Numbered Playlists

[dztrucktion]

I am trying to create a playlist track number calculation that will assign incremented track numbers to children records in a final cues table. The children tracks are versions of the original tracks whose track numbers exist in the playlist table.

Tables are as follows:

playlist

playlist_items (join)

finalCues

All track numbers are assigned in the playlist_items and the finalCues are children tracks of the playlist_items. There will be many versions of a playlist_items for instance a 90, 30, 90 ALT B, 90 ALT C, 90 ALT D, 30 ALT B, 30 ALT C and 30 ALT D. What I would like is to be able to is to take all the 90's and use the track number from the playlist_items table, then take the 30's and so on. So what I would end up is all the 90 (full versions) with the playlist order as entered and have the rest fall in line under the track. There won't always be alternate version, so this is what makes it tough...

So basically,

01 - Track A 90

02 - Track B 90

03 - Track C 90

04 - Track A 30

05 - Track B 30

06 - Track C 30

07 - Track A 90 ALT B

08 - Track B 90 ALT C

09 - Track C 90 ALT D

10 - Track A 30 ALT B

11 - Track B 30 ALT C

12 - Track C 20 ALT D

Probably a shot in the dark, but I appreciate anyone's time...

Thanks,

d

[comment]

If you find the cues you want to use, and sort them in the order you want them, you can use a summary field (running count) to number them.

[dztrucktion]

The numbers need to be placed permanently. After pounding on this for a minute, I am taking a count of all the 90 versions, 30 versions, etc.. All the 90's track numbers are what have been assigned, then all the 30s are the assigned track number + the total number of 90 versions.

Now I just need some help getting a calculation going for the alternate versions. Because the alternate versions are not always going to be the same number, for instace, track 1 may have an alt but track 3 may not, the addition approach will not work. What I have done is to include a multitude of self relations that will only show the 90 ALT's, etc, but I need to change the numbers track numbers which are not congruent, to something that is.

Basically, I just need to convert a list of 3,7,10,11 to 1,2,3,4.

Thanks,

d

[comment]

The numbers need to be placed permanently.

That's not as simple as it may sound. I mean, you can at any point in time populate a number field with the ordinal number of a record in the current found set. But what happens if you insert a new record?

Basically, I just need to convert a list of 3,7,10,11 to 1,2,3,4.

I am afraid I lost you there.

[dztrucktion]

So I am using a Get ( Record Number) in a sorted portal, but I would like to use that number in my calculation.

[comment]

As I said, you can permanentize the value by entering it into a regular number field. But once you do that, the numbers do become permanent - at least until you decide to renumber the entire set.

[dztrucktion]

I just don't want to double enter, I would have to do this to over 4,900 files. I don't want to have to enter into a number field. It would be great if I could simply take the record number from the portal and use that in my calculation field that creates the actual track number.

Thanks,

d

[comment]

If you want this to be calculated, then it cannot be permanent - because such calculation depends on the existence and content of other records. So, if you define a self-join and sort it the way you described, you can calculate how many records are preceding each record (which is the ordinal number). But if you add a new record or delete/edit an existing one, the calc will adjust itself.

[dztrucktion]

I don't mind it not being "permanent" - really when I say permanent, I just mean that the number should only change if the calculation changes, not based off of silly things like the sort order, etc..

It seems like you are saying that I am on the right track, I just need help on getting the calculation working to give make the numbers show up in the right order.

[comment]

I am not sure what "etc." means in this context. I have listed the cases when the results of the calc will change. You can see a demo of the method here:

http://fmforums.com/forum/topic/67823-ranking-field-required/page__view__findpost__p__321934