Trouble with the UI

[Madbot]

Hi there,

I've been searching for a product (software and hardware) like this for a while and was very happy to find this site. This is a great product and I can see great potentials in the markets around here. But right now the UI's causing me a good deal of pain.

With my current setup, I am basically using the pocketpc as a slimdevice - Streaming music to the pocketpc and then output to my stereo.

I downloaded and installed SlimServer from the download section hoping to try out streaming mp3 to my wireless laptop and PocketPC.

The installation went smoothly but I came across the following issues and hope to be enlightened here. =)

Some background info: Server = XP Pro, Laptop = XP Home, PDA = WM2003se. Using IE as browser.

== Connecting from laptop:

1. Unable to add to playlist

The instructions said I should first hook up from the player (I used mediaplayer in this case) and then get to the server web page to add to the playlist.

Mediaplayer connected fine. I then opened up the web page to add music to the playlist. I was able to see the laptop on the top right hand corner of the page and could "switch" to it. However, when I try to add songs from the left pane, the page would refresh and I would see the status bar flashing some links pointing to the localhost IP (127.0.0.1) and nothing ends up being added to the playlist of the laptop. And the right pane would automatically put me back to the playlist for the localhost instead of the laptop.

When I change back to the playlist for the laptop, the playlist remains empty.

Eventually I restarted IE a few times and then was able to add to the list. But it's very inconsistent - and even now I cannot add to the playlist again.

I'm suspecting I may have gotten it to work after I disconnected & reconnected the player a couple of time.

Is there anything I'm doing wrong?

2. Streaming to player

After I successfully added songs to the playlist, I waited 10 minutes and there were nothing coming out of the player - it still reported it's connected to the stream just no sound while the web page is reporting songs after songs are being played.

The sound came through after I disconnected & reconnected the player to the server.

Again, anything I'm doing wrong?

3. Skipping song

Is there anyway to skip the song Mediaplayer is currently playing? The fastward/reverse buttons are not selectable and the web page is several minutes ahead of MediaPlayer and there's nothing I can do to disrupt the stream short of closing mediaplayer/stream and reconnect.

== Connecting from PocketPC:

I experienced the same problems as the laptop. While the player (GSPlayer) connected fine to the stream, I had problems with the UI again.

1. Unable to add to playlist - When I choose the IP of the pocketpc and try to add song to playlist, the page would automatically switch back to the localhost IP.

I switched to the handheld skin but still had the same problem - when I add a song to the playlist, I'm automatically taken back to the playlist for localhost IP.

2. No sound from the player

I gave up here because I did not add songs to the playlist successfully after many tries and it's slower and more painful to do this on the pocketpc than laptop.

The server I installed is straight from the download section and have not been updated with any of the nightly builds, etc.

Assistance is much appreciated. :-)

[mherger]

Trouble with the UI

Madbot,

> Is there anything I'm doing wrong?

Either you or your configuration, I'm sorry :-). I've not heard of such
problems before.

> 3. Skipping song
>
> Is there anyway to skip the song Mediaplayer is currently playing? The

Please try to run softsqueeze - an excellent squeezebox emulator. You'll
find it in the server's help section.

> fastward/reverse buttons are not selectable and the web page is several
> minutes ahead of MediaPlayer and there's nothing I can do to disrupt the
> stream short of closing mediaplayer/stream and reconnect.

This is due to the player's buffering: it will continue to play the "old"
stream from it's buffer even when you have pressed "next". If you're
patient enought you'll see that it will change the stream once the player
has played everything that was already in the buffer.

You'll have this issue with any software player except the softsqueeze
(and slimp3slave on Linux). Again: give softsqueeze a try. It should
behave so much better!

> 1. Unable to add to playlist - When I choose the IP of the pocketpc and
> try to add song to playlist, the page would automatically switch back to
> the localhost IP.

There must something be wrong with your browser or its cache. This is just
not normal behaviour. Do you have a player running on the server?

> I switched to the handheld skin but still had the same problem - when I
> add a song to the playlist, I'm automatically taken back to the playlist
> for localhost IP.

Are you talking about the IP address you see in your browser's address bar?

This is just too much of an oddity to be true...

--

Michael

-----------------------------------------------------------
Help translate SlimServer by using the
StringEditor Plugin (http://www.herger.net/slim/)

[Madbot]

I found that if I use the "light" skin then I was able to add songs fine. But the default and handheld still gave me troubles.. Do most people use firefox here?

Will give the softsqueeze a go, thanks.

Re the IP address I was talking about -

When I connect the player to the server, the web page (on the top right hand corner) shows the different IP addresses (with the player) connected to the server in a dropdown menu. I use this dropdown menu to switch to the playlist of different players.

For some reason, the default and handheld skin wouldn't let me add songs to the playlist properly..

And yeah it's odd. I searched and went through the forums and didn't see anything similar.. and hence the post.

Madbot,

> Is there anything I'm doing wrong?

Either you or your configuration, I'm sorry :-). I've not heard of such
problems before.

> 3. Skipping song
>
> Is there anyway to skip the song Mediaplayer is currently playing? The

Please try to run softsqueeze - an excellent squeezebox emulator. You'll
find it in the server's help section.

> fastward/reverse buttons are not selectable and the web page is several
> minutes ahead of MediaPlayer and there's nothing I can do to disrupt the
> stream short of closing mediaplayer/stream and reconnect.

This is due to the player's buffering: it will continue to play the "old"
stream from it's buffer even when you have pressed "next". If you're
patient enought you'll see that it will change the stream once the player
has played everything that was already in the buffer.

You'll have this issue with any software player except the softsqueeze
(and slimp3slave on Linux). Again: give softsqueeze a try. It should
behave so much better!

> 1. Unable to add to playlist - When I choose the IP of the pocketpc and
> try to add song to playlist, the page would automatically switch back to
> the localhost IP.

There must something be wrong with your browser or its cache. This is just
not normal behaviour. Do you have a player running on the server?

> I switched to the handheld skin but still had the same problem - when I
> add a song to the playlist, I'm automatically taken back to the playlist
> for localhost IP.

Are you talking about the IP address you see in your browser's address bar?

This is just too much of an oddity to be true...

--

Michael

-----------------------------------------------------------
Help translate SlimServer by using the
StringEditor Plugin (http://www.herger.net/slim/)

[rmoritz]

Ditto

I have simillar weird problems. The two I noticed are:

- changing the IP addr in the right pane didn't affect the left pane - the links still looked like:

http://myserver:9000/search.html?liveSearch=1&player=x.x.x.x

where the IP addr was another computer I had played from. If I modified the link it seemed to work fine. There is no "change" button in the default skin, right?

- the save button for play lists wouldn't usually be there. sometimes, but not usually.

Both seem to work fine with the light skin - thanks for the suggestion.

The things I'm doing:
- it worked from a remote location (router fowarded 9000 to machine running slimserver), but not from a local machine.
- I'm using Firefox - didn't try IE.
- server is running on linksys nslu2
- started from perl sources

using light skin the save playlist is sometimes there and sometimes not. something I don't understand...

[mherger]

Re: Trouble with the UI

> I found that if I use the "light" skin then I was able to add songs
> fine. But the default and handheld still gave me troubles..

You didn't specify the slimserver version you're using. 6.5 is cutting
edge, and problems are to be expected as there are major works on the
skins going on.

Go for the 6.2.x branch if you want stable behaviour.

> Do most people use firefox here?

I doubt it as the Windows executable will launch IE. I'm using Opera
almost exclusively.

> When I connect the player to the server, the web page (on the top right
> hand corner) shows the different IP addresses (with the player)
> connected to the server in a dropdown menu. I use this dropdown menu to
> switch to the playlist of different players.

This is correct. Did you disable javascript by chance? Or do you use some
security package (popup blocker, privacy protector or whatever it might be
called) which does not like the javascript's window reload mechanisms?

> For some reason, the default and handheld skin wouldn't let me add
> songs to the playlist properly..

You're sure it does not add? Did you check the "other" player that's still
displayed for the left panel? This would have interesting effects waking
up your girlfriend in the sleeping room while you are testing this in the
living room :-)

--

Michael

-----------------------------------------------------------
Help translate SlimServer by using the
StringEditor Plugin (http://www.herger.net/slim/)

[mherger]

Re: Trouble with the UI

> - changing the IP addr in the right pane didn't affect the left pane -
> the links still looked like:

It should reload the two panels.

Which slimserver release are you using? 6.2? 6.1? 6.5?

> There is no "change" button in the default skin, right?

Yes, it uses javascript to do the reload.

> - it worked from a remote location (router fowarded 9000 to machine
> running slimserver), but not from a local machine.

This is interesting...

> - I'm using Mozilla Firefox - didn't try IE.

Please do try with another browser. And if your antivirus product came
with a privacy protection kind of software, please turn it off for the
test.

--

Michael

-----------------------------------------------------------
Help translate SlimServer by using the
StringEditor Plugin (http://www.herger.net/slim/)

[ceejay]

>


> Do most people use firefox here?

I doubt it as the Windows executable will launch IE. I'm using Opera
almost exclusively.
[color=blue]

Not any more, the Windows launcher now uses your current/default browser. I use Firefox and am not having any problems with it - though not using it in this particular fashion.

Ceejay

[Madbot]

Like it said in the opening post, I got it from the download section from this site and it's 6.2. Cutting edge? I assumed the "official" version and the "default" skin would be the stable combination.

Google bar is installed with the popup blocker enabled.

> I found that if I use the "light" skin then I was able to add songs
> fine. But the default and handheld still gave me troubles..

You didn't specify the slimserver version you're using. 6.5 is cutting
edge, and problems are to be expected as there are major works on the
skins going on.

Go for the 6.2.x branch if you want stable behaviour.

> Do most people use firefox here?

I doubt it as the Windows executable will launch IE. I'm using Opera
almost exclusively.

> When I connect the player to the server, the web page (on the top right
> hand corner) shows the different IP addresses (with the player)
> connected to the server in a dropdown menu. I use this dropdown menu to
> switch to the playlist of different players.

This is correct. Did you disable javascript by chance? Or do you use some
security package (popup blocker, privacy protector or whatever it might be
called) which does not like the javascript's window reload mechanisms?

> For some reason, the default and handheld skin wouldn't let me add
> songs to the playlist properly..

You're sure it does not add? Did you check the "other" player that's still
displayed for the left panel? This would have interesting effects waking
up your girlfriend in the sleeping room while you are testing this in the
living room :-)

--

Michael

-----------------------------------------------------------
Help translate SlimServer by using the
StringEditor Plugin (http://www.herger.net/slim/)