[mythtv-users] MythMusic Bounty Ideas

Steven Adeff adeffs.mythtv at gmail.com
Thu Sep 7 13:45:21 UTC 2006


On 9/7/06, Stephen Boddy <stephen.boddy at btinternet.com> wrote:
> On Thursday 07 September 2006 12:53, Steven Adeff wrote:
> To do this I think you're going to need to come up with firm goals first so
> any potential developer knows a) what the goals are, and more importantly
> that b) the goal posts won't move mid-development. Ideally some kind of
> interface design/mockup/storyboard to start with.

I agree, which is why I wanted to hear feedback on the areas I posted about.

I also see an issue in that the UI and the "plug-in" architecture may
require to be written together, at the same time, so I'm hoping to
hear back from people that know how this works what the best way to
handle this is.


> Ideally this would be done face-to-face with a reasonable group of music
> lovers, but that's obviously tricky due to dispersed nature of the users. So
> you might have to settle for a cobbled together conference (skype?), and I
> think inkscape has some kind of Jabber collaboration, so you could use that
> as a whiteboard.

I don't think it needs to necessarily go this far.  This list works
well for discussions, and allows for people on different schedules to
collaborate. I also don't expect the final Bounty to come together
overnight. If it takes 2 or 3 weeks to come together thats fine.

I think the trickiest part is how will the new UI work. Though I think
this may be eased by having MythMusic contain UI modules that the
theme designer can then organize and relate in the manner they like
the best. For instance, allow for "pages" that can allow the theme
designer to create a tabbed structure, and modules that can be placed
on the page, like a "Source" module, "Tree" modules, etc. Each with a
set of controls, items that can be displayed, etc. Allowing the theme
designer to mix, match and organize as they like.


> Then come up with a firm outline of what comes out of that. While things like
> last.fm integration would be cool, it should only be a possiblity via an
> extension/plugin, otherwise the amount of work will become too great, and
> noone will go near it, and the bounty will languish. The more focused the
> target, the more chance it'll have of getting done, and done successfully.

I truly believe all the iPod/Last.FM type stuff can be more like a
plug-in. But what needs to be in place is a way to organize all that
for the user. Much like how iTunes uses its "Sources" tree where it
has your main Library, Playlists, iPod(which pops up when an iPod is
mounted), etc. Having a flexible tree that allows for this is needed.


> Finally, be flexible within reason. Put the plans up for criticsm, and when
> valid, change the plan, provided it doesn't extend the scope.

Right. I hope to make the final requirements open enough that the
developer, with the help of the community can find a solution that
best fits the needs of the community but be rigid enough so we can say
that each goal was met.


> For my part, my single most important objective would be for the interface to
> get me as close to the ease of use of Amarok for creating, selecting, playing
> and managing playlists. (Of course the trivial way to do this is to have
> MythMusic access the db of your desktop Amarok...) My secondary objective
> would be a framework for extensions (but not the actual extensions) for
> additional features (i.e. iPod, lasf.fm, shoutcast, radio streams etc.)

Agreed. Some method for managing playlists and basic browsing and song
selection needs to be implemented.

I like the idea of some Amarok integration but I also like MythMusic
having its own database tables in mythconverg. I think the best way
for doing this is perhaps working with Amarok to create a "device" in
the manner of the portable player integration that is actually the
MythMusic database so that playlists can be created that way. Still
the problem of file location/mount points has to be figured out. This
though can be added later.

> I'll admit that I'm still on 0.18, so I haven't seen what, if any,
> improvements are in the soon-to-be-release 0.20 version. What I do know is
> that 0.18 has a horrible UI to the point that I can't really bring myself to
> use it. I just turn my desktops Amarok-driven diddy speakers up really
> loud ;-) . If 0.20 isn't dramatically improved then I'm happy to throw in
> some money, depending on the design/plan and acheivability.

Sadly, I don't think the UI has changed much if at all. The db has
gone through a good overhaul which will make these changes easier (and
was mostly done for the MythWeb Music features being added), but the
TV interface side of things has not improved.

-- 
Steve
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