Monkey Server 0.97 (2011-04-10) [MM3] w/Squeezebox Support

[trixmoto]

I look forward to checking this one out later tonight!

[MediaMan]

I have a similar problem to above. The web browser displays the library fine, but when I hit play, it prompts me to save a m3u file but does not play.

I checked for updates and have the lastest version. ( \AppData\Roaming\Bendable Bytes\Monkey Server\version.txt says : Sun 08/23/2009 08:15 PM) Same issue with Mon 08/24/2009 06:32 AM

I am running this on the same PC (vista) that MediaMonkey is installed - same PC as the library of songs I have.

Downloading the file gives me the same error as reproted before:

An error has occurred.

System.ArgumentException: The path is not of a legal form.
at System.IO.Path.NormalizePathFast(String path, Boolean fullCheck)
at System.IO.Path.NormalizePath(String path, Boolean fullCheck)
at System.IO.Path.GetFullPathInternal(String path)
at System.IO.FileInfo..ctor(String fileName)
at MonkeyServer.Response.PlaySong(String Path)
at MonkeyServer.Page.DownloadSong()
at MonkeyServer.Page.ProcessRequest(Request& theRequest, Response& theResponse)
at MonkeyServer.ServerConnection.HandleRequest()

[jednie]

mediamonkeys last.fm scrobbler does not scrobble any of the plays from the browser interface. could the .m3u files maybe be created with the full directory string or UNC path rather than a URL if being used on the same machine or same network, as then mm finds all the metadata and can keep track of playcounts, scrobble etc. on remote machines this is not as much of an issue as they will not have the files in the library anyway though scrobbling would still be nice from the remote machines.

This should be a pretty simple change but I think I am going to have to have some client (browser) configuration in order to make it work. If I take the approach of determining if the request is on the same network it may not work if the drives aren't mapped the same way. What I could do is provided a way to set a cookie on the client PC which would indicate if the PC wants to use the full directory string or the URL to play the file. Does this sound like it would work for you?

the download button link seems to be giving the same errors as the play buttons were earlier, maybe a path issue?

This will be fixed if you update now.

the image links do not appear to work maybe for same reason, getting a spinning icon but no images, i am guess it only sees actual images, not embedded ones? is this changeable as all artwork is embedded here at least.

I will try to get this one fixed later today. It is probably the same path issue that was causing problems with the MP3s.

played with search boxes a bit, seems you can search for songs that contain 2 or more of the same genres however it appears to do with the order they are in. eg : 'Genre: dubstep; experimental' finds 22 songs and 'Genre: experimental; dubstep' finds 12 different songs, all 34 songs have both dubstep and experimental as genre tags, just in different order.

Enhancing the search syntax is going to be one of my next changes. Right now it is pretty simply in that it just searches for the string anywhere within the artist, album, song or genre. It is interesting that you found the semi-colon feature in the genre as I was just messing around with using the semicolon as an "AND" operator but I didn't really like it so I just put that feature on hold until I can think it through some more. I would like to modify the search syntax so you can group with parens and use operators like AND, OR, and NOT. I would also like to use wildcards (*) if you want to find partial matches. I will probably wait on this change until after I can get this thing worthy of a 1.0 release.

jednie

[jednie]

I have a similar problem to above. The web browser displays the library fine, but when I hit play, it prompts me to save a m3u file but does not play.

This sounds like a browser configuration issue to me. Your browser should know what to do with M3U files and should send them to the associated media player. What browser are you using?

I checked for updates and have the lastest version. ( \AppData\Roaming\Bendable Bytes\Monkey Server\version.txt says : Sun 08/23/2009 08:15 PM)

I am running this on the same PC (vista) that MediaMonkey is installed - same PC as the library of songs I have.



Downloading the file gives me the same error as reproted before:

An error has occurred.

System.ArgumentException: The path is not of a legal form.
at System.IO.Path.NormalizePathFast(String path, Boolean fullCheck)
at System.IO.Path.NormalizePath(String path, Boolean fullCheck)
at System.IO.Path.GetFullPathInternal(String path)
at System.IO.FileInfo..ctor(String fileName)
at MonkeyServer.Response.PlaySong(String Path)
at MonkeyServer.Page.DownloadSong()
at MonkeyServer.Page.ProcessRequest(Request& theRequest, Response& theResponse)
at MonkeyServer.ServerConnection.HandleRequest()

I just released a fix for this a few moments ago so please update.

jednie

[MediaMan]

Same issue with Ver : Mon 08/24/2009 06:32 AM
Browser is IE7
Where would I tell it how to handle m3u files?

[jednie]

the image links do not appear to work maybe for same reason, getting a spinning icon but no images, i am guess it only sees actual images, not embedded ones? is this changeable as all artwork is embedded here at least.

RifRaf,

The image path issue is now fixed. Monkey Server does use the embedded images. I thought about having it search the song folder for artwork but it would slow down the search results so I decided to not go that way.

Thanks,
jednie

[jednie]

Same issue with Ver : Mon 08/24/2009 06:32 AM
Browser is IE7
Where would I tell it how to handle m3u files?

MediaMan,

- Open up Windows Explorer and select Tools | Folder Options...
- When the dialog box opens select the File Types tab
- Find M3U in the listbox, select it and click the advanced button

This will tell you what action you system is configured to take with M3U files. If M3U doesn't appear in the list you may want to click the Add button and following the prompts to get this configured correctly.

If this doesn't fix it there may be some type of security setting somewhere that prevents IE from launching the M3U file. I don't keep up on this stuff so maybe someone else here has insights into this.

jednie

[MediaMan]

Re m3u issue/suggestions, I will check that out tonight - thanks

Other questions

1) When I first launch Monkey server, I get a blank IE7 window on my desktop and a small icon in the task tray. I need to right click the task tray icon and select Open in order to see tthe database listing. Is this how its supposed to work?? I was expecting to see a populated window as soon as I launch Monkey Server

2) Is the intent of this app to:

a) offer an alterntive way to view the MM3 libray off the local machine - I assume YES
b) offer a way to remotely access the MM3 libray from wihin ones home network =-I assume YES
c) offer a way to remotely access the MM3 libray from any remote interent access point ??

3) Is this the thread (and this fourm) that you want users to provide feedback/suggestions on this product??

Tx

Mediaman

[jednie]

Re m3u issue/suggestions, I will check that out tonight - thanks

Other questions

1) When I first launch Monkey server, I get a blank IE7 window on my desktop and a small icon in the task tray. I need to right click the task tray icon and select Open in order to see tthe database listing. Is this how its supposed to work?? I was expecting to see a populated window as soon as I launch Monkey Server

I am not sure why the blank IE7 window is opening. This shouldn't be happening. Right now I only have it coded to create the icon in the system tray without opening the main window. That seems to be how most of these server type apps work. I could add a setting that you can configure to automatically display the songs in a browser window at startup if you want.

2) Is the intent of this app to:


a) offer an alterntive way to view the MM3 libray off the local machine - I assume YES

I didn't think of using it this way but I don't see why you couldn't

b) offer a way to remotely access the MM3 libray from wihin ones home network =-I assume YES

This way the main reason I wrote it. Having MediaMonkey access my database across a wireless network is very slow so I just wanted a quick way to browse and play music. Speed is also the main reason why I kept the interface simple.

c) offer a way to remotely access the MM3 libray from any remote interent access point ??

This is my secondary reason for writing this. If I am away from home this provides a means to access my library. I also like the ability to email a link to a friend if I want them to hear a song or list of songs.

3) Is this the thread (and this fourm) that you want users to provide feedback/suggestions on this product??

This is fine. Other people may have similar problems or questions.

jednie

[MediaMan]

Templates and Themes
Customizable templates and themes to make the interface look exactly as you want.

Where would I find the files for this and how can they be changed? Is it like a set of htm files???

Currently all I see is the genre cloud of tags as a header.

[MediaMan]

2) Is the intent of this app to:
b) offer a way to remotely access the MM3 library from within ones home network? I assume YES

This way the main reason I wrote it. Having MediaMonkey access my database across a wireless network is very slow so I just wanted a quick way to browse and play music. Speed is also the main reason why I kept the interface simple.
jednie

That' s excellent - precisely what many people are looking for. This will no doubt be a great enhancement to MM functioanlity and ease of use. Really looking forward to playing with this and offering suggestions. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your time and effort on this !

[jednie]

Templates and Themes
Customizable templates and themes to make the interface look exactly as you want.

Where would I find the files for this and how can they be changed? Is it like a set of htm files???

Currently all I see is the genre cloud of tags as a header.

I need to do a little more work on this part. Right now I have only include one template and one theme for that template. The method I am using for the templating is XSLT. When a page is requested an XML data file is created and it is fed to an XSLT processor which uses an XSL template and transforms it into an HTML document which is then send to the browser. The XSL template that I have included can be found in the following folder:

<program installation dir>\templates\default\

You can take a look at it if you like to get an idea how it works but it may change somewhat before I have it ready for additional templates. Once I have it ready I will put together some documentation that explains how to create additional templates or modify existing ones.

BTW, I am currently writing the XML data document out to the application's data folder for debug purposes. If you want to take a look the file is named xmldata.xml.

jednie

[RifRaf]

What I could do is provided a way to set a cookie on the client PC which would indicate if the PC wants to use the full directory string or the URL to play the file. Does this sound like it would work for you?

Sounds perfect. have also changed my mm db to use all UNC paths now and plan to scan in the same locations on another pc, so the paths will hopefully be the same for server and workstations.

download buttons working fine now.

image links only appearing for files that have a link to an external image, (nice how they display when selecting them btw). however for mp3 files with the images all embedded still not getting a link, this is not a big deal for me though, just saying what appears to be happening

Enhancing the search syntax is going to be one of my next changes.

yep you seem to want to add all the things i was thinking of, looking forward to updates, being able to use OR and AND will be a big help

[MediaMan]

Some off-the-cuff suggestions:

1) In the upper left corner, the program logically gives the user the option of 4 ways to search ( artist, album, song, genre). However when the program opens, the user is presented with a set of genre tags. Why not give the user the choice of what high level attibute they want to start with, If they click on genre, show the genre tags. if the click in artist, album or song, show tags for those instead, and t oconserve spaced , use A B C D etc,

2) when I click one of the genres from the cloud of Genre tags, there is no direct way to go back. Also some times I lose track of what filter is currently applied. Perhaps introduce a breadrcrumb approach, ie

Genres > Pop > Beatles > Yesterday

3) add basic media player type functions, ie Volume; Prev Track; Next track; Pause

4) show art work for the now playing track

[jednie]

What I could do is provided a way to set a cookie on the client PC which would indicate if the PC wants to use the full directory string or the URL to play the file. Does this sound like it would work for you?

Sounds perfect. have also changed my mm db to use all UNC paths now and plan to scan in the same locations on another pc, so the paths will hopefully be the same for server and workstations.

RifRaf,

I just released a new version in which I have added a new link at the top right called Settings. This will take you to the Client Settings form where you can select "Use local file path when playing songs". This setting will be saved as a cookie on that PC and only effect how it plays on that PC.

image links only appearing for files that have a link to an external image, (nice how they display when selecting them btw). however for mp3 files with the images all embedded still not getting a link, this is not a big deal for me though, just saying what appears to be happening

I will have to research this one as I don't know how to pull the images out of the MP3 files. If anyone can offer insight I would appreciate it.

Thanks,
jednie