View Issue Details
| ID | Project | Category | View Status | Date Submitted | Last Update |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0022499 | MMW 5 | Main Panel | public | 2026-10-27 20:43 | 2026-11-04 18:13 |
| Reporter | rusty | Assigned To | |||
| Priority | urgent | Severity | major | Reproducibility | always |
| Status | assigned | Resolution | open | ||
| Product Version | 2027.0 | ||||
| Target Version | 2027.0 | ||||
| Summary | 0022499: Numerous issues with Grids/Views/Sorting | ||||
| Description | There are currently numerous bugs tracking a variety of issues associated with Grids, Views, and sorting, and looking at each of the issues separately makes it difficult to get a holistic understanding. In this issue I've reviewd all of the various subitems in order to document the issues / solutions as a whole: 1) 0016714/0020195 - We added sorting configurability to view configuration, however, the original intent was to be able to be able to choose which fields are sortable. But this seems to have been implemented as changing actual Sorting settings (e.g. Ascending vs Descending) across nodes. But this doesn't make sense since Sorts are always a per node setting! To explain this more clearly, assuming column settings are per Collection: In MM 2024: - Music > Genre [List] can be sorted by Genre - Music > Ratings [List] can be sorted by Ratings i.e. each node has different sort settings But in MM 2027: - Music > Genre [List] can be sorted by Genre --> Music > Ratings [List] is now sorted by Genre! i.e. sort settings are no longer saved per node! In other words, in View configuration, it only makes sense to configure 'Sort fields' for views that don't have Columns, and it never makes sense to define sort order. Unless we intended to make this change, but I'm not sure whether we'd made such a decision?? Note: The tie between sort order and Node (and sort order's de-coupling from Views) is also why MM 2024 didn't have 'Configure View' as a contextual entry directly in the column heading---because it didn't (doesn't?) make sense for 'Configure view' to configure sort order if it's not tied to the View. --- Assuming that there was never an intent to create common sorting across all nodes in a Collection, we can fix this relatively easily by only configuring Sort order for the current node and by moving it to the bottom: Configure View: Music Name: List (by Album) Columns: Available . . . . Displayed . . . . Actor . . . . . . Artwork . . . . . . . . . Summary: . . . . Album . . . . . [-] . . . . . . . .Album Artist . .[-] . . . . . . . .Rating . . . . .[-] [+] Elements: ... ... ... Sorting (<NodeName>): _Summary_ _A..Z_ Note: this would also help solve the various issues described in item 2. Related to: 0017594 2) There are too many steps involved to configure views (especially the current view) a) For most views (except some Grid views see b) below), right-clicking on columns --> Column settings. Rather than opening a separate dialog, it should just open the 'Configure view' dialog for the current view so that MM doesn't have 2 different dialogs and all settings can be configured in one place. This only works if issue 1) is fixed. b) 0020440/0020441: Grid (Video) has a 'Column settings' context menu, but Grid (Albums) doesn't. Neither should, but both should have a more accessible means of configuring the view. This can be solved by a combination of the solutions described for 2a) and 3). c) 0022428 Suggusts adding 'Configure view' button above 'Manage views' to configure the current view. This is unneeded if a) is fixed. 3) Configuration of Grid views is inconsistent/confusing: 0020441: Grid views still allow for sorting by many more attributes than are displayed within the view, resulting in sorts that aren't that meaningful. For instance: - Grid (Album) views currently display 4 columns but only 3 sets of data can be configured to be displayed below each grid item. So if the user sorts by Date (which isn't displayed next to each album), the list is re-ordered but the user can't see the dates. - Grid (Video) views display about 12 columns, but each video can only display 3 sets of data below each grid item. So if the user sorts by Director, it's kind of meaningless because the directors aren't displayed by default. Two possible solutions: I) It shouldn't be possible to sort by fields that aren't displayed in the view. And it should be possible to display a configurable number of fields with each Grid item. That way the user can meaningfully sort by any arbitrary number of fields solving the issue with Grid (Video) view as 8 fields could be added. e.g. Configure View: Music Name: Grid (by Album) Sort fields: _Album_ Summary fields: Album . . . . . [-] . . . . . . . .Album Artist . .[-] . . . . . . . .Rating . . . . .[-] [+] Elements: ... ... ... II) Allow the user to sort by fields not displayed directly in the view, but giving the user rapid access to all of the metadata via a tooltip (i.e. hovering over any grid item should display all fields associated with the item (or at least those that are configured in the Sorting setting. e.g. Configure View: Video Name: Grid (Videos) Sort fields: _Genre_ . _Year_ . _Title_ . _Director_ Summary fields: Title . . . . . [-] . . . . . . . .Year . . . . . .[-] . . . . . . . .Rating . . . . .[-] [+] Elements: ... ... ... Note: In the example above when the user hovers over any Grid item, it should minimally display the Genre, Year, Title, and Director 4) 0022409: Grid (by Album) should be able to sort by 'Original date' This can be fixed as part of 2b). i.e. it should be possible to configure 5) 0022411 / 0022517: The Tools > Options > Column settings and Configure View dialogn can be cleaner (these are really separate issues but they've been munged together due to a misunderstanding) - The 'Available' and 'Displayed' columns should be vertically aligned (and arrows should be moved to the right) - The two columns should be used throughout the dialog (rather than configuring Summary fields and Sort fields horizontally) | ||||
| Tags | No tags attached. | ||||
| Fixed in build | |||||
| related to | 0017594 | closed | Ludek | Ability to copy configured nodes between various views |
| parent of | 0016714 | resolved | michal | Grid (by Album) Sorting is Limited |
| parent of | 0020440 | assigned | michal | Grid view should have displayed header and sorting ability for track-oriented views (Folders and Location) |
| parent of | 0020441 | assigned | michal | Grid view should have configurable text below artwork (or added Artist at least) | Grid (by track) view |
| parent of | 0020428 | closed | Ludek | Undock Panels: Add Preview as window option |
| parent of | 0022409 | resolved | michal | Grid (by Album) should have ability to sort by Original date |
| parent of | 0022411 | assigned | michal | Columns settings in Options dialog box should be more intuitive |
| parent of | 0022500 | feedback | rusty | Labels below artwork in grid view should be configurable using masks like Track Summary |
| parent of | 0022516 | feedback | rusty | Column settings > The entire Library has no effect |
| Not all the children of this issue are yet resolved or closed. | ||||
|
|
I have commented most suggestions in the related issues. I just want to mention again about your 5) suggestion. The issue that you are referring to it is not about Configure view or Column settings dialog boxes, but about Column settings group of controls in the Options dialog box. Maybe you should post your mockup bitmap about the Configure dialog here, or to open a new issue about it. |
|
|
1) Re 0016714 (but now tracked here) Following offline discussion with Michal/Ludek/Martin about this, we decided that since 2027.0 already ties sorting to column settings per View and there haven't been any complaints, and since this approach is relatively easy to understand / and clean & internally consistent from a design perspective, that we'll continue with the current approach, and tackle all of the other misc. issues based on that approach. Furthermore, Martin suggested that if there's a need to decouple Sorting from Views, we could in the future: a. Consider the Sort configuration in the Views settings to be the 'Default sort' b. If the user changes the sort in a Node/View, it wouldn't change the 'Default sort' c. Users would have the option of reverting to the Default sort from within the View or within the View settings (where it could be applied to the View in the Entire Library/Collection/Node (depending on the Column settings) overwriting any custom sorting. However, further review revealed that there remain other inconsistencies between the UI and the design: - Elements/sub-elements/element order is saved per Collection/Node type/View even though the current UI implies that they're saved for the Entire Library/Collection/Node (depending on the Column Settings). Furthermore User-defined views are saved Globally. The easiest way to make sense of this in the short-term without making a significant number of changes might be to clearly communicate to the user via the View configuration which items apply to which Collections/Nodes without making any functional changes. e.g. Configure View: ParentNode > ChildNode Name: . . . List (by Album) View type: <View Type> Columns (applies to <ViewName> for the <ColumnSetting>: (note: this is for list views) . . . . Available . . . . Displayed . . . . Actor . . . . . . Artwork . . . . Publisher . . . . Summary . . . . . . Fields (applies to <ViewName> for the <ColumnSetting>): (note: this is for Grid views) _Title_ [-] [+] _Album_ [-] [+] _Year_ [-] [+] Sorting (applies to <ViewName> for the <ColumnSetting>): _Summary_ _A..Z_ [-] [+] _Field 2_ _Field 3_ Summary (applies to <ViewName> for <Parent> > <ChildNode> Node ): (note: this is only for Grouped by views) . . . . . . . .Album . . . . . [-] . . . . . . . .Album Artist . .[-] . . . . . . . .Rating . . . . .[-] . . . . . . . . # Tracks . . . [-] . . . . . . . .Year . . . . . .[-][+] Elements (applies to <ViewName> for <Parent> > <ChildNode> Node): [ ] Element1 [ ] Element2 ... Note: - <ColumnSetting> = Entire Library | <CollectionName> Collection | <Parent> > <ChildNode> Node (depending on the setting) - Summary could continue to be configured via the current 3-row selector, but for Grid views, the configurator should use [-] [+] buttons since the number of fields can exceed 3. 2) 0002248 There are too many steps involved to configure views (especially the current view) a) For most views (except some Grid views), right-clicking on columns --> Column settings. This should be changed to 'Configure View' and just open the 'Configure view' dialog for the current view so that MM doesn't have 2 different dialogs (Column settings + View settings) and all settings can be configured in one place. b) We could add a 'Configure view' button above 'Manage views' button so that there's an obvious means of configuring the current view for views without a header (e.g. Location [Grid]). 3) Configuration of Grid views is inconsistent/confusing: 0020440: Grid views aren't correctly designed for Folder/Location nodes, since the bottom portion of the view cannot be sorted. This can be fixed by eliminating grid views for these nodes and relying on the Browser view instead (short-term), or by allowing the the view to be sortable/configurable in a manner proposed above. 0020441: Grid views should by default include sort options that are displayed within the View, and but should allow for: - Sort entries that aren't used (no Asc/Desc indicator) - The addition of sort entries that aren't displayed in the View - The addition of field entries (below the Image) even if they're not in the Sorting list 5) 0022411: The Tools > Options > Column settings and Configure View dialogn can be clearer |
|
|
3) As I explained in # 0020440, the bottom portion of Grid view CAN be sorted, it was added in b3526. It cannot be sorted directly on the main panel, but only using Configure View dialog box. However, that is not reason that you eliminate Grid view for Folder and Location nodes. |
