Stations V3-2

[raybeau528]

EDIT PEKE: last Version V3.2 is hosted at http://www.happymonkeying.com/plugin.php?q=300078

Stations V3-0 is completely rewritten and replaces the buttons panel and the options panel with 3 icon-driven
functions.

Right Click on a Node or PlayList in the Tree then select "Set Station" to associate a Station with a Node or PlayList
- Select New Station to create a new Station
- or select an existing Station to associate
Click Edit/ReSet Station to clear a previously set Station
Click on the Play Station Icon to play the tracks from the associated PlayList or Node

There is no arbitrary limit of 10 stations or 10 node/playlists per stations with V3-0. The On-Play-Action is
determined from the Options/Player/On-Play action settings rather than the Options/Stations settings.

V3-2 includes the requested option to sort the stations as well as improved performance with new
MediaMonkey 'event'. MediaMonkey v3.1.0.1218 required.

An installation package is available here: http://www.mediafire.com/?yhjt2yqdr3i


History
20-Jan-2009 Adjusted Play-Now action to best follow MM's action
24-Jan-2009 Added requested option to sort Stations. Default is not sorted.


This new script, Stations, is similar in functionality to mmStations but has been rewritten to implement two major changes.
1. Stations supports 10-100 Stations (buttons) to which you can assign playlists. The top button, in vertical layout, or left button in horizontal layout, allows you to toggle between A,B,C...J sets of 10 buttons each. The number of station Sets, 1-10, is user-settable in the options panel.

2. The method to assign playlists has completely changed from the options panel method in mmStations. With Stations, you right-click on a playlist and select "Set Station", then select one of A,B,C,D,E then the individual station. The button name is automatically assigned the playlist name. Note long playlist names may overrun the button size. The Button "Hint" will display the entire node or playlist name.

V2.0 adds the ability to select any Node, in addition to Playlists, to assign to a station. Nodes can be artists, albums, genres, Magic Nodes, MegaDJ nodes, etc.

A couple of major caveats with the first implementation of this feature, with large collections, 1) it can be much slower than with playlists and 2) it may not retrieve all of the tracks with large (thousands) of tracks in the node.

Version 2-5 adds a toolbar icon to select and play associated node/playlists. This version incorporates some
Media Monkey v3.1 code and is therefore only supported on v3.1. Use for testing purposes at this time.

( Version 2-7): http://www.mediafire.com/?ywyqiiyzudc


A V2-4 installation package is available here: http://www.mediafire.com/?egy0ydidnt4

History:
1-Jan-2009 Increased number of stations to 50 (A-B-C-D-E Stations Sets).
3-Jan-2009 Added feature to select any node in addition to playlists.
5-Jan-2009 Add support for MegaDJ nodes.
6-Jan-2009 Added support for 10-100 stations, set in options panel.
8-Jan-2009 Added ability to name the Station Sets via the options panel. Performance has been improved for
node selections. Playlists are still the fastest method.
9-Jan-2009 Added ability to Reset (clear) a set station by right clicking in the Tree, select ReSet Station and
follow link to station to be ReSet.
14-Jan-2009 Added toolbar icon to play nodes/playlists
15-Jan-2009 Added option in Tools/Options/Stations to hide the buttons panel and/or the Station Icon
Also improved performance of seeking to a node and the right-click/toolbar menus.
17-Jan-2009 Cosmetic changes - added custom icons.


mmStations has been updated to allow both mmStations and Stations to co-exist for testing and comparison purposes. An
installation package is available here: http://www.mediafire.com/?evozjtmzmnw

Any and all comments/feedback are welcome.




mmStations is a new script that allows you to assign playlists to buttons in a dockable panel. Just click the button to play the associated playlist.


History: 6-Nov-2008 New implementation to better sync trackswindow with nowplaying window
Fixed navigation to operate like classic MM
Added more buttons - now 10
Added option to set how tracks are added to Now Playing
Major rewrite to accomodate some requests
Added ability to edit a station button in the main tracks window by clicking the button twice
you can still set all buttons in the options panel
Added program title and version to the title bar along with the name of the playlist
currently playing
investigating not including playlists with no tracks
investigating unexpanding the playlist after traversing the playlist tree
known issue: playlists with duplicate names - only last one shows in pulldown list

9-Nov-2008 Introducing V2.0, a major rewrite with several improvements and requests
The structure in the MediaMonkey.ini file has changed and this version will update
the file to work with this version.
The annoying expanding of the playlist tree has been eliminated.
The list of playlists in the pulldown field is now indented to reflect position in the tree
Resolved issue with duplicate playlist names not being recognized, duplicate playlists
will display a count, (n) after the name.
Expanded the button size in the vertical layout to support longer station names.
It may not be feasible to omit empty playlists. The performance hit is unacceptable.
10-Nov-2008 Uploaded minor version 2.1. Fixed problem with duplicate playlists. If you're running V2.0
already, when you install this version, the first thing to do is go to
tools/options/mmStations and click OK.
11-Nov-2008 Uploaded minor version 2.2. Fixed problem with changes in PlayList (rename, moving).
PlayLists can now be renamed or moved and retain association with assigned Station
button.
14-Nov-2008 Fixed problem reported by Fuzzynavel that occurred in the options section when a
playlist was not assigned to a station.
14-Nov-2008 New version - 2.4, fixes a problem whereby tracks were added twice to nowplaying if the
when the option "Add Tracks" is selected.
27-Nov-2008 Uploaded minor version 2.5. Fixed SDB.Inifile issue in 3.1 beta. Fixed cosmetic issues in options
whereby some checkbox captions were being truncated. Made vertical layout and auto start default
values.

Many thanks to Trixmoto for his code to traverse the playlist tree!

Any/all comments/suggestions are welcome.

The dockable panel can be configured in a horizontal or vertical orientation.

This is an image of the horizontal orientation docked to the bottom of the main tracks window:



Here's how the vertical orientation looks docked with the Now Playing window:

[nynaevelan]

Ok:

I think I may be missing something but how do I get the playlists onto the buttons?? Also, I cannot get it to dock horizontally, it looks the same as the vertical panel. And a title bar would be nice also. Thanks.

Nyn

[raybeau528]

Go to Tools/Options/mmStations - That's where you assign the title and playlists to the buttons, as well as select horizontal or vertical alignment and autostart.

Ray

[nynaevelan]

Go to Tools/Options/mmStations - That's where you assign the title and playlists to the buttons, as well as select horizontal or vertical alignment and autostart.

Ray

Ok, sorry I looked for it there I guess I must have missed it. Now that I have it setup, I have a request or two and a problem.

1. I would like a title bar, a little anal I know but I like my MM to symetrical.
2. Six stations are not going to be nearly enough, could this be something that is more user configurable? Something that could be arranged neatly in rows or columns. I like the potential of this, as I am a user with a significant amount of playlists it is going to be HARD to limit myself to only six.
3. Now when I click on any playlists it adds that one to the now playing list and starts playing it. It should only be doing this if I select one of the buttons or right-clicks and tells it to play the playlist. I do not want it to start playing on a playlist each time I click on one. I am going to have to turn it off until this can be changed because this hinders my navigation through MM.

Nyn

[raybeau528]

Nyn,

New version is available in post 1. Fixed problem with navigation issue.

I avoided the title bar to reduce the size of the window but I understand why some would want it. What would you suggest for the title bar? Radio ? Stations? My Stations? mmStations?

More than 6 might be problematic in the horizontal orientation - they won't fit. Would you mostly use it in a vertical orientation? How many? Should the buttons be smaller?

[nynaevelan]

Nyn,

New version is available in post 1. Fixed problem with navigation issue.

Ok this has been fixed, much better since I do alot of navigating through playlists.

I avoided the title bar to reduce the size of the window but I understand why some would want it. What would you suggest for the title bar? Radio ? Stations? My Stations? mmStations?

mmStations with the version number is good enough for me...

More than 6 might be problematic in the horizontal orientation - they won't fit. Would you mostly use it in a vertical orientation? How many? Should the buttons be smaller?

I would probably always use the horizontal view because it would fit better with my other panels. Because of the additional buttons I was thinking of separating it into two rows. You could make the buttons a little smaller but not by too much, maybe cut them in half?
I could probably limit myself to 10 but if I do that have you given any thought to an easier way to change the buttons. Also, maybe an option to right click them to add to the end of the now playing??

Nyn

[raybeau528]

I'll have to think about increasing the number of buttons.

The options panel seems to be the classic mm method to set user-settable parameters. Suggestions? You mentioned right-clicking, perhaps a pop or something.

I could add another option in the options sheet to set how the tracks should be added to the now playing, ie, clear and add, add to end etc.

Ray

[nynaevelan]

I'll have to think about increasing the number of buttons.

If you cut the size of the current buttons in half you should be able to fit in two more without it being too crowded. I can live with that, especially if we can come up with a workable solution to changing them other than the Options Sheet.

The options panel seems to be the classic mm method to set user-settable parameters. Suggestions? You mentioned right-clicking, perhaps a pop or something.

If you could add a section to the popup menu that would work for me.

I could add another option in the options sheet to set how the tracks should be added to the now playing, ie, clear and add, add to end etc.

Ray

A clear and add, add next or add to end would work for me. Sorry for making more work for you but I do like the script.

Nyn

[raybeau528]

No problem at all..I appreciate your feedback and suggestions...that's how it should evolve into a more useable extension.

I was already thinking about cutting the button size down which should be able to support up to 10. You'll just have to keep the Button Names short.

Ray

[raybeau528]

New version available for download in the first post. Added more buttons, up to 10, and added option to set how tracks are added to Now Playing. Thanks to Nyn for his suggestions!

Ray

[nynaevelan]

New version available for download in the first post. Added more buttons, up to 10, and added option to set how tracks are added to Now Playing. Thanks to Nyn for his suggestions!

Ray

HER

Nyn

[nynaevelan]

Very nice, I like this One minor thing but it is not absolutely critical. Is it possible to not include parent playlists that do not have any tracks in it??

Nyn

[fuzzynavel]

I was unable to install - there was a message saying "invalid product installation". I was able to install (and later uninstall) the 1.0 version, but this newer version throws the error.

[nynaevelan]

Hi Ray:

I have two questions one relating to the script and one not:

1. Is it possible for the script not to expand all the playlists when it is run? I have a lot of playlists and this makes navigation more difficult.
2. I see the script creates a mmstations playlist before it sends the tracks to the now playing list. Is it possible via a script for the tracks in the now playing list be sent to a playlist via a button?

Nyn

[raybeau528]

nyn, 1. when you requested to not include the parent playlist are you referring to not listing it in the pulldown?
If so, I can look into it. Probably wouldn't be too difficult.
2. not expanding the playlist - yeah, that isn't very elegant or user friendly. That was kind of what motivated me to
create this in the first place. So that I could quickly invoke a set of playlists without scanning through the list.
At best, I think I could unexpand up to the first level. With this implementation, as you saw, I had to create a
playlist and then set focus to it but as I'm writing this I'm thinking I could probably unexpand it all. It's on the list!
3. It should be relatively easy to create a playlist and send the tracks from the now playing to it. Tell me a little
more and I could help you with that.

fuzzynavel, were there any other messages? I should be uploading a newer version soon and hopefully that will install ok.

Ray