Create a column

Click on New. Then enter the properties of this column. It's quite important to do things properly.

• Display Name: Choose a relevant name for your column
• Width : Choose the usual width of your column. Set it with decent values. (scrolling horizontally is terribly annoying)
• Resize: See the official wiki
• Meta Field to edit: See the official wiki
• Filter type: Choose the filter to apply to know wether UI columns should display the column or not, useful for example with Album mode/Single mode. Detail your filter with Filtered Playlist
• Show column: select if you want to display the column or not
• Use custom style spec: Check it if you want to use a custom style. If it's checked, ou will have to complete the style tab
• Use custom sort spec: The same as above but with the "sort" option

You can use Up,Down, Insert,Copy to move copy or delete your columns, they will appear from the left to the right according to their position from the top to the bottom.

Column's content

It's your turn to do the job. But usually people use columns for (the code given is an example of the code that may be used):

• the playlist number .
  Basic (only gives the playlist number)
  %playlist_number%.
  More complex: if the file is playing or paused, it displays the " $char(9835)" character where $char(9835) stands for an extra character (I can't display those characters in an HTML page..) See here ). Moreover if the file is playing or paused : It uses the function $mod applied to the time elapsed to compute a number between 0 and 3 then it uses $add to have a number between 1 and 4 and finally the function $select to know what to display else it displays the playlist number
  $if($or(%isplaying%, %ispaused%), $select($add(1, $mod(%playback_time_seconds%,4)),$char(9835) ,$char(9835) $char(9835) ,$char(9835) $char(9835) $char(9835) ,$char(9835) $char(9835) $char(9835) $char(9835) ), %playlist_number%)
• album/artist/comment/year/date etc..
  Basic
  $select(%tracknumber%,%album%,%artist%,%date%,%genre%)
  More complex: (the column with the tracknumber is given only to see the effect of the select function)
  $select(%tracknumber%,
  [%album%]$tab()[%genre%],
  $if(%track artist%,Various artist,%artist%)$tab()[%__replaygain_album_gain%],
  %codec%','%bitrate%','%channels%$tab()[%date%],
  [%comment%])
  With the $select function applied to the %tracknumber% field.
  • On the first line, the %album% if the tag exists, ( I use [] to circumvent an ugly "?" if the field is missing ) then the %genre% (I use $tab() to put the album at the beginning of the line, and the genre at the end of it.)
  • On the second line I check if the album has various artists if so I display "Various artist" (%track artist% exists if you have this field or if the album artist and the current artist are different)
  • Third line, I collect the codec, the bitrate and the number of channels (to protect comas, I use quotes). Then I get the year
  • Finally I get the comment
• title/length
  Basic
  Displays the title if the field exists, else it displays the filename and the length of the file at the right of the column
  %title%
  $tab()%length%
  
  More Complex
  
  $If the album has various artists, It displays the title (or the filename) and the current artist, else I display only the title (or the filename).
  It displays the length at the right of the column, and $If the file is playing $or paused, I display the played time then the length.
  $if(%track artist%,
  %title% - [%artist%],
  %title%)
  $tab()
  $if($or(%isplaying%,%ispaused%),
  %playback_time%'/'%length%,
  %length%)
  
• replaygain info
  Basic
  $char(9834) stands for an extra character (I can't display those characters in an HTML page..) See here
  $if(%__replaygain_track_gain%,
  '$char(9834)$char(9834) ')
  $if(%__replaygain_album_gain%,
  $char(9835) )
  Other example.
  
  $if(%__replaygain_track_gain%,%__replaygain_track_gain% '/')
  $if2(%__replaygain_album_gain%)
• Tag matrix: this column is useful to check missing tags, you can use or improve the process for your own tag fields
  // checks if Artist tag exists, Displayed in dark blue if the field exists, red else
  $if($meta(artist),$rgb(7,17,105),$rgb(255,0,0))Art' '
  // checks if title tag exists
  $if($meta(title),$rgb(7,17,105),$rgb(255,0,0))Tit' '
  // checks if tracknumber tag exists
  $if(%tracknumber%,$rgb(7,17,105),$rgb(255,0,0))Trk' '
  // checks if comment tag exists
  $if(%comment%,$rgb(7,17,105),$rgb(255,0,0))Com' '
  // checks if date tag exists
  $if(%date%,$rgb(7,17,105),$rgb(255,0,0))Yr' '
  // checks if replaygain track gain exists
  $if(%__replaygain_track_gain%,$rgb(7,17,105),$rgb(255,0,0))RGT' '
  // checks if replaygain talbum gain exists
  $if(%__replaygain_album_gain%,$rgb(7,17,105),$rgb(255,0,0))RGA' '
  // checks if genre tag exists
  $if(%genre%,$rgb(7,17,105),$rgb(255,0,0))Gen' '
  // checks if it is known as a Various artist album
  $if($or(%track artist%,%various%),$rgb(7,17,105),$rgb(255,0,0))Var' '
  
• last played
• hotness
• ....

Related pages

July 14 2008 15:32:12.