ExBrowse2 rewrite: help me test!

[Jacob Potter]

Hi all -

My ExBrowse2 rewrite (yes, another one!) is getting close to done.
I've moved completely away from the XML and HTTP GET interface; all
the communication to the server is done via JSON-RPC talking to the
RPC plugin. This has wound up being much more stable and reliable; no
more hit-reload-until-it-works. The interface itself is pretty much
the same, but the code is probably 80% new.

A few nifty things:
- Playlist retrieval is much more efficient; it's generated on the
server with a direct serialization of the track objects, and read on
the client by a single Javacript eval(). The old XML code required
looping through Template Toolkit for each song, and a lot of DOM
manipulations to get the data back out.
- As a side effect of #1, _everything_ about the track is cached in
the Javascript. Hitting prev/next, jumping, whatever all cause the
display to update instantly.
- Actually works well in Safari!
- Back/forward buttons break much less; the browse/settings/help
highlighting, for example, updates even on back/forward navigation.

There are a few more things left to do, though -
- Livesearch
- Plugin support
- MusicMagic (I don't use it - it'd be great if someone could get me a
trial account
- Yannzola's 800x600 fixes (I had some problems getting those to work
- email me off-list)

I've been doing development on a combination of IE, Firefox, and
Safari; Opera 8 appears to work, but I haven't played around with it
much. Mouse wheel scrolling on the playlist is broken in Firefox, but
it works in Deer Park. I'm hoping that Firefox 1.5 will be released
before SlimServer 6.2; if it looks like that's not going to work out,
then I'll put the workaround back in.

Note - I just this morning checked in an RPC.pm patch. Make sure
you're on svn 4018+, or breakage will happen.

I'd appreciate as much testing as I can get - let me know what I've missed!

- Jacob

[Yannzola]

Hey Jacob,
Just installed 6.1.2 revision 4031. Using http://localhost:9000/jsontest/ I can't get past the loading screen ("Downloading Player List..."), where I get a "transport error: 405"

I'll email later today about the 800x600 fixes. Thanks!

y.

Occurs in both Firefox 1.0.6 and IE 6 (latest auto update)
Windows XP SP2 (MCE 2005)

[Jacob Potter]

On 8/23/05, Yannzola <Yannzola.1u7umb (AT) no-mx (DOT) forums.slimdevices.com> wrote:
> Hey Jacob,
> Just installed 6.1.2 revision 4031. Using
> http://localhost:9000/jsontest/ I can't get past the loading screen,
> where I get a "transport error: 405"

Ah, I should have been more specific. This requires the trunk build
(6.2), as the RPC plugin and patches aren't in the 6.1 branch.

MusicMagic and Internet Radio support is coming RSN (everything's
ready to go except Live365)...

- Jacob

[Yannzola]

MusicMagic and Internet Radio support is coming RSN (everything's
ready to go except Live365)...

- Jacob

Jacob, by this do you mean that ExBrowse will display the Internet Radio tracks in the Web UI (a la Fishbone)?

y.

[Jacob Potter]

On 8/23/05, Yannzola <Yannzola.1u84cb (AT) no-mx (DOT) forums.slimdevices.com> wrote:
> Jacob, by this do you mean that ExBrowse will display the Internet
> Radio tracks in the Web UI (a la Fishbone)?

The plugins will be available, yes. Fishbone groups them with the
Browse categories; I'm making a separate top-level Internet Radio
menu, sort of like Default.

- Jacob

[Jacob Potter]

Here's a new version:
- MusicMagic! Big thanks to Dan Sully for getting me a key, and to
everyone else who's offered.
- Partial support for the Internet Radio plugins. Shoutcast, Picks,
and RadioIO are done; Live365 isn't yet. There's a new menu at the
top, between Music Library and Settings.

Let me know what you think...

- Jacob

[kdf]

Quoting Jacob Potter <jacobdp (AT) gmail (DOT) com>:

> Let me know what you think...

first hurdle, it barfs up a javascript alert if no players are found, then seems
to sit saying "downloading player list...". Is it not possible to bounce to a
browse only screen as the Default skin does? Or even just bounce out to the
Default skin?

loads fine if I go in with a player already active.

musicmagic mixing worked on first track I picked, but I think I got the wrong
template for the list. Some of the items in the list are including a moodlogic
link (yes, I have it for testing), and I can't see mixerlinks referenced in
your musicmagic_mix template.

The iTunes Podcasts menu item (basically browse playlist with iTunes Podcast
playlist preselected) seems to be coming up with no stylesheet. It seems that
using browse playlists and selecting any playlist comes up with no stylesheet.

more later if I find more time
-kdf

--
NOT a Slim Devices employee

[Jacob Potter]

On 8/23/05, kdf <slim-mail (AT) deane-freeman (DOT) com> wrote:
> first hurdle, it barfs up a javascript alert if no players are found, then seems
> to sit saying "downloading player list...". Is it not possible to bounce to a
> browse only screen as the Default skin does? Or even just bounce out to the
> Default skin?
>
> loads fine if I go in with a player already active.

Will do, that was just a stopgap.

> musicmagic mixing worked on first track I picked, but I think I got the wrong
> template for the list. Some of the items in the list are including a moodlogic
> link (yes, I have it for testing), and I can't see mixerlinks referenced in
> your musicmagic_mix template.

The links at the bottom of musicmagic_mix are for "this entire mix" (I
should probably label them better). The plugin uses browsedb_list for
the items themselves, so having moodlogic show up as well is
reasonable/

> The iTunes Podcasts menu item (basically browse playlist with iTunes Podcast
> playlist preselected) seems to be coming up with no stylesheet. It seems that
> using browse playlists and selecting any playlist comes up with no stylesheet.

Oops, will fix.

> more later if I find more time

Thanks!

- Jacob

[Patrick Dixon]

first hurdle, it barfs up a javascript alert if no players are found

I can't get past

Transport Error: 404
Are you sure that Slimserver is running and your network connection is up?

Err yes - I can hear the music playing!


Ubuntu/svn4033/SB2

[Jacob Potter]

On 8/24/05, Patrick Dixon
<Patrick.Dixon.1u9jqb (AT) no-mx (DOT) forums.slimdevices.com> wrote:
> Transport Error: 404
> Are you sure that Slimserver is running and your network connection is
> up?

That's odd. Can you check that RPC.pm is there and that it's loading
properly (d_plugins)?

What happens when you go to "http://<server>:9000/plugins/RPC/rpc.js"?
It should give a 400 Bad Request (since your browser isn't sending the
appropriate RPC parameters). A 404 is bad.

- Jacob