The database structure is important in regards to the flexibility of how you can display information from it.
The display pages are built based on what the query of the database returns.
And the Query is limited by the structure of that database.
That is why most databases have multiple tables of data and use IDs from those tables to populate columns of the other tables.
An Example (and note I’m not 100% sure what the structure of the Plex DB is just what the display and methods used to create a display suggest)
To display Movies the Query looks for all entries in the Movies Table and displays an icon (noted in the DB) for each.
To filter by collection it queries the same table but only displays a list of unique data found in the Collection column. OR Plex has already created a Table for Collections (quite possible) and it simply queries this table. Once a Collection is selected it then Queries the Movie Table for movies that fit that collection ID.
In either case Plex already does seem to be able to fold Collections into a single click display as the Filters do that now. So perhaps a DB structure change isn’t needed.
What might be needed is to add movies that have no collection data to whatever table they query to get Collection Filters (either by creating a Null Collection ID or by creating a collection ID based on Title) so you can use the same Query currently used to filter Collections on the main Movie Display.
Then all movies will be displayed but in the case of Collections only one icon will display for each collection. (Similar to how only one link displays when you filter for them)
Where it gets complicated is the linkage because when clicking instead of going to a movie page you go to the same linkage the Filter page goes to instead.
Which is why I say a change to the collections table is the way to do this…
Just started using Plex and would really like this feature. I would want to group my Star Trek and Star Wars films under one Poster in the main viewer. Has there been any official dev response in this thread? Thank you!
@maktubninja@gmail.com said:
Just started using Plex and would really like this feature. I would want to group my Star Trek and Star Wars films under one Poster in the main viewer. Has there been any official dev response in this thread? Thank you!
I would like to see movie list as is but with series displayed in the list as if a collection/set.
This would reduce the clutter, f.ex. the ton of “Barbie” Movies (I have a-lot of movies for kids).
I would also like to see added feature of allowing “home videos”/unreckognized videos to be in the same collection/list as other movies, as lot of the documentaries/short films I have are being ignored by plex, resulting in a dreadful documentary library.
Supposedly it’s on the Development Team’s radar already, but as long as we’ve been waiting for this and a slew of other requests, it does look dismal.
Too bad there wasn’t some fringe device coming along (like the Apple TV, a fluke router or a tablet somewhere) that doesn’t make collections mandatory before the hardware manufacturer implemented Plex on their device. It might be the only way we get some of the features we’ve asked for.
@oskar87 said:
I would also like to see added feature of allowing “home videos”/unreckognized videos to be in the same collection/list as other movies, as lot of the documentaries/short films I have are being ignored by plex, resulting in a dreadful documentary library.
Agreed! Right now I have fitness/exercise videos, cartoon shorts, specials, and music videos all in separate libraries. But I understand it’s because of the Metadata scraping would be nearly impossible to mix-up/incorporate. But if there was something in the directories to tell Plex you don’t want to scrape anything in that folder & sub-folder (such as .nomedia files do on Android to not include them in the Photo Gallery) that would probably integrate better.
@nibble4bits said:
But if there was something in the directories to tell Plex you don’t want to scrape anything in that folder & sub-folder (such as .nomedia files do on Android to not include them in the Photo Gallery) that would probably integrate better.
Man! What a thread @MikeG6.5 ! I normally pop my head in the forums, spend about 10-15 minutes, and I’m gone for a few weeks and I come back to check to see if there’s a new DVR client, but this is phenomenal… where’s my popcorn?
I too am after some kind of ‘collections’ option. At the moment I have a Harry Potter Library along with War films, Star Wars, James Bond & Westerns. If the feature is almost there in the TV libraries then it should not be beyond the wit of man to expand this to the Movie Libraries. It would mend a lot of bridges with the users and show that the paying Plex Pass community have not been side-lined or forgotten.
@SambaDrome said:
Bye, bye everyone… I’m off to the other world where this has been a basic feature for years.
See you back here on Plex after a while!
Yep I came back a while ago after realising collections aren’t the be all end all without a stable player behind it.
With no embedded option Emby theatre just would not retain focus on windows.
When I hoped for some feature parity between ET & PMP I actually had in mind Plex bringing us collections, not Plex emulating Emby with a PMP that doesn’t maintain focus. From what I view (silently) browsing the PMP section they’ve added instability bordering on unusability. I was loving Windows Media Player for a month and then something strange happened.
Plex launched Plex for Kodi (although I haven’t used Kodi/XBMC for years.) Not to mention the idea of running an app in an app would have seemed laughable to me a couple of weeks ago.
But now…Emby, PMP, WMP and collections?? All dead to me.
I now (silently) peruse the Plex for Kodi forum, to see what’s new and to keep up to speed. Marvel at seeing how support questions should be handled. Beyond that I just watch my media.
Thanks for waking me up, but beyond Plex for Kodi, PlexPy and Trakt you can rest assured I will be in read only mode.
