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Topic: Vista Sidebar Gadget (Read 33579 times) previous topic - next topic
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Vista Sidebar Gadget

Hey,

Just wanted to check, is there an activex control for controlling foobar and viewing current track info? I ask because i'd like to add support to foobar for this gadget. If not, anyone working on an activex control?

Vista Sidebar Gadget

Reply #1 –
See the COM Automation Server from my components page.

Vista Sidebar Gadget

Reply #2 –
Awesome, got everything implemented but four things. If they're not possible that's fine, i've never used foobar before so don't know if it has track ratings or a separate volume control.

How do i get and set the track rating?
How can i change and get the volume?
How do i get track duration? I tried playback.length but got nothing from that.
How do i get the source url of the track? Aka where is it located on the computer

Thanks very much, Law

Vista Sidebar Gadget

Reply #3 –
Quote from: ljames28 on
Awesome, got everything implemented but four things. If they're not possible that's fine, i've never used foobar before so don't know if it has track ratings or a separate volume control.

How do i get and set the track rating?
How can i change and get the volume?

Volume control is present, but there is no demonstration code in the VBScript examples. You can access the volume in dB through the playback.Settings.Volume property.
Rating is just another metadata field for foobar2000. You can access those through the titleformatting functions, for example:
Code: [Select]
strRating = playback.FormatTitle("%rating%")

This will return "?" if there is no rating tag.

Quote from: ljames28 on
How do i get track duration? I tried playback.length but got nothing from that.

Strange, works for me.

Quote from: ljames28 on
How do i get the source url of the track? Aka where is it located on the computer

You have to use titleformatting here as well:
Code: [Select]
strPath = playback.FormatTitle("%path%")

Vista Sidebar Gadget

Reply #4 –
Cool, volume and path work now

With the track rating, do you need an addon to foobar for that? I can't see how to change the track rating within foobar, nor do i get anything other than "?" in the gadget.

With the trackduration, quite oddly i just get nothing when a track is playing, but when theres no track playing i get a 0.

Vista Sidebar Gadget

Reply #5 –
Can you post the gadget here?

Vista Sidebar Gadget

Reply #6 –
http://www.gadgetspark.com/ljames28/nowplaying.gadget

If you could tell me exactly how the first run goes, I'd be very greatful  I try to get the plug ins for the various players to install without the user really knowing, this one was a little more tricky, but i think it works.

Vista Sidebar Gadget

Reply #7 –
Before installing i removed the WMP and winamp plugins as i don't need them. (don't know when it installs them but dont want that stuff on my pc)

The gadget works  but like you said the trackduration isn't showing. (haven't seen volume control  )

Unfortunately I can't use the cover function because 80% of my music collection is japanese and there are almost no covers on amazon. I wish there was a way to get the covers localy.

Also I think the rating system should have an option to be disabled, lots of users don't use ratings.

Another thing is the undocked state is nicer as the nowplaying info doesn't block the cover (if there is one ).

A smaller font could be used as the text doesn't really fit in text only, undocked and docked state. Text-only mode doesn't have controls, so it's impossible to actually use the gadget without cover showing.

It's a nice gadget but it needs some improvements.

Vista Sidebar Gadget

Reply #8 –
Okay, points taken. Volume control, you click on the gadget to bring it into focus then scroll your mouse wheel. The problem with a lot of what you mention is it conflicts with what other people say. I used to have controls on text only, then people complained that they're un-necessary. I used to have smaller font, people complained it was too small.

And to create options for everything slows it down, takes longer to create, and goes against the gadget philosophy.

Erm with the plugins, in the latest version they should only install if you select the player. So if you select wmp it'll install the plugin.

Covers, it looks everywhere but ID3 tags currently, the main way people seem to use covers with this gadget is via a folder.jpg

Do ratings actually work for you?

Vista Sidebar Gadget

Reply #9 –
Quote from: ljames28 on
Okay, points taken. Volume control, you click on the gadget to bring it into focus then scroll your mouse wheel. The problem with a lot of what you mention is it conflicts with what other people say. I used to have controls on text only, then people complained that they're un-necessary. I used to have smaller font, people complained it was too small.

And to create options for everything slows it down, takes longer to create, and goes against the gadget philosophy.

Erm with the plugins, in the latest version they should only install if you select the player. So if you select wmp it'll install the plugin.

Covers, it looks everywhere but ID3 tags currently, the main way people seem to use covers with this gadget is via a folder.jpg

Do ratings actually work for you?


Oh well, different people have different opinions.  I would much rather have the full title in the gadget than trying to figure out half of the title.

Good to know that about the plugins.

I don't use folder.jpg after wmp overwrited some of my covers with crappy resolution covers of its own, so now i use cover.jpg and they're in the same folder as the album/single.

Don't know  I dont use and have never used ratings, don't even know how to use it.  Maybe i'll check it out.

Vista Sidebar Gadget

Reply #10 –
The issue with track duration was my fault  i didn't round the number so it caused issues in the calculation steps.

The track rating, if you install foo_custominfo then that'll display the track info.

Being able to set track rating, thats something that's not implemented yet right?

Vista Sidebar Gadget

Reply #11 –
Hi,
Tried this gadget out yesterday, and really liked the idea and the layout of it. However, a few initial points to make.
When I first loaded it up, i selected Foobar, and clicked where it said to open. Foobar displayed for a few seconds, but then just ended. I think it came up with an error, but didn't display it long enough to read. After that, though, it worked brilliantly, and I've hardly had any problems. One thing I did notice was that rating didn't work, but it sounds like I need to get hold of foo_custominfo. I tried, and it definitely worked in wmp, so I presume it's ok. Again, track duration didn't show, ie "2:35 /          ".

Also for some of my albums, instead of showing the name, it just displayed "No Album" when in large, undocked view. However, I think it displays OK in text-only mode, so there may be some discrepancy there.

Would it be at all possible to implement something as in album art, to insert locations you wish to search for pictures. Personally, I store all my artwork in one folder, under the name of the album.png, and there's very few albums with pictures left in the original folder.
Another request: could (instead of a smaller font) you implement some sort of scrolling text function if the title is too long, a la Track Info.

Hope some of this is useful: I know I've repeated some of what others have said, but overall, this is a wonderful gadget
If at first you don't succeed, so much for hang-gliding

Vista Sidebar Gadget

Reply #12 –
The issue you had when you first ran the gadget, thanks for the feedback, don't think i can do anything though, to install the plugin it has to close foobar, but to check if the plugin is installed it has to open foobar...so you can see where it gets iffy! Its a bit of an ugly method but easier than telling the user to install the plug-in themself.

With foo_custominfo rating seemed to work on the latest version, i thought i fixed duration too, have you tried closing and re-opening the gadget to check you have the latest version? If it's still an isue i guess i'l take another look a that.

Could you please re-verify there is a difference in album names when in text mode and big mode?

With the album art thing, probably wont do that, theres so so so many different ways people store art i can't cater for them all.

Scrolling text will hopefully be in the next release

Vista Sidebar Gadget

Reply #13 –
is there a way to change the font size? I think it is slightly too big

Vista Sidebar Gadget

Reply #14 –
Edit the css style sheets. gadget.css to be precise.

Vista Sidebar Gadget

Reply #15 –
ahh ok, thanks. That should do the trick indeed.

Vista Sidebar Gadget

Reply #16 –
something else i noticed now:
When I change an album it keeps the art of the previous album and name of the last track from the previous album if there is no art in the new album.

I name all album art files "folder.jpg" and they are all in the same folder as the mp3's are.

What can this be, and can this be solved by some trick?

Vista Sidebar Gadget

Reply #17 –
I cant really explain that at all.

Could you pleas open the main.js file in the js folder please. On the like 8th line or something change debug=0 to debug=1.

Then try and re-create what you did before and see if it gives any errors

Vista Sidebar Gadget

Reply #18 –
it doesn't give any errors at all.

and to make it even weirder...if i change song focus in foobar it doesn't change anything even when there is artwork. It changes only when I use the next or previous button in the gadget.

Vista Sidebar Gadget

Reply #19 –
So basically, what you're saying, the gadget ONLY updates what foobar is playing if you use the next/previous buttons in the gadget?

Have you tried waiting a while, like 30 seconds for example?

Vista Sidebar Gadget

Reply #20 –
Now it seems to work again, though switching to albums that do not have artwork (and that are not at amazon) doesn't work.

For example I switched from "Faust vs Dälek - Derbe Respect, Alder" to "John Duncan - Dark Market Broadcast" and after about 2 minutes it is still showing me the "Faust vs. Dälek" artwork and track information, instead of a blank screen and information about "John Duncan".

Vista Sidebar Gadget

Reply #21 –
And this is after you change the debug to 1?

Vista Sidebar Gadget

Reply #23 –
Is this just with some albums then? Not with all of them i assume.

Vista Sidebar Gadget

Reply #24 –
it's with all that i tested which is quite some by now.

Also notice that if you do not have the artwork in the folder, but it gets it from amazon, next time you go to an album with artwork in the folder it doesn't change. That's the case that it only changes when you use the buttons in the gadget.