XXHighEnd Model 0.9v-7 (with Random functions and new Gallery functions)

[PeterSt]

Edit : Since the latest two or three versions a sub folder \Temporary Data\ is created within the XX folder;
When this XX folder is in \Program Files\ for Vista you don't have rights to that folder, and the program errors at startup or a first quit, and then can't be used.

Until this is solved in the next version, don't put XX in the \Program Files\ folder !


Although this version is not really consistent yet, it seemed time for an upgrade in order not to wait too long for rather useful new functions.
Many things have been changed, and it can be expected that errors or messages occur unintendedly. Do not hesitate to report them !
So here goes :

• Cue File albums containing tracks without track numbers, are now supplied with tracknumbers (one format only, like 01 - [Track Name]).
  In this version, the track numbers do not show up on the Wall Paper yet.
  Note that this only count for Cue File albums at the moment.
  
  
• Up till now, Cue File albums were excluded from the semi-randomizing functions (like playing the 2nd track from each album), or in occasions the whole album counted as one track. Now they just work along with the normal albums.
  Special message for the Cue File Brigade : It's time to raise the subscription fees.
  
  
• Rightclick at (selected) albums in the Library Area - Play Each, has a new option : Randomly.
  So yes, at last the Randomizing function has been added.
  As with the other two options in there, you select as many albums as you like, and the tracks in the albums selected become subject to randomizing them. The way this is setup, implies that all tracks get their turn (and they show up in the Playlist Area). If you want them in twice, just perform the operation (on the same selection) again (but note a new list with the same tracks though in a different sequence will show up underneath the first list in the Playlist Area).
  
  
• An even more powerful Randomizing function was added as a small button, visible when the Library Area is active, at the bottom and with a caption of R (see picture XX09v-700 below).
  Pressing this button will bring an album forward out of the total list being in there (determined by the last Search activity). Just keep on pressing the button until you see an album you like.
  
  
• To the left of the R button, an as small button with a caption of F has been added.
  Pressing this putton brings forward a form with list of "Favorites", being the ever searched for folders, including the Gallery folders.
  The list consists of clickable hyperlinks, which -when an item is clicked - will bring forward the list of albums concerned in the Library Area.
  Note that the list shows in the sequence of useage of the Search button (visible when the Library Area is active), and also note that the click of this button is implied when selecting folders and Galleries by means of the Embedded Explorer (also visible when the Library Area is active). The last used "search" shows at the bottom.
  The left column contains the numer of times that folder or Gallery has been used, and clicking on the column header sorts on that number (up or down).
  The header of column with the folder - / Gallery names can be clicked just the same for sorting.
  See below picture, XX09v701.
  
  
• More to the left of the F button, is the little D button. This already existed, but in there some enhancements took place;
  The form it will bring up now allows for
  
  a. selecting the date of creation of the albums versus the date they were modified;
  b. sorting on those dates.
  See below picture, XX09v702.
  
  Ad a.
  The date/time created as shown on the form, means the date/time the files from the album were created, which includes when they were copied. Thus, rip a file two months ago, and copy it today, will set this time to today.
  The date/time last modified as shown on the form, means the date/time the contents of the file was last subject to a modification. This means that when the file is e.g. converted from WAV to FLAC, or the other way around, from FLAC to WAV, this date/time is *not* changed, which is very convenient, because it allows you to search for the date/time the album was ripped.
  Note though that it depends on the program performing beforementioned conversion, and often you can say Yes/No to change this date modified to "now" yes or no. XXHighEnd doesn't give you this option at converting; it just never changes this date/time.
  
  Ad b.
  When the leftmost or middle radio button is ticked, the resulting albums after pressing Search in this form will show up sorted on the type of date/time chosen. Of course this can be very convenient when looking for e.g. the last copied albums (can be downloads), which just show at the bottom.
  Note : It *is* allowed to search for the complete Gallery structure at once, even when this implies searching for the highest folder in the structure which gives a warning message. However, since you can't choose this highest structure from the Embedded Explorer, you must type it in yourself in the textbox which shows at the bottom with the Library Area active. Anyway, this allows you to show the dates (sorted) concerned for your whole collection, since always the dates/times from the original albums (where the music really is) are used for this. And also : The dates/times of the Gallery data says nothing (it is just not used here).
  
  In either case, using the Search button in this form, will show "a" Date/Time underneath the album in the Library Area, and when no sorting is asked for, the Date/Time shown will be the creation date (but unsorted, and in the same order as you are used to without searching for dates).
  
  
• Using the Search button (visible at the bottom when the Library Area is active) has vastly improved the search times (theoratically by a factor of almost 4).
  
  
• The way the Embedded Explorer can be dealt with has again been changed. Without explaining the how and why, it seems satisfactory now (ok, to your humble developer it does). Also, a few (types of) error messages have been eliminated from it.
  Do not hesitate to give your remarks on improvements again !
  One note : When a folder is clicked, it is opened. This is not how normal Explorer works, but can't harm much (and is kind of necessary with the consistent way of working).
  
  
• As known, selecting tracks in the Playlist Area is a bit tedious. It needs two clicks to make the "selection color" consistent, hence ready for operations on the selection. It seems this just can not be solved when the internal means of that Playlist Area is being used, and which really would take a long (precious) time to change to another. However :
  The way the selecting itself works *has* been improved, and selecting one track, a last, and everything in between there (ctrl-shift-click on the last one) sure has been made right now. Before, most of the times this didn't work properly due to a program error.
  
  
• An in fact great function has been added : Compare Albums. You will find it under rightclick on selected albums in the Library Area - Compare Albums.
  See picture XX09-703 below.
  Although the function is far from ready, it provides in its basic task : finding albums that exist somewhere in your collection, with some other source held against that. If you look once more at the picture, you see that a "Rock Sortout" is held agains "Rock", implying thay the "Sortout" source may contain doublures already in "Rock" itself.
  Important : The whole of Library functions of XXHighEnd are setup so that with the help of Galleries this all very easy can lead to copying those albums which are not doublures, but, this requires the experience with the Gallery functionalities which cannot be explained here, now.
  Anyway, the Compare Albums function will endup with the list of "not available" albums in the "Rock" Gallery, and list them in the Library Area, ready to be copied physically to the location you indicate.
  
  Again, the function is long from finished, and as you can see in the picture, there's a future option provided to show just the other way around : what's already in "Rock" when held against "Rock Sortout". Without further explanation now, this can be as important.
  Note that right now the option is a little "dangerous" to the respect of that it may take a very long time before it comes up with the list (think in terms of 2 hours when 5,000 albums are held against 10,000), and the very first thing you should do with the result list in the Library Area is ... making a Gallery of that. After that you can freely move around in it, without having the feeling you may loose tje hours of waiting for the result, because you just preserved the result.
  
  The function has been made to just gain time. This means : the two hours it may take for the large pile of albums to compare, willt take you weeks at doing it manually !
  To that respect, the function is as "intelligent" as possible, and takes into account typing errors, other naming conventions, and even complete different structures in the folders. And this is exactly what it was made for : you reorganizing your stuff, but at a given moment not knowing what has been done yet and what not, taking into account that this organizing is about physical copies in the first place (Galleries coming after that).
  
  Important : When the Logging is switched on (Settings Area), a general log will be provided, but it includes the albums seen as equal. This *is* important, because although all is setup as intelligently as possible, it may flaw. So, browsing through this list may unveil albums not being equal at all, but which are not in shown in the Library Area anyway (because they were seen as being equal).
  The log will even show you the albums which just were seen as *unequal* because a better version was encountered. Momentarily this is not more than comparing MP3 with WAV and FLAC, the latter two obviously judged as being of better quality.
  
  Just a remark : by no means this function currently can unveil doublures within a collection itself. This too will be an option for later.
  
  Lastly, the only risk you take, is that albums shown in the result, were already there afterall, which is better than the other way around.
  
  
• Then, the first few functions have been added to move around Galleries. It is not the real stuff yet (as intended : integrated with Explorer), and even not the less real functions (integrated with Embedded Explorer), but anyway things can be "moved", and the first is Moving Gallery entries.
  It can be found at rightclicking a selection in the Library Area - Move selection to Gallery;
  Clicking the option will speak for itself, as long as you know that Moving albums works upon the selection you made in the Library Area, and that currently this selection cannot be done by means of checkboxes (so, ticking the Chk checkbox won't let this function work).
  
  Do not attempt to let this function loose on a normal music folder. Insufficient checks may have been built in to prevent you from doing wrong to this respect.
  
• At rightclicking a selection in the Library Area - More Gallery functions, a.o. Remove selection from Gallery is shown.
  This too speaks for itself, and here too with checkboxes this option can't work yet.
  
  Do not attempt to let this function loose on a normal music folder. NO checks HAVE been built in to prevent you from doing wrong to this respect.
  
  
• At applying the Move selection to Gallery option, you may notice that at maximum 8 "target" Galleries are maintained in the context (= rightclick) menu. They are maintained for your conveniency to quickly select a before chosen target Gallery;
  The same so with the existing Add to Gallery function, which btw has been moved to the main (rightclick) menu on selected albums (Library Area) for more speedy operation.
  
  
• Back to the More Gallery functions, found at rightclick at selected albums in the Library Area, you'll find a second option, Delete all x-Reference files from selection;
  This seems a bit of a strange function, but it is created to allow you to copy your physical music files from one disk or PC to another, while you do not copy the (usually consistent) Galleries together with it. Keep in mind, at creating the Galleries these x-Reference files (.GLXX files) are maintained for technical reasons. Thus, when you want to get rid of them, this is your function. Just select all the albums in the folder you selected with the Search button (when the Library Area is active), apply this function, and gone they are.
  Important :Do not apply this function for other reasons, hence with normal XXHighEnd use. They are necessary (and if not now, then in the future), and deleting them for other reasons may incur for unwanted anomalies. But :
  Recreating all of your Galleries without using the formal functions of Removing the Galleries (see more above), hence physically deleting the Gallery folders with Explorer first, would indeed be a good idea of using this function afterall. This is just a matter of understanding how things work ...
  
  
• People reported XXHighEnd to be slower at startup, which is caused by the rendetring of CoverArt, might this be in the left pane, the middle pain, or the right pane (the currently "active" track at startup will incur for all). And, when CoverArt is larger (to render), this indeed matters.
  An attempt has been made to run these activities in separate "threads", so this all is less noticeable.
  
  
• Similar to the above, other processes now are performed in their own "thread". The Search button (Library Area is active) is one of them, as well as clicking on folders in the Embedded Explorer, which implies the same.
  
  To this subject, as well as the above one, is a large BUT :
  It may not be clear to you anymore when something is still running, whereas before you could use the trick to hover the mouse above e.g. one of the tabs (like Settings), which becomes blueish (Vista !) when things have been performed. Not so anymore !
  Now, e.g. the Library Area turns into a gray background when things are pending, but this is not always working.
  In a next version something will be there to indicate this better (like a red light somewhere).
  
  Important : Generally, a thing incurred fot to run in its own thread, like the Search button (or click a folder in the Embedded Explorer) can be aborted by just repeating the activity (e.g. for another Search criterium, hence another click on a folder in Embedded Explorer). Here too is a BUT :
  You may receive a message which is similar too : Thread has been aborted.
  Don't be afraid of it, and depending on what you did, it just may be informative. For instance, it may tell you that not all CoverArt shown in the right pane, is all there is. You will get the hang of it.
  
  
• A major flaw was dicovered in the way Cue Files are being administered (by e.g. EAC), which comes down to them having start (/stop) times at the 1/100 second, while this 1/100 of a second does not comply to the "resolution" in the date itself. Cue Files and Ticks for nitwits ? if you like.
  This has been solved, and at subsequent playback of a Cue File album, you won't miss a sample now. Not even the very first one.
  
  
• Rightclicking an image in the CoverArt Area (rightmost pane) now shows an option Rename to Back.jpg.
  This obviously works the same as the already existing Rename to Folder.jpg, but is meant to quickly indicate the back of a cover.
  
  
• In the before version, the Show / Compare Tracks option (rightclick on both Library and CoverArt Area) showed the last track of a Cue File album with the wrong running time. This has been solved.
  
  
• In an earlier version, the showing of the number of albums in a (Gallery) folder from within the Embedded Explorer had been restored.
  Now, the number of albums show at each next level of any folder which has been opened (then rightclick on the folder, and choose "Count Albums").
  See picture XX09v704 below.
  
  
• Besides the warming message that the textbox at the bottom, present when the Library Area is active, should not contain a one highest root music folder, now there is an error message when that textbox contains a full path to an album. Difficult to explain, but nothing can be done with that, because a full path never is able to lead to a Gallery. Never mind why, it can't.
  Before a real error emerged when you tried anyway, which now is prevented from occurring.
  
  
• Although error messages appeared when starting XXHighEnd while the contents of the Playlist Area wasn't to be found on disk anymore, this did not prevent you from playing that Playlist, which would error out anyway during playback. This now has been solved by additional neat error messages.
  
  
• Similar, but worse, could happen when a .cue file wasn't there anymore, and which really did not allow to start XXHighEnd ever again. Solved too.
  
  
• A problem has been solved where a next track selected in the Playlist Area (by you, or by means of the next track for playback being selected automatically) did not show the "new" CoverArt in the left pane.
  
  
• At a new version, the ToolTips are reset to be On, regardless your last setting in the Settings Area.
  
  
• By now, the ToolTips have been created for the latest few versions where they were lacking.
  Sadly, on the most current version (this one) not all are there yet.
  
  
• An error has been found - and solved - at calculating track times, meaning : a track lasting for 3:12.09 was reported as lasting 3:12.90.
  This could imply a "tick" or just a few missing samples.
  
  
• Quite some logging lines were added, mostly for internal debugging, but anyway. It depends largely on what you're doing, to encounter them (switch Logging can be switched On in the Settings Area).
  
  
• A problem with "Append Rights" have been solved, which problem rather officially can't be proven it exists, and which for a while has been stated as the JohanZ problem. In stuff like SQl/Server "Append Rights" officially exist, but not within normal Vista (or XP for that matter).
  Solved anyway.
  Note that this solution was supplied in the 0.9v-6b unofficial version (posted for download somewhere in a topic).
  
  
• Tracks from a Cue File album, could - most probably since one of the later versions - show unreadable characters in the Playlist Area;
  Although this has been solved, there is still "some" occasion this can happen (with diacritical marks anyway).
  
  
• In the before versions it could happen that a Gallery was treated as a folder with real music data, and the other way around.
  Checks have built in for this, and appropriate messages will tell you now.
  
  

That's it for now. Have fun. The download is at the very bottom below.