Feature Suggestion: Option to sort entries in Content tree other ways

[Balok]

I'd like to sort entries inside folders in the 'Content Tree' (left side of the screen tree control) other ways than alphabetically. Specifically, I'd like to sort them by the year the album was released, since that is how tend to order them on my shelves/in my head. Could that be done?

[bquam]

I'd like to sort entries inside folders in the 'Content Tree' (left side of the screen tree control) other ways than alphabetically. Specifically, I'd like to sort them by the year the album was released, since that is how tend to order them on my shelves/in my head. Could that be done?

You can do that currently (sort of). Start with the main "Browse by:" that you want to use. I use "Artist (no compilations)." Then pull the menu you down to "more views." Add "year" to your choice and save it as "preset." It will now sort by artist and then show chronological folders for each year that artist has titles. There may be other ways to do this.

[Jazz_North]

If Blalok wants them sorted first by year that is easy. Then as bquam says just choose More Views from the Browse by pull down, then clear whatever is in the Display these folders: box and then add what you want from the lost of available folders on the left. I think the solution bquam offered would have year embedded under artist, so if you don't want that just clear the box using the remove button. You won't delete the existing pull-downs unless you click on Save as Present and use the name of an existing pull-down. You don't say how you order them within a year, but there are lots of options. Under the options tab you can choose whether albums are sorted by Artist of by title within the lowest folder you have chosen in the Current view tab. You can also design your own display format for the entries in the tree on the Options tab. Once things are as you want them, click on Save as Preset in the Customize panel and give it a name.

Notice on the current view tab the two check boxes at the lower right. Overview groups folders by some initial character (all albums beginning with A would be grouped under A in the tree); with Year as the folder, Overview gives just two groups: None and 0-9, so not terribly useful. The, No tracks, means that the display will take information only from album properties and not from track properties. If you have Various Artist albums and have the artist listed for each track, it will display that compilation album under the artists name; if it is unchecked, the various artists type of compilation will not appear under the artists name. (Note, this has nothing to do with whether the Compilation box on an album properties is checked or not; it is based solely on whether information is taken just from album properties (when checked) or from both album and track properties (unchecked).

OCD allows a lot of opportunities to design your own display. Note that you can use Custom fields as well. Another reason OCD can be powerful, if you are willing to experiment with it.

[Balok]

Yes, I know about the possibilities for creating hierarchies of folders. But in the case of a year, this is less desirable since each 'year' folder would have one, or very occasionally two albums in it. Plus, you have to click those subfolders open.

What I'm after is a display like 'Artist' or 'Artist (no compilations)' but with the ability to control the sorting of the entries in each folder. Right now that sorting is always by alphabetical on the name.

Andrei has been quiet for awhile. From some things he wrote awhile back I know he wanted to redesign the underlying database; I wonder if he's off doing that?