Created attachment 2649 [details]
patch from kdf to sort album list by artist,year,title

In any case where we change the sorting, we need to make sure that the sort key is prominently visible.  On SB3/TR this is hard to do with the small screen, so it's probably not a good default behavior to sort the album lists by artist.

On the Web UI, we already have sorting choices and display the artist and album name (when sorting by artists, I'm not sure why we don't show this all the time.

Crap, sent that too soon...

On the Jive UI, we do show artist and album, but don't have a way to choose the sort order.  The most prominent item, album title, is already the primary sort key and seems natural.  

We could add a setting at the bottom of the list that let the user choose the sort order, but the UI for this isn't defined and probably requires that the setting have a different graphical look including being a different height. 

In any case, we'll have to look at this post 7.0.

This is a bigger issue than just Jive.  The cli currently only does hardcoded queries with  sort param:  ablbum, new, and the more recent 'artflow'.   The sort order is then generated through a lot of coding, fixing sort keys etc.  If we wanted a direct sort ui on jive, the cli would need rework to support that query.  

My patch is also a very noticeable performance hit, but that may be becuase I haven't found where the original album query is being pre-cached by jive (I saw the album-sort query being made before I went into the album list)

*** Bug 7587 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

AIUI, this is a generalised form of bug #112.

My patches in #112 allow the menu sort order for albums, as used by the SB3 and the remote, to be selectable by the user in the preferences on the web interface. 

This bug is for Jive, which is a new UI, and a distinct set of code from the web or remote uis

the more and more i use my SBC, the more i want this function.

artists is good as just a text listing.

but when i browse albums with the artwork, i really desire that it be the same as on the computer, (via SC7), namely artist, year, album.

is this something that really conincides with SC7.1?

meaning, firmware upgrades seem almost daily.  if this is its own UI, then can't it just be done when its done?

and that leads to my final question, any idea when this will be done?  (assuming this is in fact a design goal of SD)

Sorting by album is IMHO definitely not "natural", I'd think most people think of artist, then album when trying to decide what to listen to.  Browsing the Controller list at present is like a random crapshoot.  This should be classified Major rather than an enhancement and get some immediate focus to address.  Browsing a sizeable collection by album name is nothing is just unfathomable, for me this is a showstopper and the Controller may as well not exist.  I'm stunned nobody picked this up during beta?


(In reply to comment #3)
> Crap, sent that too soon...
> 
> On the Jive UI, we do show artist and album, but don't have a way to choose the
> sort order.  The most prominent item, album title, is already the primary sort
> key and seems natural.  
> 
> We could add a setting at the bottom of the list that let the user choose the
> sort order, but the UI for this isn't defined and probably requires that the
> setting have a different graphical look including being a different height. 
> 
> In any case, we'll have to look at this post 7.0.
> 

SC 7.1 change 19968 now sends album lists to SBC sorted by artist, then year, then album.

Allowing a user setting for sort would be a more involved change, and I'd like to defer doing that until someone that really wants their album list sorted by album title pipes up.

(In reply to comment #10)
> SC 7.1 change 19968 now sends album lists to SBC sorted by artist, then year,
> then album.
> 
> Allowing a user setting for sort would be a more involved change , and I'd like
> to defer doing that until someone that really wants their album list sorted by
> album title pipes up.
> 

Ben, if allowing a user to make the selection is going to cause a series of code changes, how about implementing a sub-menu that offers the options of browsing albums by:
Artist/ Album
Artist/ Year/ Album
Album

If you were able to offer all three and have the config remember the last chosen as the default then I think everyone would be happy.

I really want my Album list sorted by Artist/ Album (that's exactly how I [and I'm guessing many others also] browse from SC).  I'm not sure that many people would choose Artist/ Year/ Album, but it does beat the crap out of Album only as a sortorder anfd I'm guessing most would prefer it as you're then at least able to see album covers by artist.

Well, that didn't take long :-/

Siduhe likes things sorted by album:
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?p=304716

I'm going to explore adding this as a user setting. IMO, the new artist/year/album should still be the default.

not fun.  each option will need special handling in the cli query response. 
if you want an assist, I can try to deal with the sc side as long as you have a specific list of sort options to support.

Support the same options supported via the web interface?

What is the difference between you current default and "artflow"?
Using the options from the web I/F makes some sense, doesn't it?

Slim::Control::Queries::albumsQuery has three possible sort options, 'new', 'album', and 'artflow'. 'artflow' is Artist/Year/Album (actually, I think you wrote that KDF).

If we support 3 sort options (Artist/Year/Album, Artist/Album, and Album), there is only one sort method left to add, which will be trivial.

Then it's a matter of adding a Settings menu item in Slim::Control::Jive that the user can set the sort preference. When set, this needs to be stored to the preferences file (is that trivial? I've never once touched any code that involves making new prefs).

It will also be important that the buildCaches() query in S::C::Jive is given the correct sort preference.

FYI, pretty sure there won't be a single change to Jive code for this.

Triode/Joerg-- I'd agree that having the same sort options as the webUI would make sense. Once the framework is in place for this, adding sort options will be very easy.

You probably know this, but it's completely separate code though

web has 7 options.  and it's not what I'd call very easy.  It's different code, so cannot be borrowed.  Also, the way the cli is written, each query is a tagged name, which at least is easy enough to handle case by case.

If this is all that was involved for adding artflow sort, the rest should come pretty easy I'd think. At least, certainly 'artistAlbum'. 

if ($sort && $sort eq 'artflow') {

    $attr->{'order_by'} = Slim::Schema->resultset('Album')->fixupSortKeys('contributor.namesort,album.year,album.titlesort');
     push @{$attr->{'join'}}, 'contributor';
}

I figure starting with three options is the correct way to start, and then add the other four less valuable sorts as gravy. And then perhaps a fifth extra: by MD5Sum ;)

MD5 is compromised ;-)
I'd prefer by Album Cover Color scheme...

Ben, if the textkey is gone, then yes that's it.  If not, then something is even missing in the current code as you need to deal with the namesort field. The one additional won't be too bad, but adding genre will mean bringing in more columns and increase the query response time.  In fact, when I last tested it, the artflow sort was much slower.

Fixed in 7.1 SC change 20165

added Music Library->Albums Sort Method to bottom of Music Library menu on SBC. Choices are Album, Artist/Year/Album, and Artist/Album. Default is Artist/Album.

This is a server-side user pref and is not client-specific. The preference is for SBC sorting only, and has no impact on WebUI sorting.

I'll take a look at the other sort methods (genre, year) moving forward, but it'll be an added challenge to do things like sort by year or genre because of the "text key" in the background during menu acceleration. Will have to explore the feasability of a multiple character (and smaller) textkey for those. Genre almost seems like an unreasonable sort style in this context, but I could see 0.5% of our users wanting sort-by-year.

this doesn't make sense under Music Library (forgive me...it's late)

moved Albums Sort Method to Settings->Advanced->Albums Sort Method

am i being thick?

i downloaded this one:

http://www.slimdevices.com/downloads/nightly/latest/7.1/SqueezeCenter-7.1-20208.exe

but i don't see the option you are saying is there.

i see no "albums sort method" under advanced at all.

also, since this is only for the SBC, why not put it under "Custumize Controller"?

looking forward to being able to sort my albums on the SBC via artwork, artist, year, album, thx!

Anyone else having this problem? I get Settings->Advanced->Albums Sort Method on all of my SBCs as well as desktop Squeezeplay. Is your SBC connected to a player using this 7.1 SC? If your player is connected to SN or an older SC, you won't see it.

> also, since this is only for the SBC, why not put it under "Custumize
Controller"?

That doesn't make sense to me, as about half or more of the things under Settings are specifically for customizing the controller.

and we have an answer.

i am being thick, VERY thick.

i thought the option was implemented for the SBC via the webUI settings.  now i see the light.  (i thought since you said it was checked in to 7.1 it was IN 7.1)

my apologies.

it works great btw.  thx!

"i thought since you said it was checked in to 7.1 it was IN
7.1"

ah, I see. This is a common source of confusion...

In actuality, it *is*100% in 7.1 SC. That is, if we're talking code. The only place you'll see the content is on SBC. Sorry, I should have been clearer.