GUI changes for v3.0

[jaume]

Some additional related items observed in the latest 3.0, is there any way to configure the page options in the bookmark menu to add something like Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=<Artist>), You Tube, etc.

At the moment it is only giving the option of Last.fm.

Also, upon restarting MB, you need to actively select the bookmark for it to display anything. It would be great if the browser remembered the last service that you chose and displayed the page for the currently playing artist. Same behaviour as in 2.5.

i am little confused by this but perhaps all you need is the web-browser plugin (all web browsing functionality has been moved out of MB itself and the web-browser plugin enhanced). See the first post on this topic

I have the web plugin added as you described in the earlier post. However, I can only see Last.fm in the favourites. I also tried to replace the file with the one you originally posted to no avail.

See screenshot:

http://s14.postimg.org/q9ej6r98h/Capture.jpg

The idea is that the bookmarks could be customised to have Wikipedia, Songfacts, etc. in a similar way that we were able to do it in the Now Playing Panel in 2.5 but in the plugin.

Not sure if this is something that you want to have. Just found it really useful to quickly switch to all the different sources of information whilst listening to the music.

Many thanks for all the work and for getting back to the comments. It is really appreciated.

[phred]

- you can now configure the tabs bar to show icons (set in Preferences/ Layout(1))

Thank you very much for this 
With their return, could

<element id="TabsBar.InactiveTabIconMask"
<element id="TabsBar.InactiveTabInCaptionIconMask"

made to work again please

Will this control the fg of the icon for both active and inactive?  If not, could new elements plelase be created to accomplish this?

[endeavour1934]

I've been away for a few months, but I really like most of the new changes in MB 3.0
My time away from MusicBee was a good thing, because now I can see some design aspects with a different point of view.

A few thoughts:

- Functionally-wise I believe that MB 3.0 is great. Some obscure options were lost but some nice new ones were added. It feels much more fluid to use than 2.5. I like the new panel headers (are you using a specific name for them?) and the added functionality, it's easier to change views, panel contents and use MB in general.

- The layout editor is still a bit confusing and maybe overwhelming for new users. The basics are there, but I think it needs more visual help (like the aid provided by the layout icons, I only look at them to know where to drop the panels!). Maybe when you drag a panel the allowed drop sections should change color, becoming more visible. Also the list of panels should include a collapsable description for each one. Finally the "hide/show panels" section on the bottom right should always be visible, it took me >5 minutes to find where it was!

- I still feel like some parts of the interface are a bit too much compressed. In my concepts, now that I have seen them again after a few months, the spacing is a bit high as many of you pointed out. But maybe something in between should work better (It doesn't help that right now the panel spacing settings in the skins doesn't seem to work).
To be more exact, left panel & playing tracks panel should have a bit more spacing between list items (but not as much as in the now playing view!), specially the left panel. Maybe 2-4 px more per line in the left panel and 1-2px more in the playing tracks panel. The panel headers feel a bit compressed too, maybe a height setting for them would be the ideal solution.

- On the skinning part, the new options are great, and all the basics are there. The new layout helped a lot cleaning part of the mess in the skin files. In the future I'd like to see some way to change/override panel header colors based on what panel (Left, Middle Left, Middle, Middle Right, Right) they are located. And a different setting for the main tabbar/toolbar colors when the playerbar is on top. Also a way to fine tune paddings inside panels. For 4.0 (long-term) I'd like to see a dynamic bitmap player bar that allows the 3-4 player configurations and maybe an option to set text sizes/opacities inside the skin (with an override on the settings panel, of course).

TL;DR MB 3.0 is much more enjoyable to use. I feel like most (interface) elements are ready for an eventual release; whatever fine tuning they need could come in a later version.

[Bee-liever]

Will this control the fg of the icon for both active and inactive?

No.  It provides an alpha blend square over the icon that blends/softens it into the bg of the tab when it's inactive

<element id="TabsBar.InactiveTabIconMask" bg="xxx,xxx,xxx,xxx"

xxx is an alpha value from 0 (transparent) to 255 (solid) with a range of translucency inbetween

[phred]

Will this control the fg of the icon for both active and inactive?

No.  It provides an alpha blend square over the icon that blends/softens it into the bg of the tab when it's inactive

<element id="TabsBar.InactiveTabIconMask" bg="xxx,xxx,xxx,xxx"

xxx is an alpha value from 0 (transparent) to 255 (solid) with a range of translucency inbetween

Thanks for the explanation.
So to do what I want, Steven would need to create new elements.

[Bee-liever]

So to do what I want, Steven would need to create new elements.

to change the colour of the icons from how they appear in the navigator panel to a new colour in the tabs, then yes, a new override element would be needed 

[Alumni]

I've been away for a few months, but I really like most of the new changes in MB 3.0

Welcome back, endeavour.

[Steven]

- Functionally-wise I believe that MB 3.0 is great. Some obscure options were lost but some nice new ones were added. It feels much more fluid to use than 2.5. I like the new panel headers (are you using a specific name for them?) and the added functionality, it's easier to change views, panel contents and use MB in general.

for myself i really like the panel headers and in my opinion its much more obvious how to change panel contents. However for existing v2.x users, we have seen serveral times that people get confused because they expect that aspect to accessed from the Panel Layout button. I am not planning on changing how it is now and have now put in a message that shows the first time the panel layout button is clicked, so hopefully that will address the issue.

- The layout editor is still a bit confusing and maybe overwhelming for new users. The basics are there, but I think it needs more visual help (like the aid provided by the layout icons, I only look at them to know where to drop the panels!). Maybe when you drag a panel the allowed drop sections should change color, becoming more visible. Also the list of panels should include a collapsable description for each one. Finally the "hide/show panels" section on the bottom right should always be visible, it took me >5 minutes to find where it was!

where to drop an element is indicated by a bar that displays to the left of the panel area that can be dropped into. I guess its possible on the skin you were using it doesnt show clearly. I have been thinking about putting a tooltip explaining each element (did you mean "element" instead of "panel"?) - I do think thats important as new users wont know what a "sidebar player" or "now playing bar" is. The hide/show panels section is collapsed by default if no panels are marked as hidden - thats to reduce clutter on the screen for a feature that in my view only more advanced users would need. I am not strongly attached to that view though. edit: i've changed the wording on the hide/show panels section to make it a little clearer

- I still feel like some parts of the interface are a bit too much compressed. In my concepts, now that I have seen them again after a few months, the spacing is a bit high as many of you pointed out. But maybe something in between should work better (It doesn't help that right now the panel spacing settings in the skins doesn't seem to work).
To be more exact, left panel & playing tracks panel should have a bit more spacing between list items (but not as much as in the now playing view!), specially the left panel. Maybe 2-4 px more per line in the left panel and 1-2px more in the playing tracks panel. The panel headers feel a bit compressed too, maybe a height setting for them would be the ideal solution.

One thing was already planning to do was to add a "spacing" element which can be used to pad vertical spacing between elements. If you have time could you post a screenshot of how you see the ideal spacing?

- On the skinning part, the new options are great, and all the basics are there. The new layout helped a lot cleaning part of the mess in the skin files. In the future I'd like to see some way to change/override panel header colors based on what panel (Left, Middle Left, Middle, Middle Right, Right) they are located. And a different setting for the main tabbar/toolbar colors when the playerbar is on top. Also a way to fine tune paddings inside panels. For 4.0 (long-term) I'd like to see a dynamic bitmap player bar that allows the 3-4 player configurations and maybe an option to set text sizes/opacities inside the skin (with an override on the settings panel, of course).

could you add the specific skinning requests you would like implemented on http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=16643.0

ps. yes welcome back!

[Steven]

I have the web plugin added as you described in the earlier post. However, I can only see Last.fm in the favourites. I also tried to replace the file with the one you originally posted to no avail.

firstly make sure you are using the latest version of the web browser plugin from the link in the first post on this thread.
If you are, then try deleting "WebBrowserSettings.dat" and restart. The file is in the AppData sub-folder if using the portable install, otherwise in c:\users\<yourid>\AppData\Roaming\MusicBee

[hiccup]

Having gotten more accustomed to the new 'Configure layout' panel, I do like it a lot.
It's quite logical, it's clever, and much more explanatory than traditional settings panels that only have text, buttons and check-boxes.

Yet I feel there is too much discrepancy between this new panel, and the familiar Preferences panels.
Those have gotten more complicated, and are not as intuitive.

I have made a few suggestions on this before, which also gotten support from some other members, but I don't believe Steven has given his opinion on this yet.
So please allow me to shortly repeat the gist of them.

1. Several panels have inside scrolling panes. I really don't like those, they are obscuring features and setting and simply not friendly to use. It makes it quite difficult to grasp an overview of relevant options.

2. Non-descriptive terminology as 'Layout 1', 'Layout 2' should be avoided. Should the new v3 'Configure Layout' panel then be named 'Layout 3'? (just kidding)

3. The 'Configure preferences' and 'Configure layout' have a lot of overlaps and references to each-other. This is hardly avoidable, but surely a soil for confusion, certainly to new users.

In my opinion a solution to these problems could be to have only one main Configuration panel, with a more structured hierarchy behind it, maybe by adding only one or two levels, with also some improvement on designations/descriptions.
With some additional optional toolbar shortcuts and hotkeys added, it would than also be easy to access more often used sub preferences panels directly.

[jaume]

I have the web plugin added as you described in the earlier post. However, I can only see Last.fm in the favourites. I also tried to replace the file with the one you originally posted to no avail.

firstly make sure you are using the latest version of the web browser plugin from the link in the first post on this thread.
If you are, then try deleting "WebBrowserSettings.dat" and restart. The file is in the AppData sub-folder if using the portable install, otherwise in c:\users\<yourid>\AppData\Roaming\MusicBee

Thannks, Steven. That fixed it.

[Steven]

Yet I feel there is too much discrepancy between this new panel, and the familiar Preferences panels.
Those have gotten more complicated, and are not as intuitive.

I have made a few suggestions on this before, which also gotten support from some other members, but I don't believe Steven has given his opinion on this yet.
So please allow me to shortly repeat the gist of them.

1. Several panels have inside scrolling panes. I really don't like those, they are obscuring features and setting and simply not friendly to use. It makes it quite difficult to grasp an overview of relevant options.

2. Non-descriptive terminology as 'Layout 1', 'Layout 2' should be avoided. Should the new v3 'Configure Layout' panel then be named 'Layout 3'? (just kidding)

3. The 'Configure preferences' and 'Configure layout' have a lot of overlaps and references to each-other. This is hardly avoidable, but surely a soil for confusion, certainly to new users.

In my opinion a solution to these problems could be to have only one main Configuration panel, with a more structured hierarchy behind it, maybe by adding only one or two levels, with also some improvement on designations/descriptions.
With some additional optional toolbar shortcuts and hotkeys added, it would than also be easy to access more often used sub preferences panels directly.

at this point i am not willing to make any significant overhaul of preferences panel but wont rule it out in the medium term if i am convenced the proposal would improve things.
Maybe a mock up would help the discussion but i think you should do that in the dedicated preferences topic you set up a while ago.
Just on point 3 (no need to answer in this topic), i dont really get the issue you are raising. The settings in the Panel Arrangement dialog only reference Layout(1) settings. Where there is only a single setting, in my view its better just to have it in the Panel Arrangement panel rather than making people jump to another dialog window. I dont get why users would be confused by that.

[hiccup]

Maybe a mock up would help the discussion but i think you should do that in the dedicated preferences topic you set up a while ago.

I've done an initial clarifying mockup in a topic about these suggestions here:
http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=16921.msg98852#msg98852
Of course I can only respect if you don't agree with the basic points raised there, and since that's now clear, it's probably not very fruitful for me to put more thoughts and suggestions to this matter. I'll just leave it at this.

[Steven]

I've done an initial clarifying mockup in a topic about these suggestions here:
http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=16921.msg98852#msg98852
Of course I can only respect if you don't agree with the basic points raised there, and since that's now clear, it's probably not very fruitful for me to put more thoughts and suggestions to this matter. I'll just leave it at this.

ok, the concept seems fine in principal. I would probably merge the 2nd column into the first as a collapsable tree so making more width available. Getting rid of the popups is a good goal as well so i agree with that. As mentioned I am not willing to make substantial changes to the preferences handling at least for this iteration of MB but i will look at it further down the track

[hiccup]

ok, the concept seems fine in principal. I would probably merge the 2nd column into the first as a collapsable tree so making more width available. Getting rid of the popups is a good goal as well so i agree with that. As mentioned I am not willing to make substantial changes to the preferences handling at least for this iteration of MB but i will look at it further down the track

Great. I am not assuming my analytical skills even come close to yours in improving the current structure, but let it be known when you are open to more specific suggestions or proposals on this.