I've begun to have a few issues with the behaviour of the new episodes icon for podcasts. I mainly depend on this icon since I'm playing stuff 90% of the time at least, which means the Context tab doesn't show new podcast episodes.

Issue one:
The icon for the entire feed reverts to the regular podcast icon when a new scan is run, even though the feed still contains new episodes. It only goes back to new-eps when Amarok is restarted. Presumably at the end of a scan those podcasts where new episodes have been found get the new-eps icon, the others get the default one. Looking at usability it would make more sense for all feeds that contain new episodes to keep the icon.

Issue two:
The new-eps icon for the feed stays when the feed no longer contains any new episodes (they've been listened to or marked as listened). It only reverts to the standard icon after a new scan, or after marking the entire feed as listened by hand. This seems to be counter intuitive.

Issue three:
At the sub-folder level there is no indication when new episodes are present in a feed in the folder. I use sub-folders to safe space on screen, but right now I can only do that by sacrificing usability. I either have to switch to the context tab (and stop what's playing at the time) to see if there are new episodes, or I have to open each sub-folder to see the results.

With regard to Issue one, I have been trying to find where/why in the code the m_new() attribute is being overwritten.  It seems to happen either in the PodcastChannel::fetch() method or the PodcastFetcher::fetch() method.  In both cases I am not able to find an explicit call that changes this attribute.

If anyone who knows the code better can answer these questions, I would greatly appreciate it.

I have fixed Issue One:

in playlistbrowseritem.cpp: line 1738

The PodcastChannel::stopAnimation() method seems to be the culprit.  It is the method responsible for ending the flashing red/blue of the icon when feeds are checked.  It is also the very last method called in the process, and it fails to examine whether the feed contains new episodes or not.  Adding a simple if statement fixed the problem.  The method should look like the following:

void
PodcastChannel::stopAnimation()
{
    m_animationTimer.stop();
    if ( hasNew() )
        setPixmap( 0, SmallIcon( amaroK::icon( "podcast2" ) ) );
    else
        setPixmap( 0, SmallIcon( amaroK::icon( "podcast" ) ) );
}

Hmm, yeah. I'm not sure if this is a bug or a design decision. I'm going to point Seb to this thread, he maintains the podcast code.

All valid points which shouldn't be too difficult to sort out.

Jarsto: i don't keep track of the forum too much, and i don't want to lose your input.  It would be a great help if you would be able to submit bug reports on each of the three issues which you commented on, and I promise to resolve them soon.  (Please make 3 separate reports).

Thanks!

seb

Seb Ruiz wrote:All valid points which shouldn't be too difficult to sort out.

Jarsto: i don't keep track of the forum too much, and i don't want to lose your input.  It would be a great help if you would be able to submit bug reports on each of the three issues which you commented on, and I promise to resolve them soon.  (Please make 3 separate reports).

Thanks!

seb

They've been filed. Bug numbers: 133495, 133497 and 133498. These are my second through forth ever bug reports, so please be gentle