Advanced library filtering

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Home icon grey.png   ▶ Music Library
▶ Video Library
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▶ Video Management
▶ Advanced library filtering


Introduction

Filter is a Music and Video Library feature that allows a user to quickly reduce a list of titles to a smaller list that matches a user specified criteria. For example, filter the main listing of movies to only movies whose genre is Science Fiction.

There are numerous fields available that can be used to filter lists.

A filter will only be available when a listing of titles is visible on screen.


Filter -v- Search

Filter and Search are not the same. They can be explained as follows:

Filter
When a list of titles is displayed on the screen, applying a filter will remove items that do not match the users criteria. ie A large list is reduced to a smaller list.
Search
Starts with an empty list and adds to it based on the users criteria. ie An empty list is added to with matching titles.

When a Filter is not available, the option will be replaced by Search.


Access

The filter option is accessed from the Left Sideblade Menu

The Filter option itself is available on any page that has a listing of Movies, TV Shows, Episodes or Music Videos for the Video Library or any page that has a listing of Artists, Albums or Songs for the Music Library.

Filter is a library only function. It will work from the main menu options of Movies, TV Shows, Music Videos and Music as well as their Nodes (genre, year, studio etc). It will not be available in Videos>Files as this is not accessing the library nor Smart Playlists as playlists are already filtered.


Usage

Apply Filter
  • From the Filter Dialogue Screen as shown in the below row of images, enter or adjust a field as required. The changes are immediately visible in the background. Select OK to accept and view the modified list.
  • Multiple filters can be applied.
  • Filters are not persistant. They will cancel when exiting the list- this could be due to backing out to the previous menu, or pressing play on a title.
Clear Filter
  • If still in the filter dialogue screen, select Clear and back out of the list.
  • If viewing the filtered list, back out of the list to the previous menu, then re-enter the list to see the unfiltered list again.


Available Filters

The following screenshots display the available filters as described.

A table at after the images summarises all available filters for each class of media.


Video Library

The following four screenshots show the filters available for Movies, TV Shows, Episodes and Music Videos.


Music Library

The following three screenshots show the filters available for Artists, Albums and Songs. A table at the end of this page summarises all available filters for each class of media.


Filter Summary

The following table lists which filters are available for which media type:

Filter Music Video
Name Type Artists Albums Songs Movies TV Shows Episodes Music Videos
Title Text Input No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Rating Range Selector No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
My Rating Range Selector No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
In progress Choice Spinner No No No Yes Yes Yes No
Year Range Selector No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
Tags Text Input No No No Yes Yes No Yes
Genre Text Input Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes
Actor Multiple Selection No No No Yes Yes Yes No
Director Text Input No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Studio Text Input No No No Yes Yes No Yes
First aired Range Selector No No No No No Yes No
Artist Multiple Selection Yes No Yes No No No Yes
Source Multiple Selection Yes Yes Yes No No No No
Moods Multiple Selection Yes No No No No No No
Styles Text Input Yes No No No No No No
Instruments Text Input Yes No No No No No No
Type Text Input Yes Yes No No No No No
Gender Text Input Yes No No No No No No
Disambiguation Text Input Yes No No No No No No
Biography Text Input Yes No No No No No No
Born Text Input Yes No No No No No No
Formed Text Input Yes No No No No No No
Disbanded Text Input Yes No No No No No No
Died Text Input Yes No No No No No No
Album Artist Text Input No Yes No No No No No
Compilation Text Input No Yes No No No No No
Album Text Input No No Yes No No No Yes
Label Multiple Selection No Yes No No No No No
Duration Range Selector No No Yes No No No No


Filter Types

There are different types of filters and every type comes with a different style and representation. The above series of images display the various types of Filters.


Text Input

Text Input filters allow the user to specify a series of characters which should be contained in the filtered property of the media items. The user can type directly in the Text Input when it is focused or open the on-screen keyboard by pressing on the filter option.

Title is an example of this type.


Range Selector

Range Selector filters allow the user to specify a range e.g. a range of years or a range of ratings. If the selection covers the whole range no filter will be used. The user can move both range selectors to the left or right to specify the range. Moving up or down switches between the two range selectors.

Rating is an example of this type.


Choice Spinner

Choice Spinner filters allow the user to choose between one of several choices. Every Choice Spinner filter will have a choice named "All" which disables that specific filter.

Compilation in Albums is an example of this type.


Multiple Selection

Multiple Selection filters are presented as a title followed by a number in brackets- Genre[25]. The number indicates the number of available options in the list.

Selecting the button will open the multi-selection dialog with a list of possible options. The user can select any number of options. Selected options will use a green coloured font

To apply the selected options the dialog has to be closed by using the OK button. Closing the dialog with the backspace or escape key will result in cancelling the selected options.

The available options in the list will depend on what other filters have already been applied.

  • If there are no filters applied all the available options will be listed
  • If other filters have been applied then the options in the list may be reduced to match the already adjusted filter options.

The button will be greyed out if the list has either 0 or 1 options.

Genre is one example ofa this type.



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