Page 1 of 1

Show biography (Wikipedia) info about current track's artist

Posted: 22 Jun 2011 06:31
by Xavion
Other music players - like Winamp and Amarok - show biographical information about the currently playing artist. I'd be willing to switch away from these to a cross-platform media player like VLC if it did the same.

This article suggested that the feature I'm requesting wasn't far away. Will it be implemented soon or should I start writing an extension? Let me know if somebody has written one already, as I don't want to reinvent the wheel.

I'm also interested to know if anyone has written any non-skin-related extensions for VLC yet. The reason I ask is that the 'Extensions' link on the VLC website takes me to the 'Skins' webpage. Is this intentional or an error?

Re: Show biography (Wikipedia) info about current track's ar

Posted: 22 Jun 2011 15:42
by Jean-Baptiste Kempf
addons.videolan.org

Re: Show biography (Wikipedia) info about current track's ar

Posted: 23 Jun 2011 10:12
by Xavion
addons.videolan.org
Thanks for the information. I've tested the "Wikipedia Lookup" extension and it's pretty mediocre in my opinion. If I make some modifications that you approve of, will you upload it to the VLC-Addons website in place of the original one? If possible, I'd start by making the following changes:
  • * Make it work with radio streams that use the "Now Playing" tag
    * Download and show the main image that's located on the webpage
    * Cut out the initial tabulated data and start with the introduction
    * Detect track changes and automatically update the information dialog
    * Stop the dialog from shrinking again after the user has enlarged it

Re: Show biography (Wikipedia) info about current track's ar

Posted: 23 Jun 2011 13:07
by Jean-Baptiste Kempf
What about you modify the script :D

Re: Show biography (Wikipedia) info about current track's ar

Posted: 24 Jun 2011 07:52
by Xavion
What about you modify the script :D
That's exactly what I wrote; maybe you didn't read it correctly. Here's what I wrote again: "If I (Xavion) make some modifications that you (JBK) approve of, will you (JBK) upload it to the VLC-Addons website in place of the original one?"

I just want to know that my (Xavion's) efforts won't be in vain before beginning this task. Once you (JBK) give me this confirmation, then I (Xavion) will start modifying the script. Let me know if you still don't understand and I can attempt to re-explain it again.

Re: Show biography (Wikipedia) info about current track's ar

Posted: 24 Jun 2011 11:56
by Jean-Baptiste Kempf
What about you modify the script :D
That's exactly what I wrote; maybe you didn't read it correctly. Here's what I wrote again: "If I (Xavion) make some modifications that you (JBK) approve of, will you (JBK) upload it to the VLC-Addons website in place of the original one?"

I just want to know that my (Xavion's) efforts won't be in vain before beginning this task. Once you (JBK) give me this confirmation, then I (Xavion) will start modifying the script. Let me know if you still don't understand and I can attempt to re-explain it again.
I need to stop drinking :D Apologies.
You can update it, modify it and re-upload it on the addons website. As soon as this is done, i'll remove the outdated one. Sounds OK?

Re: Show biography (Wikipedia) info about current track's ar

Posted: 25 Jun 2011 03:05
by Xavion
I need to stop drinking :D Apologies.
You can update it, modify it and re-upload it on the addons website. As soon as this is done, i'll remove the outdated one. Sounds OK?
Yeah, that'll be fine. In addition to continuing Wikipedia support, I'll look into adding other information backends like Last.fm and AOL. For this reason, I may decide to rename this extension to something like "Media Context".

Re: Show biography (Wikipedia) info about current track's ar

Posted: 27 Jun 2011 13:34
by Jean-Baptiste Kempf
You might want to do different scripts, but you do what you want, as long as it is better than the current crap...

Re: Show biography (Wikipedia) info about current track's ar

Posted: 28 Jun 2011 07:56
by Xavion
I've been working on the "Media Context" extension over the last few days. Most of the features I outlined above have already been implemented. I just need to fix a few issues and conduct a broader range of tests. Assuming that everything goes well, the first release should be ready soon.

Re: Show biography (Wikipedia) info about current track's ar

Posted: 28 Jun 2011 15:19
by Jean-Baptiste Kempf
I am glad...

Re: Show biography (Wikipedia) info about current track's ar

Posted: 03 Jul 2011 09:40
by Xavion
I've just submitted the initial release of my "Media Context" extension, which can be downloaded here. Please take the time to read the 'Issues' section before using it. I'll let you decide whether or not to remove the old "Wikipedia Information" extension.

Re: Show biography (Wikipedia) info about current track's ar

Posted: 04 Jul 2011 00:22
by Jean-Baptiste Kempf
Very very nice!