[On Roadmap] UI Customization

[mikemack]

I have been using the application for a week or so now and I would like to congratulate you and thank you at the same time. I have been a long MCE user since it came out and have been using MyMovies for about 8 years with it. When they discontinued MCE for Win10 I knew it would not be long before I would have to move to something else. Thanks for coming up with something else

With that said I would like to ask about the potential for further customizing the UI of the application. I enjoyed the level of customization, and would have preferred more, that MCE and MyMovies offered. My implementation of MyMovies in MCE used custom categories to sort my movies and each category had its own icon\graphic that as I browsed across the category it would bring up a secondary background art. I would love to see this functionality included in MM Browser and improved upon.

For a start could we get a setting to set the background image to something other than the fanart images from the MyMovies entries? Then I would love to see a customization to be able to browse individual categories or genres and then click into these selections and have the movie covers in a flow arrangement.

I would be willing to spend additional $ on having a UI customization enhancement as long as it was truly customizable.

I wish that Binnerup would be open to collaborating with you as I see that what you are building is complimentary to his application. I have been more than happy to spend money on his application and would be open to additional $ if he were to open integration with you to make a truly inclusive offering.

Thanks again for your work and if I can provide feedback or testing for you I would be happy to.

Regards,

Michael

[Pauven]

I have been using the application for a week or so now and I would like to congratulate you and thank you at the same time.

Awesome, thank you!

My implementation of MyMovies in MCE used custom categories to sort my movies and each category had its own icon\graphic that as I browsed across the category it would bring up a secondary background art. I would love to see this functionality included in MM Browser and improved upon.

I've seen screenshots of that, but it has been a while. If you can provide some screenshots of how you have this configured, I'd be more than happy to consider doing this.

For a start could we get a setting to set the background image to something other than the fanart images from the MyMovies entries?

Sure. I've actually thought about this already, but since no user had asked for it, I hadn't worked on it yet. Maybe I'll squeeze this one into v1.9, should be quick and easy.

Then I would love to see a customization to be able to browse individual categories or genres and then click into these selections and have the movie covers in a flow arrangement.

Uhhhmmmmm.... I thought I already had this. No? There are both Category and Genre icons on the top menu bar. Sounds exactly like what you are asking for, only more powerful (since I let you query on multiple Genres or Categories simultaneously). The only thing this doesn't have is the genre specific artwork, right?

I would be willing to spend additional $ on having a UI customization enhancement as long as it was truly customizable.

More money?!!! No, I don't want more money. I'm not doing this to make a profit. The license fees are used to pay monthly expenses for providing MM Browser (things like hosting fees, subscription fees for my development tools, licensing service fees, business insurance, etc.). So far, average income = average expenses, which means my labor is FREEEEEE! That's right, MM Browser is a charity project, but the charity is my labor, and you guys just have to covery my expenses. And if I do accidentally make a profit, that money gets reinvested in MM Browser.

But thanks, I appreciate the sentiment.

I wish that Binnerup would be open to collaborating with you as I see that what you are building is complimentary to his application.

You and me and everyone else feels this way too. I really don't know what else to do to get them engaged.

Paul

[Pauven]

For a start could we get a setting to set the background image to something other than the fanart images from the MyMovies entries?

Sure. I've actually thought about this already, but since no user had asked for it, I hadn't worked on it yet. Maybe I'll squeeze this one into v1.9, should be quick and easy.

And it's done. Available in v1.9, due out this month.

Paul

CustomBackground.jpg (1.18 MiB) Viewed 16285 times

[Jamie]

Mike, It's great that you would be willing to provide extra $$ for Paul to add extra features. I am one of MMBrowser's original purchasers and with all the effort of providing new features that Paul as put into this fine product, I feel bad that I only paid him $22.00 for each license. I would like to suggest to Paul to add a one time donation option to the web site for those who have already purchased licenses and would like to donate something to offset some of the additional effort that he has done to make this an even better product. The donation would of course be voluntary and a way for us to say thank you for all he has done. I know he has put a lot of effort in v1.9 and I think everyone will be extremely happy in the new upgrade, which is free to those who already purchased a license.

Jamie

[mikemack]

Pauven,

I am attaching some screen shots of how I currently have My Movies is currently configured in MCE. When I launch My Movies it launches into a view with the custom categories I have created. I am able to scroll across the screen through the categories and then select one. Once I am in the category the movies that I have tagged with the category show up in the cover flow. I am then able to scroll through these movies and select the one I want to launch.

For instance, I have a Superhero category which I have attached an image from MCE for your review. When I browse over that custom category the background changes to an image that I have tagged with that category. The button icon is also a custom image file tagged with that category name.

The attachment Superhero-category.JPG is no longer available

When I select the Superhero category I am then presented with the cover flow for all movies that have been tagged with the custom category of Superhero.

Superhero-category.JPG (226.37 KiB) Viewed 16271 times

[mikemack]

Same thing for Action movies. The background changes to the action background when I browse over it. And the icon is customized for that category.

The attachment Action-category.JPG is no longer available

Once I have selected the Action category I am presented with all the movie covers for the movies I have tagged in MyMovies collection management with the category of Action.

Action-category.JPG (245.99 KiB) Viewed 16271 times

[mikemack]

Pauven,

The Category filter is awesome. However, my use case is a little different as explained in the posts with how I have My Movies customized for my use using the UI customization options that were available with the integration of My Movies and MCE.

[mikemack]

Jamie,

The donate option is a great idea.

My suggestion to Paul (Pauven) was to charge additionally for enhanced customization beyond the licensing for just the base product. I am willing to spend additional dollars for this feature so I would think others would be too once they discover this is a great option for moving away from MCE.

I understand the value of one's time and the cost for developing applications. In my work I interact with developers building applications for my company and I have an understanding of the labor and costs in developing these applications.

Ultimately it is Paul's decision on whether to offer this or not. My point was that it is a feature I would be willing to purchase additionally if this helps him in his decision to justify the expense and effort in developing it.

I have spent a considerable amount of time in the past 18 months trying to choose a platform for the future to manage my movie collection. I have looked at many and none have come close to meeting what I wanted for various reasons. Part of it is that I am particular in the aesthetics and the other is the effort I would have to expend to make changes to my collection to work with other platforms. I have been happy with My Movies and MCE in the past but unfortunately the decision to move on has been forced upon me. This is why I was happy to find MM Browser and the work that Paul has done. It is the closest I have found so far to meeting my requirements. It is also why I decided to give some feedback and inquire about additional customization to match what I was able to accomplish previously between the two applications.

Thanks for the response and I am happy to provide feedback and input if it can help you evolve the product.

Regards,

Michael

[Pauven]

Pauven,

I am attaching some screen shots of how I currently have My Movies is currently configured in MCE. When I launch My Movies it launches into a view with the custom categories I have created. I am able to scroll across the screen through the categories and then select one. Once I am in the category the movies that I have tagged with the category show up in the cover flow. I am then able to scroll through these movies and select the one I want to launch.

For instance, I have a Superhero category which I have attached an image from MCE for your review. When I browse over that custom category the background changes to an image that I have tagged with that category. The button icon is also a custom image file tagged with that category name.

When I select the Superhero category I am then presented with the cover flow for all movies that have been tagged with the custom category of Superhero.

Mike, I think this is awesome. I appreciate the refresher and explainations on how this works. I remember seeing screenshots of this on the MyMovies website, but never played around with it.

I think this is something I can do, and I will add it to the roadmap. I have a lot of features to add ahead of it, so I'm thinking v2.1 might be the target release for this functionality.

Some questions:

Does the category backdrop still display behind the coverflow after you select the category? If it doesn't in WMC, would you want it to in MMB?

How do you access this mode in WMC (after the first time, since you said it launches into this mode)?

Do you want this mode to be configurable to be the default view upon launch?

Paul

[mikemack]

I am not sure why the Superhero-covers screen shot is not showing which might have answered the question. Once you select the category the category backdrop goes away and the backdrop becomes the fanart.jpg that is attached to the movie cover that is in focus.

Superhero-covers.JPG (277.23 KiB) Viewed 16261 times