I think this needs a re-think before you deliver it in SC7.3.
I just stumbled into this new functionality whilst trying to add songs to the
end of my current playlist. The first time I pressed add on a song, it was
added to the end of the playlist. The next song I tried to add to the end of
the playlist added it after the currently playing song instead. At first I
thought that I'd pressed the Add button down too long (add.hold does a add next
action).
Fortunately, I remembered a checkin comment I saw recently and also a comment
in a bug report from a developer saying he was unconvinced that the party mode
default setting should be "Off" and not disabled. So, when things started to
behave strange this morning, I knew where to look.
Others will not be on the ball and will surely report bugs as it currently
stands.
The new playlist mode intercepts the add button to switch playlist mode "On".
So the first time you press add to add a song, it works as expected. The
second thing you try to add then gets added after the currently playing track.
So, you want to add song 3 and 4 by an artist to the current playlist. 3 gets
added to the end, song 4 gets added next. Without warning. No clear
indication that some side-effect has occurred by pressing the add button the
first time.
I don't see why the add button functionality has been messed about with at all.
Totally unnecessary and very confusing.
I thought the enhancement request from a small number of users was that they
wanted a party mode that could be set to prevent someone from pressing play to
wipe the current playlist. Fine. Sounded like a little plugin was called for
that could be turned on to provide that functionality. It could be turned
on/off by setting the mode in the Settings (or Extras) menu.
But why mess about with side-effects on the add button? The only thing that
you may want to prevent when in party mode is "clear playlist" by pressing add
on the "Now Playing" menu.
There's no description of what the different modes mean. We now have:
Playlist mode disabled
Playlist mode off
Playlist mode on
Party mode on.
I kind of know what these things mean, having found some info on a wiki page.
However, it's really not going to be intuitive for new users. Questions that
would be asked are:
What's the difference between Playlist mode and Party mode?
What's the difference between playlist mode disabled and off?
It also looks like there are two different groups of settings: Playlist mode
disabled/off/on and also Party mode on/off. Why can't party mode be disabled?
I thought there was a push to make the UI more intuitive for consumers. This
seems a bit over the top for a simple jukebox/party mode, that is not going to
be used by the geeky type of user. I imagine that the type of user that would
want to use this functionality would just want a simple to understand "Party
Mode: On/Off" toggle.
A party organiser/owner of the home/pub could turn the mode on, and turn it off
when the party is over. When on, it should not be possible to wipe the
playlist using the play button.
At a minimum, the Playlist mode should be disabled., but my recommendations are:
1. Have a setting - "Party Mode" checkbox setting, to turn party mode on / off.
(or "Playlist Mode: Normal / Party").
2. By default, it should be off.
3. Don't mess about with the add button; certainly don't use it to turn party
mode on/off.
4. Have some indicator when party mode is on?
5. The functionality may be better as a plugin, so the plugin can be completely
disabled for users that will never need this functionality, to keep the server
memory footprint down.
I have concerns that party mode is not full-proof (although I haven't played
with it too much - I just wanted to get rid of it!).
Does it also stop CLI commands, plugins, syncing, mixers, etc from wiping the
playlist?
What about the power button - is a user prevented from turning a player off
until party mode is stopped, or does it turn off and stop party mode?
What about favorites - eg. a guest presses a number key down too long, and
invokes a stored favorite.
Does this add to the playlist in party mode? Is shuffle mode disabled/ignored?
What about alarms. If party mode is on and an alarm goes off, does that wipe
the playlist or add to it?
If one player is in party mode, and another is not in party mode, when the
players are synced together, what mode wins?
I guess "playlist mode" is a per-player setting? If so I'll have to go to
every player and disable it manually. I don't sync settings to SN, so I'll
have to also change the setting for each player in SN.
Phil
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