Wednesday 20 April 2011

How-to: "Using Media Library Browsing (a.k.a. "Advanced Query")"

In this mini how-to you'll learn how does the new "Media Library Browsing" feature works.

First of all, let's configure it in foobar2000.
  1. Go to foobar2000 preferences > Tools > HTTP Control > Media Library


    2. Configure Step 1 (mandatory), Step 2 (optional) and Step 3 (optional). They have to be a valid field like in the example above

    Then let's see Android.

    3. Go to Android and open foobar2000 controller app.

    4. Select the second playlist icon.
    In the example above, the first step will show a list of all the codecs in the Media Library.

    Once you select a codec, there will be a list of all the artist in that codec.  ("FLAC" in the example)



    Once you select an artist, there will be a list of all the albums of that artist. ("Coldplay" in the example above")



    Then, once you select an album, there will be a list of all the songs in that album. ("Prospekt's March" in the example above)



    There you can play a song (by single click on it), enqueue a song or enqueue all of them in that album (both by long click on it).


    In order to go back to a previous step, press the "Back" button of the device.

    6 comments:

    1. Hello,
      is there a way to SEARCH inside a query? I have in the query 2000 artists!
      If i search the name artists globally, i will have a lot of entries with every songs of them...but i want to keep the advantage of the query feature. I hope to have been clear!

      ReplyDelete
      Replies
      1. Hi, you've been perfectly clear ;)
        It's not possible though it will be in future versions.
        I will add a search box above the Media Library Browser to filter the list of (for instance) the artists.

        I can't say when it will be available but it's something surely needed.

        Thanks for your feedback.

        Delete
    2. Is there a list to see what keywords are available for Step 1, 2 and 3? I would like to see my folder structure, actually

      ReplyDelete
      Replies
      1. http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=Foobar2000:Title_Formatting_Reference

        Delete
      2. Thanks TomGroove!
        I hadn't seen the original comment...
        I'll add your link and another one I have with even some more info to the useful links section in the blog.

        Delete
      3. Though this posting is old, this solution might help. I'd really prefer to have a nice 'by folder structure' method like the real Media Library provides, but this is a decent stop-gap.

        I keep my music in a folder such as d:\music\ and have sub-directories that categorize by genre, artist or whatever is a major category. Then I may have other sub-sub-directories for albums or other categories.

        I found that having two-levels of directories for Steps and then a final Album Step allows me to sort through my music close to my normal Foobar 'by folder structure' settings.

        Here's the code I use. Assuming you have your music set up as:
        d:\first\second\third\fourth\...

        Grab 'first' level directory:
        $if($longer('x',$directory(%path%,1)),%title%,$if($longer('x',$directory(%path%,2)),$directory(%path%,1),$if($longer('x',$directory(%path%,3)),$directory(%path%,2),$if($longer('x',$directory(%path%,4)),$directory(%path%,3),$if($longer('x',$directory(%path%,5)),$directory(%path%,4),$if($longer('x',$directory(%path%,6)),$directory(%path%,5),'toodeep'))))))

        Grab 'second' level (I use this for step 1 because my music is in the 'first' folder:

        $if($longer('x',$directory(%path%,1)),%title%,$if($longer('x',$directory(%path%,2)),%title%,$if($longer('x',$directory(%path%,3)),$directory(%path%,1),$if($longer('x',$directory(%path%,4)),$directory(%path%,2),$if($longer('x',$directory(%path%,5)),$directory(%path%,3),$if($longer('x',$directory(%path%,6)),$directory(%path%,4),'toodeep'))))))

        Grab 'third' level (used for step 2):

        $if($longer('x',$directory(%path%,1)),%title%,$if($longer('x',$directory(%path%,2)),%title%,$if($longer('x',$directory(%path%,3)),%title%,$if($longer('x',$directory(%path%,4)),$directory(%path%,1),$if($longer('x',$directory(%path%,5)),$directory(%path%,2),$if($longer('x',$directory(%path%,6)),$directory(%path%,3),'toodeep'))))))

        And so on, using this pattern (make into a single line):

        4th:

        $if($longer('x',$directory(%path%,1)),%title%,
        $if($longer('x',$directory(%path%,2)),%title%,
        $if($longer('x',$directory(%path%,3)),%title%,
        $if($longer('x',$directory(%path%,4)),%title%,
        $if($longer('x',$directory(%path%,5)),$directory(%path%,1),
        $if($longer('x',$directory(%path%,6)),$directory(%path%,2),x))))))

        5th:

        $if($longer('x',$directory(%path%,1)),%title%,
        $if($longer('x',$directory(%path%,2)),%title%,
        $if($longer('x',$directory(%path%,3)),%title%,
        $if($longer('x',$directory(%path%,4)),%title%,
        $if($longer('x',$directory(%path%,5)),%title%,
        $if($longer('x',$directory(%path%,6)),$directory(%path%,1),x))))))

        Delete