Desired option of "Advanced search".

[RobbH]

Thank you very much for your very detailed answer on how "library views" work. It is indeed an interesting approach. However, due to the semi-permanent nature of the views, it seems to me that it is better suited to certain discographies (performer or particular work) or in-depth research.
Additional question: Are these views automatically updated during a general scan or do I have to start over to update them?

You may be entirely correct about the best use for library views. This may be a quirk in the translation software you use, but I would describe the library views as persistent, but not at in any way permanent. Library views are updated correctly during a rescan. But they can be easily deleted. You are given the option of deleting a library view when you select it. Deleting the library view simply removes the definition of that library view. It does not remove any files from your library.

[mherger]

> Do you know what are the elements and what is the structure of the "Full
> text index" created during the scan?

Basically all metadata found in your music files, incl. file names,
folder paths etc. is being indexed. How much detail do you want to have?

[severac66]

> Do you know what are the elements and what is the structure of the "Full
> text index" created during the scan?

Basically all metadata found in your music files, incl. file names,
folder paths etc. is being indexed. How much detail do you want to have?

I am just trying to figure out how the "Full text search" works, especially in relation to the words used in the path.
I think it looks for the string entered rather than the words used, so you get different results if you type "John Smith" or "Smith John".
Is the list of fields proposed in "Advanced search" exhaustive? Are these the only items in the index?

[slartibartfast]

I am just trying to figure out how the "Full text search" works, especially in relation to the words used in the path.
I think it looks for the string entered rather than the words used, so you get different results if you type "John Smith" or "Smith John".
Is the list of fields proposed in "Advanced search" exhaustive? Are these the only items in the index?

Have you tried just using the normal search instead of advanced search? I get the same results searching for "Pink Floyd" and "Floyd Pink".

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

[RobbH]

Have you tried just using the normal search instead of advanced search? I get the same results searching for "Pink Floyd" and "Floyd Pink".

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

My guess was that this would not work for the OP, since he wants to search in paths rather than tags. I thought it unlikely that standard search would match paths.

As often (maybe usually) happens, my guess was entirely wrong. The normal search does, in fact, find matches in paths when the term is not found in any tags.

[severac66]

"Full text search" and "Normal search" are I think identical. It is the default search. It takes into account a search on a string of characters contained in the path (tested with a file without tags).

[slartibartfast]

"Full text search" and "Normal search" are I think identical. It is the default search. It takes into account a search on a string of characters contained in the path (tested with a file without tags).

Does that give you the search results you want then? It should search for the words in any order.

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[RobbH]

severac66, you appear to know a lot about databases. Are you familiar with SQL commands? If so, you might be able to define library views that will do exactly what you want. I am not knowledgeable about this, so I hope others who know much more will give you some advice.

If you look near the bottom of the Information tab on the Server Settings page, you should be able to find the location of the Preferences folder on your LMS server. In that folder, you should find a file named virtualLibraries.prefs. That file contains the definitions of all your Library Views, including the SQL commands. This is only a guess, but I think the way to proceed would be as follows:

1. stop LMS
2. make a backup copy of the virtualLibraries.prefs file
3. edit the existing virtualLibraries.prefs file, either by adding another definition (being very careful to duplicate the format of existing definitions) or by editing one you have already created (this would be my choice).
4. restart LMS
5. I do not know if it would be necessary to rescan your library. I think not, but I could be wrong.

Let me repeat: I have not done this, so I cannot guarantee that it will work or that it will not cause other problems. I have seen posts in which knowledgeable users mention using their own SQL commands, and I think this is the way to do that. But I hope someone who knows something about this will comment. If that doesn't happen, you might consider asking about custom SQL commands in the LMS forum.

[mherger]

> "Full text search" and "Normal search" are I think identical. It is the
> default search. It takes into account a search on a string of characters
> contained in the path (tested with a file without tags).

Let's use "default search" rather than "normal search". If you disable
the FTS plugin, then that default search would search "normally", eg.
only respecting track titles, but not contributors. But yes, if you
enter a key word in the normal search, it would use FTS if that plugin
was enabled.

The FTS categorizes all kinds of metadata into priority groups. Eg. the
title would have highest priority, its main artist second hights, file
type lowest etc. When searching in the FTS index the plugin would weigh
the findings according to these priority groups, and order the results
accordingly. This should give a trac with "MP3" in the title a much
higher rank than all those thousands of other mp3 files you have in your
collection.