Prefixes

Overview

Prefixes are a way of further categorizing your metadata types. These prefixes can then be filtered, sorted and changed in the metadata editor. They also provide a way to define virtual custom fields that can be displayed as individual fields in a theme that has integrated the Metadata Utilities functionalities.

Define Prefixes

You can define your prefixes in the addon settings under the “Prefixes” tab. Here you can also configure them for display in the theme. If you only want to have prefixes for filtering in the metadata editor, you only need to take care of the “Prefix” field. All others are used for display in the theme. These have the following function:

• Position: Specifies the order in which the virtual fields are displayed in the theme. However, the order is primarily determined by the field type and the order in which they are integrated in the theme. The Position field therefore specifies the order for each field type. Values without a prefix are displayed as position 1 for each field type.
• Prefix: The actual prefix that is used for separation. For example, if you have a prefix ‘[Perspective] “ and a keyword ”[Perspective] First Person’, this will be displayed as ‘First Person’ in the metadata editor and in the theme. Another keyword ‘[Perspective] Third Person’ is then assigned to the same virtual field as ‘Third Person’. Spaces between the prefix and the rest of the name are part of the prefix.
• Icon: Specifies an icon that is displayed for this prefix in the theme before the field name. Here you can use emoji, but also values from the “IcoFont”. However, these must be copied as a real character and are unfortunately not currently displayed in the settings. In addition, the version of the font used by Playnite unfortunately does not include all characters.
• Name: The values of the prefix are displayed in the theme under this name.
• Type: Specifies the field type to which the prefix applies. You can use the same prefixes for several field types. However, they are only displayed once in the comboboxes and filtering is also performed across all types.

Theme Integration

Metadata Utilities offers controls that can be used to display all field types in the theme that are also supported in the metadata editor. These must be supported by the respective theme for them to work. I have compiled a description for theme authors here. The controls replace the actual display of these fields and offer some additional functions.

• Splitting the values into virtual fields according to prefixes: As already mentioned, the prefixes in the controls are treated and displayed like individual fields. For example, a long list of tags of various types becomes several meaningful fields.
• Editing the values directly in the theme: The “Show add button” and “Show delete button” checkboxes on the prefix page in the addon settings above can be used to activate buttons for adding and removing values in the theme. The “Confirm deletion” box also displays a prompt asking whether you really want to delete the value when you click on the delete button for a value.
• Hiding individual values: In the whitelist in the addon settings, the respective value in the theme can be hidden using the “Hide in details” checkbox. For example, you can prevent the display of tags that are only required by add-​ons such as Duplicate Hider to control their functions.