[IDEA] wide display + slideshow

[HarryLyar]

Hi,

I'm new and would love some input to my plan ;-)

I use a pi 3B+ and a pi2aes. I'd like a local display, and I like this a lot: https://www.waveshare.com/11.9inch-hdmi-lcd.htm. It's unusual in that it is very wide, 320×1480px.

I will preferably connect it by hdmi, and i'd like it to turn off/show black screen when I am not playing/streaming, and turn on when playing. I've played a bit with the options in Moode, and I think this is possible, but not completely sure.

Then, I'd like to customize the design of the page, to utilize the wide screen. I can see the files (js/css) are in /var/www/. What I'd like to do is "somewhere" (on pi or in the sky) make a folder named "Aretha Franklin", and place some photos in it. When playing Aretha I want to show a slideshow of these photos. Another option would be to programmatically do a google image-search of the playing artist and scrape the results for links to images.

I'm a developer and the coding should be doable (unless there is something I overlook). 

Can anyone see a reason why this should not work?  - before I buy the display and start using time on it.

Thanks a lot for any input 

[Tim Curtis]

It could work.

Are you familiar with creating Pull Requests in Git?

[HarryLyar]

Thanks Tim. I'm used to it through bitbucket :-)

[Tim Curtis]

Ok.

Do you think this is a generally applicable feature or something thats unique to your particular usage scenario?

[HarryLyar]

I think the concrete layout might only work on similar wide screens (say, width > 3 x height or something). I have a vague idea about a 3 column layout with the slideshow in the middle, but haven't thought much about it.

However if I can make the slideshow work in a good way (I think I like the google search idea best, as it would require nothing more to use - maybe with an override option, so if you have a certain folder you'll get the images there instead) that might be generally applicable. So, if you already have considerations (I saw some requests) for different layout options it might become a part of that. It doesn't sound too difficult to make the layout selectable, but I don't know the concrete architecture and possibilities etc.

The search might find silly images from time to time, but I think the slideshow would look really cool so still worth it ;-) It also might be possible to select "I don't want to see this image again".

[Tim Curtis]

True, there have been some requests for a UI layout for these types of wide displays. Maybe break the effort into two parts with the first being the css and js for the UI layout (cover art, metadata text, play controls) and the second being the slideshow feature.

I might be able to help with the code for the UI layout but I'm not a css expert.

[HarryLyar]

Thanks Tim. Ordered the display, so now I'll have to give it a shot :-)

Just brainstorming; the flexible solution seems just to have a flexbox row the user can put "widgets" in and change the order. If you select 1 widget it gets 100% width, 2 50%, 3 33% etc. So, for my wide display I would just add more widgets. Of course if you choose too many it will look bad (or become hidden).

If each widget has it's own html-id or class it would maybe not be too difficult to let advanced users override the styling.

I saw someone else got some meters working. Would also be an excellent (and popular) widget candidate.

I saw your workflow here, will try it when I get the time:
https://moodeaudio.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=2502

If you have other setup tips for development I will be happy for a link :-)

[Tim Curtis]

Thats our image builder. We only use that when the Raspberry Pi Foundation bumps to new major version of RaspiOS. In that case mosbuild is used to produce a new image-only release of moOde.

The workflow for generating runtime moOde on an image is based on Gulp
https://moodeaudio.org/forum/showthread....2#pid28402

Easiest is to just run that screen size in a simulator and see what might be possible as far as UI layout goes. Below is what CoverView looks like. One of the old versions of moOde had some css code for a side-by-side layout for the Raspberry Pi 7" touch screen. I might be able to dig that out at some point.

   

[TheOldPresbyope]

For sure the slideshow feature should be mocked up and tested separately (on any host). There are already various sources of artwork to be explored vis-a-vis API, etc. Whatever it is, it should look first for artist artwork in a track’s metadata.

As for the UI, it seems we periodically receive requests for layout flexibility. Many of them read to me like requests for a moOdeUI kit of parts at a higher level of abstraction than our existing css and js code. 

Not my cup of tea but then I’ve gotten old and stodgy. I’d love to see some new ideas reduced to code.



Regards,
Kent

[HarryLyar]

For sure the slideshow feature should be mocked up and tested separately (on any host). There are already various sources of artwork to be explored vis-a-vis API, etc. Whatever it is, it should look first for artist artwork in a track’s metadata.

As for the UI, it seems we periodically receive requests for layout flexibility. Many of them read to me like requests for a moOdeUI kit of parts at a higher level of abstraction than our existing css and js code. 

Not my cup of tea but then I’ve gotten old and stodgy. I’d love to see some new ideas reduced to code.



Regards,
Kent

Thanks a lot for answer Kent.

Just thinking out loud; I'm thinking something like attached, just a first mockup. On touch the cover + songlist should go back to normal opacity. The middle column is the slideshow, where I'd like to avoid all artwork and covers, which should be doable with a google search ( -artwork -cover). When playing a new artist the side columns should also light up for some seconds. Just ideas. But I don't think I personally am interested in artwork in the metadata, besides what is already shown.

I agree, it could probably become complex if a lot of flexibility is wanted, there is a lot of existing code.

I may be naive and overlook many things, if so just say it :-) If it is too difficult to integrate or doesn't "fit" I guess I can still do it in my own installation and risk to live with upgrade problems.