testing results of Magic Album

[charmer]

Hi.

Firstly, I really like Magic Album. Even now in early development phase it looks better than MWS or Suitcase I've been using. I'm giving it a big thumbs up.

I also wanted to ask - where do you get up-to-date text data for printed texts and Oracle texts for Magic Album? I could use that source too for a search engine I am helping to improve.

Now, I've tested version v.1.0.2 on WinXP and then I noticed new is up and added some points to it before posting. Whether each point is bug report or feature request I leave up to you.

Finally, I've noticed 1.0.5 is up but I haven't had an opportunity to look at it yet. Sorry about that.

Individual issues are in a form of brief bullet points below. I hope that helps.

1.0.4

Startup is a little slow, Album could use a splash screen.

Function to present rendered card and card image in a single window (as in Suitcase).

Open a window with card image window with a double click or Enter.

F5 shortcut did not not work for me.

Tooltips for 'sort by' should contain full text.

Implement (maybe slightly redundant) quantifiers => and <=.

Function to filter X-spells - 'contains X' to fieldset


1.0.2

Port to Linux?

Keyboard shortcuts? (quick find, filter, save deck, cycle between database/inventory/deck, ...)

Rendered card window did not show any card for me

All filters should be visible - imho there's no need to hide some of what I want to filter to tabs

Card type autocomplete - for creatures.

Search history for input fields

Precise card cost search (i.e. includes "WW")

Function to lock/unlock database for edits

Drag and drop between decks, inventories and database

F4 key (remove filter) should revert to default (or Clear to default)

Keys Enter/Esc should work in dialogs as commands to submit/close

Settings for custom filter presets - Ext, T1, promo, expansion only, ...

"Nontraditional" is a kinda weird word, why not "Special" ?

What about localization capabilities? (I can help)

search dialog help? - examples, or tooltips

Sort manager - also add 'last modified' category to show newest cards in inventory for example

Context menu for cards in inventory/database (such as move,delete,copy,edit...)?

Loyalty filter is missing

Hybrid filter is missing

Active column should be highlighted

Support for colorless spells (Ghostfire, mana symbols in card cost might not correspond to card color)

'Phantom Nishoba' is found in WRU filter

Deck statistics function?

What about documentation? (for example I didn't get at once that custom toolbars require restart)

I'd use a better icon set, namely Silk (I can help with custom icons)

sets structure? -> expansions vs special products - timeline or structured view; (duel decks are not sets)

function to clear P/T search subform

I'm not sure if Planechase belongs to Eternal filter



Thanks for the great work

[FrontLineFodder]

Hello charmer,

I agree with you regarding superiority to MWS, active development helps (MWS hasnt been developed for years).

There is a Wishlist thread for any development requests, i suggest you put your feature requests there, I for one would second your X in mana cost filter request.

as for greater than or equal to, that would be the equivalent of > N-1 ie. => 3 is the same as > 2.

the F5 bug has been fixed in 1.05.

[Goblin Hero]

Several comments:
1. My only data source is gatherer.wizards.com
2. Port to linux is impossible. Use Wine.
3. Support for colorless spells should be ok.
4. Phantom Nishoba will be fixed.
5. Nontraditional keyword is used in official rulings.
6. Loyalty filter = Toughness filter (I'll add help text to filter window)
7. Rendered card doesn't work yet.
8. "Tooltips for 'sort by' should contain full text." Do not understand what you want.
charmer, pls, move the rest of your wishes to the special thread.

[charmer]

OK, I'll try to put my FRs elsewhere. But first, do you know Trac? It's really well-arranged, lightweight easy to install Open Source request tracking system for small projects to keep track of bugs, FRs, long-term tickets or milestones. I have a great experience with it and I really think Album deserves to have something like this to provide a good overview of tasks to be done for anyone interested. Here's a demo:

http://trac.edgewall.org/demo-0.12/report

Next question - how do you efficiently gather text data from Gatherer?

And about documentation, localization (I could do it for Czech, English and possibly Slovak and icons - are you interested in these enough to provide support for potential helpers or do these things just have low priority for you right now?

Thanks again

[Goblin Hero]

easy to install Open Source request tracking system
for small projects to keep track of bugs

I'm not sure I need it now.

Next question - how do you efficiently gather text data from Gatherer?

Self-made semi-automatic tools which download hundreds of pages and parse them. It's not perfect and manual work is still required for basic lands, split cards and other unusual stuff. For latest rulings it is possible to download one big (>20MB) web page with all the cards.

And about documentation, localization (I could do it for Czech, English and possibly Slovak and icons

Documentation - you're welcome. I hate writing documentation.
Localisation - i have to add multilanguage support to MA first.
Icons? It is debatable. You suggests this http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/silk/previews/index_abc.png if I'm not mistaken.

[charmer]

I'm not sure I need it now.

The thing is that if you only let people to write random thoughts to a special thread - one post per person - it's very easy to lose track when an old post gets edited in some way, when a list is long and contains invalid requests etc. One issue - one ticket approach with proper flags if it is high priority feature request, regular bug or a different task helps a lot, I'm glad to report. Maybe when MA becomes more popular you could give it a chance...

Documentation - you're welcome. I hate writing documentation.

Fortunately, this is not a commercial project (I hope) so full-fledged docs is not so necessary. But I would structure and compile useful things to do while searching, configuring and maintaining data in MA as I will be using latest versions of it.

Icons? It is debatable. You suggests this http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/silk ... ex_abc.png if I'm not mistaken.

Yes and it's not only this lot but there are additional two companion sets and I've made another and can make more custom icons. I've been using this set a lot and I know it's one of the best and most popular out there. I thought the current icons were a little too contrasted and sometimes a bit off (for example the funnel icon). Anyway I'd get to it if you were interested, otherwise no big deal.