Please allow albums to be sorted alphanumerically

[mudsharkymon]

Hi all,

Please allow albums to be sorted alphanumerically, as per viewtopic.php?f=2&t=15683

I have unchecked the "sort by year" option expecting the albums to now sort alphanumerically but they do not (see screen shot attached) and I cannot find a way to make it so.
Any ideas?
Thx
RG

<-------------------------Subsonic Help Request---------------------->
Problem Description: albums do not sort alphanumerically
Troubleshooting Steps: unchecked the "sort by year" option
Playback Application and version: FireFox
Subsonic Version: 5.2.1 (build 4427) – March 4, 2015
Server Version: jetty-6.1.x, java 1.7.0_65, FreeBSD (91.0 MB / 145.0 MB)
Hardware Platform: FreeNAS 9.3
Java Memory Limit: n/a
Problem Filename: n/a
Output from ffmpeg -i: n/a
Last ten log file lines: n/a
<-------------------------Subsonic Help Request---------------------->

indexsort1.jpg

[sindre_mehus]

If possible, can you create a temporary account for me on your Subsonic server so I can take a look?

Thanks,
Sindre

[masterofrpm]

Based off of your screenshot you could just rename albums {album - (year)}. This should resolve the issue. Granted that is time consuming but it would resolve your reported issue. To speed the process I use 'Auto-Organize' in 'Mediamonkey' Gold to help manage my directory layout, might be something you could look into if you want to save a little time now and down the road.

[mudsharkymon]

Based off of your screenshot you could just rename albums {album - (year)}. This should resolve the issue. Granted that is time consuming but it would resolve your reported issue. To speed the process I use 'Auto-Organize' in 'Mediamonkey' Gold to help manage my directory layout, might be something you could look into if you want to save a little time now and down the road.

The artist's folders are already named for the order I want them to show in.

If you look at the example you'll see that although the sort order begins with a non-alphanumeric "(", it then goes to numerics, then to symbols, then back to the "(".

Here is another example where SubSonic does not sort properly based on folder name:

pf.jpg

[mudsharkymon]

If possible, can you create a temporary account for me on your Subsonic server so I can take a look?

Yes, and many thanks again!.. See your PM

[sindre_mehus]

Thanks, I've had a look and confirmed what I suspected.

Please note that the directories that appear out of order are not regarded as albums by Subsonic (because they contain no tracks). Subsonic first lists all subdirectories (sorted) and then all albums (sorted).

If you turn on grid view (the button in the top-right corner) this becomes clearer, as albums are then displayed by their cover art.

Regards
Sindre

[mudsharkymon]

Thanks, I've had a look and confirmed what I suspected... the directories that appear out of order are not regarded as albums by Subsonic because they contain no tracks. Subsonic first lists all sub-directories (sorted) and then all albums (sorted). If you turn on grid view (the button in the top-right corner) this becomes clearer, as albums are then displayed by their cover art. Regards, Sindre

Ah! Would not have thought Subsonic indexing did anything but read the directory (folder) name and sort on that.
Since Subsonic indexing is 'smarter' (looks into the sub-folders and changes the simple indexing based on folder contents) the remedy for this is to elevate the sub-sub folders one level.

2013 venue one
|-> CD1
|--> Tracks
2013 venue one
|-> CD2
|--> Tracks

Must become:

2013 venue one
|--> Tracks from CDs 1+2

OK thanks. Now that I know why this is happening I can fix it!
Thanks Sindre. Nailed it.

Perhaps a future enhancement is: In the Indexing section - next to the [_] Index by year check-box another check-box for Simple vs Smart indexing.

[secondsabre]

Sorry to necro this thread, but I'd like to chime in and ask that there be an option for strict alpha-numeric sorting as well. Thanks for explaining about the sub-sub-folders thing, it totally makes sense when I go into my database and reference the behaviour I've been seeing. However, gratuitous sorted sub-folders are kinda my jam, and seeing the folders sort a-z and then a-z again really gets my OCD itching, haha.

As a side-note, this exact behaviour is mirrored in JamStash. I posted a bug report about this over there last year, and *just* realized the same thing happens on the native SubSonic HTML interface. Eeep, my bad. In any case, a true 'Sort by filename' option without any smart re-organizing would by much appreciated!

[acroyear]

This is where the ID3 views (made available in the API but not that I can see in the UI) becomes a boon. One can have Pink Floyd -> The Wall -> CD1/CD2 folders and that's how they will show up in the index, but browsing by Artist in ID3 mode and one instead gets Pink Floyd -> The Wall -> all contents. Provided CD2 is correctly numbers disc 2 in the ID3, the sorting will be correct (though if neither have a disk number, the tracks may blend together and you'll need to clean up the tags, with an external program, anyways).

I generally do a lot of work in cleaning up my ID3 tags, at least on my rock side (hence why I was frustrated that 1) sometimes subsonic relies on Artist, but other times Album Artist, so fixing one in the UI doesn't solve the problem, and 2) sometimes changing everything and re-scanning and it STILL wouldn't correct the reference and I could only resolve that by moving the folder to a new name, getting it to read them afresh, then moving it back).

On my classical/soundtracks server, there isn't enough support for organizing classical (not Subsonic's problem alone: MOST tools suck on this subject), so there the folder structure is essential to me and I carefully groom it using tools I wrote myself.