Automatically set artist_sort similar to the the plugin?

[frostyfalls]

Hi all,
I'm looking for a way to automatically set the artist_sort field similar to how the the plugin works. My goal is to have it set the artist_sort to what's in the artist for all tracks, but run a check similar to how the the plugin does for path templating.

I figure I can achieve this using some regex and the importreplace plugin, but I wanted to see if anyone had a better idea.

Thanks!

[frostyfalls]

After a bit of playing around, I realize I can use path templates with beet modify, which works exactly how I want. Now I only wonder how I can have this behavior happen upon import. Is this what the hook plugin is for?

[frostyfalls]

I've almost got it. I'm trying to use import.set_fields, and for some reason $artist and $artists never gets parsed as a tag.

import:
  set_fields:
    artist_sort: %the{$artist}

The example above just returns "$artist" for the artist_sort. The %the function gets executed properly, because I can do %the{$albumartist}, etc. $artist is just the standout here.

Even weirder, $artists just returns this:

artists_sort: $\␀a\␀r\␀t\␀i\␀s\␀t\␀s

[twebr]

I am facing the same issue as you do. As you already mention, your proposed solution does work for the albumartist field:

import:
  set_fields:
    albumartist_sort: '%the{$albumartist}'

This leads me to the working theory that set_fields can only access album-level fields (like albumartist), not track-level fields (like artist).

I am not sure if this brings us closer to any solution, but I wanted to share my findings with you.

[twebr]

I have just tried to import an album with the -s flag to enable singleton mode. And indeed: now the fields artist (and artists, for that matter) are written correctly to the database. I guess this is a possible workaround, but it may lead to other problems along the way. Examples: you lose guarantees that album-level metadata is consistent within-album, and using beet move will put the tracks in your designated singleton location. Probably things that you do not want.

Any help from others in the community much appreciated.