[Master Interface/API] 💅 UI gets an iconic makeover while API gets its docs in a row 🦆

[ryan.cassar]

We’ve been hard at work improving the consistency and usability of the Master Interface, along with making our API more flexible and developer-friendly.

Master Interface:

• Upgraded to Font Awesome 6 across the entire interface, bringing a fresh new look to all our icons. (just in time to be ready for the release of version 7)
• Consistently used the icons we introduced in the Search Panel elsewhere in the Master Interface.
  • OneShot Volume gets the bullseye icon in place of the claw marks.
  • SFX Elements get the waveform icon rather than the “sfx” text.
  • Introduce “Loop” Elements as a sub-type of SFX Elements.
    • These are SFX Elements that have Crossfade samples? set and generally act as “continuous” sounds.
    • They are now grouped ahead of the other SFX Elements.
    • The search panel now shows a “Loop” icon for Loop Element results, helping to clarify the difference and matching the filter icon.
  • The Property Inspector now uses some of these icons to help identify the connection with the associated type of Element.
• The Element Library search results now show amplitude visualization and gained access to the remote control link badges (when activated via the hamburger menu -> Show Remote Control Links).

API:

• docs.syrinscape.com is now officially “released”, and we are letting the world know!
• Gave the remote-control-links-csv endpoint some love.
  • Relocated to remote-control-links, deprecating the -csv version.
  • Relaxed CORS requirements, making it easier to fetch from third party integrations.
  • Stripped unnecessary quoting from the CSV output, reducing the filesize.
  • Beefed up the server side caching, making it faster and more likely to finish sending the complete file.
  • Allowed JSON formatted output, by setting the format query parameter to json, or making the request with an appropriate Accept header.
  • Maybe some more secret unannounced improvements that you may well have to contact us to find out about.
• Corrected the spelling of the set-current-volume API endpoint, which was using underscores instead of hyphens.

Hope this all helps make the Master Interface more intuitive to use, and looking forward to hearing what everyone can do with the changes to the API!

[radefox]

Will version 7 automatically ask us to upgrade, or will it do so behind the scenes? I don’t want to miss it upgrading.

[ryan.cassar]

When we decide to upgrade to using Font Awesome 7 icons, that will just happen automatically for you, no need to worry about anything. That said, we have no concrete plans to do that right away.

The reason I mentioned FA7 was just as a bit of a joke, as I thought we were upgrading to the latest release, but then they announced a new major version on us

[ivellios.mirimafea_g]

I’m looking forward to seeing the new UI. So hyped! yay!

And the docs for API will help a lot!

I really hoped we would get the separate volume bar for the music- I often play my own music, and with the bought sound sets, I need to turn it off every time or make a duplication of everything.

[ryan.cassar]

The “new UI” this post was referring to has already happened, there was primarily a effort to make various iconography more consistent across the Master Interface, hopefully making it a little more intuitive to use, and lowering the barrier of entry, even if only a bit

That said, we are always playing with new toys behind the scenes, including different concepts for new UIs, but they do not all see the light of day

Do let us know if you plan to do anything interesting with the API, we are keen to hear what it is being used for, and we might be able to steer it in a more useful direction for you

We hear you regarding a Music volume control analogous to OneShot volume control. We have in the past been somewhat hesitant to add more sliders to the interface, since there are already such a great variety of volumes (Global Volume, OneShot Volume, Element Initial Volume, Element Current Volume, Element/Mood Volume, Playlist Entry Volume, Local Volume… probably not an exhaustive list ), and we wanted to avoid further confusing new users - but there is some real chance a Music Volume is in our future in some capacity, just do not tell anyone I told you so

[ivellios_mirimafea]

Whoopsies - used my wrong account

It doesn’t need to be the volume really. Even simple switch to turn it off could do. I play my own set of music or let my players join the Spotify Jam and control the playlist even! Sometimes I like to have the original Syrinscape music, and sometimes it’s getting too redundant/loopy (?) and I want another style. I hope I wrote it clearly

I could think of some extension to browser (or even bookmarklet) that would scan the current elements if they are “music type” and turn them off somehow. But perhaps a nattve solution would be more feasible.

Anyway, great work! Keep up! I still love to use Syrinscape for my gaming sessions (running Shadow of the Dragon Queen and Strength of Thousands atm )

[ryan.cassar]

Yes, we have some ideas bouncing around on how to UI it most effectively, including just having a music toggle to either stop all the Music Elements, or set their volume to 0 or something like that.

If you are keen to get your hands dirty, and can somehow execute some javascript, then this quick hack (that I do not in any way suggest will continue to work into the future, or will be reliable, it is completely use at your own risk ), seems to turn off any Music Elements that are in the currently selected SoundSet, and leave the other Elements alone:

document.querySelectorAll("#current-elements .playing .play-control i[ng-if*=music]").forEach((musicElement) => musicElement.click())

I guess that is something you could wrap into a bookmarklet or something like that to have quick access to it, and hopefully serve as a convenient workaround until we fix it properly!