Nested Collections

[Landoman 10]

Add me to the list

[KNSsoftware 3]

Me too!

Can we ask what the stumbling point on this one is?

[Luke 37174]

On 10/17/2022 at 5:26 AM, KNSsoftware said:

Me too!

Can we ask what the stumbling point on this one is?

Nested collections create some challenges in terms of which ones show up in which places, so that's something that would need to be looked at.

[Schleudertrauma 4]

Hey friends,

i'm in there too. I miss the feature to build my own collections more complex and i don't like the way emby handles the collections momentarely by putting everything in one directory.
It would be nice to have the ability to create own seperated collections for example Lion King Trilogy as a Collection in an only for kids collection and Insidious films in a horror collection made for adults only.

That is something i miss really hard.

 

Greetings 

Schleudi

[ebr 14947]

18 hours ago, Schleudertrauma said:

It would be nice to have the ability to create own seperated collections

Hi.  You can still create manual collections.  You just cannot have a collection within a collection.

[musicpup42 1]

Upvoting this - assuming it's true nesting, i.e. opening the MCU collection shows a list of other collections - not a flattened list of movies. Ideally, ability to nest several levels deep. Also ideally a collection should have ability to contain both other collections but also individual movies - just like a folder in Windows Explorer can contain both files and other folders.

[rbjtech 4310]

On 24/10/2022 at 21:00, Luke said:

Nested collections create some challenges in terms of which ones show up in which places, so that's something that would need to be looked at.

Can you give some examples of where you have concerns ?  As i've been using nested collections for a long time (via a db hack) and never had any issues.  I'm not suggesting this is the solution, but keen to understand the issue here..  tks.

[Luke 37174]

22 minutes ago, rbjtech said:

Can you give some examples of where you have concerns ?  As i've been using nested collections for a long time (via a db hack) and never had any issues.  I'm not suggesting this is the solution, but keen to understand the issue here..  tks.

You may not want the nested ones showing up in top level lists and possibly other places. If you use group into collections, you might want only the highest level collection and not that plus the nested ones.

[rbjtech 4310]

1 hour ago, Luke said:

You may not want the nested ones showing up in top level lists and possibly other places. If you use group into collections, you might want only the highest level collection and not that plus the nested ones.

Yep - good call.   As indeed all 'levels' both the top level and members show on the displays - I've been creative with naming 'collections' (sort title) I don't really want to see in the mix with z_ to sort them to the end, but it's a poor solution.

Thanks. 

Edited November 3, 2022 by rbjtech

[Cheesegeezer 3089]

A clever way would be to add tier system to allow user control when creating a collection.  As simple as

1. Top only  - is never nested
2. middle - collection nested under Top and above bottom
3. bottom- is always under middle or last

fall back is - if no middle then bottom will be below top. And if no top/middle it will be top.

then if user adds a new collection in that hierarchy its still respected.

just an idea

[sydlexius 244]

26 minutes ago, Cheesegeezer said:

A clever way would be to add tier system to allow user control when creating a collection.  As simple as

1. Top only  - is never nested
2. middle - collection nested under Top and above bottom
3. bottom- is always under middle or last

fall back is - if no middle then bottom will be below top. And if no top/middle it will be top.

then if user adds a new collection in that hierarchy its still respected.

just an idea

My thoughts were similar.  Perhaps change collections to be internally represented with GUIDs (if this is already the case, then my bad), have a flag to indicate if a collection can be visible at the top level (can be configured within a nested collection), and unstructured fields for antecedent and dependent collection GUIDs.

[Cheesegeezer 3089]

3 minutes ago, sydlexius said:

My thoughts were similar.  Perhaps change collections to be internally represented with GUIDs (if this is already the case, then my bad), have a flag to indicate if a collection can be visible at the top level (can be configured within a nested collection), and unstructured fields for antecedent and dependent collection GUIDs.

Lol… i was keeping it simple bro lol

Enum springs to mind… 0,7 && 15

Edited November 3, 2022 by Cheesegeezer

[sydlexius 244]

2 minutes ago, Cheesegeezer said:

Lol… i was keeping it simple bro lol

Enum springs to mind… 0,7 && 15

The GUID is for those scenarios where a user decides to rename a collection...if a nested collection linked to that name, it may break the link.  Each collection should track where it appears (top level, or dependent on a collection above it).  My approach would allow for theoretically unlimited nesting (though sanity checking would need to be done to prevent a GUID from being nested somewhere in itself...infinite loops are no fun!).

[Cheesegeezer 3089]

6 minutes ago, sydlexius said:

The GUID is for those scenarios where a user decides to rename a collection...if a nested collection linked to that name, it may break the link.  Each collection should track where it appears (top level, or dependent on a collection above it).  My approach would allow for theoretically unlimited nesting (though sanity checking would need to be done to prevent a GUID from being nested somewhere in itself...infinite loops are no fun!).

True true as are happening alot with the auto collection plugin now because its lib scan trigger happy. 
 

you thinking of a plugin? I am hehe shouldnt be too diff But the requirements to allow the user to auto nest collections must be prevented. That would be a killer for it. 
 

if the user enabled the core config option i would disable the plugin. 

Edited November 3, 2022 by Cheesegeezer

[sydlexius 244]

4 minutes ago, Cheesegeezer said:

True true as are happening alot with the auto collection plugin now because its lib scan trigger happy. 
 

you thinking of a plugin? I am hehe shouldnt be too diff But the requirements to allow the user to auto nest collections must be prevented. That would be a killer for it. 

That might be cool, if support in Emby is ever added (personally, I would like it but I understand that it shouldn't be high priority).  Right now I get by with the Smart Playlist 2.0 plugin to dynamically create certain collections...I wonder if @ShaneP would be willing to extend the capabilities of his plugin if nested collections become possible? (Having subgenres nested under broader genres would be cool, for example!).

[Cheesegeezer 3089]

2 minutes ago, sydlexius said:

That might be cool, if support in Emby is ever added (personally, I would like it but I understand that it shouldn't be high priority).  Right now I get by with the Smart Playlist 2.0 plugin to dynamically create certain collections...I wonder if @ShaneP would be willing to extend the capabilities of his plugin if nested collections become possible? (Having subgenres nested under broader genres would be cool, for example!).

hope so, there is no point in reinventing the wheel if he's done the majority of the ground work and testing.  

Give him a shout. and i'm happy to help if he needs any at all.

[rbjtech 4310]

Nested collections are possible today - I have a few myself.

You used to be able to do it via the API, but I think support for that was pulled so my method involves a dB hack - not something which I imagine the Dev's would like in a plugin ... 

[Luke 37174]

Just allowing them is the easy part. The harder part are the cases I mentioned above.

[Cheesegeezer 3089]

4 minutes ago, Luke said:

Just allowing them is the easy part. The harder part are the cases I mentioned above.

Without attempting it… i can imagine already think of all the what if scenarios, but you have way more control than i do in terms of the core management for this. I would simply not allow for the user to enable auto create collections if they want a tier system. But give them the option to do one ot the other. Job jobbed lol  

Edited November 3, 2022 by Cheesegeezer

[rbjtech 4310]

9 minutes ago, Cheesegeezer said:

Without attempting it… i can imagine already think of all the what if scenarios, but you have way more control than i do in terms of the core management for this. I would simply not allow for the user to enable auto create collections if they want a tier system. But give them the option to do one ot the other. Job jobbed lol  

I have auto create and tiered - it not an issue - the issue is you can't currently 'hide' collections - so I have the infinity saga (MCU) split into the 3 phases (3 collections) and then a top level collection containing the 3 phases.

Issue is, on the collections list - you see all 4 - which sort of defeats the object.

(which reminds me - I must create a Multiverse Saga (phase 4,5 & 6) as well ... )

Edited November 3, 2022 by rbjtech

[Javaandy 0]

+1, Nested collection would be great. However, from a different thread, I understood that "Virtual Folders" are a relict and not much other than libraries.

I might go too big here… let's say I'm just thinking loud.

Use Case: I want to find a way to segment my library with 2k+ movies. The goal is to have a predefined filtered view on my library with an x-level drill-down capability and a permission setting.

Based on my permissions, I can see on the first level a structure telling me "Cartoons," "TV-Shows," and "Kids' Movies." I chose TV-Shows, and next will be presented with the categories "Musical," "Funny," "With Mickey Mouse," "In the Jungle," and "Ice and Snow."

The decision today goes to "Ice and Snow." From there, I could continue filtering using Genres and Tags to narrow my movie search.

A "Virtual Folders" on steroids could do the job. For example, the "Next Virtual Folder" would have a Collection, Genre, and Tags filter combined with a User Filter. 

[GrimReaper 3324]

6 minutes ago, Javaandy said:

Use Case: I want to find a way to segment my library with 2k+ movies. The goal is to have a predefined filtered view on my library with an x-level drill-down capability and a permission setting.

Based on my permissions, I can see on the first level a structure telling me "Cartoons," "TV-Shows," and "Kids' Movies." I chose TV-Shows, and next will be presented with the categories "Musical," "Funny," "With Mickey Mouse," "In the Jungle," and "Ice and Snow."

The decision today goes to "Ice and Snow." From there, I could continue filtering using Genres and Tags to narrow my movie search

What you're describing is already achievable today with proper folder management at the OS level and appropriate library paths. 

[Javaandy 0]

Exactly. It's accessible by manually moving files and proper folder management. But I build a lot of logic into metadata and I would love to do it inside Emby without the requirement on the file system.

In case the API would allow me to create folders and nested structures and move content, I could achieve the same thing. 

But I think Emby is looking for a differentiator feature

[Javaandy 0]

Exactly. It's accessible by manually moving files and proper folder management. But I build a lot of logic into metadata and I would love to do it inside Emby without the requirement on the file system.

In case the API would allow me to create folders and nested structures and move content, I could achieve the same thing. 

But I think Emby is looking for a differentiator feature

"Your car has a turbo mode, but every time you want to use it, you have to push the button in the trunk"

[laie_techie 12]

Bumping for visibility.