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Author Topic: MC Ultra TrackInfo Plugins  (Read 618 times)

EnglishTiger

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MC Ultra TrackInfo Plugins
« on: January 19, 2024, 01:28:30 pm »

As of MC32.0.31 there are now 7 V2.0 MC Ultra TrackInfo Plugins. The Basic TrackInfo, Album + Track Info and Tags panels have been restructured to make them more Classical Music Friendly, and there are 4 New Variants - MC Ultra IV and the Classical Music Friendly MC Ultra IIC, IIIC and IVC that have Track + Album Info as the default "View..."

MC Ultra TrackInfo Plugins is a family of 7 lightweight trackinfo plugins designed for use with every Standard View Skin.</br>
They combine most of the options from CSS Dream, one of MC's oldest trackinfo plugins, with some options and features from the ET Ultimate Series of trackinfo plugins.
They use responsive/flexible columns and rows to display the Album Artwork and Field/Tag Information/Data; the font size adjusts with the Display Panel height whilst the Cover Art size and position adjusts with both its width and height.
They have 2 DropDown Menus, "View..."  to allow the user to control what Field/Tag Information/Data is displayed, and "Search for..." to allow the user to obtain relevant info from the Web.
Column 1 is used to display the DropDown Menus, CoverArt and Basic Track Info and Column 2 where the Header and Field/Tag Information/Data for the selected "View..." is displayed.
Field/Tag names and their content are always displayed in full.
The routines/methods used to extract data from the MC Library fields/tags were designed to cope with some of the fields/tags they can display being present on some installations and not on others.
Unlike the 2 MC Tag Windows where the background colour can be used to differentiate between Fields/Tags that can be edited and those that can't, the variants that display Tag Windows Content display a lock symbol for Fields/Tags that can't be edited.

NOTE. Due to the limitations of the methods used when determining if a field/tag is not empty the MC Ultra IV & IVC "Tags with Values" options do not display the content of the following fields/tags - Biography, Composers Biography, Lyrics or Notes, nor should they be modified to display them or the contents of any other field/tag that has an Edit Type of Large Value.

They automatically switch between Classical and Non-Classical display modes when displaying the Basic Track Info in Column 1 and the Track + Album Info in Column 2.

N.B. The MC Ultra TrackInfo Plugins use; Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Modernist, Postmodernist or Contemporary in the MC Genre Field/Tag of the track being played to switch into "Classical Display Mode"

Thanks to some excellent work by Matt, Bob and Hendrik unlike all existing TrackInfo Plugins, which use hard-coded colour information/values, the MC Ultra TrackInfo Plugins get their Back and Text Colour Information/Values from the Skin that is currently loaded/in use.
While MC is playing a selection of tracks and you decide to change skins whilst a Track is Playing when MC starts playing the next track the plugin will "Automatically" switch to using the same Back and Text Colours as the new skin.
Or if you want the "Skin Matching Magic" to happen while the current track is playing all you have to do is Click on the Plugin's Cover Art, it acts as a Button that will refresh/reload the current view.

The main difference between the variants is the number of options available on the "View..." DropDown Menu.

MC Ultra, MC Ultra II, III and IV

MC Ultra has 6 options:-
Biography - Displays the contents from the Biography field/tag
Comments - Displays the contents from the Comment field/tag
Lyrics in 1 Column with Vertical Scrollbar - displays the Centred Lyrics in 1 Column.
Lyrics in 2 Columns with Horizontal Scrollbar - displays the Centred Lyrics in 2 Columns.
Lyrics in 3 Columns with Horizontal Scrollbar - displays the Centred Lyrics in 3 Columns.
Notes - Displays the contents from the Notes field/tag

If you don't already have a Biography field/tag in your MC Library and wish to implement one then, since it is normally used to hold the "Artists Biography", I recommend that you set it up with an Edit Type of String, Relational store on value for each artist and an Edit Type of Large Value.

MC Ultra II adds a 7th option:-
Track + Album Info - A combination of the Track + Info page from the ET Ultimate Series of trackinfo plugins and the File Info and Played Info panels from CSS Dream

MC Ultra III has 9 options:-
The 6 from MC Ultra plus
Tags - Modern Tag Window - Displays the contents of all the tags/fields that are visible in the Trees Modern Tag Window
Tags - Legacy Tag Window - Displays the contents of all the the tags/fields that are visible in the Trees Legacy Tag Window
Track + Album Info option from MC Ultra II

MC Ultra IV has 11 options:-
The 6 from MC Ultra plus
Tags - Modern Tag Window - Displays the contents of all the fields/tags that are visible in the Modern Tag Window
Tags - Modern Tag Window - Tags with Values - Only displays those fields/tags and content that are visible in the Modern Tag Window that have content
Tags - Legacy Tag Window - Displays the contents of all the the fields/tags that are visible in the Legacy Tag Window
Tags - Legacy Tag Window - Tags with Values - Only displays those fields/tags and content that are visible in the Legacy Tag Window that have content
Track + Album Info option from MC Ultra II

MC Ultra IIC, IIIC and IVC
Unlike MC Ultra, MC Ultra II, III & IV, which have the "Lyrics in 2 Columns with Horizontal Scrollbar" as the default "View...", MC Ultra IIC, IIIC and IVC all have the "Track + Album Info" as the default  "View...".
They have the same options on the "View..." DropDown Menu as MC Ultra II, III or IV
However the Biography option is relabelled as "Artists Biography" to make it more obvious that "Biography" is a Relational Field tied to the Artist field/tag
Plus an additional option:- Composer's Biography - Displays the contents from the Composer's Biography field/tag

If you don't already have a Composer's Biography field/tag in your MC Library and wish to implement one I recommend that you set it up with an Edit Type of String, Relational store one value for each composer and an Edit Type of Large Value.   

The "Search for..." DropDown Menu provides the same 11 Options in all 7 variants:-
Info about Artist on Wiki
Info about Album on Wiki
Info about Track on Wiki
Info about Composer on Wiki
Artist Images on Google
Artist Images on DuckDuckGo
Album Art on Google
Album Art on DuckDuckGo
Composer Images on Google
Composer Images on DuckDuckGo
Lookup Lyrics on Google

All of which open a New Browser-Engine Page outside of MC
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ET Skins & TrackInfo Plugins - https://englishtiger.uk/index.html

crashjtm

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Re: MC Ultra TrackInfo Plugins
« Reply #1 on: January 19, 2024, 04:18:43 pm »

Excellent work on the new plug-ins!

I've been using a slightly modified version of the ET Dream In Blue Ultimate I.  I've just switched to MC Ultra III.  Very clean looking - and the skin matching works great.

Thanks all!
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