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Topic: Biography Discussion (Read 223817 times) previous topic - next topic
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Re: Biography Discussion

Reply #50
@WilB , per chance seen post #41?

Re: Biography Discussion

Reply #51
Yes I am considering it.

Re: Biography Discussion

Reply #52
Oh, excellent. Can't ask for anything more. Hope it's manageable.

Re: Biography Discussion

Reply #53
First of all thanks for your work!

I'm new in this section and I managed to install your script, I also managed to get the album cover from last.fm via your script, but I can't find the option to download an artist picture from last.fm.
Am I blind or is there no option, if not it would be so great if you would add it, I'm searching for a component which can do that for months now.

Thank you very much and any help is welcome!

Re: Biography Discussion

Reply #54
It should be on by default. But the setting is in biography.ini directly above where you would have switched on the cover setting: Image [Artist] Auto-Fetch=1. Did you click the panel to switch it to artist view? Music files must valid tags.

Artist images saved to the "Image [Artist] Folder Location" can be displayed with other artwork and playlist viewers. One image will be picked for each artist. For this you need to enter a path in preferences\display\album art. Choose the artist tab.

For the default save location, example paths you need to put in preferences>display>album art and search pattern for ARTIST are:

Standard install
Code: [Select]
C:\Users\YOUR USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\foobar2000\yttm\art_img\$replace($cut(%artist%,1),.,_)\$if($stricmp($cut(%artist%,1),.),_$substr(%artist%,2,$len(%artist%)),%artist%)\*
REMEMBER to enter YOUR USERNAME

Portable install
Code: [Select]
J:\foobar2000\yttm\art_img\$replace($cut(%artist%,1),.,_)\$if($stricmp($cut(%artist%,1),.),_$substr(%artist%,2,$len(%artist%)),%artist%)\*
REMEMBER to set the correct drive letter and path to foobar2000

Edit the above base paths if necessary according to your set-up

Re: Biography Discussion

Reply #55
Thank you so much for your fast answer.

That's embarassing I only installed JScript Panel but I didn't find the biography.ini up to now, so now I downloaded the .txt and added it JScript and it works great.
Thank you so much!!!!!  O:)

Just to let you see how it looks now, really satisfied (right upper corner). =)


Re: Biography Discussion

Reply #56
Hallo, im have special request - new function. I Want show discogs master releases song according to a key %artist%, %track%.  with playlist. Like this picture ...


Re: Biography Discussion

Reply #57
Could you add ' expand/collapse ' menu, please?

Re: Biography Discussion

Reply #58
@Halen A far as I can see, your request depends on your tags and setting in your playlist viewer. JScript Biography doesn't interact with discogs, although this component does.

@always.beta. You can already expand/collapse text and images from menu to occupy whole area or part of the area.

Re: Biography Discussion

Reply #59
Sorry. I just realized that I replied to the wrong post, what I mean is Library Tree.

Re: Biography Discussion

Reply #60
@WilB is there a reason why you don't use musicbrainz.org as a source for bio? Musicbrainz also has an api and its repository of bios is more expansive than last.fm I've found.

Re: Biography Discussion

Reply #61
I think last.fm is the best all-round one for biographies. They're usually comprehensive, at least for established artists, and they're available in different languages.

One point is how artists of the same name are handled. Last.fm usually returns all of them in one biography, and so a simple name search can be used. Consequently, fetching will work with all music types including radio streams and YouTube tracks. In contrast, MusicBrainz has separate biographies for artists of the same name, meaning extra discrimination is required to get the correct artist, e.g. using the album name or MusicBrainz ID written into the file. This info wouldn't be available with radio streams & YouTube tracks, and so MusicBrainz biographies wouldn't be fetchable with these music types.

I've usually found last.fm to have a wide choice of biographies, and I struggled to find biographies at MusicBrainz that weren't at last.fm. Conversely, I had no difficulty in finding biographies at last.fm not on MusicBrainz. But that might be just due to the nature of my checks... I might consider MusicBrainz further if you provide a list of at least 10 good biographies that are available at MusicBrainz but not at last.fm, so I can do more tests.

Re: Biography Discussion

Reply #62
I just started using Biography.  It seems better at fetching web assets than the other plugins I have played with.  However...

I am having trouble displaying local album art (that is already in the folder of the track).  If I put "Image [Cover] File Name=cover" in my biography.ini, and the image is called "cover.jpg", then that works just fine.  What I really want to do is have a fallback like "Image [Cover] File Name=*", however the asterisk does not appear to work as a wildcard. 

Any suggestions?  Thanks!

Re: Biography Discussion

Reply #63
"Image [Cover] File Name=cover"

That is the save File Name if you have auto-fetch of album covers enabled (i.e. "Image [Cover] Auto-Fetch=1"). [So don't use "Image [Cover] File Name=*"]

The script will add the extension to the File Name depending on the format of the image. So cover becomes cover.png, cover.jpg etc. The default is to save these in the music folder.

To view them go to foobar2000 preferences\display\album art\front cover

Enter cover*. The wild card will ensure it picks up any extension. Sounds like you already did that.

To display images with other names like folder.jpg that you may already have enter them in foobar2000 preferences\display\album art\front cover, e.g. use something like folder.* or front.jpg. You can have as many entries as you like on separate lines. foobar2000 will use the first one it finds an image for, and so order them according to your preference. If you want a fall-back if nothing is found enter a stub image path therein.

HTH

Re: Biography Discussion

Reply #64
Thanks for the assistance! 

I guess I'm confused about whether Biography supplies art to foobar or the other way around. 

My settings look a bit diferent, perhaps because I use CUI.  I put the filespecs (cover, cover*, *) in Preferences > Display > Columns UI > Artwork.  They seem to work fine because I can see the file coming up in the "Artwork view" panel, but the artwork in the folder does not come up in the Biography JScript panel unless the name matches something in biography.ini. 

My overall intent is to have one big square panel that always displays something.  I think that should be the Biography JScript panel, but I could be wrong there. 

Does this make sense?



Re: Biography Discussion

Reply #65
Quote
I guess I'm confused about whether Biography supplies art to foobar2000 or the other way around.
If you have asked JScript biography to download cover images (i.e. "Image [Cover] Auto-Fetch=1") it obtains and saves them. So it supplies cover images that can be viewed anywhere in foobar2000, including viewing them in JScript Biography panel.

Biography.ini just sets the save name and location. Nothing else. How the artwork is viewed is down to the artwork viewers and third party plugins, and you have to use their methods to point at the cover images.

Most now use the foobar2000 preferences\display\album art\ settings which can be set as I previously posted, e.g. enter cover.* in the front cover setting.

JScript biography reads front covers using the foobar2000 preferences\display\album art\front cover setting & requires that you use that method for it to show the covers, e.g. enter cover.*

DUI standard artwork viewer works the same way.

CUI artwork viewer will also read those entries. In CUI artwork preferences, set "Built in foobar2000 artwork reader mode" to "Embedded and external artwork"

CUI artwork panel also has its own independent configuration. That configuration is a little different in that you enter without the extension, e.g. just cover. This provides an alternate way of enabling the CUI artwork panel & NG playlist to show the cover images. I don't think it enables many other plug-ins to show covers, e.g. JScript Biography cannot utilise it.

Re: Biography Discussion

Reply #66
Thanks so much, WilB, for the tutorial.  I now have it all working perfectly.  My biggest mistake was that I had not noticed the Album art setting on the main Display preferences pane.

I put together this summary for my own notes and am sharing it here in case anyone else finds it helpful.  Hopefully it is reasonably correct.

Preferences > Display > Album art:
("Album art" is a section on the main Display preferences pane.)
  • Controls what is displayed in an "Artwork view" panel.
  • Controls what is displayed in a Jscript Biography panel.
  • Controls what is displayed in some other components.
  • Specify wildcard filename extensions.
  • Include "cover.*" to get images from Jscript Biography.


Preferences > Display > Columns UI > Artwork:
("Artwork" is a tab on the main Columns UI preferences pane,)
  • Controls what is displayed in an NG Playlist when "Display artwork in groups" is enabled on Preferences > Display > Columns UI > Playlist view > General.
  • Filename extensions are not specified.
  • Include "cover" to get images from Jscript Biography.

biography.ini:
(biography.ini is a text file in %APPDATA%\roaming\foobar 2000\yttm\)
  • Controls how Jscript Biography obtains images (that are displayed in "Artwork view" panel or Jscript Biography panel and possibly in other panels.
  • The default setting "Image [Cover] File Name=cover" enables downloaded images to be displayed by other panels.



Re: Biography Discussion

Reply #67
This componenet simply GREAT. Thanks a LOT.  :)

Re: Biography Discussion

Reply #68
Veryyyy Thanksss, How do I change the country / language?  Brazil..

Re: Biography Discussion

Reply #69
Two clicks should switch between Images(with cover) ~  biography. Because we do not always want to see the biography. Question of lack of space too..

Re: Biography Discussion

Reply #70
As you do to remove the image '' No Cover '' and '' No Photo ''?

Re: Biography Discussion

Reply #71
Please help,
there must be some error in script or in my configuration. I have slow internet connection a I have noticed that the script permanently downloads data. Task manager shows that script is running simultaneously many more times, 50x, 100x. And it is permanently downloading the front cover image. The cover is downloaded correctly, but script is still running many more times. I suppose that it must download maybe 50-100 MB each time.

This is my configuration:

Code: [Select]
[AUTO-FETCH]
Biography [Allmusic] Auto-Fetch=1
Biography [Lastfm] Auto-Fetch=1
Album Review [Allmusic] Auto-Fetch=1
Album Review [Lastfm] Auto-Fetch=1
Image [Artist] Auto-Fetch=1
Image [Cover] Auto-Fetch=1
[NAMES]
album artist name=$if3($meta(album artist,0),$meta(artist,0),$meta(composer,0),$meta(performer,0))
artist name=$if3($meta(artist,0),$meta(album artist,0),$meta(composer,0),$meta(performer,0))
album name=$meta(album,0)
[PATHS]
Album Review [Allmusic] Folder Location=d:\temp\yttm\review\allmusic\
Album Review [Lastfm] Folder Location=d:\temp\yttm\review\lastfm\
Biography [Allmusic] Folder Location=d:\temp\yttm\biography\allmusic\
Biography [Lastfm] Folder Location=d:\temp\yttm\biography\lastfm\
Image [Artist] Folder Location=d:\temp\yttm\art_img\%artist%
Image [Cover] Folder Location=$directory_path(%path%)
Image [Cover] File Name=Folder - %album%


Re: Biography Discussion

Reply #72
@Halen Thanks.

@ivancarv.spk Last.fm doesn't appear to have a Brazillian site but biographies are available in Portugese (set Lastfm Biography & Artist Image Server=www.last.fm/pt under [MISCELLANEOUS] heading in biography.ini). Other sources are English only. Double click option also requested by AFAIK and will be in the next release (along with other requested features). "No Cover" and "No Photo" are the final fallback images that show if no others are found. To stop them showing set your own stub images in foobar2000 Preferences\Display\Album Art or Artist. You could also use text only mode.

@klepetox I checked the script and for me its all working fine.

So ensure that you have complied with the following as stated in the first post or documentation:

...searches when foobar2000 is unable to load a cover according to main foobar2000 preferences\display\album art\front cover setting. You therefore have to enter the save location therein. If its not entered, the script will assume the cover isn't present & so will search... Assuming you haven't changed the default save location, you would need to enter "cover.*" without the quotes.

I see you changed the save filename to: Folder - %album% So you would need to add exactly that instead.

HTH

Re: Biography Discussion

Reply #73
New Version: JScript Biography 0.5 beta

Thanks for the feedback.

CHANGELOG

ADD: Option to pick & fetch individual last.fm biographies & photos for multiple fields, each of which is multivalue evaluated. Enable in biography.ini ("Show More Tags"). If there are multiple values, the artist view will show a discreet watermark style button > click to choose name.

ADD: Option to map mouse left button click to double-click (biography.ini).

ADD: Customisable scrollbars (panel properties).

CHG: Zoom. Ctrl + Alt + mouse wheel are now required to zoom the font, image and button sizes on mouse over rather than just Ctrl + mouse wheel.

CHG: Some optimisations.

Ensure comma "," separators are retained where used in panel properties.

@OonesboO & @wcs13 The method used for multi-field/value handling was chosen because it caters for both types of info + gives easy access to all values. It also avoids the need for a second panel. @wcs13 You could use the last.fm bio for French & the other source for English.

@AFAIK
- Custom font: set in panel properties with "_Custom.Font". Enable "_CUSTOM COLOURS/FONTS..." therein to use the custom setting.
- Storage location: set PATHS in biography.ini.

Due to the new requested features, biography.ini will be reset. The previous version will be backed up in the same location.

Re: Biography Discussion

Reply #74
Brilliant, @WilB , brilliant!

It's way better than what I imagined might look like, and works with every weird custom tag I throw at it. :D