Topic: Start Page Redesign (Read 5718 times)

sdgrizdan · « **on:** December 24, 2005, 04:36:22 pm »

Before 11.1 goes public, I would strongly suggest that the Start Page within MC gets totally redesigned.

Right now it looks cluttered, unorganized, and just old-school.

I really like the new "Services and Plugins" page within MC. It looks very clean and informational.

datdude · « **Reply #1 on:** December 24, 2005, 05:17:41 pm »

I would love to see a more personalized page.

Things like profiles of the artists, genre's, and albums that you listen to in your library would be nice. Maybe even make recommendations with links to play the music from your library.

It would be really cool if there were links to playlists such as random album, year, and artist that would automatically play the music when clicking on it.

runemail · « **Reply #2 on:** December 24, 2005, 05:49:39 pm »

Hey why not go all the way and hook it up with last.fm.
Write a better plugin and ship it with MC.
Put some funky charts in the startpage, both personal and general.
link it to both local files and last.fm info.

I belive this would benefit both last.fm and j.river It will definitly bring in some new users too, look at the hype songbirdnest is getting(by just posting screenshots and adding the magic words: "mozilla firefox").

pank2002 · « **Reply #3 on:** December 24, 2005, 06:11:43 pm »

Also, there are other skins than Aubura or whatever the standard of MC11 is called. On light skins such as the Opus skins the sand colored box doesn't fit in.

In other words, it would be nice if the start page was updated. Maybe colors could reflect the current skin.

zxsix · « **Reply #4 on:** December 24, 2005, 10:13:58 pm »

Does the start page get overwritten every time you install a new build of MC?
If not, I was thinking of adding an iframe that pulls in my last.fm profile page.

LonWar · « **Reply #5 on:** December 24, 2005, 10:46:59 pm »

Quote from: zxsix on December 24, 2005, 10:13:58 pm

Does the start page get overwritten every time you install a new build of MC?
If not, I was thinking of adding an iframe that pulls in my last.fm profile page.

That would be cool!!

IlPadrino · « **Reply #6 on:** December 25, 2005, 01:12:03 am »

Does anyone remember when the Start Page used to completely user customizable? Thems were the days.

zxsix · « **Reply #7 on:** December 25, 2005, 11:34:03 am »

Hmmmm.......
\program files\J River\Media Center 11\Data\Default InetPage\index.htm doesn't seem to be the one it uses anymore.

datdude · « **Reply #8 on:** December 25, 2005, 02:33:32 pm »

Quote from: IlPadrino on December 25, 2005, 01:12:03 am

Does anyone remember when the Start Page used to completely user customizable? Thems were the days.

It was?

Damm..... Where is Santa When you need him?

marko · « **Reply #9 on:** December 25, 2005, 05:05:01 pm »

It was indeed.
when they made the change to a jriver.com server side page, I complained bitterly. no-one else did though and the rest is history.

the page in the default inetpage folder is what MC uses if it cannot find an internet connection.

runemail · « **Reply #10 on:** December 25, 2005, 05:40:21 pm »

Whats the point in having to fetch a remote page when its always the same (boring) page?

Make it interessting or give it back so we can fix it ourselves!

IlPadrino · « **Reply #11 on:** December 25, 2005, 08:10:37 pm »

Quote from: runemail on December 25, 2005, 05:40:21 pm

Whats the point in having to fetch a remote page when its always the same (boring) page?

Make it interessting or give it back so we can fix it ourselves!

Well, you can always take matters into your own hands and play with your hosts file to redirect jriver to something on localhost. Or ask J River to pretty please give the user some control.

hit_ny · « **Reply #12 on:** December 26, 2005, 07:22:44 am »

Quote from: runemail on December 24, 2005, 05:49:39 pm

Put some funky charts in the startpage, both personal and general.
link it to both local files and last.fm info.

I'd like user-configurable charts

...MC needs a reports module.

IlPadrino · « **Reply #13 on:** December 26, 2005, 09:04:21 am »

Quote from: hit_ny on December 26, 2005, 07:22:44 am

I'd like user-configurable charts

...MC needs a reports module.

Hey... that's a great idea: A startup dashnboard that provides some stats on your library in graphical format - some pie charts, etc. That would be tons more useful that what we currently have.

In general, the sky'd be the limit if we could customize what the start page does. I'd like it to be one great big "visualization" with text, graphics, etc.

hit_ny · « **Reply #14 on:** December 26, 2005, 10:46:44 am »

I've wanted graphs that i could configure for various custom fields for a very long time.

The start page is a nice place to put them, like some kind of summary.

..or maybe can make a plugin that does pies & histograms to spec...

datdude · « **Reply #15 on:** December 26, 2005, 12:38:12 pm »

I personally would have no use for the histograms and pie charts but some sort of alternate last FM page with recommendations, profiles and possible playlists but only from your library would be awesome.

sdgrizdan · « **Reply #16 on:** January 16, 2006, 03:01:18 pm »

*bump*

tcman41 · « **Reply #17 on:** January 16, 2006, 03:13:43 pm »

Yes, a more user friendly and informative start page would be a cool thing indeed, i vote yes, lol

TC

Jaqqe · « **Reply #18 on:** January 21, 2006, 12:47:03 pm »

The startpage should definetly be editable by the user. User should at least have the option to select any URL as the startup page (local or online). I can not imagine this being a big stretch for JRiver?

Of course it might also be nice to be able to select some personal smartlist listing as startup page...

micahmj11 · « **Reply #19 on:** January 21, 2006, 02:20:48 pm »

Quote

Of course it might also be nice to be able to select some personal smartlist listing as startup page...

Right now you can change what page the MC starts up on by configuring Tools > Options > Startup. I have MC startup on "Playing Now" so I don't see the startup page unless I navigate to it. The problem is that everytime I disconnect my handheld after a sync, MC then defaults to the startup page. I think there are other times that MC defaults there as well. I recommend that MC show the default startup location defined in options as the page that MC automatically shows after disconnecting a handheld. That way, if a user is not satisfied with the look of the start page, they will only have to see it when they actually need to access it.

datdude · « **Reply #20 on:** January 21, 2006, 02:44:08 pm »

Quote from: micahmj11 on January 21, 2006, 02:20:48 pm

Right now you can change what page the MC starts up on by configuring Tools > Options > Startup. I have MC startup on "Playing Now" so I don't see the startup page unless I navigate to it. The problem is that everytime I disconnect my handheld after a sync, MC then defaults to the startup page. I think there are other times that MC defaults there as well. I recommend that MC show the default startup location defined in options as the page that MC automatically shows after disconnecting a handheld. That way, if a user is not satisfied with the look of the start page, they will only have to see it when they actually need to access it.

I don't think they mean changing the startup page to other MC views but the actual startup 'page' being editable to WHATEVER they want.

sdgrizdan · « **Reply #21 on:** January 21, 2006, 03:04:28 pm »

...and one that is better looking containing more dynamic information about your library (i.e. top ten you have listened to) and/or music in general (i.e. top ten on billboard).

datdude · « **Reply #22 on:** January 21, 2006, 03:18:52 pm »

Yes, definitely better looking, like maybe shed a few pounds, put on a bikini, get a tan, yes this would be good for MC.

I think what could be really cool is like you said with dynamics content say for example with a certain folder of pictures, MC would randomly show a picture from that folder every time it started up.

Or it could also display a random saved smartlist.

Also add in things like rss feeds and my.yahoo modules for ski reports and what not, that would be da bomb!!!

glynor · « **Reply #23 on:** January 21, 2006, 04:05:01 pm »

Quote from: IlPadrino on December 26, 2005, 09:04:21 am

Hey... that's a great idea: A startup dashnboard that provides some stats on your library in graphical format - some pie charts, etc. That would be tons more useful that what we currently have.

Yeah! I have to throw my vote in for this one. Even if it was all left to us (the users) to come up with the HTML to display the stuff we wanted, it would be very nice to be able to get some statistics, chart of used and available space, top hits, etc.

runemail · « **Reply #24 on:** January 21, 2006, 04:26:52 pm »

It should be dynamic and interactive, throw in some support for XSPF http://xspf.org/applications/
It should offer a functionality somwhere between live.com and last.fm. I would like to add some feeds from music blogs and music sites, some stats from my favorite neighbors on last.fm and news from interact etc.

JimH · « **Reply #25 on:** January 21, 2006, 07:30:53 pm »

We may make changes in the Start Page in a future version, but there won't be any changes for MC11.1.

Jaqqe · « **Reply #26 on:** January 21, 2006, 08:54:56 pm »

Quote from: micahmj11 on January 21, 2006, 02:20:48 pm

Tools > Options > Startup. I have MC startup on "Playing Now"...

This might be slightly OT, but I miss the "good old days" when I could have MC startup in "Audio". This option was removed some time ago, and now the closest thing to this is the "Media library", but this does not suit my wishes. Very unhappy about this one extra mouseclick. Really.

As to the startup page, some statistics would be nice to have on that page. Of course user should be able to modify the page layout and such. Yeah, good things will come out of this thread, right Jim ? ;-)

PollyQ · « **Reply #27 on:** January 22, 2006, 02:15:39 am »

Quote

I miss the "good old days" when I could have MS startup in "Audio".

I'm using MC 11.1.91, and I can do that by going to:
Tools > Options > Startup > Startup Interface > Location.

Or is that not what you mean?

Jaqqe · « **Reply #28 on:** January 22, 2006, 06:13:13 am »

Quote from: PollyQ on January 22, 2006, 02:15:39 am

I'm using MC 11.1.91, and I can do that by going to:
Tools > Options > Startup > Startup Interface > Location.

Or is that not what you mean?

I'm using 11.0.316 and that is exactly what I mean. The only selections there in this version (and many before it) are "Start", "Playing Now", "Media Library", "Library Browser" and "Drives & Devices". There is no "Audio" in that list, but instead I have to click the "Audio" button from either the top right corner or in the tree menu on the left under "Media library".

Has it really been put back to 11.1 ? I'll have to give 11.1 another try then, since my first try last week resulted in not so good experiences...

Alex B · « **Reply #29 on:** January 22, 2006, 06:38:49 am »

There is no "Media Library" item or "All Media" button anymore. Audio, Images and Video are root branches in MC 11.1. The startup location options are: Start, Playing Now, Audio, Images, Video and Drives & Devices.

A custom view scheme is needed for browsing more than one media type at the same time.

Jaqqe · « **Reply #30 on:** January 22, 2006, 07:31:41 am »

Thank you J. RIver for putting this possibility back! 11.1 seems to work fine now and finally it starts up in Audio mode again. I'm so glad

INTERACT FORUM

Author Topic: Start Page Redesign (Read 5718 times)