TV search box - minor improvement requested (1 Viewer)

[elliottmc]

Hi,

Some time ago, the details of searching for TV programmes by title was changed slightly. Personally, I preferred to be able to flick through the alphabet, but obviously a decision was made which I respect.

However, as a result of the change, whenever I enter search, the keyboard pops up with the letter "A" already filled in at the start. This means that if I don't want to search for a programme beginning with "a" (25 times out of 26!) I have to delete this first.

I feel that this dialog box should be empty so that the user can just start typing. It's not a massive problem, but certainly less convenient using a remote. I'm guessing this is a relatively trivial fix.

No log files, as they aren't really relevant (unless the "A" isn't filled in for everyone, in which case please let me know).

I've had a look at the code, and it seems that this is the relevant bit in TVSearch.cs

216 if (control == btnSearchByTitle)
217 {
218 btnShow.Clear();
219 btnEpisode.Clear();
220 filterEpisode = String.Empty;
221 filterShow = String.Empty;
222 currentSearchMode = SearchMode.Title;
223 currentLevel = 0;
224 //currentSearchKind=-1;
225 filterLetter = "A";
226 Update();
227 GUIControl.FocusControl(GetID, btnSearchByTitle.GetID);
228 }

Will changing line 225 to

filterLetter = "";

cause any other problems in this instance? I'm guessing this was put in for a reason. Perhaps gemx could comment, since it looks like he made the original changes.


Thanks for listening.

Mark

 

[elliottmc]

Bump.

Does no one else feel that this search box should be blank when it opens?

Mark

 

[baffledboy]

I'm with you on this one, Mark.

 

[geov]

Yes I agree with you....

 

[revs]

i have a vauge memory that this came up in a previous thread and there was some reason as to why it always defaulted to "A"..cant remember what it was though !

 

[elliottmc]

i have a vauge memory that this came up in a previous thread and there was some reason as to why it always defaulted to "A"..cant remember what it was though !

Fair enough. If there's a good reason why it is the way it is, then that's fine.

Maybe it could be logged as a bug to be fixed further down the line. I did wonder if it needed a default letter filter. Maybe the letter A could be used as default, although this could be transparent to the user (i.e. not in the search box).

Personally, I prefer the way the search used to be, where you could flick through the alphabet. Of course, this depends on how many channels you have I suppose. I'm sure there was a good reason for the change.

Best wishes,

Mark

 

[elliottmc]

Hi all,

As a follow-up to this, I've done a simple and obvious test.

Go into "search", switch to "title", open the "search" box and delete the "a", then click on "done".

At this point there is no filtering, which proves (well, to me anyway) that the "a" isn't needed to prevent a crash or similar.

Go back out of search, and then back in. Under title search, there is now no filtering again, just as a second check.

Would gemx (or any other team member) be able to comment on this one? I know it is minor, but it "feels" like a bug to me, since the software adds something to a search box which has to be deleted most of the time. Since my remote doesn't have a delete key, this requires several clicks. It seems like this would be a trivial fix, and I have even provided what would seem to be the solution.

If no-one from the team responds, I'm more than happy to try to compile a test build, if someone could talk me through the process.

Best wishes,

Mark

 

[gemx]

...
Go back out of search, and then back in. Under title search, there is now no filtering again, just as a second check...

That was exactly the reason why i added the "a" as default, because if you have quite much epg entries (like me), openening the search dialog takes a long time because it does a search without filtering and you would'nt find anything in that view.
So adding the "a" as default was just done to speed up opening the dialog but i will check it again to see if there might be another solution for this problem

 

[elliottmc]

Dear gemx,

Thank you for the explanation.

As a possible solution, you could have a default filter of "a" if no filter is found. This would not actually appear in the text search box. The downside of this is that it would require hard-coding so that it would be completely transparent to the user, but I guess it would only require a couple of lines of code (two variables, one for the apparent filter, one for the actual filter?).

Previously, the search by title had a box on the left where you could cycle through the alphabet using left and right buttons. As a personal preference, I found this much easier to use. I'm sure this change was made for a good reason/more general consensus of opinion though.

Best wishes,

Mark

 

[Malingo]

I don't know if this is possible, but maybe you could make it that the initial text in the searchbox (the "a") is selected, so any new typed text will immidiatly overwrite the text.
Don't know if this will work with remotes, though...