Bug 170999 - Add ability to delete files in the playlist context menu
Summary: Add ability to delete files in the playlist context menu
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: amarok
Classification: Applications
Component: Playlist (show other bugs)
Version: 2.3-GIT
Platform: Mandriva RPMs Linux
: NOR wishlist
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Alex Busenius
URL:
Keywords:
: 171527 175379 177958 216454 242003 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2008-09-13 20:47 UTC by Dimitrios Glentadakis
Modified: 2011-06-11 17:50 UTC (History)
16 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed In: 2.4.2


Attachments
Adds a playlist context menu entry to delete files (9.24 KB, patch)
2011-06-10 00:29 UTC, Alex Busenius
Details
Adds a playlist context menu entry to delete files (+ small fix) (9.30 KB, patch)
2011-06-10 01:14 UTC, Alex Busenius
Details

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Description Dimitrios Glentadakis 2008-09-13 20:47:34 UTC
Version:            (using KDE 4.1.1)
OS:                Linux
Installed from:    Mandriva RPMs

Hi! i am amarok user and now i am kde4 user with amarok 2 and i ve missed the ability to delete a file directly from the collection. It is very usefull when you have a big collection and you want to manage it, it is very usefull because it is difficult to localise the file from the song's labels,

Thanks you very much

Dimitri
Comment 1 Lydia Pintscher 2008-09-18 22:22:30 UTC
I would really like to see this back as well.
Comment 2 Lydia Pintscher 2008-09-23 17:38:43 UTC
*** Bug 171527 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 3 Lydia Pintscher 2008-12-17 12:41:57 UTC
*** Bug 177958 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 4 Sebastian Krämer 2009-01-22 23:29:21 UTC
Oh yes, that was very useful! You have my vote!
Comment 5 Seb Ruiz 2009-01-22 23:51:38 UTC
*** Bug 175379 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 6 Unknown 2009-02-04 23:16:18 UTC
Is possible to also add a "Delete physically from disk" option to the playlist as it was in Amarok 1.x?

There it was possible to right click on a file in playlist (!) and delete it physically. It's very important if you record music from internet radio and want to listen to all files of a download directory which is not in music library already - so there should be an option for deleting songs from playlist as well.

That would be great :)
Comment 7 Marcel B. 2009-02-05 16:00:15 UTC
(In reply to comment #6)

I'd imply this in the original wish - if it wasn't intended by the OP, I strongly agree with you. :)
Comment 8 Dimitrios Glentadakis 2009-02-05 19:22:19 UTC
my wish is that excaclty, the ability to delete a file from hard disk inside amarok
i cannot understand why it is nt , i dont know, may be is very hard this part of code
Comment 9 Casey Link 2009-02-14 17:13:02 UTC
> SVN commit 926043 by link:
>
> Add the delete action the local collection. There are still a few TODOs:
> * The confirmation dialog should be improved (and abstracted outside SqlCollection)
> * The CollectionTreeView/Model still shows the deleted tracks until a
>  rescan is performed, the model should show the track's removal right
>  away.
> CCMAIL: amarok-devel@kde.org
> BUG: 170999
Comment 10 Peter Paulsen 2009-05-29 11:19:13 UTC
In amarok 2.0.90 we can delete files via the collection pane but will it also be possible via the playlist pane?
Comment 11 Alexei Sergeyev 2009-05-29 11:53:12 UTC
Yeah, deleting files from collection view is not really helpfull. It is still easyler to click "Edit track details" and then delete file by it's location, rather than search file from playlist in collection.
Comment 12 Gletscher 2009-06-05 14:09:49 UTC
I feel like we already invested more energy in this discussion that it would have been needed to add this small feature to the playlist functions...

By the way I'm still listening to bad music because I can't physically delete the songs from the playlist..
Comment 13 Peter Paulsen 2009-06-05 16:06:41 UTC
It isn't fixed in 2.1, there's still no option to delete a track or move it to trash (which I'd prefer: Bug 194546) via the playlist. Deleting a track is available via the collection but I also often listen to tracks that are not in the collection. It also is available via the files tab but it would be more convenient to be able to manage the files while listening to them and not having to search for them again in the files or colleciton tab. Didn't we had this discussion for amarok1 too? I also cannot add a Keyboard shortcut for this, DEL key just removes the file from the playlist.
Comment 14 Ricardo 2009-07-23 12:48:31 UTC
I also thing that adding this option to the playlist is really useful. It seems that i am not alone and the change should not be too complex.
Can the developers say something about it? (in progress, postponed, wont implement...)
Comment 15 Leo Franchi 2010-01-11 20:39:47 UTC
deleting a file from disk is a collection organization action, so that's why it's in the context menu of the collection.

adding it to the context menu of the playlist would make an already-pretty-big context menu even better, as well as add redundancy, as it doesn't really fit the goal of The Playlist---which is where you manage your playing songs, rather than manage your music collection.
Comment 16 Ricardo 2010-01-11 22:17:11 UTC
The is a very clear use case for adding the item:
You get from a friend a bunch of new songs. You start listen at them. Some you like them, but others not. A easy way to delete them is appreciated.
Comment 17 Kuznetsov Vyacheslav 2010-01-12 06:43:49 UTC
> The is a very clear use case for adding the item:
> You get from a friend a bunch of new songs. You start listen at them. Some you
> like them, but others not. A easy way to delete them is appreciated.

Exactly, I'd like to listen a musical composition before add it to my library. Especially if this is some collection.
Comment 18 Leo Franchi 2010-01-12 21:16:51 UTC
This is also the exact use-case of the file browser. Managing files not-yet-in-your-collection.
Comment 19 Dimitrios Glentadakis 2010-01-12 21:30:47 UTC
(In reply to comment #18)
> This is also the exact use-case of the file browser. Managing files
> not-yet-in-your-collection.

So, the user have to: 
open the file manager
choose the songs that he wants to listen to
open them with amarok
listen them 
mark down the file name that match to the song title that is shown in the playlist
go back to the file manager and find these files
and finaly delete them

all these can be done with this : http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php/Delete+Current+Playing+File?content=110220
Comment 20 Leo Franchi 2010-01-12 23:00:03 UTC
I didn't say file manager (like dolphin), i said file browser. the one built in to amarok. 

so the use case is this:

1) navigate to files in the file browser (left had side of amarok...)
2) drag to playlist
3) play
4) select files to delete in file browser
5) delete

that's not so hard, is it.
Comment 21 Ricardo 2010-01-12 23:31:30 UTC
That is fine if you have just a few songs. If you have a new mp3 cd (a lot of songs), then maybe is not so fast, and the new item would be an improvement.
Besides, on version 2.2.2 the context menu for the playlist has only 5 items, that does not seems as too many.

It is true that the script "delete current playing file" is very nice (not as much as the context option, but it is enough for me).
I have found a bug related to it, but i am unsure if it is a amarok bug or a bug for that script. The problem is that if I assign a shortcut key, it is forgotten when i close amarok.
Do anyone knows if i should fill a bug report in amarok or notify the creator of the script?
Comment 22 Alexei Sergeyev 2010-01-13 00:03:14 UTC
Well, guys, all we know that Delete in playlist is must have. If amarok developers only wish to follow they "concepts", alright, I just can't use they "conceptual" player.
Comment 23 Sebastian Vahl 2010-01-16 00:44:34 UTC
(In reply to comment #20)

> so the use case is this:
> 
> 1) navigate to files in the file browser (left had side of amarok...)
> 2) drag to playlist
> 3) play
> 4) select files to delete in file browser
> 5) delete
> 
> that's not so hard, is it.

It is if the tags of the file (displayed in the playlist) doesn't match the file name of the file. 
Let me explain this with an example that I've used to use with amarok 1.4 a lot (means about 30-60mins and about 10-30 files a day):
I very often listen to news podcast provided by a german radio station. These podcasts are named like this:

"dlf_20100108_1840_293d361d.mp3"

The corresponding tag would be:

"Birnbaum, Christoph - Deutschlandfunk" "Ende des Geldsegens - Zuviel Geld schadet der Wirtschaft"

After I listened to one file I normally deleted it (from disk) directly in amarok1. I did this mostly because I normally don't listen to a file twice and to don't be confused if I've already listened to this file (if I've listened to it in the morning and can't recall the right name in the evening).

This use case isn't possible with amarok2 anymore and so I've had to stop using amarok2 for this.
Comment 24 Myriam Schweingruber 2010-01-16 01:06:51 UTC
Sebastian, for your particular use case see the Amarok 2.2.2 announcement here: http://amarok.kde.org
Comment 25 Sebastian Vahl 2010-01-20 18:27:52 UTC
(In reply to comment #24)
> Sebastian, for your particular use case see the Amarok 2.2.2 announcement here:
> http://amarok.kde.org

Thanks for proposing this but in the current state is not usuable for my specific use case (I maybe file bugs and wishes later). 
However, I've had also other use cases for deleting files, this was just one example.
Comment 26 michael 2010-01-23 15:18:56 UTC
I would also prefer an option to directly delete the file from disk (when deleted from playlist or as an extra option in the context menu).
I rated my whole playlist and now want to delete files with a rating below 2. At the moment I can only do this manually for each file, which is quite time-consuming. I would prefer an option to select multiple files (after filtering tracks with a rating below 2) and then delete all at once from disk. This is a usual feature of other players.
Comment 27 Myriam Schweingruber 2010-01-23 18:17:54 UTC
Changing title to reflect the exact wish.
Comment 28 a.walland 2010-02-09 15:05:28 UTC
is there any news if this will be implemented?
the suggestion to use the file manager for all file operations is absolutely not acceptable for me. being a developer myself i can see the same mistake happening here, that we made when we released the first do-over of our application. grouping functionality in places where they belong structurally is a good thing, but denying to connect 2 structurally different functions (playlist & file operations) just because they "don't belong together" despite the fact that many users have the need for it and there is a huge usability advantage by connecting them (come on, 1 rightclick is faster than having to search for the same song that is already in front of your nose again in the filemanager) is the wrong way to go.

i like amarok, but in the 2.x series you have taken away so much useful functionality (like inline editing of multiple files or the (IMO) much nicer playlist, that didn't need a separate UI just to change which columns you want to see and how wide they are) and the main focus seems to lie on some features that i for one don't really care about as long as the most basic things (like deleting a file from the playlist or my most beloved 'organize files' rightclick item after you changed some tag) are missing :\

i really hope you reconsider...amarok is a great player, but most people want the basic stuff first and only later some super fancy ui stuff.
Comment 29 Peter Paulsen 2010-05-07 06:10:05 UTC
I nearly always add new bought songs (bunch of) to the playlist and then "forget" about it, means I have a huge playlist with songs to listen to for the first time which I do later. I decide later, maybe days, even weeks later, to listen to them and then decide on listening if I want to keep them or delete them. The only handy way to do that is to delete (move to trash) them right from the playlist. It is extremely unhandy to have to open the file properties from the playlist first to look where the file is located or to open the collection and search there for the file before I can delete it because at the moment I listen to the files the collection and the file browser show a completely other location. Please bring back the option to the playlist to delete files & move to trash. It's the most convenient and reasonable location for this action from a user's point of view. It's nice to have the option in the collection but it is more important to have it in the playlist. The playlist is an important part of managing the collection!
Comment 30 Peter Paulsen 2010-05-07 06:14:25 UTC
*** Bug 216454 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 31 Myriam Schweingruber 2010-06-18 12:06:14 UTC
*** Bug 242003 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 32 Peter Tselios 2010-08-18 13:20:34 UTC
A lot of opinions. I would like to add my vote too.
Anyway, it would be nice to have that back.
@developers: We all know that is not very difficult to add that functionality :)
Anyway, an answer would be nice: Is it going to be implemented?
Comment 33 Dimitrios Glentadakis 2010-08-21 14:06:47 UTC
This bug report (wish) may be closed, i dont use amarok any more.
Comment 34 Myriam Schweingruber 2010-08-21 15:39:52 UTC
(In reply to comment #33)
> This bug report (wish) may be closed, i dont use amarok any more.

A lot of other people do, so I will not close it :)
Comment 35 Dimitrios Glentadakis 2010-08-21 15:41:51 UTC
can i be excluded from the emails ?
Comment 36 Myriam Schweingruber 2010-08-21 17:27:34 UTC
not really, no, since you are the original reporter. You can disable to be sent mails in the preferences, or just ignore the mails.
Comment 37 a.walland 2010-09-20 21:19:14 UTC
i'm also abandoning amarok. thanks anyway amarok devs and good luck.
Comment 38 Manuel López-Ibáñez 2010-09-26 18:42:44 UTC
Not cluttering the playlist menu seems a worthwhile goal. To avoid this, I would suggest adding a single item "Show in Browser". From this, the user can go directly from the playlist to the browser with the specified file/files already selected to do all file operations that may be done from the browser.
Comment 39 a.walland 2010-09-26 19:31:48 UTC
that only works if all files you have selected reside in the same directory.
Comment 40 Nick W 2010-11-30 16:30:50 UTC
I'm very disappointed to see the age of this bug and that it is not fixed. This used to be available in the old Amarok, and I fail to see how it would be a negative thing to add it back in.

If this feature is not being added because of some idealistic crap about the context menu being to organize your playlist and not files, then you will end up losing many users over your misguided idealism.

Think this way: I am right clicking a *track* in the playlist. The context menu is in context of the *track* which is indeed a *file* on the disk. Why can I modify the tags (part of the file!) but not delete the file altogether? Note I right clicked a *track*, not the *playlist* meaning it is indeed in the right context.

Not having this feature is pretty dumb given the amount of people asking for it. Can it really be that hard to add one menu option to call a function that already exists?

A bit more complex idea: make the context menu customizable. That way people that want the option can have it, and those that don't want it can remove it.
Comment 41 steve 2010-12-05 21:33:04 UTC
I agree with Nick W, at the moment i am using Rythombox exclusive do to the problems with amarok, the biggest being not able to delete files from the menu. amarok would crash on me however the latast update seemed to fix the crashing. i will switch back to amark once i am able to delete files untill then i will stay with rythombox.
Comment 42 Bart Cerneels 2011-06-09 09:43:33 UTC
Fixed by using the "Show in Media Sources" action to easily get the same track in the Collection browser.
Comment 43 Dimitrios Glentadakis 2011-06-09 12:49:48 UTC
So after 3 years the users voice has been listened!
This is not a good example for the opensource but as opensource is also Choice, i am currently Clementine's user...

This reply is not ironic but the hole story of amarok is something that some times made me feel bad.
Comment 44 Ricardo 2011-06-09 13:17:11 UTC
For me, the fix in #42 is not a fix, but a workaround

It is not the same to spend 1 second for right click > delete, than 5 seconds for right-click> show in media sources, move the mouse to the collection, look for the specific song, delete it.

And also imagine that the tags are not set (it happens to me often when a friend sends me new songs) and the song is added to the collection, then "show in media sources" will search for "Unkown album", so it is not possible at all to use the suggested workaround.

I simply don't understand what is so complicated about this bug
Comment 45 Nick W 2011-06-09 16:50:04 UTC
Are you kidding me? Why can't you just add delete track to the context menu?

This bug is not fixed...3 years and 372 votes and we can't even have a delete button.

Can we at least get a reasonable explanation as to why the devs won't add a delete button to this menu?

I guess it's time to abandon hope and start looking for a new player. What a joke.
Comment 46 Steff 2011-06-09 17:17:46 UTC
Clementine! Dimitrios, you're me hero! Will check it out immediately! Thank you!

2011/6/9 Dimitrios Glentadakis <dglent@gmail.com>:
> https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=170999
>
>
>
>
>
> --- Comment #43 from Dimitrios Glentadakis <dglent gmail com>  2011-06-09 12:49:48 ---
> So after 3 years the users voice has been listened!
> This is not a good example for the opensource but as opensource is also Choice,
> i am currently Clementine's user...
>
> This reply is not ironic but the hole story of amarok is something that some
> times made me feel bad.
>
> --
> Configure bugmail: https://bugs.kde.org/userprefs.cgi?tab=email
> ------- You are receiving this mail because: -------
> You are on the CC list for the bug.
>
Comment 47 Bart Cerneels 2011-06-09 17:51:23 UTC
(In reply to comment #43)
> So after 3 years the users voice has been listened!
> This is not a good example for the opensource but as opensource is also Choice,
> i am currently Clementine's user...
> 
> This reply is not ironic but the hole story of amarok is something that some
> times made me feel bad.

This has actually been fixed over a year ago but people keep in reopening this since they don't agree with the implementation. Guess having the benefit of never having developed a popular piece of free software give plenty of troll time.

For that reason we are looking to make this bug private. We don't need to suffer trolls.
Comment 48 Bart Cerneels 2011-06-09 17:56:43 UTC
(In reply to comment #45)
> Are you kidding me? Why can't you just add delete track to the context menu?
> 
> This bug is not fixed...3 years and 372 votes and we can't even have a delete
> button.
> 
> Can we at least get a reasonable explanation as to why the devs won't add a
> delete button to this menu?
> 

The reason has been properly and fully explained by Leo Franchi in this bug.

We optimize the playlist and it's context menu what it's designed for: a playback queue. 

I suggest you fix up tags and delete unwanted files *before* adding them to your collection so there is little need for multi-track file deleting, for which only the rm command is optimized.
Comment 49 Nick W 2011-06-09 19:09:41 UTC
We are not trolling, but getting irritated because the devs refuse to add what seems like an obvious feature - in fact functionality that existed and was removed. That's why it keeps getting re-opened. Your users want it, why not give it to them?

As far as the explanation given, it has been adequately explained in the comments here why it is both within the proper context and why there are use cases for adding it. If people don't want to use it, simply don't click it.

Perhaps you should consider adding the ability to customize the menu. Then everyone can be happy.
Comment 50 Alex Busenius 2011-06-10 00:29:42 UTC
Created attachment 60847 [details]
Adds a playlist context menu entry to delete files

This "Show in Media Sources" action does not always show the track correctly, does not work if several tracks are selected, does not work if the track is not in the collection... how is that a fix?

I understand that you are trying to have a nice design and insist on deleting tracks from the collection because its purpose is to manage the tracks, but many of your users are not so picky about their collection.  Many people do not keep the tracks well organized, they do not tag all of the files properly, they do not even put the files to the Amarok's collection, because they *don't care* about what you think is the right way to use a player.

I personally use the playlist to select which tracks I want to have *before* I add them to the collection, because I want to listen to those tracks first and delete some of them (e.g. rip a CD, listen, keep just a few tracks).  Doing the same through the collection or through a file manager is a pain.

Anyway, I wrote a patch that implements the desired behavior.  It adds an "Delete Tracks" item to the context menu.  The default action is to ask for confirmation, then move to trash.  With Shift-Click, the file is deleted instead, with Control-Click, the confirmation is skipped (you can use both).  It is a bit of a hack (I just put everything into playlist view) and it will silently fail and remove all selected tracks from the playlist even if some of them were not files or could not be deleted, but it is better than nothing.

In case somebody is interested, see attached patch. Use it on your own risk :)

(In reply to comment #49)
> Perhaps you should consider adding the ability to customize the menu. Then
> everyone can be happy.

Indeed, that would be great.
Comment 51 Alex Busenius 2011-06-10 01:14:43 UTC
Created attachment 60848 [details]
Adds a playlist context menu entry to delete files (+ small fix)
Comment 52 Nick W 2011-06-10 04:10:59 UTC
Thanks for the patch. Applies & compiles against 2.4.1 as well for those not wanting to use git. Works beautifully.
Comment 53 Carlos Licea 2011-06-10 07:19:57 UTC
Developing a successful application doesn't imply that you're automatically right under any circumstance.
As a developer I understand your interest of separating responsibilities.
The thing that you don't seem to understand is that users couldn't care less for what we, developers, see as a clean abstraction and separation of responsibilities.
The fact that you have decided to follow pedantic correctness over usefulness seems extremely blind, to say the least, as of how the people interact with applications in general and Amarok in particular.)
To illustrate my point I'll say that Amarok's motto has always been "rediscover your music," this feature was one of the reasons I was able to effortlessly just import everything that fell into my lap and listen to it knowing I could delete the file the second I disliked the song. That's a use-case you are no longer covering and refuse to cover just because of shortsightedness. Even a well documented non-gui configuration option would've sufficed.
To me it no longer matters, it's been a while since I jumped away from Amarok (this feature has nothing to do with that, just the fact that no iPod podcast syncing for years was a deal killer to me.) This attitude of "Amarok developers know best" seems to be the reason Amarok has been in decline since the introduction of the 2.0 series. Amarok is no longer as relevant now as powerful as it used to be.
Thanks for all your work and the successful Amarok 1, now I move to other applications.

PS: the proposed fix is, in my opinion, a workaround rather than a fix. Yes it's much more convenient than what it used to be, yet, is less convenient than "Right click->Delete." Had this been done years ago that compromise might have had been enough.
Comment 54 Sven Krohlas 2011-06-10 08:11:53 UTC
@all:
The option was there in Amarok 1.4. As a result we had tons of complains from users that they accidently deleted some files. So it got removed.

Now another group of users is complaining it wants that menu entry back...

What we need is an idiot-proof way to add that feature. Simply adding it to the context menu with a confirmation dialog was not enough in 1.4, so it won't be in 2.x.

Any constructive ideas how we can be able to satisfy both user groups?
Comment 55 Evert Vorster 2011-06-10 08:57:56 UTC
Dolphin allows a user to "show delete files" in context menu in the setup.

Something similar can be done for Amarok.

That way, it can be off by default, and the users that want to delete files from the playlist can tick a box in the settings tab and both groups of people can be happy.
Comment 56 Sven Krohlas 2011-06-10 09:02:24 UTC
That would work, but as adding more and more options is a bad thing: Can we find something better?
Comment 57 Evert Vorster 2011-06-10 09:14:09 UTC
I respectfully disagree. 

Options are the reasons I use KDE in stead of GNOME. Options allows a user to customize a desktop to his/ger tastes, and as is plain from this bug thread, not all users are created equal. So, more options are not always a bad idea.

A small tick box in a settings menu would not be too great a sacrifice to make to simplicity, and would protect the users that don't want this funtionality. 

:)

I might be tempted to add /dev/null to my collection, and see if I can "Organize Files" to /dev/null as collection root. 

Personally I have more than 30,000 music files, from a wide variety of sources, and quite a lot were not too careful about tagging the files correctly. With a combination of the file browser and the "user selection" ( I refuse to call it a playlist, since it's functionality is so much more than a dead old playlist ) I am able to slowly sort these files into something resembling order. Still, I would like to be able to remove large swaths of crud, and a delete in the User selection context menu would be a great help.

-Evert-
Comment 58 Nick W 2011-06-10 15:53:41 UTC
The attached patch already proposes a good compromise: send files to the trash by default. That way any accidental deletions can be easily undone. It also feels very integrated. I think this is already best practice. I'd like a keyboard shortcut to delete the currently playing track, but that will increase mistakes for those not paying attention...

You could also put file operations on a sub-menu, which decreases the likelihood of accidental clicks - though the "are you sure" dialog already does that assuming people actually read the dialog (not always true, obviously).

That said, a customizable menu - or even the ability to only enable/disable this one button in the view menu - is not going to add a great deal of complexity to the GUI imo. 

Greatly appreciate the now constructive discussion.
Comment 59 Alex Busenius 2011-06-10 23:47:07 UTC
(In reply to comment #56)
> That would work, but as adding more and more options is a bad thing: Can we
> find something better?

I personally find the way VLC does it quite nice, they have a default "simple" mode for the options dialog and an "advanced" one with a ton of options.  This keeps both beginners and people who want to be overwhelmed by the options happy.

Another option, the best for this particular case IMO, would be to make the context menu customizable, with some safe default, like proposed in comment #49.
It would be even better if the scripts could add options to the context menu, we could then implement the missing functionality as a script.

Btw, if the devs decide to add this functionality, I volunteer to improve my patch.