Quick access to documents from "Songs" listing?

[Geoff]

In an earlier version of the ios app, I used to be able to quickly open a document associated with a song (I use MS Word docs for chords/lyrics) by tapping on the document icon that appeared in each entry in the "Songs" list under "Repertoire". But this seems to have gone away. Of course I can tap on a song, scroll down, and tap on the doc icon from within the song details - but it's not as quick and easy that way. I need speed in a performance situation.

Please: Is there a way to set things up to get back to having per-song doc icons visible from the main "Songs" list?

(I know I can simply make a setlist with all active songs, and get fast access to docs from there; but this route doesn't have the search box at the top, so it means a lot of scrolling in a long list of active songs...)

[arlo]

The Repertoire > Songs list is designed for setting up your songs, and moving the buttons to the song edit pages allows you to more easily preview those functions while editing.

To view a song's info in a performance or rehearsal situation, it's better to use a set list or smart list, where the buttons are bigger and customizable.

If you want access to all songs, you should use a smart list instead of manually adding all songs to a set list. With a smart list, new songs will be added automatically, or you can automatically filter the list with rules you provide. The sort field you select groups the songs and adds shortcuts to jump between groups, which is usually faster than typing in a search term. If you do want to search, you can instead use a set list and use the Quick Add button, which has a search field.

See also the FAQ "HOW CAN I ADD OR REARRANGE MY SONGS WHILE PERFORMING A SET LIST":

http://www.bandhelper.com/support/FAQ.html

And the tutorial on smart lists:

http://www.bandhelper.com/tutorials/building_smart_lists.html

[Geoff]

Thanks.

[Erawal]

I just posted to this forum a plea for help in addressing a serious problem I am having since the last BH update, and I think it is either similar to or identical to the issue described by this user. 

One problem with accessing songs via a smartlist (for me, at least), instead of via the "Songs" listing, is that there is no way (that I am aware of) to search within a smartlist.  So -- say I am in a song session where someone just sang a song about horses, and I want to follow it with a song I have about horses, but I can't remember the title.  What I usually do is quickly search the Songs listing for "horse" and get results that show all my songs with that word.  I can then quickly click on the song that I want, and then pull up the lyrics (or the document) without having to exit and then go find the song in a smart list. 

My use of Bandhelper has been seriously hampered since this change, and I am hoping I am overlooking some easy solution....

Thanks!

erawal

[arlo]

That's correct, you cannot currently search within a smart list. If you want to look up a song by title, you can use the letter shortcuts to jump to the desired section, which is usually faster than typing. But this doesn't allow you to search for a word in the lyrics or the tags, for example.

You can search in a set list by using the Quick Add button. I could include the Quick Add button in smart lists so you could use its search field there, too. In that case, clicking a song in the Quick Add popup would simply select it in the smart list, rather than adding it as it does in the set list view. I can put that on my to do list.

[Erawal]

Arlo,

Thanks for your reply.  Enabling the ability to word search lyrics (not just titles) within the "Active Song"  SmartList would help -- is that what the effect would be of what you are describing (adding a Quick Add feature to Smartlists?).

I know you have a lot on your plate, but I am really hoping for a quick solution!  I appreciate that you keep striving to improve the app, and realize that different users have different priorities, but I really want to stress what a setback it is for me to have the updated version of BH remove the ability to access lyrics/documents from the Songs view.  Accessing lyrics on the fly after a word search has been a very important feature of BH.   

Would you consider adding back the lyrics/document buttons back to the "Songs" view?  If not, I'd be super appreciative of your getting that word search function working within individual Smart Lists. 

Thank you!

-erawal

[arlo]

The document buttons were not removed from the Repertoire > Songs area, they were moved to the individual song edit pages. This is better for editing, which is what this part of the app is meant for. I think any changes aimed at making this part of the app better for performing would be a step in the wrong direction.

[arlo]

The Quick Add button is now displayed when viewing a smart list (unless it is deselected on the layout details edit page). The Quick Add button works a little differently in a smart list than in a set list: instead of adding the selected song to the list, it jumps to that song in the smart list. Therefore it only works for songs that are included in the smart list. Or to look at it another way, it works best with a smart list that includes all your active songs.

So to search in a smart list, you can click the Quick Add button, enter some search text and click the desired song to jump to it.

[Erawal]

Thanks, Arlo — adding the ability to search within a smart list by using the Quick Add is helpful.  I appreciate it!

Since I have a smart list with all Active Songs, I can now use Quick Add to search all songs and get to my lyrics files easily like I used to be able to do by searching within Songs and clicking on the now-removed documents button. 

Now that I know about this, I will use the feature and won't be confused about it, but I will just offer  one small suggestion — if it's easy for you to change the contextual help info that pops up when hovering over the Quick Add button in Smartlists, that would probably help out some folks who haven't read the Forum about how this feature works.   Right now, the contextual help when you click on the quick add feature in Smart Lists provides info that would lead an unknowing person to think they should be able to add songs to their smart list this way. Not an issue for me now that I know about this new feature, I just thought I'd mention it in case it's easy for you to change. 

Thanks!

[arlo]

You're right, I need to update that. Ideally it wouldn't even be called a "quick add" button anymore. Maybe it should just be a search button and the result of the search is different for set lists versus smart lists. From my perspective, the significant part of its functionality is the adding (or selecting), not the searching, but I guess a search icon would give someone more of a hint of what it does than the current icon.

[Erawal]

One more thing -- I spoke too soon when I said the Quick-Add button was a (partial) solution to the issue I raised above.  It IS indeed a solution for my iPad, and it works just as you said.  Unfortunately, that's NOT the case for my iPhone.

when I press on the Quick-Add button on my iPhone 6s, from either Set List view or Smart List view, my phone freezes entirely, and I have to close Band Helper and re-open it.  That's unfortunate because most of my use of Band Helper when I'm at a music session is from my phone.  So, I won't be able to use the Quick-Add button as a search workaround (or for anything else....) until this is fixed.   I already submitted a help ticket -- I just thought I'd also post here, in case anyone else is experiencing similar problems. 

If you have any ideas about how to fix this, or if you've seen it before, I'd love to know.  Thanks!

[arlo]

when I press on the Quick-Add button on my iPhone 6s, from either Set List view or Smart List view, my phone freezes entirely

Thanks, I'll check it out for the next update.

[arlo]

I just tried this on an iPhone, and in an account with a similar number of songs as yours (about 1800), I see the same problem. Unfortunately, the problem is occurring in the iOS code that presents the standard iPhone-style option picker. I think that's getting overwhelmed by the number of options since it isn't designed for such a long list. It did appear eventually, but it took about 10 minutes.

That iPhone-style picker doesn't support searching anyway, so if you're wanting to use this button to search in a smart list, I'm afraid you'll have to rely on the iPad for that.

[arlo]

The help text is now different depending on whether you're viewing a set list or a smart list. However, it doesn't update if you use a shortcut to switch between a set list and smart list. That's still on my to do list.

[arlo]

Yesterday's release uses a different interface for showing the Quick Add popup on phones. This should avoid the crash when showing a very long list of songs, and includes a search button as on tablets.

All yesterday's changes are listed here:

http://www.bandhelper.com/support/release_notes.html