A few Noob Questions

[Lifter]

After playing around with Xlobby and searching the forums, there's a few things I can't figure out. I hate to make a numeric list, it sound kinnda demanding, but it makes it easier to read so I apologize.

1. Where do album covers automatically come from before you try any of the spiders? I find this really confusing because Winamp automatically found covers for all my albums, but Xlobby only found about 3/4's of them. I tried the amazon/wallmart/etc. spiders and they came up empty for those albums. One of my coverless albums has a picture of a cow saying "image not found", but the rest of my coverless albums are blank. Very strange. These are mostly indie stuff which won't be found at Wallmart, but Winamp does have them in their database. How can I use Winamp's database instead?

2. I'm making a new skin. When creating a category, instead of having multiple pages, can there be just a long list that can scroll verticaly? The way I'm designing the skin, it's a little strange to click "right" once I get to the bottom of the list. I hope that makes sense.

3. Can cover art images be stored in another folder? I'm trying to make ROM menus, and I've crossed over from myHTPC, so all my screenshots are in a "myGames" folder of the root dir. They have the same name as the roms but w/ a jpg extension. I can't seem to get the thumbnails working unless the pictures are in the same folder as the roms. I guess if I knew XML I wouldn't be asking this. Anyone know of a good XML for dummies tutorial?

Wow that was long. Sorry about that.

[noviceboy]

1. Cover art initiall "appear" in xlobbx beacuse of the import function. What gets recoginised is set by the file extention. So if you ahave aprogr that finds your artwork better use . And refresh your musioc database and xlobbx should use the art work.

Spiders are just an ssitionaly way to get art work images into the right place in hte database. You could do it all externally be writing to the XML database

2 Is a feature request I think.

3. You don't need to know XML. They are just text files, and simple to understand. Look at misic.xml in notepad and you will see where coverart is defined to be. Folders be anywhere you like, justa question of your search directories when doing an import/refresh.

Welcome to Xlobby!

[Colby]

okay

1. Where do album covers automatically come from before you try any of the spiders?

generally when you rip or download an album if youre connected to the internet the software will associate the mp3 with a cover art. I know this is true with windows media player and music match. the cover jpg is usually located in the folder where the mp3 files are.

Xlobby only found about 3/4's of them

there is no garantee that xlobby will find the covers you need. You have to search the web for other covers or scan them in if you dont have them. The spiders were created a few xlobby generations back to simplify the search for the album covers, so we could do the search through xlobby instead of manaully. Buy.com, wallmart were chosen cause they have 500x500 pixel or more images as opposed to 60 pixels from windows media.

2.

...long list that can scroll verticaly?

this is simple. the arrows that point right and left you want to change; hit pause/break then click the button tab and the image sub-tab and change it to an up or down arrow respectively. ( I dont think there is a default one however) If you create a button you can also go into the event manager and assign previous or next or whatever you need it to do, effectivly a "scroll down".

3.

Can cover art images be stored in another folder?

yes store them where you want and in the edit database you can chose image location.

[Lifter]

Thanks for the reply guys. I guess to simplify my first question, has anyone made a spider to use the Winamp database?

As far as vertical scrolling, that's not exactly what I meant. I probably won't even use arrows, since my skin will be designed for remote control use. But arrows or not, I'm talking about having one long list that you can scroll down individually without "turning the page", if that makes any sense. Right now, it seems that it can only display one page at a time. Open up a Windows folder that has a very large amount of files in it and use the arrow key to scroll down. That's kind of what I'm talking about. I assumed it was possible but according to noviceboy it's a feature request.

[noviceboy]

Yep- It's what all remote users want. When you go past the last/first item in the vertical list Xlobby should know when there is more and scroll appropriately.

The problem is of course, how to move out of the list to another button at will ?

according to your button layout (vertical v.s horiz. ) if might be more logical to go left / right or up/down to move to next button. If you are in a list this presents a problem ?. Or do I make it more complicated than it really is?

[smurgle]

When making a vertical scrolling list for remote access, the thing to do is to put the buttons on the side. That way you press left(or right) to get to the buttons and just press down/up to scroll the list. It is the intuitive way.

[noviceboy]

When making a vertical scrolling list for remote access, the thing to do is to put the buttons on the side.

How do you mean? Every (navigable) button is to one the side of the scrolling item?
If you press left/right when u are in the list will it not page rather than move to the next button.

[Lifter]

When making a vertical scrolling list for remote access, the thing to do is to put the buttons on the side. That way you press left(or right) to get to the buttons and just press down/up to scroll the list. It is the intuitive way.

Well, I don't plan on using Xlobby with a mouse or touchscreen kiosk or anything. The best way (IMHO) is to have one long list that does not "end" when you get to the bottom. You can keep pressing down on the remote until you get to the bottom, or use page up/page down on the remote to go faster. Left or right arrows on the remote (not graphic buttons) will move the cursor off the list when needed.

[smurgle]

Yup lifter that's what i was trying to say. That would be a nice feature to have for us remote users.