Manifest UI Feedback and discussion

Lintbf · November 29, 2021, 9:54pm

So this is a bug… It will be fixed?

ashthespy · November 29, 2021, 9:57pm

I can’t comment on that, it’s up to the devs.

I suggested a workaround (that works for me) in another thread. But of course I would not recommend that for everyone as it will break the integrity check on updates.

SonosKiller · November 29, 2021, 11:36pm

Can confirm the mixed background issue on Ver 3.157 x86
Works fine on Ver 3.156 Rpi

Voluminous · November 30, 2021, 7:10am

This just happened to me too, on 3.152 (RPi)

Voluminous · December 1, 2021, 4:59pm

V3.152, RPi4, Manifest UI

When I use the Volumio web page (http://volumio.local ) on my iPhone to change volume, change tracks, etc, sometimes the web page becomes unresponsive and I have to refresh the page to be able to change the volume again. This is happening quite often.

mervinio · December 1, 2021, 5:43pm

New public RC! Volumio 3 RC1 - Open Beta Testing - #870 by mervinio

SimonE · December 1, 2021, 8:14pm

Switching between devices/rooms seems quicker. Was that part of the upgrade? Thanks.

guyp2k · December 1, 2021, 8:18pm

Any idea why I get no meta data i.e., scrolling artist information on my Volumio 3.159 device? Via HTTP the information is there and scrolling fine.

Thanks

Voluminous · December 1, 2021, 8:21pm

Updating from 3.152 to 3.159 it seems that the album art size has been reduced. What is the reasoning behind this? If anything the album art should be bigger (a lot bigger ). In this example, the artwork covers less than 22% of the window area.

Joni_Salminen · December 2, 2021, 8:16pm

The plugin install “dialog” should propably not have transparent background, since its blocking dialog? Other than such small things i’m very pleased with the new UI, great work on this one!

patrickkfkan · December 4, 2021, 4:20pm

So I have been looking at how this can be fixed. Sadly, I don’t think there’s a good solution.

The issue stems from the Manifest UI taking the title of each section of the page and using it as an anchor. It shows anchor links at the top of the page so you can quickly jump to the section you want.

Now, the SoundCloud plugin (along with Bandcamp Discover, Mixcloud…) does not show plain text titles which Volumio really expects. The titles are actually HTML code that contains links, images and sometimes Javascript to provide better visuals, features and navigation that you won’t otherwise get with the standard UI.

When the Manifest UI takes these titles and use them as anchors, the HTML code in the titles breaks the UI’s own code, and the result is a page full of visual glitches.

So the “solution” would be to check if the user is browsing with Manifest UI and if so, replace the enhanced titles with plain old text. For the SoundCloud plugin, the greatest impact would probably be the loss of links to artists / albums on the SoundCloud site. And that defeats one of the plugin’s purpose: to visit the artists on SoundCloud so you can support them.

With Bandcamp Discover plugin, the situation is worse. In addition to missing links, you also won’t be able to (just to name a few):

Save default Discover options
Browse by tags
Read articles (I’d probably have to scrap this part for Manifest UI since it would serve no purpose)

So this solution is not a solution at all. It’s simply about crippling the plugins for the sake of Manifest UI.

In the weeks to come, I will make the necessary changes to the plugins and submit them to store. Just to be clear, these changes will affect users of the Manifest UI only.

SimonE · December 4, 2021, 5:04pm

That must be really frustrating. Maybe the Manifest devs can come up with something?
I use your Bandcamp plugin a lot, so I think I’ll go back to Classic for a while. Makes no difference for my player screen now that Now Playing is handling that.

patrickkfkan · December 10, 2021, 3:49pm

I have updated the following plugins so they won’t mess up the Manifest interface (follow the links for full readme / changelog):

Bandcamp Discover (v0.1.3)
Jellyfin (v0.1.5)
Mixcloud (v0.1.1)
SoundCloud (v0.1.4)

You can install them in the plugin store (beta channel).

As I stated previously, Manifest UI users will get titles in plain text without formatting and links. Users of the old Contemporary UI won’t be affected by this change.

ashthespy · December 10, 2021, 4:46pm

That’s a shame - I really liked the links with SoundCloud…
Btw, didn’t know Volumio provides an API to get the current UI nice!

patrickkfkan · December 10, 2021, 4:57pm

It doesn’t. I just got it here:

github.com

volumio/volumio3-backend/blob/43c1d2cfae0d0bdfaef60ee00c1c38681a846b1c/app/plugins/miscellanea/appearance/index.js#L144-L153

    
      
          if (process.env.VOLUMIO_3_UI === 'true') {
            uiValue = "CONTEMPORARY";
            uiLabel = self.commandRouter.getI18nString('APPEARANCE.USER_INTERFACE_CONTEMPORARY');
          } else if (fs.existsSync("/data/manifestUI")) {
            uiValue = "MANIFEST";
            uiLabel = self.commandRouter.getI18nString('APPEARANCE.USER_INTERFACE_MANIFEST');
          } else if (fs.existsSync("/data/volumio2ui")) {
            uiValue = "CLASSIC";
            uiLabel = self.commandRouter.getI18nString('APPEARANCE.USER_INTERFACE_CLASSIC');
          }

SimonE · December 10, 2021, 5:26pm

Hi @patrickkfkan
Thanks for the updates. I just tried Bandcamp v0.1.3 via Manifest, Volumio v3.173 and the formatting is still broken.

Maybe I’m doing something wrong?
Thanks,
Simon

SimonE · December 10, 2021, 5:33pm

Same for Soundcloud 0.1.4.

patrickkfkan · December 10, 2021, 5:55pm

Try restarting Volumio. If you simply uninstalled the plugin, followed by installing a later version of it, the old plugin files will still get loaded (Volumio doesn’t clear the old files from cache).

SimonE · December 10, 2021, 6:02pm

Thanks @patrickkfkan it worked and looks great. I had cleared the cache in the app, but as you say it needed a restart.

patrickkfkan · December 10, 2021, 6:11pm

I have submitted a fix for this cache issue that has been around since Volumio 2. I dunno why they won’t test or apply the fix (it was submitted more than a month ago)…I would think when you update a plugin and get a success message, without being prompted to restart Volumio, it means you could use the updated plugin right away…