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Author Topic: Saved View availability.  (Read 2092 times)

Robert H

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Saved View availability.
« on: January 01, 2012, 04:51:46 pm »

I saved a custom view in the Audio library.  It is available elsewhere in the Audio Library but not in the Playlist Library were I also want to use that view.  Incidentally in the playlist library none of the default views are available under saved views. Is it possible to make the Saved View available in the playlist library.
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Robert H

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Re: Saved View availability.
« Reply #1 on: January 15, 2012, 04:13:51 pm »

I'm back to this problem. I transferred a view to my DJ laptop. To determine the correct place to put it I created a new view "MyView1" and save it. I put the transferred view in the same folder as the locally saved view but the transferred view is still not available under 'Customize View - Load A View', only the locally created view.  They are both .jvi files. Logically I would think the transferred view would be available, but there is more to it than just being in the correct folder.

Is this a bug, not to be expected or am I doing something wrong.
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MrC

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Re: Saved View availability.
« Reply #2 on: January 15, 2012, 09:25:04 pm »

Customize View > Settings > Load a view...

Useless info, sorry.
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marko

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Re: Saved View availability.
« Reply #3 on: January 16, 2012, 12:40:11 am »

MrC, Robert mentions that the view is not available when he goes there, and to be honest, I'd be very surprised if it were!!

Robert, the theory behind MC's saved views is great, the practice however, is way, way too restrictive. I've made several detailed posts about this, but not kept the links, I'll try and find them later. A potted version of the details can be found in the tutorial I pointed you to a while ago...
Quote
Saved Views: Right at the start of this exercise, there was the "View Picker" with its little thumbnails and descriptions of predefined views that could be loaded with a double click. The theory here is that if you hit "Load view" that same view picker opens and you would pick a saved view to load. In practice, most often the view you want isn't there because it does not match the media types of the location you want to add it to. Similarly, the "Save view" option is fraught with issues. For example, there is a browse button in the save dialogue, but, if you save the view anywhere other than the default location offered, it will not be presented as a "Load view" option, ever, and there is no way to browse for a saved view from the "Load View" tool. Views are saved as jvi files, but these are not associated with Media Center, and when forced, Media Center does not know what to do with saved view files when opening them from the hard drive. In my experience, best practice is to forego these two altogether and rely on library backups to preserve the view layout, and when you want to have a view copied, just drag and drop it where you want it in tree, and when you drop, you will get a "Move / Copy?" option. Minor tweaking after copying is a breeze compared to fighting with the "Save / Load" views options.

You can force things along manually using a text editor if you want it badly enough though...

A jvi file saved from an 'audio only, playlist view' has a "view info type" value of "3" and a "Media Types" value of "1".
These values can be found in the first few lines of the file:
Quote
<JVI version="1.1">
<Item Name="View Info Type">3</Item>
<Item Name="Media Types">1</Item>
<Item Name="Name">Playlist test</Item>
If you edit a saved view jvi file in a text editor (notepad will do) so that these values are reflected, that view will then be presented in the "Load View" tool, but will no longer be available in audio viewschemes as a view to load. (edit a copy perhaps?)

It got me thinking though...

Playlists and smartlists are essentially just that, lists of files, no panes involved, so, I'm guessing you are after the column layout you have in your audio view to be duplicated in your playlist view?

If you right click on a list column header, you will see "Presets" in the menu, and from there, you can save the column layout. If you then go to your playlist, you can use the same menu to load that saved preset.

I am making the assumption that when you say "Playlist library" you mean the "playlists" area of the same library as the audio view you have saved, rather than a completely separate library in its own right.

There's a couple of things to mess with for now anyway... let us know how you get on...

-marko.

rjm

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Re: Saved View availability.
« Reply #4 on: January 16, 2012, 12:46:27 am »

The solution I use is to make all views see all media types. The save/load view feature then works as expected for me.
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marko

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Re: Saved View availability.
« Reply #5 on: January 16, 2012, 01:02:30 am »

That still doesn't make the system any more palatable though does it? What do you do, go wholesale, so every view contains every file and work with a "Media Type" pane in every view, or force one of each of the 'other' types into every view? That seems like a lot of continual effort to use a tool that's not really that functional in the first place, especially when you consider that, within library views at least, you can drag and drop a view from anywhere, to anywhere, have it copied, then spend 30 seconds "customising" that view to suit the media type purpose of its new home in the tree?

MrC

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Re: Saved View availability.
« Reply #6 on: January 16, 2012, 01:24:54 am »

MrC, Robert mentions that the view is not available when he goes there, and to be honest, I'd be very surprised if it were!!

Oh, sorry!  I entirely missed that point.  I had too quickly read, and interpreted the issue as being that just placing the view file into an MC directory wasn't allow MC to "see" the view.
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rjm

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Re: Saved View availability.
« Reply #7 on: January 16, 2012, 01:27:38 am »

Each of my views filters on a custom type field that specifies movie, tv, documentary, course, audiobook, book, podcast, etc. In my world each of these types can have any combination of audio/video/image/data so my solution works well for me. Your solution will work very well in all cases including when a view is restricted to one of audio/video/image/data.
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Robert H

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Re: Saved View availability.
« Reply #8 on: January 16, 2012, 01:01:28 pm »

You can force things along manually using a text editor if you want it badly enough though...

A jvi file saved from an 'audio only, playlist view' has a "view info type" value of "3" and a "Media Types" value of "1".
These values can be found in the first few lines of the file:If you edit a saved view jvi file in a text editor (notepad will do) so that these values are reflected, that view will then be presented in the "Load View" tool, but will no longer be available in audio viewschemes as a view to load. (edit a copy perhaps?)

That's what I thought would have to happen, "trick" the system so to speak.

Quote
I am making the assumption that when you say "Playlist library" you mean the "playlists" area of the same library as the audio view you have saved, rather than a completely separate library in its own right.

I'm not sure if I was using the correct jargon when I said "playlist Library" I was referring to the playlist area, that includes smartlists, in the tree on the left side panel.  I wanted to use a view that I had created (panes and all) in a playlist.  My short term work around was to use the playlist as an "include files" rule.  So instead of using the view in the playlist, I used the playlist as a filter for the view which resides in the audio library.

Thanks for the dope, I'm going reread the view the  info you pointed me at earlier as well.
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