Author Topic: 'Now Playing' list layouts  (Read 27467 times)

mikebo

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Hello,

I'd like to propose two new layouts for the 'Now Playing' list.

First a compact layout that combines Title and Artist in one line but in different colors so it's easier to distinguish

It's already possible to do this with a virtual tag just needs a color setting for the Artist.
I think it makes a good use of limited space.

Second is an album art layout, which shows the cover for every track like so:

This also uses a different color for the artist name, which in this case i think would look better than say a bold font. The color would of course have to be skin dependent. I like this layout the most because it provides the most information in a very readable way.

Please comment.

psychoadept

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+1 to both, but especially the first.  I've done something similar with <Artist>~<Album> to make best use of my limited space, but eliminating the separator altogether would be even better.
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Gary Young

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+1 for both.

The 2nd one would clean up a lot the current "Album and Tracks" layout for playlists, I find.

MeeMeeMee

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So... Why not go for the next logical step and ask for a $color(color,text) function that could be used, for example, like so: <Title>$color(#E3E3E7,<artist>)
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Greb

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+1

I'd suggest to allow to use a secondary colour defined in the skin too (fg=colour1 fg2=colour2). That way the skin could select the colours that fit better with the layout.

Of course, that should be a possibility, using any colour you want should be allowed too.

mikebo

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So... Why not go for the next logical step and ask for a $color(color,text) function that could be used, for example, like so: <Title>$color(#E3E3E7,<artist>)

But then you'd have to change these colors every time you change the skin. I'd leave the color decisions to the skin makers.

MeeMeeMee

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So... Why not go for the next logical step and ask for a $color(color,text) function that could be used, for example, like so: <Title>$color(#E3E3E7,<artist>)

But then you'd have to change these colors every time you change the skin. I'd leave the color decisions to the skin makers.
You're right. I just gave that $color(...) as an example to make my suggestion clearer.
Besides picking colors directly using hex RGB values, if you could also use element ID names to pick colors, i.e. use the same color as this other object - that would be great.
MusicBee 3.5.8516 / Windows 10 (64-bit) / Intel i5-3470 / 8GB RAM
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Gary Young

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Possibly the basic font color could be just "dimmed" a bit?

There must be some hardcoded thing which e.g. displays dead links (greyed out). I don't know if these are alwas displayed in grey or if it depends on the actual font color (which can be skin-dependent).

I mean:

<Title> uses the "normal" color
<Artist> uses the "greyed out" version of that color

mikebo

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That could be a solution for skins that don't specify a color.

Steven

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i want to do this request but it would be as $colour(%, <field>)
where % is the mix of foreground and background eg. 100%=foreground

mikebo

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Would that value be defined in the skin xml?

EDIT: If you are considering this request maybe you would be willing to implement a similar setting for a secondary fg color in main view for tags other than track title like this:

This would put the a little more focus on Track Title
Last Edit: March 19, 2013, 09:16:39 PM by mikebo

MeeMeeMee

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i want to do this request but it would be as $colour(%, <field>)
where % is the mix of foreground and background eg. 100%=foreground
I like that idea. It keeps things simple and the everything stays consistent.
Just a couple of clarification question, Steven: would this be limited to <field> or could we write whole formulas in there? And could we use $color freely inside formulas, such as $if(<condition>, <artist>, $color(...))?
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mikebo

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Any progress on this or did you change your mind?

Steven

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