Weird filter behaviour

Get answers about the current version of MediaMonkey 5

Moderator: Gurus

rabelux
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed May 18, 2016 11:15 am

Weird filter behaviour

Post by rabelux »

Problem: The filter doesn't yield expected results.
Background: I've a mess of mostly duplicate files on a network drive and want to delete all duplicates in a specific root folder.
Description:
Being in Music->Files to edit->Duplicate Content I have 1960 files. One pair for example is
  • \\NANOPI\Schatzkammer\4 Musik\2_Pa Musik Mai 21\Music\Peter Gabriel\Scratch My Back ~Special Edition~ [Disc 2]\2-01 The Book of Love (Remix).m4a
  • \\NANOPI\Schatzkammer\4 Musik\2_Pa Musik Mai 21\2_Paps\Peter Gabriel\Scratch My Back ~Special Edition~ [Disc\2-01 The Book of Love (Remix).m4a
I'd like to delete all duplicates stored in the "2_Paps" folder. Therefore I use the filter

Code: Select all

match All; path contains "2_Paps"
and I don't get any results whereas I'm expecting ~900. If I filter for "music" I'd expect the same amount but only get 22 results. Filtering for "2_Pa" returns 1960 results, same goes for "Musik". What's going on here? Thanks in advance.
Setup:Win 10 Pro 2004, MediaMonkey 5.0.1.2433
Lowlander
Posts: 56465
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Weird filter behaviour

Post by Lowlander »

It filters on the Criteria but where the filter still has duplicates. So it excludes all those duplicates that don't have 2 copies or more matching the filter.
Barry4679
Posts: 2398
Joined: Fri Sep 11, 2009 8:07 am
Location: Australia
Contact:

Re: Weird filter behaviour

Post by Barry4679 »

Lowlander wrote: Tue Sep 07, 2021 4:52 pm It filters on the Criteria but where the filter still has duplicates. So it excludes all those duplicates that don't have 2 copies or more matching the filter.
I don't understand this response.
If the panel is filtered to duplicates, and then I then filter the lines in that that result, my filtered response is not reparsed by the 1st filter.

ie. if the main window is showing just duplicates, I should be able to filter that list to just show specific values within the panel, without MM5 reapplying the duplicates restriction.

Maybe your response is about some DuplicateContent node behaviour that I have never seen?
rabelux wrote: Tue Sep 07, 2021 4:45 pm
I'd like to delete all duplicates stored in the "2_Paps" folder. Therefore I use the filter

Code: Select all

match All; path contains "2_Paps"
and I don't get any results whereas I'm expecting ~900. If I filter for "music" I'd expect the same amount but only get 22 results. Filtering for "2_Pa" returns 1960 results, same goes for "Musik". What's going on here? Thanks in advance.
Setup:Win 10 Pro 2004, MediaMonkey 5.0.1.2433
What happens if you lose the double quotes?
I think that the MM5 double quotes filter syntax is broken, especially when special characters are involved ... and I think that is for phases, and you are effectively entering just a single "word".
Even so I see some double quote search behaviour that I didn't expect, and cannot explain.

I see that you are using the Advanced Search facility (ie. the funnel).
Do you know that MM5 has a new Contextual Search facility? ... ie. an on-the-fly filter or search, confined to the context of the current display

Try going back to your DuplicateContent node
  • make sure focus is in the main panel
  • then type 2_Paps
  • that should open a (hidden) contextual filter control ... is effectively an ALL TEXT search for 2_paps
  • you could refine the search by typing the following
  • path:2_paps
Want a dark skin for MM5? This is the one that works best for me .. elegant, compact & clear.
rabelux
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed May 18, 2016 11:15 am

Re: Weird filter behaviour

Post by rabelux »

Thanks Barry!!

I did not know of the contextual search feature and it does exactly what I expected the filter to do.
Job done!
Entering the feedback section:
I'm still a little bit confused about the filter and its purpose. Could somebody elaborate?
From my perspective the filter doesn't behave as I expect it to but rather some hidden feature (that I can't find to be advertised or explained on the homepage, in the faqs, kb, ...) is the better choice.
Is there some welcome guide explaining the new/best features? I've been using MM4 for almost 10 years and loved it. MM5 feels a little bit strange so far and not as intuitive as MM4.
The "advanced search" searches the whole database and not just the section that has been selected, right?

Edit: I found the wiki! May I suggest to either move it to the top navigation bar or put a link somewhere on the main page pointing to the wiki? Something like "upgraders from MM4 look here". There is a big list of all the features MM has and that I know of (that's why I love it) but I felt a little bit lost after upgrading.
Barry4679
Posts: 2398
Joined: Fri Sep 11, 2009 8:07 am
Location: Australia
Contact:

Re: Weird filter behaviour

Post by Barry4679 »

rabelux wrote: Sat Sep 11, 2021 4:55 am The "advanced search" searches the whole database and not just the section that has been selected, right?

Edit: I found the wiki! May I suggest to either move it to the top navigation bar or put a link somewhere on the main page pointing to the wiki? Something like "upgraders from MM4 look here". There is a big list of all the features MM has and that I know of (that's why I love it) but I felt a little bit lost after upgrading.
I think you would be well excused if you were a lot lost after upgrading.

"the Wiki" ... you mean this?
That is the online help.
You can access it via the MM5 Help menu.
And it is nicely linked to many of action panels, like this. You get a direct link to the relevant Help page via the Help icon at the top of the page, or by pressing the F1 key while the panel is open.

IMO it is mostly deficient in explaining the design intent, so it can be hard to get to grip with how things are supposed to work.
Often it quickly gets bogged down in details, and you are left with more questions than answers.
The page covering the Search functions, that I linked to at the top, is an example of this.
MM5 search and filtering is quite powerful, but is also complex.
That page does a spectacularly poor job of explaining it all IMO.

"Advanced search" is global whole database search, as you guessed,
But I think that "advanced" refers to the fact that it is front-ended with a wizard to help you construct the search criteria.
You can get to it various ways, but via the funnel icon is most direct route.

The looking glass is also a global whole database search. It doesn't have a wizard, but if you hover over the search control that the looking glass opens, you will see that there is search syntax allowing you to create more targeted searches.

Contextual search is constrained to the Collection that you currently have open.
It has no icon to open its search bar, which interferes with discoverability at first, but that is a convenience feature later on. ie. it consumes no space in the toolbar, and as long as focus is in the main panel, it is always listening. You activate it by just typing something.

There are a bunch of quirks in how search works, and how your search criteria is interpreted, but these are not documented anywhere.

I dissed the online help above. I think that is earned in some respects, but it is a lot better than we had before. I think that it required a lot of work to get to the current stage, and IMO MM5's design has many little quirks that make good clear simple help an almost impossible task.
Want a dark skin for MM5? This is the one that works best for me .. elegant, compact & clear.
Post Reply