Sorry Yves, I've misread your post. My bad. I like your idea where the filter settings could be set in:
Tools>Options>Display

Quoting eommen:

Quote:
Great news! Wading through already 9 pages of posts, one issue isn't quite resolved for me.

Separating a name into a given name and the family (sur)name, with the option to show it in reverse, how should that option be implemented? I read "per item", but that would be quite tedious. A global flag would be inappropriate if you have a mix of (say) Chinese movies and 'western' movies.
(PS western doesn't refer to the genre, but to the cultural use of given-name surname).

For a rough outline, I see three types of movies (or localised DVD's, if you like):
* all credits are in the form of "given-name surname", i.e. most 'western' movies
* all credits are in the form of "surname given-name", think Chinese or Korean movies
* mixed forms, like Chinese actors/crew appearing in a 'western' movie: think Zhang Ziyi in Rush Hour 2 (or was that 3?), Jet Li in Loaded Weapon 4 and numerous others, etc.

Per item specified is enormously tedious when you have many asian and 'western' movies as well. So, I would advocate a 'per actor' setting, with possibly an override per individual credit line.

Just my 2 cents.

I also think it should be done on an actor by actor basis. We can set global settings (perhaps in the Tools>Options>Display tab?) and can make exceptions for individual actors/crew. I'm thinking a bit in the same way as we have global settings for the cover banners, but can create exceptions for each individual profile.

It would be a bit of work in the beginning, but after a while, I think this could save time. You would only have to set the naming order for Jet Li once and he would be displayed that way in all the profiles he appears.

Quoting mreeder50:

Quote:
...
There are many very good ideas here.

This one makes the most sense to me along with later posts about surname given name or given name surname on a per movie basis. Also, a one person ID code with all variations tied to it would make it so much easier to find everything a particular person has done in their career – in your collection...

Well, (not-)reverse could be done on a nested level, merging my post with yours and Taro's latest:
0. A global default for either reverse or standard given-name surname presentation
1. In principal, a per actor/crew member basis for on/off setting for reversal
2. In the local title displayed (standard there is only one title displayed with its full cast and crew list) a "per DVD" override could be set to mimic the actual credits of that movie, if that's the way you want to see it
3. A per item (an individual cast/crew member role) displayed could be the top override

Mapping it down to a collection with a lot of 'western' movies and a significant number of Asian titles as well (mine, oops...), that would be:
a. Global default 'western' names, no reversal; (Bruce Willis, Li Jet)
b. Chinese and Korean actors/crew reversed as that's the way their name is pronounced and locally written (Li Jet will be set to show as Jet Li, always), this is via the per actor setting
c. For Chinese / Korean movies a full reversal for the DVD (but not doubly negating for Asian actors if the reversal was already set on a per actor level)
d. For a Western actor popping up in an Asian movie an individual reversal, negating any per DVD setting. Think about: an Asian movie so names standard reversed, but Bruce Willis has a role too in it and that actor you'd want to be displayed as Bruce Willis despite all the Asian names being the other way around)

In such a collection a Jet Li appearance in a 'western' movie would not require a level 3 per item reversal, as such a movie would already have the standard sequence and a per actor (Jet Li) setting for name reversal.

Is this too foggy, please ask.

Quoting xradman:

Quote:
Wow, dead after only 10 pages???!!!

I'm sure I've explained my idea, where it's going, how it can be accomplished...

The rest is up to Ken. Until he says in which direction he wants to go this is all academic.

After all these great ideas being bounced around, I hope Ken can take the time to read it all, take it in and perhaps synthesize it into some kind of proposal.

I also hope there's a way to make a copy of the existing DB, create a group of volunteer beta-testing contributors, to then try out the new system without immediately implementing it into the main DB. The best way to refine these ideas here, I believe, will be by putting them to the test in an environment that is representative of the current DB and userbase.

Ken, there's been no additional feedback in the past 4 days.  Did you get all you need?  Do you have any ideas on the direction you're going that you're able to share just yet?

Inasfar as people want to drop the middle name field to avoid parsing problems, that doesn't help a lot. In the case of double-barrelled name it is still necessary to split (or not) between the family name field and the given name field.

That being said, my main preference would be to not change these fields at all. A lot of work has gone into this.

More importantly, fundamental changes to such central and long-used fields in a database always leads to side effects, some of them unwanted.

E.g., HTML windows like Cast+ and Crew+ will no longer work properly. I expect some people may be able to edit these, but not everyone can.
Even more critical, the Name Variants tool is unlikely to keep working, and that definitely cannot be repaired without the assistance of the original author (who is nlo longer supporting this).

Any news on this Ken?

In my opinion best way to go is:

a) One name field only
b) Unique ID
c) Cast & Crew in same table
d) Movie based credits instead of DVD based
e) Some comments from Ken to steer the conversation