Erratic Behavior of Track Information Pannel

[KangNi]

Hello,

I would indicate a strange erratic behavior of the Track Information Panel, like as multiple screenshots are showing in the following:





So the issues are
- erratic empty lines
- erratic vertical alignments
- informations erraticaly moves out the field of view at the bottom
- automatic artist art switching erratically changes the information text layout

Here are my settings for the Track Information Pannel pannel:



The issue exists since at least three years and maybe since forever.
Currently used MB version: 3.6.8922

Would be great if this could getting addressed.

Thank you.

[hiccup]

I am guessing this is just a result of how you have set up things for the track information panel.

I only took a very quick glance at it, but I see you have contradicting 'instructions' about what font to use per line, and the font choices and sizes are probably also playing a role here.
(for example, I believe using the prompt field to set a font type is not a good idea to begin with)

It's best to start from the basics in creating the conditions for displaying this track details info, continue step-by-step, and keep a keen eye on the exact moment that things turn out differently from what you are expecting.
I'm also curious what you mean by 'erratic'.
Each of the items in your screenshot seems to have different track information and artwork (proportions). So that may also play a role.
'erratic' means something similar to 'random', and computers rarely do something random.

Until you're able to narrow things down a bit more, I'm pretty sure this can't qualify as a proper software bug. (or report)

[KangNi]

Hello hiccup,

I am guessing this is just a result of how you have set up things for the track information panel.

I just used configuration options MB provides in this dialog.

I only took a very quick glance at it, but I see you have contradicting 'instructions' about what font to use per line, and the font choices and sizes are probably also playing a role here.

"contradicting 'instructions'" Please could you explain this in detail?

(for example, I believe using the prompt field to set a font type is not a good idea to begin with)

What lead you to this assumption?
The prompt string was generated in the Template Editor. It allows us to choose e.g. symbolic fonts via {font: Segoe MDL2 Assets; Regular; 10}

I'm also curious what you mean by 'erratic'.
Each of the items in your screenshot seems to have different track information and artwork (proportions). So that may also play a role.
'erratic' means something similar to 'random', and computers rarely do something random.

Erratic or random - That's exactly what i'm experiencing.

The text layout is "jumping around" in strange ways in many cases where the artist artwork is changing.
In many cases there are empty lines added when they shouldn't. The whole vertical alignment jumps around.
If the same track (with identical artist artwork displayed) is played again after another in between (with another artist artwork displayed), there is a good chance that the text layout is displayed different again. Please refer to the 2nd of my initial 3 posted pictures.

Greetings.

[MotleyG]

The suggestion was to take away so many of these customized prompts and settings first. Work through adding them back one at a time and checking the impact on your display. When you see something that generates an unexpected result you can look into that specific change to see what needs to be corrected.

I would also look at the fields where you have composer and year with several semicolons. These are also likely causing some of the undesired results.

This is the best way to troubleshoot your layout problems. One step at a time.

[KangNi]

Thanks for the suggestions.
I'll try to find a workaround.

[KangNi]

Hello,

I did some deeper investigations now.
I'm pretty sure the issue can be traced down to how the available WIDTH for the track information is calculated.
It seems that the available width is getting used from the previous display situation but not the current one, when a new artist artwork with different width is displayed. This is explaining the behavior I previously described as erratic - but now it is clearly reproducible.

Please have a look at the following screen record which shows the issue in very detail:



Here are the settings again:


To me this clearly seems like a flaw, which would be great to got fixed.

Greetings

[hiccup]

Please have a look at the following screen record which shows the issue in very detail:

I've looked at the video twice, but still don't see what is wrong.
Can you point out one or two timestamps in the video, and describe what is wrong there?

[KangNi]

Sure,

0:26  file url and track properties at the bottom are visible
0:38  file url and track properties at the bottom moved out of viewable area + the Track title is cutted away somehow.

Please just follow the mouse.

Greetings

[Steven]

does this work better?
https://getmusicbee.com/patches/MusicBee36_Patched.zip

[KangNi]

Hi Steven,

your fix indeed working almost reliably, in that regard, that the predefined track-url and -properties remain visible at the bottom. In rare cases however, I still experience situations where predefined fields do moved out of sight.
Furthermore, I believe there is still an issue with the prompt fields, if they are getting used with something like  "{font: Segoe MDL2 Assets; Regular; 13}x" in example. Doing so, empty lines getting introduces unpredictably.

I don't want to bother any further with this topic.
A workaround for me now is, to avoid the prompt-fields and using Unicode symbols in the regular fields instead:



Thanks a lot for having a look into that.

Greetings