3.2.29 - Collections (i.e. BoxSets) missing

[Deathsquirrel 741]

It sounds like this was not removed on purpose, simply something broke because this feature has been replaced for a couple years now and no longer gets tested.

 

They may be able to fix this but I'd strongly recommend anyone relying on this look at transitioning to the collections built in the application.  This discussion has come up several times in the past so it's worth saying again.  It's not good to base a key part of your product usage on a function that no longer gets tested because it's been replaced.  Having done the work to transition from the folder-based collections to the app-based, I can assure you it's both REALLY easy to move over and far easier to maintain.

 

You can rebuild the overwhelming majority of your collections using the plugin and those that don't have TMDB collection data to back them up are pretty quick to build by hand in the UI.  Not having to worry about space available on the drive where the existing collection lives when a new sequel comes out is a wonderful bonus and it's a lot easier to have a single movie in multiple collections.  I'm really happy now that I've switched out the old collection folders.

[khodges747 55]

@@Deathsquirrel

I have to disagree with a lot of what you say.

 

I bought Emby a long time ago at least in part because of the way it made collections easy to do. Just collect all your Iron Man movies in one folder and sub-folders, make a collection.xml file, and let the server scan the whole mess and create the collection for you. Easy, and it conforms to my OCD manner of organizing files. Keeping my media files organized is a sort of hobby for me.

 

I have never used the AutoBoxSet plugin, but I imagine it works quite well, too, at least if there's a TMDb reference for the Collection.

 

But what about extensive collections not referenced by TMDb? I have a collection of 63 Cary Grant movies, all in one collection, all in the same folder/sub-folders, all scanned into a collection by the server because I created a simple text file called collection.xml. I don't want to be required now to sit in front of my PC for a long time, right-clicking each movie and telling Emby to add it to the Cary Grant collection, simply because suddenly someone didn't bother to check if Emby Server can still read and do something with collection.xml files. If I only had one collection like that, it wouldn't be a problem, but I have many.

 

In short, you're right about a lot of what you say, but I see no reason to forsake a perfectly good functionality not because it's causing problems, but because no one bothers to check if it's still compatible.

[Deathsquirrel 741]

@@Deathsquirrel

In short, you're right about a lot of what you say, but I see no reason to forsake a perfectly good functionality not because it's causing problems, but because no one bothers to check if it's still compatible.

 

Set aside the fact that a collection by actor is unneeded when you can search for an actor and see everything you have that they're in.  Set aside the fact that recreating that collection would take seconds if you DID need it since you could search for the actor, multiselect the lot, and add it to a collection.  The fact is that this doesn't work.  It may get fixed but it's a deprecated feature.  It doesn't get tested.  It has broken before and probably will again.  To me that says it's time to entertain the idea of change.

 

I didn't want to make this change.  I was vocal about that.  I was wrong.  I spend less time managing collections now than I ever did before.  It's less hassle and the results are superior.  I can't speak for you, but that's my experience coming in with what seems like the same attitude.

[khodges747 55]

It's not about NEED. Of course I don't NEED a collection by actor. Or a collection of Iron Man movies since I can just type iron man into the search box.

 

But I'll stop debating if you teach me how to "multiselect" videos. I can't figure out how to do it. In Theater I can't do it; in the web client nothing I tried works. What's the trick?

[ebr 14910]

The problem with the file-system based collections are that they are inflexible.  What happens when you also want a "Marvel" collection that includes those Iron man movies (or just a sub-set of them)?

 

Also, they were causing problems.  Each different physical structure the server needs to support complicates the automatic detection of content and can make other things not work properly.  We were running into these types of problems with collections in addition to their rigidity and inability to maintain them from the normal interface.

 

 

But I'll stop debating if you teach me how to "multiselect" videos. I can't figure out how to do it. In Theater I can't do it; in the web client nothing I tried works. What's the trick?

 

Hold down the mouse button on an item.

[khodges747 55]

I give up.

 

I've been using a mixture of the 2 systems (file-based and server-based) for a while now. I'm in the process of converting the legacy collections to server-based. It's not hard, just time consuming.

 

I figured out the multiselect thing, but only in Metadata Manager. I was trying to do it in Theater. I didn't know about that, so thanks for the tip because that will speed things up enormously.

Edit: I did NOT figure out multiselect. Please be more specific.

 

Lots of people don't appreciate it when you guys deprecate features that have been around for ages and worked well. I'm fairly certain your objective in life is not to screw up my week, but there are times when it feels exactly like that.

 

BTW, due to the way I manage my files, none of my server-based collections are actually in "...Roaming/Emby-Server/data/collections". They are on the drive where I keep my videos, in folders named like the collection, where I have easy access to the artwork, etc. This works just fine, even in the newest version of server. Please tell me you won't deprecate that too, just because the collection.xml file is somewhere unexpected.

Edited August 30, 2017 by khodges747

[d00zah 127]

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/49929-cant-play-flv-files/page-2&do=findComment&comment=482142

[khodges747 55]

What app are you in when you do this? In MB Theater it doesn't work for me. Also doesn't work in the Web UI. I can stayed clicked on a movie for minutes and I never get the multiselect checkboxes to appear.

 

Is there some trick?

[paulsalter 84]

What app are you in when you do this? In MB Theater it doesn't work for me. Also doesn't work in the Web UI. I can stayed clicked on a movie for minutes and I never get the multiselect checkboxes to appear.

 

Is there some trick?

In the Web UI try right clicking

 

For me right clicking bring up the selection boxes to select multiple movies

[d00zah 127]

What app are you in when you do this? In MB Theater it doesn't work for me. Also doesn't work in the Web UI. I can stayed clicked on a movie for minutes and I never get the multiselect checkboxes to appear.

 

Is there some trick?

 

No trick. I'm using FF55.0.3. Any page displaying multiple items ought to be capable of multi-select. Just left-click ON one & hold for a sec... the green bar will appear across the top of the screen along with check boxes overlaying each item.

Edited August 30, 2017 by d00zah

[khodges747 55]

Well I'm using FF 53 and that does not work at all, either left or right clicking and holding. Also doesn't work in Chrome.

 

It works in Emby for Android however, so I'll do this on my phone or tablet.

 

Thanks for the help.

[dcook 265]

Works fine in Chrome:

 

 

 

 

You have to hold the left button for a second or two and then you get the mulitple select like I screen captured above.

Edited August 30, 2017 by dcook

[khodges747 55]

We weren't talking about the same Web UI. In the one you're using it works, but in the other one, it doesn't.

 

This one doesn't work for multiselect:

http://tv.emby.media/#!/plugins/defaultskin/home_horiz/home.html

 

This one does work:

http://localhost:8096/web/home.html

 

Thanks.

[dcook 265]

If you are at home why would you not want to connect to your server directly? Doesn't make sense to proxy the connection through tv.emby.media if your at the same location.

 

You said it doesn't work in the Web UI:

 

I tried on Chrome, Firefox and Edge and they all allow me to select multiple items by holding the left mouse button down for a second using the server address:  http://192.168.0.21:8096/web/home.html

Edited August 30, 2017 by dcook

[Luke 37056]

We weren't talking about the same Web UI. In the one you're using it works, but in the other one, it doesn't.

 

This one doesn't work for multiselect:

http://tv.emby.media/#!/plugins/defaultskin/home_horiz/home.html

 

This one does work:

http://localhost:8096/web/home.html

 

Thanks.

 

That does work for multi-select, but not in TV display mode.

[khodges747 55]

@@Luke

OK, thanks.

 

@@dcook

I'm not sure why it matters to anybody except me, but I sometimes access Emby that way because I:

1) use Firefox, and the other UI does not consistently display correctly in FF

2) and also because I prefer the Folder view that I get from that method

3) and finally, because it's a bookmark in FF, which gets synced to the other machines that I use that are not the server.

I use MB Theater almost exclusively, so rarely use the web UI at all.

[dcook 265]

Well just pointing out that you stated previously the WebUI does not work at all for multiple selections, when clearly it does work just fine.

 

 

@@Luke

OK, thanks.

 

@@dcook

I'm not sure why it matters to anybody except me, but I sometimes access Emby that way because I:

1) use Firefox, and the other UI does not consistently display correctly in FF

2) and also because I prefer the Folder view that I get from that method

3) and finally, because it's a bookmark in FF, which gets synced to the other machines that I use that are not the server.

I use MB Theater almost exclusively, so rarely use the web UI at all.

[khodges747 55]

@@dcook

Multiple web UIs with multiple behaviors. The one I was using, with the setup I was using (display mode Auto) does not allow multiple selections.

[Vidman 589]

@@dcook

Multiple web UIs with multiple behaviors. The one I was using, with the setup I was using (display mode Auto) does not allow multiple selections.

Well the lines are starting to get very blurred regarding the web UI and the theatre app so you could have been alot more specific

[Happy2Play 8281]

Also to make Emby happy all you have to do is delete your collections.xml from your libraries.  No restructuring required.  Only thing this messes up is MCM if you still keep those libraries active in MCM.

[Nick's MCE 59]

Hi all

This is was a discussion about a year ago and I was faced with the same issues of people not understanding or caring why we need to keep the legacy file system. I produce fanart for fanart.tv so having legacy setups is really the only way to keep track of and store the art. Not only that why would you want all your movies just mixed up together, its just such a mess.

 

Can we please restore legacy functionality and give it support. Also can we try and  make it so that if I have a adult collection folder and a kids collection folder that it keeps them seperate when I click on the collections tab.

 

God hep us with this.

 

Need to understand that people who wish to maintain legacy collections cant be swayed to dump it. We have it for reasons which may not be understood by every-one else, not really fair to force us to change because the powers have decided we dont need it or what is best for us.

[Nick's MCE 59]

@@Luke

OK, thanks.

 

@@dcook

I'm not sure why it matters to anybody except me, but I sometimes access Emby that way because I:

1) use Firefox, and the other UI does not consistently display correctly in FF

2) and also because I prefer the Folder view that I get from that method

3) and finally, because it's a bookmark in FF, which gets synced to the other machines that I use that are not the server.

I use MB Theater almost exclusively, so rarely use the web UI at all.

Ít matters to me, I am in full support of legacy collections along with many others.

[Nick's MCE 59]

Does some-one have a link to the previous build please

[Nick's MCE 59]

can I also ask how my movies and collections movies should be stored under the new system.

[ryanruck 11]

Does some-one have a link to the previous build please

https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Emby/releases/tag/3.2.28.0