Podcasts in PlaylistBrowser vs. ServiceBrowser ( was: Re: Usability: Where to start?)

[Bart Cerneels]

> *
> Why are Podcasts in the "Playlists" browser? To me they seem more like
> Internet services. The last place I'd look is probably in that
> browser. I've heard about similar confusion from other users too.
I object to Podcasts being move to the internet tab.
My reasons:
- A podcast channel is similar to a manually created playlist except
that it gets updated automatically. Similar to smart playlists, which
are created by a query of the database.

- Just like user created playlists, PodcastChannels can be synced to a
mediaplayer. The UI elements for syncing will be integrated in the
PlaylistBrowser.

- The "Internet" label really should say "Internet Services". The OPML
directory is a service, where one would browse in when looking for a
new feed to subscribe to. The podcasts the user is subscribed to are
used daily and should not be hidden in the (already quite) long list
of services.

- Meta::Playlists (and drerived Meta::PodcastChannels) can be offered
by many sub-components of Amarok: Collections, Services, MediaDevices,
Scripts, ... by using the PlaylistProvider system. The PodcastCategory
in the PlaylistBrowser groups all channels together in one UI specific
for podcasts. Same thing for the other Categories: UserPlaylists,
DynamicPlaylists, ...
I plan to add a "Favorite Streams" category to this list later.

>
> *
> Every newly created playlist in the "My Playlists" section gets the
> same name "new playlist". The least we could do is automatically
> number them "New Playlist 1", "New Playlist 2", etc. Or we could ask
> for a name immediately, via dialog box.
That code is W.I.P.. Expect that to be fixed before the next freeze.

>
> *
> I think the QToolBox widget used in this browser has some general
> usability issues. E.g. it can be hard to spot the additional tabs at
> the very bottom of the widget. I've talked this over with some Oxygen
> developers, and they agreed that this widget is not really optimal.
>
We should create a custom widget or a different mode of selecting
categories. Just a better oxygen theme wouldn't solve the problem for
other styles.
I used a QToolBox because it was easy, intending to subclass it to
make it better suited for the playlistbrowser.

The UI concept is also explained on the wiki:
http://amarok.kde.org/wiki/Proposals/PlaylistBrowserDesign

Bart