Could you please bring "Range Selector" feature in the app.

[Aniket]

Hello Devs,

 

   I was hoping you guys could implement range selection in the app. It would make managing playlists a lot easier. 

 

Regards

 

[andrewilley]

By "range selection" are you asking for the ability to select a block of items using the multi-selection tool, rather than having to tick each song one by one?

If so, this is something that has been requested before. The request was that you would first long-press on a song you want to select (exactly as at present) but you could then long-press on another song in the same list to tick all of the items in between. And once multiple items had been selected (either as blocks or individually) the dragging thumbs to the right of the list would move the whole block up or down as a unit, rather than just one song being moved as at present. There could even be a few extra icons in the control panel at the bottom of multiple selections for Move to Top, Move to Bottom, and Shuffle within List. 

Personally I think it's a really good idea and would make playlist (and other lists) management much easier.

Andre

[Aniket]

@andrewilley

Yes, that is exactly I am asking for, i.e., the ability to select a block of items using the multi-selection tool. Currently, clicking one song at a time is time consuming and since Poweramp is the only media player which has helped me manage my music to my liking, this feature would greatly enhance the playlist management on the user side. So, please consider implementing it if possible. Many file browsers have them and that really enhances the experience. 

Although, since you guys have managed to build such a great player, I am sure you will find the best way to implement it. I am quite agnostic about "long pressing one song and then long pressing the other" or "just a multi-select button somewhere in the menu". Hope you guys bring it soon.

 

[andrewilley]

There's already a 'Select All' button, but I'm not sure how a multi-select button would work - how would you define the top and bottom of the desired area?

Andre

[Aniket]

@andrewilley

 

A 'Select All' button can't select between a range. You did explain the feature I am requesting for in your first reply. I don't know what else I should add to that to elaborate it further. I merely suggested 'A multi-select button (not sure if that is what it is officially called). I never said that it was a better way to do it than what you suggested (which was long pressing a song and then another song to select all the songs in between).

I guess a multi-select button should ideally work like they all work in file browsers like (CS Explorer, EX file explorer) or even Telegram. Suppose, you have 100 items in a list, you select an item, say item no. 20 (by long pressing it) and then you scroll down to say item no. 74 and select it, when you do that, an icon in a menu appears which will allow you to select the items from 20 to 74. That's how it should work but then again, your idea for long pressing both of the songs was more efficient than this one. What I am suggesting is not something new at all. A lot of apps have it now. I am sure you have seen them too.

The whole point is if this feature gets added, adding multiple files in a playlist will become a hell of a lot easier than doing it one by one. Saving more time while managing your library and also giving the users a smooth experience.

Regards

[andrewilley]

Ah, I see what you mean about how a multi-select button could work, but I think tapping on one item and then long-pressing somewhere else to select all the in between items might be easier.

Andre

[Aniket]

@andrewilley

Yes, I also believe so. So, what are the chances of it being implemented into the app?

[andrewilley]

At some point, it seems possible. But how soon depends on what priority gets assigned to it amongst all the other requests.

Andre

[Aniket]

@andrewilley

Anything we can do to make it more urgent? I am not in a hurry but it would be good to know that it will be implemented in the next three, six or nine months. You are the inside man, you can't be any more specific than 'at some point' ?

[maxmp]

@Aniket thanks for the request. The feature will be added to TODO list and these small features are usually implemented (if feasible) in packs when some bigger feature touching this functionality is in the development. 
Though the range selection seems to be a smaller one and that can be added independently.

As an additional fast selection mode is the in-list search and operating with the search results

[Aniket]

@maxmp

On 3/29/2022 at 5:19 PM, maxmp said:

@Aniket Though the range selection seems to be a smaller one and that can be added independently.

I will hold you to your word. Please add this feature if at all possible because some of my playlists were messed up because of Android Pie update. I am trying my best to get it back to the way it was and if we had range selection, we hopefully can manage our library in a more efficient manner.

Regards

[andrewilley]

@Aniket In the meantime, you can use external editors such as @flyingdutchman's New Playlist Manager to do the job.

Or simply edit any file-based playlists by hand - the M3U format is just lines of plain text, you can manipulate them in a basic text editor if you want and then get Poweramp to rescan them.

Andre

[maxmp]

Range selection added to (the next beta) build 934. Thanks for the request!

[andrewilley]

Thanks Max. While you are working on the code for handling multiple item selections, could you perhaps add the ability to place those selected items into Playlists or the Queue at either the start or the end, or inserted randomly?

As per this thread and others, which was discussing a simple long-press feature for '+Playlist' and '>>Queue' which would give a couple of extra choices:

Andre

[Aniket]

@maxmp

Wow, you, brother, are amazing. I had been waiting for this for so long but I never made a formal request because I thought it will eventually come.

But having this feature will make managing library and playlists so darn easy.

Thank you brother for listening and acting so swiftly.

 #powerampforever #fckwarlistentomusic #nolifewithoutmusic #stopthewar  #warismadness

[andrewilley]

On 3/28/2022 at 6:37 PM, andrewilley said:

Ah, I see what you mean about how a multi-select button could work, but I think tapping on one item and then long-pressing somewhere else to select all the in between items might be easier.

I'm a bit puzzled by the new Range button. All it seems to do is select every song between the earliest ticked item and the last ticked item in a list, regardless of whether anything else has been selected in the meantime. That seems a rather blunt tool, and I still very much prefer my original suggestion of using long-press on a song to choose only the songs between the previously most recent ticked item and the new long-pressed one. That method could be applied multiple times during the selection process to choose several different blocks within a list.
 

For example, let's say you have 100 songs in a Playlist and you want to choose a few individual songs - perhaps 3, 5, 50 and 65 - and then then add several complete album blocks such as tracks 25-40 and 75-90. Using the current 'Range' button, the best you seem to be able to achieve is to select every track between 3 and 90, which is clearly not always desirable.

Using a more flexible long-press system (similar to Windows' shift-click and control-shift-click features for multiple block selections) you would first choose any individual songs you might want - so in this case you would tick tracks 3, 5, 50 and 65. Then you would tick track 25 followed by a long-press on 40 (which would add all of the tracks from 25-40 to the selection) and finally tick 75 and then long-press 90 (adding 75-90 to the existing selected items).

That method could even deselect unwanted selection blocks too - e.g. to remove just tracks 50-70 from a large selected area. Say you had selected 'All' tracks in a list; you could simply untick track 50 and then long-press on track 70 to deselect the whole range of 50-70 from the selected items.
 

So by implementing a simple long-press method instead of a Range button, a huge variety of selection options would become available to the user via one very easy and logical operation - tap to set first song, long-press to set final song.

Andre

[maxmp]

@andrewilley I think long press range selection as you describe can be added in the next build, but that will be an "advanced" tool as it's quite hard to describe it via one liner in changelog or hint. Thanks for the details.

[andrewilley]

I agree it's perhaps harder to make the procedure immediately obvious, but once you have used it once it's the obvious way to do it. It's also quite a common method for multi-selecting items in lists in file selectors, etc.

Perhaps you could add a simple toast popup when the user taps on a second item in a list? "Long-press on another song if you want to select all items in between". The same sort of thing could pop up if the user taps the 'Range' button too: "You can also select multiple items by long-pressing on a second song".

Andre

[Aniket]

On 4/7/2022 at 6:02 PM, maxmp said:

Range selection added to (the next beta) build 934. Thanks for the request!

The range feature seems to do what I needed it for. So, thanks for the quick update. Love it.

Regards

[Aniket]

20 hours ago, andrewilley said:

I'm a bit puzzled by the new Range button. All it seems to do is select every song between the earliest ticked item and the last ticked item in a list, regardless of whether anything else has been selected in the meantime. That seems a rather blunt tool, and I still very much prefer my original suggestion of using long-press on a song to choose only the songs between the previously most recent ticked item and the new long-pressed one. That method could be applied multiple times during the selection process to choose several different blocks within a list.
 

For example, let's say you have 100 songs in a Playlist and you want to choose a few individual songs - perhaps 3, 5, 50 and 65 - and then then add several complete album blocks such as tracks 25-40 and 75-90. Using the current 'Range' button, the best you seem to be able to achieve is to select every track between 3 and 90, which is clearly not always desirable.

Using a more flexible long-press system (similar to Windows' shift-click and control-shift-click features for multiple block selections) you would first choose any individual songs you might want - so in this case you would tick tracks 3, 5, 50 and 65. Then you would tick track 25 followed by a long-press on 40 (which would add all of the tracks from 25-40 to the selection) and finally tick 75 and then long-press 90 (adding 75-90 to the existing selected items).

That method could even deselect unwanted selection blocks too - e.g. to remove just tracks 50-70 from a large selected area. Say you had selected 'All' tracks in a list; you could simply untick track 50 and then long-press on track 70 to deselect the whole range of 50-70 from the selected items.
 

So by implementing a simple long-press method instead of a Range button, a huge variety of selection options would become available to the user via one very easy and logical operation - tap to set first song, long-press to set final song.

Andre

This would be a cool feature to have. But for now, I am enjoying what we have got. The range feature we have now is not as refined as you are proposing but it is still better than having nothing at all. It can be used to select songs of the same album in a playlist without the hassle of clicking every song, like before, which was tedious and time consuming. 

But, what you are suggesting would definitely be amazing to have in Poweramp. I hope we see it in Poweramp in the coming days. 

Regards.