2019-02-15, 15:35
I would also like the kind of multi-directional navigation and cross-node filtering that you describe but currently Kodi library GUI, although configureable, is not capable of everything you would like. It is also questionable that a UI intended to be controlled from a TV remote will ever have that intricacy of control, maybe a future refactor will go that way I just don't know.
My current preferred solution is to use Yatse to browse my music library, it can so some things that Kodi UI can't e.g. Album > Artist, song > Album, song > artist, and supports richer dynamic filtering. Fingers on a tablet or phone are also more agile than TV remote arrow buttons, I suggest you try it and see.
Let's also comment on what Kodi GUI can do.
Kodi music library GUI is based upon having nodes that have content of either genres, artists, albums or songs. There are two types of node definition (held as an .xml file)
- folder type where the properties of the node are defined using a virtual path
e.g. <path>musicdb://artists/?genre=rock&albumartistonly=true</path>
- filter type where the properties of the node are defined using smart filter rules.
Most of the default (fundamental) nodes are folder type, they carry any options to the next level in navigation. You can create your own nodes of folder type but understanding what virtual path and options work is an expert user activity.
The filter type nodes do not carry their options to the next level in navigation, but they use smart playlist rules so are easier to understand and create.
Generally navigation direction goes:
genres > artists > albums > songs,
sources > artists > albums > songs
years > albums > songs
roles > artists > albums > songs
The default genres node shows all the genres, the default artists node all the artists (there is a setting which toggles between seeing all song and album artists or just the album artists), the years node all the years, and the songs node all your songs. However I would advise again looking at all your songs in a long list - it is slow to display and better to use the library to filter what you want to see than look at a huge list.
Genres node
Click on a genre and you see all the artists with songs of that genre. Click on an artists an see all the albums by that artist with songs of that genre, or can choose "* All artists" to see all the albums with songs of that genre. Finally click on an album and see all the songs on that album with that genre, or on "* all albums" to see all the songs on all the albums by the artist with that genre. Pretty much what you ask for except for year, years does not form part of that navigation tree.
You can possibly achieve some of the other thngs you want using the filter on the side blade (although this can be slow on some large libraries because it trying to requerty dynamically as you add filter values). For example years > artists, start at years node and pick the year. Then on side blade filter pick album artist(s) - it will only show those with songs on albums of that year.
My own dream music library UI would offer much as you describe:
The db could easily do it, getting the UX to do it (while still supporting the current UI) is harder. Maybe one day, but while I personally prefer listening with TV off putting too much work into Kodi UX is not really a task that attracts me
And if you would like to read a long discussion of other people's "how to navigate library" ideas (and what I thought about them) see https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=300052
My current preferred solution is to use Yatse to browse my music library, it can so some things that Kodi UI can't e.g. Album > Artist, song > Album, song > artist, and supports richer dynamic filtering. Fingers on a tablet or phone are also more agile than TV remote arrow buttons, I suggest you try it and see.
Quote:Obviously, as my library grows (it's already rather large) I do not want to manually add new genres/artists/years etc. to this structure, this should be done automatically.Yes of course. The music library is populated by scanning the tags embedded in music files - you can not add/remove/modify genres, artists or years explicitly, Kodi will use what it finds in the music files.
Let's also comment on what Kodi GUI can do.
Kodi music library GUI is based upon having nodes that have content of either genres, artists, albums or songs. There are two types of node definition (held as an .xml file)
- folder type where the properties of the node are defined using a virtual path
e.g. <path>musicdb://artists/?genre=rock&albumartistonly=true</path>
- filter type where the properties of the node are defined using smart filter rules.
Most of the default (fundamental) nodes are folder type, they carry any options to the next level in navigation. You can create your own nodes of folder type but understanding what virtual path and options work is an expert user activity.
The filter type nodes do not carry their options to the next level in navigation, but they use smart playlist rules so are easier to understand and create.
Generally navigation direction goes:
genres > artists > albums > songs,
sources > artists > albums > songs
years > albums > songs
roles > artists > albums > songs
The default genres node shows all the genres, the default artists node all the artists (there is a setting which toggles between seeing all song and album artists or just the album artists), the years node all the years, and the songs node all your songs. However I would advise again looking at all your songs in a long list - it is slow to display and better to use the library to filter what you want to see than look at a huge list.
Genres node
Click on a genre and you see all the artists with songs of that genre. Click on an artists an see all the albums by that artist with songs of that genre, or can choose "* All artists" to see all the albums with songs of that genre. Finally click on an album and see all the songs on that album with that genre, or on "* all albums" to see all the songs on all the albums by the artist with that genre. Pretty much what you ask for except for year, years does not form part of that navigation tree.
You can possibly achieve some of the other thngs you want using the filter on the side blade (although this can be slow on some large libraries because it trying to requerty dynamically as you add filter values). For example years > artists, start at years node and pick the year. Then on side blade filter pick album artist(s) - it will only show those with songs on albums of that year.
Quote:How would I go about this?I would say scan some accurately tagged music files into the library and have a play with the default node structure, and do same with Yatse. As I said at the beginning it can not currently do all you want, but it can do enough (I hope). I think custom nodes and smart playlists are too static for what you would like to achieve
My own dream music library UI would offer much as you describe:
- The ability to easily and dynamically set a combination of filter rules e.g. source, genre, year, artist, mood, (partial) artist name etc. that apply across every thing I then view (artists, albums, songs, genres, sources, years).
- The ablity to move between the current thing and other things "like" it, where I can easy pick what I mean by like e.g. same genre, artist, year, source, mood, label, etc.
- Sorting by whatever combination of fields I choose
- Presets for all the above for my favourite ways of viewing my library
The db could easily do it, getting the UX to do it (while still supporting the current UI) is harder. Maybe one day, but while I personally prefer listening with TV off putting too much work into Kodi UX is not really a task that attracts me
And if you would like to read a long discussion of other people's "how to navigate library" ideas (and what I thought about them) see https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=300052
