INTERACT FORUM
More => Old Versions => Media Center 11 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: michel on October 13, 2002, 08:45:22 am
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View schemes define a way to display a subset of data.
Smart lists define a subset of data.
It would be logical to be able to enter a smart list name into the field 'search critera" of a view scheme.
But why a smart list, I was asking to myself ?
Indeed, what we can do with smart lists we cannot do with schemes ? Nothing, myself answered ;-)
In fact, smart lists make sense only if we use them into smart playlist groups.
But why use a playlist group, could you ask ?
Playlist groups (vs. view scheme) are useful because
-we cannot group choosen view schemes inside a view scheme group (but MJ9 could easily offer that so it is not a strongth reason)
-playlist group is a kind of virtual custom field with calculated value you can use to create view scheme
That is the (only ?) good reason, I think, to justify smart list concept.
forum readers: zzzzzz....
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I've wondered the same thing, and why they do not have identical functionality, ie. the way they are constructed.
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I don't feel smart enough for this one.
we cannot group choosen view schemes inside a view scheme group
You can make new view scheme groups, and drag-n-drop to rearrange. It's pretty flexible.
And smartlists and view schemes are built atop the same DB engine. They're two ways of doing the same thing. But to me, the tree is for browsing and the search (smartlist) is for when I know what I want.
Sorry if I'm missing it on this one. Maybe there's some cool way to integrate the whole system...
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I'm not certain that the two are the same. Can you make a view scheme that gives you 2 hours of rock music sorted by song title, the contents of which change every time you view it?
You can with a smartlist: genre=rock sort=name ~t=120
On the other hand, you can't make a smartlist that does what the viewscheme Album Type/Album/Name does, allowing you to browse through your library like it does.
The only way that the two are related, I think, are in their degree of customizability and usefulness. They're MJ's stars, baby, and I wouldn't want to lose either one! 8)
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We cannot do
genre=rock sort=name ~t=120
but we can do
genre=rock ~t=120
In fact, we could say that a view scheme defines a way to present a subset of the db, subset defined by a rule (no rule means all db) when a smartlist defines only a subset (eventually sorted) of the db, subset definet by a rule.
=> we could be able to refer to an existing smartlist to define a rule in a view scheme (without taking in account a possible sort operator).
=> we could be able to define "flat" view scheme (I mean "without "component types" so a view scheme would display the same thing as a smarlist.
I am happy today with view scheme and smartlist concepts but we have to admit that both concepts are very similar (one seems to include the other or could do it with very little MJ modifications) so that could be perturbating for some purist user (as me). If really they are different, that could be good to explain clearly (in the documentation, for example) in which way.
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Thoughts and a question that may make the thoughts moot:
Will View Schemes and Smartlists have the same toolset (rules and expressions available for construction) when v9 becomes 'final'? If so, please ignore thoughts below ;)
IMO-
There are 3 set types available:
superset - all available media, with display sorting rules.
dynamic subset - uses rules to produce a list from the DB contents, updating automatically.
static subset - uses rules and/or manual editing to produce a list from the DB contents at the time of its creation or editing.
Since View Schemes and Smartlists are necessarily going to be supersets or dynamic subsets, is there a logical reason for distinguishing between them? Or for having any differences in their methods of construction?