PrettyPictures (Album Art Browser) [MM 3]

[kraymer]

Deleting the files _cachedAlbums.xml and _curAlbums.xml before caching the pictures helped me to make things work.
Without doing this pictures were deleted as soon as the caching process finished that's why i had no covers.

[Guest]

Something similar to PP design. Thought it might interest. Scroll down to bottom of page for the Gallery Browser.

http://www.digitalblasphemy.com/freegallery.shtml

[Eminent]

I really enjoy the script, even though the lack of a few key features means that I still prefer Coverflow (that doesn't mean the script isn't insanely impressive). Now I'm sure you've gotten request for these Coverflow features before, so I'll focus on a few smaller things as well as a rather exotic one. First of all, I'd love the ability to remove the titlebar (though I don't know whether or not the inability to do so is caused by Mediamonkey and not the script), the ability to change the background color, the abilty to "lock" which albums are viewed (so you don't lose the view of all albums in favor of, say, the one you've just selected in the tree), and the inclusion of a more traditional scrollbar (for thoese with tons of albums). Finally I would love it if it could interoperate with Magic Nodes (though that is probably far to much to ask for, without Magic Node being built into MM).

Thanks for an awesome script.

[Guest]

Thanks for this. It's fantastic!

[tunasashimi]

i can't get PP to work. i get the error message that "flash player 9 may run slow" and then i am asked to enable active x settings. this happens everytime i start MM.

any thoughts?


[edit]i got it to work, finally. i just had to change the .ini settings. however, all i get now are boxes with the artist and album names. no pictures? anyone know what the problem could be?

thanks.

[Nebbin]

You need to cache all the album covers first before PP will show them. There's a button on the toolbar to do this "Cache Pretty Pictures" (yellow with blue cross). Every time you update / add to your database you'll need to run Quick Cache.

[tunasashimi]

thanks for helping this newbie.

and my extreme gratitude to dale. excellent work!

You need to cache all the album covers first before PP will show them. There's a button on the toolbar to do this "Cache Pretty Pictures" (yellow with blue cross). Every time you update / add to your database you'll need to run Quick Cache.

[tunasashimi]

oopppsss. sorry. my post was quite premature as i was still caching the pics.

after caching, it shows the album covers, but only one at a time, that is, once i move the mouse button, another album cover is shown but the previous one goes back to being a white square.

hmmmm....

[Nebbin]

This simply means you haven't changed the node since caching finished. Try clicking on another node and return. It should all then display correctly. (It would be nice to have this update automatically, but I'm not sure it's possible yet. Maybe with MM3.)

[Nebbin]

One problem I'm having with this script, is updating to new album art. I've found if you add & cache one image, then the only way to change it is to find the file in the cache directory and delete it. Only then will the Pretty Pictures script check and update to the newer image you've added. This is fairly easy for a newly added album, but having to rifle through 3500+ album covers for one done in the past is a little daunting. The moral of the story may be "get it right the first time"

Also Dale, have you had any luck getting the script to install the first image in the list, rather than the last? (ie. if you have multiple images per album, such as front cover + back cover images.)

[DaledeSilva]

One problem I'm having with this script, is updating to new album art. I've found if you add & cache one image, then the only way to change it is to find the file in the cache directory and delete it. Only then will the Pretty Pictures script check and update to the newer image you've added. This is fairly easy for a newly added album, but having to rifle through 3500+ album covers for one done in the past is a little daunting. The moral of the story may be "get it right the first time"

if you click "cache Pretty Pictures" instead of "QUICK cache pretty pictures... it should do all albums again and update them.

Also Dale, have you had any luck getting the script to install the first image in the list, rather than the last? (ie. if you have multiple images per album, such as front cover + back cover images.)

Sorry, still haven't been able to work on it for while.

First of all, I'd love the ability to remove the titlebar (though I don't know whether or not the inability to do so is caused by Mediamonkey and not the script), the ability to change the background color, the abilty to "lock" which albums are viewed (so you don't lose the view of all albums in favor of, say, the one you've just selected in the tree), and the inclusion of a more traditional scrollbar (for thoese with tons of albums). Finally I would love it if it could interoperate with Magic Nodes (though that is probably far to much to ask for, without Magic Node being built into MM).

titlebar can't be removed atm... maybe in MM 3.0

Background colour has always been on the todo.. but is very low priority..

have thought about locking before... (back when I was having refreshing issues... I'll add that to the to do).

SCROLLBAR - while it doesn't look like one, the background behind all the images IS a traditional scrollbar. if you can't see the handle properly, go to 'visual options' and make the fade to edges (scrolldown), a value of zero.. at the moment the handle colour can't be changed and is a very subtle grey...
also, check out my previous post on it: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... c&start=75
(longest post on the page - I mention five ways to navigate)

magic nodes - not sure what you mean.. it works with any view already (so whould be working with Magic Nodes) - I assume you want them to work differently... how?

Something similar to PP design. Thought it might interest. Scroll down to bottom of page for the Gallery Browser.

http://www.digitalblasphemy.com/freegallery.shtml

thanks for that link.. looks good.. you can make that exact view with PP too



Dale,

ps. some of this information keeps getting asked over and over again.. when I get the chance I'll put summaries of FAQ's on the webpage.

Dale.

[Nebbin]

if you click "cache Pretty Pictures" instead of "QUICK cache pretty pictures... it should do all albums again and update them.

urk... I thought I'd tried that... guess not I might use that to my advantage with my other issue though. All the albums which have multiple images, I'll place the one I want viewed in PP at the end, then execute a full Cache Images. Then, I'll change them all back. Voila! Yeah, it's a bit of work, but all albums will have the correct image in PP, and subsequent quick caches won't overwrite them. (Obviously it's only a stand-by method until you have a chance to find the problem).

Thanks.

[Eminent]

SCROLLBAR - while it doesn't look like one, the background behind all the images IS a traditional scrollbar. if you can't see the handle properly, go to 'visual options' and make the fade to edges (scrolldown), a value of zero.. at the moment the handle colour can't be changed and is a very subtle grey...
also, check out my previous post on it: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... c&start=75
(longest post on the page - I mention five ways to navigate)

magic nodes - not sure what you mean.. it works with any view already (so whould be working with Magic Nodes) - I assume you want them to work differently... how?

With regards to the scrollbar issue. Forget it, Pretty Pictures is a dream to navigate, it just took me a bit of time to figure out the tricks

As for Magic Nodes, I now realize that what I "wanted" is simply not possible. However, I still think it would be neat if it where possible to lock the album art shown, and then have PP functon like Cover Flow so that the main "window" scrolls down/up to the selected album. Other than that, I wonder whether or not it is possible to display "artist name - album name" below the art.

[m_bojangles]

Dale, this is an awesome plug-in! My wife, who thinks I'm all too anal retentive about my music, even said, "Wow, that cover flipping thing is really cool. I'd even use that." I look forward to any updates you might be able to provide.

Top priority for me is to have PP choose the front album cover. If it can't do it intelligently off of metadata, then at least have it pick the first image stored to the tag as opposed to the last.

Thanks for PrettyPictures and thanks in advance for any future versions you can release in your limited free time.

[DaledeSilva]

okay.. quick dirty fix for the caching of the front cover problem...

this quick fix still doesn't check if the image is set as "cover" but it does take the very first image instead of the last.

in scripts/auto.. edit (in notepad) prettypictures.vbs

press ctrl-F and search for

Function getAlbumArt

then, replace this text that you see:

Code: Select all

Function getAlbumArt(path,id)  
  getAlbumArt = False
  If id = 0 Then Exit Function
  
  Dim iter : Set iter = SDB.Database.QuerySongs("AND (Songs.IDAlbum="&id&")")
  If iter.EOF Then Exit Function
  
  Dim pics : Set pics = iter.Item.Album.AlbumArt
  If pics Is Nothing Then Exit Function
  
  Set iter = Nothing
  
  Dim i, img, outimg, jpg, sjpg
  
  For i = 0 To pics.Count-1 
    Set img = pics.Item(i).Image
    If Not (img Is Nothing) Then
	  'resize into a large version
      Set jpg = img.ConvertFormat(ImageSize,ImageSize,"image/jpeg",85,-1)
	  'resize into a small version
	  Set sjpg = img.ConvertFormat(sImageSize,sImageSize,"image/jpeg",85,-1)
	  
      If Not (jpg Is Nothing) Then
        'Save large image
		getAlbumArt = path&id&".jpg"
        Set outimg = SDB.Tools.FileSystem.CreateTextFile(getAlbumArt, True)
        outimg.WriteData jpg.ImageData, jpg.ImageDataLen
        outimg.Close
        getAlbumArt = id&".jpg"
		'save small image
		getAlbumArt = path&"sm_"&id&".jpg"
        Set outimg = SDB.Tools.FileSystem.CreateTextFile(getAlbumArt, True)
        outimg.WriteData sjpg.ImageData, sjpg.ImageDataLen
        outimg.Close
        
		getAlbumArt = True
		
      End If
    End If
  Next
  
  Set pics = Nothing
  Set i = Nothing
  Set img = Nothing
  Set outimg = Nothing
  Set jpg = Nothing
  Set sjpg = Nothing
  
End Function

with this text:

Code: Select all

Function getAlbumArt(path,id)  
  getAlbumArt = False
  If id = 0 Then Exit Function
  
  Dim iter : Set iter = SDB.Database.QuerySongs("AND (Songs.IDAlbum="&id&")")
  If iter.EOF Then Exit Function
  
  Dim pics : Set pics = iter.Item.Album.AlbumArt
  If pics Is Nothing Then Exit Function
  
  Set iter = Nothing
  
  Dim i, img, outimg, jpg, sjpg

  i = 0
    Set img = pics.Item(i).Image
    If Not (img Is Nothing) Then
	  'resize into a large version
      Set jpg = img.ConvertFormat(ImageSize,ImageSize,"image/jpeg",85,-1)
	  'resize into a small version
	  Set sjpg = img.ConvertFormat(sImageSize,sImageSize,"image/jpeg",85,-1)
	  
      If Not (jpg Is Nothing) Then
        'Save large image
		getAlbumArt = path&id&".jpg"
        Set outimg = SDB.Tools.FileSystem.CreateTextFile(getAlbumArt, True)
        outimg.WriteData jpg.ImageData, jpg.ImageDataLen
        outimg.Close
        getAlbumArt = id&".jpg"
		'save small image
		getAlbumArt = path&"sm_"&id&".jpg"
        Set outimg = SDB.Tools.FileSystem.CreateTextFile(getAlbumArt, True)
        outimg.WriteData sjpg.ImageData, sjpg.ImageDataLen
        outimg.Close
        
		getAlbumArt = True
		
      End If
    End If
  
  Set pics = Nothing
  Set i = Nothing
  Set img = Nothing
  Set outimg = Nothing
  Set jpg = Nothing
  Set sjpg = Nothing
  
End Function

now save the file and close it.....
....restart mediamonkey
.... click the CACHE button.. NOT THE 'QUICK' CACHE button

Dale.