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[RhinoBanga]

Here is the next major version of the Popup software for you guys.

Firstly note that I have renamed the app to PlayingNow which makes far more sense.

Secondly one of the big features is a gradient fill object that gives you the ability to have adaptive
skins based on your system colours.

Here is a screenshot of an adaptive skin with the Windows XP Blue theme:




Here is the same skin with the Windows XP Green theme:




And finally here is the same skin with the Windows XP Silver theme:





Also new in this version is graphical ratings where you just move the mouse over the stars
to set the rating.


Note that I have made significant changes to the INI files, in fact far too many to list here.
Check PlayingNow.INI and the Adaptive\Config.INI file for a complete listing of every item.


Here's the download link:

http://www.mrblobby.ukshells.co.uk/PlayingNow/pn.exe


Here's what's new:

1)  MAJOR CHANGES ... Revamped almost all the INI file entries ... far too many to list here.
2)  Added a graphical rating ability.   Note this only works if you have defined a Rating object "Image" and "UnfilledImage" entry.
3)  A new default skin "Adaptive" (which uses the system colours) has been supplied that uses the new GradientFill and Icon objects
4)  Added an "Adaptive" slimline skin
5)  Added an image object
6)  Added a gradient fill object
7)  Renamed from GetPlayingNow to PlayingNow, this also includes the .INI file.
8)  Renamed Rating/Icon config INI entry to Rating/Image.
9)  Added Rating/UnfilledImage config INI entry to display rating in terms of "X of 5"
10) The "Default" skin has been renamed to "MediaCentre".   The new default is "Adaptive".


From now on the setup program will always overwrite the supplied skins, so take a copy of the directory containing the skin you want to modify and make you changes there.

Lastly I am now starting on V2, so unless any features that you want are quick to implement don't hold your breath for them getting any time soon.   V2 will contain a GUI for configuring the options and support for other media players.

[dragyn]

Awesome!!

[Rands]

It keeps getting better and better!  This is one of the best things I've seen for MC since the introduction of panes in the UI.

[Marko]

New toys. Awesome indeed!!

Listening to:

[graham131]

love it

[hit_ny]

Excellent !!

i suppose my only wish is an auto-resize, for long track names ( justified as appropriate)

..you have granted all my other requests

...now that i can rate in the popup itself ..i get to remove 5 buttons of the task bar

[dragyn]

Works great until I play an image file. Then it just dissapears and never returns. Have to restart MC.

When I do restart, the image file appears and all is well until I do it again.

If I play music and images, nothing happens on an image change.

If I play images, it works for awhile, then quits.

[RhinoBanga]

Excellent !!

i suppose my only wish is an auto-resize, for long track names ( justified as appropriate)

Never going to happen ... the amount of work the popup would have to do to support that would be horrendous.   If you want a longer area just create a longer background image file.

Works great until I play an image file. Then it just dissapears and never returns. Have to restart MC.

Dragyn ... I'll look at that tomorrow but what I will probably do is only popup on music files only, e.g. files with the MP3/APE/OGG/etc extension only.

[MachineHead]

Wow James. This is very slick. Thanks much for the effort you're putting into this.

[dragyn]

Well I hope you'll be able to do all formats.

When I restart, it displays the image file fine and even tags the file fine so I'm sure it's just stuck somewhere.

Same thing with editing the config a lot while playing just music, it gets stuck so it may not be with image files.

You're the master. I'll let you decide.

[Doof]

I could have sworn I posted this already, but it's not here... so either I'm hallucinating, or Interact ate my post... For some reason that seems like that's the second time THAT's happening... so either I'm hallucinating AND having deja vu.. or... oh, never mind. I'll just post it again.

Basically I was heaping this plugin with praise... Just loving it.

And I was wondering two things.

1. Would it be too awfully hard for the rating icons to also have a hover image, so that they'll act exactly as they do in MEGA-ME?

2. How about an MC Version token, so that our skins can be more robust between MC9, MC9.1 and the eventual MC10?
 
I think that was it. If they're too big to squeeze in now, then they'd be cool additions for v.2.

[RhinoBanga]

Doof:

1. Would it be too awfully hard for the rating icons to also have a hover image, so that they'll act exactly as they do in MEGA-ME?

That would require 4 icons/pictures in total, selected/unselected/focused selected and focused unselected which is a PITA.   I'm going to put that idea onto the back burner untill I can think of a neat way to dynamically alter the two current icons.

2. How about an MC Version token, so that our skins can be more robust between MC9, MC9.1 and the eventual MC10?

I don't understand this.   Do you want an <MC_Version> token that you can display on your skin, or a couple of entries in CONFIG.INI that tells popup what min/max version of MC the skin supports?

[RhinoBanga]

Dragyn:

I have found the problem ... it seems that the MC IsVideo function is broken in that sometimes it returns true for images and sometimes false.

I am going to remove the ShowOnVideo PlayingNow.INI entry and replace it with a list of file extensions to not to popup on, e.g.:

DoNotShowOn=vob,mpg,avi

[RhinoBanga]

Doof:

I have added the ability to automatically generate the unfilled/selected image for graphical ratings.   This means that you only have to supply one image now   The unfilled image is a "darker" version of the image and the selected rating is a "lighter" version.

The Rating entry in the config file looks like this now:

Image=.\Rating.ico
GraphicalRating=True
Top=95
Left=180
Width=16
Height=16
XGap=1
Alignment=R


Which makes things much more neater.

Look for an update tonight.

[dragyn]

>Look for an update tonight

Your tonight or my tonight?

Isn't there like a 8-9hr difference here? It's only 8:48AM right now.

[RhinoBanga]

My time ... it's 15:25 here in the UK.

[Doof]

Doof:

1. Would it be too awfully hard for the rating icons to also have a hover image, so that they'll act exactly as they do in MEGA-ME?

That would require 4 icons/pictures in total, selected/unselected/focused selected and focused unselected which is a PITA.   I'm going to put that idea onto the back burner untill I can think of a neat way to dynamically alter the two current icons.

I was going to say that MC's MEGA-ME skinning only uses 3 images, empty, full, and hover, but it seems to be a moot point now. Without having seen what you've done yet, I'd have to say that I'd prefer it this way, simply because we can better match our popups to an actual MEGA-ME skin if we want. But I'll wait and see.

2. How about an MC Version token, so that our skins can be more robust between MC9, MC9.1 and the eventual MC10?

I don't understand this.   Do you want an <MC_Version> token that you can display on your skin, or a couple of entries in CONFIG.INI that tells popup what min/max version of MC the skin supports?

The first one. Currently my popup skin looks like this:



You can see the text at the top that says "Now Playing on Media Center 9.1". With the token, it could be made to say "Now Playing on Media Center 9.0" or "Media Center 10.0" etc. So that the skin can just automatically show that information without needing to be manually changed for different versions of MC.

[dragyn]

Couldn't you do things like [App Name], [Library], [Zone]. Taken from the (Customize Display) in the Player window.

I don't know how you are doing it like <artist> becomes [Artist].

Is it a MC thing or do you have to assign everything?

[RhinoBanga]

I have already added:

<Application.Name>    ... e.g. Media Centre
<Application.Version>    ... e.g. 9.1.123
<Application.VersionMajor>   ... e.g. 9
<Application.VersionMinor>   ... e.g. 1
<Application.VersionBuild>   ... e.g. 123


The reason why I use <> instead of [] is to differentiate between what MC translates the tokens to and what I do.

Also I can't get access to Library and Zone as MC does not expose that via it's COM interface .. or if it does I can't see it.

[Doof]

Awesome. Thanks.

[LonWar]

Man, you are amazing.

This app keeps getting better.

[milehigh]

this is great!  one question - is there any way to either keep the pop-up so it always displays or a way to bring it back up?  Thanks

[RhinoBanga]

Check PlayingNow.ini ... the popup hotkey is in there ... it's Win+P


Also if you want to always keep it on then set the TimeToStay to some huge number.

[Snuffy2]

Is there any way to not rate the song with just a mouse over? If I accidentaly mouse over the PopUp my song gets rated.  I think it might be better if you had to click on the star to rate the song.  If that's not possible, would it be possible to prevent the rating all together? So far i've accidentaly rated 5 different songs by accidentaly mousing over the popup.

Thanx
Snuffy2

[RhinoBanga]

Yes, it's very easy.

Comment out the UnratedImage entry in the skin's Config.INI file.

You will still be able to rate via the right-mouse button.