lee -------------------------------------------Blues
I Hear You Rockin' (1994)---------------MP3 320Kbps
1 - Keep On Rockin'
2 - Long Legs
etc....

The LEFT side info I've figured out. What I can't get
working is the right side. I'd like the genre, codec,bitrate
and 'Kbps' to right justify. My longest genre is 20 char.

I've tried $tab(), $pad(),$pad_right() and so on till I'm
totally confused with all the string functions.

My NG playlist grouping is :

Line 1:$if2(%album artist%,<no artist>) %genre%
Line 2:[ %album%][ '('$ifgreater($len(%date%),1,%date%,)')']

[Daeron]

@ 2Rivers: You pretty much got it though. I think these should do it:

First line: $if2(%album artist%,<no artist>) $tab() %genre%
Second line: [%album%][ '('%date%')' ] $tab() %codec% %bitrate% kbps

Although if you have albums with variable bitrates per track, it will mess up your paylist:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3164833/RANDOM/VBR.png

Also I'm not sure what do you exactly want with this code: [ '('$ifgreater($len(%date%),1,%date%,)')']
I assume you are checking whether the date field is filled, but the [...] brackets should hide it anyway if it's empty, so what's the point?

This post has been edited by Daeron: Jan 27 2012, 23:03

[aeidein]

Is there any way to get the Filters to reflect only the contents of the current playlist? e.g., if I select Rock in the Genre Filter, the Artists Filter should not display Bach.
Also, any way to prevent "Filter Results" and "Filter Results (Playback)" from being created? They're quite useless/obnoxious.

[marc2003]

file>preferences>display>columns UI>filter tab

filter precedence>by field list above (this should make the filters "linked")
also, untick auto-send selection to playlist.

[2Rivers]

[quote name='Daeron' date='Jan 27 2012, 17:01' post='783866']
@ 2Rivers: You pretty much got it though. I think these should do it:

Thanks Daeron, That did the trick. I thought I tried those same expressions but evidently not.
For some reason I have a very hard time with the title format docs. Guess I need the Dummies
Guide version.

On the date line I was trying to check for if date exists. Thanks for the simplification.

Regards

[Dario]

Is there any way to configure NG Playlist so that it adds some kind of a "separator" to multi-disc albums, akin to the one here (look at Tales from Topographic Oceans)?

This post has been edited by Dario: Jan 28 2012, 20:41

[marc2003]

^no.

[Daeron]

@Dario:
You can set up a custom grouping pattern (Preferences/Display/Columns UI/User Interface) like: [Disc %discnumber%]

Although I don't know how to put them next to the artwork (most likely not possible), as this way it will be over them and will render two covers (which can be useful, though).

This post has been edited by Daeron: Jan 28 2012, 22:41

[derty2]

IT IS POSSIBLE to configure ones 'foobar2000 with CUI' layout to have 'NG Playlist' also display separation and indentation effects...

Look at this screenshot of a test layout which I created:       

The light blue track separators (Disc 1, Disc 2, Disc 3) are dummy files with a duration of 0.1 seconds .

The indented tracks are just normally tagged tracks  ...BUT  the string for the 'Track Title' Tag begins with three dots, which will not display .
My title-formatting scheme for the 'Tr Title' column (in 'NG Playlist') causes this display effect .
i.e. -- If we look at the 'Track Title' Tag for Track 02, the actual string is:   ...II. Andante. Ma Un Poco Adagio

Here is the title-formatting scheme for my 'Tr Title' column (Display tab):

CODE

//===========================
// Indents Track Title Name 3 spaces right if first three characters of name start with three dots ('...') .  This is a useful trick for nicer Playlist Viewer display of Classical music works with movements spanning over several tracks. The work name only needs to be displayed once, and subsequent movements are indented relative to the (1st) track, which includes the work name.
//===========================  
// SPECIAL FILE: PERFORMER  -  If dummy file "performer" exists, then change color of track title -AND- the user enters some grouping string in the Track Title tag field. This allows us to have a nice display of vertical separation and grouping of tracks. The standard template for the dummy performer file name is (01.performer.mp3) for example. NOTE: for these 'special' files DO NOT fill Track Number tag field (leave it blank).
//===========================

//   ????  WHY DOES $meta(track) WORK  !!!!

$if($strstr(%filename_ext% ,'.performer'),
$rgb(147,192,238)%title%,
$if($stricmp($substr($trim(%title%),1,3),'...'),
$if($meta(album artist),
$pad($meta(track),3)$substr(%title%,4,$len(%title%)),
'   '$substr(%title%,4,$len(%title%))),
[%track artist%'   —   '][%title%]))

[Dario]

IT IS POSSIBLE to configure ones 'foobar2000 with CUI' layout to have 'NG Playlist' also display separation and indentation effects...

Thank you for your reply—but such workarounds are not really appropriate (at least in my eyes). By the way, I suggest that you use SimPlaylist, as it can automatically do just about everything you achieved with those, again, workarounds. Personally, I'd use it too, but I feel that it is way too plain with little-to-no configuration available (and there are some bugs).

Anyway, some more questions:

1. Is it possible to make text in brackets automatically dimmed? I tried using $replace to replace every "(" with "$rgb(<dimmed color>)(" and every ")" with ")$rgb(<normal color>)" in the track title display, but it seems that $replace automatically returns the string, so the title ends up being displayed thrice...
2. Is there any documentation available regarding fields such as %_selected_back_no_focus% and functions such as $calculate_blend_target (those seem to be exclusive to Columns UI)?

This post has been edited by Dario: Jan 29 2012, 01:01

[Daeron]

@ Dario:
This is what I'm using for that purpose:

$puts(rgb_1,$rgb(0,0,0,0,0,0))
$puts(rgb_2,$rgb(255,255,255))
$get(rgb_1)

$replace(
$if2(%title%,Untitled),
'(',$blend($get(rgb_1),$get(rgb_2),2,3)'(',')',')'$get(rgb_1),
'[',$blend($get(rgb_1),$get(rgb_2),2,3)'[',']',']'$get(rgb_1))

[Dario]

@ Dario:
This is what I'm using for that purpose:

Oh, so $replace does not necessarily have to be used with a single string and a single replacement. Thanks a lot!

[derty2]

@Dario, you have NOT studied the ultimate possibilities of my layout for any length of time; so you brush it all off with a workaround containing no substance and based on ignorance: "not really appropriate...".

I suggest YOU go to SimPlaylist thread and look up the discussion I had with the Developer.

The only person here with workaround issues is YOU!

[Dario]

Sorry if I offended you (that's what I get from reading your reply), I didn't mean to. In fact, I am really grateful to you for showing that there is a way to add separators for multi-disc albums and show movements in a convenient way (I really think that you should avoid displaying the tech info of those dummy files though).

I just don't feel like going through all the hassle just to achieve that. Maybe when I have lots of free time, I will, but for now, I won't.

Have a nice day.

[aeidein]

file>preferences>display>columns UI>filter tab

filter precedence>by field list above (this should make the filters "linked")
also, untick auto-send selection to playlist.

Ah, great. Changing the filter precedence did indeed "link" the filters.

However, with "auto-send selection to playlist" unchecked, the filters remain linked to one another but when I select an artist or album, the NG playlist no longer reflects my selection. With it checked, everything's linked, but a new "Filter Results" playlist is created every time a filter item is selected.

Thanks for the first tip though!