Directory selection and now_playing update

[Matts]

Hello,

Besides support for Replaygain, which has already been discussed (but it's my top-missing feature in Subsonic), a feature that might be nice would be the ability to pick multiple directories for file listing and / or random playing.

That could be achieved by using checkboxes instead of the dropdown list in the left panel, for example (altought it may become messy if the user has a lot of directories...)

This way, the user could choose to play (random) files from directory A and B, but not C. Might be handy when music is organized on a "style per directory" basis.


Don't know if it is more a feature request or a bug report, but it would be cool if the "now playing" view of the center frame could match the currently played song when in random mode (not the small area on the right with the lyrics link but the bigger part of the frame, with the tracklisting of the album and the album art). It currently displays the song that was played at the time the user presses the "top.now_playing" button but does not update when the song changes.



I'm a registered subsonic user, if that somehow matters...

[deriksen]

I agree, being able to randomize more specifically would be brilliant. I think, however, that making this user specific might be more useful?

Most easily achieved by adding a pane with the checkboxes Matts mentions here for each genre to the Settings - Personal page I would guess. This way you can uncheck the genres you don't want randomized. I, for one, have lots of audiobooks in my music folders.

If need be you can just make a 'party user' which always randomize from the grooviest music in your selection.

Of course, I do realize this calls for a well tagged selection.

/D

[mixmaster]

a feature that might be nice would be the ability to pick multiple directories for file listing and / or random playing.

That could be achieved by using checkboxes instead of the dropdown list in the left panel, for example (altought it may become messy if the user has a lot of directories...)

This way, the user could choose to play (random) files from directory A and B, but not C. Might be handy when music is organized on a "style per directory" basis.

Hey, you can already achieve this. Instead of using checkboxes, all you need to do is click the + icon, which adds the directory to your playlist. If the directory is in the left frame, you click it, then click add all. If the directory you want to add is a subdirectory, you click the plus next to it and it adds it to your playlist. So you add directories A & C, but not B to your playlist. Then you click "Shuffle". You don't even need to save the playlist. I agree that adding checkboxes would make the UI get cluttered, and since you can already do what you want to do, I don't think we need to add them.
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[jonathanroz]

Mixmaster,

That works great for the subdirectories but not for Folders like in the "More" section.

I have mutiple "music folders" shared and they are all organized by Artist/Ablum/Track.

I can add each Artist by choosing that subfolder on the left and then clicking the Add All button like you suggest. But lets say I have 5 different "music folders". Today I can only choose to create a random playlist from one of those folders using the "More" Random function.

I do agree that it would be very ugly to try to give them all check boxes. From a UI perspective the best way would be to have a windows for "Folders" with a scroll bar on the right side. You could then leave it at the default "All Folders" or use CTRL to choose multiple.

I do agree it would be nice to have that option, but most of the time I just choose individual subfolders like you suggest and add them all to my playlist and hit shuffle a couple times before playing.

[Matts]

If the directory is in the left frame, you click it, then click add all.

In fact, the directories I'm talking about are not in the left frame. They are not subdirectories either. I'm talking about the folders you define in "Settings" -> "Music Folders".

So I can randomly listen to genre A or genre B or all, but not to genre A and B but not C.

I guess what I could do is defining only one music folder so that all genres would be in the left frame and use your solution, but then I would lose the ability to directly random play one particular genre. I'll give it a try and give you feedback is the solution works fine for me.

[mixmaster]

If the directory is in the left frame, you click it, then click add all.

In fact, the directories I'm talking about are not in the left frame. They are not subdirectories either. I'm talking about the folders you define in "Settings" -> "Music Folders".

So I can randomly listen to genre A or genre B or all, but not to genre A and B but not C.

I guess what I could do is defining only one music folder so that all genres would be in the left frame and use your solution, but then I would lose the ability to directly random play one particular genre. I'll give it a try and give you feedback is the solution works fine for me.

Okay, you described it backwards then. You said the dropdown in the left panel, not the dropdown in the More section. They are different dropdowns, the one in the left frame is for filtering the left frame, the one in the more section is for building a specific random playlist. It still doesn't allow multiselect. Better than checkboxes would be to make that not a dropdown, but a listbox that allows you to multiselect the folders. In the "More" section I mean, not the dropdown in the left frame. If you want to build playlists based on a genre, the "More" section is the place to go as that has a dropdown for genres based on your tags (folders is a separate dropdown).

Just FYI, the 50 song limit has already been requested to be removed.

But, here's the real workaround for you guys since there is no multiselection there. I too use many "music" folders. You can still do what you want to do...

1. More / Choose Folder A / OK

2. Playlist dropdown / Save / !Name (exclamation puts it on top in the list) / Save

3. More / Choose Folder B / OK

4. Playlist dropdown / Select All

5. Playlist dropdown / Add to Playlist / Click Add next to your Random playlist

6. Playlist dropdown / Load / Click Load next to your Random playlist

7. Click Shuffle as many times as you want.

Repeat steps 3-5 for each additional folder you wish to include. Note, that this is also a workaround for the 50 song limit. You can build a 200-300 song random playlist in about a minute that way.
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