UI configurability of new MM5 features is disappointing [#15684]

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Barry4679
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UI configurability of new MM5 features is disappointing [#15684]

Post by Barry4679 »

I really like the artist and album browsing facilities which are new with MM5. These don't seem to have a consistent name, so I don't know how to refer to them; is Grid view from sub-nodes such as Artists, AlbumArtists or Albums, and is Browser view from top level nodes. It generally looks like this:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/flmjlwcpscwnr ... e.png?dl=0

and from there you can drill down into either an Artist: https://www.dropbox.com/s/uhfswki8vf8z3 ... y.png?dl=0

Or an album: https://www.dropbox.com/s/n2nxocqjzn6vx ... y.png?dl=0

It is disappointing that none of these three new displays have a configurable UI.

UI configurability has been migrated from MM4; ... eg. the data attributes which are displayed, and the layout, in the Art&Details panel. ... Also the columns that are displayed, the order in they are displayed, and row sorting, in the various List and Album&Track type views.

But zero configurability in these new MM5 display panels? .... grumble, disappointed, etc.

... nb. neither MM4 nor MM5 have enough data attributes at the album or artist level. ... The workaround, for album focused listeners, is to select all tracks in the album, and use the Properties inspector to "edit properties for multiple tracks" to create your own attreibutes for the group as a whole.

I would really like to be able to configure the UI of each of the three panel types illustrated at the top of the post ... see the orange boxes that I drew on each of the images above ... I would like to display "album" or "artist" level data attributes which are meaningful to me; ie. maybe one or more of the Custom fields, and|or the Comment, and|or date added or date last played, and|or play count, and|or any of the classification settings.

I see that you have hard coded a display of the Genre value(s) for the collections in some of these panels ... but what about the other data attributes? ... and why not carry forward the concept of configurability from MM4?

I realise that for an album, or for an artist, there is no set of group level data attributes in the MM db, but you could offer display settings such as *first, *last, *all, *mostFrequent, *median, *average, *smallest, *largest, derived from the group's tracks with nonNull attributes for associated display field. ... eg. for an album focused MM customer, who always queues whole albums, the *average of the album track's PlayCounter is a meaningful measure of Album Play Count, ... and the *median of LastPlayed is useful as Album Date Last Played ... the desired setting may differ from customer to customer, and from db field to field, which could be handled by MM4-style configurability.

... and before someone like Peke ( :D ) suggests that i could do this by hacking some CSS or javascript files, or something ... well I couldn't atm.... and this style of thing is generally only available to tiny subset of MM customers anyway.

Another example of a lack of UI configurability for new_to_MM5 features is the Artists row of thumbnails, shown on the top diagram linked to above ... some customers may prefer to see AlbumArtist here ... I know one of them :D
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Peke
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Re: UI configurability of new MM5 features is disappointing

Post by Peke »

Barry4679 wrote: Sun May 19, 2019 1:52 am ... and before someone like Peke ( :D ) suggests that i could do this by hacking some CSS or javascript files, or something ... well I couldn't atm.... and this style of thing is generally only available to tiny subset of MM customers anyway.
Now I am a BIG Bad wolf ;)
I agree on UI, There is a lot of space to be filled in and many things are already planned/done but not finished or in work. Like for example https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=14048 regarding TV Series that also apply on your examples. Correct me if I am wrong?

From what I understand you you are asking to allow customization of those views like Art and Details in order to have Desired info Show? If yes, what do you suggest on how it should be done, per Media Type?

Also One thing is not clear That space is filled By available info I tested on Both Artist and Album Info, wonder do you have different info on MY LIBRARY and ONLINE info pages?
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Best regards,
Peke
MediaMonkey Team lead QA/Tech Support guru
Admin of Free MediaMonkey addon Site HappyMonkeying
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dtsig
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Re: UI configurability of new MM5 features is disappointing

Post by dtsig »

Per media type would be excellent
Where's the db and ini stored
Reporting Bugs
Where tags are stored

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DTSig
Peke
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Re: UI configurability of new MM5 features is disappointing

Post by Peke »

Hi,
Before I say you should do it yourself ;) I added it as https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=15684

Feel free to correct me.
Best regards,
Peke
MediaMonkey Team lead QA/Tech Support guru
Admin of Free MediaMonkey addon Site HappyMonkeying
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Barry4679
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Re: UI configurability of new MM5 features is disappointing [#15684]

Post by Barry4679 »

Peke wrote: Sun May 19, 2019 6:01 pm From what I understand you you are asking to allow customization of those views like Art and Details in order to have Desired info Show? If yes, what do you suggest on how it should be done, per Media Type?
I don't disagree which what you are saying, but that is not what I was requesting.

I was speaking about these three screens. ... I was asking that their UI be configurable so that I could populate the orange boxes with with info about the group, ie. band info, or album info, summarised from existing MM track info.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/flmjlwcpscwnr ... e.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/uhfswki8vf8z3 ... y.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/flmjlwcpscwnr ... e.png?dl=0

Barry4679 wrote: Sun May 19, 2019 1:52 am I would really like to be able to configure the UI of each of the three panel types illustrated at the top of the post ... see the orange boxes that I drew on each of the images above ... I would like to display "album" or "artist" level data attributes which are meaningful to me; ie. maybe one or more of the Custom fields, and|or the Comment, and|or date added or date last played, and|or play count, and|or any of the classification settings.

I see that you have hard coded a display of the Genre value(s) for the collections in some of these panels ... but what about the other data attributes? ... and why not carry forward the concept of configurability from MM4?

I realise that for an album, or for an artist, there is no set of group level data attributes in the MM db, but you could offer display settings such as *first, *last, *all, *mostFrequent, *median, *average, *smallest, *largest, derived from the group's tracks with nonNull attributes for associated display field. ... eg. for an album focused MM customer, who always queues whole albums, the *average of the album track's PlayCounter is a meaningful measure of Album Play Count, ... and the *median of LastPlayed is useful as Album Date Last Played ... the desired setting may differ from customer to customer, and from db field to field, which could be handled by MM4-style configurability.
Want a dark skin for MM5? This is the one that works best for me .. elegant, compact & clear.
Peke
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Re: UI configurability of new MM5 features is disappointing [#15684]

Post by Peke »

Barry4679 wrote: Sun May 19, 2019 9:06 pm I don't disagree which what you are saying, but that is not what I was requesting.

I was speaking about these three screens. ... I was asking that their UI be configurable so that I could populate the orange boxes with with info about the group, ie. band info, or album info, summarised from existing MM track info.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/flmjlwcpscwnr ... e.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/uhfswki8vf8z3 ... y.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/flmjlwcpscwnr ... e.png?dl=0
Hmmm, that is what I thought also and why I added https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=15684 and if you compare customization to Art and Details window -> Layout -> Advanced -> Configure are you thinking on something similar in terms of customization info and what will be shown in orange boxes (position and look is depending on Skin?). Especially as in my picture I do not have empty space which will introduce scroll and other elements that will complicate rather than keep it simple. One thing like your pictures show there is a space to improvement.
Best regards,
Peke
MediaMonkey Team lead QA/Tech Support guru
Admin of Free MediaMonkey addon Site HappyMonkeying
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Barry4679
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Re: UI configurability of new MM5 features is disappointing [#15684]

Post by Barry4679 »

Peke wrote: Sun May 19, 2019 9:39 pm Hmmm, that is what I thought also and why I added https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=15684
Sorry, I didn't read your Mantis ticket ... yes, that's roughly it.

The other thing that I would add to what you have written, comes from the fact that these are summary fields for a group (ie. an album, or an artist), built from all the non-null tags in all the individual tracks belonging to the group.

It would be good if the UI customisation allowed us to configure how these fields should be summarised ... options could be for you to examine the non-null values for the chosen data element, and then display:
  • the sum of all the tag values
  • or the tag from the 1st track that you read
  • or the most frequent of the tags, ie. the mode value
  • or the middle tag value, ie. the median value
  • or the average of all the tags, ie, the mean value
  • or the smallest tag value
  • or the largest tag value
  • or a list of all of the distinct tag values
Example, if we are looking at play stats for an album, we want to exclude an outlier tracks, ie. where a track or two were excluded from an album play for some reason .... or where a single track was played for some one off reason

So date last played, for the album, could be the median (middle value) from the Last Played values for the album tracks.
Some people may see album play count as being either median, mean, or mode of the individual track play counts.

Or album duration would the sum of all the track lengths.

Or I may want to replace your displayed hard coded Genre list (see 2nd illustration from my previous post), that you have derived from somewhere, with a list of all my own distinct genre tags for the album or artist.

Or I may have used one of the Custom tags in a way, so that all album tracks have the same value ... so display of first tag is ok at the album level ... but if I was looking at the group for an artist, I would want to see the list of distinct tags in the artist's tracks.
Want a dark skin for MM5? This is the one that works best for me .. elegant, compact & clear.
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