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[cncb]

Description

We have begun adding Rich Data support.  It will evolve.

Rich Data use zip files assigned to library media files.  They can include many types of files, including cover art, other images, PDF booklets, and more. 

A toolbar button is displayed next to the Spotlight button to indicate that the current selection has Rich Data.  When clicked, it displays a temporary playlist with the zip content files for viewing.

Instructions

Place additional images, PDF files, etc. in a zip file.  In MC, right click on a file(s) selection and choose Rich Data > Add.  Find your zip file and then click OK at the resulting prompt to import the Rich Data file and assign it to the selection.  Now when you select a file in a list with Rich Data, the new toolbar button will be shown.

[HPBEME]

I know this new feature is just getting started, so perhaps too early for questions, but I will ask anyway.

Right now, when you click the Rich Data tab-bar button, it opens the zip file's contents in a new tab.  I did not use View Extras much in the past, but I believe that's what it did too.  Since I don't see View Extras anymore, is the plan for Rich Data to be an upgrade/extension to the (now obsolete?) View Extras' capabilities?

With that in mind, is one of the long-term "evolution" goals for Rich Data to be viewable in the Playing Now main content window (where the ZIP file contents are cycled - like artist images) instead of just static thumbnails in a new tab? If so, that is very exciting. If not, is that something that would be possible?

[Matt]

I wondered about merging view extras and rich data as well.

[Daydream]

With the same caveat that it's early days, I have to ask... Zip files!? How is that practical? Nobody with thousands of items is gonna go around zipping files frantically, just to have them handled in MC. Plus zip files are not searchable, one can't tell if something is there or not until opening said zip files, etc. Am I missing something?

[HPBEME]

... is the plan for Rich Data to be an upgrade/extension to the (now obsolete?) View Extras' capabilities?

Whoops! I guess View Extras does still exist.  Well, like I said, I never used it much and missed it the first time I looked for it.  Hmmm, that is strange, because it seems Rich Data's capability, at least at this stage, is redundant.

I wondered about merging view extras and rich data as well.

Wondered… As in "should we (JRiver) do it"?  Or wondering since "this is cncb's work scope", not yours (Matt's)?

With the same caveat that it's early days, I have to ask... Zip files!? How is that practical? Nobody with thousands of items is gonna go around zipping files frantically, just to have them handled in MC.

I have to agree with this - I was trying to think of a workflow that would not require immense manual time-consuming effort to zip the relevant files when currently none of these files are zipped (at least in my case). Crossing my fingers this will be automated in the future as part of the "it will evolve" statement in the opening post.

Not to mention, for View Extras, the contents do not have to be in a zip file to be shown in a new tab.

[markf2748]

I wondered about merging view extras and rich data as well.

Seems like a good idea to me, at least as far as the display part.  AFAIK, View Extras does not have the sidebar preview strip which is found in the Rich Data Viewer, a very useful feature.

However, consider adding a screen option/shortcut to toggle off/on the sidebar preview strip, displaying as a slideshow only.  There are likely times when users may prefer not to see the sidebar.

[HPBEME]

That's weird - I get the exact opposite behavior. 

View Extras shows a preview pane for me (just like in the past), but when I launch Rich Data, it creates a playlist - no preview pane. Do you have all the files inside a zip file (and do a full restart of MC as well)?

[markf2748]

That's weird - I get the exact opposite behavior. 

View Extras shows a preview pane for me (just like in the past), but when I launch Rich Data, it creates a playlist - no preview pane. Do you have all the files inside a zip file (and do a full restart of MC as well)?

When I launch Rich Data it creates a Playlist of the Rich Data images in my zip file, in a Standard View "Rich Data" Tab.  Hover over a Playlist image to bring up a small "+" sign in upper left corner of the image.  Click the "+", or double click a Playlist image.  It turns into a Standard View with the a lower left corner menu (see attachment).  In this menu, be sure "Hide Files" is unchecked.  Then the Standard View has a large selected image with the smaller playlist images visible in the right sidebar pane.  (At this point, visibility of this right sidebar pane is also controllable with the small vertical splitter arrows, as usual.)  If I switch to Cover View I also see the sidebar with image playlist.  Now hover over a playlist image in the sidebar to bring up a small "-" sign.  Click "-" and it returns to the initial Playlist in a Standard View Tab.

Note:  If I click the Play Tab in Rich Data's initial Playlist, it jumps straight into Display View and I do not see the attached menu or the sidebar playlist.  Probably this is your experience.  In any case, Rich Data deserves a Wiki page, of the same high quality as the Playing Now Popup wiki. 

For whatever reason, I have never seen the Playlist or Playlist Sidebar after RMB on a View Extras menu item and have never seen a menu equivalent to the attachment.  It goes straight into Display View without sidebar.  Am I missing something?  Hence my interest in having View Extras and Rich Data use the same type of display interface, even as Rich Data evolves.  Seems like low-hanging fruit to me.

However, consider adding a screen option/shortcut to toggle off/on the sidebar preview strip, displaying as a slideshow only.  There are likely times when users may prefer not to see the sidebar.

Whoops... Three ways to hide the sidebar are described above!  Still another way is to tap the space bar, which enters Display View. In Display View with hidden sidebar, navigate through images by double tapping the space bar, right/left arrows, Pg Dn/Pg Up keys, or play the slideshow.  In Standard View with sidebar images visible, navigate through images with down/up arrows, Pg Dn/Pg Up, or just click a sidebar image.

5/6/2025 Minor edits of 3rd paragraph.  Add quote.

Win11 64-bit | MC 34.0.23 | Note: Some transition details between views seem to have changed from MC 34.0.23 to 34.0.24 (beta).

[cncb]

Right now, when you click the Rich Data tab-bar button, it opens the zip file's contents in a new tab.  I did not use View Extras much in the past, but I believe that's what it did too.

This is not the case.  View Extras shows you a menu of file names that you can select individually to view.

The first iteration of Rich Data was just exposing the Extras more to the user by showing a toolbar button to indicate Extras exist for the selection and then showing the temporary playlist for them. 

However, View Extras was designed to dynamically locate Extras files and to specifically NOT import them. This presented some problems, so I kept Extras as is and made Rich Data separate:

1) Checking for Extras on every selection caused some excessive disk access.
2) If you have multiple media files in a single folder, unwanted Extras would be found.  For example, if you have movie files in a single folder with cover images for each, all the cover images would be shown as Extras.
3) Non-imported files are not easily accessible from clients.

We did discuss possibly creating a tool that would "convert" Extras to Rich Data.  That is, scan for extras, zip them up, and assign them to the appropriate files.