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rick.ca:

--- Quote ---...but TV Shows are not the only 'special case'.
--- End quote ---

I'm not suggesting it is. What I am suggesting is attempting to provide for 'special cases' is just going to make it unnecessarily complicated. I'm further suggesting [Media Sub Type]=[TV Show] is 'special' in the sense it's captions are unique, and it's used by many/most users. If I'm wrong, and the same is true of podcasts and music videos and other things, then forget it—restrict it to unique [Media Types].

If the case can be made for a more sophisticated system—and this is a huge leap from the single inert little input box we have now—I suppose it should be a flexible tree-like hierarchy of rules. Something like...


* Default

* Audio

* [Genre]=[Classical]
* [Media sub Type]=[Audiobook]
* Image
* Video

* [Media Sub Type]=[Music Video]
* [Media Sub Type]=[Podcast]
* [Media Sub Type]=[TV Show]
...with a caption expression associated with each. If a rule is applicable, it's children are checked. If none of those rules are applicable, the parent caption is used. Otherwise, the caption of the first matching rule is used.

This help a little in dealing with a complex set of possibilities. But it also quickly reduces to matter of specifying a caption for a subset of media that's only shown in one view anyway. Where that's the case, it would be more straightforward to specify the caption at the view level. This is particularly true considering the design of the caption and that of the view often go hand-in-hand. So what's more practical is striking a balance between specifying default captions by media type, and then overriding those at the view level. That still provides the choice of using simple general captions and frequently overriding them at the view level, or using more complex general captions which rarely need to be overridden.

This also make it easier to specify captions that only vary when necessary, and are otherwise consistent—even for different media types presented in different views. Consistent captions become familiar, and therefore generally easier to understand. This is important for the kind of Theatre View configuration this issue is applicable to—the one with many views handling a variety of media types. So, another strike against the more sophisticated configuration system. Why create something that will only make it easier to produce an undesirable result?

BartMan01:
That is kind of what I had in mind.  Have a 'default' and then have optional sub-options (didn't think about your Genre example, but it is a perfect one for audio) for Type and Sub-Type (or genre for audio).

In your example diagram, if Video > Music Video were not completed, it would use the setting for 'Video' and if that were not completed, it would use default.  That way users that did not need or want the extra functionality would not need to fill them out.  There could even be delivered defaults that made sense for that type of content.

rick.ca:

--- Quote ---That way users that did not need or want the extra functionality would not need to fill them out.  There could even be delivered defaults that made sense for that type of content.
--- End quote ---

Yes, but the same thing can be done in the manner I suggest—that is, limiting it to the [Media Type] level. The stock configuration could include expressions that will handle common situations and serve as examples of how to deal with more complex situations. In any case, the third level of the illustration is easily replicated using nested If() functions in the parent expression. For example...


--- Code: ---If(IsEqual([Genre], Classical), {Classical caption},
If(IsEqual([Media Sub Type], Audiobook), {Audiobook caption},
{Default Audio caption}))

--- End code ---

Using the Expression Language directly in this manner also has the advantage of not failing when anything more complicated than a simple test of field values is called for.

Okay, I've talked myself into it... ;)

The single global caption setting should simply be replaced with one for each media type. Each view should have the option of an override caption that applies only to that view. All of these caption settings should be supported by the full expression editor. And to add a touch of cool, include a button for View your caption as an Expression Column in your main {Media Type} view...

JustinChase:

--- Quote from: rick.ca on November 08, 2011, 06:01:52 pm ---The single global caption setting should simply be replaced with one for each media type. Each view should have the option of an override caption that applies only to that view

--- End quote ---

I would like to see this happen also

MrHaugen:

--- Quote from: rick.ca on November 08, 2011, 06:01:52 pm ---The single global caption setting should simply be replaced with one for each media type. Each view should have the option of an override caption that applies only to that view. All of these caption settings should be supported by the full expression editor. And to add a touch of cool, include a button for View your caption as an Expression Column in your main {Media Type} view...

--- End quote ---

That would have been something. This would help a lot. I have an extremely long caption code today, which is only for some video and music. It's really complicated. At least for me. Lot's and lot's of nested IF's. I can understand other users falling asleep before they get close to my results. And even those results is pretty simple in some of the power users eyes. Seperating this and getting some more options would help in bringing some more flexibility in theater View and Standard view.

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