Some notes on the design of Songbird and Now Playing List
The last time I released a version of Now Playing List was about 3 months ago, and in that time I've received lots of feedback. I haven't responded to much of it - I know, but I've combed every comment, every get satisfaction forum, every bug report, and in the next release of the extension for Songbird 1.0 I've tried to address as many things as possible.
However there are many things that are just not possible to do in Songbird from an extension due to the way Songbird is design.
The design of Songbird
Songbird organises your library in three 'layers': libraries, medialists and views.
- A library is what holds your music, it is essentially a special medialist which has no duplicate tracks.
- A medialist is the data model that represents a playlist in the service pane (the left bar).
- A view is what you see in the main area. It is a medialist with sorting and filtering applied to it.
Why Now Playing List is the way it is
If shuffle is not on, Songbird will play a view in order from first to last. If shuffle is on, Songbird will play a view in a random order. Whether or not shuffle is on, the order that a view is played in is predetermined before the first track has even started playing. Furthermore once the view has started playing it is impossible to change the order mid-sequence.
For this reason Now Playing List has two modes (I know older version had 3 - more on this later). Since it is called "Now Playing" List, one mode is there to actually show what is 'now playing'. It's really so you can see what's playing and browse a web page at the same time. Queuing involves changing the order that a view gets played in, which is impossible, but I can change the order of an underlying medialist, which is why queuing is implemented as a separate playlist in its own mode.
I know that this isn't the behaviour of say Winamp (which I have never actually used, but this is the impression I get from the feedback I've received). It is the best I can do from an extension without a major rewrite on the part of Songbird itself.
Changes/Improvements
I understand that previous versions of the extension haven't been that usable, so I've made some changes based on the feedback I've got.
First of all the bugs where it would think it's playing the second track in the queue when it's not is gone (I hope?). Also it doesn't jump to the queue and play that if you double click on a track in the main area. Instead it now adds that track to the top of the queue and plays the one you clicked.
An idea that I thought was nice was the ability to tell something to play as the last song in the queue or as the next song coming up. If you right-click you'll now see 'Queue Next' and 'Queue Last'. I've tried adding shortcut keys for these but it didn't work, I don't know why.
Regarding the different modes, there used to be three and you had to cycle through them all - I never liked this. Custom and Queue mode are essentially the exact same thing just with different playback behaviour. So I've consolidated these two modes into one, so now there's no three-way toggle (there is still a two-way toggle now but it should be less cumbersome). Changing the behaviour of this mode is now done by a button. Since it really toggles whether to turn queuing on or off -- or the order of playback -- I put it next to the other buttons that control the order of playback, i.e. shuffle and repeat.
What this also implies is that even when the display pane is closed, queuing will still work as normal. This is true.
A design quirk I'm not sure is correct, but is what I've settled on is that if you are in the 'now playing' mode and you click this queue button, it will not switch modes, you'll still be in 'now playing' mode. The queue mode only takes effect once you explicitly go to the non-now playing mode.
So there you go. This isn't the end though, I'm not going to wait another three months before I release another version this time. I'm aware that I haven't addressed everything, but hopefully it'll all come together eventually.
Comments
Re: Some notes on the design of Songbird and Now Playing List
Ok, I didn't know about songbird's "now playing" rigidity. I think you have made a good job and if you continue improving it it would really become a must-have!
Some feature request
As I have said I like this add-on very much and I have to thank you for the good work it has been put in so far.
But I have found some ideas to improve it:
- A "Queue Next" option within the playlist so if you are browsing a big playlist you don't have to drag it all the way up and then seek where you where afterward.
- A shorter space for the playlist mode, or even to be able to insert it in the windows title, right now it takes space unnecessarily.
Great work.
Is it possible to only play from the now playing list and not from library? When you double-click on a song, instead of playing it, it adds it to the library.
Graet Add-On - RC3 soon?
Thanks for a great Add-on, been using it routinely - until I installed RC3. Would be very happy to see it upgraded so I can use it again
thnx
Re: Some notes on the design of Songbird and Now Playing ...
Great work on this addon, I wouldn't use songbird if it weren't for this addon. I would love to see an option to override what happens when I double click on a song in the library: normal (play song immediately), queue next, or queue last. I have my library open when I have guests over, and it would it be nice to queue songs up like a jukebox instead of asking people to right click and add songs to the queue...
Re: Some notes on the design of Songbird and Now Playing ...
I'm finally getting around to transferring from Yahoo! Music Jukebox and was looking for something similar. I think, honestly, without this plugin that has a side-bar for playlists Songbird isn't very appealing as a music player. The ability to throw together a playlist for that moment in time and mix it around as one wishes is something that I value in a media player, it is a feature that the Jukebox series definitely had right.
Re: Some notes on the design of Songbird and Now Playing ...
Update to fix in Songbird 1.00 soon?
Re: Some notes on the design of Songbird and Now Playing ...
Hey, I'd like to say it's great that you took the initiative to write this plugin.
I also had no idea about the 'rigidity' of the Now Playing list, but now I know! I like that you communicate with the users this way.
I have just downloaded the new version of Songbird 1.0.0 build 860 for Linux. I can't download the Now Playing list, but I could when I was running Songbird 0.7 (or something). Is this because your plugin isn't ready for 1.0.0 yet? or because I am running Linux?
Can't install
Hi, that addon look awesome but the "install" button is disabled for me... why?
I use windows XP sp3 and songbird 1.0
Re: Some notes on the design of Songbird and Now Playing ...
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Very useful information
This info page has been very useful to me. The usability of your add-on is not as straight forward as it could be (now I know why) and the information on this page has cleared up a lot of issues I had that were mostly due to the fact that I didn't really know how to use it. What I suggest is putting some of this text on the main add-on page so that people downloading it will have a better chance of reading it and better understanding the add-on before getting confused and tossing it aside out of frustration.
I am glad to hear you are still working on this, unlike so many other stale add-on projects, as I see a lot of potential and the functionality you are providing is almost the make-or-break factor of using songbird for me.
Thanks for all your hard work!
Re: Some notes on the design of Songbird and Now Playing ...
Great work!
I have downloaded 1.0.0 and I can't install your add on.
I hope you can manage to make it work for this version.
My favourite mp3 player is Amarok. It has what is call "dynamic lists". Among them, there is one, called "Random list". This list appears as 10 or 15 tracks randomly chosen. As soon as one tracks ends there is one new track randomly added to the list. At any time, you can queue a new track or a complete album, or you can add it (or them) to the end of the list.
May be for your " now playing add" it should be created a dynamic random list first, instead of the shuffle mode.
hope it helps
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Re: Very useful information
yes, i totally agree. thanks for the add-on and this info about why is hard to make it even more useful!
Problems
I love this add-on, makes songbird amazing but the new version screws up every time it gets to the end of a song on the list and I have to close songbird and firefox for it to start working again. Didn't have this problem with the last version, running it on Ubuntu.
Re: Some notes on the design of Songbird and Now Playing ...
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Re: Some notes on the design of Songbird and Now Playing ...
So there you go. This isn't the end though, I'm not going to wait another three months before I release another version this time. I'm aware that I haven't addressed everything, but hopefully it'll all come together eventually.
mpcoc
Re: Graet Add-On - RC3 soon?
Thanks for a great Add-on, been using it routinely - until I installed RC3 . Would be very happy to see it upgraded so I can use it again
Problem with polish language
When i select polish language for songbird i get this kind of "Parser error" from your addon; error details:
[JavaScript Error: "undefined entity" {file: "chrome://nowplaying//content/xul/nowplaying.xul" line: 16 column: 1 source: "
Re: Some notes on the design of Songbird and Now Playing ...
Looks good, sounds good!
Re: Problem with polish language
For sure, the gadget doesn't work with certain languages. That can be a serious drawback..
Re: Some notes on the design of Songbird and Now Playing ...
i really like the now playing list, except that i no longer seem to be able to just play my whole library on shuffle (to discover stuff i never even knew i had, you know how it is ;), because each time i doubleclick a track in the library window, it adds it to NPL and plays that - i must be overlooking something though.
Re: Some notes on the design of Songbird and Now Playing ...
there's a bug in the 'show file' option when chosen from the context menu in the now playing panel... it consistently takes me to another file (from the same playlist) than the one clicked on, perhaps it has to do with using shuffle, but it also does it when shuffle is not on.
Web Tasarımı
it consistently takes me to another file (from the same playlist) than the one clicked on, perhaps it has to do with using shuffle, but it also does it when shuffle is not on.
Re: Some notes on the design of Songbird and Now Playing ...
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Re: Some notes on the design of Songbird and Now Playing ...
Looks good, sounds good!
Re: Some notes on the design of Songbird and Now Playing ...
How do I remove this feature from songbird? I see that this is not an add-on.
Re: Some notes on the design of Songbird and Now Playing ...
I have not heard of the song bird design before.Thanks for the info. It was nice to read the post.This type of featured things should get more on the markets.
Regards,
Re: Some notes on the design of Songbird and Now Playing ...
Nice Collection Thanks for share
Re: Some notes on the design of Songbird and Now Playing ...
Great thanks, this would definitely help me to add some of may favorite rhymes to the playlist. howeverm can somebody tell me where can i get balckjack rhymes? I wish to add those to my rhyme collection.
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it consistently takes me to another file (from the same playlist) than the one clicked on, perhaps it has to do with using shuffle, but it also does it when shuffle is not on.
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Re: Some notes on the design of Songbird and Now Playing ...
This post really opened my eyes to the many outlets that companies have through social media.Really impressive, particularly the popularity of the blog within a relatively short space of time....
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Re: Some notes on the design of Songbird and Now Playing ...
Post Songbird 1.1.0 and Now Playing List will probably change dramatically in a way that hasn't been possible before. This will be due to a bug fix that didn't make it into 1.0 and as well as a patch that I wrote and got accepted and which will most likely appear in the next major release...............
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Re: Some notes on the design of Songbird and Now Playing ...
Post Songbird 1.1.0 and Now Playing List will probably change dramatically in a way that hasn't been possible before. This will be due to a bug fix that didn't make it into 1.0 and as well as a patch that I wrote and got accepted and which will most likely appear in the next major release...............
http://www.mobtech.in
Re: Some notes on the design of Songbird and Now Playing ...
The last time I released a version of Now Playing List was about 3 months ago and in that time I've received lots of feedback. I haven't responded to much of it I know and but I've combed every comment and every get satisfaction forum and every bug report and and in the next release of the extension for Songbird 1.0 I've tried to address as many things as possible...................................................
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Re: Some notes on the design of Songbird and Now Playing ...
This will be due to a bug fix that didn't make it into 1.0, as well as a patch that I wrote and got accepted and which will most likely appear in the next major release. What this means is that I'll be able to completely rewrite the add-on to avoid all those crashes and bugs and also eliminate the need to have those confusing modes...............................
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Problem with activation
Hi there, I dont know if I am writing in a proper board but I have got a problem with activation, link i receive in email is not working... http://nowplayinglist.mozdev.org/?a60c8aa70c276b26758f18dfe62,
Re: Some notes on the design of Songbird and Now Playing ...
Thanks for sharing, please keep an update about this info. love to read it more. i like this site too much. Great post ;).
Re: Some notes on the design of Songbird and Now Playing ...
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Re: Some notes on the design of Songbird and Now Playing ...
This extension allows you to queue up songs from the library into a collapsible pane on the right, and then play them as a playlist. You can also save the list as a playlist if you like andthe Now Playing List. I know there's an add-on, but I think it doesn't function as it should, not to mention it shouldn't be an add-on but be in the core.
Re: Some notes on the design of Songbird and Now Playing ...
This will be due to a bug fix that didn't make it into 1.0, as well as a patch that I wrote and got accepted, which will most likely appear in the next major release. What this means is that I'll be able to completely rewrite the add-on to avoid all those crashes and bugs, and also eliminate the need to have those confusing modes.
Re: Some notes on the design of Songbird and Now Playing ...
I need a flash player that has or can handle a now playing list. The problem I am facing is that I cannot update the playlist without refreshing the player which means it will interrupt the song that is currently playing.
Re: Some notes on the design of Songbird and Now Playing ...
The realism of the effects needed, combined with the amount of work there was to do led us to having a pretty large effects team. We have a very large number of playables, each of which needed a unique suite of super powers....................
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Re: Some notes on the design of Songbird and Now Playing ...
the critiques were largely true. Songbird was riddled with bugs and sure didn’t mind crashing once in a while.
Since then, Songbird has come a long way. Further than most iTunes fans care to admit. Not only is the little birdie far more stable – about as stable as an application gets – the Songbird addons have greatly matured as well.
Re: Some notes on the design of Songbird and Now Playing ...
the critiques were largely true. Songbird was riddled with bugs and sure didn’t mind crashing once in a while and Stephen That would be a really cool idea; in the interm, you could use the Last.fm Facebook app and scrobble your tracks w/ the Last.fm Songbird add-on... that'll get your tracks showing up on Facebook.
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