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Topic: [feature requests] Highlight playing item in any playlist + Better spe (Read 4160 times) previous topic - next topic
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[feature requests] Highlight playing item in any playlist + Better spe

Hi,

I use foobar daily to manage (and listen to) a large music collection (50,000+ files). I tried several tools; foobar is by far the best of all and I enjoy using it a lot, I'd be happy to pay for a Pro version if the author ever decides to go that way.

I have a couple of feature requests that would make my life with foobar even more enjoyable :-)

1) When I switch the playlist, the currently playing item isn't marked as "Playing" even though it's the same file (albeit listed in a different playlist). I suspect the fix should be relatively easy to implement.

2) [moved to http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=96844]

Thanks in advance for taking these requests into consideration and for creating a great audio player!

Cristian

[feature requests] Highlight playing item in any playlist + Better spe

Reply #1
if i were to guess, i'd say that there won't be a 'fix' for 1), as this seems like intended behavior
the file may be the same, but it's not the same 'item'...this may seem like a technicality, but it makes sense
furthermore, there is stuff that would break if the behavior would be changed

[feature requests] Highlight playing item in any playlist + Better spe

Reply #2
if i were to guess, i'd say that there won't be a 'fix' for 1), as this seems like intended behavior
the file may be the same, but it's not the same 'item'...this may seem like a technicality, but it makes sense
furthermore, there is stuff that would break if the behavior would be changed


Hi,

I would argue that to the human mind, the two instances of the file are identical items. (People say "I'm listening to X", not "I'm listening to X from Playlist2".)

So I would be surprised if this detail was intended behavior because I think it reduces the quality of the user experience (just a little bit, though). If you're listening to a song, why wouldn't foobar show it to you?

Cheers.

[feature requests] Highlight playing item in any playlist + Better spe

Reply #3
I think it is intended, because its purpose is to highlight the currently playing item, which is intrinsically inseparable from the current playlist.

But anyway, you might be able to approximate the behaviour you want with %isplaying% and conditional formatting.

[feature requests] Highlight playing item in any playlist + Better spe

Reply #4
People say "I'm listening to X", not "I'm listening to X from Playlist2".


I don't.

You're conflating the library with static playlists. If an item is playing from one playlist then it obviously can't be playing from another playlist even though it's listed there too.

Second, if you see an item playing in one playlist, the next item is the one below that. If foobar indicated them as playing in both lists, which item would be next?

So I would be surprised if this detail was intended behavior because I think it reduces the quality of the user experience (just a little bit, though). If you're listening to a song, why wouldn't foobar show it to you?

It shows it to you in the titlebar and various other places.


[feature requests] Highlight playing item in any playlist + Better spe

Reply #5
People say "I'm listening to X", not "I'm listening to X from Playlist2".


I don't.

me neither
i don't know how foobar handles playlists and its items, but i guess it's not too far from the following:
a song is just that - a song, i.e. a 1-tupel
an playlist-item however is a 3-tupel: (playlist,position,song)
of course, two suchs item may naturally project to the same song, but the are not the same and treating them as being the same would lead to things like
Quote
Second, if you see an item playing in one playlist, the next item is the one below that. If foobar indicated them as playing in both lists, which item would be next?


[feature requests] Highlight playing item in any playlist + Better spe

Reply #6
Veeery long time ago fb2k now playing highlight wasn't playlist specific (worked exactly the way you want it to) and most people hated it much more than what we have now.

Not that I'm opposed to changing it again but it seems like the current way is what most of the people find most comfortable - since now-playing highlight in another playlist would result in inconsistent behaviors of prev/next playback commands.
Microsoft Windows: We can't script here, this is bat country.

[feature requests] Highlight playing item in any playlist + Better spe

Reply #7
@db1989 - thanks for the suggestion to use %isplaying% and conditional formatting, I didn't know this was possible.

Regarding the other replies: the argument is not about how the item is represented internally by foobar or about what makes sense technically, but whether it makes sense to help the user identify visually instances of the same file in different playlists.

A solution that would probably make everyone happy would be to format the "real" item being played (from the "right" playlist) one way, and the other instances of the same item some other way.  (To take things further -- I would even be interested in a solution that helps me easily identify different versions of the same song, say the album version vs the live version.)


 

[feature requests] Highlight playing item in any playlist + Better spe

Reply #8
I ended up adding a new column to the PlaylistView named "IsPlaying" with the pattern $if(%isplaying%,'X',). (Edit: obviously this doesn't work since %isplaying% refers to the specific song instance.)

If anyone can suggest an elegant way to solve the problem, please let me know. Thanks!

[feature requests] Highlight playing item in any playlist + Better spe

Reply #9
1) When I switch the playlist, the currently playing item isn't marked as "Playing" even though it's the same file (albeit listed in a different playlist). I suspect the fix should be relatively easy to implement.


You may want to try the WSH Playlist Viewer by Falstaff, DUI friendly as well as aesthetically tight.

[feature requests] Highlight playing item in any playlist + Better spe

Reply #10
Oh, does %isplaying% refer to the current item, not just the current file? I apologise if so, as that’d mean my suggestion doesn’t help anything.

Just going on what the wiki says, though… seems it might not be infallible

[feature requests] Highlight playing item in any playlist + Better spe

Reply #11
@mjm716: thanks, I'll try it out and report here the result. :-)
@db1989: yes, that's what I noticed too. Thanks anyway!


[feature requests] Highlight playing item in any playlist + Better spe

Reply #12
Regarding the other replies: the argument is not about how the item is represented internally by foobar or about what makes sense technically, but whether it makes sense to help the user identify visually instances of the same file in different playlists.

[...] (To take things further -- I would even be interested in a solution that helps me easily identify different versions of the same song, say the album version vs the live version.)


Ah, now that is a different thing entirely, which might be addressed in a variety of ways.

[feature requests] Highlight playing item in any playlist + Better spe

Reply #13
To take things further -- I would even be interested in a solution that helps me easily identify different versions of the same song, say the album version vs the live version.

Are you referring to giving visual cues within a playlist containing mixed files or creating a limited playlist based on the pattern in the first place?

Either way, you have a ton of ways to do that. You can create a custom tag or just add '(Live)' to the end of each title/album. Then it's all up to titleformatting to retrieve those.

[feature requests] Highlight playing item in any playlist + Better spe

Reply #14
Not that I'm opposed to changing it again


Well, how about an 'advanced' setting for this? Default being the current behaviour. And if someone wants what OP is requesting, it's there to be enabled.

I would probably use it sometimes.



[feature requests] Highlight playing item in any playlist + Better spe

Reply #15
I don't quite understand what the purpose of having the currently playing track highlighted in all playlists would be. If it's solely to have a visual cue, then my argument would be that it's already possible to display the pertinent info via the window title or status bar, and that if a more conspicuous display is needed, various additional components can be used.

Additionally, I'd argue that it can be confusing to determine the active playlist as it stands now. Highlighting the currently playing track in all playlists would likely lead to greater confusion in this regard, esp. for those with many playlists which may contain the same track.

If I were to make a related argument, I'd argue for an additional title formatting value to call the active playlist's name. This would be convenient now but would become an absolute necessity if the functionality OP wants were to be implemented, IMO.

[feature requests] Highlight playing item in any playlist + Better spe

Reply #16
Hi, thanks all for the feedback. I didn't expect my request to be so debated.

I think I'll manage to get the behavior I want using WSH Playlist Viewer. (Not there yet but this looks like a powerful tool.) An 'advanced' setting as fuflo suggests would be nice but only if dev effort is not significant.

What about the upgraded Spectrum Analyzer? :-) Any chance to get an update, for those of us who like the Default UI?


[feature requests] Highlight playing item in any playlist + Better spe

Reply #18
Thanks db1989!

[feature requests] Highlight playing item in any playlist + Better spe

Reply #19
I ended up adding a new column to the PlaylistView named "IsPlaying" with the pattern $if(%isplaying%,'X',). (Edit: obviously this doesn't work since %isplaying% refers to the specific song instance.)

If anyone can suggest an elegant way to solve the problem, please let me know. Thanks!


FWIW I have custom columns in my Default UI that make use of the color control (dim/highlight) syntax in conjunction with %isplaying%, this way the currently playing track is always "highlighted" even if other tracks are selected:

Title:
Code: [Select]
$if(%isplaying%, ['['%tracknumber%']' ]%title%, <<['['%tracknumber%']' ]%title%>>)


Duration:
Code: [Select]
$if(%isplaying%,[%length%],<<[%length%]>>)


2 other quick tips:

1. The default "Playing" column does the exact same as your script, except with a play icon "|>" instead of an X.
2. Double-clicking the status bar (bottom of window) will jump to (and select) the currently playing track.

HTH

[feature requests] Highlight playing item in any playlist + Better spe

Reply #20
@Remedial Sound: thanks very much, this helped!