[Bond246]

Hi,

i have some really different collections of songs. Some of them where numbered with leading 0 numbers some of them not.

Windows would sort numbers with and without leading 0 "correct" which would look like this:

Code:

001
002
3
10
22
31
105

But in MobileSheets the same list would look like this:

Code:

001
002
10
105
22
3
31

Would it be possible to improve the sorting of songs like windows does?
I know it would be much better to have a better file-naming. But it is hard to rename 2000-3000 songs ;-)

Best regards,
Bond

[Zubersoft]

I already have a sorting mode like that for the Songs tab (tap the sort option at the top and switch to "Numerically").  In theory, I could use this sorting algorithm as the default for alphabetic sorting which would handle both, but it's a slower sorting algorithm, so it would provide worse performance than the standard A-Z sorting. There are scenarios where this may matter, especially if the number of songs grows beyond 10000. So I would prefer to just add the numerical sorting option as an option for sorting groups (as I'm assuming that's what you need).

Mike

[itsme]

@Bond246: please consider making your number scheme consistent.
@Mike: I really don't like that windows sorting scheme and switch it off all the time

[Geoff Bacon]

@Bond246

When naming files it is nearly always best to use a format so that they can be sorted alphabetically e.g. for dates using yyyy-mm-dd rather than dd-mm-yyyy.

It sounds as though your files have a number at the start followed by some text. Your best bet is to rename the files so that the numbers are all the same length (i.e. prefix small numbers with the required number of '0' characters). There are "tools" on the web that will do batch renaming but how easy it is may be dependent on the remaining text in the filename.

I suggest you copy all the files into a directory on your main pc and experiment renaming them into your desired order.
When happy,  recreate your MSP library with the renamed files. 
Obviously, this won't be ideal if your existing library contains lots of metadata which would need to be reentered.

Another possibility is that you use SQL operations to rename the Title entries in the MSP library (leaving the actual file name unchanged). This is beyond my knowledge (make sure you backup the MSP database before attempting to change it!). One disadvantage of this is that there is a mismatch between the MSP name and the physical filename and this may make updating files difficult (use the Swap feature in the companion?). Sciurius  has some SQL tools - perhaps one of those can be modified to do what you want.

Whichever way you choose sounds a lot of work!

Geoff

[itsme]

I would use the batch rename feature of Total Commander to rename the files https://www.ghisler.com/ddownload.htm
and Sciurius' MSPro-Tools to adapt the database https://github.com/sciurius/MSPro-Tools
Check with MSP's "find missing files" if everything's OK

[Bond246]

Hi,

all of you are absolutely correct! The best would be to rename all files where all files have the same number-length.

In our choir a man beside 80 years old unsalaried generates our music an filenames. I'm the only one using MobileSheets.
So in my case i should rename the files for me which would be fine. But within some months i replace all the files because i don't know which part of all the files the man changed during this time.

So in this case i would need to rename again all files...
Or in my case it would be better to have a number based sorting option.

The numerical sorting option in song-list tab as an option in all other tabs would be fine. 

Thanks for your help. 
I definitly will look into it changing filenames with total commands batch options.

Bond

[McConnor]

Thanks at first again for this great app that has made the musicians life so much easier!

I would like to chime in with the request to do sorting (as it already is) with the possibility to do ascending and descending sorting. I have e.g. my setlists named like "2019-12-24 Churchservice Christmas" or 2020-01-29 Special Event" and ever in the lists (e.g. when you add new songs) the most new setlist is down at the bottem. As the setlists are bound to get more I need to scroll all the way down to the bottom to e.g. add songs to the recent setlist...

Can there be a "per menu" switch for ascending oder descending order that will be remembered?

[Geoff Bacon]

I've previously suggested this to others:

When creating a setlist, put a leading space at the beginning of the name; this displays the list at the top of the page (when the lists are sorted alphabetically)
After the event, remove the leading space so that it sorts as at present.

I notice you have the date at the front; I put the name of the venue/event there with the date at the end. This means that each venue is sorted together (in your method, multiple venues will all be intermixed because you are effectively only sorting on the date)

Hope this helps
Geoff

[Zubersoft]

McConner - Tap the "Sort: A-Z" option at the top of the screen and you will see a checkbox for "Ascending". Just uncheck that if you want descending sort order.

Mike

[McConnor]

McConner - Tap the "Sort: A-Z" option at the top of the screen and you will see a checkbox for "Ascending". Just uncheck that if you want descending sort order.

Mike

This works great for the setlists - didnt see this before. Thanks! But if you were to edit or add a song and in the song properties want to add the song to a setlist this list will be sorted ascending with no possibility to change that... Or is there some hidden button somewhere?

[Zubersoft]

Are you talking about the list that is shown if you tap the Setlists dropdown on the fields tab of the song editor? Yes, that list is always shown in ascending order. Wouldn't it just be faster to type in the setlist name though if you know what you are looking for? The dropdown is a slower approach to selecting setlists from the fields tab - I only provide is as an alternative for users that prefer that over typing the values in.

[McConnor]

Yes - I have been using the dopdown mostly (also good if you were to add a song to multiple setlists) - I imagined that ideally I would tap the dropdown, have the most recent setlists on top (which in my case is dependant on the naming), have one more tap and then the thing is set. I could enter "2020" to have the say recent setlists on top but as the year goes on there would still be a long list to go through or I need to tap in most of the name which is not nearly as fast.

Perhaps the dropdown field could obey the actual chosen settings for the "Setlist"-tab or have a checkbox for "recent"?

[Geoff Bacon]

If you use my approach, the setlist you are changing should be at the top of the dropdown  (but I could be wrong!)

Geoff

[McConnor]

If you use my approach, the setlist you are changing should be at the top of the dropdown  (but I could be wrong!)

Geoff

Thanks for the suggestion - normally I refrain from renaming (perhaps multiple times) files oder anything for that matter for searchability but in this case that might be the only solution to the problem. The rest of the recent setlists will still be buried way down the line....

I will give it a shot until there is another solution

[Zubersoft]

I'll write up a feature request to add sorting options to the dialog shown after tapping the dropdown. I don't know exactly when I will work this though as I'm trying to get the annotations redesign finished.

Mike