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Topic: %queue_index% and %queue_total% are only returning question marks (Read 2009 times) previous topic - next topic
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%queue_index% and %queue_total% are only returning question marks

Hi,
I am trying to configure DeskBand Controls to display the current position in playback queue.

I tried the following code:
Code: [Select]
%queue_index% '/' %queue_total% %artist% - %title% '('%playback_time%')'

Unfortunately %queue_index% '/' %queue_total% is only printing ? / ?

I also tried %list_index% and %list_total%, which return the same result.

At first I thought it might be some specific issue with the DeskBand Plugin. But then I played a bit around and tried the variables in the default user interface to be displayed in the status bar and the result is exactly the same. So obviously it's some general issue with these variables only returning question marks rather the the queue index.


I also read something that these variables are only supposed to be working in playlists (and absolutely don't understand why this limitation is there in the first place). But anyway that shouldn't be the problem since I did only open an .m3u file which - to my understanding - is a playlist.

%queue_index% and %queue_total% are only returning question marks

Reply #1 –
As you guessed, those are unavailable in the context of what you are trying to do.

I don't know the exact reason for those limitations to be in place (whether just lack of dev time for a simple feature or something more complicated), but it has been like that for a while.

I know no working workarounds, either.

%queue_index% and %queue_total% are only returning question marks

Reply #2 –
edit: previous post removed. I misread thinking this was about %list_index%

Re: %queue_index% and %queue_total% are only returning question marks

Reply #3 –
I think queue_index is still completely useless. It appears to only be set for items that have been explicitly added to the playback queue (I do that about once a year.) It isn't properly set for items that are queued by default. At the very least, queue_index should always be 1 for the item that will play next if playback is stopped. The ability to differentiate the next item to play was an important capability of Winamp from the earliest days, but cannot yet be done in Foobar2000. :-X
 

Re: %queue_index% and %queue_total% are only returning question marks

Reply #4 –
Once upon a time, it was possible to peek at the service which picks which tracks play next. At the same time, there was no shuffle functionality, so I had to implement it as a third party component. That changed with the 0.9 release, which closed the service loophole, and bundled a different but still functional shuffle functionality.

It sounds like it could still be valuable to predict tracks that will play next, to a limit, since these services are really only designed to pick out the exact next track that will play, and there's no telling how much work one of them would have to process to calculate multiple tracks ahead.

(Technically, the stock shuffler does predict the entire playlist ahead of time, but this is not guaranteed to be the case, what with a private service and all.)