Author Topic: Auto-playlist changes  (Read 18523 times)

Steven

  • Administrator
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 34312
I plan to make the following changes to auto-playlists:
- when the number of rules exceeds 8, the panel will be scrollable ie. for playlists with a large number of rules, you will no longer be constrained by your screen size
- for nested rules, the current behavior is to always use "and". Sometimes it will be useful to use "or" instead so i plan to add a drop-down for that
- already done was the ability to select multiple library filters
- if there is anything pressing you think needs to be improved with auto-playlists now is a good time to comment
Last Edit: November 04, 2016, 12:37:22 PM by Steven

phred

  • Global Moderator
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 9299
I plan to make the following changes to auto-playlists:
- for nested rules, the current behavior is to always use "and". Sometimes it will be useful to use "or" instead so i plan to add a drop-down for that
Excellent! Thanks.
Download the latest MusicBee v3.5 or 3.6 patch from here.
Unzip into your MusicBee directory and overwrite existing files.

----------
The FAQ
The Wiki
Posting screenshots is here
Searching the forum with Google is  here

Dave Dee

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 20
Can the dialog box be made resizable? Best of both worlds then...

Steven

  • Administrator
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 34312
Can the dialog box be made resizable? Best of both worlds then...
no i wont do that - the effort involved doesnt make it worthwhile for the benefit


for the above changes i listed:
http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V3_1/MusicBee31_Patched.zip

other auto-playlist requests will still be considered

Dave Dee

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 20
Ah, my bad. I thought it might be just a tickbox option on the form but having googled it it's quite a fiddly job. Never mind.

redwing

  • Guest
There have been several requests (mainly from the former iTunes users) of adding an option to make auto-playlists static. Actually it has two senses:

1. Once a random list of tracks is generated, do not repopulate the list when opened next time (e.g. 5 random tracks of Adele)

http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=7919.0
http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=17982.0
http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=18487.0

2. Do not auto-update the list following the changes of values used in criteria (e.g. Adele tracks with a play count smaller than 5)

http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=13517.0

iTunes defaults to keep the list static for #1 (to regenerate the list, you need to change a rule and change it back) and has an option called "live updating" for #2 for each auto-playlist.

I think at least supporting #1 would be useful to many users. My proposal is to leave auto-playlists dynamic as is and just add an option of "keep the list static" to under "limit to" setting. Then repopulating the list would only require (1) untick the option and (2) open the playlist again.

Steven

  • Administrator
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 34312
There have been several requests (mainly from the former iTunes users) of adding an option to make auto-playlists static. Actually it has two senses:

1. Once a random list of tracks is generated, do not repopulate the list when opened next time (e.g. 5 random tracks of Adele)

http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=7919.0
http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=17982.0
http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=18487.0

2. Do not auto-update the list following the changes of values used in criteria (e.g. Adele tracks with a play count smaller than 5)

http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=13517.0

iTunes defaults to keep the list static for #1 (to regenerate the list, you need to change a rule and change it back) and has an option called "live updating" for #2 for each auto-playlist.

I think at least supporting #1 would be useful to many users. My proposal is to leave auto-playlists dynamic as is and just add an option of "keep the list static" to under "limit to" setting. Then repopulating the list would only require (1) untick the option and (2) open the playlist again.
i have added an option to the auto-playlist definition dialog that allows you to disable automatic refresh of the playlist

http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V3_1/MusicBee31_Patched.zip

redwing

  • Guest
Thanks for implementing this!

But there's an issue that disabling auto-refresh option does both #1 and #2. For instance, create "5 random tracks of Adele with a play count smaller than 5" with auto-refresh option disabled. If you play one of the tracks and its play count becomes 5, it should disappear from the playlist but it remains. This is not useful because it's working as a static playlist rather than as a static auto-playlist. The two options (for #1 & #2) should be separated if you want to support the both.

Steven

  • Administrator
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 34312
the way it behaves now was how i intended but i agree it would be better to always apply the auto-playlist filtering criteria against the static snapshot of the initial files

redwing

  • Guest
Yes, the current functionality can be already achieved by exporting a static playlist out of the initial auto-playlist.
What's requested is a hybrid between static and auto-playlist, which can't be achieved now.

Steven

  • Administrator
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 34312
http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V3_1/MusicBee31_Patched.zip

note it will now always refresh the playlist when "Save" is clicked in the auto-playlist edit dialog, irrespective of whether the option is enabled

redwing

  • Guest
Thanks for the fix!

note it will now always refresh the playlist when "Save" is clicked in the auto-playlist edit dialog, irrespective of whether the option is enabled

Hope you will address that issue. People will be so confused when they want to use this feature.

Steven

  • Administrator
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 34312
i did that because i think people will get confused when they change an auto-playlist and it doesnt update the files with any changes.
In any case i wouldnt expect people will quickly learn the behavior.

redwing

  • Guest
Are you saying you did that intentionally? Why? It already has "Refresh Now" button.

Steven

  • Administrator
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 34312
the "Refresh Now" button is already removed for the next update