Topic: MSN messenger and MC11 (Read 13376 times)

The Illest Villain · « **on:** April 24, 2005, 02:42:42 pm »

The newest version of MSN messenger (7.0) displays the song being played by your contact. I would like to display the song i am playing as well. It supports of course Windows Media Player, but there are plug-ins for Itunes , foobar2000 and winamp. Would it be possible to make a plug-in to make it work with MC?

It looks like this:
http://www.mess.be/msnmessengerfaq/images/nicknames/listeningto.png

More info here:
http://www.mess.be/msnmessengerfaq/idx/0/117/article/How_can_I_set_my_currently_playing_music_as_my_Personal_Message.html

Newest messenger here:
http://messenger.msn.com/

The illest villain

pank2002 · « **Reply #1 on:** April 24, 2005, 03:18:25 pm »

For that to work somebody has to write a plugin. Take a look at WritePlaying plugin. I copy the name of the currently playing track to a text file. It shouldn't be hard to make a plugin which read the info from a txt file.

You might want to get a hold of RhinoBanga's Playing Now plugin. It may support this already, but it cost £3.

danrien · « **Reply #2 on:** April 24, 2005, 05:11:23 pm »

im searching for it, and i found that using C you can change the status using simple text statements which you could then change using writeplaying. I'm not very skilled in the ways of C, so I have no idea how to do this, but here's the link for how to change the now playing in C:

http://forums.msnfanatic.com/index.php?showtopic=11226&view=findpost&p=81800

The Illest Villain · « **Reply #3 on:** April 24, 2005, 06:01:30 pm »

Thanks, but i don't know anything at all in C. Someone else?

danrien · « **Reply #4 on:** April 28, 2005, 10:51:10 pm »

Hugo_Elbuho · « **Reply #5 on:** April 29, 2005, 09:39:13 am »

I´ve made a small plugin which is working right for me. Since i don't have an ftp server just let me know who wants it and i'll send it right away by e-mail.

Files are lacking an installer but you should find it simple to install anyway. Since it's made in VB .NET you probably would need at least MS .NET Framework 1.1 installed on your system as a requirement.

Feedback would also be very much appreciated

.

Cheers guys!

Hugo

bytestar · « **Reply #6 on:** April 29, 2005, 12:19:35 pm »

Can you send me the MC11 MSN Plugin please?

send to bytestar@uni.de or bytestar@gmail.com

Quote from: Hugo_Elbuho on April 29, 2005, 09:39:13 am

I´ve made a small plugin which is working right for me. Since i don't have an ftp server just let me know who wants it and i'll send it right away by e-mail.

Files are lacking an installer but you should find it simple to install anyway. Since it's made in VB .NET you probably would need at least MS .NET Framework 1.1 installed on your system as a requirement.

Feedback would also be very much appreciated .

Cheers guys!

Hugo

Robert Taylor · « **Reply #7 on:** April 29, 2005, 01:11:10 pm »

Yes, please! I would also like a copy of your plugin...

sludgepit@hotmail.com

pank2002 · « **Reply #8 on:** April 29, 2005, 01:45:33 pm »

Upload it to JRiver's server using the following link:
http://accessories.jrmediacenter.com/mediacenter/submitplugin.php

That way everybody can have a use of it rather than the selected few.

Hugo_Elbuho · « **Reply #9 on:** April 29, 2005, 03:58:27 pm »

I already submitted it for download yesterday as an interface plugin through the link you mention. I don't know if it's alreay available or has to be reviewed by someone from JRiver before.

Anyway, this is a good will work and has been made in the few free time i have

so perhaps you'll find still issues. Anyhow it has worked for me as expected. Should you want to suggest, comment or enhance this work let me know.

Good luck! and let the world hear what you're listening!!

.

Hugo

bytestar · « **Reply #10 on:** April 29, 2005, 04:00:21 pm »

I have this error

Interface Plug-in "MSNPlayingNow" could not be found or created.

Hugo_Elbuho · « **Reply #11 on:** April 29, 2005, 04:06:56 pm »

I got that message too the first time. Have you already tried this?

0.- Close MC.
1.- Run the "Registry.reg" file by double clicking on it.
2.- Now after opening MC, open the "Plugin Manager". Click on "Add Plugin..."
3.- Browse for the file "MSNPlayingNow.dll" in the directory you just unzipped or the location you have put the files.
4.- You should then "Start" the plugin which should be listed in the "Interface" section.

Also... have you installed MS .NET Framework 1.1?

Let me know

GHammer · « **Reply #12 on:** April 29, 2005, 04:14:31 pm »

Quote from: Hugo_Elbuho on April 29, 2005, 03:58:27 pm

I already submitted it for download yesterday as an interface plugin through the link you mention. I don't know if it's alreay available or has to be reviewed by someone from JRiver before.

You could put it in the MC GMail account for others to get easily.
More info is here:

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=27023.0

bytestar · « **Reply #13 on:** April 29, 2005, 04:19:29 pm »

Netframework 1,1 is installed, the PC was also again started. no change!

Quote from: Hugo_Elbuho on April 29, 2005, 04:06:56 pm

I got that message too the first time. Have you already tried this?

0.- Close MC.
1.- Run the "Registry.reg" file by double clicking on it.
2.- Now after opening MC, open the "Plugin Manager". Click on "Add Plugin..."
3.- Browse for the file "MSNPlayingNow.dll" in the directory you just unzipped or the location you have put the files.
4.- You should then "Start" the plugin which should be listed in the "Interface" section.

Also... have you installed MS .NET Framework 1.1?

Let me know

Hugo_Elbuho · « **Reply #14 on:** April 29, 2005, 04:22:02 pm »

Hmmm.... sounds weird.

I'll submit it anyway to the GMail account just in case somebody figures out what's going on. I'll continue to test it anyway.

Sorry. I'll come back again with a reviewed release.

bytestar · « **Reply #15 on:** April 29, 2005, 04:24:37 pm »

Thanks I wait for new release!

Hugo_Elbuho · « **Reply #16 on:** April 29, 2005, 04:34:47 pm »

Comments and suggestions from you guys that have produced a plug-in with VB.NET should come in veeeeeeeeeery handy

Thank you!.

Hugo_Elbuho · « **Reply #17 on:** May 02, 2005, 11:57:16 am »

Guys, now i've got an installer. Hopefully that will fix anything that needs to be registered before enabling it to run correctly (knocking on wood).

I've tested it on two machines so far and has worked (knocking on wood again). Let's see what happens to you.

A new friend of mine (Bytestar) has also tested it and ran correctly, fyi.

I'll send it to the MC GMail account with a "MSNPlayingNow 0.1b for MC11" reference. Let me know if it works for somebody else

.

Good luck!

Hugo

Hugo_Elbuho · « **Reply #18 on:** May 02, 2005, 05:20:11 pm »

Just in case... Gmail rejects rar files too (aparently). Haven't tried changing file extension to whatever. I will.

Anyway, i'm still open to receive your requests by email.

Cheers,

Hugo

Hugo_Elbuho · « **Reply #19 on:** May 02, 2005, 08:33:08 pm »

File is now on MC's GMail account with name "MSNPlayingnow.rur" (Thanks to "Illest villain"). Please change extension to "rar".

Greetings guys.

Robert Taylor · « **Reply #20 on:** May 02, 2005, 10:25:59 pm »

Cool Plugin Hugo Agogo!

One thing, field 3 (Date(year)) doesn't seem to produce anything!

Isn't that field now referred to just as 'date'. Either way, whatever field I reference in the field 3 position, doesn't get displayed in MSN Messenger, even though it displays in the "Displaying Info For File" box beneath the field selectors. funny thing is, the fields in that box are referred to as 1 2 3 and 4, rather than 0 1 2 and 3.

Keep up the good work!

Have Talked to Hugo, and it's not possible to have more than 3 fields of info displayed by Messenger apparently. He will look at the slightly confusing numbering differences in the plugin window.

Hugo_Elbuho · « **Reply #21 on:** May 02, 2005, 11:12:01 pm »

LunchmeatVoom !

1.- In fact, field 3 (2 counting from 0) is useless and for this release i'll remove it from display to avoid confusion. It has something to do with a limitation on the number of fields MSN can display. But there is a workaround to jump off this limitation. Next release for sure

. Now it's definitely limited to three fields. (0 to 2)

2.- Yes... you're so right about the display, it's not well numbered. I'll fix that in a next minor release.

3.- Thanks for your input!!!!

I'll let you and everybody know as soon as i get these fixed in this thread.

Cheers,

Hugo

The Illest Villain · « **Reply #22 on:** May 03, 2005, 12:18:44 am »

When i close MC11, MSN keeps on displaying the last track played instead of showing back the silly phrase. I think this is a known problem right? To fix it, maybe you could make the plug-in uncheck ''what i'm listening'' when MC stops of closes.

Keep up the good work!

JaysonG · « **Reply #23 on:** May 03, 2005, 08:40:38 am »

Thank you so much for this plugin!!!

Hugo_Elbuho · « **Reply #24 on:** May 03, 2005, 11:23:55 am »

Changes for v0.2:

1.- Changed: Removed fourth field from display to avoid confusion. Maybe in a next release it'll be not limited to three fields (due to limitations in Messenger's programming API).

2.- Fixed: Display numbering in plugin's window is now fixed. (Was counting from 1 instead of from 0 to match field numbering).

3.- New: Added icon tweaking to show "Games" or "Office" icons instead of the default "Music" icon. Before you ask.... no... there are no more icons

.

4.- Fixed: On a new installation "Settings saved" message was showing unnecesarily.

Cheers!.

Hugo

Mr Morkey · « **Reply #25 on:** May 03, 2005, 01:53:17 pm »

Sterling work fella!

The Illest Villain · « **Reply #26 on:** May 03, 2005, 03:20:50 pm »

I see that you've fixed the plug-in so it removes now playing in MSN after a stop. However, if i press play again on that exact same song, nothing appears. On any other song it works though.

The Illest Villain · « **Reply #27 on:** May 03, 2005, 03:40:16 pm »

Actually this is not always true. If i play a song and i then shut MC without pressing stop, the song keeps being displayed on MSN. When i restart MC, the song fades away on MSN.

Hugo_Elbuho · « **Reply #28 on:** May 03, 2005, 03:52:08 pm »

Yes, that's a real problem. Plugin can't know when MC is closing (normal or abruptly) since the model of SDK is not event oriented. (am i talking plain english??

)

To be honest i haven't gone further in the way MC11 works that out but i'm shure there should be a way to workaround it.

Perhaps a little help with the experts...

The Illest Villain · « **Reply #29 on:** May 03, 2005, 06:48:14 pm »

The newest version (0.2.3) of the plugin by Hugo is on gmail.

http://gmail.google.com
Login mcfiles @ gmail.com
password mediacenter

NEW: Added checkbox option to change ''Artist, The'' in ''The artist''.

All credits to Hugo!

Hugo_Elbuho · « **Reply #30 on:** May 04, 2005, 12:17:06 am »

Changes for v0.3:

1.- New: Possibility to change format when Artist field is stored in db as "<Artist>, The" to "The <Artist>". ( Thanks IV for your suggestion!!

)

2.- New: Show Cover Art as Display Picture. (With flaws still, it can't remove added files from picture list so after a long session you might get bored of removing them manually.... too bad...).

Cheers!.

Hugo

The Illest Villain · « **Reply #31 on:** May 04, 2005, 11:43:15 am »

The cover art works well. One thing though: when the song does not have an album, it could show the default picture instead of nothing. Same thing when not playing music. Maybe a way to do this would be to manually delete all the other pics that are not cover art, so the remaining one would be the default.

interbeat · « **Reply #32 on:** May 04, 2005, 12:52:44 pm »

Hi,

Please excuss my stupidity, but how do you configure this? Are there some options somewhere to choose fields or turn on/off pictures etc?

Thanks.

Ed.

Hugo_Elbuho · « **Reply #33 on:** May 04, 2005, 01:28:40 pm »

IV:

Thank you for your comments. There are a lot of things to do still with Cover Art display. Actually it just does the basic thing and that is show the picture of the song you're playing currently. Known issues are:

- It doesn't clear image on stop or MC closing and though restore the "default" image or the one showing before activation.
- Talking about the picture list (not actual display), it doesn't automatically replace last song's Cover Art with the current's. Instead it just adds pictures to your list having them to be removed manually from Messenger's list.

Have to work on them if i find a way!

Always thankful for your comments my friend.

---------------------

IBSMI:

Have you checked in the "Plugins" section on the left panel of MC? Browsing on it, you'll find MSNPlaying now plugin listed (among the other plugins). Just click on it and you'll find the plugin's configuration panel where all options are listed. If you need further assistance just let me know.

JaysonG · « **Reply #34 on:** May 06, 2005, 07:50:21 am »

is there anyway you could add a feature to only have it display certain filetypes?

My Video clips/Music Videos aren't tagged properly and I can't be bothered to have to change all that.

danrien · « **Reply #35 on:** May 06, 2005, 12:24:29 pm »

I would like to thank you man. I've been stressing on thinking how to do this but I'm too stupid and don't know my ways around yet programming for other programs, and now you've done it for me! I don't know VB.net, otherwise I'd lend a hand.

THanks again!

Pink Waters · « **Reply #36 on:** May 06, 2005, 10:23:55 pm »

the plugin automatically start windows messanger when starting MC !
any fix to that in the future would be great... great work man

Hugo_Elbuho · « **Reply #37 on:** May 06, 2005, 10:56:47 pm »

Thanks for your comments people

Haven't had much time to continue this work. But i'll take a note on your comments and recommendations to fix issues and implement functionality as soon as i get some free time

.

Cheers guys!.

Hugo

trott · « **Reply #38 on:** May 08, 2005, 01:17:49 am »

In installed version 0.3 of this plug-in into media center 11 (builds 260 and 261) and see nothing happening. I made sure it's enabled in the plug-in manager, I also see it in the tree menu under 'plugins'. In MSN I enabled 'turn on what I'm listening to' but I don't see much happening...

danrien · « **Reply #39 on:** May 08, 2005, 10:36:45 am »

yah something about it seems to be broken 261 so far.... :S

Hugo_Elbuho · « **Reply #40 on:** May 08, 2005, 05:30:42 pm »

I'll check it out guys... Thanks for your patience

Wallers · « **Reply #41 on:** May 09, 2005, 05:42:14 pm »

I like it! However would you be able to make it specify which types of files it announces? I may forget to turn it off from time to time and I don't want all my *files* announced to everyone

danrien · « **Reply #42 on:** May 09, 2005, 05:47:51 pm »

i fiddle around with it some more and it now works with MC 11 v 261. It just sucks that I run into problems every single tie I install a new version of MC, but I completely understand that there are some kinks in it still. Good work.

Hugo_Elbuho · « **Reply #43 on:** May 10, 2005, 12:46:53 am »

Taking note of your comments guys. Still working on this

Thanks again

Hugo_Elbuho · « **Reply #44 on:** May 10, 2005, 01:16:04 am »

Guys... i've not managed to fix the major issues in respect of
removing automatically the added cover art (to messenger's display
picture list). Hope to fix this soon.

Have not had much time to investigate on how to do this but...

However:

Version 0.4

1.- NEW : Set current display picture button as default cover art so
that this picture displays whenever the currently playing file has no
cover art.
2.- NEW: Media type filters and string matching filters for selected fields.

Try it out and let me know, ok?. Don't forget to change file extension to ".rar"

Take care and happy posting.

Hugo

-------------------

danrien, could you please tell me what kind of issues do you have whenever you install a new version of MC??

Thank you

Pink Waters · « **Reply #45 on:** May 10, 2005, 04:51:22 am »

i installed version 4 and when i started MC i got error message says... msn playingnow could not be found or created

Hugo_Elbuho · « **Reply #46 on:** May 10, 2005, 10:00:44 am »

Did you try to uninstall latest version first?. Let me know please.

Hugo

Pink Waters · « **Reply #47 on:** May 10, 2005, 10:07:04 am »

yes i did but nothing too

Hugo_Elbuho · « **Reply #48 on:** May 10, 2005, 11:51:51 am »

i'll try to fix that tonight and see what comes out.

Take care

Hugo_Elbuho · « **Reply #49 on:** May 10, 2005, 10:02:31 pm »

v0.4.1 is up now on Gmail. Let me know if this fixed the issue with the "Could not load plugin" message.

Cheers!.

Hugo

INTERACT FORUM

Author Topic: MSN messenger and MC11 (Read 13376 times)