Early impression of MMA v2

[Barry4679]

It looks great. I have more confidence in MMA v2 synch. Maybe sync is improved, or it could just be that it hasn't bitten me as often as MMA v1 did. It does seem to sync faster.
A lot of comments and tweek requests follow, but I really like what you have done here.

Issues:

1. The playing queue is not protected.
   IE. Navigate your collection. eg. By Album => track list. Accidentally touch a track, or fumble a log press ==> BANG, the track currently play is interrupted, the playing queue is trashed, and the "accidental" track starts playing. ==> Buzz Kill.
   I would find this 100% unacceptable. At the very least there needs to be a config option for use by clumsy users with a wrap around screen and fat fingers. In MM5 there is a Player "default action" where I can reset the track click action to something non queue-destructive. There needs to be a MMA config option that achieves this; ie. protects by requiring an explicit action to trigger track play and queue destruction.
2. MMA's "Play Now preserves the queue" option is broken.
   The queue is not preserved; it is cleared.
   It may improve MMA if it did work, but that still would not be enough to allow me to consider using MMA.
   I can't accept the currently playing track being aborted, by accidental track taps, because I generate a lot of those .
3. The albumartist subnode is unavailable for Classical Music
   It is available in MMW for classical music.
   It is needed in MMA also. I feel strongly about this. See rant here.
4. Find&ScrollTo would be useful in the playlist and play panels.
   These panels have a search facility which cover the Artist & Albums & Tracks nodes, which is great, but it would be useful if it also searched the current context, ie. the current playlist or the playing queue. And if I selected a current context result, it would scroll the list to the selected item.
5. Inappropriate icon on the Multi Selection panel.
   The Play Now icon (list, with a dot at top left corner) is not good IMO. It should be a recognisable Play symbol. My assumption was that the existing icon did something to the display list formatting.
6. Unable to see full sized album art unless I start playing a track
   The hamburger menu when a track is long pressed doesn't have a Show Art option.
   Album art may contain information such a contributing (jazz) artists. This can be too small to read unless the album art is full sized. Please add the option to the long press menu
7. Too many clicks during Add To Playlist operation.
   If I am in a playlist, then press search, and I select a track from my collection, I should not have to then select which playlist to add the track to. It should know which playlist I came from.
   Four clicks are required, AFTER I HAVE FOUND AND SELECTED the tracks I want to add. That's too many clicks for what may be a repetitive operation
   NB. And if I screw up just once, while selecting tracks, I have just trashed my playing queue, stopped the current track mid-stream (see item #1).
8. Sync report should be improved.
   The WiFi sync facility is great, and the UI feed back is really great.
   The Sync Report is OK, but would be improved if it indicated the task completed and ended normally.
   Something like "Errors 0, Task completed"
   Before playing with MMA v2 today, I used it via WiFi sync to clear out the 1,500+ tracks that I had previously sync'd to my phone by MMA v1.
   I walked away while it was running. When I came back it said that it was complete, but when I looked in my phone it had not deleted everything. I had the sync option to 'Delete all other files", so that was unexpected.
   I ran the WiFi sync again, without changing sync options at the MMW end. It deleted a few more tracks, and seemed to end normally.
   There were still tracks on the phone. I had to repeat this procedure 7 times before all tracks were deleted. I never received any error message, nor had to supply any approval. I just had to run this empty no action sync procedure 7 times.
   This lack of visibility was why I played with MM5|MMA sync a few times, then dropped it in frustration.
   It is just useless to trust MM to sync tracks to a mobile device before going on holiday, just to find that when you try to use the player hat the cupboard is mostly bare.
9. Unauthorised update to my PC during sych.
   I have unchecked "auto-sync playlists and new files from the device to the PC"
   This should protect me against MMA updating my PC, right?
   I ran a Wifi sync from MMA. The Sync report in MMA says "Downloaded 14 tracks. Update one playlist. Uploaded 1 playlists to Server" That will be the playlist that modified in issue #7 above.
   What happened to my protection?
10. No sync log
    How would I identify which track(s) or playlist(s) have been updated.
    I should be able to open a log to see actions from the most recent sync run.
    Both ways would be ideal, but I would be specially sensitive about changes being made to my PC or NAS.
11. Connection error messages should more specific.
    It is not obvious that a Sync pulled from the Device is trying to connect via WiFI ... ie. the User may have connected via USB.
    This situation is magnified by the fact that the documentation is laughable.
    The error message should make it clear that connection is relying on WiFi.
12. It would be better if the contents of the Now Playing row was configurable.
    ie. I would like to show Composer name as well as Artist name.
13. MMA is still affected by the display bugs and design flaws at the MMW end of the sync.
    MMA sync is only as good as MM5 sync, because the sync specification must be done at the MMW end.
    See problems and issues here.

[rusty]

Hi Barry,

Thanks for all the detailed feedback! I've tried to answer below:

[*] The playing queue is not protected.
IE. Navigate your collection. eg. By Album => track list. Accidentally touch a track, or fumble a log press ==> BANG, the track currently play is interrupted, the playing queue is trashed, and the "accidental" track starts playing. ==> Buzz Kill.
I would find this 100% unacceptable. At the very least there needs to be a config option for use by clumsy users with a wrap around screen and fat fingers. In MM5 there is a Player "default action" where I can reset the track click action to something non queue-destructive. There needs to be a MMA config option that achieves this; ie. protects by requiring an explicit action to trigger track play and queue destruction.

[*] MMA's "Play Now preserves the queue" option is broken.
The queue is not preserved; it is cleared.
It may improve MMA if it did work, but that still would not be enough to allow me to consider using MMA.
I can't accept the currently playing track being aborted, by accidental track taps, because I generate a lot of those .

1 & 2) The intent of 'Play Now Preserves the Queue' was to protect the queue. But it didn't quite work out that way. We're hoping to improve this. Tracking at https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=16029

[*] The albumartist subnode is unavailable for Classical Music
It is available in MMW for classical music.
It is needed in MMA also. I feel strongly about this. See rant here.

3) I agree. I've commented in the original thread and opened bug #19899.

[*] Find&ScrollTo would be useful in the playlist and play panels.
These panels have a search facility which cover the Artist & Albums & Tracks nodes, which is great, but it would be useful if it also searched the current context, ie. the current playlist or the playing queue. And if I selected a current context result, it would scroll the list to the selected item.

4) I agree about the utility of contextual search. Noted at https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=19900

[*] Inappropriate icon on the Multi Selection panel.
The Play Now icon (list, with a dot at top left corner) is not good IMO. It should be a recognisable Play symbol. My assumption was that the existing icon did something to the display list formatting.

5) The Play Now icon is the same one we use it MMW. I guess it's so small on your device that the 'play' symbol looks like a dot rather than a triangle?

[*] Unable to see full sized album art unless I start playing a track
The hamburger menu when a track is long pressed doesn't have a Show Art option.
Album art may contain information such a contributing (jazz) artists. This can be too small to read unless the album art is full sized. Please add the option to the long press menu

6) I think that adding this to the Properties dialog would probably be a better way of accomplishing this? See:
https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=19330

[*] Too many clicks during Add To Playlist operation.
If I am in a playlist, then press search, and I select a track from my collection, I should not have to then select which playlist to add the track to. It should know which playlist I came from.
Four clicks are required, AFTER I HAVE FOUND AND SELECTED the tracks I want to add. That's too many clicks for what may be a repetitive operation
NB. And if I screw up just once, while selecting tracks, I have just trashed my playing queue, stopped the current track mid-stream (see item #1).

7) I agree that there are some extra steps, though I'm not sure about automatically adding to the last-used playlist. Added at https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=19901

[*] Sync report should be improved.
The WiFi sync facility is great, and the UI feed back is really great.
The Sync Report is OK, but would be improved if it indicated the task completed and ended normally.
Something like "Errors 0, Task completed"
Before playing with MMA v2 today, I used it via WiFi sync to clear out the 1,500+ tracks that I had previously sync'd to my phone by MMA v1.
I walked away while it was running. When I came back it said that it was complete, but when I looked in my phone it had not deleted everything. I had the sync option to 'Delete all other files", so that was unexpected.
I ran the WiFi sync again, without changing sync options at the MMW end. It deleted a few more tracks, and seemed to end normally.
There were still tracks on the phone. I had to repeat this procedure 7 times before all tracks were deleted. I never received any error message, nor had to supply any approval. I just had to run this empty no action sync procedure 7 times.
This lack of visibility was why I played with MM5|MMA sync a few times, then dropped it in frustration.
It is just useless to trust MM to sync tracks to a mobile device before going on holiday, just to find that when you try to use the player hat the cupboard is mostly bare.

Improvements to the MMA sync report are planned to be fixed soon. Tracked at https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=19786

[*] Unauthorised update to my PC during sych.
I have unchecked "auto-sync playlists and new files from the device to the PC"
This should protect me against MMA updating my PC, right?
I ran a Wifi sync from MMA. The Sync report in MMA says "Downloaded 14 tracks. Update one playlist. Uploaded 1 playlists to Server" That will be the playlist that modified in issue #7 above.
What happened to my protection?

9) This issue planned to be fixed soon. Tracked at https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=19812

[*] No sync log
How would I identify which track(s) or playlist(s) have been updated.
I should be able to open a log to see actions from the most recent sync run.
Both ways would be ideal, but I would be specially sensitive about changes being made to my PC or NAS.

10) I've entered this for discussion at https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=19902 . My feeling is that fixing issue 8 is a much more important, and that noting problems with a sync operation would negate the need for a sync log in most cases.

[*] Connection error messages should more specific.
It is not obvious that a Sync pulled from the Device is trying to connect via WiFI ... ie. the User may have connected via USB.
This situation is magnified by the fact that the documentation is laughable.
The error message should make it clear that connection is relying on WiFi.

11) Added this to the bug associated with item

[*] It would be better if the contents of the Now Playing row was configurable.
ie. I would like to show Composer name as well as Artist name.

12) I assume you're referring to the miniplayer. Added at https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=19903

[*] MMA is still affected by the display bugs and design flaws at the MMW end of the sync.
MMA sync is only as good as MM5 sync, because the sync specification must be done at the MMW end.
See problems and issues here.

13) TBD...

-Rusty

[Barry4679]

Thanks for response Rusty.
Seems all good. Some answers and follow up comments follow.

#1. The playing queue is not protected.
IE. Navigate your collection. eg. By Album => track list. Accidentally touch a track, or fumble a log press ==> BANG, the track currently play is interrupted, the playing queue is trashed, and the "accidental" track starts playing. ==> Buzz Kill.
I would find this 100% unacceptable. At the very least there needs to be a config option for use by clumsy users with a wrap around screen and fat fingers. In MM5 there is a Player "default action" where I can reset the track click action to something non queue-destructive. There needs to be a MMA config option that achieves this; ie. protects by requiring an explicit action to trigger track play and queue destruction.

1 & 2) The intent of 'Play Now Preserves the Queue' was to protect the queue. But it didn't quite work out that way. We're hoping to improve this. Tracking at https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=16029

I read the Mantis entry.
I doubt that Martin understands where I would be coming from. He is probably two orders of magnitude more nimble with a small wrap-around screen device than me. or many other of your customers.
I want to be able to browse my collection using your pretty MMA with ZERO fear that I will accidently clear the queue, and ZERO fear that I will accidentally abort the currently playing track.
That would mean that MMA has a similar safeguard to MMW.
I think that it would require an config setting that would require confirmation before either of the above two events happened, if the queue was currently being played.
It would be good if it also protected against accidental addition of new tracks to the queue.

My minimum requirement would be that my android player had a config option that assured that an active playing queue is NEVER cleared accidentally. And the currently playing track is NEVER accidentally aborted.
I wouldn't require an undo option. Just a config option too ensure queue protection. ie. requires a confirmation before triggering any of the above arising from what looks like it may have been a tap.

5) The Play Now icon is the same one we use it MMW. I guess it's so small on your device that the 'play' symbol looks like a dot rather than a triangle?

Yes. A traditional full sized play triangle would be better IMO
My guess was that the current icon lead to a display of the queue.

7) I agree that there are some extra steps, though I'm not sure about automatically adding to the last-used playlist. Added at https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=19901
10) I've entered this for discussion at https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=19902 . My feeling is that fixing issue 8 is a much more important, and that noting problems with a sync operation would negate the need for a sync log in most cases.

I clarified and added to the discussion inline to the discussions you started.

[rusty]

Thanks! I've added https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=19941 in regards to item 5).

-Rusty