INTERACT FORUM

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  
Pages: [1] 2   Go Down

Author Topic: MC XML Export beta 4 - UPDATED  (Read 10412 times)

scott_r

  • Regular Member
  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 306
MC XML Export beta 4 - UPDATED
« on: November 20, 2003, 07:50:39 pm »

An updated version of MC XML Export beta 4 is now available from:
MC XML Export beta 4b (link updated)

Take a look at what it does in this screenshot.

Users who have been having problems with beta 4 are advised to try this updated version - 4b.

This plugin requires version 1.1 or above of the Microsoft .NET Framework, available via Windows Update or Microsoft Download Central.
Older versions of the framework (1.0) have problems with the XSLT processor and will make MC XML Export appear not responsive when applying and XSL transformation. Check the version you have installed in your Add/Remove Programs control panel.

Changed in beta 4b:
- 4a contained debugging information messages that shouldn't pop up. Upgrade to 4b if you're annoyed at these :)

New in beta 4a:
- Reworked treeview population routines to hopefully fix problems with large libraries.
- Plugin starts in a "disabled" mode to ensure no slow downs on MC startup.
- Users can select an "Auto Start" option to automatically start plugin with MC.

New in beta 4:
- Setting in config file to specify selected tree path.
- Can now specify to either launch the default application or specify another application to use when finished processing.
- A few small bugs fixed.

Scott.
Logged

dkan24

  • Regular Member
  • Junior Woodchuck
  • **
  • Posts: 93
  • nothing more to say...
Re:MC XML Export beta 4
« Reply #1 on: November 21, 2003, 12:16:38 pm »

why is the duration off on all the files?  I would think that it would be seconds.  But when divided by 60, they duration is off for all the songs???

Logged

scott_r

  • Regular Member
  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 306
Re:MC XML Export beta 4
« Reply #2 on: November 21, 2003, 03:02:35 pm »

As far as I can tell it is in seconds.

For example, a song with "formatted" duration of 3:48 outputs with "raw" duration of 228.

floor(228 / 60) = 3
228 mod 60 = 48.
Therefore, 228 seconds = 3minutes 48seconds.

Scott.
Logged

sraymond

  • Guest
Re:MC XML Export beta 4
« Reply #3 on: November 21, 2003, 09:23:13 pm »

Scott.,

This latest beta looks good...  a bit of feedback:

1.  The "When Done..." works fine for forcing iexplorer.exe to load the output.  But it doesn't work for forcing Firebird or MyIE2.  I think the problem is that the appended filename needs to be URL-compliant and there might be spaces in the path (i.e. "Program Files", etc.).  This may not be much of a problem, because the only thing that makes sense to force is IE6.  It does seem to work just fine calling a .bat (expect that it opens a command window) and doing other things - like opening up fixed URLs for a Tomcat servlet, etc.

2. Would it be more functional to use standard "Open" and "SaveAs" file operation dialog boxes  (requiring an XML extension) for the "Preset Configurations"?  It seems a bit of a hassle to retype the name when saving.  We are, after all, just reading and writing an XML file.

As always, I think this plugin is VERY well done.  I'll test the coverart stuff more thoroughly tonight.  Thanks for all the work!

Scott-

P.S.  I'll also package XAlbum and XGenre (a new XSLT to get a listing grouped by genre and album, sorted by genre/artist/album.
Logged

scott_r

  • Regular Member
  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 306
Re:MC XML Export beta 4
« Reply #4 on: November 22, 2003, 01:24:12 am »

You're right - after a bit of experimenting if the output filename comtains a space then firebird wont load it unless you pass a "-url" command line argument to it. However, I'm opening firebird by creating a new process, and then setting the command line argument later, so adding "-url" to the executable doesn't work. I could catch cases for firebird and myie2 but then if the executable filename changes, my program will have to as well. I'll see what I can find out about it.
As for the saving of presets I was trying to emulate the way Windows theme selection works and hide the file specifics from the user. Would it be more useful if the plugin auto saves the current configuration when you change configs or exit? (Instead of saving to "My Last Settings")

Scott.
Logged

Marko

  • Guest
Re:MC XML Export beta 4
« Reply #5 on: November 22, 2003, 06:38:26 pm »

I have the .net framework v1.1 installed.

Any ideas why this plugin causes MC to lock up as soon as it's activated?
Logged

sraymond

  • Guest
Re:MC XML Export beta 4
« Reply #6 on: November 22, 2003, 09:14:51 pm »

You're right - after a bit of experimenting if the output filename comtains a space then firebird wont load it unless you pass a "-url" command line argument to it. However, I'm opening firebird by creating a new process, and then setting the command line argument later, so adding "-url" to the executable doesn't work. I could catch cases for firebird and myie2 but then if the executable filename changes, my program will have to as well. I'll see what I can find out about it.

Probably not a big deal...  

As for the saving of presets I was trying to emulate the way Windows theme selection works and hide the file specifics from the user. Would it be more useful if the plugin auto saves the current configuration when you change configs or exit? (Instead of saving to "My Last Settings")

I'm not sure auto-save is ever a good thing - or do you mean an auto-prompt to ask to save?  I see what you mean about hiding details to the users - if you could just give a way to browse to the "save" location, it might be a good compromise.  However, I wonder if it's too much to ask that the users understand that each configuration is stored in its own file - and that open/save is really a file operation.

Uh, oh...  time for another comment:  I did an XAlbum GenreGroup (in addition to the AlbumGroup) and was trying to package it up in a preset.  Unfortuantely, the inability to use relative paths makes it kind of tough.  Is there any way to allow a relative path (maybe like an attribute pathIsRelative="true")?  I think this will help a lot - it makes it easy to give someone a zip file that is simply unzipped to the MCXMLExport directory, and no customization is needed.  Thoughts?

I'm stilll working on a genre count SVG XSLT....  I think I'm giving up on making it work with anything other than IE6.

Scott-
Logged

scott_r

  • Regular Member
  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 306
Re:MC XML Export beta 4
« Reply #7 on: November 23, 2003, 01:36:48 am »

I have the .net framework v1.1 installed.

Any ideas why this plugin causes MC to lock up as soon as it's activated?

Thats odd. Can you be more specific about the "lock up"? Is it actually frozen or is there an error dialog?
What are your system specs? How big is your library and how many playlists/view schemes have you got? What other plugins are you running and what version of MC are you on?
I know it's a lot of questions, but the plugin is beta and I need to know specifics to know if it may not be working on certain systems/configurations/libraries.

Thanks,

Scott.
Logged

Marko

  • Guest
Re:MC XML Export beta 4
« Reply #8 on: November 23, 2003, 07:49:44 am »

I got it. (I think)

I tried with a library containing only one album and it works just fine, went back to my full library, and MC takes almost 4 minutes to start. During this time, the playing now popup is frozen on-screen too. MC is using 95% cpu and clicking the window controls causes windows to throw the "this app is not responding" message.

My media library contains 8085 files with around 30 view-schemes in total. I'll play around and see if I can identify the bottleneck, unless you already know where it might be?

I have a few smartlist based view-schemes, I'll look at those first I think.....

Here's my system info from within MC, is there any other info you need?

Media Center Registered 9.1.308 -- C:\Program Files\Media Center\

Microsoft Windows XP  Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
AMD Athlon 1612 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 1048 MB, Free - 597 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1276 / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1233 (xpsp2.030604-1804) / wnaspi32.dll: 4.71 (0001) , ASPI for Win32 (95/NT) DLL, Copyright © 1989-2002 Adaptec, Inc. / Aspi32.sys: 4.71 (0001)

Ripping /   Drive P:   Copy mode:Normal   CD Type:Auto   Read speed:Max
  Drive Q:   Copy mode:Normal   CD Type:Auto   Read speed:Max
  Drive R:   Copy mode:Normal   CD Type:Auto   Read speed:Max
  Digital playback: Yes /  Use YADB: Yes /  Get cover art: No /  Calc replay gain: Yes /  Copy volume: 32767
  Eject after ripping: No /  Play sound after ripping: No  

Burning /  Drive Q: TDK      DVDRW0404N         Addr: 2:0:0  Speed:2  MaxSpeed:3  BurnProof:Yes
  Drive R: PLEXTOR  CD-R   PX-W1610A   Addr: 2:1:0  Speed:16  MaxSpeed:16  BurnProof:Yes
  Test mode: No /  Eject after writing: Yes /  Direct decoding: Yes /  Write CD-Text: Yes
  Use playback settings: No /  Normalization: None
Logged

udeups

  • Regular Member
  • World Citizen
  • ***
  • Posts: 141
Re:MC XML Export beta 4
« Reply #9 on: November 23, 2003, 06:29:58 pm »

I have the same problem as the above poster, in that MC takes a ton of time to load up after XML export has been installed. Uninstalling it fixes the problem. I have a library with about 14000 songs. Like the above poster, creating a smaller library fixes the problem as well.
Logged

scott_r

  • Regular Member
  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 306
Re:MC XML Export beta 4
« Reply #10 on: November 23, 2003, 08:36:19 pm »

Thanks for the info - I have a few ideas...

I'll keep you posted,

Scott.
Logged

scott_r

  • Regular Member
  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 306
Re:MC XML Export beta 4
« Reply #11 on: November 23, 2003, 10:40:35 pm »

Here's an idea...

Try uninstalling and downloading beta 3 of MC XML Export (the thread can be found somewhere under this thread).
Beta 4 has a recursive function that beta 3 doesn't, so if it doesn't work with beta3 then I know which function to look at.

Thanks,

Scott.
Logged

udeups

  • Regular Member
  • World Citizen
  • ***
  • Posts: 141
Re:MC XML Export beta 4
« Reply #12 on: November 23, 2003, 11:01:12 pm »

Here's an idea...

Try uninstalling and downloading beta 3 of MC XML Export (the thread can be found somewhere under this thread).
Beta 4 has a recursive function that beta 3 doesn't, so if it doesn't work with beta3 then I know which function to look at.

Thanks,

Scott.

Ok, I tried beta 3 and had different results. The first time opening MC, it crashed immediately. Then, when I reopened it, it took a long time to load, but not as long as with beta 4. When I tried to close it, it also took a long time to close so I finally killed it.

I hope this helps. Thanks for looking into it. Based on the screenshot, it looks like a sweet utility. Looking forward to getting to try it out.

Oh, would it help if I uninstalled the other plugins (mostly KingSparta's ones...)

Logged

scott_r

  • Regular Member
  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 306
Re:MC XML Export beta 4
« Reply #13 on: November 23, 2003, 11:43:33 pm »

Quote
Oh, would it help if I uninstalled the other plugins (mostly KingSparta's ones...)

Yes, very much.
You don't need to uninstall, just de-activate them while you're testing by going to Tools->Plugin Manager then selecting the interface plugin you want to de-activate and hitting Stop.

Cheers,

Scott.
Logged

scott_r

  • Regular Member
  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 306
Re:MC XML Export beta 4
« Reply #14 on: November 24, 2003, 04:50:29 am »

Uh, oh...  time for another comment:  I did an XAlbum GenreGroup (in addition to the AlbumGroup) and was trying to package it up in a preset.  Unfortuantely, the inability to use relative paths makes it kind of tough.  Is there any way to allow a relative path (maybe like an attribute pathIsRelative="true")?  I think this will help a lot - it makes it easy to give someone a zip file that is simply unzipped to the MCXMLExport directory, and no customization is needed.  Thoughts?

Sounds like a plan. I'll see what I can do, but I'm kind of busy trying to get this bug with big libraries fixed first :)
Also, I'm going on holiday for a couple of weeks from this Saturday so there will be no way for me to access Interact for a while. Probably a good thing... I'm begining to spend far too much time here :)

Scott.
Logged

nila

  • Guest
Re:MC XML Export beta 4
« Reply #15 on: November 24, 2003, 06:14:42 am »

The reason for the delay in MC starting is that the plugin reads the library and loads it as soon as it is created.

It is therefore trying to read the info and create it's view schemes on every loadup and MC is waiting for this to happen.

That's what's causing the lagg I'm pretty sure - Could be wrong but I think thats what it is.

Thats why I ended up stopping all plugins that auto start with MC - they just all really slow down the MC loadup time - making the users click a button to load the TreeView instead of it happening automatically would probably solve this and make it easier for the users to just have this running constantly.
Logged

sraymond

  • Guest
Re:MC XML Export beta 4
« Reply #16 on: November 24, 2003, 02:21:59 pm »

Uh, oh...  time for another comment:  I did an XAlbum GenreGroup (in addition to the AlbumGroup) and was trying to package it up in a preset.  Unfortuantely, the inability to use relative paths makes it kind of tough.  Is there any way to allow a relative path (maybe like an attribute pathIsRelative="true")?  I think this will help a lot - it makes it easy to give someone a zip file that is simply unzipped to the MCXMLExport directory, and no customization is needed.  Thoughts?

Sounds like a plan. I'll see what I can do, but I'm kind of busy trying to get this bug with big libraries fixed first :)
Also, I'm going on holiday for a couple of weeks from this Saturday so there will be no way for me to access Interact for a while. Probably a good thing... I'm begining to spend far too much time here :)

Scott.

Is it possible to make the plugin "intelligently" determine if the file reference is relative or absolute - vice manually specifying?

Hey...  how did exams go?  Another semester done, eh?

Scott-
Logged

scott_r

  • Regular Member
  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 306
Re:MC XML Export beta 4
« Reply #17 on: November 25, 2003, 12:52:04 am »

The reason for the delay in MC starting is that the plugin reads the library and loads it as soon as it is created.
It is therefore trying to read the info and create it's view schemes on every loadup and MC is waiting for this to happen.
That's what's causing the lagg I'm pretty sure - Could be wrong but I think thats what it is.

You're right about the lag. The problem is that it shouldn't take that long to simply populate a treeview - it should take much less than a second to step through the entire tree. Either there's something wrong with the SDK or (more probably) my recursive function is bung.
I did consider having a separate button to populate the tree-view, but this is a big inconvenience for the user, and also for me when I am trying to do other things when the plugin loads that rely on the tree.
Also, the plugin waits for half a second before beginning the population of the tree view to make sure the library has been initialised. If it wasn't initialised a Null pointer exception would be thrown.

Scott.
Logged

scott_r

  • Regular Member
  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 306
Re:MC XML Export beta 4
« Reply #18 on: November 25, 2003, 12:57:51 am »

Is it possible to make the plugin "intelligently" determine if the file reference is relative or absolute - vice manually specifying?

Hey...  how did exams go?  Another semester done, eh?

Scott-

Yeah I was going to do that anyway. A good idea indeed.
Exams went sweet as, thanks - now I'm half-way through my four year degree most people are complaining but I just can't wait to keep going.

Have a good one,
Scott.
Logged

nila

  • Guest
Re:MC XML Export beta 4
« Reply #19 on: November 25, 2003, 05:24:45 am »

What degree you doing?

The tree doesn't populate THAT fast - it does lagg a bit.

I also found it depends what function you use to get it.

The ViewItem is the fastest I've found but is doing some really quirky stuff - it populates some of the view schemes as if they were tree's and not nodes. This would be ok but it only does it for some schemes - not them all?!?!

Try what I did - make some blank plugins - with JUST a button to populate the tree - experience with the different methods and see which is the fastest - u can also time how long it's taking to load them up.

The SDK seems to be lagging abit and really isn't up to date with the latest MC and it's features/functions.

Is the button that much of an inconvienance? just move all the code from startup to the button?

Just a thought because the auto start x 3 or 4 plugins slows down MC alot - I had to disable all of King Sparta's because they had a force pop-up that was coming every time if u didn't have the latest version and I didn't want to have to upgrade to the latest version just to start MC.
Logged

scott_r

  • Regular Member
  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 306
Re:MC XML Export beta 4
« Reply #20 on: November 26, 2003, 04:21:00 am »

Quote
What degree you doing?
I just finished my second of four years towards a Bachelor of Computing and Mathematical Sciences majoring in Software Engineering at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. It's great.

Quote
The ViewItem is the fastest I've found but is doing some really quirky stuff - it populates some of the view schemes as if they were tree's and not nodes. This would be ok but it only does it for some schemes - not them all?!?!
I agree. I noticed the ViewItem interface still returns child nodes of View Schemes even when the View Scheme is set to not populate the tree. But only sometimes :)

Quote
The SDK seems to be lagging abit and really isn't up to date with the latest MC and it's features/functions.
The SDK is in desparate need of some major attention. Now that MC is becoming more widely used, people are wanting extra functionality and it's up to third-party developers to provide it. Although I am extremely greatful of the time and effort that has been expended by the J River team making an SDK available, not much has changed for quite some time, whereas MC has been through an enormous amount of change. It's time that the SDK went through a complete overhaul - and that includes the documentation. I know it's been said before, but plugins are what made Winamp such a success, and one of the contributing factors to the development of the immense number of plugins available for it is the fact that Nullsoft provides such a solid SDK and solid support. Interact provides the perfect support infrastructure for developers, however, the SDK is lacking slightly. All I ask of J River (if you're reading this) is for them to give us a heads-up on the time-frame for when the SDK will be further developed. This will help immensly in planning whether or not to start developing more plugins.
Having said that you have a great deal of plugin writers who are obviously able to put the current SDK to good use and that's great. I'm sure we'd all be extremely keen to join in on some discussion with you guys on updates to the SDK.
I wasn't actually planning on writing all that, but I guess it happens sometimes :)

Quote
Is the button that much of an inconvienance? just move all the code from startup to the button?
It's not an inconvenience to me as a programmer, but to every one else who uses the plugin. Having said that I think that's what I'm going to have to do. Nobody wants to wait extra for MC to load up just because a plugin is populating a tree view (which I still think shouldn't take that long)...I'm working on it :)

Anyway, thanks Nila for your input. It is certainly appreciated. Maybe we can all get together and push for a new and improved SDK to allow us to take a great product even further. Also, I hope this post (although long) doesn't sound negative towards the J River team. You guys are the best crew of developers in both writing great software and providing phenomenal support. Cheers.

Scott.
Logged

nila

  • Guest
Re:MC XML Export beta 4
« Reply #21 on: November 26, 2003, 05:28:15 am »

Yeah - the button is definitely the best answer in my opinion - I've put one in Auto Equaliser - just call it an 'on/off' button to start stop the plugin from within MC without having to load the plugin manager.
Make it remember it's state between session and people can leave it on if they want or just turn it off easily.
It's alot nicer a way of doing it than through the plugin manager (too many steps).


As for the SDK - I think most the developers here, at least the ones I've spoken to, agree with you - it needs to catch up BADLY.

I know they're busy but hopefully they'll realise the potential importance of it as an added feature of MC (plugins like 'Playing Now' are a perfect example of how much some plugins can be loved by EVERYONE).
All plugins though add a lot to a program and therefore to it's sales.

Also - You should post that you found the ViewItem interface broken too - if it's just me posting they could think it's just my code - the more of us that post the more likely it is that it will be fixed.
Logged

scott_r

  • Regular Member
  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 306
Re:MC XML Export beta 4
« Reply #22 on: November 26, 2003, 07:41:56 pm »

Nila,

I've just posted in the build 313 thread - I figured it would get the most exposure.

Cheers,

Scott.
Logged

scott_r

  • Regular Member
  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 306
Re:MC XML Export beta 4 - UPDATED
« Reply #23 on: November 27, 2003, 02:58:00 am »

Hey guys and girls.

I've updated the plugin (new link at the top of the thread) to hopefully help pin down where it's slowing down with large libraries. Unfortunately, my library isn't that large, so I can't reproduce the bugs.
Anyway, this build has some tweaks that will hopefully help.
In particular it now starts up "disabled" so that MC actually starts in a reasonable amount of time. Enabling the plugin will show you it's progress so you can tell me where there are slowdowns, if any.
I've found that view schemes based on harddisk location are slow to populate, because they are so complex. Having multiple view schemes based on harddisk location makes it even worse.

Let me know how it goes,

Scott.
Logged

scott_r

  • Regular Member
  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 306
Re:MC XML Export beta 4 - UPDATED
« Reply #24 on: November 27, 2003, 06:22:08 pm »

Oops... 4a contained the debugging messages I put in there for me- sorry.
A link to 4b is posted at the start of this thread.

Having said that, I'm off to Australia's Gold Coast for a week and then I'm heading up north to see family, so I won't be round much. I'll try get on once in a while though.

Have a good one (I know I will be)

Scott.
Logged

Mirko

  • Regular Member
  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 495
  • Coffee ready?
Re:MC XML Export beta 4 - UPDATED
« Reply #25 on: November 28, 2003, 02:50:56 am »

Bug(?):

I installed the beta3-build and MC hangs on about 95% CPU and I have to manually kill the task. When I uninstalled the XML-Export-Plugin everything went as usual.

Mirko
Logged

nila

  • Guest
Re:MC XML Export beta 4 - UPDATED
« Reply #26 on: November 28, 2003, 03:02:46 am »

Scott - have a great trip dude - sounds like a LOT of fun!!

p.s. - the link at the top of the page is off -while the text says 4b.msi - the link is to 4.msi
Logged

Monkeyboy

  • Regular Member
  • World Citizen
  • ***
  • Posts: 247
  • I'm a Monkey
Re:MC XML Export beta 4 - UPDATED
« Reply #27 on: December 28, 2003, 07:22:33 pm »

can someone please post the url for beta 3 I cannot find it
Thanks
Rich
Logged

sraymond

  • Guest
Re:MC XML Export beta 4 - UPDATED
« Reply #28 on: December 28, 2003, 09:38:13 pm »

can someone please post the url for beta 3 I cannot find it
Thanks
Rich

I don't have it...  but I wonder why you want the beta 3.  What's wrong with the latest?

Scott-

P.S.  I hope Scott will be releasing a final version soon.
Logged

scott_r

  • Regular Member
  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 306
Re:MC XML Export beta 4 - UPDATED
« Reply #29 on: December 29, 2003, 03:38:57 am »

Quote
P.S.  I hope Scott will be releasing a final version soon.
Hint hint....

Yes, soon.

Scott.
Logged

Monkeyboy

  • Regular Member
  • World Citizen
  • ***
  • Posts: 247
  • I'm a Monkey
Re:MC XML Export beta 4 - UPDATED
« Reply #30 on: December 29, 2003, 05:43:28 am »

I want to try beta3 cause I get the same problem as a few people in this thread.
i.e. when I install 4 and run MC, it hangs and uses a lot of cpu. If I leave it it does nothing, I have about 11000 songs in my database.

Cheers
Rich
Logged

sraymond

  • Guest
Re:MC XML Export beta 4 - UPDATED
« Reply #31 on: December 29, 2003, 06:16:44 am »

I want to try beta3 cause I get the same problem as a few people in this thread.
i.e. when I install 4 and run MC, it hangs and uses a lot of cpu. If I leave it it does nothing, I have about 11000 songs in my database.

Cheers
Rich

Sounds like you want 4b ("Plugin starts in a "disabled" mode to ensure no slow downs on MC startup.") if you're using 4.  It's available at the top of the thread.  I didn't see anyone mention the the problem with 4b.

Scott-
Logged

Monkeyboy

  • Regular Member
  • World Citizen
  • ***
  • Posts: 247
  • I'm a Monkey
Re:MC XML Export beta 4 - UPDATED
« Reply #32 on: December 29, 2003, 06:31:38 am »

After I posted I noticed that the link was pointing to 4 and not 4b at the top and changed the link in my browser to 4b to get it.
It does start disabled, but when I enable it I still get the same problem.
It gets stuck on populating view schemes.
I'm guessing it shouldn't take long on a HT P4 running at 3.4 GHz with 1 Gig of RAM  ;)

Rich
Logged

Doof

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 5908
  • Farm Animal Stupid
Re:MC XML Export beta 4 - UPDATED
« Reply #33 on: December 29, 2003, 05:23:20 pm »

I just downloaded and tried this for the first time today.

First things first... this is awesome!! A friend and I were just talking about this kind of thing the other day and I remembered somebody was working on something like this. Glad I tried it.

Now down to business...

Even with 4B, MC takes a long time to become useable once it loads. The MC window pops up fast, but then there's a long delay until I can actually do anything.

And I'm not sure who'd be responsible for this, but is there any way to make the XSLT output Multiple Artist friendly?
Logged

sraymond

  • Guest
Re:MC XML Export beta 4 - UPDATED
« Reply #34 on: December 29, 2003, 07:29:57 pm »

Quote
And I'm not sure who'd be responsible for this, but is there any way to make the XSLT output Multiple Artist friendly?

Which XSLT are you referring to?  I don't have any multiple artists in my library...  how do they work?

Scott-
Logged

Doof

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 5908
  • Farm Animal Stupid
Re:MC XML Export beta 4 - UPDATED
« Reply #35 on: December 29, 2003, 07:43:54 pm »

I'm just using the xslt I found in one of the earlier release threads for this plugin. I'm not sure who made it.

By Multiple Artists, I mean mixed albums, like soundtracks. Where the individual track may have one artist, but the album itself is comprised of multiple artists.

Ideally, I'd like an XSLT that would show each Multiple Artists album as a seperate entity, the way MC does.
Logged

sraymond

  • Guest
Re:MC XML Export beta 4 - UPDATED
« Reply #36 on: December 29, 2003, 08:13:22 pm »

I'm just using the xslt I found in one of the earlier release threads for this plugin. I'm not sure who made it.

By Multiple Artists, I mean mixed albums, like soundtracks. Where the individual track may have one artist, but the album itself is comprised of multiple artists.

Ideally, I'd like an XSLT that would show each Multiple Artists album as a seperate entity, the way MC does.

The latest version of XAlbum includes an XSLT called ArtistAlbumGroup.xsl (available at http://pages.sbcglobal.net/scottraymond/ArtistAlbumGroup.xsl).  Is this the one you're talking about?

If so, let me see if I understand...  An album identified by a unique combination of [Artist] and [Album] might be problematic because the actual album has tracks with different artists.  You, obviously, want the album all together.  So what makes the Album unique?  Is it [Album Artist (auto)] and [Album]?  If so, it's quite easy for me to change the XSLT to use [Album Artist (auto)] in place of [Artist] - which looking at my library seems to work just as well.

Have I understood?

Scott-
Logged

mooseman

  • Regular Member
  • Junior Woodchuck
  • **
  • Posts: 64
  • I'm a llama!
Re:MC XML Export beta 4 - UPDATED
« Reply #37 on: December 30, 2003, 12:54:41 am »

Will the final version have the ability to create multiple pages?

When opening the html file created in IE, I use well over 100megs of ram, plus I'd like to put it on a web page, but don't want to regenerate it, since its a shared host site.
Logged

scott_r

  • Regular Member
  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 306
Re:MC XML Export beta 4 - UPDATED
« Reply #38 on: December 30, 2003, 03:07:11 am »

Quote
First things first... this is awesome!!
Cheers!

Quote
It gets stuck on populating view schemes.
Thanks for the feedback - now I'm gutted :(
The problem it's having is that it's recursively populating the view schemes tree. People with huge libraries have heaps of view schemes and so the population of the tree takes a long time. View schemes based on harddisk location are the real killers. Unfortunately I don't have a library big enough to cause problems so I have to wait till someone mentions it.

If there are any VB.net programmers out there who know a better way to populate a TreeView from MC's tree I'd really like to chat.

Quote
Will the final version have the ability to create multiple pages?
We're working on it.

Scott.
Logged

Doof

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 5908
  • Farm Animal Stupid
Re:MC XML Export beta 4 - UPDATED
« Reply #39 on: December 30, 2003, 08:24:01 am »

I'm just using the xslt I found in one of the earlier release threads for this plugin. I'm not sure who made it.

By Multiple Artists, I mean mixed albums, like soundtracks. Where the individual track may have one artist, but the album itself is comprised of multiple artists.

Ideally, I'd like an XSLT that would show each Multiple Artists album as a seperate entity, the way MC does.

The latest version of XAlbum includes an XSLT called ArtistAlbumGroup.xsl (available at http://pages.sbcglobal.net/scottraymond/ArtistAlbumGroup.xsl).  Is this the one you're talking about?

If so, let me see if I understand...  An album identified by a unique combination of [Artist] and [Album] might be problematic because the actual album has tracks with different artists.  You, obviously, want the album all together.  So what makes the Album unique?  Is it [Album Artist (auto)] and [Album]?  If so, it's quite easy for me to change the XSLT to use [Album Artist (auto)] in place of [Artist] - which looking at my library seems to work just as well.

Have I understood?

Scott-

Yeah, I think you got it.
Logged

Doof

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 5908
  • Farm Animal Stupid
Re:MC XML Export beta 4 - UPDATED
« Reply #40 on: December 30, 2003, 08:26:22 am »


Quote
It gets stuck on populating view schemes.
Thanks for the feedback - now I'm gutted :(
The problem it's having is that it's recursively populating the view schemes tree. People with huge libraries have heaps of view schemes and so the population of the tree takes a long time. View schemes based on harddisk location are the real killers. Unfortunately I don't have a library big enough to cause problems so I have to wait till someone mentions it.

If there are any VB.net programmers out there who know a better way to populate a TreeView from MC's tree I'd really like to chat.


I wouldn't say I have a lot of view schemes. I only have maybe 15 spread out through the 4 view scheme groups. And I've only created maybe 10 playlists. But all of the default Auto Smartlists are still there. Could that be causing a problem?
Logged

Doof

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 5908
  • Farm Animal Stupid
Re:MC XML Export beta 4 - UPDATED
« Reply #41 on: December 30, 2003, 08:31:05 am »

I've also noticed that if I run an export, change a setting (like uncheck the Save raw XML checkbox) and then immediately run another export, the plugin crashes, citing an unhandled exception.

Specifically: "System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not find file "C:\Documents and Settings\Doof\My Documents\Media Center 9.1\temp.xml"."
Logged

sraymond

  • Guest
Re:MC XML Export beta 4 - UPDATED
« Reply #42 on: December 30, 2003, 11:22:06 am »

Will the final version have the ability to create multiple pages?

When opening the html file created in IE, I use well over 100megs of ram, plus I'd like to put it on a web page, but don't want to regenerate it, since its a shared host site.

You've hit upon one of the problems with client-side XSLT and one-time-server-side XSLT.  This will be discussed in my XML primer (which I had promised for Christmas, but I got hung up playing with a new cell phone!).

There are two options:  use an XSLT extension that allows creating multiple documents, or use server-side XSLT.  I've done this with an Apache Tomcat servlet, which allows a search and paging.  I didn't implement paging though because it's difficult with grouping.

Let's see what I can do with creating multiple output documents (say an HTML for each letter?)

Scott-
Logged

sraymond

  • Guest
Re:MC XML Export beta 4 - UPDATED
« Reply #43 on: December 30, 2003, 11:24:17 am »

Quote
If there are any VB.net programmers out there who know a better way to populate a TreeView from MC's tree I'd really like to chat.

Scott.,

Why not borrow someone's big library?  I don't think you need to have the media files to see the problem, do you?

Scott-
Logged

mooseman

  • Regular Member
  • Junior Woodchuck
  • **
  • Posts: 64
  • I'm a llama!
Re:MC XML Export beta 4 - UPDATED
« Reply #44 on: December 30, 2003, 04:51:18 pm »

My library is at about 8,500 entries, if that would help your troubleshooting.
Logged

scott_r

  • Regular Member
  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 306
Re:MC XML Export beta 4 - UPDATED
« Reply #45 on: December 31, 2003, 01:22:43 am »

Actually yes, if you want to email your library to me just do a library backup and email the resulting zip file to scott_raynel@paradise.net.nz (just remove the underscore in the email address).
Thanks,

Scott.
Logged

scott_r

  • Regular Member
  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 306
Re:MC XML Export beta 4 - UPDATED
« Reply #46 on: December 31, 2003, 01:33:10 am »

I've also noticed that if I run an export, change a setting (like uncheck the Save raw XML checkbox) and then immediately run another export, the plugin crashes, citing an unhandled exception.

Specifically: "System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not find file "C:\Documents and Settings\Doof\My Documents\Media Center 9.1\temp.xml"."
I'll have a look into it.

Thanks, Scott.
Logged

mooseman

  • Regular Member
  • Junior Woodchuck
  • **
  • Posts: 64
  • I'm a llama!
Re:MC XML Export beta 4 - UPDATED
« Reply #47 on: December 31, 2003, 10:04:30 am »

It's on its way.
Logged

tlongacre

  • Regular Member
  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 431
  • gettin' in touch with my inner child, watch out!
Re:MC XML Export beta 4 - UPDATED
« Reply #48 on: December 31, 2003, 09:05:40 pm »

Scott,

I sent you my library. Hopefully you can recieve it. Way bigger than theirs -- 17K+. But the backup file, though zipped, is still big -- 6mb I think.
Logged

scott_r

  • Regular Member
  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 306
Re:MC XML Export beta 4 - UPDATED
« Reply #49 on: January 01, 2004, 12:55:06 am »

Thanks both of you for sending me your libraries, but unfortunately I'm unable to restore either of them. What version of MC did you make the backup with? 9.1 or 10?

Scott.
Logged
Pages: [1] 2   Go Up