Album Liner Notes / Booklets

[swizzle]

I think pdf would be the most logical choice as it’s a container that can aggregate disparate image files and would greatly simplify the discoverability, and also allows for full-res text instead of just bitmap.

I concur. As well, I think any discoverability rule about said pdf file should be pretty simple, something on the order of "if there is a pdf file in the same directory as the track, make it known to the user".  I think it would be counterproductive to try to enforce some file-naming convention.

I'm not a JavaScript jockey---is there a common method to open a file in a pdf reader on the various platforms---Android, iOS, MacOS, Linux, Windows?

Candidly, I don't think this feature would be useful to me if I'm using a mobile device for the UI but that's just me.

Regards,
Kent

A pdf is handled by the browser so iirc it would just be a linked file. I don’t think an elaborate interface is really beneficial here, I’d just have moode get out of the way and let the browser/plugin do its thing, though for desktop we should have it open in a new tab/window.

[Tim Curtis]

The main issue is lack of requests for the feature.

[ear5142]

I support the request.

[vladone]

Hi Tim,

I have recently transitioned from Volumio to Moode because of the the vibrant community around it and the constant push for improvement.
I would be very happy if the liner note viewer will make it to the to-do list in near future.
I have a lot of classical album liner notes, each liner note saved inside the album folder under the name of "booklet.pdf".
I'm happy to help as much as possible with the design of the module from the UX and UI point of view and also testing the prototype.

Cheers,
Vlad

[michaelagiles]

Let me add my voice to this request. There are many download sites that include a booklet file of some sort and I have scannedcb a l ot of lp covers that I have transferred over the years. I have been trying to find a good way to make these accessible and linked to the music dir but time and expertise seem to be lacking!
BTW - love the polarity switch!
mg

[Tim Curtis]

Hi Tim,

I have recently transitioned from Volumio to Moode because of the the vibrant community around it and the constant push for improvement.
I would be very happy if the liner note viewer will make it to the to-do list in near future.
I have a lot of classical album liner notes, each liner note saved inside the album folder under the name of "booklet.pdf".
I'm happy to help as much as possible with the design of the module from the UX and UI point of view and also testing the prototype.

Cheers,
Vlad

Hi Vlad,

Added to the TODO list :-)

Can you describe the UX/UI?  That will determine what coding approach should be used.

[vladone]

Hi Tim,

I have recently transitioned from Volumio to Moode because of the the vibrant community around it and the constant push for improvement.
I would be very happy if the liner note viewer will make it to the to-do list in near future.
I have a lot of classical album liner notes, each liner note saved inside the album folder under the name of "booklet.pdf".
I'm happy to help as much as possible with the design of the module from the UX and UI point of view and also testing the prototype.

Cheers,
Vlad

Hi Vlad,

Added to the TODO list :-)

Can you describe the UX/UI?  That will determine what coding approach should be used.

Hi Tim,

Here is a quick description of how I see it (If needed I can add a diagram later):

• on opening a music folder look for "booklet.pdf" inside the folder 
  
• if booklet.pdf is present the enable an "open booklet" button in the space containing the controls for shuffle, view cover full screen, volume, etc. that is displayed in various layouts (list view, album view, etc.)     
  
• on tapping the open booklet button the liner notes will open in full screen, landscape orientation. The view will allow for gesture zooming, navigation and closing the view.
  
• on closing the booklet view you return to the previous view.
  

Nice to have:
in album list view add a booklet icon over the album image and allow for booklet view before playing the album.

Hope the explanation is clear.

Cheers,
Vlad

[Tim Curtis]

The booklet icon could simply be added to the ellipsis menu for an album. That would enable viewing the PDF before playing the album.

[swizzle]

@vladone

The reason not to just add another icon button to the album art on the album cover view is 1) adding more complexity has a negative impact on performance (by itself it’d be negligible but multiply that by thousands of items it starts to matter), 2) the hit region for the ellipsis is already > the visible button shape to make false presses less of an issue, there’s really not room for another such button that would allow for the primary music play function to still be easy. The ellipsis overflow idea Tim had is less discoverable but better from a ux point of view. If we discount #1 then we could place a non-actionable icon or something to let you know a booklet was available. And obviously we’d need to cache booklet availability for each album but that could be added when we’re generating thumbs or something.