8.8-beta-1 Released

[Undertherainbow]

Hm, i had collections in platform category platforms.xml still says its there, but neither LB or BB are seeing it.I also cant add anything to it any more since its not visible

	  <PlatformCategory>
    <Name>Collections</Name>
    <NestedName>Collections</NestedName>
    <Notes />
    <VideoPath>Videos\Platforms\Collections.mp4</VideoPath>
    <SortTitle />
  </PlatformCategory>
	

parents are also not seeing collections, but xml says its there i had it all ok before update

 

  <Parent>
    <PlaylistId>dc52b1a2-12a8-42e7-b0ce-2367c76d0986</PlaylistId>
    <ParentPlatformCategoryName>Collections</ParentPlatformCategoryName>
  </Parent>

 

I can access collections from playlist in options in BB, but its no longer appearing in categories

 

--Edit

damn Genres are also not visible in categories any more and it is in xml

	  <PlatformCategory>
    <Name>Genres</Name>
    <NestedName>Genres</NestedName>
    <Notes />
    <VideoPath />
  </PlatformCategory>
	

Whats the deal here?

I guess i have to manually delete from xml all extra additions from categories and add them again since LB is not seeing them..

 

P.S as mentioned in first post, LB is crashing upon deleting empty sub category

Edited September 22, 2018 by Undertherainbow

[Suhrvivor]

Tried to make my "favorites" auto playlist to be shown in the platform category root. It appears in LaunchBox but not in BigBox. Refund!

[PattersonCZ]

I just can only hope we can see subfolders in Genres too. Like STRATEGY ---turn based
                                                                                                                                  ---realtime
                                                                                                                                  ---economy

[deliyuerek85]

Nice new feature Jason. I have waited for that a long time. But I have one little wish. It would be nice, if the platforms that are added to the "root" folder show up in the root of the platform category view in BigBox. In Launchbox you can see them in the root.

Edited September 22, 2018 by deliyuerek85

[Jason Carr]

15 hours ago, neil9000 said:

Just got this when deleting a now empty platform category.

Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

App:     LaunchBox
Version: 8.8-beta-1
Type:    System.NullReferenceException
Site:    System.String (<>c, Unbroken.LaunchBox.Plugins.Data.IPlatform)
Source:  Unbroken.LaunchBox

   at (<>c , IPlatform )
   at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Data.DataManager.<>c.<GetRootPlatformsCategoriesPlaylists>b__107_2(IPlatform p)
   at System.Linq.EnumerableSorter`2.ComputeKeys(TElement[] elements, Int32 count)
   at System.Linq.EnumerableSorter`1.Sort(TElement[] elements, Int32 count)
   at System.Linq.OrderedEnumerable`1.<GetEnumerator>d__1.MoveNext()
   at System.Collections.Generic.List`1..ctor(IEnumerable`1 collection)
   at System.Linq.Enumerable.ToList[TSource](IEnumerable`1 source)
   at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Data.DataManager.GetRootPlatformsCategoriesPlaylists()
   at (DataManager , Boolean , Boolean , Boolean , Boolean , Boolean , Boolean , Boolean )
   at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Data.DataManager.GetAllPlatformCategoriesWithCounts(Boolean showHidden, Boolean showBroken, Boolean hideGamesMissingVideos, Boolean hideGamesMissingBoxFrontImage, Boolean hideGamesMissingScreenshotImage, Boolean hideGamesMissingClearLogoImage, Boolean hideGamesMissingBackgroundImage)
   at (DataManager , String , Boolean , Boolean , Boolean , Boolean , Boolean , Boolean , Boolean )
   at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Data.DataManager.GetFilterValuesWithCounts(String filterType, Boolean showHidden, Boolean showBroken, Boolean hideGamesMissingVideos, Boolean hideGamesMissingBoxFrontImage, Boolean hideGamesMissingScreenshotImage, Boolean hideGamesMissingClearLogoImage, Boolean hideGamesMissingBackgroundImage)
   at (<>c__DisplayClass62_0 , Object )
   at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Desktop.ViewModels.SideBarViewModel.<>c__DisplayClass62_0.<PopulateValues>b__0(Object state)
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state, Boolean preserveSyncCtx)
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state, Boolean preserveSyncCtx)
   at System.Threading.QueueUserWorkItemCallback.System.Threading.IThreadPoolWorkItem.ExecuteWorkItem()
   at System.Threading.ThreadPoolWorkQueue.Dispatch()

Recent Log:

   11:31:32 PM Music.Prepare Start
   23:31:32 Music.Kill Start
   23:31:32 Music.Kill Finished
   23:31:32 Music.NotifyTrackList Start
   23:31:32 Music.NotifyTrackList Invoke WPF
   11:31:53 PM Music.Prepare Start
   23:31:53 Music.Kill Start
   23:31:53 Music.Kill Finished
   23:31:53 Music.NotifyTrackList Start
   23:31:53 Music.NotifyTrackList Invoke WPF
   11:32:20 PM Music.Prepare Start
   23:32:20 Music.Kill Start
   23:32:20 Music.Kill Finished
   23:32:20 Music.NotifyTrackList Start
   23:32:20 Music.NotifyTrackList Invoke WPF
   11:32:34 PM Music.Prepare Start
   23:32:34 Music.Kill Start
   23:32:34 Music.Kill Finished
   23:32:34 Music.NotifyTrackList Start
   23:32:34 Music.NotifyTrackList Invoke WPF
   11:32:40 PM Music.Prepare Start
   23:32:40 Music.Kill Start
   23:32:40 Music.Kill Finished
   23:32:40 Music.NotifyTrackList Start
   23:32:40 Music.NotifyTrackList Invoke WPF
   11:32:57 PM Music.Prepare Start
   23:32:57 Music.Kill Start
   23:32:57 Music.Kill Finished
   23:32:57 Music.NotifyTrackList Start
   23:32:57 Music.NotifyTrackList Invoke WPF
   11:32:57 PM Music.Prepare Start
   23:32:57 Music.Kill Start
   23:32:57 Music.Kill Finished
   23:32:57 Music.NotifyTrackList Start
   23:32:57 Music.NotifyTrackList Invoke WPF
   11:33:11 PM Music.Prepare Start
   23:33:11 Music.Kill Start
   23:33:11 Music.Kill Finished
   23:33:11 Music.NotifyTrackList Start
   23:33:11 Music.NotifyTrackList Invoke WPF
   11:33:13 PM Music.Prepare Start
   23:33:13 Music.Kill Start
   23:33:13 Music.Kill Finished
   23:33:13 Music.NotifyTrackList Start
   23:33:13 Music.NotifyTrackList Invoke WPF
   11:33:27 PM Music.Prepare Start
   23:33:27 Music.Kill Start
   23:33:27 Music.Kill Finished
   23:33:27 Music.NotifyTrackList Start
   23:33:27 Music.NotifyTrackList Invoke WPF
   11:33:27 PM Music.Prepare Start
   23:33:27 Music.Kill Start
   23:33:27 Music.Kill Finished
   23:33:27 Music.NotifyTrackList Start
   23:33:27 Music.NotifyTrackList Invoke WPF
   11:33:41 PM Music.Prepare Start
   23:33:41 Music.Kill Start
   23:33:41 Music.Kill Finished
   23:33:41 Music.NotifyTrackList Start
   23:33:41 Music.NotifyTrackList Invoke WPF
   11:33:42 PM Music.Prepare Start
   23:33:42 Music.Kill Start
   23:33:42 Music.Kill Finished
   23:33:42 Music.NotifyTrackList Start
   23:33:42 Music.NotifyTrackList Invoke WPF
   11:33:58 PM Music.Prepare Start
   23:33:58 Music.Kill Start
   23:33:58 Music.Kill Finished
   23:33:58 Music.NotifyTrackList Start
   23:33:58 Music.NotifyTrackList Invoke WPF
   11:35:19 PM Music.Prepare Start
   23:35:19 Music.Kill Start
   23:35:19 Music.Kill Finished
   23:35:19 Music.NotifyTrackList Start
   23:35:19 Music.NotifyTrackList Invoke WPF
   11:35:33 PM Music.Prepare Start
   23:35:33 Music.Kill Start
   23:35:33 Music.Kill Finished
   23:35:33 Music.NotifyTrackList Start
   23:35:33 Music.NotifyTrackList Invoke WPF
   11:35:37 PM Exception

 

I have this fixed for the next beta, which should hopefully be out later today.

14 hours ago, MadK9 said:

Love the new feature Jason. Could i ask for a small change to have the Parent Tree collapsed rather than all open?

 

Do you mean on the add/edit screens or in the sidebar?

14 hours ago, eatkinola said:

Thanks, Jason. Any major changes to the plugin API to support this feature? I noticed some functions of my plugin library stopped working with the new beta, so I figure there must be changes to how the API works. Any new interfaces/methods, or perhaps just changes to the guts?

Let me know what has broken, as I'd rather not break anything and I can probably retro fit things to work. There will be some additions though. I'm probably not done with it yet though.

13 hours ago, Lordmonkus said:

@Jason Carr, not sure if this is planned or not but in case it isn't I hope it would be possible to display the list of games in the selected platform category along with the the sub folders at the top of the list with some sort of indicator showing they are sub folders. It shows like this in Launchbox mode but not in BigBox mode.

Here is a screencap that hopefully shows exactly what I am talking about.

Here it is in Launchbox mode for comparison.

Unfortunately, showing both games and platforms/categories/playlists in the same view would be a major change in Big Box, and would probably break all the themes, so it's not something that we're likely to do any time soon. The solution that I would recommend is to simply add an All Games playlist under the platform.

[Jason Carr]

11 hours ago, xmas said:

Since this beta is mainly focusing on category trees, I'd like to suggest 2 things:

1. Bigger font for parent category + slight space to right for child category (slight push will help and too much would waste space considering other child categories) Please see attached for comparison.

2. Remembering ALL opened trees. (Currently, when you quit Lauchbox, it resets and closes all other trees except selected category group)

 

I apologize if this is request but I really thought it could help many other users and be relevant to current goal for version 8.8.

Thank you for an exciting update!!!

Point #1 is a theme change; you're also using a custom theme. Request #2 is noted.

[Jason Carr]

2 hours ago, Suhrvivor said:

Tried to make my "favorites" auto playlist to be shown in the platform category root. It appears in LaunchBox but not in BigBox. Refund!

 

1 hour ago, deliyuerek85 said:

Nice new feature Jason. I have waited for that a long time. But I have one little wish. It would be nice, if the platforms that are added to the "root" folder show up in the root of the platform category view in BigBox. In Launchbox you can see them in the root.

I'll do my best to fix this for the next beta. Support for this is planned.

[Jason Carr]

1 hour ago, PattersonCZ said:

I just can only hope we can see subfolders in Genres too. Like STRATEGY ---turn based
                                                                                                                                  ---realtime
                                                                                                                                  ---economy

This is possible in the platform categories lists by using playlists. However, we won't be modifying the Genre-based views to be nested for this release.

[Jason Carr]

The issue with beta 1 is that Parent objects are not deleted from the Parents.xml file when the associated Platforms, Platform Categories, or Playlists are deleted. You can fix the issue by manually modifying your Parents.xml file in your Data folder to remove all references to missing platforms, categories, or playlists. It should be relatively straightforward. Regardless, the next beta will fix it anyways.

[Jason Carr]

Beta 2 is out now with fixes for the above issues:

- Deleting things should no longer cause errors

- Playlists and platforms should now show correctly in the root in Big Box (if you locate them there)

The only known remaining issue regarding the new nested stuff is that if you delete a parent that has children, sometimes you can orphan the children. I'll probably fix this in a future beta just by throwing them in the root in that case. I also still need to modify the right-click menu in the sidebar.

[eatkinola]

59 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

Let me know what has broken, as I'd rather not break anything and I can probably retro fit things to work. There will be some additions though. I'm probably not done with it yet though.

Thanks, Jason. On second glance it's not as bad as I thought. I wonder if the beta was updating the XML files in the background for awhile after install. Anyway, I fired up BB 8.8-beta1 again today and the plugins seem to be working fine for the most part. I did notice IPlatform.Category now always returns an empty string, where it used to return for example "Console" for platform "NES".

I am curious as to how nesting will work in BB. I've not yet wrapped my head around that, but it's great you're adding such nice features all the time.

[Undertherainbow]

@Jason Carr

Should i manually purge xml's ? I have collections and genres before update in it. Now i cant add new ones because it says it already exist. Refer to post earlier for more info, added image with error. It was the same in 8.8.1 and now with 8.8.2

 

 

---------

EDIT

never mind, recrated all my categories. Once i manually expunged them from xml's (Parent's /Platforms)

Edited September 22, 2018 by Undertherainbow

[Jason Carr]

53 minutes ago, eatkinola said:

Thanks, Jason. On second glance it's not as bad as I thought. I wonder if the beta was updating the XML files in the background for awhile after install. Anyway, I fired up BB 8.8-beta1 again today and the plugins seem to be working fine for the most part. I did notice IPlatform.Category now always returns an empty string, where it used to return for example "Console" for platform "NES".

I am curious as to how nesting will work in BB. I've not yet wrapped my head around that, but it's great you're adding such nice features all the time.

Yeah, IPlatform.Category is now obsolete, because it did not support the new nesting. Instead you'll use the new Parent interfaces/classes/methods, but I need to update the documentation yet to include the new stuff.

Basically, the only changes in Big Box are that the FiltersViewModels (including PlatformViewModels) will just stay on themselves while going through all the nested categories. GamesViewModels are mostly unchanged (though the FilterTitle property now returns the nested name for platforms/categories/playlists instead of the unique name).

56 minutes ago, Undertherainbow said:

@Jason Carr

Should i manually purge xml's ? I have collections and genres before update in it. Now i cant add new ones because it says it already exist. Refer to post earlier for more info, added image with error. It was the same in 8.8.1 and now with 8.8.2

 

You probably have an orphaned category (see my post above). You can either revert to a backup or manually edit the Platforms.xml file to remove the orphaned <PlatformCategory> element.

[Undertherainbow]

1 minute ago, Jason Carr said:

Yeah, IPlatform.Category is now obsolete, because it did not support the new nesting. Instead you'll use the new Parent interfaces/classes/methods, but I need to update the documentation yet to include the new stuff.

Basically, the only changes in Big Box are that the FiltersViewModels (including PlatformViewModels) will just stay on themselves while going through all the nested categories. GamesViewModels are mostly unchanged (though the FilterTitle property now returns the nested name for platforms/categories/playlists instead of the unique name).

You probably have an orphaned category (see my post above). You can either revert to a backup or manually edit the Platforms.xml file to remove the orphaned <PlatformCategory> element.

All good now.

recrated all my categories. Once i manually expunged them from xml's (Parent's /Platforms)

Colapsed instead expanded categories could be more helpfull !

Edited September 22, 2018 by Undertherainbow

[bundangdon]

1 hour ago, Jason Carr said:

Beta 2 is out now with fixes for the above issues:

- Deleting things should no longer cause errors

- Playlists and platforms should now show correctly in the root in Big Box (if you locate them there)

The only known remaining issue regarding the new nested stuff is that if you delete a parent that has children, sometimes you can orphan the children. I'll probably fix this in a future beta just by throwing them in the root in that case. I also still need to modify the right-click menu in the sidebar.

My problem seems to be solved now too! Although I had to delete and recreate some xml files in order to clean up the error messages. Nevertheless, we're running normal again with the new features going well so far. Thank you!

[rexryan]

You guys are ahead of me If i create a platform called atari then put corresponding system in it and close LB and restart the Atari Platform is gone, but individual system are there.

[Jason Carr]

2 minutes ago, rexryan said:

You guys are ahead of me If i create a platform called atari then put corresponding system in it and close LB and restart the Atari Platform is gone, but individual system are there.

Please be clear on whether you're referring to platforms, platform categories, or playlists. Also, a screenshot of your structure would be helpful.

[Jason Carr]

11 minutes ago, Undertherainbow said:

Colapsed instead expanded categories could be more helpfull !

I still don't know what this means. Are you referring to the sidebar or the Add/Edit Parents tabs?

[Undertherainbow]

@Jason Carr

Do you think , you could make Parents categories start "colapsed" instead of expanded? Its really painfull to scroll or colapse each time when adding new item to it

 

P.S

That's playlists

Edited September 22, 2018 by Undertherainbow

[Jason Carr]

3 minutes ago, Undertherainbow said:

@Jason Carr

Do you think , you could make Parents categories start "colapsed" instead of expanded? Its really painfull to scroll or colapse each time when adding new item to it

 

I can't say that's on the top of my priority list, but okay lol. I have to have at least the items that are checked visible/parents expanded so that it's not confusing, so I can't just always collapse everything.