How to get a discography style sorting in the database?

[digimatik]

I want to sort the albums of an artist by year and not by a-b-c.
So far I have edited my own tagnavi_custom.config:

#! rockbox/tagbrowser/2.0
# Define the title of the main menu
%format "f_discography" "%04d - %s" year title

%menu_start "custom" "Browse albums"
"Discography" -> albumartist -> year -> album -> title = "f_discography"

It works in a way that I get only the years where an artist has released an album and in the second step the album(s) in the choosen year.  But I do not get directly an album list sorted by release year for a given artist.

Is this possible using the tagnavi.config v2.0 Syntax?

What I get with the above syntax is:
-> Database
-> .Custom view
-> .. Discography
-> ... < Al lTitles >
-> ... < Random >
-> ... < unknown >
(here comes the List of Artists e.g.)
-> ... Alan Parsons Project
(then comes the list of release years for this artist)
-> .... 1976
-> .... 1977
(and so on)
(when I klick on a year then comes the album(s) in the selected year)
-> Tales of Mystery and Imagination

I want to get something like:
-> Database
-> .Custom view
-> .. Discography
-> ... < Al lTitles >
-> ... < Random >
-> ... < unknown >
(here comes the List of Artists e.g.)
-> ...
-> ... Alan Parsons Project
-> ...
(when I choose Alan Parsons Project, I want a list of albums in chronological order)
-> .... 1976 Tales of Mystery and Imagination
-> .... 1977 I Robot
(and so on)

I have not managed to find a working tagnavi.config v2.0 Syntax.

Cheers
digi

edit:
Due to an error I changed the format string to "%format "f_discography" "%04d - %s" year title
"

[digimatik]

What a  pity that I get no answer here. So I try to answer myself by my limited knowledge.

According to http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/DataBase
I can narrow my search by filters, and I thought that the following  filter would be correct:

"Discography" -> albumartist -> year -> album =
it should give me the albums for a given year.

The problem is that I can not access the album tag in a format string. I only get the year but no album even if I include the album in the format like:

%format "f_discography" "%04d - %s" year album
"Discography" -> albumartist -> year -> album = "f_discography"

The output is only the year.

Best of course would be a list of albums, but sorted by year and not alphabetically.

This seems to be impossible according to the note in the wiki page:
"Note You can only use a %format string for formatting the title of a track, it cannot be used for formatting within the album hierarchy http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=9570.0"

The format mentioned in my first mail is in my opinion only a workaround.
So it would be nice when other tags like album, year, genre and so on can be used in a format string. Strange enough "year" is possible.

Cheers

[fookgub]

Hi,

There is a patch for this, see here: http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/8051

It's a little out of date, so you will probably have to apply it manually, but it does work. I patched the current svn (29032) with the March 2009 patch and have it running on my Fuze V2. So far, so good.

I didn't bother with all the extra formatting the author includes for tagnavi.config. The following line was all I needed/wanted:
"Discography"   -> artist   -> yearalbum  -> title = "fmt_title"

[digimatik]

Hi fookgub,
thank you for your answer. I have also found the posts related to the same problem/wish to sort the output of the database by year.
I must admit that it is more than 20 years ago that I worked as a programmer, and I have no clue how to incorporate a patch in an individual build. Can you point me to a "howto" page?
The solution proposed in the related thread seems to be very interting, and I must admit that I do not understand the reason to reject the change: "Closed by  Paul Louden (Llorean)
Sunday, 15 March 2009, 04:50 GMT+1
Reason for closing:  Rejected
Additional comments about closing:  Needs to be reimplemented in a better way to be considered."

OK, I am a newby, and I have absolutely no right to critisize the hard work of the deveolpers they do in their spare time. But as far as I understand there is a solution available, even if it is not a perfect one. The ability to use a new tag that is called yearalbum seems to be a perfect match to my problem.

Cheers
digi

edit:
The information I am looking for seems to be :
http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/WorkingWithPatches
and
http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/DevelopmentGuide

Lets see if I am able to revive long forgotten skills.

[[Saint]]

Closed by  Paul Louden (Llorean)
Sunday, 15 March 2009, 04:50 GMT+1
Reason for closing:  Rejected
Additional comments about closing:  Needs to be reimplemented in a better way to be considered.

OK, I am a newby, and I have absolutely no right to critisize the hard work of the deveolpers they do in their spare time. But as far as I understand there is a solution available, even if it is not a perfect one.

No....just, no.


Do you have any idea how crap Rockbox would be if every half baked implementation was included just because it exists?

Everything...literally everything that enters the source code needs careful consideration in regard to it's benefits vs. it's drawbacks.

It was rejected, for a reason...and that reason is clear in the closing message.



[St.]

[digimatik]

Hi St.
probaly there is a misunderstanding. I have not complained about the fact that a patch was not introduced in the main source code.
I understand your concerns completely. I only have asked myself if it is worth the effort for me to set up a development environment and compile my own version of Rockbox.

It is a pity that the patch was not developed according to the common quality requirements, but potentially I would have done the same if I would be in a position to provide my own solution to my own requirements.

Can I do something to revive the "old" request for an album list sorted by year? Or do you suggest that I try to install a patched Rockbox on my device (btw. its a 30GByte iPod Video)