Preview panel not being updated [#17795]

Help improve MediaMonkey 5 by testing the latest pre-release builds, and reporting bugs and feature requests.

Moderator: Gurus

Barry4679
Posts: 2398
Joined: Fri Sep 11, 2009 8:07 am
Location: Australia
Contact:

Preview panel not being updated [#17795]

Post by Barry4679 »

Connection between the Preview panel and the main panel, in List By Album view, is not working as well with MM5 as it did in MM4.

In this video I select a whole album using MM5's altered method (ie. click on the artwork, vs the MM4 method of a click in the Summary column). You can see that the album is selected by shading of the tracks, and the collection count in the trailer. But the Preview panel is not updated to reflect the new selection.

This is not corrected by a F5 refresh, and looks even more weird if I filter the display so that the Preview track is no longer available.

The back of the video clip shows the situation in MM4, when it worked as expected,

Even in a situation where multiple tracks were selected, like a whole album,, the Preview panel was updated.
Want a dark skin for MM5? This is the one that works best for me .. elegant, compact & clear.
Barry4679
Posts: 2398
Joined: Fri Sep 11, 2009 8:07 am
Location: Australia
Contact:

Re: 2338 - Preview panel not being updated.

Post by Barry4679 »

Some more MM5 issues with the Preview panel, showing even more disfunction and unhelpful behaviour

Here I have the same Incredible String band album selected for the whole of this video clip.
I toggle between Browser|Grid|ListNyAlum|List. As you can see the Preview panel flips between three different albums, even though there has not been any change to the track selection. The issue is triggered by the List view having a different sort sequence(Album), to the List view (AlbumArtist|Album).

And in this video I toggle between two tabs. When I go to the second tab, the Preview panel is not updated.

But if I close and restart MM5, the same two tabs display the expected behaviour. ... I think that the difference is that after restart no tracks are selected ... ie. when one of the tabs has a track selection, that selection is carried across to another no-related tab.

I am running the production (non-debug) version which is available for download from your website.
Want a dark skin for MM5? This is the one that works best for me .. elegant, compact & clear.
rusty
Posts: 8393
Joined: Tue Apr 29, 2003 3:39 am
Location: Montreal, Canada

Re: 2338 - Preview panel not being updated.

Post by rusty »

Hi Barry,

Thanks for the feedback. The first 2 issues are items that we wrestled with during the MM5 planning stages:

1) Regarding Preview [Selected] showing "" when multiple tracks are selected, this is because the Preview window can only represent a single track as it's not functionally rich enough to support/edit multiple tracks (e.g. imagine cases of tracks from multiple albums or tracks from one album with different album art images per track). This was actually a problem in MM4--it was never clear which track(s) an edit via the Preview window was being applied to. As to the fact that selection is implemented somewhat inconsistently in MM5 (i.e. clicking AA in the List (by Album) view selects all tracks, but doing the same in a grid view only selects the first track), but I think it kind of makes sense for each of the views. Thoughts?

2) Re. the fact that selection changes when switching between certain views, this is tracked at https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=16371

3) Re. the fact that switching from TabA to TabB fails to update Preview [Selected] in cases where no track is selected, tracked at https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=17787

-Rusty
Barry4679
Posts: 2398
Joined: Fri Sep 11, 2009 8:07 am
Location: Australia
Contact:

Re: 2338 - Preview panel not being updated.

Post by Barry4679 »

rusty wrote: Tue Apr 27, 2021 4:35 pm Regarding Preview [Selected] showing "" when multiple tracks are selected, this is because the Preview window can only represent a single track as it's not functionally rich enough to support/edit multiple tracks
I didn't mean to imply that I have any problem with Preview display when multiple tracks are selected.
I am OK that it just displays info for the top (or last selected?) track. That is meaningful for me because I I only use it when selecting an album, and I have the panel configured to show tags that are constant for all tracks in the album.

It is useful because there are limited columns that can be displayed on-screen at once, so I have configured MM to show other meaningful tags in the preview panel. ... It was working fine in MM4.

When I select an album, via click of the album art, I would like the Preview panel to display data from the top-most (or last selected) track in the selection. ... This is what happens in Grid view ... what I am mostly saying is that it would be good if MM5 regained this lost behaviour List By Album view also. ... It is not much use if the Selected tab in the Preview panel is not showing data from the current selection.

The other consideration is what should be displayed if there is no selection? In MM4 I think that something was always selected; either an album or a track, depending upon the current view. ... This doesn't seem to be the case in MM5. ... In the case IMO it is best if the Preview panel displays the top track, even though it is not selected ... MM5 mostly works this way, but not always. ... It would be best if it was consistent IMO.

The rest of the posts were about downstream anomalies that this change has triggered in MM5 ... They look stupid, and should be fixed ... but the above points are my primary points.

Thanks for responding.
Want a dark skin for MM5? This is the one that works best for me .. elegant, compact & clear.
rusty
Posts: 8393
Joined: Tue Apr 29, 2003 3:39 am
Location: Montreal, Canada

Re: 2338 - Preview panel not being updated.

Post by rusty »

Thanks! Tracking the first issue at https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=17795

-Rusty
Barry4679
Posts: 2398
Joined: Fri Sep 11, 2009 8:07 am
Location: Australia
Contact:

Re: 2338 - Preview panel not being updated.

Post by Barry4679 »

rusty wrote: Wed Apr 28, 2021 12:24 pm Tracking the first issue at https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=17795
Thanks, but to nit-pick, it is a bit worse than suggested by what you have written
"all tracks in the album are selected, and the Preview [Selected] window fails to update. This is especially confusing because:
- selecting multiple tracks on the album doesn't exhibit the same behavior (i.e. even though multiple tracks are selected, Preview only shows the last selected track)"
In a situation where a single track is selected, and then I select a whole different album via click on the album art:
  • the original track has been de-selected, and replaced by tracks from the different album
  • but the Selected tab in the Preview panel still shows the de-selected track, not the 1st track of the new album, as suggested by your wording
Want a dark skin for MM5? This is the one that works best for me .. elegant, compact & clear.
rusty
Posts: 8393
Joined: Tue Apr 29, 2003 3:39 am
Location: Montreal, Canada

Re: Preview panel not being updated [#17795]

Post by rusty »

Thanks! I clarified the wording (I think we're both saying the same thing).

-Rusty
Barry4679
Posts: 2398
Joined: Fri Sep 11, 2009 8:07 am
Location: Australia
Contact:

Re: Preview panel not being updated [#17795]

Post by Barry4679 »

I read your Mantis entry re this issue.
The rules and options get fairly complicated.

I think that it more simple if the "Selected" panel is thought of like this:
  • shows details from the top track of the current selection
  • or when no tracks are selected, it shows details from the top track in the current filtered sorted view
This panel is a vertical panel of horizontally arranged tags ... meaning that it can show a lot of details for a specific track, without horizontal scrolling.

So this is useful in a browsing situation, additional to its role of just identifying what is selected.

See this example:
  • in MM4, browsing in List By Album view, using the Column Filter, it is simple 1 click browsing
  • but in MM5 two clicks are required to see any details, because without the 2nd click the Preview panel is a big empty space ... and if you select via album art, just like you would have when in Grid view, you still get to see nothing
.

This is fixed by the above change re zero tracks selected.

Maybe the heading "Selected" is misleading ... but it is misleading anyway IMO ... ie. if multiple tracks are selected it only shows details from the 1st track

If this was a problem the panel heading could be altered when there are zero tracks selected ... maybe to "Preview"

BTW. This whole issue arises because of a behaviour change from MM4. In MM4, by default the top track was always selected. ... ie. MM4 never had a state where nothing was selected.

Maybe it simplest if MM5 does the same thing? ... My preference would be what I said at the top, but either would work. .. There was probably a good design reason why MM5 has a default of nothing-selected? ... ie. it disables some of the Action menu items, until the user has specifically selected the track(s) that they want acted upon.
Want a dark skin for MM5? This is the one that works best for me .. elegant, compact & clear.
rusty
Posts: 8393
Joined: Tue Apr 29, 2003 3:39 am
Location: Montreal, Canada

Re: Preview panel not being updated [#17795]

Post by rusty »

#17795 is fixed in 2402 and seems to work well for me.

I see your point point re. selection in MM5 and will try to review it to see how this would play out across all nodes/views (tracking that as part of #16371)..

-Rusty
Post Reply