Overview

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.

Example: View your films by Director:

1. Select the *** Show All *** option via either the Change View dialog or Views Menu (see screenshot below under Switching Views)
2. Navigate to the 'Directors' field and select it to display a view listing all the Directors for the films in the current catalog
   Note: global filters will affect the display in views as well
3. Sort the view by name or count (to see who is the most popular director of your films). 

Setup

The main settings for views and the Views Menu, including start settings, are configured on the Views tab in MyFilms setup. You can also configure the location and display of Views images and fanart on the Artwork tab. 

However, you may never need to setup or customize views because MyFilms presets several default views for you and you can always view your films by any field. You can also add or customize Views as well as the Views Menu, within My Films. 

View Settings

When you select a View from the Views menu it will always display the view settings selected in Views Setup, even if you changed the settings the last time you opened the view, unless you save your settings using the context menu > View Options, or add a new view.

However, when you select a view from the *** Show All *** list of fields, any changes you make will remain until you restart MyFilms.  

If you enable Always use start settings on the Options menu, global Start Settings selected in Views Setup will apply to all views.

Note: View settings apply only to the View display, not the list of films i.e. when you display all your Action films. The Movie list and Group list settings (e.g. for layout, sort) apply, not the View settings. However, when displaying films or groups, you can change the layout and sort settings and save them from the context menu the same as you can for views. 

Views Context menus

You may change and save many of the view settings using the context menu for views:

The context menu may vary depending on the type of view. For example, Web Details and Updates options display only for person views - see Actors - Persons Views for details.

When you select Views Options, a sub menu will display:

Views Menu

The Views menu is the default start view, however you can change that in Start Settings, and select it any time from the Views By menu option.

In addition, if Display always this view is disabled in Views Setup > Start Settings, when you press the Esc/Back button My Films will return to the Views Menu before exiting MyFilms.

The main custom views are preset for you, however you may customize the menu either in Views Setup, or within MyFilms as described below. 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).

The view menu images, which even indicate the 'type' of view (e.g. indexed, person view), can only be changed, or added in Views Setup, but ou can use your own set of custom view images.

Note: If you have enabled the Latest Media Handler Plugin for My Films on the Trakt & Latest Media tab in MyFilms Setup, then your Recently Added films will display on the Views menu.

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

1. Select the *** Show All *** option on the Views Menu (or View by: menu option)
2. Navigate to the field you wish to use to create your View, e.g. Directors
3. 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.
4. Select Add to menu as Custom View from the views context menu (F9 or Info/More on remote)

Add a filtered view

You can add a view filtered a value using the same method as above.

Example:  English films only

1. Select the *** Show All *** option on the Views Menu (or Change View dialog)
2. Navigate to the 'Languages' field and select it
3. Select 'English' from the list of languages in your movie catalog/database
4. 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.
5. Select Add to menu as Custom View from the views context menu (F9 or Info/More on remote)

Note: To filter a view using more complex filter expressions, you must use use the Filter Editor in MyFilms Setup, see Filters Setup.

Modify an existing Custom View

If you wish to change any of the preset views, or any custom views you have added:

1. Change the layout, sort and any view options you want via the context menu
2. Select Save current Custom View Settings.

Selecting Views

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

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

Note: If Display always this view is disabled in Views Setup > Start Settings, when you press the Esc/Back button My Films will return to the Views Menu.

Default (Preset) Views

My Films provides several preset views for you, which also demonstrate view 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)
• Box Sets (i.e. Groups or Collections)
• Actors (Indexed)
• Producer

Special (Internal) field views

Recently Added

The Recently Added preset view displays your movies categorized by the time frame when you added them to your database

•  e.g this week, last week, last month, last three months, etc.

For further info see Recently Added.

Persons View

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

Indexed Views

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

Alpha images, if provided by the skin you use, display for all indexed views.  

There are two types of Indexed views.

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

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

Note: Reverse person names only displays in Actors/Persons views options.

Actors/Persons Views

While persons views (Actors, Directors, Producers, Writers, Borrowers, etc) function mainly the same as other views, they offer additional features, see Actors - Persons Views for details.

Now Playing, Upcoming, Top Rated, Popular movies

As of v 6.1.0, a new View: *** Online Info *** is available on the Views menu. It displays a sub menu of Now Playing, Upcoming, Top Rated, and Popular movies (currently only from TMDb):

Each view is similar to the respective list on the TMDb website. When an view is selected, My Films loads the list from TMDb and provides movie info, cover image and fanart.

The color of the movie title indicates if you have the film or not, if trailers are available, etc. (colors depend on the skin you use).

If you have the selected movie in your movie catalog, you can press enter to choose if you wish to view the entry in your movie catalog, or playback either a local or online trailer. 

If My Films does not find a 'match' for a movie in your local movie catalog, it may be due to different language or naming of titles. Thus you may select Search My Films from the context menu to search for related content with the same terms/keywords as the movie title in the list. This search will find movies not found by 'auto matching' as well as "similar" or related movies, For example, when you highlight "Terminator Salvation" , you can find all movies related to 'Terminator' in your local catalog.

For currently playing and upcoming movies - which most likely do not exist in your catalog yet - you can playback online trailers if available. If you have an extended trailer search path configured in Setup > Trailers tab, My Films will cache those trailers in the background in a

OnlineTrailerCache

subfolder so you have the choice to play them locally at a later time.

In addition, a new context menu option to Search Online Videos ... allows you to choose any web site supported by the OnlineVideos plugin to search and display related trailers and videos, even if internet databases like IMDb, TMDb do not have any. Thus you can find online trailers or other videos, that relate to your movie (or person) - even, if that content is not registered e.g. on TMDb.

Note: The first time you access *** Online Info *** views requires a large amount of bandwidth as all data is accessed online. Some data is cached for later display (like cover thumbs). 

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 access movies that do not have a category. Or, you can display all your movies that do not have a Studio value in the Studio field.

1. Select a View > *** Show all *** > Studio
2. On the Context Menu (F9 or Info/More button) select Show empty values in Views

Note: Show empty values is a global setting which applies to all views until you exit and reload My Films. It is disabled by default, bu you can  enable it as a start setting for all views in  Views Setup under Start Settings. 

Don't Split Values

Many fields (e.g.Category, Languages, Country) may have multiple values, usually separated by a comma (or whatever separator you select in Setup > Views tab). However, on the context menu (F9 or Info/More button) you may select Don't 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  Views Setup under Start Settings.  

Sorting Views

In Views, the Sort by menu option toggles between Name (default) and Count:

• Name - sorts by the values in the field selected for the View, e.g. the Categories view is sorted by categories, the Year view is sorted by year, etc.
• Count - sorts by the number of occurrences (default=descending order), so you can see your frequently used items first, e.g. in Actors view the Count sort will display the actors who appear the most often in your films first.

You may change the sort order using the up/down arrow buttons on the Sort by: button the same as in any sort.

Note: Once you select an item in the View, such as Drama in the Category view, the Movie list sort applies.

Views Images

My Films provides a number of images you can use for views, which display on the Views menu, or whenever an image is unavailable for an item in a view (e.g. when you do not have an actor's image in the Actors view). You can select or change images only in the Custom View Editor in Setup > Views Tab.

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

Additional sets of view images (e.g. flag images for Country view) are provided in the My Films Custom Artwork forum thread.

*If no view image is found, *a default image will display (if enabled in Artwork Setup). You may add your own custom images for views, or default images, see Custom Artwork setup guide for details.

Whenever you select a movie from a view, the view image will display (according to the skin you use) as well as the movie cove (and a group cover if you display movies within a group):

Views Fanart

By default MyFilms displays random fanart from films for the View, e.g. fanart from your action films when you select action in the Category view. However, you can customize fanart storage and display settings for Views in Artwork Setup under Fanart.

If you select 'Use for all Views',

• your fanart options will apply to custom views you create, as well as any views by field you select in the Views menu or View by: list under the *** Show All *** option
• MyFilms will automatically add sub-folders for fanart for each view to the fanart path you select in Artwork Setup under Fanart, e.g.:

  • ...\MediaPortal\thumbs\MyFilms\Fanart_View\category

    folder for fanart for the category view 

See Custom Artwork for further info on adding custom fanart images, and Fanart Setup for how to setup fanart download, storage and display options

Related

• Using My Films