More flexibility for extra slection choices

[winxi]

(10-09-2013 13:22)simoncn Wrote:  I understand the reasons for your request.

Let's start with the easy part. I don't think there are any problems with allowing the different extras to be selected individually. As you suggested, this could be done by setting the default value of showExtras to

albumDisc, completeAlbum, showAll, tagView

and allowing people to customize which combination of these they want to see. It would also make sense to allow the displayed text to be renamed, for example:

completeAlbum:Komplettes Album, showAll:Alle Anzeigen

This sounds great and it would complement the already awesome configurability of MinimServer

Quote:Now for the more difficult part. I'm still not convinced that it would make sense to allow the "Hide Contents" step to be removed. This extra step is somewhat inconvenient, but it prevents unpleasant surprises with having duplicate tracks or extra tracks added to the playlist. I understand that some control points have solved this problem either by using UPnP search or by flitering duplicates, but there are many control points that use a naive implementation and I think it's important to make MinimServer work well with these control points.

I also understand the argument that an option like this would be used only by expert users who will know how to avoid any problems that this will cause. In practice, I think it's likely that many nonexpert users who find the extra Hide Contents step inconvenient would select the option to remove this step without fully appreciating the consequences of doing this.

I see your points. Maybe it would be less problematic if the default setting would be to keep the 'Hide Contents' step and that it would have to be disabled by explicitely adding the '-' character. The user would then have to read the user guide to be able to disable the 'Hide Contents' step and at the same time he/she would be informed about the consequences.
Maybe this would also be a predestinated question for a possible FAQ (something like "Why do I get duplicated items in my playlist and how can this be avoided?"). However, if you ever decide to establish such a FAQ, I'm sure that the first entry would be something like: "Does a common abbreviation exist for MinimServer?"

Quote:I would very much like to find a way to overcome the inconvenience of the current approach without the disadvantages mentioned above. One possibility would be to have a way to tell the control point that the container that is protected by the "Hide Contents" choice should be displayed for interactive browsing purposes but should not be used for recursive browsing. For example, this could be done with nonstandard marker elements within the <container> tags for both the "Hide Contents" container and the protected container, and a control point that understands these markers could avoid showing the extra "Hide Contents" menu to the user.

This sounds very interesting. Unfortunately, I've not enough knowledge to comment much on the mechanics of the UPnP protocol. I think that the most important thing is that MinimServer stays compliant with all standard UPnP control points which don't know how to handle such nonstandard marker elements.