Using VB to search and play a track in Winamp

**deadweasel** · 12-31-2003, 07:40 PM

Alrighty. I am SO stuck with the development of this interface o' mine. If you've been following our hero thus far, you know that I'm trying to eliminate the commandline program that I've been using to compensate for the lack of some functions in the WinampCOM plugin I've somehow become attached to.

SO.

During my travels throughout the Intarweb page thingy, I have found a way to address Winamp through VB itself, without relying on any external programs. I still need that COM plugin though, as it still allows me to import a playlist from Winamp to VB, which as far as I can tell isn't possible in VB itself without a big brewhaha. Anyhow, I've rethought my process a little, and have decided maybe database method would be best for keeping track of the tunes. The downside to this is that while I know how to set up a search feature this way, I have no clue about how to maintain a playlist while allowing a user to select an individual track at any given moment. Coyote, how did you address this? Anybody else who's dealt with this little SNAFU, please post up. I'm about ready to shoot something, and I've already beaten the livin hell out of Call of Duty and Unreal Tournament!

**frodobaggins** · 12-31-2003, 07:46 PM

Originally Posted by deadweasel

Alrighty. I am SO stuck with the development of this interface o' mine. If you've been following our hero thus far, you know that I'm trying to eliminate the commandline program that I've been using to compensate for the lack of some functions in the WinampCOM plugin I've somehow become attached to.

SO.

During my travels throughout the Intarweb page thingy, I have found a way to address Winamp through VB itself, without relying on any external programs. I still need that COM plugin though, as it still allows me to import a playlist from Winamp to VB, which as far as I can tell isn't possible in VB itself without a big brewhaha. Anyhow, I've rethought my process a little, and have decided maybe database method would be best for keeping track of the tunes. The downside to this is that while I know how to set up a search feature this way, I have no clue about how to maintain a playlist while allowing a user to select an individual track at any given moment. Coyote, how did you address this? Anybody else who's dealt with this little SNAFU, please post up. I'm about ready to shoot something, and I've already beaten the livin hell out of Call of Duty and Unreal Tournament!

Check your PM

**frodobaggins** · 01-01-2004, 12:57 AM

Well fine then !

**Gutter** · 01-01-2004, 01:07 AM

I think you may be taking the tougher route. Why not just manage the playlist in VB and only instruct Winamp to play the selected song? That's how I wrote my software to work and you take out the round-about way of sending the playlist back and forth.

**owenjh** · 01-01-2004, 01:33 AM

I deal with playlists in winamp version 2. I can add the playlists to winamp remove them and create custom playlists and save them. Check out my media player source code under the software development section.

**PatO** · 01-02-2004, 09:57 PM

My program reads the winamp playlist on load (reads the text file) into a collection. Displays the list to the user for them to search. When they pick a song, the prog sends the index to the winamp play command (whatever the message command is to play a playlist song).

I found that telling winamp to play songs causes a delay. Minor, but noticeable if you're trying to play two songs which are supposed to run together. I also didn't want to write a complete playlist subsystem (shuffle, ID3, etc...)

Source is available on my site...

**deadweasel** · 01-02-2004, 10:13 PM

owenjh - I just snagged the source, and will check it out to see how you go about it. Thanks!

PatO - Ahhh... So you bypass Winamp loading the m3u in the first place? So you all you would need to do is send the filename of the selected item's index to Winamp for playback. How do you work that though? I mean, I would like to avoid displaying the actual filenames in the listbox, as that would take up valuable space in the box. How do you reference the selected item's index with the actual filename? I tried to take a peek at your code, but your site appears to be down with Comcast.

Frodo - So sorry I didn't hit you back right away about your offer to IM! I thought I was going to be settling in for a nice coding session, but got caught up in the inevitable festivities out in the living room (roommates + beers = mucho fun to be had). I will yack at ya as soon as I can sit back down in front of my machine again, k? For now, I'm stuck doing work crap all day, and house crap all evening, so the most I can do is check up on the gang's latest shenanigans from the living room machine now and then.

Thanks for your responses so far everyone! This project was getting me a little fuzzy in the head, and unsure of which way to go, since the more I looked, the more possibilities and options were popping up at me. Y'all have come through once again and saved me from cracking open a Red Bull and trying to code while shaking myself to pieces.

**frodobaggins** · 01-03-2004, 12:02 AM

Originally Posted by deadweasel

Frodo - So sorry I didn't hit you back right away about your offer to IM! I thought I was going to be settling in for a nice coding session, but got caught up in the inevitable festivities out in the living room (roommates + beers = mucho fun to be had). I will yack at ya as soon as I can sit back down in front of my machine again, k? For now, I'm stuck doing work crap all day, and house crap all evening, so the most I can do is check up on the gang's latest shenanigans from the living room machine now and then.

I wasn't really offended