Beta 5 API(18) Features and Bugs?

[Kirkwood West]

Lets talk about the new Beta API Features and any bugs we may find.

A couple big things I noticed was the createRemoteCursorPage is now possible on a cursorTrack. I'm assuming this gets the track remotes. I'm not sure how to get the global remotes yet... but it looks like you could do that on the MasterTrack. Either way this feature is mega and opens up huge possibilities for performance and organization of controls without right click midi mapping everything.

I noticed one issue with the Browser API on Beta5b2. It looks like popupBrowser.smartCollectionColumn() no longer reports any values. Really hoping this is an oversight and will be fixed soon.

I also noticed you can select multiple tags for search in the new browser! wonder if that will make its way over to the API, allowing multiple tags to be selected via BrowserFilterColumn item .isSelected().

Anyways, very exciting stuff for Bitwig. Curious what you guys are finding!

[moss]

Both these things are open issues. Let's hope for the next Beta round.

[Kirkwood West]

Both these things are open issues. Let's hope for the next Beta round.

Yes! i'm really hoping for a little more love on the Browser API... editing the search field and selecting more than one element per category would be super nice.

[moss]

Both these things are open issues. Let's hope for the next Beta round.

Yes! i'm really hoping for a little more love on the Browser API... editing the search field and selecting more than one element per category would be super nice.

Please write to support as well, to show that it is not only me!

[Kirkwood West]

Both these things are open issues. Let's hope for the next Beta round.

Yes! i'm really hoping for a little more love on the Browser API... editing the search field and selecting more than one element per category would be super nice.

Please write to support as well, to show that it is not only me!

Rad. thanks for the encouragement Moss. I'm a bit jaded with sending in features for API things and sometimes there is zero response. Its time to publish and support some extensions for my favorite devices like you have in hopes to get some attention. I think the project level mapping will make a huge difference for new extensions which pretty much eliminates the need for right click mapping which is pretty much broken in the current api.

[Kirkwood West]

Trying to brace for impact here with the browser changes. that really messed things up for me here. the broken collections self destructed my workflow. I'll find another path to the same destination but would just like to know the path from bitwigs perspective so I can flow within it.

This would also be helpful so we can provide feedback to bitwig se everyone wins.

[Kirkwood West]

Are there now even more hidden features to the browser api?

Would be really nice to have that kind Column...'

snap-2023-04-25_130412.png

And how sweet would it be to select a package first before doing any other filtering!

snap-2023-04-25_130825.png

still praying these api changes will be part of 5.0 complete. that would really calm me down a bit.

[Kirkwood West]

A big upgrade to the extension world is the new panel. Does anyone know how to set the little icon? or what makes it go from grid to piano?

I observed the at least the document state will clean up old settings! I'm pretty sure those would get stale and never clear out of the document on older versions. this is great!

[moss]

A big upgrade to the extension world is the new panel. Does anyone know how to set the little icon? or what makes it go from grid to piano?

I suggested that but I think it is not yet possible.

I observed the at least the document state will clean up old settings! I'm pretty sure those would get stale and never clear out of the document on older versions. this is great!

Yes, it works fine now! I pushed a lot for this fix!

[Kirkwood West]

I observed the at least the document state will clean up old settings! I'm pretty sure those would get stale and never clear out of the document on older versions. this is great!

Yes, it works fine now! I pushed a lot for this fix!

I know i've emailed them at least once about this about 3 years ago. I feel so strange to push on things via email like the boy who cried wolf. do you have an ongoing list of things that are broken/needs fixing... what are the best options to communicate those needs?

[moss]

I observed the at least the document state will clean up old settings! I'm pretty sure those would get stale and never clear out of the document on older versions. this is great!

Yes, it works fine now! I pushed a lot for this fix!

I know i've emailed them at least once about this about 3 years ago. I feel so strange to push on things via email like the boy who cried wolf. do you have an ongoing list of things that are broken/needs fixing... what are the best options to communicate those needs?

I still keep track of my wishes and issues in the old JS framework repo:
https://github.com/teotigraphix/Framework4Bitwig/issues

The issue is not the communication, it is still a small team and there is always A LOT todo. Prio 1 is always the hard crashes and performance issues. Then there are the new features and Alpha/Beta testing. Then there is a very small slot for the API stuff But seriously, I think there were quite some things fixed / improved in the last time.

[Kirkwood West]

I observed the at least the document state will clean up old settings! I'm pretty sure those would get stale and never clear out of the document on older versions. this is great!

Yes, it works fine now! I pushed a lot for this fix!

I know i've emailed them at least once about this about 3 years ago. I feel so strange to push on things via email like the boy who cried wolf. do you have an ongoing list of things that are broken/needs fixing... what are the best options to communicate those needs?

I still keep track of my wishes and issues in the old JS framework repo:
https://github.com/teotigraphix/Framework4Bitwig/issues

The issue is not the communication, it is still a small team and there is always A LOT todo. Prio 1 is always the hard crashes and performance issues. Then there are the new features and Alpha/Beta testing. Then there is a very small slot for the API stuff But seriously, I think there were quite some things fixed / improved in the last time.

thanks for sharing this perspective! makes perfect sense. You are totally rigth about the stuff being improved and am now hooked into your open issues.


Its pretty clear that your controller extension have been a big part of Bitwigs success. I dunno, I don't get any replies anymore when it comes to API, understandably especially when put into the perspective you've given but I just don't know if I'm helping or not with my reports.

[Kirkwood West]

I dug and found the way to get the project and track remotes...

i was caught off guard thinking i could do host.getMasterTrack()... I'm not clear what that is in this case... but used the rootTrackGroup method instead. Track and project remotes! so cool!

Code: Select all

  @Override
  public void init() {
    host = getHost();

    //observe parameter on master track
    Track                    rootTrackGroup = host.getProject().getRootTrackGroup();
    CursorRemoteControlsPage masterRemotes = rootTrackGroup.createCursorRemoteControlsPage("cursorMaster", 8, "");
    RemoteControl masterParameter = masterRemotes.getParameter(0);
    masterParameter.value().addValueObserver(this::reportMaster);

    //observe cursor track parameter
    CursorTrack              cursorTrack              = host.createCursorTrack("mine", "name", 2, 2, true);
    CursorRemoteControlsPage cursorTrackRemote = cursorTrack.createCursorRemoteControlsPage("cursor", 8, "");

    RemoteControl cursorTrackParameter = cursorTrackRemote.getParameter(0);
    cursorTrackParameter.value().addValueObserver(this::reportCursor);
  }

  private void reportMaster(double v) {
    host.println("Master Parameter Value: " + v);
  }

  private void reportCursor(double v) {
    host.println("Track Parameter Value " + v);
  }