Rockbox Development > Feature Ideas

Show Track Info screen enhancement

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JoJo73:
Would it be possible to display play count, auto- and user-score of the track (if present) on this screen?

Actually these info are visible only if the WPS supports them... it would be interesting to access them even with more minimalistic themes.

[Saint]:
I'm going to take a wild guess here and assume that you're unaware that this info is viewable from the Database itself (which is indeed where this information is coming from) via the History sub-menu?

It doesn't make much sense (to me at least) to offer this information on the Track Info screen, as there is no guarantee that the user will have both the Database, and Gather Runtime Data enabled (both are optional, and disabled by default) and this information is dependant on both of those things. This information is not a part of the file metadata at all, it exists solely in, and relies on, Rockbox's database and runtime gathering.


[Saint]

JoJo73:
Well, your guess is wrong: of course I know of the History submenu, which is indeed very useful, but as its name implies it serves a different purpose.

Let me enumerate in order of importance the reasons why the History menu is inadequate for the purpose of knowing the value of the playcount and the scores:

1) The database is synced asynchronously, and this means that more often than not the information is written after the song I'm listening has finished playing - not very useful
2) The "Most Played" entry in the menu is the only one displaying counts and scores, but you have access only to autoscore and it's limited to Top100
3) The Database is one of the Rockbox features I love more because it offers great versatility in creating playlists, but lacks in immediacy when you need to inspect informations rather than filter them: to use it the way you suggest is like use a set of pliers to turn a screw.

I did a simple experiment: while in WPS I used the Database as you suggested (I use an iRiver 20GB with Cabbie theme)

* Press ON to retrieve Main Menu
* Scroll up to select "Database"
* Scroll up 4 times to select "History" (the item lies in the bottom of the menu and is not displayed in the first screen) 
* This looks fabricated, but I swear it isn't  ;) : wait for the database to be updated/refreshed/whatelse (1500 tracks)
* Select "Most Played" and search for the song I'm listening: I'm lucky and it's in the Top100 - but you have to search for it.

Sounds practical to you, when a simple pressure of PLAY+SELECT provides me all the track's info?

I know that I can use tagnavi files to customize the aspect of the Database and create an entry that displays only 1 song with count and score, but I can't see how it can mitigate the effects of points 1) and 3) nor how i can display userscore in addition to autoscore.

By the way, I can't follow you when you assert that it makes no sense in displaying the data on Track Info screen: they are not MP3 tags, but are surely relevant metadata coming form a different source: they're also accessible during playing, because otherwise WPS couldn't draw them... so, where's the problem?

I don't get either your objection about the fact that the Database and Runtime Data are optional: MP3 tags are optional too, I guess that if they are missing, then they are not displayed. So, what prevents Rockbox from doing the same?

I don't want to seem harsh or unrespectful for what you and the other devs have done and will continue to do with Rockbox but I think I've raised a valid point about what I perceive as a lack of the user interface... the usage of Database menu scarcely addresses the problem.

Probably "go and code it yourself" would have been a more honest answer. I suspect that in your next reply you'll agree!  ;D

[Saint]:
I was trying to make two points.

One of which was me attempting to inform you of functionality that you may not have been aware of. You were. So I apologise, even though I had no way of knowing this beforehand.

The other was me stating that I feel that under no circumstances is the Track Info page a good fit for this information.

For a better understanding of the latter, try to think of "track info" as "file info" instead. It shows information about the file, its position, and its embedded metadata. The items you would like to see there aren't any of those things.

As a side note, it rather sounds like you don't have database autorefresh enabled. The database shouldn't need to refresh itself on access if this were not the case, and play count, score, etc. should be available immediately.


[Saint]

saratoga:
I don't see why it wouldn't be possible.  IIRC the show track info screen is actually a plugin, so pretty much anything goes there. 

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