Comma in Artist name splits it

[danslevin]

Is there a way to prevent the new behavior from automatically splitting artists with commas in their names in to two artists in CDPedia?

I'm thinking of the way 10,000 Maniacs gets split into "10" and "000 Maniacs" breaking my link to iTunes.


cheers,

DS
==
Dan Slevin
Wgtn, NZ

[Nora]

Check out this blog post about that very issue. We haven't tested this with iTunes yet but that'll probably require another solution. We're on it.

[Brunosc]

Hello,
Regarding this same subject in DVDpedia, are we supposed to replace the thousands of entries manually to remove the comma? Is there any way to deactivate this feature? I understand its use in an application like CDpedia where it is very common to see, for instance, multiple artists for a single song, but regarding DVDpedia I was much more comfortable having problems with the very few movies that counted with more than one director than now having hundreds of movies by "Robert" without a last name (as I have always listed them alphabetically this way: "Last Name, First Name"). Is there a way around this that I have not yet found? Until then, I will be downgrading to the previous version

Thank you!!

[Nora]

Send us your database and we can update the column (I assume it's director?) for you here so it'll display correctly. You'll find the file in your Home folder under ~/Library/Application Support/DVDpedia/Database.pediadata. Please archive the file before sending it to save space. (Select it and choose 'Archive' or 'Compress' from the File menu. That'll create a new file called 'Database.pediadata.zip' which you can then attach to the email.)

If you're on Lion, it hides the Library folder by default so to go to your DVDpedia data folder you have to use the Finder's 'Go' menu, select 'Go to Folder' and copy paste ~/Library/Application Support/DVDpedia into the window that appears.

Of course, as has always been the case for the programs, the column can still be sorted by last name first even if the display is "Firstname Lastname". Just hold down the Option key and click on the column header to re-sort the column to change the order.

[sjk]

…, but regarding DVDpedia I was much more comfortable having problems with the very few movies that counted with more than one director than now having hundreds of movies by "Robert" without a last name (as I have always listed them alphabetically this way: "Last Name, First Name").

None of my Director names look like that after upgrading to v5. Is that because they were originally added to the database as "Firstname Lastname" instead of "Lastname, Firstname"?

[Nora]

Is that because they were originally added to the database as "Firstname Lastname" instead of "Lastname, Firstname"?

Yes, that's the reason.

[Brunosc]

Thank you, Nora! I will send you the library as soon as I can. Will there still be a way to view it as "Lastname, Firstname" and not only have it sorted that way? I know I could get used to viewing it differently, but I still see many advantages to the way I have been working with the application until now

[Nora]

No, the display is always "FirstName LastName" now even though the sorting can be flipped.

[danslevin]

Check out this blog post about that very issue. We haven't tested this with iTunes yet but that'll probably require another solution. We're on it.

Yeah, nah, that's not going to work for me.

Why not give CDP users the choice of character to split fields so I can use the | symbol which never appears accidentally (or in life at all)?

[Nora]

Thanks for your feedback. Comma is the Apple default way of separating multi-value entries. We know there is room for improvement and we'll keep our eye on it for the future.

Of course you're also welcome to return to version 4 if you'd rather do that. You can download the old version here: http://www.bruji.com/cdpedia/cdpedia4.6.8.dmg

Make sure after you downgrade to version 4.6.8 you delete the data file for version 5 (Database.cdpd) so that if you ever do decide to update, the program will be forced to do this from your 4.6.8 file. You will find the file in the DVDpedia data folder, located in your Home folder under ~/Library/Application Support/CDpedia

If you're on Lion, it hides the Library folder by default so to go to your CDpedia data folder you have to use the Finder's 'Go' menu, select 'Go to Folder' and copy paste ~/Library/Application Support/CDpedia into the window that appears.

[sjk]

In case anyone's interested, here are a bunch of other methods for accessing the hidden ~/Library folder on Lion:

18 ways to view the ~/Library folder in Lion | Macworld

[danslevin]

Wow, seriously, you have no intention of fixing this and downgrading is your only offer?

If comma is Apple's default way of splitting multi-value entries how come iTunes can manage 10,000 Maniacs perfectly adequately?

I'll ponder downgrading but does that I get my upgrade fee back?


DS

Thanks for your feedback. Comma is the Apple default way of separating multi-value entries. We know there is room for improvement and we'll keep our eye on it for the future.

Of course you're also welcome to return to version 4 if you'd rather do that. You can download the old version here: http://www.bruji.com/cdpedia/cdpedia4.6.8.dmg

Make sure after you downgrade to version 4.6.8 you delete the data file for version 5 (Database.cdpd) so that if you ever do decide to update, the program will be forced to do this from your 4.6.8 file. You will find the file in the DVDpedia data folder, located in your Home folder under ~/Library/Application Support/CDpedia

If you're on Lion, it hides the Library folder by default so to go to your CDpedia data folder you have to use the Finder's 'Go' menu, select 'Go to Folder' and copy paste ~/Library/Application Support/CDpedia into the window that appears.

[Conor]

We have debated dropping the artist field back to a non-multi value field, i.e. without the bubbles. But we loose a number of features, such as proper statistics counting and multi-edit on multi values and gain only a fix for a handful of artists: 10,000 Maniacs; Harry Connick, Jr; Crosby, Stills & Nash; Earth, Wind & Fire and Blood, Sweat & Tears. Of course this is not a complete list of artists that use a comma but those are the only ones we have found so far.

Using only semi-colon or other separators is another solution but breaks a number of import sites and as mentioned what users are used to due to the fact that the comma is the default separator in most cases. Having to use a special character workaround for 10 artists is a lot easier than the alternatives such as copying the following: "10‚000 Maniacs". We are keeping a close eye on it and would consider going back should it become a problem, but so far it's been easy to fix on a manual basis.

If comma is Apple's default way of splitting multi-value entries how come iTunes can manage 10,000 Maniacs perfectly adequately?

iTunes makes no distinction between multiple artists and does not use the token field (the blue bubbles). Just as in CDpedia version 4.6.8 "Dave Stewart, Mick Jagger" and "Mick Jagger, Dave Stewart" would be counted as two different sets of artists instead of being counted as two separate artists the way they are now thanks to the token field.

I'll ponder downgrading but does that I get my upgrade fee back?

Of course you would get a full refund on the upgrade if you're not going to use it.