UPnP Search and MinimServer 0.8.1

[DavidHB]

Thank you, bubbleguuum, for this very useful input.

(02-01-2014 20:42)bubbleguuum Wrote:  Search requests are indeed dependent on the Control Point ... BubbleDS / BubbleUPnP emits several predefined search requests that will probably cover 95% of a user's need.

I agree that the current capabilities of Bubble DS meet most if not all the needs I have at present. But often the capabilities that are most used are ones users never knew they had a need for ...

Quote:UPnP allow arbitrary search requests such as "give me all albums between 1980 and 1985 whose genre is classical or punk". Theoretically, a control point could give the user the ability to build its own requests, possibly as complex as he wants. In practice no control point does it because:

- it is not user-friendly, especially on mobile devices where things are kept simple. You'd have to present a form to build search requests.
- most media servers do not implement UPnP Search or implement it partially or not correctly (this is slowly changing)

I take the point, but hope that, as servers support search better, control point UIs could evolve (1) to allow searching of more of the browse tree presented by the server and (2) to enable users to search on more than 1 term (that is with logic like 'composer IS "Beethoven' AND title HAS 'Symphony"). An optional form for the more complex searches need not, I think, be massively user-unfriendly. Mobile device apps often take 'simplicity' to the point where they use all usefulness, though this is very much not the case with Bubble DS.

Quote:Speaking of foo_upnp searching MinimServer, current version only searches track titles. I will release a newer version soon that searches many more tags besides titles presented a single result list (unlike BubbleUPnP).

This is good news. I mostly use my tablet for normal listening, but like to have foo_upnp on hand for test purposes, and for occasional listening via my PC.

David