Asset Listing selection by metadata value

My question: is it possible to select assets to show in an Asset Listing based on a particular metadata field's value for each asset?


I need to put up a listing of calendar events on our new What's on page, but I want it to only list a selection of some of the events out of a particular folder and its sub-folders, i.e. not show all the events from those folders.



I may be missing it, but I can't seem to find a way of doing this via the Asset Listing's Details screen, or in fact any of its other screens.



One possible way, I guess, would be to Link the desired events in a separate folder outside my primary set, so that only the contents of that folder would be listed. But I'm trying to avoid this approach if I can. I'd rather have all the events within the one set of folders, to avoid too much complexity, maintenance overhead, etc.



So I was wondering: is there a way to use the contents of a metadata field as some kind of "toggle" (i.e. a choice of "Display on listing" or "Don't display on listing") and then select for the asset listing just the events that have the appropriate metadata value? Perhaps even via a dynamic parameter? Or is there some other method that could be used to narrow the selection in this way?



I'd be grateful for any pointers.



Many thanks.



Steve

Id use a search asset rather than an asset listing.

  1. create a search page that looks in the events folder and searches only on the metadata field you are interested in
  2. Make the search page show the results screen by default and set the default values for the search
  3. Check that it is working by previewing it.
  4. Once it is working nest it in to your page using a nested asset.

[quote]
Id use a search asset rather than an asset listing.


  1. create a search page that looks in the events folder and searches only on the metadata field you are interested in
  2. Make the search page show the results screen by default and set the default values for the search
  3. Check that it is working by previewing it.
  4. Once it is working nest it in to your page using a nested asset.

    [/quote]



    This is exactly the solution I needed! I've set it up and it's working beautifully.



    Thanks very much, Nyngan.

[quote]
This is exactly the solution I needed! I've set it up and it's working beautifully.



Thanks very much, Nyngan.

[/quote]



No worries.



There are a couple of issues with this that you may come up against, such as events that have passed will not automatically fall off the page as they would with an Upcoming Events lister. If you want those events to disappear you'll need to set up a trigget that archives events after their start date. It would make a HEAP more sense to be able to archive events after their end date but when I tried to get that trigger going I found that events where no end date was entered (ie events held on just one day) the trigger broke. So I have my events archive 1 day after they start.



Id LOVE to see all the different listers replaced by a "super-lister" that combined ALL the listing functionality into one asset type. Have mentioned it in this forum before. Cant see it getting a guernsey though…

[quote]
No worries.



There are a couple of issues with this that you may come up against, such as events that have passed will not automatically fall off the page as they would with an Upcoming Events lister. If you want those events to disappear you'll need to set up a trigget that archives events after their start date. It would make a HEAP more sense to be able to archive events after their end date but when I tried to get that trigger going I found that events where no end date was entered (ie events held on just one day) the trigger broke. So I have my events archive 1 day after they start.



Id LOVE to see all the different listers replaced by a "super-lister" that combined ALL the listing functionality into one asset type. Have mentioned it in this forum before. Cant see it getting a guernsey though…

[/quote]



Thanks very much for the tip about the trigger, Nyngan. I wonder, would you mind walking me through how you would set up such a trigger? A rough list of the event/s, condition/s and action/s that would need to be set, I mean. I had a look through them and couldn't work out how to do it. (We have version 3.22 of Matrix, so I'm hoping all the functionality needed will be there.)



Many thanks for your help.

Event - Asset Created
Conditions - Asset type = single calendar event

Actions - Set future status as determined from asset attribute "Single Calendar Event" "start date"

Offset from the above fields: 1 day



Youll also need to set one up just in case someone goes and changes the start date



Event - Asset Attributes Changed

Conditions - Asset type = single calendar event

Actions - Delete all future status cron jobs that would change the asset's status to: Archived

Set future status as determined from asset attribute "Single Calendar Event" "start date"

Offset from the above fields: 1 day

[quote]
Event - Asset Created

Conditions - Asset type = single calendar event

Actions - Set future status as determined from asset attribute "Single Calendar Event" "start date"

Offset from the above fields: 1 day



Youll also need to set one up just in case someone goes and changes the start date



Event - Asset Attributes Changed

Conditions - Asset type = single calendar event

Actions - Delete all future status cron jobs that would change the asset's status to: Archived

Set future status as determined from asset attribute "Single Calendar Event" "start date"

Offset from the above fields: 1 day

[/quote]



Again, my most heartfelt thanks, Nyngan. This will be just the ticket, and I reckon you've saved me hours of possibly fruitless investigations on my own.



I fully agree with you about the idea of a 'super-lister' to replace all the existing listings. It would surely make life a little simpler for both clients and Squiz developers, I would think. Oh well - maybe in Matrix version 5…