getmusicbee.com
Support => Questions => Topic started by: arquis on October 13, 2021, 09:43:36 PM
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Hello,
I tried searching the forums for a similar issue but I don't think it was ever resolved in any concrete way.
I've migrated to MusicBee some time ago and it's been a great experience. I was able to adapt it to my needs in all but one aspect - is it at all possible for the search function to act as a jumplist within a playlist? I have one large playlist arranged in a specific order. As it stands, whenever I play a song from the search results, it effectively replaces the playlist. Ideally I'd want the search function to simply play the song at its given position within the playlist.
My current workaround for this is to play the song, clear the search, select "go to track at source" through a hotkey, then play the track again. It doesn't sound like a big deal but doing this 30 times a day makes it a bit of an annoyance.
Is there a built in mechanism for this that I simply haven't noticed? If not, would it be possible to implement this as a feature?
Thanks for reading.
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Bumping the thread as it's been over two weeks now. Is there really no way of doing this?
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If I understand what you want correctly, just select a track in the playing tracks list and start typing. It will filter the tracks according to your search. Just ESC or X out of it when you're done to get the full list back.
You might also look at Now Playing Preferences, because you can change the behavior of playing a new track.
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If I understand what you want correctly, just select a track in the playing tracks list and start typing. It will filter the tracks according to your search. Just ESC or X out of it when you're done to get the full list back.
You might also look at Now Playing Preferences, because you can change the behavior of playing a new track.
As far as I know, this still creates a queue of all search results, overwriting the playlist.
I've looked into the preferences but I don't think any of them allow to jump to a song within a playlist and continue in accordance with the playlist itself, without creating a queue.
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Are you sure you are using the search option for the now playing panel itself?
(https://i.imgur.com/twK5C9q.png)
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I just tried out what @psychoadept suggested and it actually is a solution to your problem.
just select a track in the playing tracks list and start typing. It will filter the tracks according to your search
In other words, put focus on the playing/upcoming tracks panel so that when you start typing, a new search bar (see Hiccup's screenshot above) will pop up and allow you to search and play tracks WITHIN THE PLAYLIST. It will not create a new queue.
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I just tried out what @psychoadept suggested and it actually is a solution to your problem.
just select a track in the playing tracks list and start typing. It will filter the tracks according to your search
In other words, put focus on the playing/upcoming tracks panel so that when you start typing, a new search bar (see Hiccup's screenshot above) will pop up and allow you to search and play tracks WITHIN THE PLAYLIST. It will not create a new queue.
You're right, this is exactly the functionality I'd want in the entire thing. I haven't used the playing tracks list directly before. However, now I have to figure out how to replace the files panel with the playing tracks panel or open it as a separate tab at least. As it stands, I can only place it as an additional panel e.g. below the files list which is not ideal.
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or open it as a separate tab at least
(https://i.imgur.com/kGtFHBS.png)
That should do it (select playing/upcoming tracks from the header menu in the now playing tab). It's worth mentioning that when you use this tab, the main search bar now does what you wanted it to do in the first place.
jump to a song within a playlist and continue in accordance with the playlist itself, without creating a queue
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That should do it (select playing/upcoming tracks from the header menu in the now playing tab). It's worth mentioning that when you use this tab, the main search bar now does what you wanted it to do in the first place.
Unfortunately I can't seem to be able to figure out how to add this tab. I only have one tab with my playlist right now and when I click on new tab, I can only choose from Music, History and playlists in the left sidebar.
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(https://i.imgur.com/p4mLisQ.png)
Before the tabs can appear in the left sidebar, they have to be enabled in Preferences>Layout(1). So make sure the "Now Playing" tab is ticked.
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Fantastic. I can't believe I didn't scroll down in that menu.
Looks like I can now search through tracks by typing when the list is focused (in the playing tracks search bar), but not through the main search - nothing happens when I type stuff in there. Would be nice to fix this but it's not a big deal as I can just use the playing tracks search.
A bigger issue is that "goto playing track at source" doesn't apply here anymore because it still opens the playlist instead of the playing tracks tab. I've swapped the hotkey to "goto playing track in playing tracks list" but it doesn't seem to be doing anything. What am I missing here?
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(https://i.imgur.com/QCRFBoz.png)
Main search is still working just fine for me (I didn't mingle with the settings or anything for it to work). It should work for you too. Try it again.
I've swapped the hotkey to "goto playing track in playing tracks list" but it doesn't seem to be doing anything.
It doesn't seem to be working on my side either. Let's have someone else confirm this before reporting it as a bug.
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Main search is still working just fine for me (I didn't mingle with the settings or anything for it to work). It should work for you too. Try it again.
It works, but in a completely different way. What it does now (in the playing tracks section and in the main search) is go to the nearest matching track instead of showing all matching tracks, which makes it way less useful than it is in the playlist. If I change the main search mode from local node to global search, it still creates new queues.
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Bumping this again just to make sure it's a dead end as of right now.
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I've swapped the hotkey to "goto playing track in playing tracks list" but it doesn't seem to be doing anything.
It doesn't seem to be working on my side either. Let's have someone else confirm this before reporting it as a bug.
I don't search often, if at all, so I can't help with the main issue, but the hotkey I have set up for the above works fine for me.
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Thank you for confirming that. Turns out it always worked. We just didn't know how it worked.
Last time we were here, me and @arquis were expecting MB to go to the playing tracks in the Now Playing tab.
But that's not what this hotkey is meant to do. (it only locates the track in the Playing Tracks panel)
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Bumping this again just to make sure it's a dead end as of right now.
It could be me, but to me it's not clear what it is you are 'bumping' exactly.
I am guessing it is not your full start post, since it looks like a couple of things you asked there have been clarified, and I believe you put some of that to use.
So it might be good to explain the exact thing you are trying to accomplish now.
Not everybody will be (willing to) read the full thread and try to understand where you are at now.
If the exact terminology is a bit difficult, perhaps some screenshots?
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Bumping this again just to make sure it's a dead end as of right now.
It could be me, but to me it's not clear what it is you are 'bumping' exactly.
I am guessing it is not your full start post, since it looks like a couple of things you asked there have been clarified, and I believe you put some of that to use.
So it might be good to explain the exact thing you are trying to accomplish now.
Not everybody will be (willing to) read the full thread and try to understand where you are at now.
If the exact terminology is a bit difficult, perhaps some screenshots?
While some ideas have been tossed around, so far they didn't end up being applicable for my use case.
The issue is still the same: perform all search and play functions within a playlist instead of globally, i.e. do not create a queue of search results upon playing a song from the search results window. Instead, jump to particular search result in playlist and continue playlist from that point. Essentially single playlist mode, bypassing the "playing tracks" idea.
The proposed approach of using the "now playing" section instead of playlist view doesn't seem to be applicable as the global search function doesn't seem to be doing anything here, and local search within the now playing portion simply changes the location of the selection to the first matching result instead of presenting a filtered list, like the global search. Moreover, it seems that there is no hotkey to jump to the currently playing track in the now playing section - only in the playing tracks section (which I would ideally bypass entirely) or the playlist.
I'm currently bored at work so here is a step by step visualisation of the situation with a few screenshots for good measure. I have decided to use links so as to not clutter up the page.
1. Initial state of player. (https://i.imgur.com/MaExNLu.png)
I keep all of my music in one master playlist, as I want it to be arranged in a particular order.
Let's say I want to listen to the song Stupid Girl by Garbage.
2. Search results. (https://i.imgur.com/N9LptNj.png)
I play the song by double clicking (or pressing Enter). Since I found the song I wanted to listen to, I exit the search results. However, when the song finishes, a problem arises.
3. The crux of the matter. (https://i.imgur.com/hGK2omc.png)
Instead of continuing the playlist with the song Dog New Tricks, the player skips to the next search result instead, which is Girl Don't Come. If no other search results are found, the player simply stops.
This is the issue. I would like to be able to tell MusicBee to not create a queue out of search results and simply jump to the track I was searching for within a particular node (playlist) and continue playing from there - similar to the functionality in other players. This is only possible if I play the song again (by double clicking or pressing Enter) after exiting the search results and using a hotkey to go to the playing track within the playlist, which is an annoyance.
4. Playing directly from playlist. (https://i.imgur.com/1IL0JUs.png)
If the song is played directly from the playlist, the search queue is gone and the player correctly moves to the next track.
Hopefully this clears things up. Let me know if further explanation is needed still.
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Considering that a playlist is just a 'dumb' list of songs, and it does not have an understanding, nor keeps track of playing/played/to play, it will be the Now Playing list that is most appropriate for what you are trying to achieve.
What about creating a tab that has the now playing panel as the main panel, with its search bar at the top.
For as far as I understand that would do what you are looking for?
What would it be in such a setup that you are not content with?
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Considering that a playlist is just a 'dumb' list of songs, and it does not have an understanding, nor keeps track of playing/played/to play, it will be the Now Playing list that is most appropriate for what you are trying to achieve.
That is true, but there's really no need for anything else - I simply want use the search function to jump to a particular playlist entry and continue playing from that point onwards and that's it. The way it's done in Winamp for instance. No need for bells and whistles, just being able to tell MusicBee not to create a queue out of the search results. I.e. have a "jump to track in source" option in the Preferences > Now Playing > 'Play Now' action section.
What about creating a tab that has the now playing panel as the main panel, with its search bar at the top.
For as far as I understand that would do what you are looking for?
This would result in the issues outlined above, where a) the search bar is different from the global search - it jumps to the first found result instead of presenting a list, and b) there is no hotkey for jumping to the playing track in the now playing list. There are only hotkeys for playlists and the playing tracks section.
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I simply want use the search function to jump to a particular playlist entry and continue playing from that point onwards and that's it.
Because of the intrinsic difference between a playlist and the now playing list I think chances are small something like that would get implemented.
Enhancing the global search function by adding 'Now Playing list' as a search condition in addition to the existing 'Local Node Only' and 'Entire Library' options seems more feasible to me.
Perhaps create a wishlist topic for that?
edit:
Or, what might be more consistent and more logical: have some extra options for the Now Playing search function, such as being able to define which tags to search, and have a toggle for 'jump to first match'/'list matches'.
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Enhancing the global search function by adding 'Now Playing list' as a search condition in addition to the existing 'Local Node Only' and 'Entire Library' options seems more feasible to me.
Perhaps create a wishlist topic for that?
edit:
Or, what might be more consistent and more logical: have some extra options for the Now Playing search function, such as being able to define which tags to search, and have a toggle for 'jump to first match'/'list matches'.
I think both are good ideas. I am quite surprised this is a missing feature and not a bug/my oversight. If you think a topic in the wishlist section is the best way to go about having this functionality implemented then I'll do that.