"Smart" playlist manager

[mwpmorris]

I'd be very interested in seeing a "smart" playlist feature similar to iTunes, where you can have playlists populated by various true/false flags relating to tags. Having them update each day or at a set interval would also be great. I've hacked a solution myself by manipulating the database - see the thread at http://forum.subsonic.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=17096

I'd guess that it would be reasonably straightforward to implement a web front end to these SQL commands. Not me having to do it though

[acroyear]

To support this, it would be nice if more of the ID3 tags were supported. Composer, Conductor, and Grouping are the ones most important to me, because I use them to tag my classical music folder - I don't like the practice of only tagging either the composer (last.fm, pandora) or some arbitrary soloist (amazon/google's mp3s) as the "Artist".

[rumremix]

I would also love this feature. For example, specifically useful to me would be smart playlist that would automatically populate with all songs that live within particular directory(s) that are also starred.

[acroyear]

SubFire radio has the ability to create a generator that shuffles starred files (songs only) from a top-level music folder. I can't yet get more precise than that, but I may be able to code it in in the future.

http://subfireplayer.net/radio

[rumremix]

Hi Joe,

That looks like it could be a very useful tool. I'd like to experiment with it. I wasn't able to get past the "getting started" page though. There it says "Click the green + button in the lower-left corner" but I don't see any green + buttons anywhere. Look forward to testing it. Thanks.

[acroyear]

lower right, not left. ugh, i'm blind. it is a 'floating action button', so it should always be visible in the lower-right corner no matter the window size.

what browser?

[acroyear]

oh, you do have to log in first. it doesn't magically know your credentials from your local subsonic instance. (would be nice but...)

[rumremix]

I naturally assumed that "getting started" would walk me through the necessary setup of connecting. Also, the term "login" is generally reserved for users who have already created credentials for a service. I avoided that link as I had not yet done that. The UI could me much less confusing. I say that not as a criticism, but hopefully as useful feedback.

[rumremix]

One other suggestion...if you need to be logged in in order to take advantage of the contents of the "getting started" page, no link to that page should be available until after you log in. Otherwise, it is too easy for users to end up scratching their heads looking for a green button as I did. Better to guide the user down the path that leads to no dead ends.

I work in UX so I think about this stuff a lot. Hope that's helpful.

[rumremix]

And if you don't find my suggestions helpful, they are simply your reward for suggesting that I believe in magic

[acroyear]

i'll get around to cleaning it up in a bit. I've been too busy with the day job and what few brain cells are left have been designing SubFire Player 2.

[rumremix]

Understood. I'm heading out of town now but I'll test this service when I return and set up a subsonic user account that doesn't have god privileges. I'm sure you're honest, and I'm probably overly paranoid, but still I feel a little hesitation when entering my full admin credentials into the black box of a third party website.

[acroyear]

the only priv needed is "create/manage playlists", as well as access to the Music Folders you want to reference. There are no other requirements.

As noted in my SubFire blog, the connection is directly from your browser to your server, just as if you were logged in directly. At no point does any communication pass through my own subfiresuite.com or subfireplayer.net server. It just serves up the javascript, html, and css. The browser does the rest directly to the url you give it. If your server is https secure, all the better, but it needs to be a signed cert or you need to register the cert with your browser - chrome and firefox security, I'm afraid. I have no control over that at all.