Import sort table only from LMS

[MDE]

As a short-term fix to the reliance of Muso on the LMS sort tags, is it possible to have an option to only import the sort table from LMS, without updating all the other tags? This would mean that it would no longer be necessary to run Custom Scan to get the custom tags (which seems to seriously degrade server performance and take a long time) - instead one could just import the custom tags directly from the music files (while this is not as quick as an LMS import, it does not interfere with the music server).

[musoware]

I'm implementing reading sort tags from a folder scan, it will be in the next version.

But yes it's possible to only read sort tags from LMS. Actually there is a fudge to do it now:
- invoke a Full Import from LMS
- Once it reaches the "Scanning..." stage you should see there's a Stop link next to the status bar message. Click that.

Because it imports the sorting info first, you should find that it should be there even if the aborted import affected no tracks, and will be saved on exit. The only problem may be that if your aborted "Scanning" stage does apply some track changes before the abort, you may have to Apply those before the imported sort info is also saved.

[MDE]

But yes it's possible to only read sort tags from LMS. Actually there is a fudge to do it now:
- invoke a Full Import from LMS
- Once it reaches the "Scanning..." stage you should see there's a Stop link next to the status bar message. Click that.

Because it imports the sorting info first, you should find that it should be there even if the aborted import affected no tracks, and will be saved on exit. The only problem may be that if your aborted "Scanning" stage does apply some track changes before the abort, you may have to Apply those before the imported sort info is also saved.

My, you have to be quick on the draw! But no matter, if direct reading of tags is coming.
BTW, I assume when you say you are implementing "reading sort tags from a folder scan", what will happen is that Muso will read a tag with "SORT" appended to the contributor tag name that is normally read - e.g. ARTISTSORT will go with ARTIST. Will this also work with import actions? E.g. I read MAINPERFORMER into the Artist field in order not to have the names of bands/composers I have used to "fill" ARTIST when it would otherwise be blank (so that LMS does not display "No Artist"). I assume that Muso would then read MAINPERFORMERSORT to match to it. Also, I assume it will deal with multiple artists etc in the same way as LMS: I split all multiples into separate fields so that each has its own matching sort tag; so there could be several instances of PERFORMER, say, with several PERFORMERSORT tags.

[musoware]

My, you have to be quick on the draw! But no matter, if direct reading of tags is coming.
BTW, I assume when you say you are implementing "reading sort tags from a folder scan", what will happen is that Muso will read a tag with "SORT" appended to the contributor tag name that is normally read - e.g. ARTISTSORT will go with ARTIST. Will this also work with import actions? E.g. I read MAINPERFORMER into the Artist field in order not to have the names of bands/composers I have used to "fill" ARTIST when it would otherwise be blank (so that LMS does not display "No Artist"). I assume that Muso would then read MAINPERFORMERSORT to match to it. Also, I assume it will deal with multiple artists etc in the same way as LMS: I split all multiples into separate fields so that each has its own matching sort tag; so there could be several instances of PERFORMER, say, with several PERFORMERSORT tags.

I hadn't quite got that far yet! But will consider these issues in the implementation.

[musoware]

This is what I was thinking of:

So no it won't automatically refer to your import actions, but you can configure whatever sort tag you want to associate with each artistic role field.

It will handle multiple only if the number of entries (in Artist and ArtistSort, for example) match.

[MDE]

I wondered if you might do it that way. If anything it's better as it does not presuppose the tag names. It is up to the user to make sure that the number of sort tags matches the number of main tags. My MP3tag action is designed to do it automatically.