Bug 433476

Summary:	When only one device is present, show its full name
Product:	[Plasma] plasma-pa	Reporter:	Riccardo Robecchi <sephiroth_pk>
Component:	applet	Assignee:	David Rosca <nowrep>
Status:	RESOLVED FIXED
Severity:	wishlist	CC:	nate, plasma-bugs
Priority:	NOR	Keywords:	usability
Version:	5.21.0
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Neon
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:	https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-pa/commit/9b8a0218f62a8690173ff99925039dffec5ef06b	Version Fixed In:	5.22
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Riccardo Robecchi 2021-02-23 10:57:49 UTC

SUMMARY
Currently, the audio widget shows the output port when just one device is present: e.g. "analogue output". If more than one device is present, though, this can be confusing. As an example, I have two USB DACs and one of them is turned off; in such a case, the only thing I see is "analogue output". This doesn't allow me to be sure of what device is connected and working at a glance.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Open the audio widget

OBSERVED RESULT
Only the output type is shown (e.g. "analogue output").

EXPECTED RESULT
The device is shown as well (e.g. "analogue output (USB DAC)").

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Linux: KDE neon
KDE Plasma Version: 5.21.0
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.79.0
Qt Version: 5.15.2

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Comment 1 Nate Graham 2021-02-23 18:40:28 UTC

Hmm, this was an intentional change made a year or two ago to simplify the presentation for the common case where you only have one device. We figured that there was no reason at all to show the full name when you only ever have one device (it was irrelevant information), and for people who periodically attach and detach devices, this is a manual action so they would know which device was in use. Part of the problem with always showing the name is that some device names are really ugly. Your device may say "USB DAC" but one of my devices is named "sof-hda-dsp Speaker + Headphones". I don't want to see that all the time.

I know that hover only actions is sub-optimal, but maybe we could display the full name on hover when only one device is attached. What do you think?

Comment 2 Riccardo Robecchi 2021-02-24 19:00:32 UTC

I do see how weird, ugly names might be bad. I myself have "Raven/Raven2/Fenghuang HDMI/DP Audio Controller Digital Stereo (HDMI 4)". However showing them in some way can still be useful and I think that doing so on hover is actually the best solution given the circumstances!

Comment 3 Nate Graham 2021-02-24 20:19:05 UTC

All right, I'll put together a merge request.

Comment 4 Bug Janitor Service 2021-02-24 21:07:46 UTC

A possibly relevant merge request was started @ https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-pa/-/merge_requests/52

Comment 5 Nate Graham 2021-02-24 21:08:00 UTC

Try that on for size ^^

Comment 6 Nate Graham 2021-02-25 18:24:26 UTC

Git commit 9b8a0218f62a8690173ff99925039dffec5ef06b by Nate Graham.
Committed on 25/02/2021 at 03:35.
Pushed by ngraham into branch 'master'.

[applet] When only showing friendly name, add full name on hover

The applet has a special mode where it only shows a user-friendly name
(e.g. "Speakers" and "Microphone") when there is only one device, on the
logic that the full name is not needed when there is only one device
because the user knows what it is, and also depending on the audio
drivers in use, it can be a rather unsightly text string.

However there may be times when the user actually wants to know the full
name; perhaps they have forgotten which device of many they regularly
use is currently connected, for example. For this case, we now display
the full name on hover, so it's not getting in the way and possibly
looking ugly until it's actually needed.
FIXED-IN: 5.22

M  +2    -0    applet/contents/ui/DeviceListItem.qml
M  +41   -4    applet/contents/ui/ListItemBase.qml

https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-pa/commit/9b8a0218f62a8690173ff99925039dffec5ef06b