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Author Topic: Creating Tree items that link to specific websites.  (Read 2203 times)

lalittle

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Creating Tree items that link to specific websites.
« on: October 08, 2006, 07:57:29 pm »

Is there any way in MC12 to assign a web site to a tree item (so clicking on that tree item would bring up a specific web site in the main window)?  I asked about this a while back, and it was apparently not possible with MC11, but I thought that perhaps this was now possible with MC12.  I'd like to create a "Shoutcast" tree item so I can quickly open the Shoutcast site in the main window.

I can get the Shoutcast link to appear in the main window by going to the "Start" page, then putting "shoutcast" in the Google search box, then clicking on the appropriate link on the Google page that opens.  It would obviously be a lot easier if I could just create a Tree item that went directly to this website, like the Audible" tree item currently does.

Is this possible in MC12?  Is there perhaps some way of doing this by using an "Advanced Expression" in a custom view scheme?

Thanks,

Larry
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lalittle

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Re: Creating Tree items that link to specific websites.
« Reply #1 on: October 11, 2006, 07:28:09 am »

If there is no way of doing this in MC12, is this something that might be added?  At the moment, getting a website to show up in the main MC window is a rather "roundabout" process.

Adding this feature would make a lot of sense to me given all the sites that offer lists of streaming audio links these days (like Shoutcast.)  I'd simply like to be able to add quick links to these sites in the main tree, at which point I could use internet sites to access streams from WITHIN MC rather than having to open a seperate browser window to do this.

Does this make sense to anybody else?  It seems like a really logical feature to me.

Thanks,

Larry
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rjm

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Re: Creating Tree items that link to specific websites.
« Reply #2 on: October 11, 2006, 10:20:59 am »

I would also like MC12 to introduce a new field type for urls. Clicking on the field would launch the web site. A typical use would be to point at album reviews.
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lOth

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Re: Creating Tree items that link to specific websites.
« Reply #3 on: October 11, 2006, 10:27:51 am »

everyone is probably going to throw the website he'd like to see in this thread, but I can definitely picture how I could use last.fm profile and search pages in MC... (I'd definitely prefer to have last.fm nested in the now playing part of the tree, especially for CD info: I won't buy the CD on Amazon, I already own it, I'd prefer to get suggestions about related artists).
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glynor

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Re: Creating Tree items that link to specific websites.
« Reply #4 on: October 11, 2006, 10:40:44 am »

There actually is a way to do this now... It might not be perfectly what you all want, but it does work!

MC supports and imports URL files.  These are the "Internet Shortcut" files that IE and Firefox (and probably Opera too) create when you drag-drop the current address's Icon from the address bar over to the desktop.  You can also manually create them by adding this text to a text file and saving it with a .url extension:

Code: [Select]
[InternetShortcut]
URL=http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/

(this one would obviously be a shortcut to Interact)

Anyhow, you can create these files for whatever web sites you want to be able to visit, and put them in a folder somewhere on your hard drive.  Then import them into MC (you need to check the "Webpage Files" choice in the Import dialog's file types list of course).  Then define a custom top level view scheme, and add [File Type]=[url] to the Step 4 search.

This will, of course, have them show up on the right pane, not in the tree itself, and they'll launch using your default browser (rather than inside MC)... But, it's a step in the right direction.

Oh, and you could get them to pseudo-show in the tree by adding [Album] (or some other custom field) to the View Scheme in Step 1, make sure "Populate Tree" is checked, and then copy the [Name] field over to the [Album] field.  Then, they'll show up as children under your view scheme and you can double click on them in the tree to launch the link.
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lalittle

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Re: Creating Tree items that link to specific websites.
« Reply #5 on: October 11, 2006, 06:52:50 pm »

they'll launch using your default browser (rather than inside MC)

This essentially defeats the purpose for me.  If I'm going to use a seperate browser window, I might as well just open that window and use the shortcuts in THAT window.  I was looking for a way to keep my music listenning entirely within MC, where the website opens in the MC main window (like the Audible site does.)

Thanks,

Larry
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glynor

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Re: Creating Tree items that link to specific websites.
« Reply #6 on: October 11, 2006, 07:08:14 pm »

Yeah... I figured.  That's why I said "it might not be perfectly what you want".   ::)
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lalittle

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Re: Creating Tree items that link to specific websites.
« Reply #7 on: October 11, 2006, 07:20:08 pm »

Yeah... I figured.  That's why I said "it might not be perfectly what you want".   ::)

I do appreciate the help.

Is there perhaps a way to create a View Scheme with an "Advanced Expression" that accomplishes this?  I really don't know what the capabilities of the Advanced Expressions" are, so I have no idea if this is a possibility or not.

Thanks again,

Larry
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rjm

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Re: Creating Tree items that link to specific websites.
« Reply #8 on: October 11, 2006, 07:33:14 pm »

Glynor, thanks for the tip but it doesn't work for me.

I have thousands of reviews stored locally as mht files. Thinking ahead to the day when MC would support a url field type, I have put the file name of each mht in a custom MP3 field. All I need is the ability to change the field type from text to url and I am ready to rock.
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