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MyTabs Beta 0.90

Slight performance improvement

"Between" operator now works for date fields of general filter, e.g. between 2007-06-06 and 2008-01-20.

When "Main" section of tab filter is disabled, the filtering starts with the filtered main collection instead of the entire main collection, allowing the tabs to take advantage of fast main program filters.

MyTabs Beta 0.83 (See subsequent posts for upgrade announcements)

Might not be compatible with prior version(s), and you may have to redefine your tabs and filters. In any case, please uninstall the prior version(s) by running unins000.exe in the \plugins\MyTabs folder. Start DVDProfiler and if there is a MyTabs window showing, delete it. Then exit DVDPro and install the new version.

New features:

- Filter by Studios. Condition must be Contains or Not Contain. Value must be an exact match to studio name (case sensitive).

- Filter by BoxSet. Condition must be Contains or Not Contain. Value must be an exact match with Profile ID (including locality if present) of included child profiles or the parent profile.

- Memory of column widths across sessions

- Ability to toggle the display of any or all columns in a tab. Remembered across sessions.

- Three custom columns now supported.

MyTabs Beta 0.81 and 0.83  - available here.

This plugin is in response to several requests for customizable tabs in various threads. I know that the most desirable implementation would be in the base product, however not only did the idea intrigue me, but it is a function that I would also use.

There is no question that a plugin cannot have the speed or flexibility of database access that the main DVDPro module has (without major enhancements to the plugin interface). I was realistic enough not to expect that kind of performance. But I have done the best I could to optimize things, within the limitations of tools provided and my own skills.

Given those disclaimers, perhaps this plugin might still provide some value, or some fun, or at the least, a platform around which to discuss a more ideal capability. If necessary, I will fix bugs or make enhancements, subject to the aforementioned limitations.

What the plugin will do:

- Create a dockable "MyTabs" window
- Define "Unlimited" tabs - each with it's own label and filter (realistically 1 - 3 tabs).
- Optional DVD profile display from selection within tab
- Optional "Auto Refresh" when collection window changes (not everything)
- Two fixed columns and two customizable
- The customizable columns can be from any of about 100 database / related fields
- Columns can be resized, switched in order and sorted A/D
- Copy flags from any tab to main collection (to get reports, etc.)
- Flags set/clear/invert
- Tabs persist across sessions
- Main collection flag tracking – filters do not apply to these tabs
- Customizable “doubleclick.” Please tell me what should be implemented.

There is a Tab Edit Dialogue, where you may
- Add /Delete / Rename / Enable / Disable
- Define the contents for the two custom columns
- Edit Tab Filter
- Save changes

Each tab can have filter (except flag trackers). The filter can be enabled/disabled. The filter will have two parts:

(1) Main filter defined from a limited set of fields provided by DVDPro to plugins as a high-speed search filter. I could not get all of the fields and conditions to work as expected. Here are the ones I could get to work, and what doesn’t work:

Collection  - EQUAL Owned, Ordered or Wishlist
IsLoaned – EQUAL true or false
LoanDue – (most of the comparison operators work) Date in most formats, such as 2007-10-01
Genres – EQUAL text value
EverWatched – EQUAL true / false
LastWatched – (most of the comparison operators work) Date in most formats
Studios – doesn’t work
BoxSet – doesn’t work

I don’t know why this particular subset was chosen for plugins  or why some work and others don’t.

(2) Supplemental filter applied on top of the main filter. Supplemental filter can be separately enabled/disabled. Each field can be joined by AND, OR, AND NOT or OR NOT.
Initial fields (based on discussions I’ve seen in various threads):

- Collection Type
- Tag
- Location
- Slot
- RunTime
- Notes
- Eggs

Each of these fields can be tested for Equal, Contains, Is Not Empty. In addition, RunTime and Slot can be tested for BETWEEN two values.

This plugin provides a far from perfect custom tab capability, mainly due to performance and database access limitations. But if you need only a couple of tabs that filter down to a small subset of your collection, it can be a bit of fun and very handy – 'til the real thing comes along.

Any possibility of a screen-shot?

Quoting Overseer:

Quote:
Any possibility of a screen-shot?

Hasn't changed much from what I posted in this thread:

Screenshots

Now if I could just find that darned startup bug ... I'll work on it tomorrow after some sleep. Sorry for the delay.

Hooray it works!
One minor problem now:
The window that opens if you go to "Edit Tabs" can only be closed via "Alt + F4"
And I don't know if it's a bug or a feature but when I open "MyTabs" all three Tabs show my full collection.
OK and now I'll test the functions 

I'll come up again

edit: Never mind. I figured it out. I hadn't unchecked the "Disabled" checkmark in the main Edit Tabs window. Leaving the original content of thisthe post for posterity, in case someone else has the same problem.

I really like this idea, but so far I haven't gotten it to work.

I'm not getting any error messages, but I can't seem to get beyond a tab showing the entire collection. Is there something I have to do in order to activate a filter?

I'm using tags to denote movies I have not yet seen. The tag is called "Unseen"

In the filter settings I'm not using any main filters but I've kept them enabled. I've also enabled the supplemental filters, but I'm only using the Tag filter. All other ones are set to off.

For the Tag filter, these are my settings: AND, Equal To, Unseen

I then click OK, and Save the tab.

But when I exit back to the main application, the tab in question still shows the full collection. I've toggled the auto refresh and exited and reloaded the application, but it still keeps showing me the full collection.

What am I doing wrong?

KM

Quoting mediadogg:

Quote:
Oh wait ... does your edit mean that you solved this?????  If so, actually, then I think the main thing is to say DON"T FORGET TO ENABLE THE FILTER IN THE EDIT TABS DIALOGUE!!!!!

That is indeed what is means. And yeah, it may seem obvious but I was overlooking that little checkbox at first.

Now... I've played around with it for the past hour or so and here's a couple of comments/questions:

1. Is there a way to remove the "ProfileID" column of the listing? Right now I just resize it to nothing, but every time I edit a tab it goes back to default size. I'd prefer to remove the column altogether. No biggie if it can't be.

2. If you use "Runtime" as one of your Custom columns, and then sort by Runtime, it sorts alphabetically and not numerically. Meaning if you have an ascending sort of movies with the runtimes 88, 95, 100 and 201 you'd get: 100, 201, 88, 95. This is because it first sorts numbers starting with 1, then 2, etc. The same is true for Collection Number, and I imagine any numerical field.

That's all for now. If I stumble on anything else I'll let you know.

This is a very useful plugin. Thanks!

KM

Quoting mediadogg:

Quote:
As for the columns, should we have:

- option to not display the fixed columns, versus no fixed columns?
- do we need more custom columns? (performance issue)

Personally I'd like the option to not display the fixed columns. Or even a reduction to have only the title of the movie be a fixed column and let everything else be used in custom columns.

Would there be a performance issue to allow unlimited custom columns, but only display the number of custom columns selected by the user?

I understand that it would slow things down if I'd choose to have 10 data columns vs 3, but would it automatically slow down the entire plugin if you simply made that an option? And then users could decide for themselves how much they want to sacrifice performance for features...

Just throwing out ideas. You don't have to listen.

Thanks.

KM

Quoting mediadogg:

Quote:
Whew! Huh, did you try File-> Exit?

Yes tried it and it works, but I'm somewhat missing the little red square with a white x ( ) or the classic "apply", "close" or "cancel"
Concerning the 2 additional tabs, no I didn't add them in 0.6 or 0.7 because when I tried to add any tabs I got this errormessage, but possibly clicking on the "ad tab" does this already (come to think of it, Itried it twice)
Sorry I couldn't test on. But I'm working on it