STV Import: Toolbar for SageMC (v1.0a / June 11, 2007)

[MeInMaui]

@jmv

Thanks for the detailed info. The toolbar is highly configurable, though I never had the time to write much of any documentation. But in reality, I think it is overkill and wasn't really designed with a touchscreen in mind. Because of this, I think it would always feel like a cluge.

I'm thinking that I'll code a new plugin from the ground up to specifically support touchscreens. I will be able to reuse a lot of the code from the toolbar, but it will give me the opportunity to design the interface for its intended purpose.

So I'm thinking of including the following controls:

1. Full set of transport controls (play, pause, stop, ff, rw, rec)
2. Home, Back and Forward buttons
3. A Sleep button

I'll play around with a few methods for opening the control popup. I figured out how to create double-click functionality in the course of development for the last version of SageMC, so that might be useful.

I still have more work to do on the nest SageMC release, so I probably won't get to do anythign serious with this for another week or two. In the mean time, look over my thoughts above and let me know if these meet your needs. Speak up if anyone has any other ideas.

Aloha,
Mike

[samgreco]

Mike - I think this is a great approach.

The only thing I wonder about is how this affects the OSD. Currently whenever you touch the screen (or click the mouse) while a video is playing, the OSD pops up. But I think to be effective, the new toolbar needs to popup as well.

JMV - do you agree? Or am I thinking about this the wrong way?

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by samgreco

Mike - I think this is a great approach.

The only thing I wonder about is how this affects the OSD. Currently whenever you touch the screen (or click the mouse) while a video is playing, the OSD pops up. But I think to be effective, the new toolbar needs to popup as well.

JMV - do you agree? Or am I thinking about this the wrong way?

I think that should be doable, but I won't know for sure until I try it. Did I cover all of the controls you will need?

Aloha,
Mike

[jmv]

Yes, I think you have all the controls correct. Since some of the skin functions are triggered by a right mouse click, is a right mouse click something that could be triggered by the hidden menu?

The key will be ensuring that we can seamlessly access the menu through the touchscreen.

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by jmv

Yes, I think you have all the controls correct. Since some of the skin functions are triggered by a right mouse click, is a right mouse click something that could be triggered by the hidden menu?

This one might be tricky, but probably not impossible. I'll have to play with a few ideas.

The key will be ensuring that we can seamlessly access the menu through the touchscreen.

Agreed.

Thanks for the input.

Aloha,
Mike

[samgreco]

Mike - Did I say Thank You?

Thank You

[rv73]

I think the toolbar is really cool and have been using it for a while, but I want to remove it for a while now.

How exactly do I do that ?

I notice SageMC creates a new version when a change is made, but the toolbar is still there when I go back to an old one.

Any ideas folks ?

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by rv73

I think the toolbar is really cool and have been using it for a while, but I want to remove it for a while now.

How exactly do I do that ?

I notice SageMC creates a new version when a change is made, but the toolbar is still there when I go back to an old one.

Any ideas folks ?

If you go back to SageMC_169.xml, then you will be back to the original STV file with no plugins installed. Whenever you import an STVi, sage appends a number to then end of the STV file name and increments it after each import.

Aloha,
Mike

[mickp]

Hey Mike,

Any plans to integrate the toolbar as a built in addition to sagemc? I find myself doing accidental waf damage by forgetting to reload it after an stv upgrade. Do you see any negatives to doing this?

Mick.

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by mickp

Hey Mike,

Any plans to integrate the toolbar as a built in addition to sagemc? I find myself doing accidental waf damage by forgetting to reload it after an stv upgrade. Do you see any negatives to doing this?

Mick.

Hi Mick,

I thought about it and I'm pretty sure that the toolbar will remain an import. There is a fairly limited set of users who would use it and it has a large footprint.

Also, I am about to start working on a similar plugin optimized for touchscreens. I will be borrowing code from the toolbar quite heavily and it would be much more difficult for me to make them play nice together.

I may decide to migrate some of the buttons into SageMC at some point, but for now I am just planning to do a compatibility upgrade without changing much of the feature set. One benefit of the compatibility update will be that you should be able to import it directly on extenders or placeshifter clients.

Sorry that this wasn't what you wanted to hear.

Aloha,
Mike

[MeInMaui]

I have a quick question for you touch screen guys.

When you drag your finger across the screen is it handled as a mouse drag? If so, then I have some ideas I want to try out.

Aloha,
Mike

[samgreco]

Originally Posted by MeInMaui

When you drag your finger across the screen is it handled as a mouse drag? If so, then I have some ideas I want to try out.

Yes.

I'm intrigued.

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by samgreco

Yes.

I'm intrigued.

Cool.

I think I can design it so that you will be able to move the popup control panel by touching the panel anywhere outside of the buttons and dragging it to where you want it. Also I'd like to make it so you can resize the panel by touching the lower right corner and dragging. If I can get those to work, then there might be more interesting applications for this approach, but I haven't thought that far ahead yet.

Aloha,
Mike

[samgreco]

Cool.

Just remember that a touchscreen is just a mouse and left click. So touching the screen is a left click. Touching and dragging is left click and drag. That's really all that a touch screen can do without helper applications.

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by samgreco

Cool.

Just remember that a touchscreen is just a mouse and left click. So touching the screen is a left click. Touching and dragging is left click and drag. That's really all that a touch screen can do without helper applications.

That's exactly what I need it to do. Thanks. I just hope this works.

Aloha,
Mike

[jmv]

Mike,

You should also know that the touchscreen is far less "smooth" of a mouse so don't make the buttons or touch points require pinpoint accuracy...think in size of 50+ pixel diameters as a "smallish" but ok touch point 80~100 ideal...(assuming 19" 1280x1024 size screen)

mv

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by jmv

Mike,

You should also know that the touchscreen is far less "smooth" of a mouse so don't make the buttons or touch points require pinpoint accuracy...think in size of 50+ pixel diameters as a "smallish" but ok touch point 80~100 ideal...(assuming 19" 1280x1024 size screen)

mv

Thanks for the info! Please let me know if you think of anything else. I'm totally relying on you guys to fill me in on touchscreen specific considerations just like this.

I expect to be able to get started on this over the weekend. I don't think it should take too long to get a first cut working so I can make sure we are all on the same page.

Aloha,
Mike

[samgreco]

Originally Posted by jmv

Mike,

You should also know that the touchscreen is far less "smooth" of a mouse so don't make the buttons or touch points require pinpoint accuracy...think in size of 50+ pixel diameters as a "smallish" but ok touch point 80~100 ideal...(assuming 19" 1280x1024 size screen)

mv

GREAT point. I'm so used to it now that I didn't think to say it.

[lcddream]

any ideas on why it wouldn't work on my placeshifter but does on my server?

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by lcddream

any ideas on why it wouldn't work on my placeshifter but does on my server?

The current version of the toolbar plugin was built using an old version of GKusnick's Studio Tools that did not support importing on an extender or placeshifter client. The next compatibility update should fix this. In the mean time, import it on your server (which you have already done) and then load the resulting SageMC_169-n.xml file on your placeshifter client.

Aloha,
Mike