"Now Playing" app
 

Few days ago I started a thread in the multimedia section about a possibility to create a "now playing" app. The 240 views it got I think was a sign of that not enough people check the multimedia section. So (I hope this isn't spamming) I will post the same thing here so that people will see it.

Basically I'd like to know if anybody would be capable of making an app (or plugin or whatever) that would show up when your media player changes songs while in the background. I would imagine that it should/could be something similar to those SMS/email notifications you see when you get new messages. Or it could be similar to that gear image that slides down when you press an empty spot in the desktop.

I don't have the knowledge of how to do this. My N900 is used for internet browsing and in-car musicplayer. But I would suspect that this might be pretty easy thing to do for someone with the knowhow. And also, is there other users who would like something like this?

So that we dont only get the "gimme gimme" and "me me me" replies and that the replies would be about the making of this thing (optimistic as I am) I made a poll.

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

Whats wrong with Mediaplayer desktop widget thats part of the standard Mediaplayer?

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

Nothing. But the basic scenario that this would come in handy is that when you are surfing the www you don't have to do anything to see what that new song that just started is. It just pops up in the upper corner just like those SMS notifications.. That's where this would be sweet..

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

Oh I misunderstood your request. The app is definitely doable, I could take a look at it when I have time, it sounds like a very reasonable app, if its not done yet.

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

Would be nice to have a small daemon that does this.

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

This app might also be useful because when you are tuned into a specific internet radio station and then switch to the "internet radio stations" page of the media media player, you can no longer see what song is playing (or, at least as far as I can tell). And you can't switch back to the specific station without disconnecting and reconnecting to it.

Tuminoid, thanks very much for taking a look into a potential app for this.

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

and ofcourse it should act as a shortcut to the player. That way you will quickly skip those crappy songs that with multiple gb:s of music always gets into the player (and weirdly often ends up as the next song when using shuffle)

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

Another thing I was thinking of is an app that takes the info sent over FM transmitter and write that automagically into your IM status message (A Now playing app in short)

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

Something like this? http://imgur.com/PXWft.png

Code is here: http://slexy.org/view/s2FoAoHW5M

(gcc mafw.c `pkg-config --cflags --libs hildon-notify glib-2.0 mafw mafw-shared` -Wall)

Because there are so many things wrong with it, I won't insult people by uploading a binary. I up'ed the shitty code in hope that someone who actually knows what they're doing can improve it and fix its problems.

On the plus side, it does show the name and artist of the song if it is properly tagged and pressing the notification does bring up the media player. Those are probably the only good points...

I'd probably like to see this, too, but for a more nostalgic reason: My W810i used to do this. :)

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

I'm working on a package for this and hoping I can find spare time to put a package to -devel today/tomorrow/monday at latest. Let me know Faheem if you're working on your code still, I'd hate to waste my/your time to do same thing over again.

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

I'm not working on it. It's code from something of mine that never saw the light of day, the code itself being butchered from the Last.fm Scrobbler (GPL V.2 licensed) and some code I wrote for Transmission to display the notifications. So I thought I may as well put it up in the hope that somebody can fix it up.

Hopefully, you'll get the time to fix the number of problems with it (if you've compiled it, I'm sure you will know what I mean...). :)

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

I put a project application in to Garage admins as well, so this thing is taking baby steps forward :) See the sig: behold the nowplayingd (yeah, I suck at inventing project names... :P)

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

No I think it's catchy and understandable. I would've put something like "what the hell is that song?! -app"

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

Thats just a nerd-engineer project name - apps friendly name is yet to be determined and your suggestion sounds much groovier than mine B-)

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

How did you do this on an N810 then? Please do tell< as this sounds like a useful and fun little trick.

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

I still have my N800 around, so I'll see if I can find any ways to get the currently playing song name. The notifications would be of the "recieved a new IM" type.

But MAFW's predecessor - osso-media-server - is much, much less documented and extensible compared to MAFW so I can't promise anything.

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

Actually, just re-read the posts, and initially mis-read W810i as meaning the 810 wimax! Oops and sorry, mind you if this is doable, it'd be great.

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

http://imgur.com/CllW3.jpg

Still needs packaging, however; will upload to extras-devel when done.

Some notes:

• Only works with songs that are tagged.
• Due to the way Diablo handles notifications, you have to press the home key to see them. I'll add an option (by way of editing its init.d script) that lets you use HildonBanner instead (bubbles in the right with a blue 'i').

(Though I take back what I said about OMS - I just used DBus-GLib for this. Much nicer than bloody MAFW.)

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

Blooming magic - Top Man!

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

Now Playing Notifier 0.1 is in Diablo extras-devel.

I imagine tuminoid is working on the Fremantle version. :)

By default, notifications hide after 10 seconds, they hide when the track is stopped and, of course, they hide when the track is changed.

By default, it uses this type of notification:
http://imgur.com/151O7.png

But it can be configured to use a HildonBanner, instead:
http://imgur.com/ZvbRt.png

If you wish to change the timeout and the type of notification:
Edit the file /etc/default/now-playing-notifier and change NPN_OPTIONS as required.
E.g., to make it use a HildonBanner with a timeout of 20 seconds: NPN_OPTIONS="-u -t 20"

When using the IM-type notifications, a timeout of '0' means it will stay on the screen forever (until destroyed upon the changing/stopping of the track).

Oh, and it only works on tracks with artist and title tags. If someone knows a way to get the filename of the currently playing track from the Media Player, let me know. :)

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

Installed, configured and tested = Class. Thanks very muchly. That is a really cool great little utility.

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

Yup, Garage project got approved, see my sig.

I'm pushing a dead-simple version to devel tonight, basically Faheems version with some tiny fixes, xsession init and package wrapping around it to get comments from brave testers, then start really fixing and improving it.

I'll post again when package is in -devel.

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

nowplayingd 0.1-2 is now available from extras-devel.

Screenshot: http://tumi.kuvat.fi/kuvat/public/ma...0.1-2.png/full

My TODO includes:
* better handling of notifications (cough, do videos need notifications too?), including stop/start
* add support for showing filenames or best guess if artist/title id3 tags aren't available
* allow configuration of banner visibility
* allow configuration of default click action - stop, next track, open mediaplayer being obvious choises
* allow using hildonbanner instead
* add configuration applet for mentioned options
* some basic battery saving features
* use proper makefiles and rules instead of hacks
* fixing code so it doesnt leak or complain
* do it all in Qt

Suggestions and feedback welcome! I don't spit on patches either :-)

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

Personally, and this is just me, I don't need notifications when I stop a track. For videos, I'd say there's no point: When playing a video, you can't see notifications anyway (they go into the background) due to the DnD Atom being set.

Definitely! I'm hoping that it's a matter of just finding the right metadata key.

Agreed. Customisable timeouts and having it destroyed when the track is stopped is what I did for Now Playing Notifier.

(BTW: Why g_timeout_add_seconds () instead of notify_notification_set_timeout () ? :))

Opening the Media Player is already handled in that sample code; a dbus-send line for pausing is here: http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...9&postcount=38 - replace "pause" with "stop/next".

Yes: HildonBanner is actually what I prefer for these sort of notifications.

Yes, preferably in the Control Panel.

Yes, I don't think notifications do anybody any good when the display is off =)

I like Autotools. :)

What?! OK... It shouldn't leak, but I do see it complaining. :\
Though, here's one thing that I neglected to do: notify_uninit () on exit.

*cries* Come on, man. MAFW and the notification APIs are all GObject-based, anyway, so is there any point to using Qt (if you hadn't already guessed, I'm anti-Qt and pro-Gtk+)?

Anyway, since I've already done some of these for Now Playing Notifier, I'll try and send some patches your way.

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

I agree that notification about stopping a song isn't really useful..
And videoplayer doesn't need a notification because, well, you don't have time to glance at notifications when you enjoy your video (in my opinion).

Could it be possible to get that notification box to open from, let's say the camera key? That way if you were too distracted by maemo.org when that song started you could check again what it was..

Anywho, amazing how fast you made that thing. You just made my day. :)

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

Now I'm just wondering if you're trying to piss me off. :)

But, anyway, tuminoid, would you mind me requesting to join since I'm actually contributing instead of just whining (*cough*)? At the very least, it'd give me a better place to discuss this instead of this ****ty thread. I've figured out how to get the filenames using MafwPlaylist if it helps and would like to contribute a patch:
Obviously, the filename needs to be cleaned up but GLib has functions for that IIRC.

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

Thanks guys!

Just installed it and it works nicely so far!

My request would be that instead of showing some media player icon together with the artist and song, it would show the actual album art if available. Doable?

Edit: This is how it looks for me if anyone is interested ;)

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4030/...8d1acbf1_o.png

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

I love it, guys. Great idea... now if only we can get the song from MAFW used as my status message on IM... :)

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

Heh, I meant cleaning them up. Videos are producing notifications even they're not shown (except if you quickly ctrl-backspace while notification is shown), but I'd still like to fix it. Same for stopping/pausing/whatever, the point is to get rid of them where inappropriate.


Of course I don't mind, it'd be nice to have someone to collaborate with in some projects.

Hehe, not trying to piss you off :) As said in 0.1-1 changelog, this 0.1 release is simply about producing/packaging a prototype, THEN recode/refactor the code. (I'm assuming you mean I used rather exact copy of your sample code?)


Just a quick hack :/

I noticed your post about Diablo version, seems that you and me think alike.


Yup, I was just writing down the options I'm gonna implement. Thanks for the link.


I somehow like the notify notifications better myself, so thats why there is gonna be an option.


Yup, where else? Config applets as apps are shitty idea.


Exactly. I'm just thinking that just simply removing the notification probably isn't making much difference, as hildon-desktop probably ignores notifications when display is off anyways. But perhaps we could unsubscribe from MAFW when display goes off or something to totally prevent waking up.


Me too, IF the project is worth it.


I checked it and it doesn't leak while operating, but cleanup isn't clean (not that it really matters, we are exiting only on shutdown...)


Nooooo, I didn't notice?! :-D

I'm not gonna shove Qt where it doesn't belong, but perhaps the config app could be written with Qt, in hopes of porting it to MeeGo easily (though I see so many obstacles in the way it might not be worth it, or app might not even be necessary then anymore)

Thanks man. Send the maintainer request and I'll add you.

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

Thanks for an idea, it should be doable. I'll add it to the TODO list.

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

See my long post about explanation what I meant.

I think camerakey has a brilliant role already with shortcutd - it acts as a homekey.

Configuring the timeout to be longer solves this problem adequetly I think, so if you don't mind seeing the notification in task-switcher for a while you can set the timeout higher and voilã.

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

i just installed it and it works great ! yes, art cover would be very cool too.

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

Typing this on the N900, so please excuse mistakes...

Ah, *smacks forehead*. I hadn't actually tried it with videos... :\

Thank you. :)

That wasn't directed at you; don't worry. :)

Heh, I messed up with the Diablo version: I connected the HildonBanner to "destroy" when I meant to connect it to "delete-event"...

HildonBanner brings out that feeling of nostalgia in me - it's the W810 memories again :)

:\. /me wonders what I'm not freeing - probably some MAFW thing..


:P

True, true; I like applications written in Qt but Qt itself to me is like "bleh". But now's not the time to be stuck-up. :)
Tho, I wonder if MAFW will still exist in MeeGo...

Thank you. :)

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

This is a great idea. I have been surprised that the media player widget haven't really been developed at all (i mean the play button bug haven't even been fixed) while example conversation widget have had update after update.

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

any idea when it will be in the devel repo ? can' wait for it :)

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

It is in -devel, has been for couple hours, its located under Multimedia.

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

I looove this app, wonderful, thanks a million for making this!!!
The only thing that would be nice to see as well, would be the coverart, but it's far from necessary...this is great!!! :-)

/Trancedancer

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

I added you to the project, and also listed the TODO items there, so please create/pick a task and assign it to yourself when coding something so our work doesn't collide.

Also created a mailing-list, though thats likely an overkill for this :)

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

Hey!
I noticed today, that if you are using the musicplayerwidget for N900 and have Music Player Notifications installed, you can't press the playbutton once paused, on the widget. You can change tracks and press pause, but once pressed, you have to bring upp the whole playerwindow to start the music again. Just noticed it!

/Trancedancer

Re: "Now Playing" app
 

You've stumbled upon a bug in the Media Player widget, unrelated to Now Playing Notifications: https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5894