Tag Behavior: Folder vs Collections

[NDF1978 7]

I have a situation where I need to provide a user with a small subset of movies which changes on a regular basis. I can do this using the Only allow with Tag feature.  This functions logically on the movie level, and also if a folder is tagged, all the movies in the folder inherit the tagging.

However, in a collection, the same behavior does not seem to work. if I tag a collection it is visible, but the movies it contains are not visible or playable until they are tagged individually. Because thsi is different behavior from the folders i am wondering if this is a bug or planned behavior?

I would like to use this feature in the collection because it would be a very quick and simple way to grant a user access to a subset of movies without moving them into a folder on the filesystem. the Option add Tags at the same level as adding to a collection would also work for me.

Any advice or other ideas?

[Luke 42081]

Hi, tagging the collection won't influence the visibility of the movies, no. Actually it's the other way around, where having access to at least one of the movies is what grants a user access to the collection.

[NDF1978 7]

So you are saying that there is an intentional difference between folder and collection behavior when tagged at the top level.  

Is there any way to change this behavior to allow recursive tagging in a collection? or are there any other meta data groupings based on tagging that would help me do what i need to?

[ebr 16185]

12 minutes ago, NDF1978 said:

So you are saying that there is an intentional difference between folder and collection behavior when tagged at the top level. 

Yes, because collections are virtual groupings based on data instead of a physical grouping like a folder.  The same item can exist in multiple collections, but not multiple folders.

Therefore, the visibility of the collection must be derived from the visibility of its contents instead of the other way around.

[NDF1978 7]

If I remove all blocking based on tags, then assign the user access  to the collection from the Library Access selection list. How come that does not give them access to the movies it contains? (if I add the Movie Library which  contains the movies in the collection as well, then collection is populated)  Is this also the expected behavior or am i missing something?

[Luke 42081]

6 hours ago, NDF1978 said:

If I remove all blocking based on tags, then assign the user access  to the collection from the Library Access selection list. How come that does not give them access to the movies it contains? (if I add the Movie Library which  contains the movies in the collection as well, then collection is populated)  Is this also the expected behavior or am i missing something?

Sorry I'm not totally following. Can you please show screenshot examples? Thanks.

[NDF1978 7]

This configuration allows access to all movies.

This config allows access to movies and collections

So why doesn't this configuration give access to the movies in the collection?

[ebr 16185]

Hi.  Again, the collections are virtual groupings and access is derived from the access to their contents.

The item you deselected in the settings only governs the visibility of the "Collections" library on your home screen.  It does not block all access to collections.

[NDF1978 7]

Ok - thanks for your help.  I am still looking for a simple way to provide a subset of media to a users using metadata rather than file location. Any ideas beyond the tagging option?

 

[ebr 16185]

IMO the best way to achieve this is with file location and using our path access support so each person sees the same library but with different contents.  However, if things are changing all the time this may not be good for you.

You can still use the tagging - but on individual items instead of collections.

[NDF1978 7]

This is the conclusion i have come to as well because the content is fairly dynamic. Is there anyway to get "Add Tag" option to appear in the "More" list along with add to collection or add to playlist?

[GrimReaper 4742]

Don't know if it would work in your case (with different grant/deny folder access combinations) but SmartPlaylists plugin might be another direction to go (if it still works, tho, as reported by @cayars relatively recently - Nov 25, 2020 - it was working for 4.6.0.6 beta), you've got plenty criteria to set it up and it would update automatically upon Library change. Playlist access is given from same tree as Collections/Folders. At least it would spare you of adding/removing tags constantly. 

 

Edited January 22, 2021 by GrimReaper76
Link

[NDF1978 7]

thanks for the tip i will check it out.

[GrimReaper 4742]

Just now, NDF1978 said:

This is the conclusion i have come to as well because the content is fairly dynamic. Is there anyway to get "Add Tag" option to appear in the "More" list along with add to collection or add to playlist?

Or we could have "Add..." as top-level, which would further expand to 

-> To Collection

-> To Playlist

-> Tag

? 

[Carlo 4561]

7 minutes ago, NDF1978 said:

thanks for the tip i will check it out.

Right now we are more or less guessing on ways to help you by answering specific questions about Folder access and tagging which are both ways to handle this.

But maybe if you describe you situation a bit more and we understand your needs we can help with a better solution.

On a personal note I'm wondering why you only want to give a subset of files to a user vs a complete Library?

[Luke 42081]

6 hours ago, NDF1978 said:

This configuration allows access to all movies.

This config allows access to movies and collections

So why doesn't this configuration give access to the movies in the collection?

This is expected. They need access to the media itself. For the next release we'll remove collections from library access as it really should never have been there. I think that will make it more clear.

[NDF1978 7]

It seems the playlists behave in a similar way to collections in that the user needs access to the media via the library so the smartplaylist does not provide the restriction feature i am looking for.

How difficult is it to add a playlist or collection option to the parental restriction tab that would function in a similar way to the tag restriction but be more user friendly for a parent who wants to provide a subset of media. Right Click add to collection would be a much better user experience than free hand meta data editing with Tags. 

Alternatively as GrimReaper suggested a top level tagging, possibly with a dropdown of preexisting tags, would provide this feature leveraging the existing architecture.

I have to say i am very impressed with emby in general and the responsive community, I just have this particular use case where I want to provide a smaller subset of my media for my kids to choose from., that  spans the parental ratings.  Tagging allows me to do it, just with more clicks that it needs.... 

Thanks for all the input!

[Carlo 4561]

In the present release both Playlists and Collections are based on XML files written to the file system.  In the next BETA collections will be database driven vs text based which ads more flexibility for them in future versions. It's far easier to have permissions on database objects!