Text Display (foo_textdisplay), UI Element for Default User Interface 0.9.5 and compatible Options

[foosion]

Test Display is a UI Element for use with the Default User Interface version 0.9.5 or compatible. It displays text that is generated through title formatting from the playing track or the selected track. The component defaults to the font and colors that are configured in the Default User Interface but allows the user to override them when desired.

The number of options has been kept small for several reasons. Most importantly, it makes it easy even for new users to modify the settings, instead of being limited to copying other users' settings without really understanding how they work.

Documentation

Please refer to the help file that is included with the component.

Screenshots

Displaying title, album, and artist:


Displaying artist, title, and lyrics:


Download

foo_textdisplay can be downloaded from my components page.

[foosion]

As the fall back in "prefer playing track" is similar to the automatic mode of columnsUi's viewers the confusion is existent but not so big like the other fall back in selection mode because the first one can offer a desirable behavior whereas the first one just irritates. Especially when using two displays in two different modes that can drive you crazy.

You actually have confused me here. Which fallback behavior is the one you find confusing? And what do you mean by "selection mode"?

Can you estimate how are the chances that Peter will add a "now playing" mode for his viewers and if he then would favorize the three-source-mode as well?

Between 0% and 100%, read: I don't know. He is currently focusing on other parts of the player for 0.9.6.

Sorry, i am not sure what you mean! If you mean an indication in display without using conditional syntax (please correct me if that is wrong) the simplest would be an checkbox-option "Show Caption for Source mode". If enabled the first line would show depending of state 1)"Now Playing" or 2)"Selection" or 3)"Automatic (Now playing)" resp. "Automatic (Selection)". Such headings may be helpful for users that likes to use just one display and control the source by context menu. In my case such indications wouldn't be necessary as i like to use more dislays so that would orientate myself on the position or tabs of the textdisplays. But as already said, i am not sure if you really meant that at all.

No, I was actually thinking about a non-textual indicator, which among other things has the disadvantage that it could be scrolled out of view. I was thinking more along the lines of watermark like in the image below. (Disclaimer: The image is purely for demonstration purposes. It is undecided if the watermark feature will be included in a future version of the component or which watermark images would be used.)

The first row shows two indicators that could be used to display that the information is taken from the playing track. The paused indicator on the right might be useful, but I'm not fully convinced about it, since this would mean the watermark would show two different things: the source of the information and the playback state. The second row shows two ideas for a selection indicator (my preference is for the one on the left).

The example uses different colors although it would be hard to chose those automatically to match the users color scheme (read: prevent them from being invisible against the background color). The benefit is that both the text and the watermark are easier to read. Using different colors for different watermarks adds another way to distinguish them except for their shape. This means it is easier to recognize the watermark at a glance. For comparison, here is the same image converted to grayscale:

Whit this plugin there is a way to display what is inside *.nfo also?

No, this is not possible.

This post has been edited by foosion: Jul 11 2008, 13:57