View Full Version : How about a hybrid display option?
i love the large icon feature for doing directory browsing, specifically because i as most of us organize our music as /artist/album/songs or /genre/artist/album/songs. icons (large or small) are great for directories, but when i get inside of an album directory i'd love to have it auto-switch back to list mode. is it possible to implement a large icon hybrid mode wherein the directories would appear as an icon (using the folder.jpg) but all mp3's (or wma/ogg/avi/non-directories) would appear in list mode. or maybe the logic could be that if only directories are in a folder, than use [large] icon mode, and if it's all files use list mode? any thoughts?
--jaga
upon further thought, maybe there could be a special file, such as viewmode.txt that could contain either 'largeicons', 'smallicons', or 'list' that could determine the default display of the folder.
yes thad would be nice. makes the icon view mutch more usefull.
[AssMan]
2004-03-16, 13:04
i would love to see this again... worked very well in xbmp!
was just going to add a new topic when i spotted this thread :d
icons for folders containing subfolders. listview for folders not containing subfolders. :)
keep up the great work!!
<redundant>
burriko had a great logic suggestion in #xbmc:
icons for folder with subfolders, list mode for everything else.
</redundant>
updated becuase i'm a dumbass.
burriko had a great logic suggestion in #xbmc:
icons for folder with subfolders, list mode for everything else.
heh, i copied that from the above post by illsley. :lol:
hehe :d
would love to see it implemented in xbmc sooooon.. http://www.xboxmediaplayer.de/forums/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif
should i post this to the sourceforge feature request area? i just took a look over there and it seems like there are a ton of items that are not addressed at all. is this the place for this kind of request?
--jaga
yes please add this, i was just going to post a new thread also! :-)
i have mp3 in artist\album\*.mp3 form, and would love:
1) artist level in list form
2) album level in icon form (using folder.jpg underneath)
3) *.mp3 level in list form again
i.e. stay in currently selected mode (i.e. list), unless a folder.jpg is seen underneath, then goto icon mode.
rocky
cant please everyone becuz everyone has their stuff laid out different. hybrid view should just check if the current page contains folders or not. if theres a folder, then show icon view. if no folders, show list view.
also, the "switch view" button is kinda confusing. what's called "songs" and "movies" should really just be called "files." its really showing the filesystem.
how about this:
*first seperate the icon modes from the view menu/toggle and move it to settings (by that i mean the choice between large and small). in fact, it could be either in general settings or both in video and audio settings. that would allow a user to specify large icons for music and small for video.
*next change the view menu/toggle to have the following three choices: icon mode, list mode, or smart.
icon and list would work as expected (with icon mode respecting the size choice from settings), and smart mode would follow the logic to use listmode if no folders are contained in the current folder, and icon mode if folders are present in the current folder. what do you think? i really wonder what the dev's think about this, since none have chimed in yet.
also i do stronly agree with kraqh3d that songs and movies is really confusing, when in fact it should be files.
--jaga
jwerlend
2004-03-21, 14:26
a great idea. but it would be best if you could save the folders settings for each folder. that way everyone would be satisified!
i know/and agree with you. since this is a feature that i really want, i've thought about it a lot. a way to make everyone happy all the time would be to tell xbmc to look for a file named folder.prf (folder preferences) which could/should be in every folder. folder.prf could be something like:
---start of file ---
view=list
tag=track,title,time
sort=name
id3=yes
---end of file ---
which for would great for the standard 'album' folder.
or, for a folder with a mp3's from a number of artists:
---start of file---
view=list
tag=artist,title,time
sort=name
id3=yes
---end of file ---
or, for a folder containing only/mostly* folders:
--start of file---
view=largeicons
tag=artist,title,time
sort=name
id3=yes
---end of file---
in this case, if any mp3's were found it would still show them in large icon format, but you could specify the id3 tag to be shown.
finally, say you have a folder containing over 200 mp3's. as we all know, entering this folder can take a long time because xbmc tries to parse the id3 of each file. so if you use:
---start of file---
view=list
tag=artist,title,time
sort=name
id3=no
---end of file---
xbmc would know not to parse id3 tags (making the tag line useless).
now, the --- ---- tags are just for clarification here, and if the devs prefer a more xmlly style, that's cool too. but, afaik, this could please all the people all of the time. this could also work for my movies, and my pictures with them ignoring the data that they don't have (id3 and tag).
how about it dev's, give us the power to control our layout per folder.
--jaga
jaga, what you propose would be amazing; it is currently the number1 thing on my list of wishes for xbmc :d
sorry, that's getting way too complicated. i have way too many folders that i would need to make preference files for. its just not worth the effort. there would have to be some default smart behavior as well. simply switching to listview when no folders are found is easiest.
i know what you are saying, built-in default behaviour would be nice. i just doubt whether the built-in behaviour would be suitable for everyone - unless that could be very customizable.
the default behaviour that i would like, is stay in the current mode unless a folder.jpg is seen within a directory of the current-working-directory.
it would only take me about five minutes to populate my xbox with preference files - most of my stuff is auto-generated.
yeah, a smart default behaviour is mandatory of course, but make it configurable, exactly like the folder.prf file.
so you just have a default.prf file sitting somewhere, and it is used for any folder that does not have its own. when you change a setting for a folder, the local folder.prf file gets updated / created.
easy isn't it ?
so you are suggesting to cache the prf, and save changes to it, if changes are made via the interfaces? it would be nice, but my 'spec' for the folder.prf contains things that aren't configurable via the on-screen buttons. such as per folder id3 ignoring, and which id3 tags to display.
--jaga
that's another matter...
imho it's more user friendly if you can update the local settings using the gui, of course. maybe it's time to add adv. per folder settings to the gui ? :)
but at least it could update the view mode setting (list / icons / big icons) automagically, since it looks like it's the most requested feature.
i still disagree. *default built in behavior should be simple and automatic and not require anything on my server. *what's wrong with just switching to listview if theres no folders in the current folder, and if there's also no folder.prf file or no default.prf ? if you want to override the behavior, you still can.
in fact i also agree about that.
auto switch to list if no subfolders found sounds quite easy, and a good workaround.
auto switch to list if no subfolders found sounds quite easy, and a good workaround.
this would solve half of the problem, allowing list display of the individual tracks of an album. however it doesn't solve the problem of top-level viewing. with a few hundred folders at top-level, this really needs to be in list view.
i disagree as i want icon view for my top level... and i know one setting may not please everyone all the time. that is why i came up w/ the folder.prf idea again.
--jaga
jaga, i agree with you; just wanted to illustrate that different people want different layouts.
why not just have a folder database that remembers the last folder view of a particular folder--if you want a folder in list mode, set it to list mode, if you want large icons, choose that, etc.--next time you come back it remembers the way you last viewed it.
or, as an xmlly solutions:
<!-- a nice album view -->
<folder>
<view>list</view>
<id3>yes</id3>
<sort>track</sort>
<tags>
<tag>track</tag>
<tag>title</tag>
<tag>length</tag>
</tags>
</folder>
<!-- a nice directory of albums view -->
<folder>
<view>largeicons</view>
<id3/>
<sort>name</sort>
<tags/>
</folder>
<!-- for a large folder of mixed music -->
<folder>
<view>list</view>
<id3>yes</id3>
<sort>name</sort>
<tags>
<tag>artist</tag>
<tag>title</tag>
<tag>length</tag>
</tags>
</folder>
i think i'm going to start a poll about this, because i'm really interested in what everyone feels is the best solution.
--jaga
[AssMan]
2004-04-08, 01:45
is anyone working at this at all? or just a bunch of people talking about their own wishes?
i'm looking forward to see something in the xbmc!
if anyone here at all are planing to code something, do it and let us see something in the near future.. :-)
i can't code, it but i can properly propose it. vote in my poll and maybe the dev's will give the majority what they want.
i have mp3 in artist\album\*.mp3 form, and would love:
1) artist level in list form
2) album level in icon form (using folder.jpg underneath)
3) *.mp3 level in list form again
dido
looks like bobbin007 has put in a solution for not only this request of mine, but another one as well:
from bugs.txt:
added: playlist windows, repeat and repeat one button
added: settings my music, option to disable playlist in songs window
added: settings my music, option to disable repeat in my music windows
added: my music songs, option to auto switch between list and thumb control disabled by
default
directory should not contain files. if one folder of the directory
has a thumbnail, view is switched to thumbs control else the list
control is used.
i have yet to test, but thanks again to bobbin007!.
[AssMan]
2004-04-10, 13:14
the new function works just great!
finally i can start enjoying my xbmc... can't say i miss any functions right now!
thanx again!