Problem with the Shortcuts Plugin?

[iPodVT]

The following occurs with an iPod Classic 7th Gen running dev build 873f49b1f0-230829.

I'm trying to create a .link file and I can't seem to get it to work.  I want the file to contain a list of directories that represent specific albums in my music library.  So I created a plain text file named XXX.link (which is just a temporary throwaway name for testing purposes).  Here is the contents of the file:

#Display last path segments=1
/_dtgLIB/Compilations/Baroque Music For Trumpets/
/_dtgLIB/Erich Kunzel_ Cincinnati Pops Orchestra/William Tell & Other Favorite Overtures/

The '/' at the end of the last visible line is followed by a return char.

I know that these paths are correct because I copied them from working pathnames in a working playlist file.

When I 'Play' the .link file I correctly see the last element of the paths in each of the file's two data lines, with "Shortcuts (sealed)" as a title at the top of the list.  When I have a line highlighted and then hit the Select button, my iPod freezes.  I also tried adding another path, this one to a .m4a file (with no '/' at the end of that line) and that froze, too, when I tried to play it from the .link file.

Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks.

[iPodVT]

My failed attempt to create a working .link file as described above was done on a Mac, so I thought I should try again on a Windows machine.  First I added two working links to my shortcuts.txt file by selecting directories in the file browser and then using the context menu item "Add to Shortcuts".  Then I verified that those links worked from the Shortcuts menu.  Then I cloned the shortcuts.txt file, edited the clone to include only the two links plus the "#Display last path segments=1" line at the top, saved the cloned file, and then changed its name to XXX.link (overwriting the previous file with the same name).  When I "Played" this new .link file I saw the correct list of links but when I tried to use either of the links the iPod froze again, just like before.

[iPodVT]

I'm still at it, and finding a little bit of success:

Now instead of trying to "Play" the .link file, I long clicked the Select button on it in the file browser which brought up the context menu from which I selected "Open With...", and then selected "shortcuts_view".  That brought up the same correct menu of links from my .link file.  When I highlighted a link and clicked the Select button, the list's title - "Shortcuts (sealed)" - briefly disappeared and then reappeared but there was no other action.  So I clicked the iPod's |<< button and guess what?  I found myself inside the directory that the link points to.  So the Shortcuts Plugin is kind of working, but not in the intended way as described in the user manual, nor in a way that is direct enough to be particularly practical or useful.

[Bilgus]

Confirmed its a bug I'll let you know when its fixed

[iPodVT]

Thank you very much.

[Bilgus]

Got it figured out
https://gerrit.rockbox.org/r/c/rockbox/+/5493

give me the next day or two to make sure it doesn't break anything else

[iPodVT]

Fantastic - thanks so much!

[Bilgus]

This is now submitted

I think it should work pretty well

let me know if you find any issues

Thanks for the bug report its been broken for 2+ years!

[iPodVT]

Now that the booting issue with the recent dev build(s) has been resolved I am able to try out the changes to the Shortcut Plugin.

In the new build, when I manually 'play' my .link file directly from the file browser everything now seems to work 100%.

But when I play my .link file via a "type: file" entry in my Shortcuts menu (which is what I most want to be able to do with all of this) things get screwy.  It's complicated to explain - in part because we're talking about shortcuts to shortcuts (and maybe that's the crux of the issue).  But the gist of it is that when I navigate from the Shortcuts menu into the .link file and then on to track files via this mechanism, a track file won't start playing when I click on it, and I get taken back to the Main Menu.  If I then go back into my Shortcuts menu and click on the shortcut to the .link file, the track will immediately start playing and I'll find myself in the WPS instead of back in the .link file.  There are other variations to this deferred and misdirecting behavior when using the Shortcuts menu to play a .link file.

[Edit]  This happens with both my 5.5 Gen iPod Video and my 7th Gen iPod Classic - both now running cb3b5397b3-231124.

[Frankenpod]

...wrong thread...

[iPodVT]

...when I navigate from the Shortcuts menu into the .link file and then on to track files via this mechanism, a track file won't start playing when I click on it, and I get taken back to the Main Menu.  If I then go back into my Shortcuts menu and click on the shortcut to the .link file, the track will immediately start playing and I'll find myself in the WPS instead of back in the .link file.  There are other variations to this deferred and misdirecting behavior when using the Shortcuts menu to play a .link file.

Another variation:  If instead of going back into the Shortcuts menu, I try to enter the File browser, the track begins playing and I am again put into the WPS.

[Bilgus]

eh I figured this would be the next issue basically the shortcut_view plugin was abusing the browser to pick a file i've rectified that and added a way to run shortcuts within the tree which is why
when you reenter the tree it works

what will need to be done is adding a way for the shortcut plugin to pass back the results OF the call shortcut_view left for the main file browser tree

i'll see if I can repro this

[iPodVT]

Thank you very much for responding to this, and so quickly.

To try to help you reproduce this I will reiterate my setup (slightly changed from my earlier initial post):

My .link file is named newAddsToLIB.link, located in the root directory of the iPod, and the file's first line is:

#Display last path segments=1

The other lines in the .link file are all paths to directories that solely contain music track files - each path beginning with a '/' char and ending with a '/' char followed by a carriage return.

The declaration in my shortcuts.txt file is:

[shortcut]
type: file
data: /newAddsToLIB.link
name: Recently Added To Library
icon: -1
talkclip:

I have turned on "shortcuts instead of quickscreen", and I have gotten the same results using both the Shortcuts menu from the Main menu and accessing Shortcuts via a long click on the Menu button.  I also tried changing "file" to "browse" in the [shortcut] declaration so that I would be taken to the .link file instead of into it - but I experienced the same behavior either way.

I hope this helps.  Please let me know if you need any more info.

[iPodVT]

I have turned on "shortcuts instead of quickscreen"

Meaning I always have "shortcuts instead of quickscreen" turned on.

[iPodVT]

Perhaps I've found a clue:

On page 152 of the current edition of the rockbox-ipod6g.pdf user manual I see, "To use a .link file just “play” it from the file browser. This will show you a list with the entries in the file. Selecting one of them will then exit the plugin and leave you within the directory selected, or with the file selected in the file browser."

When I select (click on) one of the entries from the .link file, I seem to get taken into the directory specified by that entry - the title of the resulting list is correctly the name (actually, the pathname) of that directory and the displayed list of items contains the names of the files in that directory.  But list's title is using the Plugins icon, not a file browser (folder) icon.  So am I still in the plugin at that point or am I in the File Browser?  Maybe the manual's description of where I'm supposed to be is in error?  In any case, this icon display happens regardless of whether I access the .link file from the File Browser or from the Shortcuts menu.