[REQ] Playlist Shortcuts [#11051]

[BigInJapan]

The ability to create a homescreen shortcut that launches a specific playlist seems to be a standard feature across other media players. Can we expect to see this in MMA any time soon?

[rovingcowboy]

Check this post to get your answer,.

http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... 21&t=68828

[BigInJapan]

Thanks for the reply. I'm not sure that answers my question though, as other media players don't seem to rely on m3u lists to offer these shortcuts.

If I long press a blank space on the homescreen and select Shortcuts, I currently have among the available shortcuts three that are labeled as Music Playlist, each with an icon that corresponds to a different media player. On mine right now, one is for Google Music, one for the native music player, and one for PlayerPro. Other media players add their own shortcuts to this list when I have them installed. If I pick the one that has the PlayerPro icon over the Music Playlist label, I'm taken to PlayerPro's playlist screen. Tapping a playlist there creates the shortcut on the homescreen. Among the playlist choices are PlayerPro's smartlists, and I'm fairly certain PlayerPro is not creating m3u's for those lists. They're just in its database.

This functionality is critical to anyone who wants to automate the launching of a music player to a specific playlist. For instance, when my phone detects a connection to my car's bluetooth, it automatically starts playing my "Car Shuffle" playlist without my even taking the phone out of my pocket. When it detects a connection to the speaker dock on my bedside table between 9 PM and midnight, it automatically starts playing my "Bedtime" playlist. That automation is entirely dependent on the media player providing a home screen shortcut to a playlist. So right now, my automation is launching PlayerPro in those cases rather than MMA.

The ability to automatically trigger playlist playback without touching the device is core to how I consume music on this device. If MMA can't provide this, I'd have to always keep some other player installed, and MMA would basically just be there to support WiFi syncing.

[BigInJapan]

I'm a bit disappointed that this feature still hasn't shown up. It seems to be a basic feature of every other media player out there. Here's a screenshot showing how you'd add these shortcuts for PlayerPro, Play Music, Moto's stock player, and WinAmp. Is there some reason MMA can't offer this as well?

[Peke]

Even it is not exactly like you ponted here I have added this feature to our to-do list for feature evaluation.

http://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=11051

[BigInJapan]

Thanks, and I like your idea to include NFC support. Although, I think as long as you provide standard home screen shortcuts, other programs can already handle launching them via NFC for us. I'm not sure you'd really have to build that in, but I guess if you can make it smoother, all the better.

[BigInJapan]

Hi all,
It seems like sync is getting pretty stable, so I just thought I'd check in and see if there's any word on when the functionality to create homescreen shortcuts to playlists might show up. Any news?

I'm really eager to dump my other media player and use MMA full time. I'm big on automation though, and since since apps like Tasker and various NFC readers can trigger homescreen shortcuts automatically, home screen shortcuts for playlists are essential to having my devices automatically start playing specific music in specific situations. MMA would be my go to player if it just offered those shortcuts.

Aside from that, I'm enjoying using what you've created thus far. Keep up the good work!

[rusty]

It's still on our todo list--but our focus has been fixing existing issues rather than adding new features. We'll see if we can fit it into this release, but no promises...

-Rusty

[rusty]

fyi, this was added in the last build.

-Rusty

[mcow]

I don't suppose you could make this work for a UPnP playlist.

[jiri]

I wonder whether the feature request wouldn't be to be able to select _any_ item, e.g. Artist, Album, Genre, Podcast, etc.? I.e. to let the user to browse MMA with a specific button still visible - and when pressed, the current item would be chosen. That said, I'm not sure whether it isn't overly complicated...

Jiri

[rovingcowboy]

The new home screen playlists are what I wanted when you first made mma, so the playlists issues is fixed for me. Thanks.

[mcow]

I would also like to be able to make a button on the MMA home screen go direct to a (UPnP) playlist, rather than having to browse to it. For me, that would be better than a Android home screen shortcut icon.

[imagehopper]

I also like the new home screen playlists I don't understand why people think it just browses to the playlist? It starts the list playing for me.

[rovingcowboy]

I also like the new home screen playlists I don't understand why people think it just browses to the playlist? It starts the list playing for me.

It is simply that they complain because they don't know you have to set the playlist widget to a playlist for it to start that playlist. Which is why it opens the menu of playlists the first time you place the widget on the home screen.