Movie Sorting Issue- Please Help

[jackryan]

I think I posted this in the wrong place initially:

http://www.xlobby.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5055

Basically movies sort by multipart, then sorttitle, then singlepart, then sorttitle. So all my multipart movies are sorted up top and not in their proper place alphabetically. Is there a fix/config for this? I've even considered writing my own XML generation tool (if I *have* to) but prefer not if possible.

EG my movies now sort like this:
MovieC (multipart)
MovieD (multipart)
MovieA (singlepart)
MovieB (singlepart)
MovieE (singlepart)

And I want it to sort properly by title like:
MovieA (singlepart)
MovieB (singlepart)
MovieC (multipart)
MovieD (multipart)
MovieE (singlepart)

Thanks,

JR

[xlobbyer]

Try clicking on edit database then highlight a title.The in the field column select "sorttitle" and make sure its set to how you want it.
I know in DVD profiler the sort title and actual title aren't always the same and I have to change some of them.

[jackryan]

Thanks for the reply.
I have tried this and still my multipart movies sort alphabetically, then my singlepart movies alphabetically. I get the same result as before. XLobby is doing a primary and secondary sort. The first sort puts file types ahead of movie types. The second sort is alphabetical. We do not apparently have access to the primary sort, which is the cause of this problem, and somehow I need to remove it. Any ideas how to do this much appreciated.
Thanks,

JR

[GrantG]

I highly recommend using the Ant movie catalog program together with the Xant plugin. I used to get frustrated also at the default way Xlobby seems to order folders with "subdirectories" first and then the rest of your movies. I also always seemed to get weird behavior trying to refresh databases from DVDProfiler - I would have to manually refresh twice every time I wanted to update it.

Here is a guide from Xlobby France describing how to use Ant and Xant:
http://www.france.xlobby.com/forum/inga ... e-Xant.htm

and more here:
http://www.france.xlobby.com/forum/inga ... efilms.htm

even if you can't speak French, I think you can get a basic idea (or use Babelfish).
and a nice (but less in-depth) English guide:
http://www.xlobby.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3759

With Ant and Xant, there is a little extra work in maintaining your movie database. However, the pluses are:
1) The depth of the directory structures and their ordering is up to you.
2) Xlobby automatically updates databases from your Ant database when you start Xlobby.
3) More control over data fields you want to import.
4) You can set up filters to create more than one Xlobby database based on your Ant database (example: all movies, online movies, movies whose genre includes"children", movies whose filetype is .mkv,....)

Hope this helps.