Alphabetical order of albums

[Martijn]

Hi all,

I've spent about an hour and a half searching through the forums, because I can't believe no-one has asked this before, but I couldn't find anything, so i'm posting this question.

Apologies if I'm being redundant.

[andrei_c]

Hi Martijn,

you explained it perfectly, but there is no template that can do this. After the official 5.2 version is released (1-2 weeks from now), new templates will be uploaded to Gallery page. I'll borrow your idea and try to come up with some template that lists albums by both artist and title.

Andrei

[Martijn]

That's absolutely brilliant, Andrei!
Thanks!!!

[Martijn]

Hi Andrei,

Not to sound impatient or ungrateful, but is there maybe any news on this? I would still love to be able to use a web template like I described in my first post: being able to sort album titles alphabetically on the first letter (like we can only do with artists now).

I feel it would really be a huge improvement in presenting my albums collections to others (something I haven't done yet in anticipation of a new template).

Or if there's anyone else on the board who's managed to create a web template like that, I'd be very interested indeed!!!

Thanks! :)

[Martijn]

*bump*
;)

[Martijn]

Woohoo!! I managed it myself!

I added
====================
<p>Browse by title:<br>
<!---->
<!----><!---->??<!----><!---->
<!---->
====================
in the ::start/web section of the Advanced Web Site template, and now I can export to an HTML page where I can now choose from both an alphabetic index on first letter of either artist or album!

OK, database gurus out there are probably rolling their eyes, but hey, I never played around with this kind of stuff, and I'm pretty pleased with myself!

...which leads my to my NEXT query:
So now I'm able to sort the way I want it, but now I would like to change the way the results are displayed.
What I would like is to click on a letter from the Browse By Artist list and get a list in the format
Artist A - Album1
Artist A - Album2
Artist B - Album
(primary sort: artist, secondary sort: title)

However when I click on any letter from the Browse By Title list I would really like my results to be displayed the other way around!
AlbumA - Artist X
AlbumB - Artist R
AlbumC - Artist B
(So basically reversed "sortflds")

The way this template is set up is that only ONE sort order can be set up, so whether I choose from the Browse By Title or Browse By Artist list, the results are displayed the same way.

I'm pretty sure that defining two different sort methods for two categories is something that should be accomplished in the ::group/web section, but I don't know HOW!

I hope I made myself clear...I'm trying to use database concepts here, without actually having the know-how, so I'm rather insecure...

Anyway, anyone any ideas? Any and all help very welcome!!

[Martijn]

Well, I've got a workaround, and I thought I'd just post it, just in case anyone else is interested. I mean, this *is* a rather popular topic thread, with seven replies (six of 'em from me... ;D )

Annnnyway, it's pretty lame, but at least it works: what I do is export the database *twice* with modified templates: one with the results exported to display "Artistname - Title" and the other one exported into a subdirectory of the first one, displaying "Title - Artistname".

Then I manually edit the first index.html to get the alphabetical title list to point to the entries in the subdirectory.

So, instead of
===============
...
<p>Browse by title:<br>
<a href="a.html">A1</a>
<a href="b.html">B1</a>
...
===============

I change the entries to point to the subdir:
===============
...
<p>Browse by title:<br>
<a href="./sub/a1.html">A</a>
<a href="./sub/b1.html">B</a>
...
===============

Well, what can I say?
It's lame, but it works... now on my web site when I click "A" at "Browse By Artist", I get all artists whose name who start with A and their works, and when I click "A" at "Browse By Title" I get all titles starting with A.

The only drawback is that because you export the database twice, your final export directory is twice as large, which can be a pain if you use album picture thumbnails.

This was a Martijn Public Service announcement.

Oh by the way, this in no way invalidates my initial request: if anyone can come up with a single template for this, or suggestions to get this done, I'd be very grateful!