[Announce] Squeezelite-X

[rgdawson]

1 . C seems OK to me, not easy to give an opinion without testing...
Or.... You could also add these fullscreen options in the sandwich menu at the top left (which contains only "exit" button ). This sandwich menu could also contains every buttons of the window bar ("Squeezelite-X settings" and "mini player" button).

So pressing this sandwich button could display a menu like this :

• Squeezelite-X Settings
  ----------------------
• Main Player layout
• Now Playing layout
• Mini Player layout
  ----------------------
• Hide Titlebar
• Stay on top
• Minimize Window
• Exit

With this menu the title bar of the window become almost optional (just need an area at top for the mouse dragging of the window). It's just an idea but it would lighten the interface and you could gain a line in height.

2. Yes it is probably more on Material skin side, it could be interesting for other autonomous linux player too... So may be Craig will take a look to my issue... I have always been annoyed by this lack of this functionality on Squeezebox touch and Squeezebox radio : I don't like to see the main menu when I send a playlist remotely to my Squeezebox.

3. seems more complex than I though... This kind of parameter here to specify the language cannot help ?

Titlebar - Well, there is no sandwich menu without the titlebar, so to keep the sandwich menu I would have keep the title, perhaps with no other buttons, which does not save any space.

Language - Yes that is what I implemented, and it did not help with the screen saver like I expected it would.

R Greg Dawson

[rgdawson]

2.11.2 is not available in OneDrive I only use the UI wrapper with material skin to select/control players and servers i have in my network... I do not want to install from Microsoft Store as i cannot do it without MS account nor control where file are installed for every application !
Do you have an alternate install/portable version ?

[Deleted].

Edit: I had an idea, but then realized it was not that simple, I'll revisit when I have thought through this better.

R Greg Dawson

[rgdawson]

2.11.2 is not available in OneDrive I only use the UI wrapper with material skin to select/control players and servers i have in my network... I do not want to install from Microsoft Store as i cannot do it without MS account nor control where file are installed for every application !
Do you have an alternate install/portable version ?

I deleted my initial answer to this above. I thought I had an idea, then realized it would not work without more work than I thought.

I'll get back to you on this. Right now, I don't really want to continue building and testing a traditional installer, as SLX is free and I only have so much free time, and the MS Store has advantages for me. I may change my mind, or I may create a traditional installer, sporadically, but not on the same cadence as MS Store updates. I'll let you know.

R Greg Dawson

[schmurtz]

I deleted my initial answer to this above. I thought I had an idea, then realized it would not work without more work than I thought.

I'll get back to you on this. Right now, I don't really want to continue building and testing a traditional installer, as SLX is free and I only have so much free time, and the MS Store has advantages for me. I may change my mind, or I may create a traditional installer, sporadically, but not on the same cadence as MS Store updates. I'll let you know.

I'm not a big fan of Windows Store too. Most of my Windows PC doesn't have online account connected so I've always use your drive to get versions
May be create a simple archive could be faster than create a full setup package ? (just tried to get it from the store and it fails 3 times before accepting to download : I don't like the store and it don't like me too ) After the installation it require webview2 runtime which is probably included directly in the standalone setup.
But I can understand your point of view about limited time

[rgdawson]

I'm not a big fan of Windows Store too. Most of my Windows PC doesn't have online account connected so I've always use your drive to get versions
May be create a simple archive could be faster than create a full setup package ? (just tried to get it from the store and it fails 3 times before accepting to download : I don't like the store and it don't like me too ) After the installation it require webview2 runtime which is probably included directly in the standalone setup.
But I can understand your point of view about limited time

OK, since that actually made me laugh, I just finished a traditional installer and put it all back into my automated build chain.

The important thing to know about the WebView2 Evergreen runtime is that I do not have to include it in my app/installer. Webview2 is managed and updated automatically by the operating system as a true operating system component. Why this is important is because now I don't have to worry about keeping it updated. There are rules about having CEF embedded in an app on the store. It cannot be allowed to be more than two versions out of date before you run afoul of the security/compliance rules. Now with Webview, I can die, and SLX can remain compliant without me, haha, even if it never gets updated again. SLX does install a very small bootstrap WebView2 Evergreen installer, which it will call to install/update Webview2, if needed (but not likely as time goes on), and to save you the trouble. I no longer have to include that 200MB of CEF binaries in my installers. And that speeds up the verification process that is part of publishing and speeds up updates because the package is much, much smaller.

One reason I prefer folks use the store is that I get a better idea of how many folks are installing and using the app. The Store tells me the count of people that have acquired it, almost 20,000. Most people do not allow the Store to collect any other metrics, but some do and it is occasionally useful to see if the application is crashing. I do occasionally see a flash of crashes, which I will see when I publish a new version because if the Store updates the app while it happens to be running, it will mercilessly terminate the running app and call it a crash. A time or two, I have seen statistics that told me I had an issue, but not recently.

When I publish, if the changes concern installation or if they happen to be impact Windows 10 "Tablet Mode" or Windows 10 S-Mode, then I have to publish through the Store only to myself as that is the only way to get SLX on my Surface Go (it runs ins S-Mode (Store apps only) and usually in Tablet mode, too) to test the new version. Then if all is OK, I can publish globally. So sometimes you will see the increment number skipped because an only-me test version that I had to run through the store had a bug).

I have a new version published only to me waiting for me when I get home tonight to test on the Surface Go relating to Full Screen mode. It will now hide the titlebar in Full Screen Mode for Material Skin and "Now Playing" view, but I just have to make sure all works on the Surface Go and in Tablet Mode (I screwed that up on the first attempt yesterday). Tablet mode is weird and sometimes difficult to handle. I had to write a C++ Universal Windows Platform (UWP) dll, just to create a function I could call to determine if the O/S was in tablet mode because that is the only way you can do it, only doable from a C++ assembly. Anyway, Microsoft has removed it in Windows 11, and I kinda liked it for using the Surface as a tablet. It made the start menu full screen and automatically would hide the task bar if you wanted, and would hide titlebars depending on the app. Anyway, I found it useful overall, but a problem for certain programs. But Tablet Mode is gone for Win 11 which motivated me to work on a real Full Screen mode for SLX. (its for me and my tablet, haha).

Wow, I started rambling, sorry. Anyway, traditional installer is returning, even though I didn't want to bother with it, I guess it was not as big a deal or as hard as I thought. I just needed the installer to get rid of the old CEF binaries and cache files and Webview2 checking and update/install needed to handled outside the installer mostly anyway. I guess I pretty much implemented everything I needed a few weeks ago, but never tested, (and forgot I had done it). So, I just needed to test it an, thankfully, it worked fine. Building the installers is about 10 times faster now, since I am not dealing with 200MB of CEF binaries, too.

R Greg Dawson

[rgdawson]

I'm not a big fan of Windows Store too. Most of my Windows PC doesn't have online account connected so I've always use your drive to get versions
May be create a simple archive could be faster than create a full setup package ? (just tried to get it from the store and it fails 3 times before accepting to download : I don't like the store and it don't like me too ) After the installation it require webview2 runtime which is probably included directly in the standalone setup.
But I can understand your point of view about limited time

Btw, am I to understand that you did (after three tries) successfully install from the store and the SLX detected and installed WebView2 for you? Yeah! That was hard to figure out and test. So good to know it worked like it was supposed to. SLX will never have to install/update Webview2 again, as that is now owned by the OS, btw, and future updates will by lickity-split.

R Greg Dawson

[nspp]

Wow, I started rambling, sorry. Anyway, traditional installer is returning, even though I didn't want to bother with it, I guess it was not as big a deal or as hard as I thought. I just needed the installer to get rid of the old CEF binaries and cache files and Webview2 checking and update/install needed to handled outside the installer mostly anyway. I guess I pretty much implemented everything I needed a few weeks ago, but never tested, (and forgot I had done it). So, I just needed to test it an, thankfully, it worked fine. Building the installers is about 10 times faster now, since I am not dealing with 200MB of CEF binaries, too.

R Greg Dawson

Many thanks for your consideration !
I already use webview2 for other application and was using "Evergreen Standalone Installer" to install and windows update to update automatically. You could ask for it as and just link to the download page...

About crash report you could add a section in the about/help section.
The help is quite good but if you do not hit F1 key it is not easy to reach, it would be great to have help just as about tab easy to find and with same color as skin.

I have made my Zip from MS Store installed application (just exe and dll ..) I removed the app just after using BCunistaller... I re deployed on other laptop once webview2 is checked/installed all is working great !

[bwaldron]

Anyway, traditional installer is returning, even though I didn't want to bother with it, I guess it was not as big a deal or as hard as I thought.

Thank you! I can now return to using Squeezelite-X. I respected your earlier decision, but I avoid Windows Store apps whenever possible (mainly because I cannot easily revert to an older app version when I encounter a bug or problem with an update).

[rgdawson]

Version 2.11.4 has been submitted to the store.

Traditional installer is back on OneDrive location (see link on first post in this thread).

Changes:

• Titlebar is hidden by default for Full Screen Mode while in Material Skin and Now Playing view. This behavior can be overridden using a new advanced option "Always show titlebar".

R Greg Dawson

[rgdawson]

Thank you! I can now return to using Squeezelite-X. I respected your earlier decision, but I avoid Windows Store apps whenever possible (mainly because I cannot easily revert to an older app version when I encounter a bug or problem with an update).

You're welcome. I consider this probably the best rationale for preferring a traditional installer over the store. Afterall, no one is perfect and the "bug" scenario is certainly possible, even more possible with amateur developers like me.

I tend to prefer the Store based on my experience developing and publishing through it, as I am more assured of getting a well behaved, isolated, program. Store apps run in a somewhat virtualized container, non-elevated, and limited such that a Store app more likely can't do anything to harm your system or otherwise do nefarious stuff, at least in theory.

Anyway, under the covers, the 2.11.x version is substantial - switching to WebView2. I have been very pleased so far with WebView2 over CEF.

R Greg Dawson