Rockbox Technical Forums

Support and General Use => Theming and Appearance Customization => Topic started by: TedGamble on February 25, 2007, 10:39:12 PM

Title: Formatting %iy Dates
Post by: TedGamble on February 25, 2007, 10:39:12 PM
Is there any way to format the album release date tag so that it only shows the 4 byte year?  Some of my albums show mm-dd info (such as 2004-01-27) and I'd prefer to only display 2004.  

In fact, I can't even prove that the mm/dd info actually exists when I view the ID3 tags with tools such as Media Monkey, The Godfather, or Mp3Tag.
Title: Re: Formatting %iy Dates
Post by: JustJohnny on February 25, 2007, 11:32:32 PM
The %iy tag just shows the embedded id3 year field info. in the file.  There is no way to modify the way this information is displayed .
Title: Re: Formatting %iy Dates
Post by: bascule on February 26, 2007, 03:51:24 AM
Is there any way to format the album release date tag so that it only shows the 4 byte year?  Some of my albums show mm-dd info (such as 2004-01-27) and I'd prefer to only display 2004.  

Is this in the WPS, Database or ID3 viewer? I'd be really surprised if this was the case for the Database, as I understood that Rockbox can't use a 'string' format date, only an 'integer' one...

This is the reason why .ogg year tags don't appear in the database as per this bug report:

http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/6501
Title: Re: Formatting %iy Dates
Post by: TedGamble on February 26, 2007, 08:45:56 AM
Quote
Is this in the WPS, Database or ID3 viewer?
It appears to be in the ID3 tag because it shows in both the WPS and the ID3 viewer.  It makes no difference whether I'm using file view or databases view.  

It's just frustrating because none of the PC-based tools for editing MP3 tags show month or day - they only show year info - so there is no way to tell (until the songs are loaded onto the player) that the release date field contains anything other than the 4 byte year.

And, just to be clear, these are MP3 files, not ogg.
Title: Re: Formatting %iy Dates
Post by: bascule on February 26, 2007, 09:12:12 AM
OK, I think I've got it now...

According to the bug report:
Quote
There are two "year" references for the metadata in the id3 struct:
id3.year (an integer)
id3.year_string (pointer to a string).
The database is only storing the integer value of id3.year;
However, other parts of Rockbox can apparently read either/both and it would appear that the WPS/ID3 viewer is showing the string version.

I'm suspecting that your tagging apps are only showing you the integer version of the tag, which is probably written concurrently with the string version.

I also suspect that a quality app like MP3Tag or FooBar2k should somehow be able to show both, I just don't know how... :(

EDIT: In MP3Tag, if you select a track and go View>Extended Tags... then click on the View Fields button you'll get an 'edit tag info' dialog box with a drop-down selection for 'Field'.

Within that list is both Year and Date. I'm betting that Year is the integer version and Date is the string version... :) At the very least, it should allow you to see what you've got.
Title: Re: Formatting %iy Dates
Post by: ryran on February 26, 2007, 01:30:09 PM
As bascule suspected, foobar (http://foobar2000.org) lets you see and do whatever you want with the date tag.
Title: Re: Formatting %iy Dates
Post by: TedGamble on February 26, 2007, 01:58:20 PM
Gotit.  Thanks.
Title: Re: Formatting %iy Dates
Post by: adam917 on March 02, 2007, 02:22:15 PM
Well, Ogg & FLAC both use a string Date tag; not a Year one. Anything can go in there, but usually ISO 8601 formatted dates (like 1999-12-31, 1999-12, or just 1999) are preferred (as you can do a text/string sort and it will still sort fine).