Pure Player - Discussion

 [Suggestion, Request] Tooltip and menu color style, Additional preferences option, July 2009

I'm going to change the color of tooltip and context menu in my Pure Player skins for the better style, because if a feather contains styled toopltip and/or context menu but the Pure Player skin (what somebody want to use) has totally different colors it looks not so good.

For example this:


But this is looks much more better (with the same feather), because the PP skin has an own colored tooltip and context menu:


This is important especially if the PP skin sit just alone on the desktop.

Request: So because these above, it would be useful an option in the preferences to switch between tooltip and context menu colors of the PP skin and tooltip and context menu colors of the feather. In this case, everybody can chose what he or she likes. I hope you like my idea. :)
--Hiromacu 20 July 2009

[Skinning] Small changes for the next Update necessary, June 2009

Dear PP-Skin-Developers,
for the next PP-Version, there is a really small update on your skins required, but if you don't do it, your skin won't show album-art anymore.
I will release the Update on 19th June, or earlier, if all PP-Skins have been updated sooner.

Please add these lines to "Album-Art" - Section:

#pureview-albumart-svg,
#pureview-albumart-titlebar {
  width: 99px;
  height: 99px;
}

(Replace the orange values with width & height of your #pureview-albumart-box)

Here you can download a developers preview: Pure Player - 0.751

Any feedback is welcome, of course...

Changes:
* Fixed the problems with moving Pure Player! Now it should be possible to drag & drop the window everywhere (except for the controls & time-elapsed label, which do handle the mouse-clicks for their own, of course)
* Added patch submitted by brudaswen (snap to Desktop-, instead to screen-borders)
* Added patch submitted by nick kreeger (WindowSanityCheck: make sure that PurePlayer is on visible part of Screen)

Thanks & Chirps, --atreiu 12 June 2009

• @atreiu: OK! I added the code to all of my PP skins and there isn't any problem with the cover-art. I'll upload them all today. The new drag behavior of the PP 0.751 works well (great job!) but I have a question. With this new dragging feature text-dragging possibility is disappeared. Do you plan to bring it back? It would be super (if possible). ;) --Hiromacu 12 Jun 2009

• @Hiromacu: I'm afraid that's not possible. I hope not too many people will miss this feature... Thanks for updates! --atreiu 13 June 2009

[Skinning] Idea for a skin, June 2009

Hey atreiu, have you thought of reviving the Birdie feather via Pure Player?


 I'm gradually diving into it, to see how much i can do... we'll see... --mpurses 30 May 2009

• Yeah, I thought about it. But reviving the original Birdie isn't possible, I guess. PurePlayer can't show the text or the cover with perspective, and I don't think that it will look nice without this. (The rest should be possible.)
  I think it would be better, if someone would create a complete new Birdie skin, maybe by using another Image from the Songbird images repository. A Birdie skin that doesn't depend on perspective. A Songbird-Skin for Pure Player would be great :-) --atreiu 02 June 2009

 

[Skinning] Ideas & Requests, 19 May 2009

Maybe as you as saw I created a new skin for PP (an iPod style one) and I have couple of ideas and questions.

[Skinning] Bug in the default.css-file, 13 May 2009

In the 'default.css' file the (red) code isn't good [...]

    Moved to Topic below, to avoid redundancy. --atreiu 22 May 2009
 

[...] --Hiromacu 13 May 2009


• Yep, thanks! --atreiu 14 May 2009

[Skinning] Bug fixes in the css-files, 11 May 2009

There have been some bugs fixes and changes necessary in the Pure Player skins. Please repeat these changes in your custom Skins, if necessary. --atreiu 24 May 2009

1. Missing NoCover declaration in "default" - Skin. Add these lines into the "Album Art" section:
   #pureview-albumart-box {
  background-image: url('chrome://YOUR/PATH/TO/nocover.png') !important;
}
2. Wrong declaration of the autoscroll-text in "default" and in "compact" Skin.  Try to enable and disable the "autoscroll" in the PurePlayer Options, to see what I mean. Replace the complete "No scroll - Tag behavior" - section with this.
   /*******************************
 * "No scroll"-Tag behavior
 *******************************/
#pureview-title-label,
#pureview-artist-label,
#pureview-album-label {
    visibility: collapse;
        width: 0px !important;
        height: 0px !important;
}
#pureview[scroll="false"] #pureview-title-label,
#pureview[scroll="false"] #pureview-artist-label,
#pureview[scroll="false"] #pureview-album-label {
    visibility: inherit;
        width: 100% !important;
        height: 100% !important;
    overflow: hidden;
}
#pureview[scroll="false"] #pureview-title-autoscroll,
#pureview[scroll="false"] #pureview-artist-autoscroll,
#pureview[scroll="false"] #pureview-album-autoscroll  {
    visibility: collapse;
        width: 0px !important;
        height: 0px !important;
}
#pureview  #faceplate[hidden="true"] {
    display: -moz-box !important;   
}
3. Seekbar-Section. To make the display more precise and compatible with different feathers, add the green changes:
   #pureview progressmeter.sb-player-seek-slider > .progress-bar {
  background-image: url('chrome://pureview/skin/default/bg-se...-progress.png') !important;
  background-position: 0px 0px !important;
  min-width: 1px !important;
}
#pureview #faceplate_seekbar_box {
  margin: 0px !important;
}
4. Track-Info Section. It's now possible to align the text, therefore to hold you status-quo you should add these lines:
   #pureview-tracktime-box {
  -moz-box-align: right;
}
5. Hide new Elements. I have some new elements, you should hide them by default, and only show them if you need them. Add the following, new section:
   /*****************************************
 * Element that are not used in this skin
 * ***************************************/
#pureview-trackinfo-singleline-box,
#pureview-timeelapsed-box,
#pureview-custom-button-box,
#pureview-lastfm-box, /* <-- not yet implemented */
#pureview-jumpto-button-box {
  position: absolute;
  visibility: collapse;
}
6. Problem with "No Round Borders" - Background in "default"-skin . Wrong declaration of the secondary background-image. Fix it by changing this:
   #pureview[corners="round"] #control_pane {
  background-image: url('chrome://pureview/skin/default/purev...bg-middle.png') !important;
}
into this:
   #pureview[corners="round"] #faceplate {
  background-image: url('chrome://songbird/skin/pureplayer/pu...bg-middle.png') !important;
}
7. Enable visual Feedback for new Window Drag & Drop function. Add the following lines to the "Main Window" - Section:
   #pureview-titlebar {
    cursor: move;
}

[Skinning] Seekbar notches 0.7, May 2009

• @ Hiromacu: About the seekbar-notches (pureplayer.css vs. feathers.css)
  If you do a change in the feathers css-files, that changes something in the PurePlayer, too, you have to create a second rule to revert these changes for PurePlayer. This is, because the feathers css code has higher priority than PurePlayers. A feather can override all styles from other add-ons. That's good, but the feather developer has to take this into account. My Pure Player Skins do only cover & override the most common styles (if I missed one of these common styles, please leave a comment!)
  
  So, if you enabled the notches for your feathers seekbar with something like this
  #faceplate_seekbar_box > .notches > hbox+hbox {
  background-image: url('chrome://songbird/skin/media-control...bar-notch.png');
}
  
  Then you have to revert these changes for PurePlayer making an addition like this: (not tested, just that you know what I mean)
#pureview #faceplate_seekbar_box > .notches > hbox+hbox {
  background-image: none;
}
  

  
  You can put this right under the first declaration into the images.css, but I put stuff like that into a custom section in my feather.css (I named the sub-section "Add-ons"). That way I can easily out-comment or delete these declarations, if an add-on gets outdated or something. Important is, that you do this declaration in your feathers css-files, not in the Pure Players css-files. --atreiu 11 May 2009



• @atreiu: OK. I changed the code as you advised and it works well! Thanks! --Hiromacu 11 May 2009

[Suggestion] An idea for a skin, April 2009

• @atrieu: Hello, I created a draft of an horizontal pure player. In addition, it is a kind of allusion to Pino's Birdie: You see it is only an idea in my mind but i like this combination
   
• @Jean-Jacques: That's a nice idea. With the new skinning-abilities in the next Version, it should be easy to implement (not sure about the poof, but the rest ;-). I myself probably to don't have time to work on it, but in the next version contributors can do much more things, so let's hope someone takes this idea and realizes it. :-) --atreiu 03 May 2009

 

[Bug] Menu-Entries, April 2009

• @atreiu:
  
  

  "In Context menu there are only the different looks for Songbird (Mainplayer, Miniplayer, PurePlayer)."

  
  OK, I understand. But is this a company (I mean Songbird) policy? Because these are not only different looks for Songbird but control panels too (play, pause etc.) and Pure Player (allied) is a control panel as well. So the difference between Pure Player and Pure Player (allied) only technical but users don't care about technical principle. Why should? They just use it. Only you know this (the author). I know these different appearance options in the view menu (Main Player, Mini Player, Medium Player, Pure Player) are work like radio-box options and Pure Player (allied) (in the view menu) works (with a bug) like a single check box option. But would it be possible to put it into that radio box (not only into the context menu)? If yes, it would be very useful.
  
  

  "Adding an item for an option like Pure Player (allied) sure would be possible, but it would be like adding an item for Lyricsmaster in the context menu:"

  
  Pure Player (allied) technically just a pane (like right sidebar, content pane bottom or service pane bottom). OK, I understand. But it's a very special pane. It's separated from the main window (it appears on the task bar) and looks, works (in the surface) exactly the same like Pure Player.
  
  

  "It would have no function..."

  
  Why?! Especial I could use a context menu option for allied mode in the Main Player (image: sgppss02.png) and in the Pure Player solo mode (image: sgppss04.png) as well.
  
  

  "...and wouldn't work, unless you are in Mainplayer."

  
  Hmmm....
  If you put it into the context menus (Main and Pure) and into the view menu as a radio-box item it would be definitely useful.
  Let's see!
  
  1st - Easier to switch:
  No need to go to the view menu. Just a click anywhere in the titlebar and select it. OK there is a Ctrl+Shift+P shortcut, but my favorite is the context menu. I use it every time if I can.
  
  2nd - Selective remembering:
  In Pure Player solo mode if I want to open Main Player with Pure Player, I just select 'Pure Player (allied)' option and Songbird reopens with state remembering. But if I want to open only the Media Player, I just select 'Media Player' or click on the little feather button and Songbird reopens without state remembering.
  
  3rd - And I think with this new behavior you still can use Ctrl+Shift+P shortcut to open and close Pure Player (allied) pane or reopen Songbird with state remembering in solo mode as well.
  
  

  And some bugs:

  - In Pure Player solo mode if I use Ctrl+Shift+P shortcut, it opens a Pure Player (allied) pane (image: sgppss05.png - this image isn't edited!). If I close the allied pane the played song stops and Pure Player crashes (image: sgppss06.png). I have to reopen Songbird.
  
  - If I open the allied pane then I select View=>Pure Player (allied) menu option an empty window appears (image: sgppss07.png) and when I close it the played song stops. And exactly the same happens if in allied mode I open and close the view menu without do anything and press Ctrl+Shift+P shortcut. (But I think if you put the allied mode into the menu as a radio-box option, this problem will be disappear.)
  
  - If I open the allied pane, that option in the view menu get a check marking (so the 'Main Player' option and the 'Pure Player (allied)' option are checked). If I reopen Songbird the 'Main Player' 'Pure Player (allied)' option checking gone. (But I think if you put the allied mode into the menu as a radio-box option, this problem will be disappear too.)
  
  And I still say, this extension is a very great job.
  :P  --Hiromacu 16 April 2009

• Hiromacu, did you upload the images of the context menus? They are mockups, right? That's how you think it should look like, not how it is actually looking? Because I'm very confused: I don't get the "Pure Player (allied)"-entry in any Context menu. :-D  --atreiu 16 April 2009

• @Hiromacu:
  About Allied Behavior:
  Okay, now I understand your request :-) You don't only want me to change the menus, but although the behavior. Changing both makes much more sense. Basically, you want "Pure Player (allied)" to work like a View (like Miniplayer). This is very reasonable and you have good arguments for it.
  
  I have only one concern: switching to another "View" takes a lot more time (because the whole Player is rebuild). The idea of Pure Player (allied) is, to have a very fast way to switch between Pure Player and Mainplayer (by allowing simultanious view). I don't want to give up this aim, but I can think of two solution here:
  
  a) Add your suggested behavior as "third" Pure Player, next to "Pure Player" and "Pure Player (allied)" (the naming could be changed, then).
  b) Implement "Pure Player (allied)" as a pseudo "View": Making it act like a "View", but technically use an approach similar to the current solution. For Example a click in Mainplayer on the new context-menu entry "Pure Player (allied)" would just open the "allied" window, while a click on the same context-menu entry in Miniplayer would switch to Mainplayer AND open the "allied" AND select "Pure Player (allied)" in the menu as the active radio item. Closing the "allied" Window then should close the "allied" window AND select "Mainplayer" in the menu as active item. So the View is only changed, if it's needed to be changed, but context-menus act like the view is changed all the time.
  
  From a users point of view, I certainly would prefer option b), as it is more intuitive and cleaner. However, both options would require A LOT code changes, option b) even some modifications on the default songbird behavior, which I'm not very comfortable with (such changes need more attention, because they can conflict with other addons or songbird-updates).
  
  I'm not sure if it's worth the effort. As far as i can see, the changes would only be useful for users who a) switch often between more than 2 views (Mainplayer, PurePlayer (allied) & one other) AND b) prefer the context menu over the Shortcut or View-Menu. I'm thinking the time to implement this might be better spend on other things (like a "playlist" for PurePlayer, or other add-ons). --atreiu 16 April 2009

[Bug] Multiple problems, April 2009:

1.) Thanks, haven't noticed that before.
2.) This was introduced with Songbird 1.1.2. I already fixed that, and I'm currently testing. Release is coming soon. 
3.) Can't reproduce this. What exactly do you mean by "reopen Mainplayer"? I tried restarting and minimizing, but for me the checkbox works: If the "Pure Player (allied)" is visible, than the entry in the menu is checked. If not, it's unchecked. "Mainplayer" is always checked,  if it's visible, too. --atreiu 16 April 2009
 

• @atreiu: I prefered your option b) as well, but If this changes takes too much times just leave it. I don't want to kick up your schedule. Really! And I stop to bother you with it. :P --Hiromacu 16 April 2009

• @atreiu: About bug report:

1. Your welcome!
2. Super!
3. Sorry! I fixed my previous writing by strike through. I mean "reopen Mainplayer" is close Songbird (in allied mode) then open it. --Hiromacu 16 April 2009

• @Hiromacu: 3.: Hm, strange. I tried that, but didn't see your bug. Maybe one of my other changes already fixed this unintentionally :-) I'll just publish the new release and wait for your confirm, if the bug is fixed or not. Cheers! --atreiu 16 April 2009

• @atreiu: There is a problem with cover art loading when Pure Player loads a song from last.fm radio automatically. I realized it when I listened last.fm during APNG image editing. Descriptions are on the images.

1st image:
 

2nd image:


3rd image:

--Hiromacu 16 April 2009

• CoverArt: Can the default cover-pane from Mainplayer do this? Because I don't know how to detect "next song" in a radio stream, and if the cover-pane from Mainplayer does this, I might be able to copy the code from it. (PS: I would try this myself, but how can I listen to last.fm radio through songbird? I'm only able to listen through the flash-player, and see no option to start it in Songbird).
• "Disappearing" buttons: That's just the "disabled" state for the button. In my default button set, a button is invisible, if it's disabled. Maybe I should add a visible disabled state? Might be less confusing.
  Why sometimes buttons are disabled or not, I don't know. This is songbird behavior. I noticed that the buttons can behave very strange & inconsistent on streams and radio. But all players are effected (Mainplayer, Miniplayer and Mediumplayer). If the player has a "disabled" state, it's probably just less visible. You can file a bug in Bugzilla for this, if you want. --atreiu 17 April 2009

• @atreiu: Cover art and "disappearing" buttons: See image. --Hiromacu 17 April 2009
   
• @Hiromacu: Hey, what add-on do I need, to get that last.fm-radio entry in the left servicepane? Never seen that before! (I'm not a big last.fm user :-)  Scrap that. I got it. I had the last.fm-addon disabled for some reason... ;) --atreiu 17 April 2009


• @atreiu: This: http://addons.songbirdnest.com/addon/106 --Hiromacu 17 April 2009
   
• Okay, I think I found a solution for the last.fm album-art-issue. Let's hope no drawbacks come up in the testing, but I'm confident. --atreiu 17 April 2009


• @atreiu: That would be great if works. :) I have a question about radio information text. Is it possible to modify color of that text? Because its color is white, and hard to read on my Chrome skin. I wanna change that color in my skin but I don't know how. I have not so much experience with css. --Hiromacu 17 April 2009


• OK, I installed new release and it works perfect. Great job!! However I couldn't install it at the firs 4 times by some reason (I don't know). I had to reboot my laptop, but after everything was fine. :D I saw you modified color of radio information text in Default (Gonzo), so I gonna steal that code. ;) --Hiromacu 17 April 2009


• @atreiu: Please for the next release insert this code into chrome.css:

#pureview #lastfm-station-label-label {
    font-size: 13px !important;
    color: rgb(96,96,96) !important;
    font-weight: bold !important;
}
And into birdie.css without color code. Thanks! --Hiromacu 17 April 2009

• @atreiu: Sorry man, but I have an other bug report. Something isn't good with 'Always on top' context menu. See image. --Hiromacu 17 April 2009
   
• Right, I put this on my todo-list for the next release. --atreiu 17 April 2009


• @atreiu: There are couple of problems about shortcuts in solo mode or in allied mode if PP pan is selected.

- Ctrl + Down Arrow (Pause/Play instead of Decrease Volume)
- Ctrl + Up Arrow (it does nothing instead of Increase Volume)
- Ctrl + Alt + Down Arrow (Pause/Play instead of Mute Volume)
- Ctrl + Alt + Up Arrow (it does nothing instead of Mute Volume)

And there are some unnecessary shortcuts:
- Left Arrow or
- Ctrl + Shift + Left Arrow or
- Ctrl + Alt + Left Arrow: Play the Previous Media Item in a List (but we have Ctrl + Left Arrow for this)

- Right Arrow or
- Ctrl + Shift + Right Arrow or
- Ctrl + Alt + Right Arrow: Play the Next Media Item in a List (but we have Ctrl + Right Arrow for this)

Keyboard Ratings add-on uses Ctrl + Shift + Left Arrow and Ctrl + Shift + Right Arrow shortcuts.

- Down Arrow - Pause/Play but we have Space for this.

I think Left Arrow, Right Arrow and Down Arrow shortcuts do override by some reasons. --Hiromacu 20 April 2009

• Thanks, I'll put it on the todo. I'm hard working on the new skinning, so it probably take some weeks till I can address this. --atreiu 21 April 2009

[Suggestion] Some requests, April 2009.

• @atreiu: Before you publish the new release, I have an idea. What do you think about to use small animated gif images in the skins. Not easy to use because the transparent effect of animated gif images not so good, but it has artistic and expressive value. See my attached modified Birdie skin. And if you put an option into preferences of the Pure Player, users can turn this feature on/off by their wish. I don't know how works it on Linux or Mac, but definitely works in Windows. --Hiromacu 16 April 2009
   
• @Hiromacu: That's a nice idea, and pretty easy to implement. But can you please use aPNG (animated png) instead animated gif? Animated gif sucks so much in quality :-)  One way to create aPNG is the use of an Editor that comes as a Firefox-Addon: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5519
  This editor isn't very convenient, but it's easy to use and the result is great. More info here: http://labs.mozilla.com/2007/08/bett...-in-firefox-3/
  If you are done, upload your image here. In the meanwhile I'll implement the option... --atreiu 16 April 2009

• @atreiu: Wow! I didn't know nothing about this APNG before. Animated PNG is exactly what was mising to me. As I wrote above, I had couple of problems with GIF transparency (Alpha channel). OK, I'll install that Firefox add-on... --Hiromacu 16 April 2009

• @atreiu:OK, I finished the animated PNG images (/@api/deki/files/799/=nocover_animated_(1).png?size=thumb and /@api/deki/files/794/=bg-seekbar-progress_animated.png?size=webview), and there is a bug (if any) (see above in the bug reports). --Hiromacu 16 April 2009

• @atreiu: I uploaded a new version of no cover (nocover_animated (1).png), because I forgot to put a delay into the last frame of the previous one. --Hiromacu 16 April 2009
   
• @Hiromacu: Thanks, NoCover-looks good. But I can't see any animation in the progress-bar, and it's misplaced (from the background), too?? --atreiu 17 April 2009 PS: For dimension I used 10000 x 12px which was a mistake. You should use 450 x 12px for the bg-seekbar-progress.png and the same dimension for the animated version.

• @atreiu: Animation: In the progress-bar there is only small pulse. You can see it only if you put into the skin.
• Dimensions: I don't understand your problem. I used bg-seekbar-progress.png image file from your default skin for both of my skins and it has these 10000x12 dimensions (and in glossy skin too). But the other bg-seekbar-progress.png image files have 450x12. Weird! I noticed this just now. :P --Hiromacu 17 April 2009


• Like I said, the 10000px was a mistake. I probably used this to test something at the very beginning, than forget to change it back in the default skin (and in some skins, that I based on default skin). Just use 450px width for your animated image, that's wide enough. I already changed all other images back to 450px, too. ;) --atreiu


• @atreiu: OK, I understand now. All right, I modify in my skins to 450x12. When do you want to upload the new release? Cause I have to go. I can do skinning couple of hours later. --Hiromacu 17 April 2009
   
• You don't have to fix the existing files in your skins. I already did this. You only have to do the new, animated version of the progressbar (the one you tried to upload yesterday) in these dimensions. 
  I release, when everything is done. So no hurry, I'll wait for you ;) --atreiu 17 April 2009


• @atreiu: OK, thanks. I eat my breakfast then I go. I'll fix that animated progress-bar today. ASAP :P --Hiromacu 17 April 2009


• @atreiu: I'm done. New version of seekbar-progress is uploaded. --Hiromacu 17 April 2009

[Suggestion] New Skin ready, April 2009

• @atreiu: Hi! I made an other skin: Mahogany. I changed the control buttons to smaller by the request of Vass. If the community likes the new buttons, you can use these. --Hiromacu 19 April 2009


• @Hiromacu: Thanks, I'll wait for > 0.7 release, to include this. I'm busy with some major changes, and the skins have to be updated then, anyway. --atreiu 20 April 2009


• @atreiu: OK. This is your project, I just try to help with testing and with some skins. Actually I have lot of free time now (as you see) and I like to do something graphical creativity. However I'm not an expert designer, I just like to do it. I have two more conceptions for skin. If you don't mind. ;) Just let me know if you no need more. I wait for 0.7. :P --Hiromacu 20 April 2009


• @Hiromacu: I appreciate your skins. But you should't think too much about new skins at the moment, because a lot things will change, and you will have much more ways to skin. For example you will be able to change the size of the whole Pure Player, and freely position every element where ever you want. I probably publish a first alpha at the weekend, then you can see what's possible and think of a skin with a completely different layout. Then I will need at least another week to finish the skinning framework. When the framework is ready and tested, then it's worth to implement new skins (and adept the old ones), not before.  --atreiu 21 April 2009
  PS: If you currently have free time, have you thought about creating a whole songbird feather? It's not more difficult than creating a PP skin, especially if you follow the Tutorial in the Dev-Center and if you take a look into DOM-Inspector. I would love to see a nice Feather by you :) --atreiu 21 April 2009


• @atreiu: Ehh.. You read in my mind. I already do a feather actually, what I started last week. I'm trying to debug your feather coding, it's little bit difficult to me. I need more practice to use DOM-Inspector, but no problem I can learn.  Anyway I wait for the innovations of PP excitedly. :) --Hiromacu 21 April 2009