Listener Wrote: > > > > (1) Add "Performer" contributor type > > What does SS do with it? Is it combined with Artist in the Artist > search? Is it a separate Browsable tag? >
I'm sure this needs to be a separate browsable tag. That would allow you to browse (or search from the web page) for a case where performer=x AND conductor=y AND ensemble=z, for example. > > The menu of search fields on the SB should be based on the list of > Browsable tags from (2). Should the advanced search page include just > the Browsable tags from (2) or all the tags SS stores in the Database? I think just the browsable tags, but wouldn't want to defend this choice on the barricades. I was looking for simplicity. > > If the user checks for browsing on Composer or conductor, should that > contributor still be added to the artist tag values for an artist > browse? I can see that the scheme gives more flexibility, though I was hoping to keep it simple (to code and to use!) and I'm not sure this buys a lot. Given a capability to browse on Composer/conductor/band, I'd have thought you could drop the functionality to merge these tags with "artist", though backwards compatibility is of course a good thing. > > Ceejay suggested that the multi-level browse should display a list of > Albums after each Browse step. That isn't consistent with the way SS > works now and I don't know that it fits for all stages for all previous > selections. Yes. I did give this quite a lot of thought. If you are narrowing down your selection I think it is critical to show the reduced data set as you go... otherwise its far too easy to end up specifying a combination with no matches, and then you're not sure where you went wrong. Similarly if you are applying selection criteria and get to a point where you have, say 3 or 4 items on your list, you might as well just scroll and select. Agreed that if you ever select an album on your list, it must be time to drop into the tracks. > > A suggestion: After the user browses on one tag, display the list of > browsable tags. If the user has already browsed the Album tag and > selected one Album value, display the track titles that match the > previously selected tag values. If the user has not yet browsed the > Album tag, display the distinct album values for tracks that match the > previously selected tag values. > > The user should be able to press the "Play" or "Add" buttons to play > the displayed Track or Album. However, the selections the user has > already made may eliminate some tracks because they don't have the > right tag values. That is how "Browse Artist" works now. That is how > I think the multi-level browse should work. OK, this is definitely more complex than I was thinking of but I think I can see where you are going. This note has reminded me of an unstated assumption that we should check. Is is safe to assume that all of the tracks within a single album will always have the same tags? In my collection I have ensured that this is ALWAYS the case, because I can foresee some nasty sideeffects were it to be otherwise. It would certainly simplify things here if we could assume it. So far I've thought of just one case where this might realistically occur - you have an album of short songs (not long enought to be tagged as Albums in their own right) with different singers. Does this browser need to take this into account? > > Even if the user has already browsed on a tag, he might want to do it > again. (If Artist contains both Composers and performers and > conductors and bands.) Why not present the same list of browsable tags > at each stage? No particular reason, again I thought it would be simpler. Actually the best reason I can think of for allowing a selection from a given tag type more than once is that some of these may well legitimately have multiple values for a single album/track. For example, a piece with multiple PERFORMERs, or with multiple GENREs. So, yes, present the same list of searchable tags each time. The coding might well have to impose a limit on the number of levels of search you can do, though. Regards, Ceejay -- ceejay ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ceejay's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=148 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=18767 _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
