Stage View - Summary of Issues & major update

[jbubik]

We use Quelea since 2016 and Stage View is the module we would like to start using now. IMHO it is not as easy to use as the rest of Quelea. I took time to review all Issues concerning Stage View and I had a look at StageDrawer.java. Found an additional undocumented bug - Stage View strips hints (//title //chords //lyrics) from the song. Later it 'guesses' the types of lines and gets them wrong. I believe it will be easier to fix StageDrawer.java with the big-picture in mind.

Summary of Issues

• [ ] Better Lyrics & Bible display on Stage View

• see #526

• see #349

• see #341

• the readability of texts could be better - critical issue for Stage View usability!

• instead of fixed font size, the font size should be as large as fits into Stage screen

• line wrap for Bible verses seems doable

• line wrap for Lyrics without Chords seems doable

• line wrap for Lyrics with Chords would be quite tricky to implement (Chords must be wrapped at the same position as the lyrics line)

• based on new functionality, new settings may be needed in the Stage View options (Maximum font size, Additional line spacing, Maximum characters per line)

• [ ] Optionally show the current Title/Tag above the Lyrics

• see #524

• new setting Show Titles? in Stage View section

• which color to use? Same one Quelea uses in Preview Pane and Live Pane?

• show in Mobile Lyrics too (never/always/optionally)?

• [ ] Optionally show the next Slide's first line or next Item of Schedule below Lyrics

• see #354

• see #527

• new setting Show next Line or Item? in Stage View section

• use the color of Chords or Lyrics?

• show in Mobile Lyrics too (never/always/optionally)?

• [ ] Support a new line tag for Notes to the Stage view

• see #118

• see #499

• same display as \\chords but not affected by Transposition

• may be \\note or \\band (must be decided first)

• affects Preview Pane, Live Pane, Main View, Mobile Remote (not to be shown there)

• affects Mobile Lyrics (show/hide based on Show Chords setting in web page)

• show/hide in Stage View based on Show Chords? setting in Options for 'Stage View'

• fix the bug, where all explicit line tags are ignored by Stage View

• [ ] Optionally don't Black (F6) the Stage View

• see #532

• similar option exists for Clear screen (F7)

• new setting Black Stage View with Main Display in Stage View section defaulting to ON

• [ ] Display Image/Presentation/PDF/Video in Stage View

• not requested by users yet

• may help in setups, where the speaker must turn his back to the audience to see the Main Screen because Stage View is empty

• not sure if that is technically possible

• [ ] Clock size

• currently option to show/hide the Clock and fixed font size (not even proportional to the Stage View size)

• as we implement font size calculations for the other texts, we could fix the Clock size too

• [ ] Document the above changes in Quelea documentation

Course of action

We can discuss the big picture in this Issue. Detailed feature descriptions could be discussed in the specific Issues. Topics above, that have no issue, we can create an issue for them. Topics with multiple issues - can we close all of them but one. Implementing all of them together could save some effort - creating all the new settings in Options at once, all new translatable texts at once etc. If the project stakeholders think it is still better to separate them, so be it. I personally would like to help with Stage View with some coding and testing, but don't wanna cause unnecessary struggle in the project. Comments welcome!

Test data

A proposed test song. First verse a plain one, second verse full of hints and special cases:

Verse 1
C     D     E     F   G     A            H          C
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.
C        D             E      F        G      A  H
Maecenas sollicitudin. Nullam feugiat, turpis at pulvinar
C          D    E      F         G       A   H        C
vulputate, erat libero tristique tellus, nec bibendum odio
C     D   E    F     G     A        H      C    D
risus sit amet ante. Fusce suscipit libero eget elit.

Test Title//title
A note to the band//note
Song 123 in our songbook B//note
      Amaj7       F  (slowly)//chords
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,//lyrics
C D E F G A H Cx//chords
C D E F G A H C//lyrics

[jbubik]

@berry120: can I start working on this?

[JessyJP]

I think they should be completely redone. If I am not wrong the songs get sent continuously. There are some reasons why this could be an easy and good method but it's not efficient. In addition to what you mentioned also, the transpose feature is completely missing.

• there is the matter of multiple translations off or on (although would that ever be needed?).

Side question have you figured out how to produce an exe installer from the quelea code ?