Use views to display your films by Category (such as Genre), Year, Country, Actors and Recently Added, or define your own Custom Views. Genre thumbs, Actor images and default images are supported out of the box for all views, or you may add your own custom thumbs, images and fanart to any of the default views or your custom views.

Introduction

As of v 6.0.0 there is a whole new Views system! Now you may browse your films by any field. You no longer need to create custom views, though you can if you wish.

For example, to view a list of all the Directors for films you have:

Select the *** Show All *** option on the Change View dialog or Views Menu (see screenshot below under Switching Views)
Navigate to the Directors field and select it to display a view listing all the Directors for the films in the current catalog (remember that global filters will affect the display in views as well)
You may sort the view by name or count (to see who is the most popular director of your films).

Or you can create Custom Views using the new Custom View Editor in Setup. In fact, you may create as many custom views as you wish and choose the layout, sort options, default images, and filters for each view, or even display the view Indexed (ile by alphabetical grouping).You can filter your views not only by Value, but by using 'expressions' - see Custom Views for details on using the Custom View Editor.

You can also create, modify, reorder, disable or remove Views using context menu options on the Views Menu within My Films.

As a result, My Films v 6.0.0 introduces a new Views menu.

In Setup > Views you may select the Views menu, any Custom View or the FIlms View as your Default Start view. See Browsing Your Films or Getting Started > Default View, Layout, Sort for further information.

You may also define 'global' view Start Settings in Setup > Views such as:

View only Movie Title list layouts (applies to movie (film) lists)
Show only unwatched movies
Show only available movies (i.e. locally available on accessible media)
Show empty - will display 'empty' values for all views
Reverse persons names - e.g. Gosling, Ryan instead of Ryan Gosling - applies to all 'persons' views

See the Custom Views tutorial for more details on these options.

Custom Views vs Generic Views (by Field)

Custom View settings are set in Setup > Views > Custom View Editor. Although you can change these settings, whenever you return to your Custom view, the view settings will apply.

To change settings for a Custom View, you may either alter the settings in Setup, or save a new Custom View with the new settings.

Generic Views, i.e. those you select from the *** Show All *** list of fields, can be changed in the GUI. Your changes will be kept until you restart My Films.

Of course, global Start Settings selected in Setup will apply to all views.

Once you view the list of films, e.g all the Category=Action Films, the FIlm and Group list settings (e.g. for Layout, sort) apply, not the View settings.

Views Menu (6.0.0)

Note: If you have enabled the Latest Media Handler Plugin for My Films then your Recently Added films will display on the Views menu.

Only the List layout is supported for the Views menu. It cannot be sorted, but you can reorder items in the list using the Context menu options to Move entries up or down (see below).

Customize the Views menu

You may customize the Views menu by using the Context Menu (F9 or Info/More remote button):

Add a new Custom View to the Views Menu

Select the *** Show All *** option on the Views Menu (or Change View dialog)
Navigate to the field you wish to use to create your View, e.g. Directors
Select the layout, sort and any view options you wish from the View Context menu, such as' Show indexed values' to index the view alphabetically.
Select 'Add to menu as Custom View' from the views context menu (F9 or Info/More on remote)

Note: To filter a view use the Custom Views Editor in Setup.

Modify an existing Custom View

If you wish to change any of the preset views, or any custom views you have created you can use the same process as adding a new view:

Change the layout and sort and any view options you want via the context menu
Select 'Save current Custom View Settings'

Switching Views

You may use either the Views menu or the View by menu button to Change Views - your own custom views will also be listed:

Select the ***Show All *** option to display a list of all fields, as of v 6.0.0 you may view your films by any field.

Note: If you do not select "Display always this view' in Views Setup > Start Settings, when you press the Esc/Back button My Films will return to the Views Menu.

Default (Preset) Custom Views

My Films provides several preset views for you, which also demonstrate the new features

Films - uses the Movie (Film) List start settings for layout and sort options
Year
Category (such as Genre),
Country
Recently Added
Original Title (Indexed)
Actors (Indexed)
Producers

If you use the setup Wizard, these views are already preset for you on the Views Setup tab, Or, you may use the 'Add defaults' button to add the default views to any config.

You may select the layout, sort and filter settings for any Custom View, although all Views based on a Title field use the Movie (Film) list settings.

Tip: Remember that Global Filter options, like unwatched only, trailers only, or minimum rating apply to Views as well. so they will only display filtered results.

Special (Internal) field views

As of v 6.0.0 My FIlms generates (at runtime) extended fields you can use to view your data such as:

Recently Added

The new Recently Added view (preset) displays your movies categorized by time frame when you added the movies to your DB (e.g this week, last week, last month, last three months, etc.)

Note: To use this feature, you have to properly populate the date field with the date when you add the movie to your collection.

Tip: You can also define filters by using the virtual DB field "AgeAdded", that represents the number of days since the movie was added to your collection. AgeAdded is calculated by the current date and the "date" DB field during runtime.

Persons View

A "Persons" field is generated automatically (internally at runtime) to display all persons such as Actors, Directors, Writers, Producers which allows you to display a view that includes ALL persons.

Indexed Views

You may index any view, i.e. group the entries alphabetically:

Alpha images, as provided by the skin, display for all indexed views.

All Indexed views use the layout and sort options you set for the Custom View, although you can change the layout and sort options temporarily via the Main Menu.

There are two types of Indexed views.

Indexed Title Views - you can index a view by any 'title' field but these views can only in Setup using the Custom View Editor.
Indexed Persons or other Views - can be enabled or disabled using the View options on Views Context Menu:

The 'Show indexed values' option 2 will toggle your index between: off, 1 or 2 characters.

Persons Views

While persons views (Actors, Directors, Producers, Writers, Borrowers, etc) function mainly the same as other views, there are many new features added in v 6.0.0

See Actors/Persons Views for details

Views Display Options

In addition to displaying any view indexed or not, you can also choose to display empty values, or not split values

Show empty values

When displaying any view other than Film Lists, you can choose to display the fields that are empty, or missing data. For example, if you prefer Categories/Genres View as a start view, you can also access movies that do not have a category set. Or, you can display all your movies that do not have a Language value in the Languages field.

Select a View > Show all > Languages
On the Context Menu (F9 or Info/More button) select "Show empty values in Views"

Note: The Show empty values option applies to all views until you exit and reload My FIlms. However, you can enable it as a start setting for all views in Setup > Views > Start Settings (see Default View, Layout, Sort for details)

Don't Split Values

Many fields - like Category, Languages, Country - may have multiple values, usually separated by a comma (or whatever separate you select in Setup > Views tab). However, on the Context Menu (F9 or Info/More button) you may select the "Don' split values " to view data sorted by the first value in the field, rather than a separate item for each value:

Just like the Show empty values option, Don't split values will apply to all views until you exit and reload My Films. You can also enable it as a start setting for all views in Setup > Views > Start Settings (see Default View, Layout, Sort for details)

Sorting Views

Views are automatically sorted by the values in the field selected for the View. For example, the Categories view is sorted by categories, the Year view is sorted by year, etc.

Once you select an item in the View, such as Drama in the Category view, you may sort the list of films using the default sort or custom sort options you have defined in Setup, or saved for a Custom View.

As of v 6.0.0 the Sort type menu option in Views switches between "Sort type: name" and "Sort type: count" so you can see your frequently used items first. For example, when you sort by count in Actors view, you can see the actors who appear the most often in your films first.

Views Images

My Films provides a number of images you can use for views. Or you may easily add your own images.

View Menu Images

VIew Menu Images can be selected in the new Custom View Editor in Setup > Views Tab:

Just click the image box, and select an image you wish to use for that view. If no image is selected, the default image for views selected in Setup > Artwork Tab > VIews Default Image will display.

View Images

My Films includes Genre images for the Category View, provided courtesy of "Carlos 'Fiinix' Nabb" Fiinix Design:

A 'set' of flag images is provided for use in the Country view in the My Films forum.

Custom Images for Views

Custom images for Views can be stored in any folder you wish in either jpg or png format:

Select the path to the folder where you wish to store your custom image in Artwork Setup > Views Picture path.
My Films will automatically create sub folders for each view - i.e. Category, Country, Year, etc.
Add your custom images to those sub folders. Of course the filenames must match the values for that field/view, i.e. action.jpg for action genre, 2010.jpg for year, etc.

Note: If you wish to modify or add Genre/Category images in the same style as the default My Films images, a template is available. However, please submit your images in the My Films forum as they are licensed under Creative Commons and we have agreed to share all custom images with the artist and any other users.

Default View Images

If no view image is found, a default image will display as follows:

Default image (if available and enabled) - i.e. Default.jpg stored in:
- ...\MediaPortal\thumbs\MyFilms\ViewImages\category folder
  Note: you may add your own Default.jpg images to each \ViewImages sub-folder if you wish to display a default image in the view that is different from the View Menu image or the Default View image. A good example is the Default.jpg image for Category view, which matches the Category images.
View Menu image as selected in Custom View Editor (see above)
Default View Image (if enabled) - the one you select in Artwork Setup > Default View Image.

Fanart Images

My Films supports fanart everywhere if you wish, even in views. For fanart images for your movies, see Fanart.

Views Fanart

You have three options for fanart in views selectable in Artwork Setup under Fanart:

Random fanart (default) - My Films will display random fanart from the films in the selected view, such as action films when you display the action genre in Category view.
Custom fanart - You may use your own fanart for a specific view. Simply add these fanart images to the view sub-folders in the _View folder (as of v 6.0.0 ) wherever your fanart is stored. For example
- ...\MediaPortal\thumbs\MyFilms\Fanart\_View\category\{action}\ - to display fanart.for the action genre.
- Uncheck Random fanart in Artwork Setup, but keep 'Use Fanart' and 'Fanart for Default Views' enabled.
Default fanart - display a single fanart image for all views (or when fanart is missing) - either the Default My Films fanart image, or any image of your choice which you select in Artwork Setup for 'Default Fanart Image'

If you select 'Use for all Views' in Artwork setup, your chosen fanart options will apply to custom views you create, as well as any views by field you select in the Views menu or Change View dialog under the *** Show All *** option.

If you create some nice fanart images for genres or other Views, be sure to post them in the My Films Custom-logos-artwork forum thread.

Using My Films

Tag page (Edit tags)

article:topic-feature

Go to top

Site navigation

Last Edit

Views

Table of contents

Overview