Add support for variables in message

[supermarjo]

Hi!

I love Aerial screensaver. Amazing work!

A suggestion for the message overlay, is to add support for variables to be added in the free text message. Then its possible to construct customized single line messages.

Currently placing for example Clock and Location in bottom left corner makes them stack on top of each other vertically.

Would be nice if objects placed in the same corner could optionally be on the same row, instead of only stacked vertically.

Adding support for variables in the free text message, could possibly make way to create a custom display of for example a combination of a clock, location and free text in one line.

Additionally adding variable for counter as well as count down to be used in the free text would be nice.

Additionally adding an optional sound/alarm clock go off for count down would also be exciting in some cases.

Feel free to improve the screensaver from my suggestions. :-)

Best regards, Tobias

[glouel]

Hey @supermarjo

A suggestion for the message overlay, is to add support for variables to be added in the free text message. Then its possible to construct customized single line messages.

Currently placing for example Clock and Location in bottom left corner makes them stack on top of each other vertically.

Would be nice if objects placed in the same corner could optionally be on the same row, instead of only stacked vertically.

Adding support for variables in the free text message, could possibly make way to create a custom display of for example a combination of a clock, location and free text in one line.

Ok so that's a pretty cool idea !

But right now, Aerial's drawing system wouldn't be able to handle it correctly. One issue would be that those variable may have different refresh needs. Clock with seconds needs to be refreshed every second, while location may change over the course of a video every 30 seconds for example.

As of right now each is separated in part so it can have its own timer to do the refresh. There are other reasons due to some bad design ideas I had back then.

Long story short, I'll probably be redoing the whole overlays thing as it has become super complicated for me to manage and some of the code is too low level and can be simplified greatly (I'm currently fighting that thing to add Apple Music support to show the currently playing track).

So I'll keep that idea in mind, as I think it's pretty good. I want to simplify the UI a bit by maybe doing something with a large screen where you can arrange stuff in corners (maybe dragging stuff there), and that could include multiple stuff on a line too (which I really hadn't thought of to be honest but would kinda fit there).

Short term I could probably hack something with forcing that message to refresh every sec but that may be a lot of work that would need to be torn down anyway depending on when I'm tackling the new overlay implementation.

Additionally adding an optional sound/alarm clock go off for count down would also be exciting in some cases.

That one is a bit separate, that's probably pretty easy to do I'll think about it.

Thanks for the suggestions

[supermarjo]

Hey @supermarjo

A suggestion for the message overlay, is to add support for variables to be added in the free text message. Then its possible to construct customized single line messages.
Currently placing for example Clock and Location in bottom left corner makes them stack on top of each other vertically.
Would be nice if objects placed in the same corner could optionally be on the same row, instead of only stacked vertically.
Adding support for variables in the free text message, could possibly make way to create a custom display of for example a combination of a clock, location and free text in one line.

Ok so that's a pretty cool idea !

But right now, Aerial's drawing system wouldn't be able to handle it correctly. One issue would be that those variable may have different refresh needs. Clock with seconds needs to be refreshed every second, while location may change over the course of a video every 30 seconds for example.

As of right now each is separated in part so it can have its own timer to do the refresh. There are other reasons due to some bad design ideas I had back then.

Long story short, I'll probably be redoing the whole overlays thing as it has become super complicated for me to manage and some of the code is too low level and can be simplified greatly (I'm currently fighting that thing to add Apple Music support to show the currently playing track).

So I'll keep that idea in mind, as I think it's pretty good. I want to simplify the UI a bit by maybe doing something with a large screen where you can arrange stuff in corners (maybe dragging stuff there), and that could include multiple stuff on a line too (which I really hadn't thought of to be honest but would kinda fit there).

Short term I could probably hack something with forcing that message to refresh every sec but that may be a lot of work that would need to be torn down anyway depending on when I'm tackling the new overlay implementation.

Additionally adding an optional sound/alarm clock go off for count down would also be exciting in some cases.

That one is a bit separate, that's probably pretty easy to do I'll think about it.

Thanks for the suggestions

Thanks for considering the suggestions Guillaume!

If you are thinking about countdown and such, for example count down hours to end of day (optionally showing it in short instead of verbose HH:mm or so), also end of week or end of month. So you don't have to edit the settings every day/week/month to re-calculate count down that are "relative" in that sense.

Timer (ie. alarms with countdown) kind of thing could be of interest for workshops/facilitating or such, even for remote teams/purpouse or private use.

If you are considering to show currently playing song, then I would vote (or suggest) adding support for Spotify, that would be really nice. Maybe there are many other Spotify users out there with Aerial screen saver as well.

I can wait for your overlay rewrite, sounds like a good approach to do that part proper instead. 😊

Again, thanks for a lovely screensaver app and keep up the good work!

Best regards, Tobias

[glouel]

Thanks for considering the suggestions Guillaume!

No problem they are more than welcome.

If you are thinking about countdown and such, for example count down hours to end of day (optionally showing it in short instead of verbose HH:mm or so), also end of week or end of month. So you don't have to edit the settings every day/week/month to re-calculate count down that are "relative" in that sense.

That's pretty good and should be easy to add. I'll see what I can do with that.

Timer (ie. alarms with countdown) kind of thing could be of interest for workshops/facilitating or such, even for remote teams/purpouse or private use.

👍

If you are considering to show currently playing song, then I would vote (or suggest) adding support for Spotify, that would be really nice. Maybe there are many other Spotify users out there with Aerial screen saver as well.

So Spotify I personally don't use but I probably got more request (in the other repository : https://github.com/JohnCoates/Aerial/issues) about it than Apple Music. I'm starting with Apple Music because I happen to have found a workaround for some of the limitations imposed on screen savers. I did have a solution for Spotify too but it requires running Apple Script which I still can't do in the saver. I do have another workaround going through Companion to do the track extraction, though it's again fairly messy (I can easily initiate communication one way from screensaver to companion, but not the other way around), so that may take a bit more time but I'll add support one way or another.

I can wait for your overlay rewrite, sounds like a good approach to do that part proper instead. 😊

Again, thanks for a lovely screensaver app and keep up the good work!

Best regards, Tobias

Thanks ! I'll try to keep you posted on the Timer stuff short term.

[glouel]

Hey @supermarjo

Still no update on countdown nor variables, but quick notification that Spotify support is in 3.0+