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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

;-)

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