Artist Node Regression MAKE OR BREAK ISSUE

[Teknojnky]

btw, you've already stated in the initial post how they should work, and I only need the combined artist & album node.

If artist node is not working as described (in the initial post), then I do of course agree that its a regression.

[cmx]

Thanks techno....its clear that we navigate and use MM very differently. It's fortunate that your style of using MM is not affected by this recent regression. I appreciate you pointing out that you can see how using the "artist" node in this way wopuld be useful to others and that a regreession would be UNfortunate.

So far it seems only one other person that the problem has affect has posted...hopefully there will be more and at the very least I am making the case apparent to the devs.


Damn, this is a TIME VAMPIRE.

[nohitter151]

I don't know nohitter, not sure how to respond to your post...as I said I did not clearly understand the MANTIS thread and there has been no clarification from the devs..

Well I was just trying to answer your question i.e.:

This is a very important issue here so I worked through Mantis and found http://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=5461.

Is this connected to the regression?

So in other words... yes, it is indeed connected to that Mantis bug entry. However, it seems to be the intended behavior (not a regression).

[Teknojnky]

I added a comment/suggestion to mantis and reopened it for feedback (http://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=5461), and pointed it to this thread's discussion.

Yay for circular linkages.

[Davo]

CMX says - "From a user perspective it makes perfect sense that ALL albums that an artist appears on shows up in the Nav tree under the artist node."
I absolutely agree - I want to use the Tree/Node to quickly find the albums that an artist appears on. I don't want half of them in the Tree & then have to scroll through 100's of tracks in the main window to find the rest. This seems to be the case if I use the Artist node or the Artist & Album Artist node.

By way of contrast if i use the "Composer" node i can see all the albums the composer appears on in the Tree, including compilation albums where the Album Artist is "Various". The same logic should apply to Artist.

[cmx]

Thanks nohitter. Yeah the questions were essentially for the people that wrote up the mantis entry and worked on the issue...they would be the ones that could definitively answer the questions. I would present it that if this was in fact the "intended behavior"....the the "intended behavior" is indeed a regression.

Thanks for circling back to the manits and reopening the issue T.

I have to admit I was not able to follow exaclty what rusty was doing in the tests. There has always been slightly odd behavior when dragging and dropping between nodes-whether in the "Artist" node or others...editing the database and tags is highly complex and problematic to code I'm sure. Making it work logically internally is important....but please do not limit basic UI/display functionality.

Teckno, as for the () parenthetical artist references in the Artist node....seems redundant. You would be at a specific artist's node on the tree already why would you need the added reference? In the Album or Album Artist node the parenthetical reference IS useful and of practical value.

If the parenthetical album artist reference in the "Artist" node solved the dragging and dropping/tagging issues then sure why not, otherwise it wouldn't seem to serve any purpose for a person using the "Artist" node.

[cmx]

Thanks for input Davo, you can easily go back and reload 1228 and it works fine showing all albums. I'm sure this will get resolved...I think the knife slipped and we got our finger cut off while trimming our nails...

[Bex]

Here's more on the subject:
http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... =1&t=24442

[cmx]

Thanks for the input Bex....yeah the definitions and names of the nodes are not exactly intuitive....the Artist & Album artist node kinda behaves the opposite of what you would expect on first glance...at least as far as the Nav Tree is concerned.

The poster intuitively expected the behavior that is what I have come to expect from the "Artist" node....ALL albums that an artist appears as "Artist" displayed under the artist name in the Nav Tree.

I agree with how I think Bex feels...in that the drag/drop capability should be secondary to the primary function of navigation. Logical interface functionality -then make drag drop function with that.

I think a lot of confusion is simply the semantics of the node names....and possibly a "design bug" as rusty mentions....

"Artist" node- display in the Nav Tree all albums containing any tracks an artist appears as "artist" on.

"Album Artist"- display in the Nav Tree only albums where the artist is designated "album artist".

Make these work as they have all along up until 1228. They are clear and unambiguous as to content result.

"Artist & ASlbum Artist" is of course not so clear as to implementation from a user perspective....

What about the possibility of just implementing an "All" subnode under "Album Artist" that would then display all tracks in the main window for an artist as the "Artist & Album Artist" now functions....wouldn't that really be simplest?...and simply do away with the confusing parent "Artist & Album Artist" node?...

Just some thoughts. Whatever you do PLEASE get the "Artist" node functionality back to the results described above.

[Teknojnky]

Teckno, as for the () parenthetical artist references in the Artist node....seems redundant. You would be at a specific artist's node on the tree already why would you need the added reference? In the Album or Album Artist node the parenthetical reference IS useful and of practical value.

It is not redundant in the case of compilations where the album artist would be "various" or whatever that is different from the artist.

Using example in mantis:

Artist Tree
+ Abba <---- the artist in question
++ Now! Music 287346287 (Various) <----- abba has a song on now! music, but the now music album is NOT an abba ALBUM, it is a compilation of various artists.

The (Various) in parenthesis makes this visually explicit.

Without the parenthesis:
Artist Tree
+ Abba <---- the artist in question
++ Now! Music 287346287 <----- abba has a song on now! music, but the now music is whose ALBUM ? it is still not an abba album, even tho abba has a track on it. It is ambiguous, no one knows whose album it is.

If the parenthetical album artist reference in the "Artist" node solved the dragging and dropping/tagging issues then sure why not, otherwise it wouldn't seem to serve any purpose for a person using the "Artist" node.

I don't think it would solve any problem other than making it visually apparent what exactly the album artist is of the album when it is not the artist itself.

[MusicBringer]

I have just seen this thread.
It is quite a relief to find out this is a known bug.
I was thinking it was my tagging error

When I use the Artist function I want to see all the tracks for that Artist.
With all the discussion that has taken place it seems that many do not understand the issue.
Or, as they do not use the function, do not see it as an problem.

I do, and it is a problem, and this bug annoys me no end.
MM devs resolve this, please.

[jiri]

The change will be reverted and it will work as it did previously.

Jiri

[cmx]

Thanks all!!!