NowPlaying plugin - Multiple Media Player Support

[jsmorley]

"Think what iam saying is there has to be a balance between what power users want and what those that merely want to use rainmeter."

I don't disagree, and we have done a lot to make Rainmeter easier to "use" over time, including a complete revamp of the context menus, lots of addons like RainBrowser and RainThemes, things to simplify installing skins like RainStaller, and the list goes on. We do want the "use" of Rainmeter to be as clear and consistent and easy as possible.

However, that has nothing at all to do with how skins are designed by their authors. We don't tell authors how to create skins, or what functionality they should or shouldn't put in them. How colors in a skin are or are not set has nothing at all to do with Rainmeter. The Rainmeter tool offers about a hundred ways to do stuff like that if an author wants to learn the tool and be a little creative, but it is entirely up to the author. Kaelri and several others have gone to great lengths to make their skins very customizable with little or no Rainmeter knowledge, and that's very cool. However, none of them would ever be mistaken for a good skin to start with learning how to customize or create skins. My initial point (which I guess I kinda wandered away from) is that the skin that comes with NowPlaying, as well as the illustro skins that are automatically installed with Rainmeter, are meant to demonstrate functionality while being "accessible" to someone wanting to learn Rainmeter rather than being something that was intended to be perfect or fits everyone's needs without any editing.

[smurfier]

Is there / could there be, a method to have / emulate an "OnPlayerClose" action that would maintain the multi-program support that is already implemented?

[poiru]

Is there / could there be, a method to have / emulate an "OnPlayerClose" action that would maintain the multi-program support that is already implemented?

Yes, I will probably add this for the next beta. I haven't decided on the implementation; might go for something like:

Code: Select all

[mStatus]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=NowPlaying.dll
PlayerName=[mPlayer]
PlayerType=STATUS
; returns 0 for inactive and 1 for active
IfEqualValue=0
IfEqualAction=...
IfAboveValue=0
IfAboveAction=...

Forgot to mention that it's iTunes with the volume error.

It seems that the issue is with iTunes, not NowPlaying. I sent a bug report to Apple.

[Kaelri]

Might be better to have the plugin simply return 1/0, and have the skin pass it to a CALC measure for further action.

[poiru]

Might be better to have the plugin simply return 1/0, and have the skin pass it to a CALC measure for further action.

That is what I meant. Updated the example to better reflect my idea. Not quite sure why a Calc measure would be needed, though.

[Kaelri]

That is what I meant. Updated the example to better reflect my idea. Not quite sure why a Calc measure would be needed, though.

Just tradition, I suppose. NowPlaying doesn't typically (or rather, doesn't consistently) return numeric values, so having above/below/equal syntax in the NowPlaying measure could be counterintuitive. Not a big deal, though. At any rate, there's no technical issue I can think of.

[Zerrick]

Would it be possible to find more cover art than just those named cover and folder? Most of my images are called "*cover", "*front" or "%album%".

Maybe by making the search patterns a user setting? For example:

Code: Select all

CoverNames=*cover, folder, %embedded%
CoverNames=*cover, *front, [mAlbum]

I know this makes the plugin more bloated and complicated. I could also write a Lua script to solve this for me.

[smurfier]

Yes, I will probably add this for the next beta. I haven't decided on the implementation; might go for something like:

Code: Select all

[mStatus]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=NowPlaying.dll
PlayerName=[mPlayer]
PlayerType=STATUS
; returns 0 for inactive and 1 for active
IfEqualValue=0
IfEqualAction=...
IfAboveValue=0
IfAboveAction=...

I love this implementation as it allows for both an open and a close action, and the actions themselves are handled with rainmeter.

[poiru]

Would it be possible to find more cover art than just those named cover and folder? Most of my images are called "*cover", "*front" or "%album%".
...

Not for now, at least. I'll add it to my to-do list.

[poiru]

Make sure you're using the latest Rainmeter 2.1 beta (r834). Set PlayerName=CAD in the skin (and refresh it) and follow the instructions below:

Then, download the plugin and copy the .dll into the VLC plugins folder (usually Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\plugins).

Then, open VLC -> Tools -> Preferences. Select 'All' under 'Show settings'. Expand 'Interface', then click on 'Control interfaces' and activate the 'CAD Now-Playing' interface. Restart VLC.

Pretty much everything should work. Let me know how it goes.