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[haggis999]

I have tried and failed to find any help topic or FAQ covering the subject of customising Gizmo views and, unfortunately, I am not finding it to be a totally self-evident process.

My primary interest is in classical music. In addition to the standard metadata tags of Genre, Composer and Name, I have defined custom library fields for Sub-Genre and Work. I have configured a 'Classical' view for Gizmo, that was intended to let me drill down in the following sequence:

Genre (Rule set to select 'Classical' only)
  Sub-Genre  (e.g. 'Instrumental') - a Library Item under Genre
    Composer (e.g. 'Beethoven') - a Library Item under Sub-Genre
      Work (e.g. '6 Variations in F major') - a Library Item under Composer

I would then want Gizmo to display the Names of all the individual tracks within the specified Work (and no other tracks). Is this possible?

My attempt to create such a view has generated unexpected results as follows.

• Selecting the 'Classical' view in Gizmo shows a stacked cover art image for each of my 5 defined Sub-Genres. So far, so good, but it also displays a paper sheet icon for Composer (I was actually expecting a list of Composers to only appear AFTER selecting a Sub-Genre).
• If I then select a Sub-Genre, I get a list of every track in my library that is flagged with the selected Sub-Genre, but it is not filtered by either Composer or Work!

I hope I am simply missing out a stage in the configuration. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

David

[csimon]

Customising Gizmo views is exactly the same as setting up views in all other areas of MC. Can you post a screengrab of your view definition, i.e. the list of categories?  You hierarchy described above sounds fine to me so, as you suspect, there must be something not quite right in how it's been set up, but we can't guess what that might be until we see it!

One suggestion is to set up the view in standard view first of all then when you've got it right you can copy it over into Gizmo views.

[haggis999]

I'm a bit puzzled by your claim that customising Gizmo views is exactly the same as setting up views in all other areas of MC.

If I right click on Audio in the left hand pane of MC and then select 'Customize View...' I get a dialogue box that is considerably different from what I see when selecting Tools > Media Network > Advanced > Customize views for Gizmo & WebGizmo...

David

[csimon]

Yes, unfortunately, it *looks* different because there is not one unified view system yet. Standard view has more configuration options too, however if you set up a Categories view there then this is analogous to a Gizmo view and you can copy it over to Gizmo once you have got it working in Standard view. Getting it working in Standard view first is probably easier for tweaking, experimenting and viewing results instantly.

Can you post a screengrab of your current view definition, i.e. the list of categories?

[haggis999]

I've only ever created Panes views before for normal MC usage and they appeared to be unavailable for Gizmo (and probably also impractical on a small screen).

However, I was quickly able to create a Categories view that did what I wanted. I will now try to recreate this for Gizmo...

David

[csimon]

STOP!  No need to recreate, i.e. set it up from scratch, in Gizmo. If it's saved in Standard View then go to Gizmo views and Add From Standard View.

[haggis999]

I only saw your last post after recreating it (successfully) from scratch for Gizmo. However, that was probably a good thing as I was able to work out what I had been doing wrong!

My first configuration attempt involved adding a 'Root Library Item', which I renamed as 'Classical' (with a rule to select only items with a classical Genre). I then added a succession of nested Library Items for Sub-Genre, Composer, etc. In contrast, my successful view configuration starting by adding a 'Category'.

Many thanks for your help on this  . However, I am still puzzled why no basic user guide exists for Gizmo configuration.

While my new view now works on Gizmo, it is still less than perfect for classical purposes. A typical large scale work such as an opera can have a very long list of tracks and the track names can also be quite long, though I always remove any redundant data that is already included in other tags. If I use my new view to select a specific opera recording I get a panel of 10 identical cover art images with what looks like only 17 visible characters of the track name. In the example I am currently viewing, most of these names are identical ("Act 1, Scene 3. ..."). I have to select an individual track to see the full name. Is there any way around this with Gizmo?

David

EDIT: I also can't yet see any easy way to ask Gizmo to play all the tracks of a multi-track work. It would be a total pain if I had to add each track one by one!

[csimon]

The long-filename issue isn't confined to Gizmo, it's a problem everywhere, and also a problem with album titles and artists too. But the question really is, how do you go about coping with it? Reduce the font size for each track so that it fits in the space allowed? Scroll the title. Keep the title static but allow swiping on it to move it left and right? I don't think any of these are particularly attractive. I use JRemote as my tablet app and it has the same problem, I have some long names in my tracks too and they are not classical!

[haggis999]

An option to display only 5 tracks at a time would more than double the space available for the track name. That might be enough to solve my problem. How many characters can you see at a time using JRemote on an iPad? I'm not averse to buying a tablet if it does a better job than a phone for this purpose.

I would also appreciate your comments on the edit I added to my last post.

David

[haggis999]

Forget that last question. I worked out the answer for myself! The solution is to press and hold on the Work icon. My previous instinct was to just tap the work icon but this takes you to a list of all the individual tracks, which offers no obvious option for playing all of them.

David

[csimon]

How many characters can you see at a time using JRemote on an iPad?

In list mode, and in landscape, the space for a track title is quite large, I estimate about 70 characters. In portrait, around 50. But if you browse in thumbnail mode, i.e. a grid of large cover art, the text label below each icon can only display around 23 characters.  The Now Playing display shows around 35 characters.

[haggis999]

That sounds as if a tablet will provide the final icing on the remote control cake. I would never normally browse in a cover art thumbnail mode, and 70 characters should be sufficient for most of my purposes. Both of our sons have iPads so next time one of them comes to visit I will give JRemote a try.

Thanks again for all your help. MC would be quite a challenge to a new user without the support of this excellent forum.

David 

[csimon]

JRemote uses the same web services protocol as Gizmo, so your Gizmo views will appear in JRemote. JRemote also gives you playlist editing so when you've selected tracks to play you can move them around. It also has similar track-sleection logic as Gizmo by the looks of things - there is a default action that you can specify for when you tap on a track (i.e. add this track only to the playlist, add all tracks in the current view, etc) but if you want to change the default behaviour for any particular track then you press and hold it and a menu of actions pops up, such as add to end of current playlist, or play next, or play all tracks, or this track only, etc).

[haggis999]

From what you say, JRemote has a few more configuration options than Gizmo, which appears to have no interface options at all apart from audio and video quality settings.

David