Custom Context Browser Sections Patch

[Nikolaj Hald Nielsen]

teknomunk,

I posted about my work on a Magnatune integration prototype.

While I agree that a scriptable music store/site interface would be really
nice, there are a few reasons I will not work directly towards this. At
least not for the time being.

Firstly, it is my experience that trying to build a generic framework from
scratch is a very hard thin to do. I belive it works much better to
implement one scenario, use the best parts of that code for the nex one and
then over a few itterations pick out the code that is actually good enough
to form the basis of a framework. Besides, much of the back end work needed
for this feature should readilly lend itself to a more generic aproach later
on.

Secondly, (and this is most likely just a sign of my ignorance) I don't know
any oter music stores that offers as comprehensive preview features as
Magnatune. They have gone out of their way to make their entire catalog
available through an xml file on their site. This makes it very easy to
actually get the data needed for a good integrated experience based on
previewing their music.

Finally, I need to keep it simple, at least at this stage. I am still trying
to get fammiliar with the amaroK code, and if I expand the project too much
too soon, I will drown in work and loose interest :-)

Just a few thoughts!

Nikolaj
aka
Freespirit



On 6/7/06, Bradley Pesicka <teknomunk at bluebottle.com> wrote:
>
> I have created a patch that adds the ability to add custom
> sections(boxes) to the context browser through dcop.  I have been using
> it for a few days now, and it works fairly well.  The only cavets with
> it are that there is no sorting of the sections, and once you add a
> custom section, it cannot be removed.  I intend to address the latter
> soon, but it will take a while on the sorting, as I am not quite sure
> how it should be handled.
>
> I have also attached three script files.  I use amarok.rb to hide all
> the dcop details from the script and is used by the other scripts I have
> included.  For the other scripts to work, this needs to be put in
> ~/.kde/share/apps/amarok/  The script tagcloud.rb fetches tag clouds
> from last.fm and displays them in a custom section.  The other, wiki.rb,
> fetches the artist description from last.fm and displays that.
>
> The tag cloud and the custom "boxes" were both requested at
> http://amarok.kde.org/amarokwiki/index.php/Contextbrowser_Ideas, and
> this is my implementation of it.  Feel free to do whatever you want with
> it.  Aslo, a few other of the suggestions listed in the wiki could also
> be implemented as scripts using this, and a few of the context browser
> sections currently in the code could be moved to a script.
>
> A message was sent to the list about music store integration into
> amaroK.  I think that this is an excellent idea.  My only suggestion is
> to allow it to be implemented by scripts if it does not already.  I
> would be able to write an interface to a music site I like.
>
> On an unrelated note, I really enjoy using amaroK.  It is, by far the
> best media player I have ever used.  Keep up the good work.
>
> -- teknomunk
>
>
>
>
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