Vote: Features for 0.9.9

[nostra]

I think that the one wish field is enough for the majority of users. If some will need a extra flag he can create a custom field.

[rick.ca]

If some will need a extra flag he can create a custom field.

...but, of course, he'll need Sorting and grouping custom fields to make any use of it.

BTW, is that feature going to include being able to use custom fields in Search and Advanced Search?

[nostra]

You can't sort or group boolean fields (that can contain only 2 values - true or false). It just does not make much sense...

You will be able to sort short text custom fields or number fields, group short text fields and use Advanced search for all types of custom fields in the next version.

In fact, I have already implemented this functionality

[rick.ca]

It just does not make much sense...

Perhaps not—except that grouping provides the same functionality as filtering. Even better—it displays the true and false at the same time! What doesn't make sense to me is a boolean field that can only be displayed in an information card. But that won't be the case with Advance Search handling all types of custom fields.

In fact, I have already implemented this functionality.

Great news! Advanced Search is going to be so useful, I hope you've included the ability to save searches and map them into custom toolbar buttons.

[dayrider47]

  Hi there- how about an auto save function like MS Word or auto back-up and tool bar icon for easy save as is - thanks for this software and this site - Paul

[nostra]

I hope you've included the ability to save searches

I have not done this yet, but I will

how about an auto save function like MS Word or auto back-up and tool bar icon for easy save as is - thanks for this software and this site - Paul

Yes, it is planned for the next version

[rick.ca]

how about an auto save function like MS Word or auto back-up and tool bar icon for easy save as is

"Auto-save" and "save as is" are not necessary. It's a database—all changes are recorded as they are made. I suppose what is going to be added is some kind of automated backup and/or backup reminder feature.

[nostra]

I suppose what is going to be added is some kind of automated backup and/or backup reminder feature.

Yes

[meriator]

...an other little wish
to have custom fields for persons
like they are existing for movies already
and
(this might be more difficulty)
an integreation of custom fields into advanced search

this would be great
thanks a lot anyway

cu meriator
 

[meriator]

An other suggestion
I think that most users relay on IMDB for their movie-data,
especially on unknown/uncommon movies they do not own yet.
Unfortunately these data is mostly only in english available
and there are a lot of other good site in the web with
different languages from the users own.

to solve language related problems
in a proper way it might be usefull to have
a language specific replace-list

language specific means if I use the app with english translation
only phrase marked as translated into english will be used
and so on


for genres, countries(names), languages(names), categories, tags, mpaa-ratings, ....
and maybe for phrases used by the program it self (to customise the viewable output),
as i have seen in other apps aka "data crow" -> sourceforge.net

means
id;lang;fieldtype;phrase;replacement

so all incoming data will be setted up
language-specfic correctly to users-needs
at capture-time (db-data will be changed to his native language)
or
at view-time (db-data is keeped in orginaly language and will be only processed for viewing)
or
nothing (means like it is)
(this all should depend on the users-preferences
if he, the user needs this and if he takes the time to use it)
 
with out the need to know all these phrases at the development process

the replace-list could also contain a generaly list off
letters/phrases
which might be lead to output-errors or which simply unwanted
this list should be processed always on all incomming data

but these lists should be keept either in the specific movie-DB
or for all in an other settings-db or how ever a simple list
(again users-preferences)
(on export/import the user should asked for the language,
especially if he has choosed view-time-processing)

and so after a while(may be) language-specfic replace-lists
could be shared here in the forums or where ever

I know that native english-speakers dont think so much about these language-specfic things
but all others may do a little more

these is one of the most important features
Sadly to say, I miss in most apps

this are only a few ideas I'll had to handle this language-specfic things
without having so much development-work
on handling unknown phrases (which besides might be wrong)


@nostra special greetings and thanks
while I'm reading here, recognizing your allways friendly open ears to all questions
which is not allways usual

cu meriator

[nostra]

to have custom fields for persons
like they are existing for movies already
and

This does not fit into 0.9.9 any more, but for 1.0 maybe...

(this might be more difficulty)
an integreation of custom fields into advanced search

100% will be available in 0.9.9

to solve language related problems
in a proper way it might be usefull to have
a language specific replace-list

I think we have discussed this topic already and I find the suggestion good, but there some problems with it:
1. Pretty much work for me
2. Too many values have to be translated in too many languages
3. Setting up these replacements will be time consuming

[meriator]

I think we have discussed this topic already and I find the suggestion good, but there some problems with it:
1. Pretty much work for me
2. Too many values have to be translated in too many languages
3. Setting up these replacements will be time consuming

You have to translate not even a single word
May be the way I tried to explain my idea has been not clear enough?

lets take an example
1. way

at view-time (db-data is keeped in orginaly language and will be only processed for viewing)

When the program is going to display an genre-term
and the user-preferences is setup to use replacements
only the SQL-Statment has to be changed, joining the replacment-table, to lookup a replace-term
if there is found one the program will take this term otherwise it will take the original term
so there should be a function at the right place to do it
if user-preferences is set up not to do so, this part will be skiped at all

2. way

at capture-time (db-data will be changed to his native language)

When a genre-term should be imported/inserted
the program has just to checkout before insert/update
if there is a replace-term for this genre-term
if there is one found matching the currently used language and the genre-term
the genre-term will be replaced otherwise not
again depending on user-preferences this part will be skiped at all too

thats all

so i do it a 3.way afterwards
at the moment I do this replacment via SQL-Statments
means by example, I replace one genre-ID with an other one matching my needs

anyway, it was just an idea, which came up to my mind
Who this work might be done easy?
so I thought it might be not that much work
but I do not do the job

3. Setting up these replacements will be time consuming

this would be my job I  asked for

thx again for your response
cu meriator

[rick.ca]

Maybe this would work okay for some languages, but not for English. The English language is so messed-up, translating by word replacement is a waste of time. There are too many situations where the correct translation depends on the context. Ambiguities could be dealt with for finite word sets like genres, but not for things like categories. It's not uncommon that a word in English will have a significantly broader or narrower meaning than it's most obvious translation in another language. As a result, a direct replacement translation will be correct most of the time, but sometimes incorrect or even misleading. If in a sentence, this still may be acceptable, because the reader can understand the correct meaning from the context of the sentence. But if it's just the word alone or in a short phrase, this is not possible.

I can't comment on the quality of non-English movie information sites, but surely there are some where the quality of the information is reasonably good. By that, I mean the information is properly expressed in the language of the site. It has been subject to some form of competent editing. That might even include doing proper translations where the source of the information is not in the native language. No matter what the language, the quality of the information is only going to be degraded by translating it. I think PVD should remain focused on providing the tools necessary to pull together information from a variety of different sources—while preserving the integrity of that information.

I think the next step, should the development time ever become available, would be to make the program multilingual, rather than attempt to "build-in" translation. Maybe I'm wrong, but I suspect a user who is fluent in English, German and Russian, for example, would be more interested in having their data those languages simultaneously, rather than translating different sources into one language.

I understand that even if one agrees with this point of view, translation of some information is still likely necessary or useful. I think this need would best be served by a translation tool/plugin that uses something like Google Translate, if that is possible. It could take the data from an existing field, translate it, and put the translation in a different field or overwrite the original—according to how it's configured. I don't imagine this would be a very efficient way to translate a large number of fields (e.g., the default set of data from IMDb), but it would be handy for grabbing bits of data only available from a foreign-language site.

[meriator]

Oh sorry
my intention is not to translate whole sentences
like description, or taglines
this is sure not possible
I'm talking about single terms like genres, or countries
but also tags as they are simple expressions

one reason is
if I search for a comedy I will find
comedy but not Komödie (german) or comédie (french) or comedia (spanish)
but all mean the same thing
but if Komödie, comédie, comedia will point out to comedy
I will find everything I did searched for

cu meriator

[nostra]

I get your point, meriator and, to be honest, I would need this feature as well, but I am not sure if I can put it to 0.9.9 as there are already too many items in my TODO list for this version.

I have this feature request on my list and will implement it as soon as possible.

[meriator]

ok
this sounds great
take your time
I'll enjoy waiting for this future

thanks a lot
cu meriator

[aedapp]

The critical option for me is the cusomized file scanner. Until I have something that can parse file names correctly as title names I can't use PVD. I need something that can parse names from this format:
%TITLE%[.%year%][.%release type%].%source%.%format%[.%additional format%]-%release group%.%file format postfix%

spaces between words as do elements are seperated by dots.
[] is optional data.
field data is determained as follows:
release type - is a word from a set of words like LIMITED, FESTIVAL, UNRATED
source - is usually DVDrip
format - is a word from a set, usually xvid
additional format - a word from a set, like AC3
release group - one of many names like DIAMOND, AAF, DEVISE, FLAWL3SS, etc... setting it to be -* would work (anything after the - and before the .avi )
file format postfix - .avi .mkv .mp4 etc.


i'd like to keep those parsed data parts in their own fields if possible.


if this is too complex, just having a list of words to be discarded, plus a mask, would be good too (like a word list, plus anything after the - sign, or after the .dvdrip*) , but i'd so much prefer to save this data somewhere.

Thanks for this great program

[amgine27]

the program to me is pretty good as is but im sure whatever improvements are made will help but what it needs is a
PRINTING FEATURE.

[rick.ca]

Printing     - 2 (3.2%)

I'm feeling a little sad for this feature. What, exactly, did you (nostra) have in mind, considering you've already provided for the export of HTML reports (which can then be printed)?

There's more interest in this now, but I'm still not sure what users think they want when they ask for "printing." Print what? A screen shot? The movie list? The details of the selected movie? Or is a full-featured report generator expected?

[JedMeister]

Hi all, I'm new here and new to Personal Video Database.

Firstly I'd like to say what an awesome app! Its just what I've been looking for and freeware too! nostra you rock dude! 

I've just voted but to be honest, without reading all 7 pages here I wasn't really clear exactly what was meant by the features that I had to choose from.
In the end I voted for these: (in no particular order)
Sorting and grouping custom fields
Client-Server support
Copy and Paste records from one DB to another To some degree this would be negated by above - for me at least. I have read some discussion of the database being able to be manipulated by other software (as it is a firebird db?). I'm assuming that this means the data could already be transferred to a new db?
Customizable file scanner

As I'm currently importing movies & data at the moment, a few things have occured to me (please excuse me if these have already been mentioned)

1. Unattended Import - I guess this would only really be useful for people such as myself who are new to this app and have quite a few movies to import. But it would be great if it could just scan a folder and automatically select the best match. Then I could go back through and double check at my convenience, rather than have to keep clicking ok all the time. For people who are importing a number of new movies to an existing database perhaps there could be a field to note that the data was unconfirmed.

2. More info in message windows when importing (or ability to see the main window) - as I write this I am importing movies (as I said above) and it is a bit of a pain that I can't see the file that the found info refers to. Some are quite obvious, but others - well who knows?? There seems to be no way of getting back to the main window while it is scanning folders/downloading data. This means that any I'm not sure about I need to skip and hopefully there is someway of downloading info for them individually (I'm assuming there is).

Hope that doesn't sound whingey! Thanks again for all the hard work you've obviously put into this!