Newbie question on Folder & Filename Browsing

[brummy21]

I am migrating to Asset from Squeezebox/Logitech Media Server, with servers installed on a Linux Debian 9 box.

My music is stored in a /storage/music/flac folder and within that folder I have sub folders for different categories, e.g., Classical, Jazz, Rock, etc. On the Logitech system the UPnP clients see a menu option called Music Folder and when that is selected the contents of the /storage/music/flac folder are shown, so I immediately see the Classical, Jazz, Rock, etc sub folders.

I have pointed Asset at /storage/music/flac as being the music folder to monitor, and have added Folder & Filename Browsing to my main Asset menu (I have set a rename so it is shown in the menu as "Music Folder"). When I select Music Folder in Asset, instead of seeing the contents of the /././flac folder, I just see the folder itself and I have to select the folder again to see my music category folders (Classical, Jazz, Rock, etc).

How can I configure Asset to show me the contents of my music folder without having to first select the "flac" folder itself?

[Spoon]

Re: Newbie question on Folder & Filename Browsing

See:

https://www.dbpoweramp.com/Help/AssetUPnP/advanced.html

Under the browse tree section, about auto decends into a path.

[brummy21]

Re: Newbie question on Folder & Filename Browsing

Hi, thanks for the quick response.

I've looked at https://www.dbpoweramp.com/Help/AssetUPnP/advanced.html but it only seems to provide config info for the Windows version. As I have Asset installed on Debian Linux, I have the web config screen and I can't see any reference to auto descend. How do I configure auto descend in the Linux version? Just to be clear, when I select "Music Folder" in the main tree, I want to see my list of sub folders, not just an icon for the "flac" folder itself. So I guess I do want it to auto drop one level in the tree but I don't know how to configure this in the Linux version.

Thanks.

[brummy21]

Re: Newbie question on Folder & Filename Browsing

The link above is for the Windows version and the screens to configure the Linux version are completely different (being web based). The help for the Linux version (https://www.dbpoweramp.com/asset-upnp-linuxmanual.htm) does not seem to mention auto descend. What I don't understand is that if I have set /storage/music/flac as my watched media folder, then when I select Folder and Filename Browsing, I would expect to see the contents of the /storage/music/flac folder, but what I get is the content of /storage/music, one level above my media folder.

If I could get info on how to configure auto descend in the Linux version then I could give it a try.

Thanks.

[Spoon]

Re: Newbie question on Folder & Filename Browsing

It is just the text name you apply to the entry which instructs asset to descend into the tree, it is the same on linux.

[brummy21]

Re: Newbie question on Folder & Filename Browsing

I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I still don't understand.

Here is the top part of my 'raw' browse tree from the configuration screen:

Folders & Filename Browsing
Playlists
Artist{_a_to_z_}{_no_track_list_}
Artist\Album
Album{_a_to_z_}
Album\root
Genre{_no_track_list_}
Genre\root
Dynamic Browsing
Dynamic Browsing\Artist{_a_to_z_}
Dynamic Browsing\Composer{_a_to_z_}
Dynamic Browsing\Genre

So could you please say what text do I need to put, and where to make Folder & Filename Browsing auto descend one level down into the 'flac' folder?

Thanks.

[Spoon]

Re: Newbie question on Folder & Filename Browsing

Test[HASH][HASH]Dynamic Browsing&+&Genre&+&Pop

Try adding this to the tree (replace [hash] with the real hash symbol).

[brummy21]

Re: Newbie question on Folder & Filename Browsing

It seems to me that templates of the form 'Test[HASH][HASH]Dynamic Browsing&+&Genre&+&Pop' relate to searching and sorting the music library, rather than hierarchical folder and filename browsing, as this kind of template produces a specifically filtered view of the music library. Whilst it would be possible to specify, e.g., the genre "Classical" in a search/filter function, my library is now so large and diverse that my "Classical" sub folder contains albums with a great many genre variations and so it is virtually impossible to capture all the relevant genres so I could browse all my classical albums together (by composer, which is how I want to see them).

I think it's just odd that selecting Folders & Filenames Browsing goes to a place in the directory structure that is different from the folder specified as the default watched media folder. The start point for browsing should surely be to display the contents of the watched media folder and not a folder higher up in the directory tree.

In my case, as a workaround to the odd behavior of the Folders & Filenames Browsing option, I had to list all my category sub-folders within my main music library folder as separate watched media folders. This gives me a sensible grouped view of my category folders that I can browse properly, but specifying multiple parts of my music library separately breaks other view options in the default Asset menu. For instance, I now click on Genre in the main Asset menu and the genre choices presented now all show "No results". That all worked properly before when I specified the watched media folder to be the single root folder of my entire music library.

May I suggest a future enhancement to Asset such that if the default Folders & Filename Browsing option continues to go to an odd place, then there could be an option in the configuration allowing a different target location to be set for a browsing start point. Other systems allow browsing "Start in (folder)" to be configured as required.

[Spoon]

Re: Newbie question on Folder & Filename Browsing

It does not show the contents automatically as some people have different paths added and the first folder is needed to show where they are. But you are right if there is only 1 folder added we could go into it, I will add as a note to do.