Improving Menu structure (1 Viewer)

[ge2301]

@morpheus_xx ,
what do you think about this idea? https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/improving-menu-structure.133702/page-3#post-1175617
Currently the main problem of an InGui Menu Editor is, that for BV the tile dimensions are pre-set and can not be easily modified in an InGUI Menu Editor.
By predefining some arrangements according to the number of tiles per group a general Menu Editor could be introduced. I believe that 95% of the users are happy with that, the remaining 5% have still the chance to manually modify the xml settings to arrange the tiles.

The feedbacks for the new "free scrolling" through the tiles are really positive. I believe, that with a comfortable possibility to arrange the menus according to the personal taste will be something, that MP1 and lot of other media center softwares can not offer!
A possible structure of a menu editor can be as follows: https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/improving-menu-structure.133702/page-2#post-1175607

 

[morpheus_xx]

By predefining some arrangements according to the number of tiles per group a general Menu Editor could be introduced. I believe that 95% of the users are happy with that, the remaining 5% have still the chance to manually modify the xml settings to arrange the tiles.

But having a set of presets of sizes and positions is only one part. The other part is to choose between all available items and place them into the right place. The currently predefined combination must not neccessary be the preferred one of users.

 

[ge2301]

The other part is to choose between all available items and place them into the right place. The currently predefined combination must not neccessary be the preferred one of users.

This is covered by following:

A possible structure of a menu editor can be as follows: https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/improving-menu-structure.133702/page-2#post-1175607

There is also a position number, that let the user choose which tile to connected to which Guid-ID

 

[Brownard]

My initial plan for the menu editor is to allow the user to specify groups, sub items and order of the groups/sub items. It should be kept as generic as possible so it can be used across different skins.
It's then down to the skin how these groups are displayed, e.g BV could then apply the different tile sizes based on the number of items in the group to maximise the used space, with the possibility to override.
We need to think about how to handle if a user creates a group with too many items to display? Split it over 2 'pages'?

 

[ge2301]

We need to think about how to handle if a user creates a group with too many items to display? Split it over 2 'pages'?

I would prefer to limit it to 5/6 subitems at first. This can cover everything at the moment. Only the "others" group shouldn't have a limit. Currently for BV skin the tile size in "others" is minimized to offer enough space. But you are right, that there could be a problem. The idea of the menu editor is, that basically all tiles are in others, until they are allocaed to another group.
This means, that "one screen" won't be enough.

• Splitting does not fit 100% into the "horizontal scrolling" through the groups. If this is done, there would be a group "others (1/2)" and "others (2/2)" and I do not like that too much
• I could assume a vertical scrolling for "others" with an indicator in which vertical screen a user is. Problem here would be, that the user can not easily leave the main menu to the power button (right/left --> group change, up/down --> vertical scrolling). Helping would to add a power tile to settings and removing it in the top-bar.

 

[Brownard]

I was thinking more about a generic group editor and how this would apply across different skins, in some skins an artificial limit of 6 items wouldn't make sense, e.g in the WMC skin it would be possible to have as many items as you want.

By 'pages' I meant that BV would display it as 2 separate groups. I can also have a think about how to make it extensible so it would be possible to have skin specific options like limits, tile size, etc...

 

[ge2301]

I was thinking more about a generic group editor and how this would apply across different skins, in some skins an artificial limit of 6 items wouldn't make sense, e.g in the WMC skin it would be possible to have as many items as you want.

I agree generally. Just Microsoft allows only 5 subitems also for WMC. The reason is simply, that more than 5 subitems are not visible at once (after start-up). If there are 10 items users could only guess their existence based on the group name. One of the strengths of WMC is, that users don't have to guess, but see it. WMC is intuitive and "idiot-safe" I'd like to keep this as much as possible.

For each group up to 5 items can be added (which is also max. for BV at the moment, even though more possible). As in WMC, a 6th item would be not visible any more, which is not good

For other skins as based on PureVision the limitation makes no sense, I agree here.

By 'pages' I meant that BV would display it as 2 separate groups. I can also have a think about how to make it extensible so it would be possible to have skin specific options like limits, tile size, etc...

Yes, that would be great to directly consider skin specific options But I know it won't be that easy
Perhaps you come up with some great ideas

 

[Timhoh1234]

Is there any conclusion and progress, so we can expect a BV menu editor in near future?

 

[ge2301]

Is there any conclusion and progress, so we can expect a BV menu editor in near future?

Not very soon I think. @Brownard implemented a MenuEditor for WMC skin. It's working pretty well, but it is also much easier as a BV menu editor because tile sizes are contant in WMC skin.
I think it's better to collect some experience with this and go into a BV menu editor later. Furthermore Brownard is quite busy with lot of new great features, that are at least as great as the menu editor. So in any case you will have some nice new features soon.