WebMonkey R10 - 2006/04/07

[thisyear]

Don't seem to see a webmonkey assistance thread anywhere. I can't seem to get playback to work, and i have enabled it in the settings.asp. Can anyone offer assistance? I'll shoot you my IP so you can check out the webmonkey install.

[Lowlander]

Sure, you can PM me with any problems you have.

[Teknojnky]

An idea for next version...

The Mip Mixer has rudementry streaming support, I suggest adding a link to create a mix via the mip mixer (has to have services running) at the track, artist, album, genre levels.

You could either the mip services handle the streaming, simply pass the correct url with applicable track/artist/album/genre, or you could retreive the playlist and handle the streaming with webmonkey.

Right now, it seems the current implemntation (of mip streaming) is downloading the m3u playlist with http embedded tracks.

With webmonkey forming the url (instead of the user having to manually format it), it could be alot nicer to use.


edit:

Also, is there a way to use a zip file instead of tar? XP has a built in zip folder functionality, I don't know if it's accessble via command line or programatically via dll or not.

Even just putting a commandline to winzip or other suitable compressor in the settings would work. I would want the files added uncompressed to save cpu cycles trying to compress mp3 files.

Does the current tarball try to compress the files at all?

[Lowlander]

No tarball doesn't compress at all, it just groups the files together as one download. It was chosen as is a 100% ASP implementation. I prefer to keep things 100% ASP as this prevents all kinds of problems configuring WebMonkey on a wide variety of systems with a range of user knowledge levels.

[Teknojnky]

Why does creating the tarballs use so much cpu?

[Lowlander]

I don't know as it isn't my code, but maybe because it's done in ASP.

If you create a module for the zip functionality it can be included in the same way the tar is done, by sending the code the list of songs. I will include this code into MediaMonkey if it's created as an option.

[Nautme]

The TAR code is ASP, but uses the ADO Stream object to read and write to files. If you look at the ASPTar page, there isn't actually a lot of ASP code. I would guess that it's just the shear size of the reads and writes that causes the jump in CPU cycles. Each file is read, and then appended to a temp file (in memory via the ADO Stream) and then the entire stream is returned as the Response.

I've tried using WinZip via a command line from a web page and it isn't necessarily a great option. Depending on the server, you may not have the ability to run a command line application or use a COM object, that's why Lowlander prefers the ASP only solution. The TAR implementation was used because, though it uses the ADO Stream, most servers already have the ADO object on them. Also, compressing MP3 files via WinZip doesn't really provide a big savings and would eat up CPU cycles attempting to compress, already compressed data. I asked Lowlander for the TAR implementaion simply as a way to download multiple files.

Lowlander - Anything new on v11?

[Lowlander]

I'm working hard on v11, despite a lack of time. It will focus mainly on the skinning, with great improvements being made. I've run into one problem whereby the include path for include files can't contain a variable. I still haven't been able to find a way to include an asp variables page from the skin folder based on the skin choosen.

[Nautme]

I had a feature request if you're interested.

I have a rather large library and I'm always adding songs. It would be nice if there was a node for new items or possibly a way to search for new items. Maybe new within the last day/week/month/3 months could be nodes under the tree. Or maybe just a way to search by new within the last x days. You could make a keyword or something to search from the search box (ie NEW:10 or LAST:50).

While thinking of that, I thought about maybe a more advanced search page. Something to be used as a home page rather than just a blank one when logging in. You could put Artist, Album, Title, and maybe the Added in the last x days there. You could even add bitrate, rating, size, and who knows what else there. I'd be happy to work up the page if you like.

I look forward to the next release.

[Lowlander]

The playlist node can show the recently added playlists.

I was hoping to add an advanced search page. The advanced search page would be opened in the tracklisting and would open the results in the tracklisting.asp page. If your willing to code this, that would be great. My main deficiencies in this project are SQL which would be required to complete this advanced search page.

I know that the last release has been a while, but I've been rather busy lately. I will try to finish up the code soon.

[Lowlander]

And another alternative to get to your music collection. VibeStreamer

[Nautme]

I know the feeling... I've been pretty busy myself.

I don't really use playlists myself, so that's not really an option for me.

I would be willing to code the advanced page. Do you have any thoughts on how to implement it? Design, features, etc...

[Lowlander]

As far as features I was thinking along the lines of the basic search in MediaMonkey. The design is not all important as I can fix that up after the code is ready.

[shagmanx]

Sorry not sure where to post this.

1. Using WebMonkey for awhile now.. older version..just recently updated and also saw the new "Album Art extractor" I processed on all my songs which worked fine, even put all the *.jpg's in the webmonkey/img/album folder by adjusting the script. I can cross check that album ID 695 (example) is the correct image 695.jpg and so on for all the "albums". But when viewing WebMonkey and doing various searches, or changing the views.. I still don't see any images.. I've gone through the settings.asp but don't see a specific option to "show album art" Yes / No, so not sure what else may be going on. Advise, suggestions..

2. Like I stated above, been using an older version for awhile (no sure ver #) and now the ability to play from local/windowed playlist is not working, it is enabled, visable, songs get added but nothing happens when clicking on play either above list (small button) or below list?

thanks

Shag

[Lowlander]

Album art only shows in the album or album cover views which can be enabled in the settings (blnTrackListingsType = 0).

You first need to hit play on the now playing list and then on the player. Also some path configurations have changed. You could save the playlist to your PC from the now playing list and open that playlist in notepad. Are the paths listed correct?