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Topic: Help with a layout (Read 2161 times) previous topic - next topic
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Help with a layout

I've been playing with plugins and layouts for months. I used to have this set up and I had a full computer crash and have no idea what I did to get this. I'm trying Components, Columns, everything. I just don't have the brain to know how to get this layout back. All I could think to do is draw it out in excel and hope somebody could say, "easy, set it up like this...". JRiver lets me do this pretty easy but I like Foobar and would prefer to stick with it, plus there isn't all the online stuff I don't use anyway.

Just one thing that might help is my music folders are set up by a specific folder tree that goes...
Artist -- Label (or chronological period of career) -- Albums in that label folder -- Songs
In the instance of artists that only have a chronological listing of albums and no further folders for labels, periods, I don't mind if the columns show some kind of repetition of info.

Here's the image of what I'm trying to do:

Re: Help with a layout

Reply #1 –
Hi there,

Not sure what you have been trying. The usual way would be to go View > Layout > Create Scratchbox, click the blank space to add horizontal and vertical splitters until you get the desired structure you posted above, then add the elements and components you want. Most of them are built-in to foobar - Album Art Viewer, Selection Properties, Toolbars, etc.

For columns A-C you could use Facets (column B could be set to 'Folder' or you could use tags for %artist% (%label%) or however you have the music tagged). For column D to show tracks use your preferred Playlist Viewer; if not the default, SimPlaylist is easy to use. Both of these components can also display album art. For the search bar, Facets has its own, and comes with extremely useful filters, but it can only have the width of the combined columns; otherwise there is a search component like Quicksearch which sends results to a playlist.

I would recommend adding a way to switch Playlists as foobar is based around using them, can be either Tabs, the Playlist Switcher toolbar dropbox, or a column based view with the default Playlist Manager or SimPlaylist Manager, or Playlist Organizer for a tree view.

Check the documentation links for usage of each component.

EDIT: I should add in the Scratchbox when you click Edit > Apply Layout, it will REPLACE you current layout. Always a good idea to make a backup / save your layout before making changes, go File menu > Preferences > Display > Default User Interface > Export Theme button.

Best of luck 8)

Re: Help with a layout

Reply #2 –
Quote from: anamorphic on
Hi there,

Not sure what you have been trying. The usual way would be to go View > Layout > Create Scratchbox, click the blank space to add horizontal and vertical splitters until you get the desired structure you posted above, then add the elements and components you want. Most of them are built-in to foobar - Album Art Viewer, Selection Properties, Toolbars, etc.

For columns A-C you could use Facets (column B could be set to 'Folder' or you could use tags for %artist% (%label%) or however you have the music tagged). For column D to show tracks use your preferred Playlist Viewer; if not the default, SimPlaylist is easy to use. Both of these components can also display album art. For the search bar, Facets has its own, and comes with extremely useful filters, but it can only have the width of the combined columns; otherwise there is a search component like Quicksearch which sends results to a playlist.

I would recommend adding a way to switch Playlists as foobar is based around using them, can be either Tabs, the Playlist Switcher toolbar dropbox, or a column based view with the default Playlist Manager or SimPlaylist Manager, or Playlist Organizer for a tree view.

Check the documentation links for usage of each component.

EDIT: I should add in the Scratchbox when you click Edit > Apply Layout, it will REPLACE you current layout. Always a good idea to make a backup / save your layout before making changes, go File menu > Preferences > Display > Default User Interface > Export Theme button.

Best of luck 8)
@anamorphic,
You have a great desire for helping people. This is a very valuable quality of a person. Thank you!

Re: Help with a layout

Reply #3 –
Aww, thanks for saying so @Sergey77 - I appreciate it and enjoy trying to help :) O:)

Re: Help with a layout

Reply #4 –
Quote from: anamorphic on
Hi there, Not sure what you have been trying. The usual way would be to go...
Thank you SO MUCH. I will definitely try this when I get a moment. Very useful and thorough. I appreciate it immensely. Hopefully it will work for me.
 

Re: Help with a layout

Reply #5 –
Quote from: anamorphic on
Hi there, Not sure what you have been trying. The usual way would be to go...
Best of luck 8)
I finally got a moment, believe it or not after all this time, applied what you showed me and it's perfect. Thank you again so much! Is there ANY way in Foobar to back this up? So I never have to go through this again?

Re: Help with a layout

Reply #6 –
Quote from: tinpanalley on
Is there ANY way in Foobar to back this up? So I never have to go through this again?
If you're using the portable version, of course all you'd have to do is copy the Foobar folder to a backup location/drive, which is why I use it.  I can safely experiment all I want and totally mess everything up (sometimes!), and be able to return to my start point with one copy operation for yet another try..  :-\

Re: Help with a layout

Reply #7 –
Hey, welcome back... :D
Quote from: tinpanalley on
Is there ANY way in Foobar to back this up? So I never have to go through this again?
Yes, now that you have it the way you want, just save your current theme as I mentioned. File menu > Preferences > Display > Default User Interface > Export Theme button.

Personally I save them to the 'themes' folder in my install folder, and re-save every so often after making changes or adding new components. Use the Import Theme button (as above) to restore your theme to the exact way it was, if you want to experiment. ;)

Or as sveakul said you can backup the whole install folder / user folder. I think you can go (hold shift key) File menu > Browse Configuration to find the user folder.

Cheers