Author Topic: Uniform behavior for the stars rating.  (Read 3740 times)

Sofocl

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In MB the behavior of the stars is different everywhere.

The track list is not selected stars are not visible at all, and when you hover they don't light up, in the "Track information" they are visible but does not light up when hovering;


The desired behavior is editing tracks, not marked by stars are visible, and when you hover they light up;


Very inconvenient to aim for the star when it is not visible and when it is not illuminated, and the unification never hurts.
Sorry for my bad English.



Sofocl

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A small thing, and I keep "stumble" over it.
Bump:)

This is how it is implemented in Winamp;


Link on the topic; Dynamically Show Lower Star Ratings At Hover-over In Player Panel
Sorry for my bad English.

Steven

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In the main panel the ratings only highlight as the mouse passes over for selected tracks. That is intentional as I think most people will find it annoying to have ratings continually flashing as you move the mouse. I dont see this as inconsistent

hiccup

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Link on the topic; Dynamically Show Lower Star Ratings At Hover-over In Player Panel

For what it's worth:
That wish of mine was about the stars in the player panel.

When a track has a rating of 3 and you hover over it on the right side you will see higher stars appearing.
If you hover over it on the left side (over stars 1 and 2) nothing happens. You would expect higher stars disappearing.




Sofocl

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The main disadvantage is that there are no "phantom" stars in the "main panel", and you need to click twice in any case.
In "Track information" there are "phantoms" stars, but they are not "dynamic", and here I think they should not annoy anyone, just like in "player controls".

So a compromise:
1. In the "main panel" make "phantom" stars, and the ability to click on them the first time.
2. In "Track information" make the stars "dynamic", just like in "player controls"
3. Changes suggested by hiccup apply everywhere, "player controls", "edit", "Track information" now this behavior only works in the "main panel" when the track is selected.

I think most people will find it annoying to have ratings continually flashing as you move the mouse.

Although it's hard for me to imagine that this might irritate someone) it would be nice if the forum participants spoke out on this topic, maybe really)

I dont see this as inconsistent

MB has 4 different star behaviors)
Last Edit: November 10, 2020, 06:00:58 PM by Sofocl
Sorry for my bad English.

hiccup

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I think most people will find it annoying to have ratings continually flashing as you move the mouse. I dont see this as inconsistent

Although it's hard for me to imagine that this might irritate someone) it would be nice if the forum participants spoke out on this topic, maybe really)

While I did +1 your wish a while back, reconsidering now I believe that the flashing of stars when accidentally hovering over that column would probably indeed irritate me.

Quote from: Sofocl
I dont see this as inconsistent
MB has 4 different star behaviors)

It depends how you look at it.
If you want to edit any field for a song in track details view, you will first need to select that line.
Your wish would introduce an exception for rating where you wouldn't need to select the line first.
That could be called inconsistent.

In the other panels mentioned (Player panel, Track information, etc.) the focus is already on a single track. So that is different from the main panel.

Zak

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I think most people will find it annoying to have ratings continually flashing as you move the mouse. I dont see this as inconsistent

Although it's hard for me to imagine that this might irritate someone) it would be nice if the forum participants spoke out on this topic, maybe really)

While I did +1 your wish a while back, reconsidering now I believe that the flashing of stars when accidentally hovering over that column would probably indeed irritate me.

Have you tried it? It might not be as disruptive as you imagine.

Lost of GUI elements in almost every program already change state when you hover over them, with so called hot tracking.
Menus, buttons, tabs, links etc.

The Windows Start menu and Taskbar? Everything uses hot tracking.
Calculator? Jiggle your mouse and it lights up like the end of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Steam? Every game tile and list item uses it.
Word/Outlook? Every ribbon/button/email/style etc. uses it.

So having the rating stars use it shouldn't be more annoying than what people are already use to from every other program.
If anything, it highlights the fact that MusicBee doesn't provide enough of that kind of visual feedback - everything is a bit static.
(Steven, I'd be curious to see a version of MusicBee with hot tracking enabled - the interface is comprised almost entirely of lists, so it should be an easy thing to test)


Getting back to the original request, if it is deemed irritating, I have a couple of ideas.

It could be made optional and tied to the existing Enable direct editing of tags in the main panel setting.
Clicking the rating stars is directly editing a tag value, so strictly speaking it already shouldn't be possible to change the track rating without that checked.

Alternatively, implement as per OP's request, but add a slight delay that the mouse has to hover over the rating stars for before they change to an editable state.
This avoids the need for double clicking but also means nothing will highlight if you're just moving your mouse over the column on the way to selecting something else. It should also prevent accidental rating of tracks.

This could be implemented two ways:
* either per track, where hovering over one track's rating column for 100-200ms enables editing for that track (i.e. how it works now if you select a track)
* or for the entire column, where hovering over the rating column of any track for around 500ms enables editing for all tracks (i.e. how it works now if you select all tracks).
The longer delay for the second option reflects the fact it will make a larger visual impact and helps avoid triggering it accidentally.

Sofocl, there is a clunky workaround that works now if you just want to be able to quickly tag a bunch of files one after the other.
First select all the files (Ctrl+A) to display their rating stars, then hold down the Ctrl key while you click on the stars to rate them.
This will stop the other tracks from being deselected when you click one.
Bee excellent to each other...

Sofocl

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I think most people will find it annoying to have ratings continually flashing as you move the mouse. I dont see this as inconsistent

Although it's hard for me to imagine that this might irritate someone) it would be nice if the forum participants spoke out on this topic, maybe really)
While I did +1 your wish a while back, reconsidering now I believe that the flashing of stars when accidentally hovering over that column would probably indeed irritate me.
Well, apparently I'm a very calm person, such things do not annoy me 8)


Quote from: Sofocl
I dont see this as inconsistent
MB has 4 different star behaviors)

It depends how you look at it.
If you want to edit any field for a song in track details view, you will first need to select that line.
Your wish would introduce an exception for rating where you wouldn't need to select the line first.
That could be called inconsistent.

In the other panels mentioned (Player panel, Track information, etc.) the focus is already on a single track. So that is different from the main panel.

I still think it's not very convenient and not quite consistent (see GIF) but a compromise is possible.

If it is quite simple, then you need the maximum simplicity of frequently performed actions, and here everything is simple but not as simple as possible)

1. Behavior;


2 Behavior;


3. Behavior;


4. Behavior;


And by the way I found a small error;
Sorry for my bad English.

Sofocl

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So having the rating stars use it shouldn't be more annoying than what people are already use to from every other program.
If anything, it highlights the fact that MusicBee doesn't provide enough of that kind of visual feedback - everything is a bit static.
(Steven, I'd be curious to see a version of MusicBee with hot tracking enabled - the interface is comprised almost entirely of lists, so it should be an easy thing to test)
I totally agree, it would be very appropriate.

Alternatively, implement as per OP's request, but add a slight delay that the mouse has to hover over the rating stars for before they change to an editable state.
This avoids the need for double clicking but also means nothing will highlight if you're just moving your mouse over the column on the way to selecting something else. It should also prevent accidental rating of tracks.
Great, I didn't think of that.

Sofocl, there is a clunky workaround that works now if you just want to be able to quickly tag a bunch of files one after the other.
First select all the files (Ctrl+A) to display their rating stars, then hold down the Ctrl key while you click on the stars to rate them.
This will stop the other tracks from being deselected when you click one.
I will adopt it, I hope not for long)
Sorry for my bad English.

Steven

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For the next v3.4 update, the player controls panel now handles mouse movement over the ratings the same as elsewhere.
Also I noticed the compact grid layout wasnt showing all the rating stars when a row is selected, so thats now also supported.

https://getmusicbee.com/patches/MusicBee34_Patched.zip

I will also look at the track info panel and the thumbnail view for the playing tracks panel
Last Edit: November 14, 2020, 04:48:58 AM by Steven

Steven

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https://getmusicbee.com/patches/MusicBee34_Patched.zip
track info panel, mini-player and thumbnail view for the playing tracks panel now done. I probably wont do the Album Covers view as that is more difficult

and this bug is fixed:
And by the way I found a small error;

Last Edit: November 14, 2020, 07:43:41 AM by Steven

Sofocl

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Thank you, good changes.

An error occurs when selecting all tracks, the stars disappear;
Sorry for my bad English.

Sofocl

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Bug fixed.

Just another option, maybe "phantom stars" and "dynamic" in the "main panel" can be adjusted by skin settings? This would be logical, if you want a "clean" design, then please, if you want a more "detailed" design, then also please.
Sorry for my bad English.