A whole bunch of (mostly minor) usability suggestions

[RichG]

Hi Jez,

I evidently have way too much time on my hands..... I've put together a list of suggestions for making Muso IMHO a little more usable/friendly [that's not to suggest it isn't already btw].

Most of these are pretty small ideas, some of which should just need some minor changes to the HTML - others not so. Apologise if some of these have already been suggested.

1: On 'Artist Page' - make the whole album title click-able to toggle expanding/contracting the track list - rather than just the small fiddly icon.
[Done in 2.5.08]

2: When one album is expanded have the others collapse (optional).

3: Have text buttons for expand/contract all albums not just the icons.
[Done in 2.5.08]

4: Have Track Groups and/or Disks expandable / contractable - this could make browsing big box sets a lot more comfortable.
Like the idea but clicking on a track group header has another meaning at present, to enqueue the group. Will give some thought though.

4: Make the words "Play Now" click-able to trigger playing as well as it's icon - likewise "Enqueue".
[Done in 2.5.08]

5: Album track numbers - display track numbers on 'Now Playing' and in 'Artist - Tracks' view. Also have track info (codec, kbs, etc) of playing track on NP screen.
[For Now Playing page both these are in 2.5.09 - not so sure of it's value of adding track number to Artist Tracks view though]

6-: Make the Hierarchy menus font size configurable/theme-able - sounds like you've already go this on the your list.
This is now done in 2.5.11

7: 'Buy on Amazon' link should open in (default) external browser not in Muso. I only ever use Firefox for buying stuff.
[in 2.5.09]

8: Album artwork page - right click menu on the images that offers to open the file externally (in default image viewer / editor). Good for making quick changes to the images (ie cropping) before dropping them back in Muso.
[in 2.5.09]

9: Have a different theme for each mode. In other words switching mode (classical / mixed /non-classical} also changes theme to the last chosen them when using that mode.
[in 2.5.10]

10: Cloud views, particularly composer, need the alphabetic sort to be by surname. I often can't remember composers Christian names!
[See discussion below: use sortkeys]

11: Order albums in main browser view by artist>year.
[see comment below]

12 A sort function to the 'By-Track' view to allow sorting by date, rating, album, duration, track-name, etc. Maybe also, a filter function to filter by tag, album, date, rating, etc.

13: Add some optional buttons (maybe sitting in the main header section) that can be user configured to send CLI command to LMS (or other such). I'd personally like a button that clears the current playlist - other uses could be to start favorites. The button label could be configurable alongside the actual command sent.
Yes quite like this idea, sometimes I wish I could toggle random mode through Muso, but then again I'd want the button to reflect what the current setting is, which would be difficult to handle generically.

Sorry for the long list - I could break this down to individual posts if you prefer.

[musoware]

Some good ideas there. Only one I don't think is required:

10: Muso cannot auto-deduce what part of a name is the surname, it relies on sort keys and these carry through to cloud views.

[RichG]

10: Muso cannot auto-deduce what part of a name is the surname, it relies on sort keys and these carry through to cloud views.

Ah yes. I had forgotten about sort keys. I guess I just need to go and set those up for all the composers that don't have them yet.

Having said that - wouldn't you be able to use some regex code (or similar) to work out the surname?

[musoware]

Sorting on the last name for composers is feasible since we can be (relatively) sure they are always a person's name, as opposed to artist for example. Double-barreled names could work on the rule that it must contain a hyphen, so Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov would still be listed under R, yet Franz von SUPPÉ would be listed under S - in other words it's whatever follows the last space. However, I'm not so sure this would suit everyone and may not work in all circumstances (some people may have their composers surname first). At least the sort keys mechanism is fully configurable, if a bit of an overhead to get complete.

The Muso classical composer roster has it's own set of sort keys, but I'm not sure anyone other than myself uses this, as it's tricky to ensure incoming tags match the roster, but it is rather rewarding if that can be arranged - it means you can filter and browse by classical period & homeland (country of birth).

[RichG]

Sorting on the last name for composers is feasible since we can be (relatively) sure they are always a person's name, as opposed to artist for example. Double-barreled names could work on the rule that it must contain a hyphen, so Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov would still be listed under R, yet Franz von SUPPÉ would be listed under S - in other words it's whatever follows the last space.

Yeah - I see how that could make things rather tricky.

However, I'm not so sure this would suit everyone and may not work in all circumstances (some people may have their composers surname first). At least the sort keys mechanism is fully configurable, if a bit of an overhead to get complete.

Sort keys do seem like the sensible solution.

The Muso classical composer roster has it's own set of sort keys, but I'm not sure anyone other than myself uses this, as it's tricky to ensure incoming tags match the roster, but it is rather rewarding if that can be arranged - it means you can filter and browse by classical period & homeland (country of birth).

I really like this feature and make a fair bit of use of it with classical music - get the tags right can be a bit of a chore, but then it gives me something to do while listening to music:)

[musoware]

Items 1, 3 and the second number 4 (!) are included in 2.5.08. I'll add others as I get the time.

[musoware]

Problem is with 11. is that other users will want it as it is now by artist then album name, others still will want it in reverse chronological order within artist. You can control these options via the artist cloud view, but with the Album Gallery view it has to fix the order within the main sort category, and I think album name is the most logical.

[RichG]

Items 1, 3 and the second number 4 (!) are included in 2.5.08. I'll add others as I get the time.

Fabulous - I really didn't expect you to action these suggestions quite this quickly.
I really appreciate it your efforts - big thanks!

Problem is with 11. is that other users will want it as it is now by artist then album name, others still will want it in reverse chronological order within artist. You can control these options via the artist cloud view, but with the Album Gallery view it has to fix the order within the main sort category, and I think album name is the most logical.

If it's one way or the other - then I think you're right with having it by Album Name as it is now. I'm not too concerned by this.

[musoware]

5, 7 & 8 done in 2.5.09
The others are a bit harder so may not get done soon.

[RichG]

5, 7 & 8 done in 2.5.09

Nice - thanks.

The others are a bit harder so may not get done soon.

Of these, if you do manage to find time to tackle, number 9 would be the one I'd most like to see. Having themes automatically switch would be a great feature.

BTW I hope others appreciate these little changes as much as I do