Serif Addons Forum

offthewall

WebPlus X7 and Music Player Add-on

So ... having got the music player onto a blank page the demo track does not play in preview although the player shows up. Is this normal?
Also .... as I have somewhere between 30 and 40 pages across my two websites with music players to update what I need to know is whether there is an easy way to add code for tracks?
My existing Flash players use standard XML playlists to call the tracks and cover art. Is there any way I can modify these to use in this player?
The parameters in the demo code include 'duration'. Is this essential or can I delete that option?
With my existing players and playlist code I add the tracks into the box at the bottom of the Frag box. Should I do this with your player?

Mick

Hi,

If you having issues with tracks not playing although the player shows, then it can only be due to code issues, if your code doesn't match the track name correctly plus the path where you have the tracks, then it will fail to play them. Most problems come down to case issues and spaces within file names, example:

mysong.mp3 in the code will not play an mp3 file if its called MySong.mp3
my song.mp3 may sometimes fail to load my song.mp3 due to spaces, its always best to separate multiple files names with a - or _ example

my-song.mp3 or my_song.mp3

Providing code names match the file name exactly, then there should be no reason for the track not to play.

You cannot use an existing XML file to call a track listing as this particular player needs the tracks written directly via html code within the addon's frag box.

Also note: If you are adding code linked directly to your server and mp3 file in the html frag box, example

http://your-domain.com/music/1.mp3

And you have not uploaded to the server, then the track will fail when you preview locally because the file cannot be found on the specific url address you have given the file until you upload, also, the default code stipulates the tracks "must" be in a folder called music, if this folder has not been created by the file manager of Webplus and your tracks adding to it, then again, the music will fail to play, so you need to edit the code accordingly for both tracks and paths to the files you want to use.

All help should be included with the addon via a PDF file called Music Player Addon.pdf with regards to adding music to the player

Hope this helps

offthewall

Reference to track not playing is in respect of the ‘actual’ player add-on and the demo track contained within it.
When I tried this with the single player it worked and played the demo track
I tried the same thing with the ‘full’ player and, although the player is on the page with a track list nothing actually plays.
I see the folder with the demo track in it but it doesn’t play.

As for the rest of your comments I claim quite some ignorance on technique. Sorry.
In a nutshell, my two sites have between them up to 40 individual pages currently using a Flash player to play album tracks. These albums each have from 12 to 18 tracks plus cover art all called from XML playlists.
I am trying to find the easiest way to replace this system but do not fully understand the use of code. To date I have done all of this from a tutorial supplied to me many years ago. (by Mick at Serif ... was this you, by any chance?)

So ... firstly. If I convert each of my xml playlists to the same format as the html code in the frag box and paste that into where the current example sits that should call the tracks and art?
Next ... I need to put ALL tracks into a single folder called Music? (currently about 750 songs which will need to be in 2 formats)
Or ... can I have sub-folders within this folder to contain the individual albums?
Then ... is there a way for me to get Webplus file manager to create this folder as I am not really conversant with ftp uploads outside of Webplus itself?

As to your final comment ... I have read fully the help PDF and find it does not address enough of these issues to assist me, which is why I’m here.

Thanks for any and all help. At least I have a few months to get this sorted before Flash is flushed!

Mick

We are just taking stabs in the dark here trying to understand why you cannot get the listing of tracks you have to play in the addon, this is because we have nothing to see or work with to try and understand what's going wrong by analysing your source code of the problematic page.

Therefore, your best option is to create a small demo page, with the player and half a dozen tracks added to it and then upload this to a temp space on your hosting server and then provide a link back here to the page, We can then check the source code and hopefully be able to tell you where you are going wrong. At the moment, with nothing to work with or see, its like asking us how long a piece of string is.

If you need help creating a temp space on your server, have a look at Neil's tutorial on the link below.

http://www.seriftuts.com/webplus-tutorials/creating-a-sub-directory-for-website-testing

Without this type of testing method, we can't really tell you what is wrong or give you any more advice other than what has already been posted earlier.

Hope this helps a little more in the mean time.

offthewall

When I said:
"Reference to track not playing is in respect of the ‘actual’ player add-on and the demo track contained within it.
When I tried this with the single player it worked and played the demo track
I tried the same thing with the ‘full’ player and, although the player is on the page with a track list nothing actually plays.
I see the folder with the demo track in it but it doesn’t play."
That is as far as I have got!
If your player is not working with the files supplied how can I test it for myself?
Read again what I have said, please.
The player file I bought and downloaded does not play the file supplied.
I find no point in going further with this until I can trust that the system actually works!
The single song player does work but the full player seems not to.

Neil

I've just opened WebPlus X7, added the player then with the File Manager created a new folder named 'music' added the 1.mp3 and the 1.ogg tracks to it, previewed and it plays fine.

It's highly likely you've made a small mistake somewhere along the line which is preventing it from working, if you upload to a test area as explained by Mick earlier we can help debug the issue with you.

Neil

offthewall

Thanks.
It was the 'music' folder causing the problem.

I think I've managed to work a live test.
As I have so many different album pages to make I have tried out a different system for the music folders.
In my first test example I have added 3 tracks to the player and used File Manager to include a folder specifically named for that page. I have also used the same folder name in the frag code for the tracks. It works for this one. Next step is to add another page with another folder and tracks.
Here is my initial test for you to see if I have done anything wrong.
http://fraserology.com/flashtest/public_html/flashtest/

My main issue, at this point, is that although my host provider created a specific folder for me to work in WebPlus said it couldn't find it so created another one which happens to be inside the one that it said it couldn't see ... hence the long URL.

Neil

Looks like you're on the right path. There's no reason why you can't upload all the files in separate folders to your host and simply link to them from the section of code in each music player - no need to complicate things:


        mp3:'flashtest-music1/BrokenBird.mp3',
        oga:'flashtest-music1/BrokenBird.ogg',
        title:'BrokenBird',
        artist:'OffTheWall',
        cover:'flashtest-music1/TenYears.jpg'

Neil

offthewall

Next question ....
as it looks like this will work what I would like to know is ....

My original site is built in Webplus X4.
I have made a copy and opened it in X7 and renamed it.
Now, not all pages need to be changed.
If I make my changes one page at a time would I be able to upload ONLY the revised page, through Serif uploader, or would there be any clashes because the site would now be part X4 and part X7?
Thank you.

Neil

That's good news :)

It's hard to say as you're jumping from such an old version. The good news is that the core code is pretty much the same it's some of the other code, such as JavaScript that might conflict.

I'd upload your X4 site to a test area, then try uploading a single X7 page and see how it behaves.

Neil

offthewall

Hello,
I'm finally finding time to start the mammoth task of converting all my playlists.
When it comes to adding the html to the frag box I am having what may be issues.
I need to make extensive changes to the track listings so, ideally, would want to do all of this in Notepad before copying it to the frag box. Most of the albums I am using have from 12 to 24 tracks so I would like to get everything set out without working directly 'in the box'.
What I am finding is that the spacing of the text lines is different.
With the supplied track listing (in your demo) each line is spaced, from the left, by either 8 or 4 spaces. In your instruction PDF this shows as a grey strip.
If I copy a 'set' of track list parameters and paste it in as an extra set it comes up as left aligned without any spaces (if you get my meaning).
Will this work the same or do I need to manually add in those spaces from the left each time?

Mick

Have you actually "tried" your method of pasting the track listing into a fresh page as a test demo?

Personally I wouldn't have thought the spacing made any difference, the only thing that "is" needed is the code start and end parameters to each track and would be as follows

{

},

And also the fact that the last line of code which is normally the cover image, does not have the comma after the code, unlike the rest of the lines of code such as the duration, which "do" all need the comma at the end of each line and shown below

duration:`2:47`,

It's a trial and error basis if you are not manually typing them in yourself

Hope this helps

offthewall

Thanks.
No. I haven't 'tried' it yet.
It just happens that my first attempted listing is of some 20 tracks. As soon as I started typing up the list I realised that things were looking different so thought I should check before doing a load of work that my be wrong.
I will 'try' it when time allows.

Mick

;-)

offthewall

Hello,
Back again.
Having finally found time to give this a real try I have modified a page from my current site and uploaded it to a test folder.
This page should have the music player in the big white space at the bottom of the page however there is nothing visible!
If I click on 'view source' all the files seem to be there but not appearing.
Any ideas what I may have done wrong?
http://fraserology.com/flashtest/public_html/flashtest/page3.html

Neil

Hi,

Everything looks to be in place. Seems odd that it's not working - makes me wonder if there's either something else on the page causing an issue or that your code linking to the audio files is wrong.

Try adding the standard code for the audio tracks that came with the download and adding it to a new blank page, that might be the best way to debug the problem.

Neil

offthewall

Thanks. Will try that tomorrow.

Neil

Let us know how you get on.

offthewall

OK.
I've now tried this.
Follow the original link I posted.
The player is still missing from the white space at bottom of page but all the code comes up in 'view source'.
Red link at top left goes to Test Page 2 which is a blank page with the 'demo' player on and it all works.
Anyone see why?
Is it something to do with track list in the code?
The only difference is that, as I have many albums with multiple tracks, I changed the folder name for the tracks but I have a folder there with that name and the same folder name is on each track listing in the code.

offthewall

SORTED!!!

Went through all the code and found a comma missing right in the middle.
That's fixed it.
YAY.

offthewall

Now wondering if someone could test this page in different browsers, please.
I have Chrome, Firefox, IE and Opera so it only needs testing in whatever others.
Thanks.

Mick

Hi,

It works fine in the browsers of Safari & Pale Moon, so having that said, I don't think you will have any more issues, regardless of the browser being used by the end user ;-)

offthewall

Thanks.
Now to move on and try to update both sites.
A monster job, I'm afraid.
I appreciate all your help.

Mick

;-)

offthewall

Hello again,
More help needed.
I did get my first site updated with new music players and all now is working well.
http://www.fraserology.com/music/

With my second site I have done a full re-write with major changes and have now started adding the music players but can't understand why the first one is not working.
I have uploaded some pages to a test folder for checking.
http://fraserology.com/flashtest/public_html/flashtest/page22.html

On this particular page the music player should be in the middle of the brown space.
If you check the coding it seems to all be there but isn't showing up.
Anyone see what I'm doing wrong?
Tracks are all uploaded in a folder called Music.

BTW. I wrote all this and clicked Preview and it all disappeared. Something wrong in your system?

offthewall

I just found another anomaly I can't explain.
When I put the player into the page (and it doesn't show up) it also breaks the hover nav-bar sub-menu that should be on Music tab.
I have only uploaded the one music page to the test folder but when you go to any of the other main menu pages and hover the MUSIC button you see the 'hover' menu appear. Doesn't appear on the music page I have uploaded. Neither does it appear on another page I have tested at home. Before I added the player it worked. There must be a connection?

offthewall

I really hope I can get some insight here.
I have tested a number of other pages, locally, and it really looks as if adding the music player to a page 'breaks' the nav bar pop-up display for that page.
Take the example page (Searching The Blue Horizon) that is in my link.
Hover the MUSIC tab and there is no pop-up.
Now select any other page from the main menu and hover the MUSIC tab and the pop-up sub-menu is there.
I haven't uploaded any more of the music pages but in local testing the pages without the music player added all have the pop-up and the ones with the music player (not working) added have no pop-up.
Can the music player addition break the nav bar?

offthewall

Latest test.
Created a new blank page and excluded it from navigation.
Added music player and it works as it should. (tested locally)
So this seems to prove that the music player breaks the nav bar OR the nav bar breaks the music player.
Any help would be appreciated.
I really need to get this sorted and am now totally out of my depth!

Mick

Maybe its the no conflict code causing the problem on this particular page and navigational menu

Locate these 2 lines of text via a source code view and replace these 2 with a single line of code (shown below)

Replace:

$.noConflict();
 jQuery(document).ready(function($) {

With this:

$(function(){

That is the only suggestion I have, Neil may have others when he picks up on this thread

Hope this helps

offthewall

Thanks.
Just tried that on a local test and it seems to work.
Will try a test upload in the morning.

offthewall

Couldn't wait so I uploaded the altered page.
Music player is back and nav working ......
problem now is that the tracks and cover art are not being called even though the music file folder is uploaded. Will have to do some more checking.

Neil

Hi,

Might be worth double checking the file names to see they're written exactly as they are on the server - some servers are case sensitive so upper and lower case name conflicts can cause issues.

Neil

offthewall

Yep. That was it.
The music folder had been uploaded into another folder.
Altered the code and it is now working as it should.
Thanks, team.

Neil

Awesome... glad to help! Thanks for the update :)

offthewall

Just a note to say that full upload seems to have worked .... finally.
Stress over.
http://www.johnefarmer.com/

Thanks for all your help here.
James.

Neil

Brilliant, well done :)

offthewall

Thanks ...... BUT ....

next phase of testing took me to the mobile phone where the music player doesn't appear!
On my own personal site, which has no javascript navigation it works as it should; example:
http://www.fraserology.com/page20.html
But on the new site the music player pages come up blank.
http://www.johnefarmer.com/page16.html
Works on my kindle but not on an Android phone.
Any ideas on what could cause this?

Neil

I think this an issue with your mobile device more than the addon as it displays and plays perfectly on my iPhone. It could be browser related or down to the settings on your device, it’s worth looking into.

Neil

offthewall

OK. Thanks for looking.
In truth I wouldn't really be bothered if not for the fact that one site plays and the other doesn't.
I'll check whatever settings I can.

Mick

Most definitely a user device issue, I've tested the links above, here in both IOS and Android devices and the player works fine on all of them

offthewall

OK. Thanks for that.
I'll just leave it as it is.
I know nothing about these devices as I don't use them myself.
Cheers.

Neil

:)

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