Idea for another truly useful grid column

[windcrest77]

It would be really handy if the grid had a column I could add that simply rendered on the screen as a checkbox column (a boolean).

People can use this checkbox to mean whatever they want, it would just be a true/false that can be quickly set on any song with a click.

For me, I would use it as a flag indicating if I have or have not yet auditioned a certain song. Having close to 75,000 tracks and I'm always data mining for tunes useful for various dance purposes (working with dance studios), the task is daunting. I dont have time to waste audition songs twice and it would be nice to be able to flag them so that in my next session I can avoid re-listening to tunes I have already auditioned, and chose to bypass rating the song or setting its BPM etc. (which is what I don in these sessions).

Just a basic checkbox that can be set with a click, maybe the boolean can be stuffed into one of the Custom tag columns of the media file itself so this property will carry over in the media file itself too. For me it would be the "already auditioned" indicator, others can use it for whatever they want when mining large databases. Most media types support some kind of Custom value tag that can be used to stuff this boolean into, I would think.

Thanks

[windcrest77]

I want to ammend this request...

How about adding 8 boolean columns? If you are going to occupy one byte in a custom tag anyway to store it, just use the 8 bits to store 8 booleans each mapped to checkboxes in the user interface.

So in to context menu (when you right click the column headers in the grid) you would see something like this:

Custom checkbox 1
Custom checkbox 2
Custom checkbox 3
Custom checkbox 4
Custom checkbox 5
Custom checkbox 6
Custom checkbox 7
Custom checkbox 8

No sense in wasting the other 7 bits, right!

Then in the Global Options area you can provide a panel where a user can "rename" their custom checkbox columns globally like this:

Custom checkbox 1 = Auditioned
Custom checkbox 2 = Song for dance studio
Custom checkbox 3 = Song for personal use

etc...

So after I configure a name, when I add the "Custom checkbox 1" column to the grid the header will say "Auditioned" instead of "Custom checkbox 1"


Checkboxes are really very handy things to have in the grid when musicologists or dance studios need to audition thousands of songs.

[Lowlander]

This has been requested in the past a few times too. Another suggestion was the ability to set a custom field to a boolean representation in MediaMonkey.

[windcrest77]

This has been requested in the past a few times too. Another suggestion was the ability to set a custom field to a boolean representation in MediaMonkey.

The main thing for me is to get a simple checkbox in the grid, so one does not have to click multiple times for a drop down list like for example setting "Mood". MM offers so many categories and genres and ways to enter various category descriptions, what is missing is a simple checkbox(s) per song that is(are) one-click operated.

[Mizery_Made]

Even if it were to be implemented, I doubt it would be "one click" and rather actually be "two click". Reason I say this is, the Ratings used to be "one click" and people complained about how easy it was to accidentally alter a rating. Thus, it was changed to where you can only click and set the rating of the currently selected track. If a check box (or multiple ones) were introduced, I could see them functioning similarly.

[windcrest77]

Even if it were to be implemented, I doubt it would be "one click" and rather actually be "two click". Reason I say this is, the Ratings used to be "one click" and people complained about how easy it was to accidentally alter a rating. Thus, it was changed to where you can only click and set the rating of the currently selected track. If a check box (or multiple ones) were introduced, I could see them functioning similarly.

So one click as far as the current selection goes, would be good.

Mostly I would envision myself auditioning 100 or so tracks, then doing a multiselect on them, right click to properties, and flag all 100 tracks as "Auditioned" all at once.

[nohitter151]

Mostly I would envision myself auditioning 100 or so tracks, then doing a multiselect on them, right click to properties, and flag all 100 tracks as "Auditioned" all at once.

In that use-case, isn't it pretty much the same as a checkbox to just type an 'X' into one of the custom fields? I don't really see how the checkbox makes it much different.

[windcrest77]

Mostly I would envision myself auditioning 100 or so tracks, then doing a multiselect on them, right click to properties, and flag all 100 tracks as "Auditioned" all at once.

In that use-case, isn't it pretty much the same as a checkbox to just type an 'X' into one of the custom fields? I don't really see how the checkbox makes it much different.

If I use the properties dialog that would be ok I guess, but still would like to mark items in grid with one click.

Updating custom field from grid involves clicking the grid that weird way you have to to open up a field for edit (with a slow double click so as to not start playing the song) and then typing an X then hitting enter key or moving off the row to cause the update to take place. After 300 songs, its very fatiguing with all that work per song. Also if multiple checkboxes can be provided you then have to put X,Y in the custom field then remember what the X meant and the Y etc. I think having 1 to 8 general purpose checkboxes that are one click-able even if the row is not hilighted would be ideal. Currently I have no good way to know where I left off in auditioning, and am constantly re-visiting songs I've already made a decision about how to use them in the studio. Ultimately it's just a marker flag to make the database rows easier to manage over time.

[nohitter151]

I agree with you in that sense (doing it for individual tracks is much easier with some kind of check box), but since you said mostly you would use it via right-click, properties, I just wanted to point out that you can basically already achieve the same thing.

[windcrest77]

I'm been thinking now there is no need to persist the boolean in the media file either, just the database is ok. Since my intent is to use it as a working field to make it easier to know where I left off in my work.

[kmenzel]

I'd love this - I wind up using my 5 custom fields for different genres differently, and a lot of that is for simple on/off type classification... ie, if it is an instrumental track or not, or if I've currently made sure the tags in the file are accurate, or if the case of the lyrics are singular or plural... anyway, a whole bunch of random stuff that could easily be a binary on/off. I wouldn't mind it hashed into some custom field in the file (like <CustomMMBin>="11000111"> or something... anyway, it'd be cool not only to be able to do that, but to be able to essentially create a custom "form" for the custom tags property page - so we could lay out the tags in a way that makes sense to us... of course that's probably a MM6 suggestion or something...

[Mizery_Made]

I think the ability for scripts to create their own properties sheets has been added for MM4.0 (maybe even the ability for them to write non-MM tags? Not quite sure on that one, pretty sure on the first one though). However, instead of using up all of your custom fields, you could possibly "hijack" one of the multi-value supported Classification fields and then use them as multi-purpose fields. You could inter something like "Instrumental: Yes; Accurate: Yes; Something Else: No" and then you would have nodes for each one in the tree (as it's multi-value). If it's a matter of having to inter the extra fluff (ie, the "Instrumental: " part instead of just a "Yes" or whatever), perhaps you could find the old "eCustom" script in the Add-Ons forum. It allows you to tag some files with pre-defined sets of values (thus, you could have "Instrumental: Yes" and "Instrumental: No" just a few clicks away with no typing.) The script could be set to replace the field with the value, or add it to the end of the list.

[kmenzel]

That would be awesome! When MM4 drops I'll probably sit down and actually script away... it'll be a nice tangible coding project...

[Mizery_Made]

Found the relevant mantis entries for what I mentioned at the beginning of my post: 6218: Scripting: Add support of non-standard frames in tags & 6248: Scripting: Ability to add a custom Page to the Track Properties Dialog

The first one hasn't seen any activity since it was entered, but the second one has already been implemented in 4.0

[windcrest77]

I think the ability for scripts to create their own properties sheets has been added for MM4.0 (maybe even the ability for them to write non-MM tags? Not quite sure on that one, pretty sure on the first one though). However, instead of using up all of your custom fields, you could possibly "hijack" one of the multi-value supported Classification fields and then use them as multi-purpose fields. You could inter something like "Instrumental: Yes; Accurate: Yes; Something Else: No" and then you would have nodes for each one in the tree (as it's multi-value). If it's a matter of having to inter the extra fluff (ie, the "Instrumental: " part instead of just a "Yes" or whatever), perhaps you could find the old "eCustom" script in the Add-Ons forum. It allows you to tag some files with pre-defined sets of values (thus, you could have "Instrumental: Yes" and "Instrumental: No" just a few clicks away with no typing.) The script could be set to replace the field with the value, or add it to the end of the list.

Would it be a one-click check box? Selecting drop down lists in the grid is a pain.