InTune, WMP Options

[CSM]

InTunev1.7
A WMP (WidgetMediaPlayer... , WindowsMediaPlayer) Widget

Download Here

I originally created this for a "friend". It interfaces with Windows Media Player.
Overall I think that the features outweigh the annoyances, and this is well worth it to download.

I used a self-built "library" (.js file) to do all of my WMP functions. This means that developers/programmers can take this and use it elsewhere. Only two functions in the library have try...catch blocks. This is to allow the root Widget to be able to have better more flexible (intelligent?) error messages, by trapping errors at the calling source, not the function source.
The two that do, are the most important thought. One is the script that connects to WMP.

There is a "document" that pops up on first run that explains a little bit more about certain features. To make it go away, click the red circle (x-button) to the upper left. It will keep appearing, if you close/reload the widget with it open (initially). If you open it from the context menu, it will not reload itself on reloading of the Widget.

Features:

• Main Features:
  • Randomizes songs from your whole WMP library.
  • Play only 30 seconds on up to 2 minutes of songs*
    • If song ends before timer, it will randomize a "new" one
  • Or hear the whole song (default)
• Display:
  • Shows Title, Album, Artist (if available)
  • Scrolls Song titles (only if longer than the display)
• Buttons:
  • Previous song button (last song listened to)
  • Next song button (Always randomizes a "new"/new* song)
  • Play
  • Pause
  • Stop (Double click play/pause button)
• Extra Tray:
  • Shows song length (static text, not a bar)
  • Shows play count (# of times a song has been heard)
  • Includes system volume control. (including mute)
  • Shows current system volume.
• Supports multiple randomize based "play modes":
  • Random Playall (default on loading, I believe.)
  • Within a specific album
  • Within a specific genre
  • Within a specific artist
  • Within a playlist
  • A single song
  • "Album of the day" (randomly picks a single album to play from, can be done multiple times per day ).
• Hotkey to bring forward or send back the widget (show/hide):
  • Can choose "levels"
    • Can choose where to come forward to
    • Can choose where to send back to
  • Can choose hotkey combo.

Known Annoyances:

• Sometimes tray open/close buttons don't initialize.

* Arlo thinks that you shouldn't subject people to just the first two minutes of a song. I agree. But I offer it for personal choice.
Mentioned Here

* Hitting the previous button goes through all the previously played songs (until the beginning of the array, when the widget was started).
But, hitting next always will give you "new" song (even if you have heard it before, hence the "" ).

[CSM]

I joke about "Widget Media Player" because if I ever gt good enough, It would be cool to have a Java based media player that wouldn't need iTunes, WMP, CMSO, or WinAmp (did I miss any?), with a Widget interface.
This way you would have more control over sounds and it would be cross platform.

However, I just started learning Java, and I suck (not too bad, though ). My background was in non-object oriented programming (Q-BASIC, True-BASIC [which sucked, even though it was supposed to be "better"]...)
The closest I came early on was NQC (Not Quite C) to run LEGO NCX robots around. (! )

However, I love this JavaScript + XML language.

[CSM]

I "followed" Jozer99 to my first post about the WMP API, wow, I have come along way on this.

I was asking n00b questions on how to get code directly ripped out of another's code to work right.
And now, this widget includes a "library" for others to use.


I really like this widget despite the fact that I use CMSO for all my music. I would completely switch over to using this all the time if I had the timing/timer right for song length (WMP reports the wrong length. I round off the milliseconds, but that shouldn't matter).

[CSM]

Wow. Look at all the responses this widget got. If no one has any problems with it, I could put into the gallery as is.

Updates/Fixes:

• I figured out how to fix the song timer error. I now check WMP for a status of "stopped", which it seems to report when the song is done. I also differentiate between pushing the stop button and the song ending. (to prevent problems, as both cause WMP to report "stopped")
  This means that I use one less timer! At most, this widget will have three timers going at once. One for song information, one for time until the song changes (30 sec to 2 min), and the timer that checks for the song being over. Default settings will only use 2, (No forced song change)
• The click (the next button) twice to start a song is fixed.
• I also fixed the bug that causes the player to generate an error when you click the next button after just loading the widget.

To Do:

• I just used Process Explorer, and this widget uses up to 3% CPU. That's terrible. Maybe if I set the end-of-song timer to longer seconds, I can offset it a bit, but will people notice the longer break between songs?
• I like the top window If I eliminated the system volume control, and place the song length and UserPlayCount elsewhere. This way I only need the top part.

[CSM]

I give up.

I know it sounds stupid to give up after all this work, but I just found Widget Media Player. When my "friend" wanted a WMP Widget, I should have just looked in the gallery first.

Mine sucks in comparison. My self-created library uses WMP in compatibility mode for version 7. His doesn't even need that. Plus he has a much better interface. I couldn't even get WMP to report current media position (for a moving bar).