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[glynor]

I just had the need to save a Custom View out to a file in order to copy it from one Library to another.  This process used to work nicely, but now it is pretty unintuitive to use.

If you open up the Customize View dialog on any view, you can Save it out to a file via the Saved Views widget under Settings.  This prompts you to save it to a .jvi file and the default location is your current Library's folder.

Now, how do you use said view elsewhere?  Well, there is a nice Load a view button there right next to the Save this view button.  So, you make a new blank view where you want to load that saved view, and you click the Load a view button.  It then shows the standard Views preset "browser".  Here's the problem...

You can't access your saved JVI file from in here.  I'm pretty darn sure you used to be able to, but then the view creation process was all simplified and the Load a Saved View button got missed or left out.  Either way, there is no obvious way to load your saved JVI file.  It just has all the standard presets.  Now, I figured it out, but here's what I went through first:

1. I tried drag-dropping the JVI file onto MC (both onto the tree and onto the title bar).  No error, but nothing actually happened.
2. I tried associating JVI files with MC itself and then double clicking it.  Again, no error but no response either.
3. I tried dropping the JVI file into my Library folder, thinking that was the default Save To location, so maybe you need it there.  Nope, no joy.
4. I dug into the <username>\AppData\...\JRiver\ folder and looked around for an obvious place to drop a JVI file.  Nope, no joy here either.
5. Finally, I looked in MC's installation directory, and did a search for JVI (because, again, it wasn't obvious).  Ahh, there they are under C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 17\Data\Saved Views\.  I dropped my JVI file in there and now it shows in the Load a View dialog.

Phew!  That was obnoxious.

Can the Load a View dialog be changed to have some kind of "Browse for JVI File" box somewhere?

[MrC]

Eee gads, you're right.  This doesn't work so well.

[marko]

I made these observations over three years ago...

Quite honestly, for me, the whole save / load a view system is too much like hard work and confusion and has been since its inception. Far easier to find a view close to what you want, drag, drop, copy and edit to suit. That or load a blank and start from scratch.

I drop this and one other link in the "notable threads" thread for reference a while ago.

Edit:
The default save location for saved views is in the library folder in a folder called Saved Views. This is a better option due to things like updates wiping out your saved views, and current Windows versions not approving of users saving their data in Program Files folders. The Library\Saved Views folder does not exist by default, it's fine to create one manually.

-marko.

 

[InflatableMouse]

Edit: I see Marko edited his post so my initial post is redundant (took me 15 minutes to type and verify, thanks marko ).

Once you create the saved views in the library location, the folder is remembered and the files there are included in the create or load views dialog.

All the devs need to do is create this folder at installation time or create it when a view is saved and the folder does not exist. Once its there I think it all works fine.

Something else that should change in this story is that the name and filename in that save dialog should be automatically filled with the view name instead of always being called "My View.jvi" (and starts numbering My View (1).jvi etc).