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Topic: How userfriendly are autosend playlists? (Read 6826 times) previous topic - next topic
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How userfriendly are autosend playlists?

In the new Default there is already a component (Facet Plugin) that offers such a playlist. When some plugins from ColumnsUi are redesigned they will surely offer such autosend playlists. It is interesting to see that album lists dosn't provide such a playlist. Because Peter knows that they cause so much irritation??

I think the most of you remember from many threads the trouble new users had with overwritten playing autosend playlists when during playback browsing is continued. That behaviour resulted in many and different requests.

Before that happens again (and it will happen because there is no newbie with experience in multiple playlists usage!) wouldn't it be a good idea to make an agreement under developers how to solve that problem? My suggestion is to lock autosend playlists and then to set doubleclick for "Send all tracks to default playlist and start playback with doubleclick".

In that case the default playlist is the one defined in preferences under General so that no configuration else is needed.

How userfriendly are autosend playlists?

Reply #1 –
I am not certain if i understand correctly what you are talking about (mostly because you often use the word "autosent playlist" without explaining what it does to people, who never used it). I asume that you mean the often requested feature, that i.e. in albumlist, clicking a node automatically sends those files to the playlist. If you meant something different, then the following thoughts of me will all be off-topic.

The main problem which i see here, is that it collides with the common windows convention, that leftclicking an entry, means selecting it - and that doubleclicking an entry means activating it. I am already annoyed about the behaviour of windows regarding inline-edit functionality of some UI-objects (currently used extensively in properties dialog and various preferences pages) - but i can tolerate it, even though it irritates me.

However, if something like that were done in albumlist (i.e. single leftclick means send to playlist) then this would get really problematic. For starters, it means that it would no longer be possible to select an item, without doing anything else - you could only rightclick, which would mean "select and show options". Additionally, this would prevent the ability to implement selection of multiple entires with the mouse. And last but not least, it may cause quite a few users to unintentionally overwrite the playlist contents. It is often forgotten, that albumlist can do much more, than just show your library and add tracks to playlist. Everything which you can do to files in a playlist, you can also do to nodes selected in albumlist. This makes it quite useful for certain tagging operations and file ops.

I think that the current behaviour of doubleclicking to sent to playlist is robust, simple and in line with conventions. The only thing which i sometimes miss, is the ability to ADD files to the playlist in a similiary quick way - but thats a different topic i guess.

- Lyx
I am arrogant and I can afford it because I deliver.

How userfriendly are autosend playlists?

Reply #2 –
Quote from: q-stankovic on
It is interesting to see that album lists dosn't provide such a playlist. Because Peter knows that they cause so much irritation??

Album List already has a default solution to display individual tracks in the tree. On the other hand, Facets was designed to use the playlist for display to mimic the way iTunes behaves which was what users requested.

How userfriendly are autosend playlists?

Reply #3 –
Quote from: Lyx on
I am not certain if i understand correctly what you are talking about (mostly because you often use the word "autosent playlist" without explaining what it does to people, who never used it). I asume that you mean the often requested feature, that i.e. in albumlist, clicking a node automatically sends those files to the playlist.


Yes, i mean them! I stopped using them since i made some experience with old DefaultUI and saw that i have only disadvantages to create new playlists instead of sending them to autosend playlists by singleclick. So i wouldn't even need such a feature i suggested because - as foosion said in his reply - album list and also facet show the titles. But people coming from other programs will be irritated.

Another solution that went through my mind could be to support the default playlist (defined in preferences -> general) by adding "send to default playlist" and "add to default playlist" for doubleclick and middle click!

[Sorry! Today i am not in mood to write in english so i am not able to describe the advantages of supporting the default playlist but i hope you will recognize why]
 

How userfriendly are autosend playlists?

Reply #4 –
Quote
I asume that you mean the often requested feature, that i.e. in albumlist, clicking a node automatically sends those files to the playlist.

Quote
Another solution that went through my mind could be to support the default playlist (defined in preferences -> general) by adding "send to default playlist" and "add to default playlist" for doubleclick and middle click!

The similar functionality is already implemented in Playlist Tree (as "Library Playlist").  And I find it very useful.

How userfriendly are autosend playlists?

Reply #5 –
Quote from: Frank Bicking on
Quote from: sylla on
I really would like to have an option to create two facets playlists, one for playing and one for browsing.

I've tried that (in a similar fashion as explained by q-stankovic), and found it to be very confusing and unpredictable.

The facet playlist already is a quite uncommon concept in the foobar2000 world, album list doesn't have such a feature for example, but there clearly is a demand for it. However, if users keep shooting themselves in the foot with it, I'd rather completely remove this feature than introducing additional workarounds and complicated behaviour. I'm at least going to reconsider the default settings, which probably lean more towards popularity than simplicity/safety at the moment.

I've got to say I like how it currently is, but it can be a bit disappointing when you play something from "Facet Selection" and then change the facets.  Once you get more into the habit of either using the queue or creating new playlists before making changes, it works perfectly, though.

That said, might it be better for new users if it determined if you are currently playing from the facet selection playlist and if so either generate a dialog to warn the user and allow them to cancel or just generate a new playlist upon change?

I realize either would complicate things a bit, and I am a complete novice to plugin coding, but to me either would be a decent compromise and wouldn't be too difficult to implement.

Moderation: Moved from the Facets thread to this one.

How userfriendly are autosend playlists?

Reply #6 –
Quote from: Frank Bicking on
Quote from: sylla on
I really would like to have an option to create two facets playlists, one for playing and one for browsing.

I've tried that (in a similar fashion as explained by q-stankovic), and found it to be very confusing and unpredictable.



Frank, did you tried the same like musicmusic or the second one i described?

How userfriendly are autosend playlists?

Reply #7 –
Thanks for facets, it is well tops.
I don't bother with album list now, only using facets.

Would love to see facets support the 'default playlist'.
This corresponds with a few others who have suggested the idea of two playlists; one for browsing and one for listening.

Best way I see of implementing it is adding 'send to default playlist' (with 'start playback' ticked)
under preferences > media library > facets > events

That way users could browse collections with a single click on facets via the facets playlist,
while playing only through the default playlist EDIT: with middle click

--------------------
If there is a way to implement this already, please tell me.
I don't use a lot of playlists so new or auto-playlists are no good for me, as I get a new playlist every time I play an album.

Thanks all.