Topic: Playing Now v1.2 beta 2 is now available (Read 6966 times)

RhinoBanga · « **on:** October 29, 2003, 03:01:55 pm »

UNINSTALL ANY OLD VERSION OF PLAYING NOW PRIOR TO INSTALLATION.

Here's a screenie showing some of the major new features in this beta (transparent background and playback positions):

Here's the download link:

http://www.jdnet.co.uk/pn.zip

Here's what's new since 1.2 beta 1:

1) Added <Playback.Position> which returns the position in the currently playing track.
2) Added <Playback.Duration> which returns the duration of the currently playing track.
3) Added <Playback.Bitrate> which returns the bitrate at the currently playing section of the track. If this value is zero then the overall bitrate is returned.
4) Can now rate the previous/next track. Check the Track entry in the Rating object within the documentation and the PreviousNowNext skin.
5) Support non rectangular windows. Check out the TransparentColor entry in the documentation.
6) Added the TransparentBackground skin to show off the non-rectangular windows capability (works best with the taskbar at the bottom of the screen).
7) Now only play the popup sound on a change of track and if the popup is not already on the screen. Not when you manually invoke the popup, etc.
8) Added Border object to quickly allow you to draw borders around stuff. Check Borders in the documentation and the AdaptiveRectangles skin.
9) Added ability to move the window. The window will stay in this position until you restart MC or choose the "Snap To Origin" menu item.
10) Added AlternativeINI entry in the FTP section to tell playing now to look at another file for FTP information. More information is in the documentation.

I have only two minor bugs to fix:

1) Show popup with non blend skin (e.g. MediaCenter), move then click to hide ... goes back to origin ... oops.
2) Transparent background should only be set for original image ... not processed image as artwork could have colour.

Then I'll make this production.

Listening To:

... well nothing really as I haven't been able to use MediaCenter while coding this thing

fex · « **Reply #1 on:** October 29, 2003, 03:40:49 pm »

Tried it for the first time. Just great!

Thanks for your work.

fex · « **Reply #2 on:** October 29, 2003, 03:49:15 pm »

One (minor) point. The non rated stars (IMHO) should always be brighter - or let's say "unfilled". But - to say it again - I love it.

RhinoBanga · « **Reply #3 on:** October 29, 2003, 03:53:51 pm »

Quote from: Fex on October 29, 2003, 03:49:15 pm

One (minor) point. The non rated stars (IMHO) should always be brighter - or let's say "unfilled". But - to say it again - I love it.

Change them to your preference ... look for HilightedBrightness and UnfilledBrightness in the documentation.

fex · « **Reply #4 on:** October 29, 2003, 03:57:09 pm »

Sorry, missed the first rule - check available infos. Thanx.

nila · « **Reply #5 on:** October 30, 2003, 04:48:38 am »

One word to say: DAMN!!!!!

YOU GO BOY!!!!!

lol - This plug-in is WOAH - it should be included as default in MC it's that good

It REALLY add's to MC - THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for the ability to rate preview song - U rock!!

Slowly slowly getting my songs rated and this is really helping!!

nila · « **Reply #6 on:** October 30, 2003, 05:13:51 am »

Woah there boy!!!
lol - Just installed it - WAHEY!!!

Dont see myself rating the next song too much - but being able to rate the previous song - mmmm!!!

U da man!!

RhinoBanga · « **Reply #7 on:** October 30, 2003, 06:02:48 am »

lol ... I guess you like the plugin?

nila · « **Reply #8 on:** October 30, 2003, 07:29:28 am »

oops - wrong thread!

Ignore the above posts

JOKE!

lol - I'm using the 'last rating' all the time now - getting around 70-80% of the music rated (as oposed to around 40% before) - still forgetting to rate some songs when I'm working.

Only thing I'd like now is to be able to create POPUP items so we can create as many intervals for pop-up's as we want and when the appear for how long (and of course - set it so they only appear if no rating

RhinoBanga · « **Reply #9 on:** October 30, 2003, 07:35:39 am »

Something like that isn't going to happen in this release.

Once I release v1.2 I am going to start on the configurator for v2.

milehigh · « **Reply #10 on:** October 30, 2003, 10:01:29 am »

hey Rhino - I dl the new version - how come it doesn't look like your screen shot (your first post on this thread) - it still looks like the old version - I like the bigger version that you are showing (and the thought box look is cool) any way to get that skin???

By the way great work.....

nila · « **Reply #11 on:** October 30, 2003, 10:15:33 am »

np it was just an idea

Could we possibly have a way to disable the pop-up appearing at the beginning or end so we could just to just have one of them?

ie:

ShowAtBeginning=1
ShowAtEnd=1

Just because now that we have the ability to display the last track info - it makes it easy to see the info for the last song and to rate it - having the plugin change half way through with the info makes it confusing

lol.

Cant wait to see v2 - should be super cool - can it make hot chocolate?

RhinoBanga · « **Reply #12 on:** October 30, 2003, 10:18:03 am »

Quote from: milehigh on October 30, 2003, 10:01:29 am

hey Rhino - I dl the new version - how come it doesn't look like your screen shot (your first post on this thread) - it still looks like the old version - I like the bigger version that you are showing (and the thought box look is cool) any way to get that skin???

By the way great work.....

You need to change the skin ... right-click on the popup to change them ... or modify the PlayingNow.INI file.

RhinoBanga · « **Reply #13 on:** October 30, 2003, 10:20:14 am »

Quote from: Nila on October 30, 2003, 10:15:33 am

Could we possibly have a way to disable the pop-up appearing at the beginning or end so we could just to just have one of them?

ie:

ShowAtBeginning=1
ShowAtEnd=1

I'll have a think but it's difficult since J River pre-change the playing now track while the old one is still playing (which I guess it's to do with gapless playback) therefore there is no difference between beginning/end.

ph_bradley · « **Reply #14 on:** October 30, 2003, 11:35:16 am »

how do make the ratings vertical (one start above the other). I'd like to put my rating stars up the right side of the box. What does the Alignment parameter in this case do, since you can set coordinates?

RhinoBanga · « **Reply #15 on:** October 30, 2003, 11:48:31 am »

You can't do that ... It only support horizontal at the moment. I'll see if I can squeeze it in for v1.2 production.

TimB · « **Reply #16 on:** October 30, 2003, 03:48:52 pm »

Very cool! LOVE the transparent options!

-=Tim=-

RhinoBanga · « **Reply #17 on:** October 31, 2003, 02:25:48 am »

I have changed it so it will just display the message and not crash MC.

Quote

Would it be possible to set something so that it wouldn't write out the file until a certain amount of time has passed since the popup?

No ... I'd rather fix this. I have also placed the saving code in a critical section to prevent multiple calls which may fix it. Out of curiosity are you running any logging script?

Quote

One more thing...is it possible to have it not pop up on MediaCenter's initial launch?

No ... as I like it as it reminds me what I was last listening to ... also if you select multiple files from Windows Explorer and send them to MC you need to know what is the first track playing.

Drowbe · « **Reply #18 on:** October 31, 2003, 02:41:03 am »

Quote

I have changed it so it will just display the message and not crash MC.

Thanks...

Quote

Out of curiosity are you running any logging script?

Yes...I am running a bat file that FTPs the text file and two images to my site.

Quote

... also if you select multiple files from Windows Explorer and send them to MC you need to know what is the first track playing.

Makes sense...

RhinoBanga · « **Reply #19 on:** October 31, 2003, 03:08:02 am »

Quote

Yes...I am running a bat file that FTPs the text file and two images to my site.

Well I guess that's your answer. Everytime you hit previous/next the script is executed asynchonously. When you next hit previous/next PlayingNow tries to save the image but FTP has probably locked it while it's transferring.

I will add an option to logging that will write out the image to a temporary file and pass that name in as an argument to your batch file. You can then delete the temp file at the end of your script.

milehigh · « **Reply #20 on:** October 31, 2003, 01:32:39 pm »

Hey Rhino,

Great Work - one thing I noticed is that everytime I restart it goes back to the default (adaptive) skin - is there anyway to make it so when MC opens back up it stays with the last skin? Thanks

ph_bradley · « **Reply #21 on:** October 31, 2003, 01:36:35 pm »

start > James Dickson > Playing now 1.2 > Edit Main Configuration

Scroll down and you will find an option to set the default skin, defaulted to Adaptive.

As far as I can tell, you can't tell it to remember to start up with the last used skin.

RhinoBanga · « **Reply #22 on:** October 31, 2003, 02:07:25 pm »

There will be an option in v1.2 production that will allow you to make the current skin the default.

quang · « **Reply #23 on:** October 31, 2003, 02:29:19 pm »

Hi, RhinoBanga!

Can your "Playing Now" support unicode (unicode - a problem i mentioned in thi forum) ?

quang.

RhinoBanga · « **Reply #24 on:** October 31, 2003, 02:43:35 pm »

It doesn't support unicode.

If there is enough demand then I will look at it ... but at the moment only 2 people have asked.

TimB · « **Reply #25 on:** November 03, 2003, 07:29:00 pm »

Every now and then I get this message:

and the ftp option doesn't work.

Any ideas what is causing it?

-=Tim=-

lOth · « **Reply #26 on:** November 03, 2003, 10:38:10 pm »

Just found this problem with 1.2: when autoftp=1, it takes about 15secs for the pop up to show up. In the meantime MC is busy, the playing now area displays 'buffering...', and the mouse pointer remains in a busy state. Music plays fine though.

Same thing happen about 10 secs before the end of each tune: position slider stops moving, playing time freezes, mouse pointer busy, music keeps playing fine.

I've tried several skins, both for pop up and for ftp, only turning of autoftp will solve the problem.

edit:

same freeze happens when right clicking the pop up and send to ftp site.

RhinoBanga · « **Reply #27 on:** November 04, 2003, 12:41:28 am »

Tim:

Do you have autoftp on? If so I'd take a guess that your ftp program has locked the file while it's trying to upload it and it's still trying when you change track.

lOth:

How long does it take to transfer the file manually to your ftp site? That's how long PlayingNow will wait before carrying on. Here's what it says in the documentation:

Quote

Nominate the FTP section to use if you want to automatically upload the popup graphic when a track changes. Usage of this is not recommended especially if you are on
a slow link as the upload is not asynchronous.

nila · « **Reply #28 on:** November 04, 2003, 03:29:03 am »

Rhino - can you add a check for: SaveToPath or SaveToFile - whichever it is.
If the path doesn't exist can it just ignore it?
Right now when I tried to change to all the new skins Drowbe made it was crashing MC every time because the path didn't exist.

Thanks

RhinoBanga · « **Reply #29 on:** November 04, 2003, 03:39:08 am »

You should read up a bit:

Quote

I have changed it so it will just display the message and not crash MC.

It will be in v1.2 production which I am hoping to get back to in the next day or so.

nila · « **Reply #30 on:** November 04, 2003, 05:44:20 am »

Ah

lol - sorry!

Well cant wait till it comes out - should be nice.

INTERACT FORUM

Author Topic: Playing Now v1.2 beta 2 is now available (Read 6966 times)

fex

fex

fex

nila

nila

nila

nila

Drowbe

nila

nila