- about the interface
This button will add a star to filter out presets that have a hotkey assigned to them.
But at every subsequent click it will just be adding other stars.
I think it would be better if it would toggle between one star vs. no star.
Then also the 'close' button next to it could be removed.
'star' is just a part of the preset name, 'star button' simply adds 'star' character to the search field. 'close' button clears the search field, which can contain arbitrary text, not only 'star' character. also, you can search for some text AND 'star' character, i.e. search for some preset name only among presets with assigned hotkeys. i don't want to change current implementation.
Shouldn't it be: (separated by ; )
It doesn't require two semi-colons, or does it?
no, tag values must be separated by TWO semicolons, because one semicolon can be used in real tag value, e.g. in 'genre' tag (but not only in 'genre').
A nitpick:
Personally I find the bold text not so nice to read. Perhaps make it regular. Maybe in a nice blue colour?
And perhaps make the header say: 'Preset description:'
i'm avoiding using fixed color values because windows color scheme can be changed. i've changed text color in this panel to 'menu highlight' color. please check new coloring, as my windows color scheme is rather specific.
These two buttons are next to each other:
But one pertains specifically to presets, the other more to (changed) settings. A novice user would not understand that.
It would help if the 10 buttons on the left and the 4 on the right had some more obvious visual separation.
Maybe something like this:
i've changed this. now ASR window looks similar to your makeup, but not exactly as on your screenshot.
This doesn't seem to work properly.
When selecting a predefined preset and use 'Rename/Edit' to edit the preset and then save it, the indicator will not say 'customised by user'.
(I'm not even sure it is supposed to be allowed to edit a predefined preset?)
When selecting a predefined preset and use 'Copy', make some change and save it, it will highlight 'User preset', not 'customised by user'.
So when should 'customised by user' get highlighted?
it's a bug. i haven't noticed it because i'm using the plugin in special 'developer mode' (some functionality disabled by default is enabled in this mode). of course, 'edit' button must be disabled for predefined presets. i've fixed this.
But, this also goes to the point that I have made earlier: Why not keep things simple, and use only two concepts of presets:
Just 'predefined preset' and 'custom preset'.
because there is no more concept of 'custom preset'. only 'user preset' and 'predefined preset'. well, also, 'customized predefined preset', which is a special case of 'predefined preset''.
There are now: Predefined presets, Customised predefined presets, Customised by user presets, Shared presets, Own presets, and Custom presets.
(and maybe I missed some more)
This one says 'shared presets'.
But in fact it is about 'custom presets'. If a preset has been shared with somebody or not is irrelevant here.
And there is no such thing as presets that can be shared with other people (or different installations) vs. presets that can't.
(well, some will work and some won't, depending on what custom or virtual tags it references, but that's a different matter?)
resulting pop-up balloons with texts like these certainly make no easy read:
These two buttons both pertain to 'custom presets':
The 'export' button specifies it is about custom presets, the 'import' one doesn't.
And the export balloon mentions 'user presets', while the import balloon mentions 'shared presets'.
Why not name these buttons: 'Export custom…' and 'Import custom…'
And make both balloons use the words 'custom presets' instead of 'user' and 'shared'.
no, no, no. i've simply forgotten to change some button names and tool tips. no more 'custom presets', i've fixed this. as for mentions of 'share/sharing', it's some specific of exported/imported presets, these presets are not some 'new type' of presets, but simply exporting/importing is intended mostly for preset exchanging, for sharing.
btw, could you inspect latest button names and tool tips? i think they now looks unified.
If you do believe it is important to have a certain type of preset being described as 'customised predefined preset', perhaps change it to 'modified predefined preset'?
I think it's equally bad, but it would at least create some extra linguistic distance between it and 'custom preset'.
again, there is no more 'custom presets'. but maybe i'll change very long term 'customized predefined preset' to just 'customized preset' later, because only predefined presets can be customized anyway. user presets can be just edited by user, not customized. i'm keeping this long term for now to avoid confusing with former 'custom presets' (which are now 'user presets') by old users.
I think I understand part of the reason that this all came to be is the effort to stuff a lot of explanatory information and variables into the user interface. (both in buttons and balloons)
But I think the interface itself should be as clean and non-confusing as possible.
The same goes for pop-up balloons. They disappear after a couple of seconds and should be brief and comprehensible.
Any further explanations can well go into manuals.
Which brings me to another suggestion:
Have a 'help' button in the main panel. (or maybe a 'documentation' button)
Which leads to a webpage that contains detailed and updated information on the buttons and functions of AS&R.
who would write this help page? i'll be happy to add 'help' button to ASR window.
Personally I like it if a plugin forum topic (the first post), or a plugin webpage contains a direct download link and perhaps a very brief explanation on how to install it.
Neither the AT&RT forum page, nor the plugin webpage has that, and the user will need to do more clicking to get to that.
Not a big problem, a user may be asked of to make some effort, but I think it wouldn't hurt making things a bit easier.
Not only for novice users, I would also like it if could download a new plugin version by simply clicking one link in the first forum post.
(or maybe Phred could add another link in his signature ;-)
i'll add download link to 'mb_TagTools_latest.zip' to the first post of plugin topic (and will try to revise this post, but keeping it in relevant up-to-date state is too tedious. so i don't want to write full plugin description on this page).
- uninstalling the plugin
Uninstalling the plugin using MB's configuration panel does not remove the folders 'RU' and 'ASR presets'
Shouldn't it?
it shoud! and not only 'ru' and 'asr presets' folders, but also plugin .dll. but this can't be done by plugin. i've requested Steven for full support of plugins uninstalling (and simplier way of reinstalling). waiting for his responce (but this support won't impleneted in mb for 3.5, maybe for 3.6 only). though deletion of 'asr presets' folder CAN be done by plugin if plugin IS NOT installed to 'c:\program files\musicbee\plugins' folder.
- about the readme.txt
1.
The readme text has a chapter on updating the plugin.
For updating a portable version of MB it explains that it allows for updating the plugin itself only.
But under 'OTHERWISE' it does not explain what gets updated exactly.
So is that updating procedure in fact identical to doing a clean install of the plugin?
Are predefined or custom presets affected in anyway?
clean install of the plugin: yes it's plugin reinstallation to the latest version, so 'updating'.
Are predefined or custom presets affected in anyway?: no. any
working asr presets are not changed in any way
in this step. preset management must be done
after plugin update.
2.
There is a chapter: UPDATING THE ASR PRESETS:
1 – Open MusicBee. From the menubar > Tools > Additional Tagging & Reporting Tools > Advanced Search & Replace.
2a – Click the "Install All" button to install all predefined ASR presets. This installs all predefined presets and will update to the latest version any preset(s) that have already been installed.
OR
2b – Click the "Install New" button to (re)install predefined presets which were created or updated by the plugin developer since the last time you installed or updated them by either of two methods.
It doesn't say anything about how the user would acquire these updated predefined presets.
And I am assuming that the 'Install new' button does not have the functionality to download new presets by itself.
(which would not be a bad idea?)
So there probably should be some steps added to the tutorial about downloading and extracting files?
The same goes for the related buttons in the interface itself.
When a user clicks the 'Install new' button (and predefined presets are already present), it will just say that nothing was changed:
not giving any explanation to the user about the mechanics behind it.
He would have to guess that a newer set of presets should have been downloaded first.
I'm not sure about how to improve on that exactly, but one option could be to have that button opening a filebrowser that defaults to the location where the plugin is looking for 'updated presets'. That would make things much more obvious to the user.
i don't know how to describe all this in a simple and clear manner. presets are downloaded during plugin download. they are included in plugin .zip. adding/updating plugin also adds to/updates presets in "
local preset repository" (
special asr presets folder, which is
different from asr preset
working folder). ideally there must be no "local preset repository" at all to simplify the entire concept of preset 'installing' (what could be renamed to preset 'downloading' in this case). but downloading files programmatically from publically available services such as Google Drive is not so easy, and is not worth required efforts.
i will be very glad if
you or
@phred suggest some readme modifications, concerning this aspect.
And pressing 'Install all' can result in this:
So it's a successful error? ;-)
yes, very stupid bug
. i was sure that passing null pointer instead of empty string to message box title will result in empty title. it turned out not to be so. it's fixed.
Also, contrary to what it says, nothing was updated in this case.
It will also say this if you click the button and hadn't downloaded any new presets at all.
this info message should mean 'updated in case of installing new presets or reinstalled in case of installing all presets'. i've slightly changed this info message.
I'm sorry if all this comes across at criticism.
While it probably is in a way, I really like the improvements that have been made over the last couple of weeks/months.
So this is just another effort in trying to help making things even better…
no, I myself asked to make critical comments.
i've given as much explanations as i could. now waiting for
you and
@phred to suggest new wordings for ui elements (or to accept my new wordings), and new corrections of readme.
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latest plugin version:
NOTE: i highly recommend to delete both 'asr presets' folders ('plugins\asr presets' and '<mb appdata>\asr presets') before updating plugin and reinstall all asr presets from scratch (i've changed preset naming to avoid preset files duplicating in future if only names of some presets are changes. predefined presets files from plugin zip are named according to guids again, but preset filenames will be changed to friendly names after any saving of asr settings).
https://www.mediafire.com/file/h2t08o9562efboi/mb_TagTools_latest.zip/file