(2012-05-22 22:03)paco Wrote: This is a very nice utility to manage music. It's too bad you couldn't have used your skills to make the Official app's music section better. That app leaves a lot to be desired when using it for music.
Bugs/Notes:
- Smart Playlists that select a random number of songs always select the same songs even after clearing queue. Only a library refresh allows new 'random/tracks to appear.
- When disconnecting from server, the music stops playing. The music should keep playing regardless.
- No artist icons when available (the official XBMC uses artist icons if available)
- Sorting of Artists and Albums that start with 'The'. XBMC gives the option to 'ignore articles when sorting'.
Obviously, the main feature I'd like would be creating XBMC playlists to store on the server. That aside this is one very nice app. Keep up the great work.
Extending the official app was not an option.I already had most of the code from my music pump daap player so I just had to switch the library import and the playback service to get the core of the app working. Moreover the official app looks really bad on a tablet, since they didn't have the android api which are available today to make an app look good on a phone and tablet on the same time.
To your Bugs/Notes
- Hmm, I didn't think of smart playlists that change every time you open them. At the moment playlists are loaded and cached locally when they are accessed for the first time. Thus you need to refresh the library to see different songs. I should probably reload those playlists every time the user access them.
- That the music stops when disconnecting is by design because the phone will only set the currently playing song in the "now playing" playlist and add a new one when playback is finished. Hit the home button instead to continue listening to the music. I do this for several reasons:
- It is much easier to switch output between xbmc/android device that way.
- If you have played around with more than one device you will see that every device can have its own (different) playlist. The last device that hits play takes over the music control. Other devices will stop playing songs on xbmc automatically.
- You can listen to a playlist on your way back from work and once you get home you just switch the output to xbmc to continue listening to your music on your stereo.
To continue playback when disconnecting I have to set the playlist on xbmc which for the reasons above seems not the best choice in my opinion. Also if I stream the music to my phone and my wife starts watching a movie my playlist would get kicked, something I don't want.
- Is the filtering of articles really that importent? To find your artists/albums use the search button which is much better/faster than scrolling through a list of hundreds of album/artists. That way you don't have to care about finding an artist under "T" or somewhere else
- Artist icons are not available since this was not available in Music Pump DAAP Player. May be added in the future.
- This is a feature that I would like as well but unfortunately creating/editing playlists is not yet supported through json-rpc.
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