Topic: NEW: WebGizmo -- looks and works like Gizmo -- runs in a browser (Read 105016 times)

Matt · « **on:** December 21, 2011, 05:58:15 pm »

[Edit by JimH -- This feature is now in MC17.0.64. More here:
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/WebGizmo ]

-- back to Matt --

I'm playing with an update for WebPlay / WebRemote to merge them into a single thing that's a bit more Gizmo-like.

I'm not sure if I'll have anything to share before the holiday break, but I at least have this screenshot from my browser. You'll notice that it sizes with the display unlike the current WebPlay so it'll look better on tablets and desktops.

Matt · « **Reply #1 on:** December 22, 2011, 05:13:12 pm »

A couple more web browser screenshots today:

The remote side might be ready tomorrow. The playback side using HTML 5 for audio (and video someday) is further away.

park · « **Reply #2 on:** December 23, 2011, 04:45:48 am »

Matt, the design of this is looking nicer than Gizmo. Can't wait to see the playback functionality too. I've seen a JWplayer plugin in Wordpress and it looked good too. My point was to use something community built and maintained for the quickest implentation, easiest maintainance. I don't really have any strong attachment to flowplayer,. Though I've never had any reason to complain about it. I agree that HTML5 would be preferable over flash for when browsing on an iOS device though.

bennyd · « **Reply #3 on:** December 23, 2011, 06:21:59 am »

I would love to have some basic playlistmanagement in there like adding/editing/removing

JimH · « **Reply #4 on:** December 23, 2011, 04:52:18 pm »

More screenshots

Instructions on the wiki

WebGizmo is a browser version of Gizmo. You can start it by entering a URL like this one in your browser:

http://192.168.1.100:52199/gizmo (replace the IP address with the address of the machine where MC is running)

As a test, you can try connecting to it on your local machine by clicking here:

http://localhost:52199/gizmo

As with the Android Gizmo, you can choose to play on your local machine or on the server.

We think this is ideal for iPad, iPhone, and many other devices.

This will eventually replace WebPlay and WebRemote.

It was introduced in MC17.0.64.

rick.ca · « **Reply #5 on:** December 23, 2011, 07:09:27 pm »

No captions appear in Firefox. Same if run in "safe mode." Captions do appear in IE and Chrome.

rpalmer68 · « **Reply #6 on:** December 23, 2011, 07:28:01 pm »

What perfect timing!

We are away on holidays but had to remote into my server to install this, it is looking really good at such an early stage, so well done Matt.

Only thing I can't do so far is play videos and tv recordings to the iPad. it would be great if they could stream like when I use a Dlna renderer locally, and for me the only way that worked was to use the mpeg2/DVD option for the DNA server.

Is there a way of setting the video conversion options for webGizmo somehow?

Cheers and happy holidays to everybody and especially the whole hard working JRiver team.

Richard

MrC · « **Reply #7 on:** December 23, 2011, 07:59:05 pm »

Quote from: rick.ca on December 23, 2011, 07:09:27 pm

No captions appear in Firefox. Same if run in "safe mode." Captions do appear in IE and Chrome.

Quick fix if you want to play...

comment out overflow: hidden; here:

   C:\Program Files (x86)\J River\Media Center 17\Data\Library Server\Gizmo\Default\default.css

.thumbitem .title
{
   width: 100%;
   height: 21px;
   font-size: 17px;
   text-overflow: ellipsis; /* doesn't work with Firefox, but should with some devices */
   /*overflow: hidden;*/
   text-align: center;
}

rick.ca · « **Reply #8 on:** December 24, 2011, 03:26:27 am »

Quote

Quick fix if you want to play...

That was easy. Thanks. Obviously, it's a known issue...

gvanbrunt · « **Reply #9 on:** December 24, 2011, 10:32:58 am »

Quote

Only thing I can't do so far is play videos and tv recordings to the iPad.

This may because that part is not finished. Currently it is using Flash (at least on Chrome) which as we know has less than optimal support on iOS...

Yaobing · « **Reply #10 on:** December 24, 2011, 03:12:15 pm »

On local machine, IE and Safari play all my videos. Firefox plays nothing (black screen, no message). Perhaps I need a Firefox plugin.

On iPhone (Safari), only mp4 videos play. All others end up with error message "Can not download file". Even the video taken by the same iPhone (MOV) would not play.

jdewoody · « **Reply #11 on:** December 26, 2011, 10:08:26 pm »

So far it works pretty well with Opera. A couple of questions:

1) Out of curiosity, is there any chance we'll be able to customize the look of it or will it be limited to those of us curious enough to edit the respective CSS files?
2) Is there a possibility that the player can be targeted to a space at the top (i.e., like a "Now Playing" iframe, etc) of the page instead of a new page?

Thanks,
J

glynor · « **Reply #12 on:** December 29, 2011, 03:52:12 pm »

WebGizmo isn't working for me at all.

First, the background. I'm running it in Firefox 9.0.1 with the current version of Adobe Flash installed (on OSX 10.6.8, for the record). The problems I'm seeing with quick tests are:

1. I get no labels of any kind on any of the view items. For example, if I click on Audio from the root of Gizmo, this is what I get:

Videos and Images views are the same, and none of the files themselves show any captions at all.

2. Playing an individual audio file starts VERY slowly. I just get a white page in the browser and the GetFile command just sits there loading for a LONG time. The old WebPlay functionality starts up very quickly. I'm running this on a corporate LAN with a 20gbps Internet connection. My home system has a pretty fat upstream pipe by the standards of most American users (I pay for the best cable connection Time Warner offers in my area).

3. Playing an individual video file just gives me an all black page and doesn't seem to do anything. No flash player loads, and the browser doesn't appear to be still loading anything (so maybe I just haven't waited long enough, but it sure doesn't give any user feedback that it will be a while).

4. It is quite tiresome that all of the Web functions of MC still use htaccess style password prompts, which means they aren't "caught" by many password managers and there's no way to say "remember me". It should REALLY have a way to set a cookie so that it automatically logs you in from whatever device you happen to be using.

glynor · « **Reply #13 on:** December 29, 2011, 04:13:28 pm »

Quote from: glynor on December 29, 2011, 03:52:12 pm

WebGizmo isn't working for me at all.

Just tested it using Firefox 9.0.1 on Windows 7 and got the same exact behavior I reported above, so it isn't a MacOSX thing. Incidentally, I hadn't loaded Firefox on that machine in a while, so when I first opened it, I tested with 7.0.1, and it was also the same, so this isn't a "new Firefox" thing either.

glynor · « **Reply #14 on:** December 29, 2011, 08:30:21 pm »

Quote from: glynor on December 29, 2011, 04:13:28 pm

Just tested it using Firefox 9.0.1 on Windows 7 and got the same exact behavior I reported above, so it isn't a MacOSX thing. Incidentally, I hadn't loaded Firefox on that machine in a while, so when I first opened it, I tested with 7.0.1, and it was also the same, so this isn't a "new Firefox" thing either.

Just tested from home on the server machine itself with Chrome and it works beautifully. I'll try it later with my laptop on the home Wifi connection. Same machine using Firefox results in the same as above (though audio starts very quickly, and loads in Quicktime player of all things).

So, right now at least, it doesn't seem to be Firefox compatible.

gvanbrunt · « **Reply #15 on:** December 29, 2011, 10:00:25 pm »

One comment I have is that the page is not HTML 5. Since JRiver has limited resources trying to be backwards compatible is a bad idea. I've developed for the web in the past and I'd rather have my fingernails ripped out then support multiple browsers in that environment.

I would strongly suggest developing for HTML 5 as it will shortly have the largest audience and will work across browsers. If there is an issue it will be with the browser not your page... Of course there will be some features that are available in one browser of the other, but that is a small hurdle compared to feature and markup differences. You've already hit those kind of problems with Firefox it would seem...

Also by forcing users to upgrade their browsers you will be doing them a favor security wise and will make web developers everywhere cry with joy...

glynor · « **Reply #16 on:** December 29, 2011, 10:47:37 pm »

It also seems to render correctly on Mobile Safari:

iPad

iPhone

Functionally, though, it is something of a mixed bag.

Here Mode (the equivalent of WebPlay):

* Video doesn't work at all. Playing files results in a long loading delay, followed by a GetFile screen (where presumably you can open the file using an installed app, but which typically doesn't actually work).
* Audio seems to work pretty well for playing single tracks. However, wouldn't it be better to start playback with the chosen file, but then continue to play subsequent tracks (like the default behavior of Double Click in MC itself)?
* Play All for Audio doesn't work right (it only plays the first track and stops), and it renders with a screen like this:

Note: This applies to the standard WebRemote/WebPlay function too. There is no way to play a full album or playlist with WebPlay on Mobile Safari (Gizmo or otherwise). You can only play individual tracks, one at a time.

* Images work correctly if you play a single image.
* Play all for images doesn't work at all and renders with a similar screen to the above, except there is no actual Play button visible:

There Mode (equivalent to WebRemote):

* Audio playback seems to work correctly. Skipping to the next track works, and you can start playing a particular track in an album and then skip to the next track (as you'd expect based on double-click in MC itself).
* The slider controls are broken. The Volume Control is a slider but it doesn't slide. You can select the "slider" but you can't move it. You can adjust volume, but you have to tap the bar itself, which is non-intuitive and doesn't really work well (I can jump from 45% to 16%, but nothing in-between). The position slider doesn't work either. You can select the slider, and then a swipe does jump the music back, but only by a single second, and there is no way to go back or forward any more other than tapping on the bar itself (which has the same problem).
* If Volume Control is disabled in MC the Volume Slider still shows but is set to 0%. It would be better not to show it at all, but wouldn't 100% be more accurate?
* If MC is open on the server and in Theater View mode, it would be nice if playing something would "jump" you to the Playing Now screen. If I'm already in Theater View, it would be slick to have it automatically "react" and show what you'd expect. In Standard View or when just running the Library Server, I'd leave it alone. Theater View is something else though, because it is designed to be full-screen and for "big-screen display". If it is a remote, it should be a remote.
* Images don't work at all. They play the same way as described above for "Here Zone" mode, instead of on the server itself.
* Videos don't work at all. Same as with Images, they behave exactly like they do when you are in the "Here Zone" mode.

Remote Client Zone Connected to a Library Server:

This is an interesting use-case. I have my Library Server running in the basement. When I open MC on the HTPC, it connects to that Library Server. I opened MC on the HTPC, and then opened WebGizmo on the iPad, and selected the appropriate "HTPC Zone" from the Mode list. I could browse around and play Audio files on the HTPC, without having to use a different address to connect to the HTPC itself. Very nice. This worked just like using it in There Mode (see above) with a few additional odd things:

* Once I started Audio playing with the iPad, I wasn't able to stop it with my regular remote. If I hit the Stop command, it would stop playing that song, but then continue in the list to the next track immediately. I didn't try it with my mouse or the keyboard shortcut, but it does not behave this way when I'm playing directly on my Server (which has an identical remote with an identical Girder setup).
* Hitting the View full Playing Now list link takes you to the "old" Playing Now list on the system (not showing the currently playing tracks) until you manually navigate to and display Playing Now in MC on the PC itself. This is related to the similar issue with Tremote discussed in another thread.

BrianD · « **Reply #17 on:** December 30, 2011, 08:02:47 am »

When I select "Play All" to here (iPhone) for any Audio Album it only plays the first song and then stops.
I have to manually go back to the album track list and then select the next song to play.
I am assuming it should Play All the tracks on the album.

Cocophone · « **Reply #18 on:** January 01, 2012, 02:05:22 pm »

I don't have the option to play on the computer running jriver. I only have 2 play here to choose from

JimH · « **Reply #19 on:** January 01, 2012, 02:18:38 pm »

The first page should have two options.

Vincent Kars · « **Reply #20 on:** January 01, 2012, 05:00:31 pm »

Would appreciate to browse by Composer

Matt · « **Reply #21 on:** January 01, 2012, 11:23:58 pm »

Quote from: Vincent Kars on January 01, 2012, 05:00:31 pm

Would appreciate to browse by Composer

You can fully customize Gizmo and WebGizmo views in Options > Media Network.

Vincent Kars · « **Reply #22 on:** January 02, 2012, 03:01:06 am »

Thanks

vairulez · « **Reply #23 on:** January 02, 2012, 05:01:56 am »

Quote from: Matt on January 01, 2012, 11:23:58 pm

You can fully customize Gizmo and WebGizmo views in Options > Media Network.

except it doesn't work ...http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=68797.0

wilfredjg · « **Reply #24 on:** January 02, 2012, 11:04:01 am »

Thanks. It's running on Chrome.

Vincent Kars · « **Reply #25 on:** January 02, 2012, 12:46:35 pm »

I added the Composer in Items To Show in Audio.
Click OK, reopens the dialogue and nothing is saved.

Vincent Kars · « **Reply #26 on:** January 02, 2012, 01:56:23 pm »

<title>WebPlay</title>
Should be WebGizmo?

MGD_King · « **Reply #27 on:** January 03, 2012, 08:13:41 pm »

This is the coolest thing since, well, Gizmo! One thing I notice is that the play stats don't sync back to MC like they do when playing through my Android.

MGD_King · « **Reply #28 on:** January 04, 2012, 08:09:06 am »

Something else I'm seeing is that the album art isn't always displayed in Windows Media Player (using it at work). If the track that I play is an MP3, then the album art is diplayed within WMP but if the track is a FLAC file then it doesn't show inside WMP.

gvanbrunt · « **Reply #29 on:** January 05, 2012, 09:00:39 am »

Here is a page in HTML 5 that uses flowplayer for video. So far renders good on all devices.

http://www.boxee.tv/faq

Doesn't use live streams, but might have some good information on getting the video part working properly under html 5.

JimH · « **Reply #30 on:** January 07, 2012, 02:55:54 pm »

Design suggestions about "All" were split here:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=69000.0

hoyt · « **Reply #31 on:** January 08, 2012, 11:34:51 am »

Any way to have this update the "Last Played" tag?

Mastiff · « **Reply #32 on:** January 09, 2012, 12:27:09 pm »

I really like this stuff! But I would very much like to have a possibility to edit the setup a bit easier. I can simple HTML, but I get lost in the CSS stuff... I would like to . So far I've only translated the text and removed the first page, copying mode.html to index.html (taking me directly to the zone choice screen), and I have removed the option to play on the unit using the Webgizmo (because this is meant to be a pure remote system). But when I try to copy the button with Playing now from the front page to every page, I can't get the size right, and I can't seem to find a way to change the size. And color changes doesn't seem to stick, like back ground images. Maybe I'm just stoopid?

Also is it possible to have the browser go directly to Gizmo when I surf to the correct address? Do I have to change the start page of the library server for that?

JimH · « **Reply #33 on:** January 09, 2012, 01:01:41 pm »

Quote from: Mastiff on January 09, 2012, 12:27:09 pm

Also is it possible to have the browser go directly to Gizmo when I surf to the correct address? Do I have to change the start page of the library server for that?

I'm not sure what you mean.

If you entered this:
192.168.1.100
your browser would use port 80 and expect a web server on the other end.

I suppose you could try running Media Network on port 80, but it might conflict with something else you run.

Normally, you would enter:
192.168.1.100:52199
That uses port 52199.

Easier would be to save the full URL as a link on your desktop. Your browser should allow this.

Mastiff · « **Reply #34 on:** January 09, 2012, 01:05:54 pm »

Actually I mean that I can tell my guests: "When you want to listen to something, just surf to http://192.168.0.1:52199 and you'll get directly to Gizmo control." If you understand that. now it would have to be "192.168.0.1:52199/Gizmo" instead. I was just looking to drop that extra step. But that's a small thing compared to be able to personalize the pages.

Mastiff · « **Reply #35 on:** January 09, 2012, 03:15:26 pm »

Come to think of it I could probably do that another way: I can use my Server to host a Girder webserver which has a few links in it, and one of them can lead to the Gizmo page. Still an extra step, but at least it's easier to understand for technologically challenged guests.

MrC · « **Reply #36 on:** January 09, 2012, 04:04:22 pm »

Or setup an IIS server to do URL rewriting for your network.

Jaguu · « **Reply #37 on:** January 09, 2012, 06:03:52 pm »

I am testing WebGizmo between 2 PC's. Playback in Zone1 is OK. But, is it possible to play files from library server locally (like tremote)? Video and image playback work, but when I try to play audio locally, it does not work. On clicking "Play All", it tries to download a .m3u playlist? Do I miss something?

Mastiff · « **Reply #38 on:** January 10, 2012, 01:28:01 am »

MrC, good thinking! I can do that, I think. I've done just about everything else that's possible with a Windows 2003 Server, so with a bit of Googling and experimenting it should work out. Thanks!

pjdick · « **Reply #39 on:** January 10, 2012, 01:39:55 pm »

This works great. Is there any way to make the video go full screen? I don't like to see the browser address bar while watching my videos...

davros · « **Reply #40 on:** January 13, 2012, 07:13:49 am »

EDIT: closed and restarted MC and it works now>

hi guys, i can not get this to work neither locally or from remote pc. no firewall or funny apps running. ?

still on trial period. i get the following error

http://192.168.0.203:52199/Gizmo/
or http://localhost:52199/Gizmo/

Oops! This link appears to be broken.
Suggestions:
Search on Google:

any ideas?

Mastiff · « **Reply #41 on:** January 13, 2012, 08:02:31 am »

Also it takes a while from you activate the network components before they're ready for use. So if you try to connect at once you'll probably not get anywhere.

lfquinones · « **Reply #42 on:** January 13, 2012, 12:38:52 pm »

When I play video using explorer in windows 7 the display window is quite small. Does any one where I can configure this to go full screen or at least bigger?

thanks

locust · « **Reply #43 on:** January 15, 2012, 09:14:36 am »

Hey Matt good work it's looking nice

Is there no way you can add an alphabet selector instead of or as well as number pagination?

Without that it seems quite difficult to navigate...

And also - I have multiple artist albums separated with delimiters is there any way I can make Gizmo and Webplay for that matter take this into account and be generated just like how I have [Album Artist]&datatype=[LIST]

phillil · « **Reply #44 on:** January 15, 2012, 03:34:36 pm »

Hi, I've been using WebRemote for around 6 months now and must say I found to be rock solid. Pretty basic functionality and very responsive and even customisable to a point. Works very well for multiploe zones also.

My only criticism was the way it looked - I found it a bit bland, especially compared to MyRiver for our iPad2.

So I guess WebGizmo goes some way to address the blandness for WebRemote, which I guess to some extent it does. I especially like the tiled album art view.

I think overall a great job has been done, however I just have a few queries;

1. When viewing the playlist, is it possible to show the album art and customise what other track details (eg rating) are visible??

2. Is it possible to show 2 panes, so playing now and playlist can be seen at the same time?

3. Also if 2 or more panes were visible, the home screen, playing now plus library browser could always be visible. This is the killer feature of MyRiver for the iPad

4. When viewing a list of tracks in the library, is it really necessary to have to click the "+" before then click add/play/play next/shuffle?? This seems like an unecessary step that wasn't needed in webremote.

5. Also when viewing a list of tracks in library, is it possible to show additional track details such as album art and track rating?? Could this be customised??

6. Not really related to WebGizmo, but have you ever considered an applet/windows gadget that can run on host pc's (just like gizmo and myriver) that doesn't run in a web browser??

Once again great job, the continued support and advancements in MC are very much appreciated!!

Regards
Lee

JimH · « **Reply #45 on:** January 15, 2012, 04:41:47 pm »

WebGizmo will continue to be improved. For now, you can't do what you are asking for.

Gizmo is a native app for Android.

You might look at Tremote on the Remotes page of our wiki, depending on what your client hardware is.

NickF · « **Reply #46 on:** January 16, 2012, 05:25:18 pm »

This is looking good so far but I'm having problems on Audio, Artists and Audio, Albums with the Album Art. Many of the art files are the wrong ones for the Artist or Album. I used to get this with WebRemote too. When I select an artist with several albums, I always get the correct art files. It seems to be quite random. Is this a problem with theGizmo code or the art files/folders?

Nick.

locust · « **Reply #47 on:** January 16, 2012, 11:22:19 pm »

Oh & the ability to set rules for file display would be a major bonus.. Because right now my dvd covers and cd covers show up in the pictures sections I could then easily filter them out..

MrC · « **Reply #48 on:** January 16, 2012, 11:50:45 pm »

Quote from: brian0001 on January 16, 2012, 11:22:19 pm

Oh & the ability to set rules for file display would be a major bonus.. Because right now my dvd covers and cd covers show up in the pictures sections I could then easily filter them out..

Isn't this available here?: Tools > Options > Media Network > Advanced > Customize views for Gizmo, WebRemote, & Webplay

locust · « **Reply #49 on:** January 17, 2012, 12:30:09 am »

Thanks MrC, I completely missed that.. I think when I was searching I was looking for a dialogue window more akin to the theatre view Rules for File display...

I'm not questioning where you guys put it but that is quite nested away and If I amuse correctly that theatre view was here first? Where you've decided to put this doesn't really follow the natural schema of things

Thanks again

INTERACT FORUM

Author Topic: NEW: WebGizmo -- looks and works like Gizmo -- runs in a browser (Read 105016 times)

lfquinones