A-Z page from metadata

Squiz Matrix Support
1

Hello,

 

I am trying to figure out the best approach for our site A-Z page.  The A-Z term for the page will be stored in metadata.  I have started to implement an asset listing and have sorted by the metadata field.  However when I change the list format to A-Z, it is ordering by asset name rather than the metadata field that I was expecting.  My default format for the listing is %asset_metadata_AZ% (%asset_name%) and the asset listing output is shown below:

A
(A to Z)
N
(Not found)
H
(Home)
P
A metadata (Page 1)
B metadata (Page 2)  
 
I am trying to get:
A
A metadata (Page 1)
B
B metadata (Page 2)
 
Obviously I will need to hide the assets that don't have the metadata populated (paint layout?).  There also could potentially be more A-Z terms needed for the same page.  I was thinking of maybe using a multiple text metadata field but I'm not sure how easy it would be to access each separate term and then sort them.  Perhaps I could just add another text metadata field?
 
Thanks in advance for any advice.
2

Just an update, I have managed to get what I wanted by configuring grouping with the keyword asset_metadata_AZ^maxchars:1.  The only problem left to deal with is somehow including a 2nd metadata field.  Can anyone help with this?  I tried adding another grouping with the 2nd field but this has unexpected results.  The home page is the only page with the 2nd field populated but a H entry is not being created and it has messed with the order of the other grouping:

A to Z
 
 
A
B
C