Author Topic: Improvements for Album and Tracks view with list heading  (Read 50307 times)

marlonob

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Hi. I like very much the ability to group the Album and Tracks view by a given tag. Currently, the behaviour implies that every grouping field means a new album. So, I propouse that an option exists to indicate that a given group doesn’t break an album, but is a tracklist heading. I’ll explain myself:

There are the SETSUBTITLE and the GROUPING tags that indicate a disc subtitle and a group of tracks in an album, respectively. When I try to make them show up in the library (in the Album and Tracks view settings), this will only shows them for the first track, so, I have them set in the grouping preferences. This however, shows me this



Including an option to make the GROUPING tag a tracklist heading instead of an album break, will move it from alongside the album cover to the tracklist like this



And something alike for the SETSUBTITLE:



It would be ideal that for every new heading, MB check if the tags for display in the left area are the same that those in the first, so it can display again those that differ (being album art or not).

For example, this is an album with an special edition (with bonus tracks and different cover).



And this is an album with the same cover but with tracks from a different edition (a japanese one).



And other with different cover and edition.



I hope not have been too redundant with the pictures, just not sure if the idea was clearly expressed (sorry for my english, by the way).

I think this may be implemented with a checkbox alongside the fields in the sorting/grouping settings (and maybe there a custom font option).

So, what do you think? Anyone also wanting something like this?
Last Edit: August 26, 2013, 01:56:55 PM by marlonob


marlonob

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Oh, I’m sorry. I uploaded them to another server; hope they are showing properly now…

Pingaware

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Big +1. I requested something similar to this a few weeks ago, but your more detailed proposal is better and more thorough. Pictures illustrate it well.
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psychoadept

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Pingaware

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Actually, as this topic is better suited to the task than mine, I'm going to tack on the additional request for disc number to also be a configurable tracklist heading.
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Bee-liever

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+1

I use Disc# in grouping and a complex arrangement of virtual tags to achieve something similar:


Header [variable]
Code
$If($And(<Disc#>>=2,<Album Complete?>="Y"),$If($Or(<Genre>="Classical",<Album Artist>="Various Artists"),<Album>,<Album Artist>),$If(<Genre>="Classical",$If(<Release Type>="Album [Compilation]",<Album>$IsNull(<Subtitle>,," • "<Subtitle>),<Composer Sort>$IsNull(<Release Type>,,$IsNull(<Conductor [surname]>,," ["<Conductor [surname]>]))" • "<Album>$IsNull(<Subtitle>,," • "<Subtitle>)),$If(<Album Artist>="Various Artists",<Album>$IsNull(<Subtitle>,," • "<Subtitle>),<Album Artist>)))

MultiDisc
Code
$If(<Disc Count>>=2,$If(<Disc#>=1,<Disc Count>" Disc Set • "$IsNull(<Set Subtitle>,"Disc "<Disc#>,"Disc "<Disc#>" - "<Set Subtitle>),$IsNull(<Set Subtitle>,"Disc "<Disc#>" of "<Disc Count>,"Disc "<Disc#>" - "<Set Subtitle>)),$IsNull(<Set Subtitle>,,<Set Subtitle>))

Album (subtitle)
Code
$IsNull(<Subtitle>,<Album>,<Album>" ["<Subtitle>])

the result:

having it as settings within MB to achieve something like marlonob's mock-ups would be so much easier
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psychoadept

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Steven

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i will do something with this for v2.2 although not promising to all the things requested


Steven

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i've done something quite simple for this where you can now specify a field for a sub-header, its font and contrast.
The sub-header only displays if its non-blank and when its value changes.
Keep in mind with the pictures above, its using a nicely set spacing. However there is a restriction that the spacing needs to be a multiple of the row height (usually 19px but depends on the font). I have set the spacing to 1 row.

Its in the next v2.2 update, and is missing skin override for the colouring but i will add that later

Steven

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http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2_2/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip

you can use this skin element to override the default colour:
<element id="Content[AlbumAndTracks].SubHeader" fg="120,120,120" />

Pingaware

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This is fantastic - thank you very much Steven!  :)

Two very small (I hope) additional requests. Could we please have a single empty row before the Sub-Header as well (unless there is already an empty space due to the presence of a second disc)? I feel this would make it look neater. And could clicking on a sub-header highlight the relevant tracks just like clicking on a grouping header does please? Even if these can't be done, this is a brilliant addition. Thanks again Steven!
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Bee-liever

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Thank you Steven
can be configured quite nicely


BTW it doesn't work with the display first few tracks only option enabled. Is that planned or an over-sight?
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Steven

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BTW it doesn't work with the display first few tracks only option enabled. Is that planned or an over-sight?
it was intentional on the basis that it was probably going to complicate things and i thought the new setting would take extra space so go against that option but will investigate it if there is a wish for it.

Two very small (I hope) additional requests. Could we please have a single empty row before the Sub-Header as well (unless there is already an empty space due to the presence of a second disc)? I feel this would make it look neater. And could clicking on a sub-header highlight the relevant tracks just like clicking on a grouping header does please? Even if these can't be done, this is a brilliant addition. Thanks again Steven!
the 2nd i was planning to do. The first, for the extra spacing does anyone else have an opinion on that?