INTERACT FORUM
More => Old Versions => Media Center 15 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: mark_h on July 16, 2010, 03:42:18 am
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Request: Could we have all open tabs updated automatically when the track changes? I feel this would be a very useful addition and help the software present multiple data tabs more usefully. Currently one has to manually refresh non-active tabs when the track changes, which is non-optimal to the user experience.
Created a poll to see if others would find this useful...
Cheers,
Mark
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This just sounds like a bug.
What exactly in the user interface isn't updating properly?
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Hi Matt,
Here's one scenario I use which doesn't "work" right now:
Tab 1 contains Playing Now
Tab 2 contains my voting view and references the currently playing track (using isplaying() )to display it's data.
The idea is that Tab 1 shows the current playlist and then I can flick to Tab 2 to vote for the current track (that view displays the current playing track along with other tracks by the same artist to aid getting an accurate vote).
When the track changes, Tab 1 Playing Now automatically updates and highlights the next track. Tab 2 remains static with whatever data was present last time it was refreshed. Only when I hit refresh does it update to show the information for the currently playing track...
I do notice, however, that if both tabs show Now Playing views, they both update... so it seems Playing Now views know to update themselves, but other views do not???
Essentially I would like all tabs to be refreshed when tracks change so that they update themselves to work with the logic of isplaying() that I am using and reflect data for the currently playing track without my intervention...
Does that make sense???
Cheers,
Mark
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Essentially I would like all tabs to be refreshed when tracks change so that they update themselves to work with the logic of isplaying() that I am using and reflect data for the currently playing track without my intervention.
I do something similar in Theatre View—using an IsPlaying()-based views while listening to "radio" play. Unfortunately, such a view does not automatically refresh when the track changes. Furthermore, there's no "refresh" command available in Theatre View—it has to be effected by leaving and reentering the view (not a big deal, but still an extra key-press).
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I'm not sure what you're voting view is.
If it's a Smartlist, by design, a smartlist only updates when you use the 'Refresh' command or when you leave and come back using the tree.
Imagine a smartlist like "100 Random Songs". It would be bad if the list could keep changing as you tried to use it. For this reason, smartlist updates are a more explicit action. This is also an argument for why the smartlist can't auto-refresh on tab changes.
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This is also an argument for why the smartlist can't auto-refresh on tab changes.
And a pretty good one. ;)
But maybe "refresh on track change" could be added as a view option.
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As long as it is optional and OFF by default, it might be useful. Ideally it's a per-view option, not a global option.
I already struggle with MC jumping view track focus while I'm playing and editing tags (reported elsewhere), and I routinely jump among tags to visit different portions of the library while working on certain tracks or even mid-tagging a track. The proposed type of behavior change must be optional, to avoid anything that would make a view less static.
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I'm not sure what you're voting view is.
If it's a Smartlist, by design, a smartlist only updates when you use the 'Refresh' command or when you leave and come back using the tree.
Imagine a smartlist like "100 Random Songs". It would be bad if the list could keep changing as you tried to use it. For this reason, smartlist updates are a more explicit action. This is also an argument for why the smartlist can't auto-refresh on tab changes.
Matt, yes, it's a smartlist and your example is a good argument against a global change. However, I echo the other posters that optional "auto refresh" would be ideal. MC allows us to do some very powerful things, which is why we love it so much, but in this case it's almost too powerful - I've been able to create a smartlist view which is exceptionally useful, but which is currently hamstrung by the software...
The image below shows what I'm doing; using the isplaying() track to generate a view containing context sensitive data, in this case to list all tracks in my collection with the same name, with the currently playing track highlighted. I use this, and similar views, to aid my track rating and being able to flick between tabs is awesome, but having to manually refresh is slightly less so.
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4050/4577983576_7e9df09742_o_d.jpg)