Selecting parent/child nodes, then contracting, loses selctn

[davidbspalding]

Related to http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... =7&t=66797

Version: 4.0.6
On: XP PRO SP3 2GB RAM

Selecting a playlist parent node (expanded) selects its children in Options, Sharing, etc. Contracting the parent node will deselect the child nodes.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Tools, Options, Sharing.
2. Select a device to configure sharing selection, conversion, etc.
3. Click Content..
4. Find a node that is contracted [+] with children not displayed.
5. Expand the parent node. (changes from [+] to [-])
6. Select the parent node.
=> The parent and children are now selected/checked.

7. Contract the parent node (changes from [-] to [+]).
8. Expand the parent node again (changes from [+] to [-]).
=> The children are no longer selected! Oh, the horror.

[Peke]

This is designed/desired behavior as when [+] I would assume that all Sub playlists are selected, but if [-] than only some can be selected especially as Parent Play list can be actual playlist that I want to Sync but not all sub playlists.

For example I have "Dance TOP 100" as parent and "Dance TOP 100 80's", "Dance TOP 100 90's", "Dance TOP 100 2K" and "Dance TOP 100 2K1's" and I want that only Parent one gets selected So I check "Dance TOP 100" and expand it so that MM knows that others are not selected.

NOTE: Your behavior makes sense but when you have hundreds of sub playlists like me my Above example is much faster than disable all sub lists one by one.

BUT: Than Again having Select ALL/NONE/INVERT right click context would be nice addition so I added it to http://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=9512

[davidbspalding]

[from other bug]No Need for duplicates viewtopic.php?f=7&t=66798

As a software QA engineer, I can assure you that the other bug is NOT a duplicate. It's a different functionality. Separate reports allow a development lead to assign the bugs to different coders for resolution. The other bug is a valid concern, as I've filed bugs in the past, specifically selecting parent nodes in media device sync settings playlist selections (see New playlists are not auto-selected under parent node #6318.

As for this bug, in conventional design, if you want to deselect all under a parent, you deselect the parent. Reselecting the parent should select all child nodes. Tihis is the core of a parent-child relationship. The functionality changing if the parent node is expanded or not is unusual, and counterintuitive, hence it's a usability bug.

Take "Imported Playlists" as an alternate example. No wait ... let's NOT. I just followed my steps to reproduce above, and this does not occur with your included parent node, "Imported Playlists."

Steps to reproduce:

1. Tools, Options, Sharing.
2. Select a device to configure sharing selection, conversion, etc.
3. Click Content..
4. Find the "Imported Playlists" node. Verify that you have some imported playlists as child nodes.
5. Expand the parent node. (changes from [+] to [-])
6. Select the "Imported Playlists" parent node.
=> The parent and children are now selected/checked.

7. Contract the "Imported playlists" parent node (changes from [-] to [+]).
8. Expand the parent node again (changes from [+] to [-]).
=> The child nodes (playlists) are still selected. This contradicts the behavior with a user-created parent playlist node (see illustration).

So you've got one functionality in one parent node, that doesn't work on another. Dude ... you've got a bug.

When in doubt about functional implementation, do what 80% of other software apps are doing -- the users will be expecting that.