[Buschel]

I opened a github issue (#1116) to add this to the backlog.

[amasephy]

Finally figured out another thing I’ve noticed for awhile. I think this was part of an update awhile back.

When you go into settings menu the pane header flickers when you toggle the various views from the bottom toolbar. What is actually happening is a new name of the current view flickers for a split second and then the header is overwritten to Kodi Settings every time. For example, the second view on the toolbar is actually named Programs.


Edit: another bug. When you perform “Clean database” from the app power menu the toast notification is executed after the action is performed instead of before. Performing a database update does this correctly.

Edit 2: When performing “mark as watched or unwatched” on an entire tv show from the app the network connection for the app to server fails and goes red. This also causes Kodi to flicker like crazy. It does reconnect automatically after it’s done performing the update to watch status on the server. I think UlfSchimidt reported this behavior before. It’s also very slow to perform this action. Doing the same action from the server gui it marks the entire show watched or unwatched instantly. The app performs very poorly here.

[Buschel]

1. Flickering: yes, I can see what you mean. Will look into it.
   
2. Toaster: In fact, there should be two messages. First is "Action executed successfully", later something like AudioLibrary.OnCleanFinished / AudioLibrary.OnScanFinished / VideoLibrary.OnCleanFinished / VideoLibrary.OnScanFinished. First is the response from Kodi the action was triggered, seconds signal it was finished. There is an issue with the second message which will be fixed by an open MR.
   
3. Flickering: yes, this had been discussed in the past. But I need to search for this again. The app sets the playcount for each episode inside a tv show. There was a reason for that I do not remember, most likely some Kodi version were not handling setting a TV show's playcount. As far as I remember the flickering started with Kodi 20 only.
   Edit: Just re-tested. Setting the whole TV Show via the desired command simply does not work. Also setting an array of episodes does not work. So, the only way is to do it as it is -- episode per episode. Kodi must fix this (either fix the flickering, or fix the JSON API).
   

[amasephy]

For #2 the message fails if you trigger the database clean and then suspend the app. Wait until Kodi server finishes cleaning and then resume the app. You will see a red message something along the lines of “can’t do that”. Its the “executed” message that comes up only after database cleaning completes but it should be displayed when it starts.

For #3 that’s too bad. It’s doubtful we will get a server fix for this. The flickering really is a minor issue compared to just how slow it is.

And the app disconnecting from the server - is that just a side effect of this problem?

[Buschel]

#1, happens for each menu. It is just not that visible at majorly "Text" is replace by "Text (N)" like "Albums" with "Albums (13)". I am not clear yet, if I simply can remove the first title which does not hold the amount of items.

#2, could test this now. Yes, for scan Kodi API responds immediately that it accepted the command. For clean it responds after execution was finished. Not sure, if I want to add conditions for the different methods called. The code in the App is generic, Kodi API just behaves different ...

#3, I guess the disconnect is a load effect on server side.

[Buschel]

It’s doubtful we will get a server fix for this. The flickering really is a minor issue compared to just how slow it is.

Yep. I even had raised a GitHub issues for this (https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/issues/21781). It just had its 2nd birthday a week back.

[Buschel]

#1 fixed. This now will also again show "Programs (2)", "Video Add-ons (4)" and so on for the tabs, instead of only "Kodi settings (2)", "Kodi settings (4)" and so on.

[amasephy]

Thanks for taking a look at these items. 👍🏻

Regarding the unlikelihood of JSON fixes it really seems like there is a serious drought of devs for Kodi server the past 5 or more years now. I have been following Kodi pretty regularly since around 2012 and there was a LOT more activity 10 years ago than there is today. It’s a shame because Kodi is one of the greatest community built applications.

[UlfSchmidt]

Coming back to the „Are you sure?” dialogues whenever you execute any of the commands from the Power menu.

Those were there for iPhone since I started to maintain the app. They got just added to iPad as well -- recently, I admit. I guess this was mainly done to avoid that someone is running scans or shutting down the system or Kodi by accident. Basically, confirmation is asked for everything which impacts the system or Kodi activity status or the database. This is obviously a matter of playing safe with system and database. It was just not done for iPad all the years.

But I admit you can have different opinions on this. E.g. there is even an open GitHub issue which asks to do the same every time "play" overwrites an existing playlist.

While I really find, as I said, these additional scan and shutdown dialogues quite disturbing, I would really like to see such dialogue whenever an action would reset my playlist, because there’s no way this could be undone.

But now I need three taps to exit Kodi and I think two were already enough built in safety barriers:

• Tap on the power button
  
• Tap “Power off”
  
• Tap “Are you sure?” Yes, I am!
  

For each money transaction I need fewer confirmation steps

[UlfSchmidt]

I am just thinking about a feature I would really appreciate to see: Making the selection of subtitles and audio tracks available not only from the Remote Control pane, but from the Now Playing screen too. (In fact, I use the built-in remote ONLY to select the audio track. Maybe that’s why I find this so important to address?)

As I use Kodi Remote App only on an iPad, I cannot judge whether my ideas are also feasible on iPhones either, but maybe the control buttons row in the Now Playing screen could be extended by two additional buttons? Alternatively, after tapping on the cover art to see details, these buttons could be made available (maybe in addition to showing the currently selected subtitle and audio track).

What do you think, @Buschel and @amasephy, from UX point of view? And, @Buschel, couldn’t this be implemented easily?

[Buschel]

This is software, so of course it can be implemented. This would require some internal refactoring as the function needs to move from the remote to common place, where it can be called from both remote and NowPlaying. But this is not rocket science. The main hurdle and work -- as in many cases -- is to find a well working place for the buttons and change the layout.

My quick thoughts:

• The info overlay is not a good idea. I was just moving the repeat/shuffle from there as the buttons were hidden too much.
  
• Option 1: Look at how Apple TV does it. On the right side above the progress bar two buttons can be placed for audio and subtitle. This requires the progress bar to be placed lower, mist likely needs the 3-lined title/subtitle/subsubtitle to use smaller fonts, and will waste some space above it in case of e.g. music playing. Also, to balance the look, something should be placed on left side as well.
  
• Option 2: Place the buttons above the row with main play control buttons. This is also will have consequences to the layout.
  
• Option 3: iPhone like option 2, iPad squeezes the play controls to make room for another two buttons. Not sure, if this becomes too tight.
  

Feel free to propose / visualize options.

[UlfSchmidt]

…
Feel free to propose / visualize options.

While I was checking your suggested options I realized that my own ideas all would work well in landscape mode, but never in portrait. Typical example of an iPad user who never ever uses his pad like a phone. Stupid me.

But maybe someone else comes up with some feasible solution, working in both orientations?

[amasephy]

I’m certain this wouldn’t be overly difficult to design for on iPad (even portrait mode) the real problem is on iPhone. We all had a hard time even moving the shuffle and repeat buttons to the main view.

My original idea mocked up was to have the now playing screen where the artwork is to be a scrollable pane between a header pane and a toolbar pane. That gives you more space for infrequently used actions and information.

However as Buschel stated we need a UIX dev to help with such massive overhauls. I’m only good at building mockups in photoshop. Sadly this doesn’t translate into building it in code. 🙂

With that said I can load up my mockups and do some tinkering.

Subtitle interaction is very important to me as I use them for all of my content. So I have a high interest in this - although I already am fine with using the main remote for this.

[amasephy]

Creating a new post for this as it’s a completely separate thought.

New bug. Buschel you are going to be so thrilled about this. 🙂 Another disappearing act from scrollbars. Probably an easy fix for you though.

If you are on grid view when you launch the app and you switch to list view, the scroll bars disappear. This doesn’t happen toggling the views in the reverse order. I only checked this in library views.

[Buschel]

New bug. Buschel you are going to be so thrilled about this. 🙂 Another disappearing act from scrollbars. Probably an easy fix for you though.

Oh yes. Somehow I feel I am majorly fiddling around with iOS behaviour changes and KODI API difficulties. Not really satisfying or thrilling.

Thankfully, I could find a quite easy way to place the iOS17 workaround to cover this use case as well. Still no idea why this is needed though ...