Desperately need audio book solution

[Andrew Terekhine]

Thanks for this idea, probably we could manage this task with help of tags. I.e. you will be able to tag some playlists in the library view as video, podcast, audiobook or whatever you call them. What do you think?

 

[atomicwedgie]

Well, if you decided to implement my suggestion about 3 default folders, one each for Books, Music and Video, you would already know what files belong to a specific category. This removes a lot of the burden from the end user having to create playlists.

Granted I don't know how an Android app keeps track of these things whether it's in a small database or something like an XML file so I don't know how hard it is to implement these ideas.

It's true that some people won't use it for books, some won't use it for video, etc. This involves a little more logic being built into the app. If a person doesn't set a default directory for Audio Books, then you don't even have to list that category in the list view.

Again these are just ideas I am tossing out there and based on my own thoughts of design.

 

[Andrew Terekhine]

I see your point now. But it's already possible: just set sdcard\media folder as a default folder. Place 3 subdirs audio, video, music into it. Now whenever you select an item for playing you see 3 folders first and can select needed area. Maybe I miss something and you need some additional functionality in the library screen. Could you explain your idea a bit more? Thanks.

 

[atomicwedgie]

If we created one directory as you say, how would your program know which was Books vs. Music? If you get into requiring people to name things specifically or create a specific folder structure it creates more work for them and more confusion for the less technical.

I wish I knew how other people had their media organized because maybe they do it totally different than I do. I have three folders off the root of my SD card that pertain. Audio Books, Music and Video

Got your update today and it is MUCH cleaner without the /sdcard/etc prefacing the names! Thank you!

Comment... when I click on something I've already added, it brings up a dialog box that offers, Play, Delete, Add even when it's a folder. How about an option to Open or List (whatever you like to call it)? Sometimes people are looking for something specific within that group or just want to see what's in there. To have it instantly start playing might create problems for people at work or whatever.

 

[atomicwedgie]

I just talked this over with three tech guys at work. Giving them no prodding I asked if they had Audio Books, Music and Videos to store on an SD card how they would create a folder structure.

All three of them gave the same outline I use which is:

Root
->Audio Books
->Music
->Video

That's why I suggested allowing to set a separate default for each type of media.

Andrew this is YOUR app that you are putting your effort into. By all means I am not trying to tell you what to do so please don't think I am being pushy. I am just helping you out the best I can to make an app that everyone is happy with.

 

[Andrew Terekhine]

If we created one directory as you say, how would your program know which was Books vs. Music? If you get into requiring people to name things specifically or create a specific folder structure it creates more work for them and more confusion for the less technical.
I wish I knew how other people had their media organized because maybe they do it totally different than I do. I have three folders off the root of my SD card that pertain. Audio Books, Music and Video

I see. We can handle this case only by introducing several media folders. I've placed this to our list. However, I still didn't catch your idea completely. Which of these three folders should be opened when we select menu > add? Maybe we need to display all of them in the browser when we have several base media folders mode? What do you think?

Got your update today and it is MUCH cleaner without the /sdcard/etc prefacing the names! Thank you!

You are welcome, thanks to your proposal it's much cleaner now.

Comment... when I click on something I've already added, it brings up a dialog box that offers, Play, Delete, Add even when it's a folder. How about an option to Open or List (whatever you like to call it)? Sometimes people are looking for something specific within that group or just want to see what's in there. To have it instantly start playing might create problems for people at work or whatever.

Good point. Added to the list. Will be in the next build.

 

[Andrew Terekhine]

Thanks, Atomicwedgie. Of course, we are trying to do this app as flexible as it possible (it's not only our application). However, I'd like to analyze your idea from different sides (see my previous question).

 

[atomicwedgie]

Andrew you bring up a good point about what folder to list when adding media which is going to require a little thought on my part to see if I even have any ideas for a solution you could use.

This brings me to a question... are folders we add "live?" Meaning, once you add a folder does the app check to see if new media is added whenever you start it? If not, this means each time a new file is added in a subdirectory we have to remove and re-add it to the list.

 

[atomicwedgie]

Here is my thoughts on handling folders.

You specify three default folders, one each for Books, Music and Video. This makes it easy on your end because you know instantly as you scan what is categorized as a book vs. music vs. video.

When you go to add a folder a dialog pops asking what type of media you're adding. If a default isn't specified say for "Video" that option isn't even available in the dialog.

This opens things up to clean up the interface even more. When they hit the folder icon it can break down the list grouping together Music, Audio Books and Video to make finding what you want even easier. Put the group headings in bold.

OR, you could make an actual home screen where it just lists the types of media (which you can make look fancy iconwise) and once they choose, all you see are the type of media you want to play making it even cleaner looking.

I am going to think about this some more but those are the ideas I can offer for now.

 

[Andrew Terekhine]

Of course, we have live folders. I believe, it's a vital feature for podcasts and very large audiobooks. Astro Player creates a playlist based on the selected folder at the very first time. Moreover, it doesn't rebuild the playlist until some child folder or file is changed. However, in future we are going to add additional type of playlists: for music. These new type will be based not on the whole folder structure but on standalone files from different folders. For such playlists it's not possible to provide automatic updating, though.

 

[Andrew Terekhine]

Ok, thanks for your details, I need some time to digest this.

 

[Andrew Terekhine]

You specify three default folders, one each for Books, Music and Video. This makes it easy on your end because you know instantly as you scan what is categorized as a book vs. music vs. video.

Although I've already added your multiple media folders request to the list, I still don't completely understand it. How can we be 100% sure what is categorized as a book or as a music? Sometimes it's hard to distinguish between different types of audio content because of missing tags. For video it's not a problem, though for audio we can have even more categories like podcasts or something else. I think that in order to provide maximum flexibility we should introduce a possibility to add any number of media folder. If we have more than one media folder specified we should list only them (and not other content of the sdcard) by default in the browser.

 

[atomicwedgie]

Although I've already added your multiple media folders request to the list, I still don't completely understand it. How can we be 100% sure what is categorized as a book or as a music? Sometimes it's hard to distinguish between different types of audio content because of missing tags. For video it's not a problem, though for audio we can have even more categories like podcasts or something else. I think that in order to provide maximum flexibility we should introduce a possibility to add any number of media folder. If we have more than one media folder specified we should list only them (and not other content of the sdcard) by default in the browser.

Ok let's say it like this. Maybe I am missing something.

For my default Audio Books folder I specify /sdcard/Audio Books. As your scanning the content, you tag each item as "Audio Book"

For Music I specify /sdcard/Music. All content added from this location is tagged as "Music"

Same goes for video.

As I said, I don't know how you're keeping track of what files are added but let's for arguments sake say it's a database or XML file and three fields are "location", "file" and "category"

For the book "Ticktock" which is in three parts, the database entries would look like this since we already know that /sdcard/Audio Books contains nothing but Audio Books;

location: sdcard/Audio Books/ticktock/
filename: ticktock1.mp3
category: Audio Books

location: sdcard/Audio Books/ticktock/
filename: ticktock2.mp3
category: Audio Books

location: sdcard/Audio Books/ticktock/
filename: ticktock3.mp3
category: Audio Books

For music, entries would look similar because again, /sdcard/Music was specified as the default Music folder, anything added from there is auto tagged as Music.

location: sdcard/Music/Rock/
filename: ACDC - Dirty Deeds.mp3
category: Music

location: sdcard/Music/HipHop/
filename: Madcon - Beggin.mp3
category: Music

location: sdcard/Music/Jazz/
filename: Gabriela Anders - Fire of Love.mp3
category: Music

Same would be for video.

If you need to manage podcasts, the same pattern would apply. Now, if someone prefers to have a main Media directory this idea still works because MORE than likely it would be broken down like this;

Media
->Audio Books
->Music
->Podcasts
->Video

This would simply make our default directory for music, /sdcard/Media/Music. I think it is highly unlikely that anyone would keep their books, music and video in one single folder together like;

/media/ticktock1.mp3
/media/ACDC - Dirty Deeds.mp3
/media/Southpark s08e02.mp4

 

[Andrew Terekhine]

For my default Audio Books folder I specify /sdcard/Audio Books. As your scanning the content, you tag each item as "Audio Book"

Thanks for your detailed explanations. I think it will be possible to do it like you are proposed. One thing is still remaining: now we don't scan anything automatically. The content of a particular folder is scanned only when it's added using the browser. It seems that you request an automatic scanning, isn't it?

 

[atomicwedgie]

Thanks for your detailed explanations. I think it will be possible to do it like you are proposed. One thing is still remaining: now we don't scan anything automatically. The content of a particular folder is scanned only when it's added using the browser. It seems that you request an automatic scanning, isn't it?

Why couldn't automatic scanning take place? Each time the app is run it scans the folder and compares it to the list of existing media. Anything new within the main folders can be added.

You can always make an option to have your app either automatically update whenever the app is run or set a manual scan option. For those who infrequently add new media manual scanning would make startup quicker.

The app I had on my Storm auto scanned each time and it only seemed to add 3-5 seconds to startup time.

Again these decisions are totally up to you. I am only making suggestions based on what I think works.