i'm new linux user.
foobar2000 was my favorite media player before using linux.
in my opinion amarok is the best replacement for foobar ...but
browsing my media collection in foobar was much more comfortable.
foobar can group my albums not only by tags(using TAGZ scripting language), but also by directory structure (albumlist plugin)

i'm wondering if it's possible to write similar plugin for AmaroK?
thanks a lot!

ps. i know that there is build-in hdd browser, but it's not the thing i think about.

//ps2
sorry for my english i'm polish.

I would like to second this request. I've come from using Foobar2000 and MediaMonkey, and given the size of my collection (as well as some tags that aren't well kept or tracks that have no way of labeling), the Amarok/Banshee/iTunes way of sorting doesn't work for me. I've got way too many albums with various artists or individual tracks that gum up the viewing of everything else. This is easy enough to deal with in directory view, as I can put my individual tracks in a folder named "Singles" and never see them unless I want to, as well as not dealing with a single artist from a multi-artist album (of which I have many since I'm a fan of electronic music).

Adding viewing by directory structure would make Amarok the top Linux player in my mind, no doubt, and as far as I can tell, it would be the first to offer that. Thanks!

Have you looked at the Files browser?

Yes, I have. It works, but it's more of a crutch than anything since it's not a part of the database. Browsing through it that way is slow, since it's not in a speedy tree-based manner like the rest of the app is. If it could be added as a part of the database (so that you only see the tracks and folders that are scanned into the database), that would make viewing a lot easier and faster.

all my database is tagged propertly but as lycoloco said the biggest problem is with various artists albums and unsorted single files.

dangle_wtf wrote:Have you looked at the Files browser?

i wrote about it. it's not a part of media library browser. it's a dierent component based on Konquerror gui.
using it is even less convenient thah browsing files manualy (e.g. using Konqueror).

i'm talking about something diferent. similar feature is ported in QuodLibet player (for linux)... but it's still buggy.

Just to give a little idea of why this is a headache for users like Wujek_Bogdan and myself, here's what my small collection from a few years back looked like in both Folder view and Artist view:

Directory View                                              Artist View
             

Notice how the in the first image, the shorter of the two lists, it shows my entire collection whereas in the second it only shows artists A-D. That's only with five albums with multiple artists. Now imagine what that looks like with over 14,000 tracks and you'll understand why this is inconvenient for users with large collections. Thanks, and I hope that clears the situation up a little bit. 

*bump*

It would be nice to hear from the devs what they think about the implementation of this feature. Thanks!

so... maby we should write HERE

Wujek_Bogdan wrote:so... maby we should write HERE

Never seen that before.
You may also want to post this wish on bugs.kde.org.

That's not a bug, it's a feature

Definitely not a bug, but it's something that I think should be looked into. The good thing about it is that adding it in won't change anything about the rest of the program, so it only adds functionality. If we could get this added, I wouldn't have any desire to use another program. Thanks again!

you can vote HERE

What about using the group by button at the top of the collection browser and choosing album.... as opposed to artist/album
That seems to be what your manual tree reflects...

it's not the same. imagine that you have huge collection including only albums. in that case it looks good, but when i have not only albums but also lots of single files (even tagged propertly), my tree becomes larger and larger.
have a look at lycoloco's screenshoot.

Directory view looks just like a file browser to me.

Personally I browse music with the file browser (my music is sorted by genre and sometimes sub-genre) and use the collection browser to look up albums, tracks and artists by name.