Mini Mods - vbMp3 & XEON vbMp3 Player

vbMp3 Player + XEON vbMp3 Player
See second Message for CMPS Block version for vbMp3 Player. XEON vBa CMPS install instructions are in the XEON package.

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vbMp3 Player designed by Syrus XL
http://www.digitalport.co.uk
IMPORTANT: No longer supported on here - if you require advice or support then this is only available from www.digitalport.co.uk

Requirements: Any vBulletin forum (requires no database to function)


XEON Update:
The Xeon vBmp3 player will be released soon to full vBulletin integration, this means you will able to add tracks to the 5 playlists from the AdminCP, all urls,track titles and playlists are stored in the database.

[high]Supporters:[/high]
If you would like to support my work with this modification please contact me via PM regarding donations, and I will add you to the supporters list. You will receive advanced notice of future beta releases, and also permission to beta test them.

Support: Only given to members that have clicked 'Installed'.

[high]The 'mighty' XEON vbMp3 player now available for download.[/high] Note: XEON is a beta release, replacing the 'Black Gloss' version. There are a few bugs with playlist switching, these will be 'fixed' in an update, hopefully within the next few days. This is a high-quality designed mp3 player and has many new features that the iPod 'lookalike' lacks. If you have the space, I would recommend you update to the Xeon version. The vBa CMPS XEON version is also demonstrated at this address, [high]Click HERE for Xeon vbMp3 Demo[/high], this demo is using the full vBulletin integrated beta version all populated from the vb database.

XML Editing:
To change track data, edit the XML files with Notepad or Wordpad, and enter your own urls and tracks.

XEON Facts & Features:

• 50 mp3 playlist bug fixed, can now hold upto 100 tracks(debugging test environment).
• Multiple Playlist Switching(*see important note below).
• Volume control.
• Panorama (Balance).
• Visual Effects.
• Multiple function display.
• Blue Neon 'Media' effect buttons.
• Larger font display (as requested).
• Player coding updated for future vBulletin integration.
• XEON uses approximately 100 movie clips.
• Protect from Import implemented, to prevent copyright.
• XEON comes with 5 populated example playlists.
• XEON is fully compatible to the forthcoming Pro vbMp3 Player.

XEON To do List:

• Incorporate 'float' coding, enabling the player to 'float' within the main vBulletin forum or vBa CMPS.
• Add 'float' close button to XEON flash player.
• Add Alpha background to flash player (for 'float' to work correctly)

Note: These changes will only affect the XEON mp3 player, it will still remain compatible with the Pro version vBulletin integration.

*XEON Known issues:
1. A bug on XEON means I had to currently release it only in a beta stage. The issue relates to playlist switching, this has been currently set to only 5 playlists, the bug relates to when you click to load a new playlist, you may recieve no autostart upon new playlist load. This 'issue' I am working on, and hopefully have an updated version with unlimited playlists, by deleting the 5-button bank and replacing it with forward and back buttons to skip through playlists. Please note you may experience strange behaviour if you only populate a XML playlist with less than 5 tracks.
2. A sizing problem in the vBa CMPS block requires reversed dimensions.
3. Problem with populating any playlist with over 100 tracks, will cause the player to go into an infinite loop, and become unstable. [high]This was not caught during the 1,000 'dummy' track environment test.[/high]

XEON Fixed Issues:
An issue with the popup window displaying the height and width the wrong size is now fixed.

XEON vbMp3 Player Installation:
The Xeon uses very similar installation code to the vbMp3 Player, full instructions are included in the XEON download package. This player has been tested with the forthcoming vBulletin full integration Pro Mp3 player, soon to be released. For Pro Player details see towards the end of this post.

XEON vbMp3 Player in CMPS:
This is now been added to the XEON package. Full instructions on how to change the background color to match your style is also documented.


vbMp3 Player
This mp3 player is designed as a popup for your members to listen to, while browsing your website. The actual flash mp3 player is designed to read data from mp3 ID tags, or you can enter the artist and tracks manually using the XML file included. The flash player is designed not to auto-start, so you may scroll through all available tracks. All buttons function and you can also select tracks by using the scroll controls and double-clicking a track.

2 sample tracks are already included the playlist XML file {Note: The urls in the example tracks are void, you must replace these urls with your own}.

This modification should function on any vBulletin board from version 3.0 upwards, since only a small piece of javascript is used to create the popup mp3 player window, from the navbar. However, the CMPS block version has only beem tested on vBulletin 3.6 and vBadvanced CMPS 2.2. The planned major addon version will be developed for vBulletin 3.6.1 and higher, since it will require changes to database.

Configuring of tracks is all done in the XML file, do not rename this file because the flash file will fail. Mp3?s can be uploaded to the same server as your site or an external site (just change the complete URL in the XML file). So to add tracks all you need to do is edit the plylist.xml file, and enter the urls and track data (if needed).

NOTE: Using external servers may cause the player to run slower, this can be changed by altering the soundbuffer value of the song/track, in the XML file, which will override the value in the flash file.

Streaming & Sound Buffer parameters in the XML file
There are 2 parameters they may confuse some people so heres an explanation on how they work.
Both can be set in the XML file and set per mp3 track.

Streaming:
If set to 'False' will cause the player to download an entire mp3 before playing.
If set to 'True' will play the mp3 track as soon as the 'soundbuffer' value is reached.

Sound Buffer:
This parameter controls the number of seconds before the mp3 will start to play, obviously it will only work if 'streaming' is set to 'True'.

Using other mp3 Players:
The coding used on this modification can be used with many other free or commercial based mp3 players around the internet, with slight alterations. Please note that the other full integrated version will only work with the players we release, due to the call routines used within the player.


UPDATES:
[high]06/10/06:[/high] + XEON vbMp3 Player released This is a high-quality design, all graphics are vectors, and created in Flash 8.0, all embedding code has been updated for this player. The package contains various versions of the player, and 5 example populated playlists.
[high]01/10/06:[/high] + vbPlayer 1.01 added: Player with AutoStart and Shuffle(randomize tracks) disabled. Some minimal code optimized. Requires either the vbMp3 player download or CMPS vbMp3 Player for additional files to function.
Pop up code updated to show link only to registered members.
+ Alternative vbPlayer added: (autoStart Enabled) requires main download to function. If updating from previous version, you may need to clear your browser cache, before the new version will show. Same vbMp3 player just autoStart enabled.


Click INSTALL to receive notifications of updates of this modification.

vbMp3 Player Installation:
=============
Requires uploading of 3 files and 1 template edit.

Upload the following files to your forum ?ROOT?

vbPlayer.swf
plylist.xml
ipod.htm



Template Edit:
==============
AdminCP -> Styles & Templates -> Navigation / Breadcrumb Templates -> navbar

Find:

<td class="vbmenu_control"><a href="calendar.php$session[sessionurl_q]">$vbphrase[calendar]</a></td>

After add:

<!-- vbMp3 Player Start -->
<if condition="$show['member']">
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--

function OpeniPod(){
iPod = window.open('ipod.htm','iPod','directories=no,height=430,width=190,location=no,menubar=no,resizable=no,status=no,toolbar=no')

return false;
}

-->
</script>
<td class="vbmenu_control"><a href="#" onclick="return OpeniPod()">vbPlayer</a></td>
</if>
<!-- vbMp3 Player End -->

End of template edits.
================

How to Enable all visitors to see vbMp3 Player
To Enable all visitors to see this link, remove the following code from the above code:

<if condition="$show['member']">

and this

</if>

Enjoy!

Known Issues:
=============
Always have more than one track in the playlist available or the flash file will fail (excludes the new Xeon player).
Place no more than 50 tracks in playlist (excludes the new Xeon player).


Future planned release details
Change name of mp3 player to vBmp3 Pro Player.

AdminCP

• Use of AdminCP to populate flash player via using the vBulletin product plugin system.
• Playlist urls and track details stored in database as opposed to the current XML file.
• Allow playlist to show thumbnails of tracks being played, if available.
• Create multiple playlists to populate flash player.
• Playlist will include stream variable and buffer enable/disable per track.
• Usergroup permissions for use. Good for lowering bandwidth consumption if hosting your own mp3's.
• Allow admin to set if player should popup or use Flash 'float' in page (requires flash button on player).
• Allow admin to set autoStart variable (effectively lowering bandwidth upon false page loads).
• Allow admin to set default variables.
• Allow admin to enable/disable tracks without deleting.
• Possibility to allow users to add tracks to a favorite list.
• Ability to color match the player to the webmasters style.
• Admin can set color 'tint' of player via RGB or hex values, default will be silver.
• Color 'tint' of buttons.

Enhanced Flash Player

• Fix player to use more than 50 tracks per playlist.
• Pre-loader for slower connections.
• Controls for volume, pan(balance), etc.
• Control to enable/disable 'shuffle' of tracks.
• Use buttons to view available playlists.
• Use image slide to view images of tracks if available.
• Incorporate equalizer.
• New player to be created wider to fit CMPS when used in center block.
• Old players will be backward compatible.

DEMO:
=====
Please note the demonstration for this modification is no longer available.

In Development:
2 new skinned players - Both of which are shown below. Both players will have more features than the present skin, and other updated files. Your input is always appreciated, to further enhance this modification.

SCREENSHOTS:
Screenshots below show both the popup and CMPS block versions (see post below for CMPS version).
The other screenshots are players in development (not yet available), enhanced to use the center column of the CMPS.

[Gripemaster]

What an absolutely awesome hack!!! *INSTALLED*

Thanks!!

[syrus.xl]

Originally Posted by Carmen27

I installed this but I can't hear whats playing. My speakers work but when I click play to one of the 2 songs, I can't hear anything? Is there something else I need to do? Carmen

The two example tracks are prone to slow download, from the server they are on. Try entering some tracks of your own, this should correct the problem.

[syrus.xl]

Originally Posted by Gerakus

Hello, I installed your add-on and is great!

However I wonder when the pro version will be out, and if its a way to include more than one play list, like use the Menu and change to another play list, and some way to bookmark your favorite song, also to filter what kind of music you want to listen .

Also on your pro version, could you make a horizontal layout option, so it shows the song only follow by a next / back/ stop / play / etc buttons on a black ipop cover :O!

The pro version will be released probably within a few months, as it requires alot more coding than this simple modification. As for the features it will use, they are currently listed in the main post towards the bottom.

As for favorite bookmarking, this is something I haven't even thought of yet, so it maybe incorporated into the pro version, as it will require use of the vbulletin database.

There are other skinned players I will be releasing before the pro version that will have more features than the current one, however playlist switching will not be available until the pro version release.

[Gripemaster]

Originally Posted by syrus.xl

The pro version will be released probably within a few months, as it requires alot more coding than this simple modification. As for the features it will use, they are currently listed in the main post towards the bottom.

As for favorite bookmarking, this is something I haven't even thought of yet, so it maybe incorporated into the pro version, as it will require use of the vbulletin database.

There are other skinned players I will be releasing before the pro version that will have more features than the current one, however playlist switching will not be available until the pro version release.

Until the new version is out, I'm "mixing it up" for my members by using several different folders of different music with 50 songs in each, and several copies of the playlist with the URL's edited accordingly. When I want to "shuffle" for the members, I just overwrite the playlist. *Waiting for new version*

[syrus.xl]

I could add a playlist switch to the new skinned players, just takes a bit more coding in the player, nothing really drastic though. Just need to sort the code to unload one XML file and load another. I'll see maybe I will add this feature, eventhough it will function better in a version with AdminCP control.

[Gripemaster]

Originally Posted by syrus.xl

I could add a playlist switch to the new skinned players, just takes a bit more coding in the player, nothing really drastic though. Just need to sort the code to unload one XML file and load another. I'll see maybe I will add this feature, eventhough it will function better in a version with AdminCP control.

No worries... my members have more songs than they could listen to in a day anyway. This is one sweeeeet mod.

[Gripemaster]

Here's a question:

I have my music on the server in different folders (rock, classic rock, country)... do the MP3's all have to be called from the same folder by the playlist? What I mean is, can I edit the URL's in the playlist to call the MP3's from different folders to mix them up? Or do they have to be in the same folder? (As long as there is only 50 songs in the playlist, right?)

[syrus.xl]

Originally Posted by Gripemaster

Here's a question:

I have my music on the server in different folders (rock, classic rock, country)... do the MP3's all have to be called from the same folder by the playlist? What I mean is, can I edit the URL's in the playlist to call the MP3's from different folders to mix them up? Or do they have to be in the same folder? (As long as there is only 50 songs in the playlist, right?)

The playlist will accept mp3's from virtually anywhere, as long as the url/path is entered correctly. It supports internal and external hosted mp3's, obviously if the mp3's are on an external host then you may notice a delay while retrieving the mp3 data, this is why I designed the player to use stream/soundbuffer feature. The player does have a default value for buffering of 5 secs, which can be overrided using a different value in the XML file.

If I incorporate the XML playlist switching, then the player will have buttons to select various playlists on-demand and I'll fix the under 50 mp3's per playlist bug.

I may add the 'shuffle' enable/disable button as well.

[Gripemaster]

Awesome

I have a plenty of space and transfer on my server. I have a gig of songs for my members to listen to, in category folders.

I just need to play around with the playlist and make several of them to mix things up until the new version comes out. Thanks much.

[syrus.xl]

The 2 player.swf files have a slight difference between them. The first download has the 'shuffle' tracks enabled, while the second version has it disabled.