[AnalogKid]

Artist > Albums should should ANY album that the artist appears on.
AlbumArtist > Albums should only show Albums by that artist

This is much more in line with how the Artist and Album Artist tags are being used to manage compilation albums.

I do agree that it's very annoying to have all sorts of compilation albums showing up when you choose Artist > Albums, but it's technically more correct to do so. Also, my own dislike of seeing mixed artist compilations showing up here may not be disliked by others, Some really do want to see every album that artist appeared on.

As I said AlbumArtist > Albums would be the right way to view dedicated albums for that artist and it probably should be one of the built in views in stock Kodi.

I think by offering both views (Artist > Albums, AlbumArtist > Albums) the user has a choice and can get either mode of operation.

[steve1977]

Fully agree, this would be great!

[jjd-uk]

I think you could do that now with a custom node, although I think it could be a good idea to have this as a built in node available in a default installation.

[DaveBlake]

Some of this is in my PR that has been sitting waiting a month someone to review. Hopefully it will make it into v17, but that's not up to me.

[steve1977]

I had been experimenting bit with custom nodes, but prefer not to use then. Not all skins full support them and they may cause issues upon upgrading.

So, some more native support would be great. Would be fantastic if this makes it into V17? Anything the music community can do beyond voicing our support in this thread?

[DaveBlake]

I had been experimenting bit with custom nodes, but prefer not to use then. Not all skins full support them and they may cause issues upon upgrading.

What issues do you have in mind Steve?

You can't quite do what you want with custom nodes yet anyway.

So, some more native support would be great. Would be fantastic if this makes it into V17? Anything the music community can do beyond voicing our support in this thread?

There will be testing....

[steve1977]

The issue in mind is that I'd like to assign a custom node to an item in the main GUI. Technically, this works and is not an issue. However, most skins including the Kodi default skin Estuary and also my favorite skin Transparency! do not support this. Some other skins support it. I can pull up the other thread. The Kodi developers are aware, but there is some reason why this cannot be included. I didn't fully understand the reason, but it sounded like it made sense that it cannot be implemented.

Besides that, I started to use MrMC on iphone/ipad, which is great and hassel-free. Perfectly well supports mysql, but doubt I can get custom nodes to work.

Is there a download link for testing? Happy to do so.

[DaveBlake]

Yeap, just the main menu where you can not (consistently for all skins) add a custom node. But that does not prevent custom nodes below that.

I want to roll some other changes into one test build, rather than have people testing over and over smal changes, but I will be back with link soon.

[jjd-uk]

I don't see any reason why custom nodes wouldn't work in MrMC, you just need to find out where userdata is stored if you don't already know, unless again you're referring to adding to the main menu.

[AnalogKid]

I use a custom node for this but I think if a use case is wide enough, it deserves to be built in. Sometimes it's not always an easy trade off, but the fact that there's a UI option to hide artists that only appear on compilations suggest the 'core' Kodi believes such artists can be a hindrance in the UI, then I think there's a fair argument to suggest a similar issue exists with compilation albums showing up under Album views.

Since core Kodi made the 'hide artists who only appear on compilations' an option, then I think the same should apply for this use case too. In this case though, it can be handled in a nicer way via a new node built into Kodi.

[DaveBlake]

In v17 the "show artists that only appear on compilations" setting has thankfully been renamed "show song and album artists". This delights me so much I am going to repeat this good news in as many posts as I can
As you know this setting when disabled reduces the number of artists shown on the artists node to just those that are album artists, and excludes those that only appear on songs from albums by others (inc. "Various artists").

As a system wide setting this frustrated me, hence there is now also a custom node option to set "albumartistsonly" true or false locally. So you can create nodes that show either and switch between without having to wade into settings.

The difference between custom nodes and default nodes is just whether they get created when Kodi is installed or not. We have a node editor, we could even provide a resource of example nodes that users can copy and use as their interests dictate. What I am not sure about is what we make the default, or at least in what way we add to the current defaults.

How many users want 2 artists nodes by default - a) all artists (albumartistsonly = false) b) album artists (albumartistsonly = true), rather than the current way of 1 node the fallows the system level albumartistsonly flag? Would it be confusing after years of just 1 artists node? Those that want 2 can so easily create them, it leaves me thinking that it is best not to change the default, but I am open to discussion.

However I have just finished a reworking of the SQL we use for both nodes, playlists and filters. I will post more about this in a separate thread. It makes an ugly PR, constructiing SQL statements from bits of text, no one on the team is in a rush to sign off on it. It addresses an number of query issues that have been quietly happening "under the hood", that adding both artist roles and path rules for artists and albums playlist have exasperated. I mention it here because in implementing thoses fixes I have also used the albumartistsonly flag to dictate what happens when you drill into a list of artists, be that a folder type node (like the defaults) or a filter type (s many custom nodes are) or a playlist, or if it has had an additional filter (from the side menu) applied.

In short, with this PR if the list of artists was created from only album artists, maybe with other criteria such as song genre, then when you click on an artist you will only see those albums that has that artist as album artist (and matches any other criteria). The selection criteria will be carried consistently through artist to albums to songs.

Earlier in this thread I discussed making "show only albums where album artist not just songs" a separate setting, but that starts to get confusing. So I would like to try out the using albumartistsonly flag for both approach, and see how it works for you all. It is what has been mentioned in the last few posts, coincidently I had already implemented it that way. A test build is brewing, but I just found a bug I need to fix.

[jjd-uk]

I think a All Artists node and Album Artists node included by default makes sense, then we can just do away with that setting altogether. Anyone who doesnt want both can simply delete the one they don't use, which is probably much easier for someone new that than creating a new custom node.

[DaveBlake]

Sorry for that long post, I hope you can get you heads around it!

Put another way, either
Disable "show song and album artists" setting
or
create "artists" playlist with rule "role is albumartist"
or
create "artists" folder type custom node using the albumartistonly=true option

In all cases the artists listed are album artsists, and when you click on an artist the albums listed are only those by that artist. The album where they feature on a track, or the "Now 98" compliation are not shown.

If you want to see those extra items too you need to come form a list of artists that includes song artists.

~0~

I would also like to add a companion feature - maybe a context menu item that does not pass selection criteria on to the next level in the way that the default navigation will. Say you have selected artists, and then albums for an artist that have songs that satisfy criteria e.g. any combination of genre, path or role such as "classical composers of music on my NAS drive". Defaut behaviour will just show those songs, while the new context menu item could take you to all the songs for that album (regardless of criteria), or all the albums for that artist including those what just have a song by that artist not the enire album.

Having made filter/selection behaviour consistently transfered as you navigate, I also want a facility to release those restrictions and show more. What do you think?

There could also be a reverse navigation mode. Back will still just step back, but I think a context item from a song that take you to the album containing that song would be useful. Say you are playing a list, it would go to the album it is on. Likewise from album to go to the song artists and/or album artists so you can pick other music by them.

I know that the iOS remote already has this feature, why not have it on Kodi GUI too?

[DaveBlake]

I think a All Artists node and Album Artists node included by default makes sense, then we can just do away with that setting altogether. Anyone who doesnt want both can simply delete the one they don't use, which is probably much easier for someone new that than creating a new custom node.

Interesting to know that. I am really happy to do either, I just don't have an arguement for it.

[AnalogKid]

I think both nodes make sense too.
Having a single option that toggles between the two is inflexible, you are being forced to choose one or the other, but with both nodes, you can browse either as you see fit.

Yes, some users will initially be a little confused, but they'll quickly learn, and if they choose 'Artist->Albums' they're going to see exactly what they saw before - so it's not a problem.
For users who choose 'AlbumArtist->Albums' they'll be getting the new view :-)

An indirect consequence of this is that many more people might start to ask about the difference between Artist and AlbumArtist - which could be a good thing, as more people will start to tag correctly! (imo).


The setting for 'show song and album artists' is a different issue. That setting isn't about which albums should show up, but which artists should show up at the artists level.

If Kodi were to start again it should probably have been like this:

Artists With Albums -> Albums Featuring This Artist
Artists With Albums -> Albums By This Artist
Artists -> Albums Featuring This Artist
Artists -> Albums By This Artist

or even simpler:

Album Artists -> Albums By This Artist
Song Artists -> Albums Featuring Any Song With This Artist


With the latter option, it's much more like a record store. If you view Album Artists you ONLY see artists with a dedicated albums by them, and you ONLY see their albums (no mixed artist albums). If you view Song Artists then you see ALL Artists regardless of how they got into your library, and you'll see every album they appear on including mixed artist albums.

I think that's pretty understandable and very logical. Doing it this way completely removes the need for the setting 'show song and album artists'.