Author Topic: Nesting Within The Main Panel  (Read 3887 times)

Thalion Korvhas

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Steven,

Would it be difficult to add 1 or 2 layers of nesting to the main panel? More explicitly let me explain exactly what I want to do with it. This can also be used in a variety of ways.

In the main panel I have MB display / sort by artist. If I click on the artist picture, I get the list of albums for that artist. When I click on the album picture, I get the list of songs, etc for that album. That is fine for one version of the same album. But what if you have multiple versions of the same album? I.E. 1995 Original Mastering, 2005 Remaster, 2010 Special Limited Edition Remaster, etc. It gets complicated or messy & you have to do some work arounds. What I would like to be able to do is when you click on the artist then the album there would be another *layer* under the albums to allow me to add multiple versions of each album according to a custom tag or standard tag. So I would click the album and I would have say 3 icons pop up (one for each of the masterings I listed above). Then under each of those 3 icons would be the albums that only apply to that mastering. I create a special tag called "Album Mastering" & put mastering information in it.

To be more flexible, this nesting layer could be allowed for other headings as well (artist, genre, etc). I know there are ways to work around this already. I do it now by adding additional album mastering as discs. So in each album I have multiple masterings each defined as a disc that is sorted by a custom tag I created called "Album Mastering". So my display under each album has multiple tiers of songs each separated by the custom tag title. That is all good and fine if you only want to listen to one album. The issue is it creates a lot of manual work to listen to multiple albums at a click. I cannot simply double click the artist or an album (which sends the songs to the playlist) and listen to exactly which mastering I want. If I wanted to listen to say the first 3 albums of an artist, I have to manually click all the songs for the mastering I want to listen to and add them to the playlist. The loss of flexibility is the drawback to adding masterings as discs.

Thanks for your time.

The Incredible Boom Boom

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Can you post a screenshot of your current layout with multiple album releases?
It's kind of hard (for me) to visualize what it looks like now and how we can maybe make it a little easier to navigate while this feature is not implemented.

Also, you may be able to roll this request into either this one, this one or possibly both, which would enhance its viability.

Thalion Korvhas

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See the screenshot of my current layout below. You can see I have 3 different versions (masterings) of "Fly To The Rainbow" under one album. They are sorted by labeling each different version as a separate disc. Disc 1, 2, 3 from top to bottom. I created my own tag "Album Mastering" and configured MusicBee to display this tag above each version.

What I want to do is when I click Scorpions (Artist icon) / Fly To The Rainbow (Album icon), instead of a list of songs as shown, I want a row of customizable "album icons" below the album icon that is now shown - 3 in this case. (1) for each version (mastering) of the album. Then when you click on any of the versions icons (masterings) you then will get a single list of songs instead of the 3 tier system I have created. It would sort of be like albums underneath albums. But this nesting idea can be applied to artist, genre, etc.

picture uploader
Last Edit: August 13, 2021, 03:01:05 AM by Thalion Korvhas

Zak

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I cannot simply double click the artist or an album (which sends the songs to the playlist) and listen to exactly which mastering I want.
If you click or double-click the heading row for the title of each mastering you can select or play, respectively, each one separately.

But this nesting idea can be applied to artist, genre, etc.
While I agree it would be a useful addition for the mastering scenario you have described, I can't think of too many other uses for it. Genres can be kinda hierarchical but they don't currently have a graphical view like artists and albums do, so it wouldn't apply here. I guess you could list individual performers separately from bands which could be useful for people in multiple projects.

But how would you set it up?
What would that look like?
A new MusicBee-specific tag for Sub-Album?
Does that mean you need Sub-Artist too?
Or some more generic multi-purpose nesting-aware tag?

Would it be difficult to add 1 or 2 layers of nesting to the main panel?
The answer to that would almost certainly be yes. MusicBee already has to deal with an almost overwhelming combination of nested album/artist/album artist layouts without a potential second level of albums too.

I would use this a bit myself, but I think the amount of work required compared to how useful it is for most users means it's highly unlikely it would be implemented unless MusicBee undergoes a major rewrite. Moreso when there's a fairly simple workaround already.

But Steven may surprise us...
Bee excellent to each other...

Thalion Korvhas

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If you click or double-click the heading row for the title of each mastering you can select or play, respectively, each one separately.

Simply playing one album is not an issue. Nesting versions under discs like I have done takes away the flexibility of the following scenarios. If you want to listen to an artists albums while doing something else like cooking a meal, cleaning the house, doing some chore - you cannot simply click the artist name and start playing albums. You will have to either, create a new playlist, or select each album & version by hand to add to the playlist. If I double click the artist or the album shown, and walk away to do my task I would listen to the same album 3 times before moving on to the next ablum (rinse and repeat). Loss of flexibility. The way I work around it now has drawbacks that conflict with the current flexibility of MusicBee.

Adding a layer or two as mentioned would not just be specifically for my use. There are some pretty clever people who know MusicBee in and out. They would come up with some really nice additional uses, I am sure. It could only make it better.
Last Edit: August 13, 2021, 10:13:59 PM by Thalion Korvhas

The Incredible Boom Boom

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See the screenshot of my current layout below. You can see I have 3 different versions (masterings) of "Fly To The Rainbow" under one album. They are sorted by labeling each different version as a separate disc. Disc 1, 2, 3 from top to bottom. I created my own tag "Album Mastering" and configured MusicBee to display this tag above each version.

Yeah, in this circumstance, the only real supplement would be splitting each album release into its own album along the row.
I know that's not exactly visually appealing, however.

I would again suggest rolling this request into support of @johnmillsjr's Virtual Albums idea.
The main reason being the likely programming difficulty incorporating a second sub-level in a near-future release of MuscBee. No one has seen Steven's current implementation, but like @Zak, I'm of the belief a fairly significant rewrite may be required, something probably reserved for a fourth version (should Steven grace us with such.)

On the other hand,  an option to create a "Virtual Album" (what @johnmillsjr describes as similar to a playlist in the main panel) might be more feasible for v3.5 and would allow for a number of incredible possibilities beyond a second sub-header option. Again, no one has seen how Steven has written MB, but the logic for the elements already exists, so the next step (incorporating the elements into one or more of the Main Panel views) shouldn't be too time-consuming, once idea is developed more.

Thalion Korvhas

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Yeah, in this circumstance, the only real supplement would be splitting each album release into its own album along the row.
I know that's not exactly visually appealing, however.

That is how I started doing it. It became a mess. The horizontal space of the main panel is very limited. MusciBee does not have a wrap function like MS Excel. You can only see so many albums in the row until you have to click the next arrow to scroll to the next set of albums. If an artist has 15 or more albums (many artists I like have way more than that) then instead of say 25 albums to scroll through, I would have 50-75. That is when I rethought it all and started using the disc #'s.

The only think I use this idea for now is to separate studio albums from singles. I am ok with that.

I will try to read the other post as soon as I can. I just have so much reading of forums and research on those posts everyday - I just get burned out on it all.

Zak

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If you click or double-click the heading row for the title of each mastering you can select or play, respectively, each one separately.
Simply playing one album is not an issue. Nesting versions under discs like I have done takes away the flexibility of the following scenarios. If you want to listen to an artists albums while doing something else like cooking a meal, cleaning the house, doing some chore - you cannot simply click the artist name and start playing albums. You will have to either, create a new playlist, or select each album & version by hand to add to the playlist. If I double click the artist or the album shown, and walk away to do my task I would listen to the same album 3 times before moving on to the next ablum (rinse and repeat).
1) How would a separate level of album change how this works? Even if the masters were listed separately they would all be included in any action done at the (higher) artist level.
2) If you're already double-clicking albums to play them some of the time, why is double-clicking the master title any less convenient?

If I double click the artist or the album shown, and walk away to do my task I would listen to the same album 3 times before moving on to the next ablum (rinse and repeat).
Are you playing all of an artists albums, one at a time, in random album order? If this is the main thing you want to avoid, there might be other ways this could be achieved that are easier to implement. Like a playback option that treats different disc names as separate albums, even if they are still displayed together under the same main album title. Then your different masters wouldn't be played sequentially. Maybe one master could be assigned as the preferred version in such cases, with the others only being played when specifically selected by you.

I don't think the virtual albums discussed in the other thread will help either. This would show each master as a separate album and you'll be back to the 50-75 album cover scenario you're trying to avoid.
Last Edit: August 14, 2021, 08:42:30 AM by Zak
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Thalion Korvhas

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1) How would a separate level of album change how this works? Even if the masters were listed separately they would all be included in any action done at the (higher) artist level.
2) If you're already double-clicking albums to play them some of the time, why is double-clicking the master title any less convenient?

It would easily & effectively change how this works. If you double click the artist icon, all albums/versions, etc under that grouping (artist) would be sent to the player. But if there were sub-group of albums by mastery (or whatever tag you choose), you would simply double click the icon for that mastery. It would only send the albums under that grouping to the player - similar to when you double click the artist. This allows for not only for better visual organization, but functionality as well.