Second level home screen (explanation inside)

[tomtom21000]

I see all these great new plugins hopefully coming up the next weeks/month.

My alarm
My mail
my comics
and many more

These are all things I tend to activate for my htpc, but...

a couple of them I wouldn´t use so frequently. The home screen with the scrolling items will be overpopulated. It takes long to find the main purpose of the htpc (TV, movies, pictures).

Take also radio, recipes, programs, news or upcoming system info into account which are of different importance for different users here.

Idea:

Introduce a home screen level 2.

On level 1 you have the things you think important and "more..."
on level 2 you have the rest of the modules.

home 2 could have the same looks as home 1 and only needs a "up" or something button.

Best way is to let the user choose in the settings if he wants the module be displayed on level 1 or level 2. Of course he still can decide if the module should show up at all.

What do you think, good idea?

tomtom21000

[snorre]

I like it a lot. I also fear that both other user's great plugin combined with my own work will clutter the home page. I think the ultimate solution would be to introduce a folder feature where you can define folders that you can enter from the home page. I donät know how hard this would be to implement, but I would sure like it a lot.

[MrMario64]

something like this has been going through my mind to yes.

a My Plugins section giving you a 2nd home screen ?
(optional ofcourse ) )

[tomtom21000]

Originally Posted by MrMario64

something like this has been going through my mind to yes.

a My Plugins section giving you a 2nd home screen ?
(optional ofcourse ) )

yes, forgot to mention. 2nd home screen should be optional, only for those who want/need it.
as home is in the plugin section anyway, this would be the place to activate home 2.

tomtom21000

It would be nice if we could make custome home plugins. Is this possible now? Or does the home plugin do more than just show and bring the plugins to the front?
If we can make our own home plugin, none of this would have to be something you do on the framework Frodo.
This would allow anybody to implement any idea they have for home.

[tomtom21000]

@knubile:

watch out for vaeanu, or pm him. He is taking his work on the early skin he made (cosmicmyth) up again. he made a different looking home. could be used with touchscreen (but only home). But that was before the scrolling menues were implemented. but maybe you can work this out together.

but your question is rather basic. what does home do. best grab yourself an irc client and go to #mediaportal chatroom, where you can meet frodo often.

tomtom21000

[frodo]

yep,
its a good thing ppl are developing all those nice things
side effect is that we now need a way to organize them all
So a My Plugins section is becoming necessary

Frodo

Originally Posted by frodo

yep,
its a good thing ppl are developing all those nice things
side effect is that we now need a way to organize them all
So a My Plugins section is becoming necessary

Frodo

In MCE they have solved it in an interesting way. They have a submenu as mentioned here but on the main menu the last to selections you have made in the submenu is shown on the main menu. Why is this any good? Well after a while there tend to be perhaps a couple of plugins you use frequently and thus they will be availble on the main menu.

[tomtom21000]

So you think this is a good idea

@Frodo, Mario

Originally Posted by Frodo

So a My Plugins section is becoming necessary

Don´t jump too short with this. If you show up activated plugins in the my plugins section, I can see the posts coming in here every day:

"Can´t I have the My games" plugin on the home screen"
"Can´t I have the "My Mails" plugin on the home screen, I use it so often
or "I dont want the "weather" on the home screen. I don´t use it very often.

Think about the suggestion in my first post (see quotation). Let the user make the choise. It is a more flexible concept.

On level 1 you have the things you think important and "more..."
on level 2 you have the rest of the modules.

home 2 could have the same looks as home 1 and only needs a "up" or something button.

Best way is to let the user choose in the settings if he wants the module be displayed on level 1 or level 2. Of course he still can decide if the module should show up at all.

Originally Posted by Samsonite

In MCE they have solved it in an interesting way. They have a submenu as mentioned here but on the main menu the last to selections you have made in the submenu is shown on the main menu.

No bad idea. Something like a compromise between my plugins and my suggestion. Still personally, I do not like it so much. I like to find things where I expect them. I guess all the more my wife. Those flexible menues is the first thing I switch of when getting an MS word or Excel environment.

tomtom21000

[waeberd]

nice idea, tomtom!

It will be necessary to group the plugins, and I absolutely agree that it would be cool if the user could define the priorities himself!

Cheers,

Daniel