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Author Topic: Smartlist "Advanced" Import/Export Editor Has Max Length  (Read 3263 times)

glynor

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Smartlist "Advanced" Import/Export Editor Has Max Length
« on: September 16, 2008, 10:47:28 pm »

I'm having trouble using the Import/Export function for Smartlists (and advanced search filters for Views as well).  Some of my searches are fairly complex, and the text box is truncating the search string.  When this happens, I'm also not able to paste the text into the box of a new, blank View/Smartlist as well.

If you need to make this string have a max length, can you bump it up fairly substantially?
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marko

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Re: Smartlist "Advanced" Import/Export Editor Has Max Length
« Reply #1 on: September 17, 2008, 12:48:18 am »

I agree with you here. The view scheme search filters are impossibly narrow, requiring that the user opens each search for editing in order to see what the search string contains; there's not even any tooltip help here.

there's something strange going with the expression editor too. When it was first introduced, much was made of the fact that it would enable us to enter 'multi-line' expressions thus making them easier to create and to follow, but that functionality appears to have been dropped along the way somewhere, so that now, expressions must be entered in one single line string, which then wraps inside the editor area. Older expressions that were written when multi-line expressions were accepted still work as expected though, causing much confusion.
The editor's edit area is still often too cramped to create larger complex expressions, so I still knock those out using UltraEdit, then I come to paste in the expression only to find that I need to back into the text editor and work the whole thing into a single line string before MC will accept the paste command. All kind of irksome, if you know what I mean!

-marko.

glynor

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Re: Smartlist "Advanced" Import/Export Editor Has Max Length
« Reply #2 on: September 17, 2008, 01:19:51 am »

If you edit them in UltraEdit, how do you paste them in if they're longer?  Or does that work for you?  Is it just about CR/LFs in the editor?

Any idea why I can't copy/paste from a View scheme's search to a Smartlist (using the new Configure View dialog's Import/Export function in the search editor)?  It looks like it is truncating it to me.

I'm not sure I fully understand the single-line vs multi-line editor part of your comment.  I have a number of View Schemes with complicated ~mix parameters, which I'm copying over (and then modifying somewhat) to Smartlists to use to sync to my handhelds.  I'm having a lot of trouble with some of the more complex ones, because they won't copy/paste.  When I open up the Import/Export box for some of my existing Views with complex ~mix searches, part of the search string (which is currently working) just isn't there (sometimes stopping mid-word).  It is actually truncating the string that it is giving to me.

I'm also not able to then select that exact (partial) string, and paste it into the Import/Export box on another brand new Smartlist.  I'm assuming because it is broken or too long.  It won't even let me paste it though.  Just beeps at me.
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marko

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Re: Smartlist "Advanced" Import/Export Editor Has Max Length
« Reply #3 on: September 17, 2008, 01:30:13 am »

:)
Morning Glynor... you still here?
I'll be right back and edit this with what I find...

glynor

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Re: Smartlist "Advanced" Import/Export Editor Has Max Length
« Reply #4 on: September 17, 2008, 01:32:16 am »

Yeah.   Chronic insomniac.  I'm going to bed now though.   :P
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marko

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Re: Smartlist "Advanced" Import/Export Editor Has Max Length
« Reply #5 on: September 17, 2008, 02:11:36 am »

Confusion probably because I brought the expression editor into the melting pot... sorry about that.

search editor's import/export function first then:
search rules always have to be in a single line of text, so they're not a problem because if I'm building them externally, they go in one line by habit.
While I do have some quite lengthy search rules on the go here, I don't have any that completely fill the 'import/export' area of the search editor, and those that I do have are copying and pasting as expected between each other using ctrl+c and ctrl+v (I didn't think to try any other way)
Are your strings too long to fit in the import/export edit area?
What screen res. are you running? At 1680 x 1050, my import/export area is 490 x 125 give or take a pixel or two. I'm wondering if the size is linked to screen resolution...

and the expression editor, where multi-line pastes were being rejected, honestly :)
I need to get into the habit of doing these in a single line too, as the expression editor, while it does now accept multi-line pastes (please accept my apologies for the mis-information) it subsequently converts the data into a single line; at least, if you OK the thing, then re-open it and copy/paste it into a text editor, it all goes into a single line, and in the expression editor itself, it's a totally unreadable mess!! A mess that still works, I grant you, but a mess is a mess just the same!

sleep well, catch you later.

glynor

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Re: Smartlist "Advanced" Import/Export Editor Has Max Length
« Reply #6 on: September 17, 2008, 09:59:54 am »

Hmmm.... I'll look at it some more and post back.  However, very briefly this is what happened... (I looked)

A long time ago, I built a set of "filtered" View Schemes that works just like SmartLists.  This allows me to use the Panes/Tiles/whatever with a Smartlist-like list.  I now want to take these and make duplicates of them in actual Smartlists, but modify them to make them much smaller, and use them to sync to my iPods.

So, for example, I have one called "Mostly Classic Things" (I give them cute names that make them cheesy but intuitive to know what they are).  That view has these filters, created using the normal "Edit Search" dialog functionality:

Rules:

[Media Type] is Audio
[Genre] is Bluegrass;Classic Rock;Country;Folk;Oldies;Psychedelic Rock;Rock
[Artist] is not (huge list of 30 artists or so that fall into those genres, but which I don't want included in this list because they aren't "classic")


Modifiers:

Mix: 2160,10%,{[Genre]=[Bluegrass]},20%,{[Genre]=[Classic Rock]},10%,{[Genre]=[Country]},17%,{[Genre]=[Folk]},17%,{[Genre]=[Oldies]},17%,{[Genre]=[Psychedelic Rock]},9%,{[Genre]=[Rock]}
Sort By: Artist, Album, Disc #, Track #, Name


Again, that was built a long while ago, but was built using the then-available Search Editor thing.

Now, when I open that View's Import/Export dialog and hit the Copy button (or use Control-C or whatever), this is what I get:

Code: [Select]
[Media Type]=[Audio] [Genre]=[Bluegrass],[Classic Rock],[Country],[Folk],[Oldies],[Psychedelic Rock],[Rock] -[Artist]=[Adams, Brian],[Aerosmith],[air],[Anastasio, Trey],[Bad Finger],[Be Good Tanyas, the],[Belle and Sebastian],[person and Animal],[Bright Eyes],[Bush, Sam],[Coldplay],[Crow, Cheryl],[Crow, Sheryl],[Crystal Method, the],[Danzig],[Dar Williams],[Deep Purple],[Difranco, Ani],[Dixie Chicks],[Drake, Nick],[Etheridge, Melissa],[Evanescence],[Finn, Neil],[Frankie Goes To Hollywood],[Garcia, Jerry & David Grisman],[Grey, David],[Harper, Ben],[Hawkwind],[Hay, Colin],[Indigo Girls],[Interpol],[Jackson 5],[Jet],[Jett, Joan],[Jones, Laurie],[Kravitz, Lenny],[Kreviazuk, Chantal],[Legendary Pink Dots],[Living Color],[Mazzy Star],[McKee, Maria],[McKenzie, Scott],[Nickel Creek],[Nugent, Ted],[Oysterhead],[Pinback],[Queen],[radiohead],[Rusted Root],[Sage, Rachael],[Scorpions],[Shinedown],[Sinatra, Frank],[Springsteen, Bruce],[Squier, Billy],[Stanley, Ralph],[String Cheese Incident],[Styx],[Tangerine Dream],[Tegan and Sara],[The Warlocks],[Thile, Chris],[Tom & Lance],[Tom Waits],[Twain, Shania],[Tyminski, Dan],[Ugly Kid Joe],[Unknown],[Urge Overkill],[Various Artists],[Velvet Revolver],[War],[Ween],[Widespread Panic],[ZZ Top] ~mix=2160,10%,{[Genre]=[Bluegrass]},20%,{[Genre]=[Classic Rock]},10%,{[Genre]=[Country]},17%,{[Genre]=[Folk]},17%,{[Genre]=[Oldies]},17%,{[Genre]=[Psychedelic Rock]},9%,{[Genre]=[Rock]} ~sort=[Artist],[Album],[Disc #],[Track #],[Name]
However, what I actually SEE in the editor is only this (and I can't scroll and see more of it, that's all that is there):

Code: [Select]
[Media Type]=[Audio] [Genre]=[Bluegrass],[Classic Rock],[Country],[Folk],[Oldies],[Psychedelic Rock],[Rock] -[Artist]=[Adams, Brian],[Aerosmith],[air],[Anastasio, Trey],[Bad Finger],[Be Good Tanyas, the],[Belle and Sebastian],[person and Animal],[Bright Eyes],[Bush, Sam],[Coldplay],[Crow, Cheryl],[Crow, Sheryl],[Crystal Method, the],[Danzig],[Dar Williams],[Deep Purple],[Difranco, Ani],[Dixie Chicks],[Drake, Nick],[Etheridge, Melissa],[Evanescence],[Finn, Neil],[Frankie Goes To Hollywood],[Garcia, Jerry & David Grisman],[Grey, David],[Harper, Ben],[Hawkwind],[Hay, Colin],[Indigo Girls],[Interpol],[Jackson 5],[Jet],[Jett, Joan],[Jones, Laurie],[Kravitz, Lenny],[Kreviazuk, Chantal],[Legendary Pink Dots],[Living Color],[Mazzy Star],[McKee, Maria],[McKenzie, Scott],[Nickel Creek],[Nugent,
And, worse, even though the full search string DOES get copied to my clipboard, I can't paste it into the Import/Export dialog box of the new Smartlist, because it won't paste in.  It is too long and it gives me a "invalid entry" system beep.

So, while the text string stored by the Application doesn't appear to be length limited (or if it is, the limit is much longer), the actual textbox entry field IS.
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marko

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Re: Smartlist "Advanced" Import/Export Editor Has Max Length
« Reply #7 on: September 17, 2008, 02:13:26 pm »

OK, I can reproduce this using your strings, and by adding a shedload of my own artist exclusion rules, so it's not just a case of MC disagreeing with your definition of 'classic' ;)
This is obviously not good and needs some attention.

For the time being though, I found that while right click > paste and ctrl+v both produced an error beep, that 'Paste' button on the GUI actually works!!

glynor

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Re: Smartlist "Advanced" Import/Export Editor Has Max Length
« Reply #8 on: September 17, 2008, 03:58:37 pm »

For the time being though, I found that while right click > paste and ctrl+v both produced an error beep, that 'Paste' button on the GUI actually works!!

Sweet.  I'll have to try that to try to get my project done (until they fix this).

so it's not just a case of MC disagreeing with your definition of 'classic' ;)

Ha ha!

Yeah... That playlist really IS old.  I really don't even need a whole bunch of those artists in the exclusion list anymore, because they don't fall into the assigned Genres.  The way the editor used to work (way back) was it always showed you ALL of the Artists, regardless if they matched the previously defined filters.  So, I excluded a whole PILE of things "just in case" they would sneak in.  Now the editor works better, but I haven't gone through to re-edit all my old lists.

Still, though, I use the method of INCLUDE Genre1, Genre2, Genre3, Genre4; EXCLUDE Artist List a lot.  It works well.  For example, I have radiohead classified as Psychedelic Rock.  One could certainly argue that they don't belong there, but I feel like they "match" with the feel of Pink Floyd and other similar bands fairly well, so that's where I put them.  While I want Pink Floyd to play in that Mostly Classic Things list, I certainly don't want Radiohead to be included.  Some of my lists are even more complex, filtering the same way as above, but then also limiting years as well (to capture certain periods of an artist but excluding others).  I don't have some of my more "General Rock" genres as well tagged though, so they don't get that finely filtered.
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Lasse_Lus

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Re: Smartlist "Advanced" Import/Export Editor Has Max Length
« Reply #9 on: September 24, 2008, 05:42:23 am »

yepp, can this please be changed !

to be able to resize the wizard in smartfeeds, it looks like this if you have a big query http://www.box.net/shared/static/dn7ttnbm7z.png

and if that is not possible, there may could be a choise of disable the wizard and just use text so you could paste your search into the smartlist...

i would like to see this in MC12 as well, but i really hope you can change it in MC 13

my reason is that i use a lot of searchwords, and i have to input one word in in row, so a solution for me could be to input several search words in one row, let say with comma separator..

but thats for me, it does not help glynor and marko..but a resize would do.


thanks

Lasse Lus
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