Kirocker Music Display 4.0 Beta 3

[Sébastien Laoût]

Name: Kirocker Music Display
Version: 4.0 Beta 3
Type: KDE Sound Application
Depend: KDE 3.x
License: GPL
More Info:
http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=52869

Description:
 Make your Kicker (the KDE main panel) rock with
your music.

It is a Kicker applet that displays what you
listen to in Amarok.
A full-screen display can also be used
independently of the applet.

With this panel applet, you always know what you
are listening to, and can watch its cover and star
rating: it is always visible.
It allows you to rate your music with one click:
you can quickly change the number of stars of your
musics from anywhere on your desktop.
Finally, it let you remotely control Amarok with
one click from anywhere on your desktop: play next
or previous track, pause, play, and seek to
another position in the current track.

You also have the possibility to show your
currently playing music in a beautiful full-screen
display. Ideal for parties or to listen to music
while doing something else away from the computer.
The full-screen display can be triggered
independently of the panel applet. You can start
it from the KMenu or from Amarok itself.

[b]To install:[/b]
- You need to have automake 1.9 installed for the
compilation to work. It should be Ok on modern
Linux distributions. You also need Python for the
Amarok script to work (optional). This should also
be Ok.
- Extract the archive
- Open a konsole in the extracted folder (in
Konqueror, go to the extracted folder and press
F4)
- Run this set of command: ./configure
--prefix=$(kde-config --prefix) && make && sudo
make install
- It will asks your root password to install the
applet on your system
- Right click the Kicker, choose "Add an Applet to
the Panel..." (once the panel is unlocked)
- Double-click "Kirocker Music Display"
- Start playing a music. The applet is empty when
Amarok is stopped or paused, to not annoy you with
useless information when you are working
- If you do not want the panel applet, the
full-screen display can be trigerred from the
KMenu or from Amarok itself (restart Amarok,
enable the "Kirocker Music Display" script, and
then right-click the playlist to see the action to
show full-screen)

[i]Note:[/i] After an upgrade from a previous
version, press Alt+F2 and type the command "kicker
default restart" to restart the Panel with the new
installed version.

[b]How to make the Kicker translucent:[/b]
The Kicker translucent white vertical background
is also included in the package.
- Your screen resolution need to be 1280*800. If
not, you will need some artistic skills and a Gimp
experience to modify the given background
- Extract the image "Kicker Right Translucent
Background.png" located in the Kirocker Music
Display archive
- Open your desktop background image with The Gimp
- Drag and drop "Kicker Right Translucent
Background.png" to the Gimp window of your
background image
- Save the image and set it as your desktop
background image
- Right click the Kicker and choose "Configure the
Panel..." (once the panel is unlocked)
- Place the panel on the right (click the button
on the right)
- Set the size to "Personalized" and enter "96
pixels"
- In the "Appearance" tab, check "Enable
transparency"
- Click "Ok" and you're done: ENJOY!

Changelog:
 I have the code on my hard-drive for too much
time, so here I release it for everybody. Even if
it is still in beta, it is now replacing 3.4.1,
because it is much more bug-free.

[b]4.0 Beta 3 with Theme Editing &
Polishments:[/b]
- You can create/edit/delete/export/import themes
entirely graphically with surprising ease (only
frame creation is still missing from the GUI)
- Theme authors can use lightning overlays on the
cover image, with some overlays provided by
default
- New available frames: Plasma frame and cover
drop shadow
- Lyrics can have HTML (for eg. italic for texts
like "[Chorus]")
- No more poor performances for some themes using
big frames
- Removed the bug of "transition keeps animating"
when listening to some internet stream (podcast,
web radio...)
- Correctly hide the cursor the very first time
the full-screen display is shown
- Sometimes, parts or all of the star shadows were
disappearing after a window obscured them
- Lyrics frame is now on top of everything else
(cover&text frame, Next Playing text...)
- Keyboard focus on first full-screen-show problem
should be solved

[b]4.0 Beta 2 with Lyrics and Enhanced
Theming:[/b]
- Have fun karaokees with automatically-scrolling
lyrics
- Themes can have text-shadow and customizable
frames. 27 frames already come packaged with this
version.
- Added a better no-cover image, from Oxygen
(sorry guys, but it's the only beautiful and
scalable image I found)
- Now using the "Track, Artist, Album" order
(instead of "Artist, Album, Track") to be more
complient with other displays, such as iPod,
Last.fm, and even Amarok.
- Changed the application icon to a better one,
using an Oxygen composition. Also show the icon
back in the panel big tooltip, as it cannot be
confused with an empty cover image anymore

[b]4.0 Beta 1 with Themes:[/b]
- Allow to change theme and partially edit them
- Features 10 original themes

=> You can browse for new themes here:
[url]http://www.kde-look.org/content/search.php?search=Search&text=kirocker[/url]

=> To make your own themes, please visit
[url]http://slaout.linux62.org/kirocker/theming.html[/url]
=> Post here your remarks about the themes (which
ones you prefer, do not like, would enhance...) or
your custom themes for them being candidate for
default inclusion in the final version.

[b]3.4.1 with Crash & Bug Fixes:[/b]
- Fixed issue with very large playlists where
Kirocker Music Display were acting bad, or not
responding
- Fixed the long-standing crash that I finally was
able to reproduce. Kirocker Music Display should
be rock solid now!

[b]3.4 with Alerts & Next Playing:[/b]
New features:
- Show blinking taskbar entries in full screen
mode, so you will not miss any MSN or Jabber
discussions when coming back near your computer
- Show "Next Playing" tracks in full screen mode
(except when using random playing or Last.fm
radio)
- Make the displayed times in full screen to
flicker when paused
- Now supports radio-streams track-title changes
- Use less horizontal margin (more space for text)
for 4/3 screens (not wide screens)
- Removed the icon in the panel "big tooltip",
because it leaded to confusion as it looked like a
no-cover image, and it was conveing no useful
information
Fixed bugs:
- Last.fm cover image is now shown for everybody
- Full screen album cover is displayed at full
size even if the artist of album name contains a
single-quote/apostroph (')
- Do not turn off screen in full screen mode
(disable energy economy during full screen)
- Screen saver is not re-enabled after full screen
if it was disabled before the full screen
- Amarok OSD is not re-enabled after full screen
if it was disabled before the full screen
- Libraries are now stored in KDE's lib path
- Moved "Kicker Right Translucent Background.png"
in the root folder of the archive, a more
expectable place, and this let packagers work
without problem

[b]Older list of changes:[/b]
[url]http://slaout.linux62.org/kirocker/old-changelog.html[/url]

==========================

[b]PLANNED features:[/b]
- Display/change volume too
- Display/change tags too
- Try a "star number" instead of "star icons" for
small panels
- Advertise keyboard shortcuts (Left/Right/Space)!
- Include help on how to use stars with Amarok
- Translate

[b]PLANNED settings:[/b]
- Global Keyboard shortcut to enable full screen
- If user is inactive & is playing, show full
screen a few seconds before screensaver
- Lot of options:
* Remove some parts
(progress/cover/stars/information/buttons)
* Background color/image/opacity
* Text font/size/color
* Invert scroll & Alt+scroll
* Enable screensaver/OSD
* Enable animations
- Resize down the applet when nothing is playing
(need to be configurable, to avoid Kicker bugs,
even if I will try to minimize the number of
glitches)
- DEVELOPERS WANTED (I cannot test myself): option
to define on which screen the full-screen mode is
shown. Or better, be able to move it directly from
the full-screen mode itself.