Author Topic: Unique column browser setting per tab  (Read 32231 times)

Xenatier

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Posted something almost identical to this not long ago. Would love to have this option.

+1

Steven

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For v3.2, the column browser fields now save with a custom view. Its just the fields and not the column browser orientation in order to be consistent with the other information a custom view controls.
I will look at implementing a custom layout that can be saved/ assigned to a tab but not promising until i see how much is involved

See the following post. Customised column browsers can now be set in a custom tab layout and are not saved with a view
Last Edit: September 04, 2017, 09:17:24 PM by Steven

Steven

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For v3.2, i have now implemented the ability to save and load a custom layout that can be applied to a tab. The layout only applies to elements within the tab panels ie. left sidebar; left main panel; main panel; right main panel and right sidebar.
So that means you could have say a classical music tab where the track info panel shows different information, column browser only shows composer and arranged vertically, etc
I guess this functionality starting to border on getting potentially confusing between what a layout is and what a view is:
- the layout applies to which panel elements are shown, where, how wide and settings within the displayed panels.
- what doesnt get saved with the layout is view information ie. view information applies to the main panel fields that are displayed, how they are sorted and the type of layout (album and tracks, track details, artwork etc)
- also in the mix is you can show/ hide elements on a per tab basis, which again is not saved with the layout settings

Lastly i have added the ability to export and import a snapshot of the entire application layout settings at that point in time, so that includes the top/ bottom panels, music explorer, podcasts panel, radio panel, compact player, popup notification layout, etc

If anyone is keen to try it out let me know otherwise i might leave this a while before making it available
Last Edit: September 04, 2017, 07:35:52 PM by Steven

phred

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Lastly i have added the ability to export and import the entire application layout settings, so that includes the top/ bottom panels, music explorer, podcasts panel, radio panel, compact player, popup notification layout, etc
-This- is what many folks, including myself, have been waiting for.

Perhaps once it's available a new forum child-board should be created under 'Customization' so that users can exchange layouts.
Download the latest MusicBee v3.5 or 3.6 patch from here.
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jippijip

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Quote
So that means you could have say a classical music tab where the track info panel shows different information, column browser only shows composer and arranged vertically, etc

Thank you so much! Sounds like you've fixed the one thing that was keeping my musicbee from being perfect, and I can't wait to see it released.

alec.tron

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That's awesome news.
I'd love to try it out at some point but no rush!

My 2 cents - It would also be great to have a more holistic approach where panels as well as views are save-/load-able to/from a single (layout) file (i.e. a file where both can be written to, so one could save a layout file that only holds view info, as well as panel info only, as well as both to restore / share a full layout of MB).


Churs.
c.

redwing

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Currently "layouts" are used referring to different things: custom tab layouts and exportable entire layouts, two of which save quite different things.
What people would want to share one another the most would be custom tab layouts that are shown by screenshots they post. Entire layouts would be used mostly by the user alone for backup and restore purpose. Maybe different terms are needed to avoid confusions?

[edit] I can see custom tab layout won't save player location, menu settings, etc., but at the same time people won't care about the configurations of other nodes or maybe they want to keep their own settings for other nodes.
Last Edit: October 17, 2017, 08:11:14 PM by redwing

Steven

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Currently "layouts" are used referring to different things: custom tab layouts and exportable entire layouts, two of which save quite different things.
What people would want to share one another the most would be custom tab layouts that are shown by screenshots they post. Entire layouts would be used mostly by the user alone for backup and restore purpose. Maybe different terms are needed to avoid confusions?

[edit] I can see custom tab layout won't save player location, menu settings, etc., but at the same time people won't care about the configurations of other nodes or maybe they want to keep their own settings for other nodes.
i agree the names need to be different.
There are many variations on what the user might want to save. So just having two levels (current tab or everything) seems to me to be a good compromise

redwing

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There are many variations on what the user might want to save. So just having two levels (current tab or everything) seems to me to be a good compromise

How about adding one more level in between the two that will allow to emulate what's SHOWN in a screenshot excluding other nodes' layouts?

Steven

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There are many variations on what the user might want to save. So just having two levels (current tab or everything) seems to me to be a good compromise

How about adding one more level in between the two that will allow to emulate what's SHOWN in a screenshot excluding other nodes' layouts?
I would rather not as it seems to me to be adding complexity to the user, especially as I also intend to include the ability to save a snapshot of all settings (layout + everything else).
I will wait for further feedback before deciding what to do but perhaps the View/ Saved Layouts command would only save the current screenshot instead of saving all layout related settings. And perhaps the tab save layout will not be that useful to most people so could be removed.

redwing

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And perhaps the tab save layout will not be that useful to most people so could be removed.

It's essential to keep different layouts applied to different tabs.

Don't be confused about what's useful to the user himself with what's useful for sharing layout settings.

Steven

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i think what i will do is
- save/ restore main panels for the current tab (already done)
- save/ restore all panels as seen for the current screen (as suggested by redwing) ie. change the current behavior of saving all layout settings
- and instead save/ restore all settings (layout + everything else)

redwing

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Yep, I think that would be much more useful especially for those (mainly new users) who want to emulate layouts from other users' screenshots.

- and instead save/ restore all settings (layout + everything else)

So it's like making a copy of the current settings file for backup purpose?
Then can you consider adding auto-save option for both settings and database (https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=14992.0)?

hiccup

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i think what i will do is
- save/ restore main panels for the current tab (already done)
- save/ restore all panels as seen for the current screen (as suggested by redwing) ie. change the current behavior of saving all layout settings
- and instead save/ restore all settings (layout + everything else)

One aspect of (re)installing MusicBee that can be very cumbersome and take a lot of time is setting up the custom- and virtual tags.
The same for setting those up for friends and family. (who might want 'your' tagging scheme as a starting point)

For those purposes it would be very nice to be able to separately export/import all custom- and virtual tag settings.


Another object that comes to mind (but I don't have a strong feeling about at this moment), are the toolbar buttons.
Maybe that's a candidate for a separate im/export function too? (including the icon files)
I would certainly use it, but it could very well be of low interest to others?

vzell

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One aspect of (re)installing MusicBee that can be very cumbersome and take a lot of time is setting up the custom- and virtual tags.
The same for setting those up for friends and family. (who might want 'your' tagging scheme as a starting point)

For those purposes it would be very nice to be able to separately export/import all custom- and virtual tag settings.



+1