.Net FrontEnd - Page 6

cherrybomb · 08-20-2007, 08:54 PM

Hey Mark.

Seeing that you're making some good progress on this, it might be wise to start a new thread to get some exposure as a "new" project.

As it is, people could be confused that your project is just an extension/continuation of the previous one. :-)

suarezpedro · 08-21-2007, 03:03 PM

Hi zzachattack2,

Nice work; I know some C# stuff, so let me know if there is something that I can help you with; I'm looking forward to have this FE done...

zzachattack2 · 03-26-2008, 03:20 AM

Feels like I'm reviving an old thread, but believe or not development on this project is still ongoing. Over the past two years I've gotten quite busy and taken several month breaks every now and then. Anyways, I started on the front-end from scratch and made it loads more efficient, streamlined, and versatile. After making a deal of progress and learning a good deal about plugin based applications, I found I was going completely in the wrong direction. Anyways the project is still nowhere near done. The framework is just about complete but the most work that needs to be done is on the individual plugins, the only main one which is about 3/4 the way complete is the mediaplayer. I expect it will be the most complicated. Sometime soon I'll post up the framework (SDK per se) and I guess write a long long documentation on how to actually write plugins, write skins, and most importantly utilize the built in features in the framework (oh and going back and remembering all of them too). I don't expect this to happen too quickly though. I suppose that's the downside of the ability for a good deal of customization.

cherrybomb · 03-28-2008, 11:08 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by zzachattack2

Feels like I'm reviving an old thread, but believe or not development on this project is still ongoing. Over the past two years I've gotten quite busy and taken several month breaks every now and then. Anyways, I started on the front-end from scratch and made it loads more efficient, streamlined, and versatile. After making a deal of progress and learning a good deal about plugin based applications, I found I was going completely in the wrong direction. Anyways the project is still nowhere near done. The framework is just about complete but the most work that needs to be done is on the individual plugins, the only main one which is about 3/4 the way complete is the mediaplayer. I expect it will be the most complicated. Sometime soon I'll post up the framework (SDK per se) and I guess write a long long documentation on how to actually write plugins, write skins, and most importantly utilize the built in features in the framework (oh and going back and remembering all of them too). I don't expect this to happen too quickly though. I suppose that's the downside of the ability for a good deal of customization.

Hey zz,

Glad to hear you're still working on this. I'm still very much interested in helping in any way that I can. I'm a software engineer by day, and most of my work is transitioning to C#. I've got lots of experience with reflection and loading plugins etc. so I think I can contribute in a meaningful way.

Let us know when you have something for the public, or possibly for potential contributors like myself.

zzachattack2 · 04-25-2008, 04:19 PM

Sorry i havn't posted anything useful for those wanting to help. I've just been working hard to finish up the core and work on the media player just a little bit. I've spent alot of time programming from scratch most windows controls. (Listbox, combobox, button, scrollbar, treeview, statusbar, trackbar, etc) as you can see in the pictures above. All of which are transparent, many are animated, and skinnable. I promise I'll try to get something useful up (A documentation, SDK, interfaces, examples). The pictures above are taken from photoshop, but look EXACTLY the same in the application, its just easier to export from photoshop than to take a screen shot.

Also i'll post a portion of the skin which defines alot of above, if you take a look, the interface above is completely defined inside the skin, thus making customizing it very easy. (through the use of commands... see the OnEvent properties to see what they do dynamically rather than having their function built into the program) Note: the skin is nowhere NEAR done. Pretty much what you see about is what is complete.

Code:

 <Layout Name="MediaPlayer.MediaPlayerPanel">
      <Properties>
      </Properties>
      <Controls>
        <HostTabControl Name="htcMainContainer" Dock="Fill" Animate="True" AnimationStyle="TopBottom">
          <TabPages>
            <HostTabPage Name="Videos" BackgroundImage="%skin%\Background.png" BackgroundImageLayout="Stretch">
              <SkinListBox Name="mcVideosContainer" Dock="Left" Width="200" BackColor="Black" ForeColor="White" Font="Arial-14-Bold" OnSelectedIndexChanged="{MediaPlayer.Base.Panel.SelectVideo[EventArgs]}{MediaPlayer.Base.Panel.ShowTabPage[Player]}">
              </SkinListBox>
            </HostTabPage>
            <HostTabPage Name="AudioLibrary" BackgroundImage="%skin%\Background.png" BackgroundImageLayout="Stretch">
              <PanelEx Name="pnlLists" Dock="Fill">
                <SkinListBox Name="lbArtists" Height="293" Width="250" Location="10,0" OnSelectedIndexChanged="{MediaPlayer.LoadAlbums[lbAlbums|this.SelectedItem.Item]}{MediaPlayer.ClearContainer[lbSongs]}">
                </SkinListBox>
                <TransparentControl Name="ctlLeftDivider" Width="5" Height="293" Location="260,0" BackgroundImage="%skin%\MediaPlayer\LeftDivider.png" BackgroundImageLayout="Stretch">
                </TransparentControl>
                <SkinListBox Name="lbAlbums" Height="293" Width="275" Location="265,0" OnSelectedIndexChanged="{MediaPlayer.LoadSongs[lbSongs|this.SelectedItem.Item]}">
                </SkinListBox>
                <TransparentControl Name="ctlRightDivider" Width="5" Height="293" Location="540,0" BackgroundImage="%skin%\MediaPlayer\RightDivider.png" BackgroundImageLayout="Stretch">
                </TransparentControl>
                <SkinListBox Name="lbSongs" Height="293" Width="245" Location="545,0" OnSelectedIndexChanged="{HostTabControl.ShowTabPage[htcMainContainer|Player]}{MediaPlayer.LoadSongs[lbPlaylist|this.SelectedItem.Item.Album|this.SelectedItem.Item]}{MediaPlayer.SelectSong[this.SelectedItem.Item]}">
                </SkinListBox>
              </PanelEx>
              <PanelEx Name="pnlLetters" Dock="Top" Height="37">
                <SkinListBox Name="lbLetterChooser" DisplayDirection="Horizontal" BackColor="Transparent" ForeColor="White" Focus="True" Dock="Fill" OnSelectedIndexChanged="{MediaPlayer.LoadArtists[lbArtists|this.SelectedItem.Item|CH]}{MediaPlayer.ClearContainer[lbAlbums|lbSongs]}">
                  <Items>
                    <StringControl Text="#">
                    </StringControl>
                    <StringControl Text="A">
                    </StringControl>
                    <StringControl Text="B">
                    </StringControl>
                    <StringControl Text="C">
                    </StringControl>
                    <StringControl Text="D">
                    </StringControl>
                    <StringControl Text="E">
                    </StringControl>
                    <StringControl Text="F">
                    </StringControl>
                    <StringControl Text="G">
                    </StringControl>
                    <StringControl Text="H">
                    </StringControl>
                    <StringControl Text="I">
                    </StringControl>
                    <StringControl Text="J">
                    </StringControl>
                    <StringControl Text="K">
                    </StringControl>
                    <StringControl Text="L">
                    </StringControl>
                    <StringControl Text="M">
                    </StringControl>
                    <StringControl Text="N">
                    </StringControl>
                    <StringControl Text="O">
                    </StringControl>
                    <StringControl Text="P">
                    </StringControl>
                    <StringControl Text="Q">
                    </StringControl>
                    <StringControl Text="R">
                    </StringControl>
                    <StringControl Text="S">
                    </StringControl>
                    <StringControl Text="T">
                    </StringControl>
                    <StringControl Text="U">
                    </StringControl>
                    <StringControl Text="V">
                    </StringControl>
                    <StringControl Text="W">
                    </StringControl>
                    <StringControl Text="X">
                    </StringControl>
                    <StringControl Text="Y">
                    </StringControl>
                    <StringControl Text="Z">
                    </StringControl>
                  </Items>
                </SkinListBox>
                <ImageHolder Name="ctlTopDivider" Dock="Bottom" Height="5" Image="%skin%\MediaPlayer\TopDivider.png" ImageLayoutMode="Stretch">
                </ImageHolder>
              </PanelEx>
            </HostTabPage>
            <HostTabPage Name="VideoLibrary" BackgroundImage="%skin%\Background.png" BackgroundImageLayout="Stretch">
            </HostTabPage>
            <HostTabPage Name="PlaylistLibrary" BackgroundImage="%skin%\Background.png" BackgroundImageLayout="Stretch">
            </HostTabPage>
            <HostTabPage Name="Player" BackgroundImage="%skin%\Background.png" BackgroundImageLayout="Stretch">
              <HostTabControl Name="htcVideoScreen" Size="535,285" Location="10,0">
                <TabPages>
                  <HostTabPage Name="Audio">
                    <TagImageControl Location="10,10" BackColor="Blue" Size="250,250" Name="img" OnLoaded="{MediaPlayer.AddTagControl}">
                    </TagImageControl>
                    <TagTextControl Name="artist" Location="295,10" ForeColor="White" Size="200,30" ScrollMode="Auto" TimeStep="60" ScrollRate=".016" Font="Myriad Pro-18-Bold-Italic" Format="%Artist%" OnLoaded="{MediaPlayer.AddTagControl}" OnClick="{HostTabControl.ShowTabPage[htcMainContainer|AudioLibrary]}{MediaPlayer.LoadArtists[lbArtists|this.File||this.File]}{MediaPlayer.LoadAlbums[lbAlbums|this.File|ONE|this.File]}{MediaPlayer.LoadSongs[lbSongs|this.File}">
                    </TagTextControl>
                    <TagTextControl Name="album" Location="295,50" ForeColor="White" Size="200,30" ScrollMode="Auto" TimeStep="60" ScrollRate=".016" Font="Myriad Pro-18-Bold-Italic" Format="%Album%" OnLoaded="{MediaPlayer.AddTagControl}" OnClick="{HostTabControl.ShowTabPage[htcMainContainer|AudioLibrary]}{MediaPlayer.LoadArtists[lbArtists|this.File||this.File]}{MediaPlayer.LoadAlbums[lbAlbums|this.File|ONE|this.File]}{MediaPlayer.LoadSongs[lbSongs|this.File}">
                    </TagTextControl>
                    <TagTextControl Name="track" Location="295,90" ForeColor="White" Size="200,30" ScrollMode="Auto" TimeStep="60" ScrollRate=".016" Font="Myriad Pro-18-Bold-Italic" Format="%TrackNumber%" OnLoaded="{MediaPlayer.AddTagControl}">
                    </TagTextControl>
                    <TagTextControl Name="title" Location="295,130" ForeColor="White" Size="200,30" ScrollMode="Auto" TimeStep="60" ScrollRate=".016" Font="Myriad Pro-18-Bold-Italic" Format="%Title%" OnLoaded="{MediaPlayer.AddTagControl}">
                    </TagTextControl>
                  </HostTabPage>
                  <HostTabPage Name="Video">
                    <VideoCanvas Name="VideoScreen" Dock="Fill">
                    </VideoCanvas>
                  </HostTabPage>
                </TabPages>
              </HostTabControl>
              <PanelEx Name="pnlControls" Size="535,45" Location="10,285">
                <SkinTrackBar Name="tbMediaPosition" Size="515,16" Location="10,15" Minimum="0" Maximum="100">
                </SkinTrackBar>
              </PanelEx>
              <SkinListBox Name="lbPlaylist" Location="545,0" Width="245" Height="330" OnSelectedIndexChanged="{MediaPlayer.SelectMediaItem[this.SelectedItem.Item]}">
              </SkinListBox>
            </HostTabPage>
            <HostTabPage Name="SynchronizeLibrary" BackgroundImage="%skin%\Background.png" BackgroundImageLayout="Stretch">
              <SynchronizeLibraryStatusPanel.Panel>
              </SynchronizeLibraryStatusPanel.Panel>
            </HostTabPage>
          </TabPages>
        </HostTabControl>
        <PanelEx Name="pnlMediaMenu" Dock="Top" Height="50" BackgroundImage="%skin%\TopMenuBackground.png" BackgroundImageLayout="Stretch">
          <ImageButton Name="btnPlayer" Size="167,44" Location="25,1" ImageLayoutMode="Stretch" StillImage="%skin%\MediaPlayer\PlayerButtonUp.png" HoverImage="%skin%\MediaPlayer\PlayerButtonUp.png" DownImage="%skin%\MediaPlayer\PlayerButtonDown.png" OnClick="{HostTabControl.ShowTabPage[htcMainContainer|Player]}">
          </ImageButton>
          <ImageButton Name="btnLibrary" Size="167,44" Location="202,1" ImageLayoutMode="Stretch" StillImage="%skin%\MediaPlayer\LibraryButtonUp.png" HoverImage="%skin%\MediaPlayer\LibraryButtonUp.png" DownImage="%skin%\MediaPlayer\LibraryButtonDown.png" OnClick="{HostTabControl.ShowTabPage[htcMainContainer|AudioLibrary]}">
          </ImageButton>
          <ImageButton Name="btnOther" Size="167,44" Location="379,1" ImageLayoutMode="Stretch" StillImage="%skin%\MediaPlayer\OtherButtonUp.png" HoverImage="%skin%\MediaPlayer\OtherButtonUp.png" DownImage="%skin%\MediaPlayer\OtherButtonDown.png">
          </ImageButton>
          <ImageButton Name="btnSettings" Size="167,44" Location="556,1" ImageLayoutMode="Stretch" StillImage="%skin%\MediaPlayer\SettingsButtonUp.png" HoverImage="%skin%\MediaPlayer\SettingsButtonUp.png" DownImage="%skin%\MediaPlayer\SettingsButtonDown.png" OnClick="{SkinAnimatedPanel.Toggle[sapMediaSettingsMenu]}">
          </ImageButton>
          <SkinAnimatedPanel Name="sapMediaSettingsMenu" Location="593,39" Size="124,1" MaxHeight="122" BackgroundImage="%skin%\MediaPlayer\SettingsButtonMenu.png">
            <LabelEx Name="lblSync" Location="5,5" AutoSize="True" Text="Synchronize" Font="Myriad Pro-12-Bold-Italic" BackColor="Transparent" OnClick="{HostTabControl.ShowTabPage[htcMainContainer|SynchronizeLibrary]}{SkinAnimatedPanel.Hide[sapMediaSettingsMenu]}">
            </LabelEx>
            <LabelEx Name="lblSettings" Location="5,35" AutoSize="True" Text="Settings" Font="Myriad Pro-12-Bold-Italic" BackColor="Transparent" OnClick="{HostTabControl.ShowTabPage[PluginsContainer|PluginManager]}{SkinAnimatedPanel.Hide[sapMediaSettingsMenu]}">
            </LabelEx>
            <LabelEx Name="lblFullScreen" Location="5,65" AutoSize="True" Text="FullScreen" Font="Myriad Pro-12-Bold-Italic" BackColor="Transparent" OnClick="{HostTabControl.ShowTabPage[htcMainContainer|SynchronizeLibrary]}{SkinAnimatedPanel.Hide[sapMediaSettingsMenu]}">
            </LabelEx>
          </SkinAnimatedPanel>
        </PanelEx>
      </Controls>
    </Layout>

And then for defining the skinnable controls, it looks something like this...

Code:

    <Layout Name="SkinScrollBarVertical">
      <Properties>
        <Property Name="Style.ButtonSize" Value="23">
        </Property>
        <Property Name="Style.BackImage" Value="%skin%\ScrollBar\VerticalBackground.png">
        </Property>
        <Property Name="Style.PositiveButtonUp" Value="%skin%\ScrollBar\VerticalPositiveButtonUp.png">
        </Property>
        <Property Name="Style.PositiveButtonDown" Value="%skin%\ScrollBar\VerticalPositiveButtonDown.png">
        </Property>
        <Property Name="Style.NegativeButtonUp" Value="%skin%\ScrollBar\VerticalNegativeButtonUp.png">
        </Property>
        <Property Name="Style.NegativeButtonDown" Value="%skin%\ScrollBar\VerticalNegativeButtonDown.png">
        </Property>
        <Property Name="Style.HandleNegativeUp" Value="%skin%\ScrollBar\VerticalHandleNegativeUp.png">
        </Property>
        <Property Name="Style.HandleNegativeDown" Value="%skin%\ScrollBar\VerticalHandleNegativeDown.png">
        </Property>
        <Property Name="Style.HandlePositiveUp" Value="%skin%\ScrollBar\VerticalHandlePositiveUp.png">
        </Property>
        <Property Name="Style.HandlePositiveDown" Value="%skin%\ScrollBar\VerticalHandlePositiveDown.png">
        </Property>
        <Property Name="Style.HandleCenterUp" Value="%skin%\ScrollBar\VerticalHandleCenterUp.png">
        </Property>
        <Property Name="Style.HandleCenterDown" Value="%skin%\ScrollBar\VerticalHandleCenterDown.png">
        </Property>
      </Properties>
    </Layout>

I know none of this is really useful at the moment, but just wanted to keep any of those interested at least a little bit updated.

NSFW · 04-26-2008, 02:33 AM

Glad to hear it's still moving forward.

sniiki · 05-22-2008, 04:48 AM

Looks nice. The player screen especially looks very usable with the alphabet shortcuts and all. But some of the buttons, like player controls could be a bit bigger for touchscreen usage.

Keep it up!

digitaljeebus · 06-08-2008, 07:53 PM

Hey, the progress you've made looks really good! I'm a .net developer as well, and have created a couple of frameworks of my own, I can definitely help out. I'm very excited, I've been looking for a good .net frontend I can help out on, and this one looks great! Let me know if you need / want any help, I'm dying to contribute!

vull · 06-10-2008, 05:18 AM

i don't like the rounded buttons and the weird font. makes it look all bad

sniiki · 06-26-2008, 11:29 AM

I wont start another .NET thread for this as it's quite small and simple project for now so I'll borrow your thread a bit.

So I decided to start my own project using VB.NET as it's the most familiar language for me.
Why? Coz most of the commercial and freeware frontends include stuff that really dont need and the most important part, mp3 management is done poorly. Or then they are full of bugs or something.
Anyhow, my software will have only features like navigator integration, music player and EASY to use, clear interface.
Coding is almost done and I managed to build smooth, light Apple like list scrolling for the media file browsing. Navigator softwares seem to integrate nicely too.
Today I made some skinning and it turned out to look quite much like Centrafuse as I really like its interface. Here's couple of photos:

I'll upload the app soon as it's ready for a test use if someone's interested.

mark88 · 06-30-2008, 11:10 PM

Haven't posted on here in a while... Started work on my CarPC project again. Decided to rewrite the whole program and make it better and more efficient...

Couple very early screenshots. I have a lot of work done on GPS/Sirius/iPod support done I just need to port it to the new version.

sovicka · 08-09-2008, 06:30 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by sniiki

I'll upload the app soon as it's ready for a test use if someone's interested.

Hey! I like it very much! I like the simplicity and wonderful design. I'm interested in beta-testing

zzachattack2 · 08-09-2008, 01:52 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by vull

i don't like the rounded buttons and the weird font. makes it look all bad

Well then don't use it, or make your own skin. I don't pretend to be an artist, I'm a programmer with mediocre photoshop skills.

On another note, I finally ordered all the parts to my own CarPC. That's given me quite a bit of motivation to continue work on the project, I'll try to keep ya'll updated.

zzachattack2 · 08-09-2008, 01:55 PM

Oh also, mark88 and sniiki: not that I mind that you are also developing .Net frontends as well, this thread was started for discussion of the frontend I was developing. If you are developing one as well, I'd appreciate it if you dont hijack mine

Thanks.

sniiki · 08-19-2008, 12:59 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by zzachattack2

Oh also, mark88 and sniiki: not that I mind that you are also developing .Net frontends as well, this thread was started for discussion of the frontend I was developing. If you are developing one as well, I'd appreciate it if you dont hijack mine

Thanks.

Sure

I'll start own thread for it soon as it's in stage for an early release (already been using it myself for a while, but doesn't have playlist handling yet).

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