Suggestion: Making the Library OPTIONAL

[pragmatik]

Play was designed from the ground up to be a jukebox. It stores play counts, dates (and now ratings and skips) and has smart playlists to allow more flexible listening. All this is made possible by using its internal database. Bypassing the library would invalidate a lot of these advantages.

I suggest:

1. a library for the official album collection.
1.1. possibility to sort library by directory structure and filename, fallback for directory structure if metadata inconsistent
1.2. adding files to playlist from library.

2. The second issue I understood is under discussion particularily on this thread; a single playlist separate from the library that can be altered on the fly without messing up the sacred order of things.

What type of listening do you do that having your music in a library like Play's is detrimental?

Previews, short loops, samples, single songs, random funnies from the internets, "this one *hic* song you gotta *hic* hear man, I'll just download it, man" :)

[k2103]

I note that, in Play, all the selection lists make it possible to remove titles which are at the same time removed from the library. Contrary to the Play Queue and Playlists, in which the removed titles are preserved in library.

I am planning to propose a solution which, without really making the library optional, could have the same effect.
A first step would be to modify somewhat the “Recently Added” repertory. This is why I start a new topic:

"A more powerful “Recently Added” directory"
http://sbooth.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1244

The minor modifications that I suggest would be, in my opinion, very useful in any event but especially, if accepted, would enable me to present the continuation of my project.

[Rolling_Go]

i'm also in the category of people that have stuff sorted in folders. i'm a recent convert from windows, and got really used to certain foobar2000 plugins, especially the Album List Panel plugin, which allowed a person to add their files/directories and you basically wind up with a panel in the side that lets you click on a directory or subdirectory and it would automatically queue (or replace the current queue) with whatever's contained within the folder you clicked on. here's an example of what i mean http://img511.imageshack.us/my.php?image=foobarkf5.gif

if that managed to get implemented i'd crap all over. as it stands, play is still the best music player i've used thus far on OSX hands down. thanks for the superb work, it's greatly appreciated.

[sbooth]

i'm also in the category of people that have stuff sorted in folders. i'm a recent convert from windows, and got really used to certain foobar2000 plugins, especially the Album List Panel plugin, which allowed a person to add their files/directories and you basically wind up with a panel in the side that lets you click on a directory or subdirectory and it would automatically queue (or replace the current queue) with whatever's contained within the folder you clicked on.

I know it's not exactly what you're talking about, but you can double-click essentially any item in the browser and that will add the contents of that node to the Play Queue. So if you expand the album node, you can double click any album to add its tracks to the queue.

[RonaldPR]

Play really needs a manual. I did not know one can double click items in the browser drawer. Until now, I only used single click to make a selection in the library. There must be many other features I am not aware of.

[sbooth]

Another browser-related function that might not be well known is that you can drag nodes to the Play Queue or into Playlists.

[RonaldPR]

Indeed! Do you have more nice little known features?

[sbooth]

Indeed! Do you have more nice little known features?

This one is more esoteric, but there is a preference called "useInMemoryDatabase" and if it has a value of 1 Play will create and use an in-memory Library, with no on-disk representation.

[RonaldPR]

Indeed! Do you have more nice little known features?

This one is more esoteric, but there is a preference called "useInMemoryDatabase" and if it has a value of 1 Play will create and use an in-memory Library, with no on-disk representation.

Tried it. Could be interesting for those who do not want to have everything they play saved in the Library. The in-memory Library is empty again at relaunch of Play. But of course, with no database file, the Play Queue is not remembered either.
I am one who does use the Library , so I set the value to 0 for the time being.

[pragmatik]

[quote="RonaldPR"]I think it is not the Library that you want to be optional, I think you want the Play Queue to be optional and be able to play directly from the Library list.[/quote]

I second that.