Data driven categories

[frlindla]

Hello
I want to make a datadriven category to organize my Music Collection: Music, Artist, album, songs. Music is parent category and the rest are children categories. My problem is that the Properties panel is not visible and I can`t find it. Can you help?

[Mario]

Probably you just have minimized the property panel. Click on the Properties tab at the bottom, below the category tree in the Category View (not in the Category Panel!).



Tip: IMatch has a set of default categories which already group files by Artist and Album (under "IMatch Standard Categories | MP3 Files").

[frlindla]

I found the Properties panel. Thank you.

I have seen the default category for mp3-files. But my Music files are M4A-files. Perhaps a stupid question, but I Guess I can`t use the default category for mp3-files?

[Mario]

These data-driven categories are based on ID3 metadata.
If your files have ID3 metadata, the categories will work. Else just create your own data-driven categories, based on whatever metadata your files contain.

[frlindla]

I tried to create my own hierarchical category structure for Music files.  But when I try to preview, it uses all my files (both photos and Music), not just my Music files. What can be wrong? My Music category is under @All-category. I want the children categories to be artist, album, songs.

[jch2103]

Try using a Category Filter in your data-driven category properties. See the Help for more details and hints.

[Mario]

Data-driven categories by default work on all files in the database.

See Filtering for information about how to work only on specific files. IMatch gives you many options for this.

[frlindla]

Ok. I don`t see how I get all the artist on Level 1 and albums on Level 2. Level 1 is based on tag artist and Level 2 is based on tag album.

If you see my attachments it seems like Level 2 has 4010 songs. But Level 1 should show the artists?

Imatch has a standard category for mp3-files, and as an altenative I can use that. I have tried to assign files, but there are 0 files there. Why?

[frlindla]

Here is the second attachment..

[hluxem]

Hello,
I think it's best to attach a snapshot of the definition for the data driven category. I think what you are seeing is that all files are in the "other" category, meaning whatever tag you use is empty or not valid. It helps me when I start with one level, once that shows what I want I add the next level. 

Heiner

[Mario]

1, Show us how you have defined your categories.
The screen shots above only tell us that the tag you have used has no values (hence all files go into "other")

2. Use the Metadata Panel with the "Browser" layout to determine if the tag you want to use has actual content for your files.
This layout shows all the data IMatch has imported for your files.

As I said, M4A files usually don't have ID3 metadata and hence you need to find out if and which tags are filled for your files.

[frlindla]

Ok. I have 3 attachments. Here you can see which what kind of metadata that Imatch has imported for my Music files and how I have defined my categories.

[Mario]

These tags refer to ID3 metadata. This data is usually only found in MP3 files.
You need to figure out which tags contain the data for your file format, and then use these tags. I've mentioned that above in my post (Metadata Panel, Browser layout...)

[jch2103]

@frlindla -

You may want to use the ExifTool Command Processor to help ID what tags may be useful to you. If you don't have 'List metadata' in your existing ECP presets, this is what you'd want to use:

-G1
-all
-a
-charset
filename=UTF8
{Files}

[PaulS]

For the m4A files that I have, following are the metadata tags:

{File.MD.QuickTime::ItemList\\xa9ART\Artist\0}
{File.MD.QuickTime::ItemList\\xa9alb\Album\0}
{File.MD.QuickTime::ItemList\\xa9nam\Title\0}

You probably want to use just the first two for your data-driven category.

[frlindla]

Thank you all for Your help! I will try to find out:)

[frlindla]

I made it:) Thank you!!!

Is there a way to import the album covers?

[frlindla]

I also Wonder what kind of categories you have? Just qurious if you have good suggestions:)

[Mario]

IMatch automatically imports album art from MP3 files.
IMatch can also produce thumbnails and animated previews for most video formats via FFMpeg.
If FFMpeg cannot extract thumbnails from your files, there are encoded wrong or in a unusual format. I recommend using specialized software to reprocess your files and make them compatible.

I have no idea about if and how M4A files store album art or covers. Probably there are software patents involved, too.