How to know which playlist is currently going on

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philaupatte
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How to know which playlist is currently going on

Post by philaupatte »

Hi,
I am using MM5 and all is fine and smooth. I am customized my views, and all is working as expected. As you know for sure, when we play music from playlist, we can still look around in library to look and prepare something else while listening.

From my organisation I have:

On top Menu Bar.
Under Following Bar.
Under Middle Layout.
  • left panel I have my folders.
  • middle panel all my album/artist (this is my choice).
  • Top right panel the current album information.
  • Middle right panel the list of songs being past, current (highlighted), play.
  • Bottom right line the status bar giving me which track is played from total plus total time duration.
and finally Bottom panel for my player.

In this case I don't know any more what is the name of the current playlist running.

Will it be possible to add in the status bar the name of the real source (not the album name of the track of the playlist) but the playlist name itself? And if it is an album running then nothing.
Barry4679
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Re: How to know which playlist is currently going on

Post by Barry4679 »

philaupatte wrote: Tue Sep 07, 2021 2:42 am Will it be possible to add in the status bar the name of the real source (not the album name of the track of the playlist) but the playlist name itself? And if it is an album running then nothing.
The (bottom) player's track name line is configurable, but there is no option to add playlist name AFAICS .... that would a worthwhile enhancement option.

See Tools>Options>Player>PlaybackRules
(nb. requires a restart of MM5 after making any changes)

As a (ugly) workaround you could update one of the Custom columns, for playlist tracks, with the playlist name.

ie. Then this setting:
$if(<Artist>,<Artist> - ,)<Title> $if(<Custom 1>, - <Custom 1>,)

looks like this when the current track belongs to a playlist (ie. has a non-blank entry in the Custom1 tag)
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Lowlander
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Re: How to know which playlist is currently going on

Post by Lowlander »

There is no method provided to identify what Playlist is playing. Any changes to the Playing would mean it's no longer the Playlist and files themselves could belong to many Playlists.
Barry4679
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Re: How to know which playlist is currently going on

Post by Barry4679 »

Lowlander wrote: Tue Sep 07, 2021 10:52 am There is no method provided to identify what Playlist is playing. Any changes to the Playing would mean it's no longer the Playlist and files themselves could belong to many Playlists.
This does not seem to be a very considered response to what seems to be a sensible suggestion.

It is a agreed that a track may belong to multiple playlists, but a track in a the player, or the player or playing panel, would have got there from at most a single playlist. ... ie it was either added from a single playlist, or was not added from any playlist.

It is clear that there is currently no method provided to display this.

The question is would you consider adding this as an optional display element to the player, or even better, to the User configurable "Track Summary" display field that I mentioned in my earlier post.? .... Playlist would obviously be empty when the track is not in the active play queue. The existing configuration syntax already handles attributes with a null value, ie. $if(..
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Re: How to know which playlist is currently going on

Post by Peke »

Hi,
I am guessing that it would be needed to save last view from track which was used to add it to now playing?

I already imagine 10k of tracks and 10k saved views eg. Double click on track in Windows explorer to play in MM and then FMFS (Find More from same) -> Windows explorer folder (xxxxx) to open Explorer window on that folder/view. Same thing for Tracks in Library eg. you search artist and add track to now playing -> FMFS -> Search result (xxx).

If MM plays playlists not tracks then it would be possible, but MM add track(s) to now playing so now playing is actual playlist that is going on always.

I have 7k of playlists generated over 18 years of MM and listing that for every single track in Now playing would be time/resource consuming and will not be accurate because some tracks reside in hundred of playlists.

I hope I am wrong and there is easier method, MM clearly state when you right click on Playlist "Play now" not "Play playlist" in which case this request will apply and Now playing will not be now playing but "Playlist xyz".
Best regards,
Peke
MediaMonkey Team lead QA/Tech Support guru
Admin of Free MediaMonkey addon Site HappyMonkeying
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Barry4679
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Re: How to know which playlist is currently going on

Post by Barry4679 »

Peke wrote: Wed Sep 08, 2021 5:45 am I hope I am wrong and there is easier method, MM clearly state when you right click on Playlist "Play now" not "Play playlist" in which case this request will apply and Now playing will not be now playing but "Playlist xyz".
I didn't really understand what you were concerned about, but I think that you are wrong, and this could be a low overhead request.

When a track is added to the Playing queue, its track ID will be added to the queue.
All that the suggestion requires is that if a whole playlist is added to the queue, that the Playlist ID be added alongside the individual Track Ids.
That way the Player could display the relevant playlist name while the track was playing.

I think that is all the OP is wanting. I don't know how generally applicable it would be.
eg. It may help my wife. I have many albums; thousands. She likes music in the background, but doesn't know who or what. And she doesn't care about those details. either. I make a few playlists for her. Some she likes, and some she doesn't. She would relate to the playlist name more than the artist or album name.
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Re: How to know which playlist is currently going on

Post by Peke »

Hi,
Maybe. I think that we are talking about same thing and that is why I was talking about performance issue.

Here is how I look at it when thinking about Now Playing as Table sheet.

Example:
1. Using track browser and Playlist tree node to Playlist "test"
2. Right click on track "Queen - The Invisible Man" -> Play Now
3. Track is added to Now Playing
4. Track summary will show "Queen - The Invisible Man - Miracle (1989) from Playlist Test"
5. Right click on Track -> FMFS -> Playlist -> Test, separator and rest of playlists are listed as currently

Will that help?

Only thing I am concerned is that if you have very large Now Playing MM would need to remember Playlist ID for all the tracks rg. if you have set for PLAY NOW command "Clear list & Play selected + subsequent" and you have 10k list, so 10k IDs to remember. And tracks that are added from Track browser and search would be without Playlist ID.

Am I on the right track?
Best regards,
Peke
MediaMonkey Team lead QA/Tech Support guru
Admin of Free MediaMonkey addon Site HappyMonkeying
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Andre_H
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Re: How to know which playlist is currently going on

Post by Andre_H »

Lowlander wrote: Tue Sep 07, 2021 10:52 amAny changes to the Playing would mean it's no longer the Playlist and files themselves could belong to many Playlists.
What about showing the Playlist name, as long as you play THAT ONE playlist, and change that to "no playlist" or something like that, if you add or change anything.

That would maybe minimize that performance impacts
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Barry4679
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Re: How to know which playlist is currently going on

Post by Barry4679 »

Peke wrote: Fri Sep 10, 2021 9:32 pm Only thing I am concerned is that if you have very large Now Playing MM would need to remember Playlist ID for all the tracks rg. if you have set for PLAY NOW command "Clear list & Play selected + subsequent" and you have 10k list, so 10k IDs to remember. And tracks that are added from Track browser and search would be without Playlist ID.
Sqlite is space efficient when storing integers.
A Playlist ID will fit in two bytes unless you have more than 65,000 distinct playlists.
Even if someone added 10k tracks to the play queue, that is just 0.02mb, unless I have slipped a decimal place somewhere.
And who adds 10k tracks to the queue?... other than you I mean :)

And tracks that are not added to the queue, as a whole playlist, will have a playlist ID of 0 ... as intended, because there would be no playlist name to display in the Player.

So no overhead to concern yourself about.
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Re: How to know which playlist is currently going on

Post by Peke »

Hi,
I've done little test today regarding and Barry it looks like you are right. It should work acceptable based on My suggestion from viewtopic.php?p=486817#p486817
Barry4679 wrote: Sat Sep 11, 2021 8:39 am who adds 10k tracks to the queue?... other than you I mean
"Clear list & Play selected + subsequent" is default setting. Well 90%+ of users uses Music -> All tracks -> Double click on track to play it and if you have 10k of tracks it clears now playing and add 10k tracks. Same goes for Accessible playlist that in my case and default setting would add 200k tracks in Now Playing ;) My settings for Play Now are "Clear list & Play selected" and when MM is playing default action is Play Last.
Barry4679 wrote: Sat Sep 11, 2021 8:39 am unless you have more than 65,000 distinct playlists.
Have around 7k of playlist.

Give me few days to think about and test a bit more, You never gave your thought about my proposal at viewtopic.php?p=486817#p486817 ?
Best regards,
Peke
MediaMonkey Team lead QA/Tech Support guru
Admin of Free MediaMonkey addon Site HappyMonkeying
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