An Album Browser...kinda like Coverflow, but not as cool. It works though...

Sal R. · 01-29-2008, 03:56 PM

First and foremost, couldn't have done this w/o the help of Sonicxtacy02's builder.exe and EL CAMINO who really helped make this more process friendly for my M10K and faster overall. I modified it for this purpose, but all the kudos for that part go to them.

Since my carPC can't handle coverflow (it can barely handle iLists), I took it upon myself to put together a skin-based album browser that functions kinda like coverflow (i.e. browse music by album name).

My directory structure is as follows:
Artist
- Album
- - Tracks

Will work for: .mp3, .wma, .ogg, & .flac

How it works:
- It will scan your $musicpath$ for album art using the $coverfile$ mask as the filtering criteria and add any directory w/ the audio filetypes listed above.

Here's a screenshot:

I've attached a skin sample for you guys to play around with. Let me know how it goes.

Latest Update: 3/6/08
NOTE: v1 users can just overwrite the "browsecovers.exe" of their original installation to update to v2. If you want to utilize genre filters, just create buttons using the instructions below. I recommend you rebuilding your music database to make use of the latest features.

1. Fixed extra/duplicate album issue regarding hidden album art
2. Added genre based filtering of albums
- - Your music directory should look something like this:
- - - $musicpath$
- - - > Genre1
- - - - > Artist
- - - - - > Album
- - - - - > [coverart]
- - - > Genre2
- - - - > Artist
- - - - - > Album
- - - - - > [coverart]
- - - > Genre3
- - - - > Artist
- - - - - > Album
- - - - - > [coverart]
- - - > Genre4
- - - - > Artist
- - - - - > Album
- - - - - > [coverart]

Since your genre is alphabetized, you must assign a number to a genre in numerical order that corresponds to your alphabetical folder list.
i.e.
Indie = 1
Jazz = 2
Metal = 3
Rock = 4
etc.

Button Codes:

Code:

BXX,...,"SETVAR;genrechoice;1||SENDMSG;BrowseCovers;Genre" > Brings up Indie Albums
BXX,...,"SETVAR;genrechoice;2||SENDMSG;BrowseCovers;Genre" > Brings up Jazz Albums
BXX,...,"SETVAR;genrechoice;3||SENDMSG;BrowseCovers;Genre" > Brings up Metal Albums

BXX,...,"SENDMSG;BrowseCovers;AllAlbums" > Brings up All Albums

You can have as many genres as you want.

Label Codes:
$GENRE_NAME$ is the name of your currently selected genre

Command not discussed, but was included in v1:
"GOTO_NUMBER","SENDMSG;BrowseCovers;goto" > Jumps to a specific Album number

v2 does not impact v1 original functionality.

In The Works
1. Bug fixes as they arise.

ajamils · 01-29-2008, 04:04 PM

will it play and add files to the playlist too ?

EL CAMINO · 01-29-2008, 04:08 PM

nice workaround sal!! downloading now

EDIT:if you need a builder to search for any type of file extention let me know, i still have that function from the old coverflow builder

Sal R. · 01-29-2008, 04:11 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by ajamils

will it play and add files to the playlist too ?

It'll play the selected album, but it replaces the current playlist.

Hmmm...i didn't think to use an ADD1 type button, but it can.

*goes back to rework it*

EDIT: Okay, it's updated. It has a SELECT and ADD1 function...and some missing image files for the sample skin.

Sal R. · 01-29-2008, 04:30 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by EL CAMINO

EDIT:if you need a builder to search for any type of file extention let me know, i still have that function from the old coverflow builder

Yeah, that'd be great. I was toying around w/ Sonic's builder, but can't quite get it to filter more than one file type.

So if you have it, that'd be great for me to take a look at.

EL CAMINO · 01-29-2008, 05:10 PM

i'll pm you that

Valheru · 01-30-2008, 02:30 AM

I like this ... coverflow would'nt run on my humble car-pc either ... but this does.

One small request, would it be possible for the user to specify the name of the album art ... all my album art is called "cover.jpg" rather than "folder.jpg" ...

Sal R. · 01-30-2008, 09:13 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Valheru

I like this ... coverflow would'nt run on my humble car-pc either ... but this does.

One small request, would it be possible for the user to specify the name of the album art ... all my album art is called "cover.jpg" rather than "folder.jpg" ...

Sure. I'll make it so that it's user defined via .ini file until I can get a script together that can search multiple file types.

EDIT: Updated first post w/ new script to allow for user defined album art image in the .ini file.

Valheru · 01-30-2008, 01:48 PM

thanks for the update Sal ...

one thing though, it scans all the folders and creates the playlists but no cover art files are copied into the albumart folders !

one other thing ... any chance of releasing the execTBL code for the "SKIPTOLETTER2" that is in the skin for albumart browser ??? please !!

Sal R. · 01-30-2008, 03:27 PM

Whoops!

I created the variable from the .ini file, but didn't use the variable in the rest of code...which includes the part that copies the art file.

My bad.

I'll post up a new version of the skin code later tonight after I've had a chance to test the script in the carPC. I've revised the code and rely solely on AI to load images to speed up the process. This will also enable the slider to update images.

Valheru · 01-30-2008, 03:31 PM

Thanks mate !

Sal R. · 01-30-2008, 07:33 PM

Updated first post.

Road tested it w/ my M10K and works pretty good.

This revision is more process intesive. +30% in CPU usage while the script was running on my carPC.

If anyone has any suggestions to reduce cpu usage while it runs, I'd be glad to hear it.

treetop777 · 01-30-2008, 09:20 PM

When i run albumbuilder.exe, all it does is start RR - doesn't create the "album view" folder. All my paths are default. Don't use playlists so i don't have a path for that - maybe that's it?

Sal R. · 01-30-2008, 10:32 PM

Are albumbuilder.exe and albumbuilder.ini in the same folder?

playlistpath is not used in the script. Only musicpath from rr.ini. So if RR isn't running, the script will open rr to get the musicpath to scan your library.

Default location of "Album View" is

C:\Program Files\Road Runner\Album View\

Default album art type is "folder.jpg"

Script only works for mp3's atm.

Valheru · 01-31-2008, 07:38 AM

All is working great now except the "Add Album" option.
This is my ExecTBL line ... "PLUSALBUMART","BROWSE||SELECT+||BACK".

I changed the "ADD1" to be "SELECT+", but no difference !

No matter what I use the the add album, it just clears the playlist and nothing is added.

Any idea's ?