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You must be using iTunes version 5.0 or above.

UPDATE: 9/15/2005 - 2.2.1
A few updates and reved for Build 94 of DS and the latest 5.0 of iTunes. There's some other stuff in there. I posted this build to try and stem the flood of errors I've been getting more than anything since the update to iTunes 5.0. Some of the functionality I mentioned wanting to add below is in this one though true iPod support continues to evade me. I will be turning over the source code to the public for this panel in the coming couple of months.

UPDATE: 6/07/2005 - 2.1.9
Made additional improvements to the context menu. Added the ability to "restore" iTunes from the Tray or where ever you minimize it...

For the next major version I'm attempting to get other functionality to add other listing options (more than just playlist). I hesitate to do this because it turns out the SDK simply doesn't support it. I've tried lots of options. The next option would be to write my own interpretation class of the XML library file but I fear it would be very slow... not sure if it's worth it when you can always bring up the iTunes window itself for this. I'm also still struggling with the iPod functionality... essentially I don't have one so it makes working out the quirks difficult. Pretty sure I can do the "Sync/Update" but not so sure about "Eject". At any rate, this is stalled until I get an iPod myself.

UPDATE: 5/10/2005 - 2.1.8
This isn't really an official release... more will come in 2.2. There are other features planned for the next major release that I'm still tinkering with and this doesn't address alot of that. You'll need to uninstall the previous iTunesController version and you may have to delete the folder from the plugins directory before changing to this version.

Fixed (well hid) some issues with Artwork that will come up for some people in certain situations. Attempting to get iPod functionality but I expect this won't work for you yet. Please do try it if you happen to have an iPod. Added some more show/hide options. iTunes version is now displayed in Properties Dialog. iTunes Volume now added as an option.


UPDATE: 9/24/2004 - 2.1.6
Fixed a small transparency bug when undocked. (Looks like this fix will have to rolled into all my panels.)

UPDATE: 9/22/2004 - 2.1.4
Obviously I changed the version number a little so I don't keep bumping it quite so fast. I massively changed the skinning and threw out everything I had defined. I now "borrow" the settings for MediaPlayer from the main skin. Now I always match!!! This is still a bit imperfect so if your skin looks totally freaky then go into properties and turn off the "Button Positioning" checkbox (or whatever I called it). This is the largest change but I also fixed a bug in the Volume Adjustment setting... it kept getting reset AND I fixed a bug where the slider range wasn't getting set properly (which was a bit comedic to watch the slider knob roll right off the side of the panel). I also now hide the Artwork portion of the panel if there is no artwork (still show the No Artwork in the Details panel). I leave the spot for it there though... it would be irritating for those that autosize the panels for the panel to keep changing height every time it switches between available artwork and none. If you have suggestions for a better way to deal with it, please let me know.

UPDATE: 9/17/2004 - 2.0
Fixed (crosses fingers) some major exception problems when animating the details window, some bad lockups (oops), and added Artwork to the main panel (you can remove this in the options if you prefer to keep the panel more "lean").

UPDATE: 9/15/2004 - 1.8
Fixed a couple of bugs that popped up, added more information in the exception handling (oops dialog) to help me. Feel free to remove it before sending the error report if you're unhappy with it. Also added the ability to customize volume levels on individual tracks in your library.

UPDATE: 9/13/2004 - 1.7
Fixed a couple of bugs that popped up, added support for multiple artwork (if they have it, just click the image), corrected a problem where previous artwork was being shown for items with no artwork, and added a Slider control to act as both a progress bar and so you can jump around in the current track. I'm not planning much more on this except for language support and more bug fixes so if you want it, ask for it now. OUCH. Sunburn sucks.

UPDATE: 9/09/2004 - 1.6
Based on recent requests, there is a new version out there with a substantially updated Details Window. Please let me know how it works for you. You can aquire via the FileForum.... I think in my rush to get it out there before I head out for vacation in the next few minutes I may have messed up something that could crash iTunes. This is what happened when I ran it here at home for a while (after DS is shut down). If you encounter this, let me know. I'll fix it on Sunday. Now, finally, the beach. Later!

ANOTHER UPDATE: 9/07/2004
Fairly large update to address lots of little crashes, update the DS version built against, add a Properties/About dialog, support skinning, and repackage for download. More changes coming in the next version. You can aquire via the FileForum.

ANOTHER UPDATE: 7/27/2004
Very minor update to strongly sign the assemblies, general exception handling, update the DS version built against, and repackage for download. More changes coming in the next version.

ANOTHER UPDATE: 5/26/2004... a few minutes later.
A few minutes after posting the update I found another couple bugs (new ones I just introduced). This one seems much better. Sorry about that (to the one person that's already downloaded it)!

UPDATE: 5/26/2004
Very minor update to stop the autoloading of iTunes until you want it loaded and a few other minor tweaks along these lines.

Nice work!!!

Yes!!! You rock!

Well done! Way better, way cool.

I finally got around to trying this plugin and it is great. I am an official convert to iTunes. Isn't it interesting that now any new app I use, the first thing I consider is how well it works with DS?!?!?!? (MS should remember this....)

Anyway, I don't know how difficult this is, or how it fits into the scheme of things, whether the new Media Player panel would do this, or whether Mattisking is up for doing it now, but I would love to see the following:

1) Context menu allowing me to choose selections from the Library or Radio, to choose a playlist, or just turn on the Party Shuffle.

2) Is there a way to activate the plugin without having to start the entire iTunes app? I am not sure if this is correct, but I believe WMP has a service that doesn't take as much memory.

2) Being able to see the Album art and/or the visualization (this is NOT needed, just cool).

Great job Mattisking , thanks so much. iTunes is just so...easy, makes sense, and is fast.

Coult69

I may implement some of this. It kind of depends on where KDam is with everything. This plugin was very easy for me to write because of my existing MPCController plugin and the SDK for iTunes is very easy to use.

Unfortunately, no, I DO have to load iTunes. The SDK (software development kit) that Apple released to interface with iTunes works through COM. That's just a fancy way of saying that there's a DLL that can interface with the running application (though a gross simplification... that definition works). WMP does actually work in the same way.

I'll be releasing updates again very soon for all of my components to support the new install, latest translations, newer dsidebar.dll, and miscellaneous bug fixes. Some of this may even make it in there.

Good lord, I didn't even notice this plugin was available til this morning. Very Nice!

Any chance of supporting Jetaudio in future builds? (www.jetaudio.com)

Cheers!

any chance of an album art addon? My slideshow is getting repeatitive so I'd like to throw the album art in that slot...

is there an updated version that works with build 68 .. and the new dsidebarpia.dll ...

I noticed this thread so perhaps it's not needed

http://www.desktopsidebar.com/forums/index...?showtopic=1581

I need to reinstall this panel. Will it work with Build 69?

Thanks,

Coult69

1) Yes, it will continue to work fine in current builds.
2) New skinning support coming in next version.
3) There "should" be some initial support for getting information on the song played (like album art)... this will eventually be included but may miss for this next delivery.
4) What exactly is JetAudio? Is this something iTunes supports currently? Or, are you asking to be able to control another Media application externally? Or is this some sort of new streaming capability?

JetAudio is another music player application. AFAIK, it has nothing to do with iTunes.

Mattisking - I recommend you to pack all your plugins in the DSPACKAGE format. It is much better. In fact, I think that kdam has already made DSPACKAGES for you and you can find them in http://www.desktopsidebar.com/fileforum.php

Thanks Goma. I'm in the process of doing that very thing. DSShutdown has already been updated and repackaged. The others will follow pretty soon.

I get an error everytime I try to install this panel and I really want it to work.
Any help would be appreciated. I get the same error message when I try to install
dsshurtdown also.
It's attached as a screenshot.
Geeknurse

You do have the Microsoft .NET Framework installed right?

Yes, I do have the .net framework installed. I even reinstalled it and that still didn't work.
Any help is appreciated.
Geeknurse

Try following these instructions:http://www.desktopsidebar.com/forums/index...?showtopic=1853

bump for new version. I miss the pins.

Download from here:http://www.desktopsidebar.com/ffdetails.php?id=55. I think that adding a link might help the users to find the plugin

Hi, first: this panel is the f***ing best way to view what song is playing currently without having itunes open all the time.
I don't really need the control feature since i have a multimedia keyboard i can control itunes with.
The thing I need is a complete "artist - title" display and rating buttons, hotkeys or both (cause itunes doesn't have any global hotkeys...)
would be nice if you could include this in the next build

julakali - You should check out this panel made by yyy for that info.

~acommonjo

Guess I never really understood what that panel did then. I personally don't use iTunes so I have never really used either of the iTunes related panels. I guess julakali's request would be for mattisking then, or kdam if he intends to make the mega media player panel in the future.

~acommonjo

I rather using iTunes instead of Winamp. Winamp is a BIG reousrce

"but I think he rather having the information about the currently played song"
- right.

at the moment, the panel is only displaying the track _name_, not the artist or rating. And there's no feature to rate the currently played song.
hope this will be included
i would mattisking for that

Have you ever tried doing something that requieres some memory usage while Winamp is on? I was listening to music in Winamp while trying to use Gimp (Like Photoshop) and I didn't understand why everything was so slow. I turned off Winamp and everything went back to normal. It always happen when I'm using a program that uses memory and Winamp is on. Maybe your computer is faster than mine but I can tell you that it really slows your computer.

hmm I think itunes uses more memory but less cpu..
at least on my computer.
I just tried to use winamp with my mp3s...
but it sucks.. everytime i listen to a wrong tagged mp3 I would have to
- retag that file in winamp (the itunes id3tag editor is much better, for example when editing multiple files)
- locate the mp3 file in explorer
- rename the mp3
- delete the old entry in the winamp library / playlist
- readd the renamed mp3

itunes just does that in one step, you right klick on the file, choose file info, edit the tag and itunes automatically renames your file.

And, what i really like is drag&dropping your files in itunes and it automatically moves them to librarypath/artist/album/songtitle.extension.
the thing i dont like is that you cant configure if you want the filename of the mp3 contain artist - title or something like this...
its always "title.mp3" or "tracknumber - title.mp3" that sucks a little...

I think I got off-topic, sorry

Well, here we often get off topic. (At least I do it a lot ) Soryy mattisking. I just like Winamp's skins.

Hey guys... try out the latest version and see if you like it a bit better.

Matt

Hey guys,

Awesome plugin!!! Unfortunately I'm getting some unhandled exceptions while looking at the details pane... 5 of them to be exact. I'm using version 1.6 of the plugin and build 75 of DS. The exceptions occur right before the details pane popup and the descriptions seems to be "hdc." I have included the stack trace below. If I continue through all the exceptions, I get my details window and everything seems to be fully functional.

I'm brand new to DS so it could very well be something I did (or didn't do). Any ideas?

I guess I still have some things to iron out. I'll take a look and see what I can work out tomorrow. It probably has something to do with missing META DATA.

I also got the same exceptions...I have only one other request - Could you create an option so that the Album Artwork could appear in the panel while the track is playing? Sort of a limited visualization thing...

Great job,

Coult69

One other thing I noticed...When I undocked the panel and set the transparency to 0 and click the option to not show the background, I get the pink color around the menu bar that was showing up in previous versions of DS. The last version of the iTunes Controller didn't do that, so I am thinking it is something that has changed...

Coult69

See if this version works a little better for you guys. 1.7 was just uploaded to the FileForum. There is some improved checking and better exception handling (to a point). I'm still not certain about the problems you guys are having but I have some ideas about it which are included in this version. I also changed the background of the details dialog. I'm open to suggestions on the appearance of it and if you'd like additional information and options.

As for the Visualizations window, and possibly viewing the Artwork there, I am considering it for the next version.

Just an FYI, I'm still getting unhandled exceptions when the details panel pops up. Same exception description ("hdc"). If you want some more info for debugging, let me know.

Could you try out version 1.8 of the panel? I've added a little more information to help me in a crash. If that continues to crash for you, I'll send you a dedicated test build with lots more debugging code in place.

Thanks for the help.

Matt

Yeah, this was with the 1.8 build. Sorry, forgot to mention that. I can see the changes to the background and individual track volume control so I know I've got the right one.

I'll email you with a special build sometime tomorrow. Thanks for the help.


UPDATE: Could you go into your DS Options and set the Animation option under Details Window to "Disbled"? Then tell me if it still crashes. If it DOESN'T, please try various options in there. Also, could you tell me the version of Windows you are running, service packs, and the version of DS you are running?

Bingo! Changing that value to disabled does NOT result in a crash. Fade = crash and Slide = crash. I am running Windows XP SP2 with DS 1.04 build 75. .NET Framework 1.1 SP1. Let me know if you need any more debugging info. Good catch.

I don't know if you're familiar with programming or not but the problem is that .NET controls (I write my panels using the .NET framework) don't interpret the windows message WM_PRINT and those derivatives which are required by the C++ WIN32 call to AnimateWindow(). Rather than use the normal internal DS controls for the details window pane, I create a .NET user control and stretch it to fill the native C++ DS details frame... so I use the regular DS method of showing the details window... but I fill it with a .NET window. I THOUGHT I had found a work around because my work around for that crash works perfectly on my Windows 2000 and my Windows XP machines. I wonder what's different.... I'm going to have to dig into this deeper.

I hope you don't mind running in that mode for a short time (no animation). Personally, I really like the Fade effect so I'll spend some time trying to find another way around this.

hmm now that you included an option to have an artwork preview without looking at the detail window, maybe you could include an option to show & change rating without using the details window, maybe 5 little dots under the play/stop/skip/... elements.
and again, im really missing hotkeys in itunes and i would love the panel to provide hotkey ability for rating songs.
p.s. you did f***ing good work

edit:
i just found a hotkey plugin while browsing the ipodlounge forum..
if anyone is interested: http://www.mattberube.com/software/ituneskeys.htm

So theres no need to integrate hotkeys to DSitunes.

I just installed ver. 2.0 and it works great. I love having the artwork in the panel! I really need more room on my sidebar now!

Interesting, even though I have detail windows enabled, I can't get the detail window to come up. That is ok for me, since I really don't use detail windows

I guess the only other change I could think of is to make the buttons skinable. Is that possible?

Thanks for the great work,

Coult69

They are already skinnable... to an extent. I don't yet really fully support skinning because of the simple fact that I have a huge amount of code behind the proper placement of the buttons to make them "wrap" and so forth depending on the size of the panel's width (and stay centered otherwise).

This code was created for my first panel, the shutdown panel because that panel actually allows you to change which buttons are used and I hate left justified buttons. However, the next release will probably completely remove that code (for iTunes) so that the user can do full skins. You should note that I actually DID include one "new" skin in this release. However, KDam is fixing a bug I ran across so the only way to use the new skin is to manually open the dsiTunesController.dsskin file and move "iPod" skin in front of "blue". I say "new" because I simply took those buttons from the existing iPod skin Media Player settings.

I'm glad you found something that works for you (hot keys). I don't really want to mess with that because hotkeys are a bit odd... to make it work like you're wanting I'd need to make them GLOBAL which could override keys set in other programs. They'd need to be global because otherwise my panel would have to have focus every time you wanted to use them... and then what would be the point.

As for using the main panel for even more options... I'm hesitant. I DO plan on adding a volume control that you can use to control the iTunes volume without affecting the rest of the system (because a user wanted it). I also plan on going with a better "default" artwork (also requested).... AND I'll be adding right-click options along with a few more minor tweaks here and there. Still, there's already so many panels that adding so much to the main panel makes it take up alot of space... and I personally prefer just the buttons for start/stop/etc. so the panel can be as small as possible to leave more room for things like News/Calendar.

That makes sense to me, but I just love having the artwork pop up, so it is all about choices right now for space. Ideally, I would have an analog & digital clock going, slideshow, as much space for the newsroom as possible, and of course the iTunes Controller. I sacrificed the analog clock for now. I am hoping that the dev team goes with one of the stacking ideas that allows for greater minimalization of the stacked panels. Right now I have Newsroom, Miranda, Calendar, Tasks, Notes, and File Browser in a stack. Moving those panel headers into one strip would save a ton of space.

Random question of iTunes addicts - Anyone know of a way to get iTunes to put more of a delay between tracks? I don't like how the songs move right into each other...Does that make sense?

Thanks,

Coult69

One other thing...I tried undocking the panel and it works great! The album artwork stretches so you can make it the size you want (much smaller!) and it saves me room on the sidebar.

I still have that problem with the background though. In the Window Settings, if you unclick "Display window background" you get that pink background all over. Right now the best thing to do is just keep it clicked, but it would be nice to be able to get rid of it.

Thanks,

Coult69

Sorry, talking to myself here, but I did figure out how how to get the delay between tracks...disable the Crossfade playback in the Audio Options.

Coult69