• Retrieve the current running order, in the form of a playlist, from the web interface using FID=001&EXT=.xml Note that the leading zeros are *required*, and that this feature only works currently with .xml output, not regular .html (I should fix this someday).
  
  
• For any playlist, one can now specify a limit to the number of items returned, using &COUNT=10 for example (or any positive integer; zero means "return everything").
  
  
• Also for any playlist, a starting offset can be specified, to skip over the first few entries, using &OFFSET=5 for example.
  
  
• The .xml output for FID=001 also sets two additional variables at the top: runOrderLen="nnn" and playListLen="nnn", both based upon the values of the same names, as retrieved from the running order area of the dynamic data paritition.
  

wget -O- 'http://blueface/?FID=001&EXT=.xml&COUNT=5'

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="/default.xsl"?>
<playlist stylesheet="/default.xsl" host="blueface" allow_files="1" allow_commands="1"
  type="playlist" tagfid="1" fid="0" length="" year="" options="" genre="" title="" artist=""
  source="" comment="" runOrderLen="11421" playListLen="11421">
        <items>
                <item>
                        <type>tune</type>
                        <tagfid>17371</tagfid>
                        <fid>17370</fid>
                        <year></year>
                        <options></options>
                        <genre>Rock</genre>
                        <title>SOS</title>
                        <artist>Abba</artist>
                        <source>Greatest Hits</source>
                        <comment>Created by Grip</comment>
                        <length>3372521</length>
                        <tracknr>01</tracknr>
                        <bitrate>vs134</bitrate>
                        <samplerate>44100</samplerate>
                        <codec>mp3</codec>
                        <duration>3:20</duration>
                        <offset>0</offset>
                </item>
                <item>
                        <type>tune</type>
                        <tagfid>a091</tagfid>
                        <fid>a090</fid>
                        <year></year>
                        <options></options>
                        <genre>Blues</genre>
                        <title>Save the Rainforest.. or Else</title>
                        <artist>Local Anxiety</artist>
                        <source>Greenpieces</source>
                        <comment>http://www.mp3.com/</comment>
                        <length>3635966</length>
                        <tracknr>10</tracknr>
                        <bitrate>fs128</bitrate>
                        <samplerate>44100</samplerate>
                        <codec>mp3</codec>
                        <duration>3:47</duration>
                        <offset>0</offset>
                </item>
                <item>
                        <type>tune</type>
                        <tagfid>10ce1</tagfid>
                        <fid>10ce0</fid>
                        <year></year>
                        <options></options>
                        <genre>Rock</genre>
                        <title>Tell Me There's A Heaven</title>
                        <artist>Chris Rea</artist>
                        <source>The Road To Hell</source>
                        <comment></comment>
                        <length>4988976</length>
                        <tracknr>10</tracknr>
                        <bitrate>vs109</bitrate>
                        <samplerate>44100</samplerate>
                        <codec>mp3</codec>
                        <duration>6:03</duration>
                        <offset>0</offset>
                </item>
                <item>
                        <type>tune</type>
                        <tagfid>7c11</tagfid>
                        <fid>7c10</fid>
                        <year></year>
                        <options></options>
                        <genre></genre>
                        <title>Lament</title>
                        <artist>musicals</artist>
                        <source>Evita</source>
                        <comment></comment>
                        <length>3802204</length>
                        <tracknr>23</tracknr>
                        <bitrate>vs127</bitrate>
                        <samplerate>44100</samplerate>
                        <codec>mp3</codec>
                        <duration>3:59</duration>
                        <offset>0</offset>
                </item>
                <item>
                        <type>tune</type>
                        <tagfid>158c1</tagfid>
                        <fid>158c0</fid>
                        <year></year>
                        <options></options>
                        <genre>Folk</genre>
                        <title>The Ballad of Lucy Jordan</title>
                        <artist>Barra MacNeils</artist>
                        <source>The Question</source>
                        <comment></comment>
                        <length>4457229</length>
                        <tracknr>03</tracknr>
                        <bitrate>vs134</bitrate>
                        <samplerate>44100</samplerate>
                        <codec>mp3</codec>
                        <duration>4:24</duration>
                        <offset>0</offset>
                </item>
        </items>
</playlist>

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The .xml output for FID=001 also sets two additional variables at the top: runOrderLen="nnn" and playListLen="nnn", both based upon the values of the same names, as retrieved from the running order area of the dynamic data paritition.

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Mmm.. I wonder if one/both of those two values should instead indicate the number of entries actually returned (possibly limited by a &COUNT=nn directive) ?

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One thing I had in my output format that you do not is the current running order number - the position of the track in the current playlist. This is difficult to calculate if you allow negative offsets, since you would not know if the offset is valid or not. For example:

I have a playlist of 20 items, I am currently playing track 3, but my view is set up to show the last 5 songs and the next 10 songs. I specify count=15&offset=-5 but because there is no track -1, what is returned is track 1-15.

Can you specify negative offsets?

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Could you also output a flag on an item to indicate the currently playing track? This would save a round-trip to notify to get the currently playing track. Example of both:

<item number="3" playing="yes">

You could omit the playing attribute if it is not playing:

<item number="4">

Looks like a good idea. Yes. Later..

Cheers

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No. Do you want anything changed from the above (not clear to me)?

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No. Do you want anything changed from the above (not clear to me)?

Just allow negative offsets so I can retrieve the previous X songs to the currently playing one. This gives an enhanced Now and Next view that would be useful: "Who sung that last song?".

Thanks!

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No. Do you want anything changed from the above (not clear to me)?

Just allow negative offsets so I can retrieve the previous X songs to the currently playing one. This gives an enhanced Now and Next view that would be useful: "Who sung that last song?".

Thanks!

I'm still very confused. Have you left something out of the description here?

The current implementation starts with the beginning of the running order list. A negative offset would have it return garbage.

????

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Perhaps you expect the current implementation to automatically skip to the currently playing FID ? It doesn't do that right now. If it did do that, then your request would begin to make sense to me.

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Perhaps you expect the current implementation to automatically skip to the currently playing FID ? It doesn't do that right now. If it did do that, then your request would begin to make sense to me.

Yup, that's the confusion. I was assuming it would begin at the currently playing song. Your implementation is better - you can lookup the currently playing position and start from there.

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Perhaps you expect the current implementation to automatically skip to the currently playing FID ? It doesn't do that right now. If it did do that, then your request would begin to make sense to me.

Yup, that's the confusion. I was assuming it would begin at the currently playing song. Your implementation is better - you can lookup the currently playing position and start from there.

Well, I don't know if it's better or not. Tell me what you want it to do differently from right now, and I'll have a looksee.

Thanks!