How can I simulate "in playlist icon" for any cate

by **redondo_se** on Tue Mar 14, 2006 5:53 pm

Hi all,

I'm currently working on a concept for controlling Yahoo Music Engine from Xlobby. I plan to display a list of search results as a category, i.e. all albums by a certain artist, or all tracks in a certain album. I then want to be able to select multiple items in the category and push a button to either play now (in YME), or add to the now playing list (in YME).

It would be nice if I could use icons similar to the "in playlist icon" to show that a track has been selected. I would like to be able to essentially "check/uncheck" items in the list before hitting the "play now" or "add to playlist" button. Keep in mind that these tracks are played in YME, not in the xlobby playlist.

The best I can figure out how to do is to change the "coverart" for each track as I "check/uncheck" each item. This could work, but I would prefer to have a separate "checkbox" so I don't have to replace the coverart with a different image.

Is that the best I can do?

Thanks,
Sean.

by **Colby** on Tue Mar 14, 2006 10:07 pm

I dont fully understand, but you may be able to do it with variable set and unset command. Much like we make user rating stars, etc.

by **redondo_se** on Tue Mar 14, 2006 10:42 pm

Hi Colby,

I can't install Xlobby on my work computer, but I'll check out your skin later when I have a chance. From looking at your screenshots, I'm not sure your star ratings are quite what I'm going for.

Let me see if I can "draw" what I want to do:

Code: Select all: ------------------------ | Push this button to | | add selected tracks | ------------------------ [coverart for track 1] Title of track 1 [ ] [coverart for track 2] Title of track 2 [X] [coverart for track 3] Title of track 3 [ ] [coverart for track 4] Title of track 4 [X] [coverart for track 5] Title of track 5 [ ]

The button on top would be a normal button. The tracks are in a category. The coverart for each track is displayed on the left. Each track could have a different coverart because you could be displaying the results of a search for tracks with the word "stairway", or maybe the coverart will be used to indicate whether the track is available on Yahoo.

In my picture, I have selected tracks 2 and 4 by moving the selector over them and pressing enter (which could execute whatever event I would need to execute in order to change the checkbox image from unchecked to checked and also tell my plugin that I have selected that track). When I push the "Push this button to add selected tracks" button, it will notify my plugin to add the selected tracks to Yahoo Music Engine.

I figured out that I can use the category set event to change the coverart for a track, but I can't figure out how to associate a coverart and another image with each item in the category.

If you made it this far through my explanation, I really appreciate your time and help ;-)

Thanks,
Sean.

by **Colby** on Tue Mar 14, 2006 11:32 pm

You can simulate the nowplaying icon with variable set and unset. Much like I did with user ratings stars. The only difference would be 1 star. Once you "tag" these tracks with a "star" then you would need an event for your button to filter "stars" and playall of these filtered. Thus simulating what you are trying to do. I am not sure about your plugin part of it, but Im thinking my theory is correct to accomplish what you are wanting to do.

by **redondo_se** on Wed Mar 15, 2006 7:58 pm

Hey Colby,

I played around with it more last night. I was up late and tried a whole buch of different things, so my memory about exactly how you implementd your star ratings is a little fuzzy, but I don't think I can get what I want using the same methods.

The problem is I want the "checkbox" to move with the category item as I scroll through the category. For example, lets say the category window can only display 5 lines at a time. Based on my previous example, if I were to scroll down 1 line, I want the display to look like this:

Code: Select all: ------------------------ | Push this button to | | add selected tracks | ------------------------ [coverart for track 2] Title of track 2 [X] [coverart for track 3] Title of track 3 [ ] [coverart for track 4] Title of track 4 [X] [coverart for track 5] Title of track 5 [ ] [coverart for track 6] Title of track 6 [ ]

assuming that track 6 has not yet been selected.

I think I figured out a way to do it, but it's not the most desirable. I can use the online/offline images. The problem with that is Xlobby always stretches the online/offline image to the full size of the category item. It would be nice if you could specify that the image should not be stretched and also specify an alignment of the image. Since I can't I have to instead create an image that has a large transparent canvas to the left of the "checkbox" so when Xlobby overlays the image the button shows up on the right side.

For example, if the "checkbox" image is 100 pixels wide by 100 pixels high, I may have to increase the canvas size of the image to 800 pixels wide by 100 pixels high. The problem with this method is that I have to size the image correctly to the size of the category display window. If the size of the category window changes, the "checkbox" image becomes distorted.

Thanks again for your help,
Sean.

by **Colby** on Wed Mar 15, 2006 10:56 pm

If you must use an image you could use transparent space in the image as you suggest. That is an option. However I managed to get it to work with text. (which could be images if you had the right font).

What you need is an event with variable set.
category=yahoomediawhatever
variable= mark
value= X

now on your category yahoomediawhatever make the category display= %display% %mark%

If you assign the variable set to a button or the category then it will mark the category of the selected item. I would make a clear all button to with variable unset event.

The only last thing would be to custom search for category=yahoomediawhatever field=mark value=X and do a category playall. wont this work?

by **redondo_se** on Wed Mar 15, 2006 11:20 pm

Kind of thinking out loud here...

Colby wrote:If you must use an image you could use transparent space in the image as you suggest. That is an option. However I managed to get it to work with text. (which could be images if you had the right font).

Yeah, I would like it to be an image. When you say "could be images if you had the right font", I suppose you mean something like the wingdings font? I hadn't thought of that.

Colby wrote:What you need is an event with variable set.
category=yahoomediawhatever
variable= mark
value= X

now on your category yahoomediawhatever make the category display= %display% %mark%

Hmm, I don't suppose you could right justify the "mark" while left justifying the "display", could you? If not, I think I would want to put the "mark" before the "display".

Also, is it possible to use one font for "display" and another font for "mark"? I'm thinking no. That would mean I would need some kind of font that has normal characters and images.

Colby wrote:If you assign the variable set to a button or the category then it will mark the category of the selected item. I would make a clear all button to with variable unset event.

The only last thing would be to filter mark=X and do an add or playall wont this work?

Can the variable unset event unset the value for the entire category? I thought it could only affect the currently selected item. I thought I was going to have to do the select all/clear all in my plugin.

Thanks again for all of your input.