Music Library2 Skin Variables and Task Image

[melearp]

I have been trying to get a good setup for my system (Loads of music, two tuners, widescreen TV, MVP...) and decided that Music Library2 plus modified skin was the right answer for the music side. I have a fresh copy from the wiki just a couple of days ago (can't say what version this means). I am using 97.13 GBPVR. Mostly all works fine but....

1. I am using the SharperEdge technique to put a task image in the menu button on the main menu, and also the task image for the highlighted menu item on the menu screen to the right. It works fine for everything except ML2. The task image refuses to appear on the button but appears fine next to it when the menu item is highlighted. I have task.png in the "Music Library2" folder and in several other folders such as "MusicLibrary2" (no space) in case there are spelling problems. Nothing I do seems to make the image appear in the button. The skin code is simple as follows (only non-selected shown, selected is similar):

<CompositeImage name="NormalButtonImage" size="400,75"> <!-- button parameters relative to the placement of the button - this version is for a normal (non-selected) button -->
<DrawImage filename="..\button_normal.png" loc="30,0" size="450,60"/>
<DrawText text="@buttonText" loc="125,15" size="270,34" textStyle="ButtonText" align="Left"/>
<DrawImage filename="@taskImage" loc="50,6" size="65,48"/>
</CompositeImage>

2. Perhaps related to 1, but I noticed that the title bar of the settings dialogue in configuration of ML2 says "MusicLibray2" (note the spelling). I wonder if there might be other problems like this?

3. Since I have widescreen, I have been experimenting with having the list, leftlist and top list all side by side and the same height. This works well. I have also tried to align them with the playlist and playlistlist. This also works nicely, but I haven't been able to put a PageUpDown on the PlaylistList. I couldn't see this used in any of the skins. Logic would suggest that there is a PlaylistListPageUpDown but this doesn't seem to work. I have tried various forms of capitals and not capitals. Does this exist??

4. I wanted to put the clock panel on the ML2 screen and this doesn't seem to show. It shows everywhere else I put it. Is there anything in ML2 that would prevent the closk panel from showing. Here is the skin code. It's simple:

<SpecialElement name="Panel" panelName="Clock" visible="true" transparency="1" loc="200,5" size="300,95" align="Left"/>


I would be very grateful for your help as at the present time Music Library2 is the only plug in that will cope with the size of music collection, especially the ability to navigate around the music using alpha keystrokes.

None of these issues are show stoppers, but it would be nice to straighten them out.

[psycik]

Hi, glad you like the plugin.

With you question 1, I'm not sure what this actually, means. Could you post some screen shots to show me what some of the other plugins look like when you use this technique.


The directory for you skin files should be "MusicLibrary2"

I can't actually remember if I've made it so that the play list listings (i.e. the list of play lists) has a page up/page down, I know pretty much everything else does.

When you talk about "everything" else do you have any other wiki loaded plugins or are they all the default ones. I'm not sure (and if sub reads this he may be able to help), if i as the developer, have to try and "draw" the clock or whether it should just happen.


Te page up/page down, is pretty easy for me to fix, the sharper image I'd need some idea of what it should look like - and to see if I'm acutally loading the task image, but I'll try to help if i can....

[melearp]

Love it.

I have enclosed a zip with several images. This is still a work in progress. The images are screen prints off a 4:3 monitor and then halved in resolution, but the final destination is a 1366:768 widescreen TV. Hence everything looks squashed in these images, but they aren't when on the widescreen.

MenuWithNoTaskImageOnButton.jpg is the image of the missing task image on the button. As you can see, both Weather and TV Listings are OK. Also the task image correctly appears at the bottom left. The skin code is the same for all tasks (in fact as you know it is only one piece of code). I confirm that my skin directory is called MusicLibrary2 (no spaces) and the task.jpg that appears at the bottom left is in the skin directory (else it would not have appeared at the bottom left!). It is also interesting to note that the description on the button is "Music Library2" and the task description is "Music Library". The skin just uses the @buttonText and @taskImage variables to draw on the button. Note also that these are in my BaseSkin.xml but this doesn't seem to bother any other plugin. The task image at the bottom left comes from the TaskImage special element, and so via a different route.

Music Library Layout Main Menu.jpg is just to show you how I am wanting to use the three lists on a widescreen. I am using the PageUpDown composites at the left hand side of the lists. They all work perfectly on this screen. (music is just a test sample)

How I Want To Use PlaylistListPageUpDown.jpg is an image of how I would like the playlist screen to look. The two panes occupy the same positions as the left and top panes (left and middle in my layout) of the main menu. I would like the ability to put a PageUpDown composite to the left of the PlaylistList and this is the one I can't find.

And finally:
PossibleBugWithToplistPageUpDown 1.jpg (and the same with 2) are two images which I think demonstrate a minor bug. The first is of a playlist which is playing, but has not been saved (just queued up songs). You can see that the ToplistPageUpDown is showing only the bottom arrow (correctly). The second of the two images is after pressing ctrl-s to stop playing. At this point I have no saved playlists, so both panes are correctly blank - but the bottom arrow of the PlaylistPageUpDown is still there. If I scroll so that both up and down images are there. Then they stay too. If I ctrl-g twice (to main and then back to playlist) the top arrow is there on its own on an otherwise empty screen.

Sorry this is so long and I really hope that it helps improve. When I have finished I will post all my work.

[psycik]

That screen looks nice, I suppose it helps when you've got more real estate to look at

I'll have a look at the task image thing, I'm not sure I really call one properly. And yes the possible bug looks like it is a bug.

Can you pass me your mainmenu.xml or whatever displays the task images so I can see whatit does on my one...

[melearp]

Attached are the main menu xml and the baseskin.

And I really appreciate the help.

[Fatman_do]

I'll have a look at the task image thing, I'm not sure I really call one properly. And yes the possible bug looks like it is a bug.

I know MixMan asked for alot of plugins to do the task image thing. There is a solution on how it is done in some of those posts.

Here it is.
http://forums.gbpvr.com/showpost.php?p=1...ostcount=2

[psycik]

cheers, I used to have it going when I was using commonGBPVRUtilities but since dropping that I don't think I actually have any specific code for loading a task image....

I'll add that, melearp are you desperate for a new version?? It's just I'm adding a new feature to ML2 so it may be a couple of weeks before I have something out...(I've also got an update to my recordings plugin to do as well).

[melearp]

No, I'm not desperate. It's more an aesthetic thing. No functionality is lost.

I'm equally concerned that it's not me that is going mad! It's so easy to spend ages looking for something. Most times it turns out that I have just missed something or there's a feature that I didn't know about. The whole GBPVR thing is so full of options and ways of doing things that you never can tell.

I'm happy to wait and will stick with ML2.

I'm also happy to report back on experiences with large music collections (>10,000). I've broken several players with this size - or at least exposed severe performance limitations. I also am very protective of my tags and directory structures. I have written several private utilities (not good enough for public release) to expose errors, like mismatches between filenames, directories and tags, missing tags... I really don't like anything that changes my tags without my knowing, like the software that came with the old Netgear MP101, which insisted on doing "A" and "The" processing AND it changed the mp3 itself (even when the files were write protected!). Please don't ever do that without explicit user permission.

At this collection size even a rescan is a problem. My backup routine takes about 10 minutes just to find changed or new files using a recursive directory scan. When you have invested so much time digitizing a lifetimes music collection you get paranoid about backups.

Since I usually know when I have added or changed something, it would be really good to be able to say - "just rescan this bit" rather than having to wait for a full or "fast" scan. ((To me the fast scans are slow too!)).

[psycik]

Have a look in here for a definition of the fast scan. http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...26&page=23 From about #223 onwards.

No I agree with you, I will never have ML2 changing the tags, I just don't trust programs that much!!

On your size and utilities I've been thinking about a adding duplicate check, but then it comes down to what do i get ML2 to do at that point.

The full scans (the daily one at a certain time) checks for files that have been modified ( a rename does not count apparently to microsoft) so it wouldn't be practical to only scan say an unwritten directory - hmm, but in saying that maybe it is. But then I'd be kind of forcing people into my directory structure and way of doing backups, and the whole point of going db/tag based was to remove the directory structure from the equation.

I'll look into those bugs and the task image stuff..

cheers

[melearp]

Now I understand how the fast scan works. I guess that I have never tested the full library with an incremental addition. I'll try it before I release to the family.

The duplicate check is interesting. I do this with my home grown code, but it is careful about it and only logs the results. It takes no action because I couldn't decide my criteria. So, for example, I have several versions of old stuff like Pink Floyd, The Wall. Most of the data relating to a shared track is identical. It is almost impossible to predict what the determining features are. File size certainly comes into it. Whichever tag you think of that could determine a difference, you have to face the fact that it might not be present and might be telling lies (year is a typical case). I am a bit of a purist and want to keep the original album structure, so the duplicate track names are correct, even essential. And the whole shooting match might be identical in some cases.

I maintain both tags and an artist/album/track directory structure. This does mean that I have to try to keep them in sync, but it also means I have backup information to make corrections with.

On another note: I understand that you can't get AlbumArt at the moment because of removing UltraID3Lib dependence. Is that still the case? I am hoping for returning support for this sometime.