Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved!

Posted by: mlord

Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 18/05/2007 01:04

A bunch of us have been working away in a slightly obscure thread on this BSS, modifying Mark Cushman's excellent Empeg Web Lite stylesheet.

One result is the attached file, a .zip file you can download, unzip, and then move the contents to the root (/) directory of your empeg via FTP.

Once done, just surf to the Hijack web interface (upgrade to the latest Hijack first!), and click on the link at the bottom of the page. This gives you an animated facsimile of your empeg, complete with clickable buttons, and a full playlist structure for exploring your tunes.



The catch? It only (all) works in Firefox at the moment.
Development is still underway, but I feel we need more people to become involved.
So, please install it and try it out, and continue the feedback / discussions in this new thread.

Actually, only two files from the .zip are needed: default.xsl, and fascia.png. The remainder of the files are just alternative colour versions of the latter. So if you prefer an amber lens on your empeg, just copy fascia_amber.png over to your player as fascia.png.

Thanks.

-ml
Posted by: mlord

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 18/05/2007 01:29

Heck, you can even (attempt to) play BreakOut via the web interface now!

Mmm.. a possible prize contest for the next empeg meet.. ?
Posted by: frog51

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 18/05/2007 12:33

(downloads...) :-P
Posted by: frog51

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 18/05/2007 19:38

Hmmmm - I guess I am just being really thick here, but I can't see any way to use the default.xsl stylesheet. Is this for use with charcoalgray's interface? It is the only one I have, and I don't see any alternative which references this stylesheet?

Did someone post an alternative and I have just missed that discussion?

[Ninja edit - I am stupid - please ignore ]
Posted by: LittleBlueThing

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 19/05/2007 19:37

oh, that's no good

Not when Chris makes such nice buttons, and Stewart lets us light them and Rob did such a fantastic job fitting them...

homage is due...



Gotta love the Gimp
Posted by: FireFox31

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 20/05/2007 14:34

Oh, you beat me to it! Maybe I could make litbuttons.png from my website photographs.

Thanks to Mark and the other developers. This seems like a really neat tool.
Posted by: mlord

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 22/05/2007 12:26

Quote:
oh, that's no good

Not when Chris makes such nice buttons, and Stewart lets us light them and Rob did such a fantastic job fitting them...

homage is due...


Great! Can you make up a set of four of those: Blue, Green, Red, Amber ?

Thanks!
Posted by: ghostwheel

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 22/05/2007 20:14

Quote:
Development is still underway, but I feel we need more people to become involved.
So, please install it and try it out, and continue the feedback / discussions in this new thread.


Hi,

I've created a new empeg_weblite version featuring:

- fascia selection
- sorting of columns (just click on the column-title)

- 3 "lit button" fascia images are missing
- it still does not work in IE

Alex
Posted by: mlord

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 22/05/2007 21:26

Quote:

- it still does not work in IE

Alex


Yeah. Here's Mark Cushman's explanation of why my hacks don't work in IE (from the original thread):
Quote:
Quote:
While you're around.. how do I get my button onmousexxx= events to work in MSIE? They work fine as-is in Firefox.

It's not the onmousexxx (is that some kind of kinky mouse porno?) commands that are not working, it is the imagemap. Internet Exploder doesn't allow imagemaps on PNG images without some trickery. The same page where I got the transparency fix describes the problem here. I tried the modified script, but it is just making things much more complicated. I think our options are to a) get the script to work or b) slice up the image again.

What a pain.
Posted by: mlord

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 22/05/2007 21:30

Quote:
Quote:

- it still does not work in IE

Alex


Yeah. Here's Mark Cushman's explanation of why my hacks don't work in IE (from the original thread):
Quote:
Quote:
While you're around.. how do I get my button onmousexxx= events to work in MSIE? They work fine as-is in Firefox.

It's not the onmousexxx (is that some kind of kinky mouse porno?) commands that are not working, it is the imagemap. Internet Exploder doesn't allow imagemaps on PNG images without some trickery. The same page where I got the transparency fix describes the problem here. I tried the modified script, but it is just making things much more complicated. I think our options are to a) get the script to work or b) slice up the image again.

What a pain.



Oh, I meant to add: I hardly understand a word of the explanation/fix at the link in the comments above, but if you can understand it, then please have a go at implementing it for us all!

Thanks
Posted by: cushman

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 22/05/2007 21:40

Quote:
Oh, I meant to add: I hardly understand a word of the explanation/fix at the link in the comments above, but if you can understand it, then please have a go at implementing it for us all!

The fix stretches a single pixel transparant gif over the PNG file and resets the imagemap to be applied to the gif. The way the script works does it behind the scenes using the DOM, although you could probably also do it manually in the stylesheet itself. The way the fix works messes up the positioning of everything on the screen, though. I can take a look at it later and see if I can find a manual way of applying the imagemap that will work cross-browser.
Posted by: mlord

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 22/05/2007 21:54

Quote:

Oh, I meant to add: I hardly understand a word of the explanation/fix at the link in the comments above, but if you can understand it, then please have a go at implementing it for us all!



So, here's a list of things that would be really cool to have in this web interface:
  • Move the lens selection menu to some kind of pop-up thingie.

  • Implement a pop-up Rio Remote control, fully functional.
    For this, we can probably steal Tony's version from the button guide,
    and then just implement the onmousexxx=yyyyy functionality in pretty much identical fashion to how the existing front-panel buttons are done. It's really coma lot easier than it looks.

  • Kludges for PNG onmouse events for MS IE support (see above).
    EDIT: As I understand this one, all we need to do is overlay a 1-pixel transparent GIF onto the fascia image (specifying width="572" height="172"), and then use *that* image for the imagemap rather than the PNG image of the fascia. Right?

  • Access to the current running order via some kind of pop-up. This requires a Hijack feature that I'm in the middle of implementing for Mark Cushman.

  • A back button for easier playlist navigation.


Anything else for the "basics" here?
Posted by: ghostwheel

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 23/05/2007 00:13

Quote:
- 3 "lit button" fascia images are missing
- it still does not work in IE


Hi,

this version should work in IE. IE below 5.5 will use an fascia gif.
I've also added a keyboard control:

Left side: Cursor Up/Down/Left/Right
Knob rotate: Page Up/Page Down
Knob press: Keypad "5", Pos1, End

Alex
Posted by: mlord

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 23/05/2007 00:41

Quote:
Quote:
- 3 "lit button" fascia images are missing
- it still does not work in IE


Hi,

this version should work in IE. IE below 5.5 will use an fascia gif.
I've also added a keyboard control:

Left side: Cursor Up/Down/Left/Right
Knob rotate: Page Up/Page Down
Knob press: Keypad "5", Pos1, End

Alex


Whoo-hoo! Well done!

Here's a slightly modified default.xsl from your last one.
This one speeds up the KnobLeft and KnobRight repeat rates
so that volume changes and BreakOut Game moves work faster.

EDIT: Oh, and you can nuke the index.xml file from the .zip archive.

Cheers
Posted by: mlord

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 23/05/2007 00:51

Quote:

Here's a slightly modified default.xsl from your last one.
This one speeds up the KnobLeft and KnobRight repeat rates
so that volume changes and BreakOut Game moves work faster.


I nuked my first attempt, so here it is again, fixed.

This one just uses 150ms for the repeat rate regardless,
and it seems to be just about right.

EDIT: Changed my mind again: this one uses 125ms for the keyboard
Knob Left/Right (PgUp/PgDn) keys, and 300ms for the "real" Knob.
This gives fewer false repeats from using the mouse.


Cheers
Posted by: mlord

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 23/05/2007 01:07

Quote:

this version should work in IE. IE below 5.5 will use an fascia gif.
...
Alex


Whoa, Dude!! This even now works with IE 6/7 under Linux+Wine,
something that wasn't supposed to be possible!

Cheers!
Posted by: FireFox31

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 23/05/2007 01:38

I'll make seven! See the attached zip for blue, red, smoke (on blue), green, amber, stealth (on blue) and crystal (on blue). If anyone wants to make proper smoke and "clear" lenses (for crystal and stealth), then please do. "Clear" is just a white display (but black when pixels are unlit).

Try not to notice that my photographs have perspective while the render did not, thus the knob "sticks out" to the side. Enjoy.
Posted by: FireFox31

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 23/05/2007 01:41

Oh, and here's a Photoshop .PSD containing all seven button sets as layers. You can drag and drop them on any lens color you want! Just like the REAL empeg!!!

Notice the little blob in the upper right. That helps the layer's "snap" into place when dropped into the PNG. Just erase it once the layer is pasted in and positioned.
Posted by: mlord

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 23/05/2007 10:05

Quote:
Try not to notice that my photographs have perspective while the render did not, thus the knob "sticks out" to the side.


Great buttons! But I think I might prefer a knob with less perspective -- a straight-on view, actually -- this would make clicking on the knob a LOT less ambiguous (more accurate).

Cheers
Posted by: mlord

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 23/05/2007 10:17

Quote:

Great buttons! But I think I might prefer a knob with less perspective -- a straight-on view, actually -- this would make clicking on the knob a LOT less ambiguous (more accurate).


Oh, never mind. I've just tweaked the image map so that the center "push" radius is smaller, and that has eliminated the issue for me.

Updated default.xsl is attached.

Cheers

Posted by: mlord

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 23/05/2007 10:33

Here is an updated copy of the whole sheebang.
All that is new is I've renamed things so they "just work" when copied over.

This is a single .zip archive containing everything needed to use this version of the empeg Web-Lite interface, as evolved to this point.

Just unzip the contents and move them to the root (top) directory of your player via FTP.
Then surf to your player's built-in web server (requires the very newest Hijack), and click on the playlists link at the bottom of the screen.

Prepare to be amazed..

Cheers
Posted by: ghostwheel

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 23/05/2007 11:33

Quote:
Here is an updated copy of the whole sheebang.
All that is new is I've renamed things so they "just work" when copied over.


Here's my next update. I moved all images to a subfolder called "weblite". The default.xsl dynamically lists the contents
of this folder to find all /fascia.*\.(png|gif)/. So you just have to drop new images in this folder and they will show up
in the interface.

I also optimized the png images for size and created a better looking .gif fallback image.

Todo:
- playlist change via Ajax (ie. reload of table "in place")
- lens selection as popup
- popup-Remote
- "running order" popup
- back button
- more fascia images

IMHO the "back button" should be an "up button". Could you include a "parent" element in the delivered xml (hijack change)
like this:

Code:

<playlist ...>
<parent>
<type>playlist</type>
<tagfid>...</tagfid>
...
</parent>
<items>
...
</items>
</playlist>



Alex
Posted by: mlord

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 23/05/2007 12:19

Quote:
IMHO the "back button" should be an "up button". Could you include a "parent" element in the delivered xml (hijack change)


I don't know how to decide upon / find a parent. The empeg database isn't really structured that way, even though that's how (most) people actually want to use it.

I think the only way would be for the AJAX stuff to keep track of it, as it's the only place that information is known.

??
Posted by: mlord

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 23/05/2007 12:21

Quote:
popup-Remote


You can leave that one for me.
I'll take a new photo of the remote and image map it.
Likely tonight (8+ hours from now).

Cheers
Posted by: LittleBlueThing

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 23/05/2007 19:57

Quote:

Great! Can you make up a set of four of those: Blue, Green, Red, Amber ?

Thanks!


Work sent me away for a few days(!)
Looks like Chris has sorted this though...
Posted by: ghostwheel

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 23/05/2007 21:02

Quote:
I think the only way would be for the AJAX stuff to keep track of it, as it's the only place that information is known.


Hi,

ajax navigation and back button are included in the attached version v0.5.
I didn't find a way to apply a xsl to an xml fetched via http subrequest so I build the new table rows "by hand" using DOM functions.
It's not pretty but it works.

Alex
Posted by: mlord

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 24/05/2007 00:52

Quote:
Quote:
popup-Remote


You can leave that one for me.
I'll take a new photo of the remote and image map it.
Likely tonight (8+ hours from now).



Ugh. I didn't get to this one today, so it'll be a while.
Feel free to preempt me!

Cheers
Posted by: Gleep

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 26/05/2007 14:41

Quote:

Here's my next update. I moved all images to a subfolder called "weblite". The default.xsl dynamically lists the contents
of this folder to find all /fascia.*\.(png|gif)/. So you just have to drop new images in this folder and they will show up
in the interface.



I am using this version and all I get is "404 Error Retrieving File"

GET /

Any help would be much appreciated.

I am using Hijack 476 and running Version 3alpha11
Thanks
Kelly
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 26/05/2007 19:57

Did you chmod the files?
Posted by: Gleep

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 26/05/2007 20:08

It works now, but my playlist structure is now totally trashed. After rearranging entries to try and put it back in order, it has become apparent that many, many songs are missing, but the free space and capacity are at the same as before amounts of 97.33GB and 223.14GB. : (
Posted by: Gleep

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 27/05/2007 02:18

More info

My missing files seem to be under /drive0/nfids I also have a /drive0/fids which has a bunch of directories in it but no files and the directories don't seem to have any files in them either. Dare I rename it to oldfids and rename nfids to fids?

Thanks in advance

Kelly
Posted by: mlord

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 27/05/2007 12:43

Quote:
More info

My missing files seem to be under /drive0/nfids I also have a /drive0/fids which has a bunch of directories in it but no files and the directories don't seem to have any files in them either. Dare I rename it to oldfids and rename nfids to fids?


Mmmm grab the fidsift.sh script (search this BBS for details) and re-run it on your player, and then force a database rebuild afterwards (just do an emplode sync).
Posted by: mlord

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 27/05/2007 12:44

Quote:
It works now, but my playlist structure is now totally trashed. After rearranging entries to try and put it back in order, it has become apparent that many, many songs are missing, but the free space and capacity are at the same as before amounts of 97.33GB and 223.14GB. : (


Note for others: this has *nothing* whatsoever to do with the web interface.
Posted by: Gleep

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 27/05/2007 23:33

Quote:

Mmmm grab the fidsift.sh script (search this BBS for details) and re-run it on your player, and then force a database rebuild afterwards (just do an emplode sync).


Running fidsift.sh did not fix it. Renaming the fids directory to savefids and nfids to fids and a forced database rebuild did. In fact, I think running the fidsift.sh script is what messed it up in the first place as it appears to make an nfids directory and I normally run it after I load new files onto the empeg and had run it not long before I installed the web interface. I have run it many, many times before and it has never given me any trouble so I don't know what went wrong this time. After reading the FAQ for information on the whole fid structure I wonder if I even need to run fidsift.sh anymore as it sounds like version 3alpha will automatically load files using the more efficient directory structure.

Again thanks to everyone involved in making the Empeg such a wonderful device with the best online community around!
Posted by: mlord

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 28/05/2007 00:30

Quote:

Running fidsift.sh did not fix it. Renaming the fids directory to savefids and nfids to fids and a forced database rebuild did. In fact, I think running the fidsift.sh script is what messed it up in the first place


No, the fidsift.sh script by itself would not do this.. unless it was interrupted and then run again, perhaps.

Good to hear you've figured it out, though.

Cheers
Posted by: theGecko

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 16/06/2007 09:16

Very n00bish update to simply allow a folder structure to be dropped into the FTP root and browsed to
Posted by: Taym

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 18/06/2007 11:34

I'd like to simply thank you all for this. It looks great, works great, and it is simply greatly useful to me.

And, if you needed any further confirmation, it works great in IE7 under Vista, too.

You all rock!
Posted by: mlord

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 18/06/2007 16:41

Hey, *excellent*!!! It's great to have others discovering this stuff and passing along feedback and confirmations!

I must confess that I've fallen a bit behind here and have yet to try the last couple of nifty hacks, but it's on the "to do" list for me now!

Cheers
Posted by: haffi

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 07/07/2007 21:34

can anyone add two new features should be simple...

* option to slow/turnoff the display update ( caushing lots of network/cpu load on player if many ppl connected.)

* a Download currently playing button ?

this would be perfect with these two features

What you think ?
Posted by: mlord

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 14/07/2007 18:04

Quote:
Quote:
I think the only way would be for the AJAX stuff to keep track of it, as it's the only place that information is known.


Hi,

ajax navigation and back button are included in the attached version v0.5.
I didn't find a way to apply a xsl to an xml fetched via http subrequest so I build the new table rows "by hand" using DOM functions.
It's not pretty but it works.

Alex


Alex, I finally got round to trying v0.5 as you posted it here.

Two problems:
  • The "Save" tune button has "EXT=.m3u" (should be "EXT=.mp3").

  • The "Strm" tune button does not work with my Firefox 2.0 client.
    Dunno why -- I see firefox grab the .m3u file, and it has the correct mime-type,
    but nothing happens afterwards. Revert back one version to your prior release,
    and it all works.

???
Posted by: ghostwheel

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 16/07/2007 15:17

Quote:
Alex, I finally got round to trying v0.5 as you posted it here.

Two problems:
  • The "Save" tune button has "EXT=.m3u" (should be "EXT=.mp3").

  • The "Strm" tune button does not work with my Firefox 2.0 client.
    Dunno why -- I see firefox grab the .m3u file, and it has the correct mime-type,
    but nothing happens afterwards. Revert back one version to your prior release,
    and it all works.

???


Hi,

I've fixed the issues (stream and save) and added a selection for the refresh timer. as usual: not pretty

Alex
Posted by: ghostwheel

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 16/07/2007 16:50

Quote:
I've fixed the issues (stream and save) and added a selection for the refresh timer. as usual: not pretty


Hi again,

I've found some more bugs in the last version. The attached version 0.60 should work fine. It also has a javascript playlist cache to speed up navigation on large playlists.

Alex
Posted by: ghostwheel

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 16/07/2007 17:53

Duh, the last one didn't work in IE. This one does. Sorry.

Alex
Posted by: mlord

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 16/07/2007 20:25

Quote:
Duh, the last one didn't work in IE. This one does. Sorry.

Alex


The man is a machine! Woo-hoo, great to have you onboard for this baby, Alex!

My primary player is currently recovering from surgery: replaced the 30GB hard drive with a pair of 16GB CF cards. Once it comes out of the disk builder and gets some tunes uploaded, I'll reload the latest web interface back onto it!

This Web Lite is a godsend for seminars and courses -- I regularly use my empegs as "demos" for real-time / embedded systems courses that I instruct.

Cheers
Posted by: Nobbie

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 17/08/2007 08:06

For some reason it shows me the vfd screen with graphics, but no buttons, thats with the xsl above, and all renamed png's.

It is on my mac though, in both Safari and FF, so i'll boot parallels and try that.

Edit

Nope PC IE7, and FF same thing.

EDIT AGAIN, I'm stupid, i forgot the weblite folder, and was putting the fascia.png in the rool with the xsl. In my defence i did get back late last night from the GooGooDools concert.
Posted by: Austin Newman

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 21/11/2007 05:27

Hey guys:
I finally got around to installing this and it looks great. I've given it a go in Firefox and IE and it looks like it is working in both. I'd just like to give everyone a kudos for all of their hard work!

Austin
Posted by: Lupo

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 12/01/2008 20:24

I just installed this nifty little application; it is amazing!

Now that I have a working network here at home it makes listening to my favorite music everywhere in the house so much easier. Thank you all for the work!
Posted by: Robotic

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 01/02/2008 03:06

Wow!
Wow!
Wow!
This is really cool. I'm just scratching the surface with what this can do, but I'm very impressed.
For fun I set the screen blanker timeout and when the empeg went blank the web interface did not change. I like that.
Wow. Very nice work, you guys!

On another front... no more reason for people to get rid of their empeg just because they buy a new car- just put a Samsung Q1 on the dash and network the empeg in the trunk!
Posted by: Snowshoe

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 23/02/2008 21:32

First off after a little messing around, rusty at file transfer to players, finally got this cool app. to run on my players very nice job. Renaming another app. that ran in the root dir. let it run perfectly.

Could this easily work using an iPhones Safari browser or too complicated to implement?
Posted by: frog51

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 24/02/2008 13:25

If you have an iPhone just browse to the empeg. This would not require anything at the empeg end, but you will need some connectivity between the two. Very simple. I know I can browse to mine from anywhere if I have to, but normally I lock it down to home networks only.
Posted by: ghostwheel

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 26/02/2008 10:16

Originally Posted By: Snowshoe
Could this easily work using an iPhones Safari browser or too complicated to implement?

I've fixed a JavaScript error in the attached version which prevented the interface from working in Safari (3.x beta on Windows).
Perhaps this will fix it on the iPhone/Mac...

Alex
Posted by: Snowshoe

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 26/02/2008 12:20

I can browse just fine using IE but the iPhone gives a "server stopped responding" error.

Even using the aboves java fix no luck connecting.
I do have java enabled on iPhone BTW
Posted by: andy

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 26/02/2008 12:25

Java does not equal JavaScript by the way, they two are completely different things.
Posted by: Snowshoe

Re: Empeg Web Lite --> mucho improved! - 26/02/2008 17:25

I wasn't aware of that.
I was thinking I've never tried to access my Empeg player on any computer that wasn't on my local intranet. I suppose it may not work from an outside connection never tried it. I don't have a password setup to mess up the works.

;)I had another ? I thought it would kickass if you could somehow search for a song using weblite is that even possible?
Posted by: mlord

Adding a clickable Rio Remote.. - 05/03/2008 15:52

Originally Posted By: ghostwheel
Originally Posted By: Snowshoe
Could this easily work using an iPhones Safari browser or too complicated to implement?

I've fixed a JavaScript error in the attached version which prevented the interface from working in Safari (3.x beta on Windows).
Perhaps this will fix it on the iPhone/Mac...


Here (attached) is a slightly hacked update to 0.70 (above). This one adds a fully functional Rio Remote to the interface.

But it still needs some work, as wide playlists will overlap the Rio Remote.. need to resolve this somehow. Ideally, some AJAX wizard here would make the remote a floating image, that could be dragged around the screen at will. I think that would be super cool, but I don't know how to do it off-hand.

Also, it would be really nice to have the Button Guide information pop-up as help text when one hovers over a button for more than xx seconds.

Anyone here know how to do those simple things ?

smile

Posted by: mlord

Re: Adding a clickable Rio Remote.. - 05/03/2008 16:08

Originally Posted By: mlord
This one adds a fully functional Rio Remote to the interface.

But it still needs some work, as wide playlists will overlap the Rio Remote.. need to resolve this somehow. Ideally, some AJAX wizard here would make the remote a floating image, that could be dragged around the screen at will. I think that would be super cool, but I don't know how to do it off-hand.


Or, actually, just a small button on the screen just (below the fascia? or on the rivets?) that one presses to make the remote appear/disappear when needed (below the fascia, on top of the playlists).

That's probably better, and less cluttered.

??
Posted by: ghostwheel

Re: Adding a clickable Rio Remote.. - 05/03/2008 17:02

Hi,

I've created a quick-hack "movable" version here:
https://www.ghostwheel.de/empeg/

Give me some time and I'll finish it.

Alex
Posted by: mlord

Re: Adding a clickable Rio Remote.. - 05/03/2008 17:23

Originally Posted By: ghostwheel
Hi,

I've created a quick-hack "movable" version here:
https://www.ghostwheel.de/empeg/

Give me some time and I'll finish it.

Alex


Okay, that's looking cool!

I think what we might want is to have it not normally visible, and clicking on one (or any) of the four rivets would toggle it on/off display-wise. (?)

And then movable is fantastic on top of that!

Thanks!
Posted by: mlord

Re: Adding a clickable Rio Remote.. - 05/03/2008 17:25

Originally Posted By: mlord
Also, it would be really nice to have the Button Guide information pop-up as help text when one hovers over a button for more than xx seconds.


Mmm.. maybe instead, have a little text section at the bottom of the remote, which just always shows a description of the functions for the button over which the mouse cursor is hovering..

That's pretty simple, and perhaps would not annoy people as much as having little pop-ups obscure the remote.. ?
Posted by: mlord

.png or .gif for image map? - 05/03/2008 17:32

For the RioRemote, I provided two images: one .png, and one .gif.

The .gif is obviously a *much* smaller file than the .png, and I'm wondering if there's any need at all for the .png version??

Was there a browser-compatibility issue or something there?
Or was that only for transparent pixels or something ??

Can we just use the rioremote.gif for all browsers ?

(it works here on Firefox2).

EDIT: Ah.. from earlier in this thread, it sounds like there should be no issues using just rioremote.gif everywhere.

Right?
Posted by: ghostwheel

Re: .png or .gif for image map? - 05/03/2008 22:03

Hi,

Originally Posted By: mlord
EDIT: Ah.. from earlier in this thread, it sounds like there should be no issues using just rioremote.gif everywhere.

Right?


Yes, but ... see below.

I've completed version 0.8 featuring

- a movable remote (including button descriptions)
- color and refresh popups
- some more bugfixes for silly browsers

I've edited the rioremote.png and .gif - I'd like to keep the png because it has a nice (alpha transparency) border now.

Alex
Posted by: mlord

Re: .png or .gif for image map? - 05/03/2008 22:46

Originally Posted By: ghostwheel
Hi,

Originally Posted By: mlord
EDIT: Ah.. from earlier in this thread, it sounds like there should be no issues using just rioremote.gif everywhere.

Right?


Yes, but ... see below.

I've completed version 0.8 featuring

- a movable remote (including button descriptions)
- color and refresh popups
- some more bugfixes for silly browsers

I've edited the rioremote.png and .gif - I'd like to keep the png because it has a nice (alpha transparency) border now.

Alex


Sounds good.

But it doesn't work here (Firefox 2 on Linux):



Posted by: mlord

Re: .png or .gif for image map? - 05/03/2008 22:52

Quote:
But it doesn't work here (Firefox 2 on Linux):


Oh.. your .zip file is missing these:

weblite/weblite.js
weblite/domresize.js
weblite/weblite.css


???
Posted by: ghostwheel

Re: .png or .gif for image map? - 06/03/2008 15:46

Hi,

Originally Posted By: mlord
Oh.. your .zip file is missing these


whoops, fixed. sorry.
a new zip file is attached.

Alex
Posted by: mlord

Re: .png or .gif for image map? - 06/03/2008 17:42

Originally Posted By: ghostwheel
I've completed version 0.8 featuring

- a movable remote (including button descriptions)
- color and refresh popups
- some more bugfixes for silly browsers

I've edited the rioremote.png and .gif - I'd like to keep the png because it has a nice (alpha transparency) border now.
..
a new zip file is attached.

Alex


Holy crap, this is totally awesome!
Folks, you gotta see this to believe it!

Thanks!
Posted by: mlord

Re: .png or .gif for image map? - 06/03/2008 18:10

Here is an updated replacement default.xsl file (version 0.80a).

This has more accurate button mapping for the new RioRemote image.

Cheers
Posted by: ghostwheel

Re: .png or .gif for image map? - 06/03/2008 22:35

Originally Posted By: mlord
This has more accurate button mapping for the new RioRemote image.

Wow, I was 1 pixel off at some places. wink

I've just finished a new version which can parse some variables passed in the URL - now you can save a bookmark with your favorite settings.

There are three parameters:
Code:
remote=[0|1]            example:  remote=1   (show remote)
color={name}            example:  color=red  (load fascia_red.png)
refresh={milliseconds}  example:  refresh=0  (disable refresh)

I haven't tested it on my empeg (it is in my car, I know I shouldn't leave it there) and hope the parameters don't interfere with the other parameters FID and EXT.

An example URL would be:

http://www.ghostwheel.de/empeg/?FID=91e1&color=green&remote=1&refresh=0&EXT=.xml

Alex
Posted by: gbeer

Re: .png or .gif for image map? - 07/03/2008 01:45

I can't tell from the pic.

Is that the remote with the coveted Stun/Kill option... smirk
Posted by: ghostwheel

Empeg Weblite 0.93 - 10/03/2008 19:40

Hi,

the last version didn't work on the empeg because of the query string variables. I've fixed this - the variables are now passed as anchor ("#"):
Code:
remote=[0|1]            example:  remote=1   (show remote)
color={name}            example:  color=red  (load fascia_red.png)
refresh={milliseconds}  example:  refresh=0  (disable refresh)
sort={column}           example:  order=artist (set sort column)
order={asc|desc}        example:  order=asc    (set sort order)

An example URL would be http://www.ghostwheel.de/empeg/?FID=91e1...title#order=asc
Version 0.93 also has a new fascia "rainbow" and a bookmark button to save a favorite of the current view.

Alex
Posted by: Robotic

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.93 - 13/03/2008 15:40

This is such cool stuff!
I really like the remote and the new drop-down menus.

I tried bookmarking (right click, 'bookmark this link' from FireFox) the site with my settings (litblue, remote on, 0.5sec), but although the custom parameters can be seen in the url, the page is not customized when called from the bookmark.

I also noticed that when trying to access a playlist that includes several hundred songs, the playlist area would darken and not update. It seemed to want me to wait, but after a couple minutes I gave up on it and reloaded the page.
I tried this a few times with various refresh rates, with no success. Should I just have more patience?
Posted by: mlord

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.93 - 13/03/2008 18:59

Originally Posted By: Robotic
I also noticed that when trying to access a playlist that includes several hundred songs, the playlist area would darken and not update. It seemed to want me to wait, but after a couple minutes I gave up on it and reloaded the page.
I tried this a few times with various refresh rates, with no success. Should I just have more patience?


Hit PAUSE on the player, and see if that helps.
  • If YES, then you just needed to wait longer.
  • if NO, then something else is wrong.

Cheers
Posted by: ghostwheel

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.93 - 14/03/2008 13:24

Originally Posted By: Robotic
I tried bookmarking (right click, 'bookmark this link' from FireFox) the site with my settings (litblue, remote on, 0.5sec), but although the custom parameters can be seen in the url, the page is not customized when called from the bookmark.

Did you clear your browser cache? Try: Shift+Reload.

A bookmark should look like this:
http://emepg/?FID=91e1&EXT=.xml#color=rainbow#remote=1#refresh=0#sort=title#order=asc

Alex
Posted by: Robotic

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.93 - 15/03/2008 01:09

Hi Alex-

The url looks like this for both 'Blue' and 'Lit Blue' selections:
http://192.168.1.5/?FID=101&EXT=.xml#refresh=500#color=blue#remote=1

Every other selection has a different color specification.
So, in my case, the 'Blue' graphic was being displayed instead of the 'Lit Blue' graphic.

Thanks!
Posted by: Robotic

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.93 - 15/03/2008 01:21

Originally Posted By: mlord
Hit PAUSE on the player, and see if that helps.
  • If YES, then you just needed to wait longer.
  • if NO, then something else is wrong.

Cheers

Hi Mark!

I tried surfing the playlists with various conditions- slow/fast refresh, and player off, paused, and playing.

Access to 'normal' playlists is only slightly slower with slow refresh or player playing. That one big playlist I've got still causes a deathly long pause to the playlist area no matter what setting or condition the player is in. It just won't come up.
Can you think of anything else I could try that might give other clues?
Thanks!
Posted by: Attack

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.93 - 15/03/2008 02:02

Is the CPU usage high while waiting for this to load? If the CPU usage is high try creating a a few playlists that double in size. Do these new playlists take more the twice as long to finish loading?
Posted by: Robotic

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.93 - 15/03/2008 15:26

Originally Posted By: Attack
Is the CPU usage high while waiting for this to load? If the CPU usage is high try creating a a few playlists that double in size. Do these new playlists take more the twice as long to finish loading?

It doesn't seem to affect the CPU usage- it bounces around 5%.
I'm assuming you want to know Windows CPU, but perhaps that assumption is wrong. How would I watch the empeg's CPU load?

I'm out of time just now, but I'll try some of this again later.
Thanks!
Posted by: Attack

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.93 - 15/03/2008 16:20

Originally Posted By: Robotic
It doesn't seem to affect the CPU usage- it bounces around 5%.
I'm assuming you want to know Windows CPU, but perhaps that assumption is wrong. How would I watch the empeg's CPU load?

I'm out of time just now, but I'll try some of this again later.
Thanks!


Sorry, I should have said windows CPU usage.
Posted by: ghostwheel

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.94 - 17/03/2008 19:29

Hi,
Originally Posted By: Robotic
Every other selection has a different color specification.
So, in my case, the 'Blue' graphic was being displayed instead of the 'Lit Blue' graphic.

I've fixed this in the attached version 0.94.

Alex
Posted by: ghostwheel

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.93 - 17/03/2008 19:37

Hi,

Originally Posted By: Robotic
That one big playlist I've got still causes a deathly long pause to the playlist area no matter what setting or condition the player is in. It just won't come up.
Can you think of anything else I could try that might give other clues?

How many entries does your big playlist have?
Did you use fidsift on your player?
What happens if you middle-click the playlist link (ie open link in new window)? If the page shows up please save the page source and pm it to me.

After clicking a playlist link I can hear the harddrive seeking on my player. The new page shows up the moment the harddrive noise stops.

Alex
Posted by: Robotic

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.93 - 19/03/2008 02:44

Originally Posted By: ghostwheel
Hi,

How many entries does your big playlist have?
Emplode says 1238 items listed, of which 11 are further directories. Weblite says 1238 also.
Originally Posted By: ghostwheel
Did you use fidsift on your player?
Yes.
Originally Posted By: ghostwheel
What happens if you middle-click the playlist link (ie open link in new window)? If the page shows up please save the page source and pm it to me.

After clicking a playlist link I can hear the harddrive seeking on my player. The new page shows up the moment the harddrive noise stops.

Alex

The resulting page says:
Quote:
XML Parsing Error: not well-formed
Location: http://192.168.1.5/?FID=1641&EXT=.xml
Line Number 2231, Column 13: <tracknr></tracknr>
---------------------------------^

The source is zipped and attached to this post.
I can open in new windows other playlists with no problem.
Drive access noises are brief for this problem playlist.

Thanks for the updates, Alex!
Posted by: ghostwheel

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.93 - 19/03/2008 10:52

Originally Posted By: Robotic
The resulting page says:
Quote:
XML Parsing Error: not well-formed
Location: http://192.168.1.5/?FID=1641&EXT=.xml
Line Number 2231, Column 13: <tracknr></tracknr>
---------------------------------^

Your problem are some tracks with malformed meta-data.
On line 2231 it is "Skater Boy" for example. You should fix the metadata using emplode.
You could also delete the songs and re-upload them after editing the id3 tags.

The "problem" could be fixed while generating the xml files in hijack, but I doubt this is the right place - I don't even know if an id3-track field allows "0x02" as track-number. If it is a valid track-number, hijack could translate all single-byte values less than 0x20 to their ascii representation.

Alex
Posted by: Robotic

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.93 - 19/03/2008 13:11

Aha! Thanks for the diagnosis and explanation, Alex. I will fix my tags and post again later.
Posted by: ghostwheel

Empeg Weblite 0.95 - 28/04/2008 20:09

Version 0.95 is a bugfix release:
  • fixed some safari javascript problems
  • detect bad playlists and show warning (Robotic's problem)
  • show ajax wait indicator while loading
  • some cosmetic fixes (ie highlight current line)

Alex
Posted by: sein

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.95 - 29/04/2008 08:59

Great work guys smile
Posted by: benjammin

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.95 - 04/01/2009 21:56

All the fun stuff I miss.

Shame on me.


I can't wait to get this installed.

-Ben
Posted by: mlord

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.95 - 05/01/2009 02:08

Yeah, this one is the real deal!

I use it just about every single day here.
Posted by: benjammin

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.95 - 09/01/2009 05:16

I have a dumb question: (I supposed if someone could include a short readme.txt with the zip archive -- maybe this wouldn't be a question)


When I boot the player, I don't want to look at the dir index. I want to go straight to the fabulous httpd menu. Is there some way to do this? (besides saving a bookmark)

edit: I tried the khttp_dirs=0 option. No dice.

Thanks,

-Ben
Posted by: mlord

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.95 - 09/01/2009 15:19

Quote:
I don't want to look at the dir index. I want to go straight to the fabulous httpd menu. Is there some way to do this? (besides saving a bookmark)

Create a file named /index.html on the empeg, with these contents:
Code:
<html><head>
<meta HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" content="0; url=/?FID=101&EXT=.xml">
</head></html>

(EDIT: simplified it)
(EDIT again: hacked in some extra UBBcode tags to try and prevent FF3 from trying to interpret the HTML tags in the above post [WTF?]).
Posted by: benjammin

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.95 - 09/01/2009 15:57

Ko. thanks!

-Ben
Posted by: suomi35

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.95 - 17/05/2018 20:54

I recently became the owner of more than one empeg whistle
As such, and even though I have them setup in my local DNS with different names, I decided to add the player name to the UI of weblite, in order to see which player I'm dealing with at-a-glance.

The player name is displayed on the top left corner of the fascia:


I modified the weblite code ever so slightly and here it is for everyone...I also incremented the version to 0.96. Apologies for any future versioning clash that might cause smirk



Cheers!
Posted by: jmwking

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.95 - 18/05/2018 22:01

Thanks!

(I'm still hoping someone will port empeg to an ios ap. It's way beyond my skillset. My last - and only - real port job was in the early '80s, bringing Adventure to our high school BTI system. "Plugh")

-jk
Posted by: BartDG

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.95 - 19/05/2018 16:06

The thing I'm really hoping for is if somebody would create a smartphone app that would emulate the Empeg's functionality, with the mp3's on the smartphone. I had very high hopes for that Empeg on Raspberry Pi project, but unfortunately it seems to have died before it was even born...
Posted by: suomi35

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.95 - 25/05/2018 18:30

I might be interested in giving that a shot on Android...I don't have any time right now, but I might steal some weekend evening hours here and there over the summer.

Are you thinking of replicating all empeg functionality?
Posted by: JBjorgen

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.95 - 25/05/2018 20:55

Originally Posted By: suomi35
I might be interested in giving that a shot on Android...


That might be one of the very few reasons that I would switch to Android. I'm not sure, however, how much of the empeg you would want to keep. The tactile UI is obsolete, since we're pretty much stuck with whatever the car gives you over bluetooth. The database with FIDs, etc... would probably have to go too, since I'm sure Android has its own way of storing music already.

So we're pretty much just left with the player app and the visual UI. I would think the place to start would be to find an open source audio player app, and then tweak it to add the features that we love on the empeg.
Posted by: suomi35

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.95 - 26/05/2018 03:32

It would be a good idea for us to put together a list of feature requirements. (must haves, nice to haves, don't wants, etc)

I highly value a web interface, which could essentially emulate the empeg weblite.

Since there would be no Emplode app, at least in the way I'm approaching this, the process(es) for building playlists would need to be as simple as possible. (I have no time/interest in spending hours recreating the playlists as they currently exist on my empegs via touchscreen. Perhaps it could be accomplished easily enough via the weblite-esque http interface mentioned above.

Having said those things, playing music on an Android device is very easy. The MediaPlayer API is rich and there is lots of documentation. It would be a fun project for sure.
Posted by: BartDG

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.95 - 29/05/2018 09:33

Originally Posted By: suomi35
I might be interested in giving that a shot on Android...I don't have any time right now, but I might steal some weekend evening hours here and there over the summer.

Are you thinking of replicating all empeg functionality?

Hi Jason! That would be awesome!
No, I don't need all functionality, but what I would love is :
1. Being able to browse by playlist (effectively play a folder - I use my own folder structure) and turn shuffle on/off at will.
2. An easy way to search for tracks and insert them into the playlist to play next - while playing of course
3. Also, when playing a playlist and I hear a track by a certain artist that I like, I then often pressed a button that inserted another random track from that same artist to play immediately after. That for me was the most used feature!! No other player currently does this! Also, when I didn't want to hear a certain artist anymore, by pressing and holding down that same button, all other tracks from that specific artist were purged from the playlist.
4. The Empeg's intelligent search feature where you'd only need to type in a few letters to find what you need because it would limit the possible results based on the available tracks in your collection. (and make suggestions and show you what it thinks you meant). Also when you eg. searched for "Peter Gabriel", it showed the total number of tracks by Peter Gabriel in your collection (well, on the phone anyway) between brackets, and then you could immediately add/insert those into the playlist.
5. A play bar so I could easily scroll through the track (the Empeg does not have this, but it didn't have a touch screen either of course, so it's kind of mandatory now)

Currently I use Car Tunes. While it does have its flaws, I do like the interface. It gives a good overview and is easy to use. It also allow you to search via voice control. That would be a big bonus of course, but I would never expect you to implement such a thing. Oh, I don't really need to see the Empeg interface for nostalgic reasons. Just (some of) its features. smile

I would also like to offer you to help wherever I can, more specifically eg. if you would need somebody to betatest the app.

Thanks very much for wanting to give this a go! laugh
Posted by: BartDG

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.95 - 29/05/2018 09:38

Originally Posted By: JBjorgen

That might be one of the very few reasons that I would switch to Android. I'm not sure, however, how much of the empeg you would want to keep(...)

So we're pretty much just left with the player app and the visual UI. I would think the place to start would be to find an open source audio player app, and then tweak it to add the features that we love on the empeg.

Agreed, that's what I thought also. We don't need a program to put the music files onto the phone, also no program to manage playlists and no FIDs etc. Basically, all that would be needed would be (some) of the functionality of the Empeg which made it stand out from the rest and the reason why we all loved it.

For me personally I would also not need to see a copy of the Empeg look or interface. This is not necessary at all. I just would like the Empeg's features. smile
Posted by: mlord

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.95 - 29/05/2018 19:30

Originally Posted By: BartDG
5. A play bar so I could easily scroll through the track (the Empeg does not have this, but it didn't have a touch screen either of course ..


Heresy! The empeg has every feature imaginable! smile
Instead of a simple, primitive scroll bar, it has the "Info Seek Tool", which in combination with Hijack's "KnobSeek" allows scrolling through a track with the high/low intensity pattern all mapped out!

!!
Posted by: BartDG

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.95 - 29/05/2018 21:02

I should have known! My deepest apologies Mark! grin
Posted by: Mr_Maniacal

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.95 - 08/04/2021 14:58

I would just like an empeg shrunk and made into a phone. Still Be able to look the same in the car except for a phone like screen. So basically you have a phone look like a combination of an empeg and phone while able to just click to a slot in your car the size of a DIN slot, just shallow.
Posted by: jmwking

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.95 - 12/04/2021 23:18

Originally Posted By: Mr_Maniacal
I would just like an empeg shrunk and made into a phone. Still Be able to look the same in the car except for a phone like screen. So basically you have a phone look like a combination of an empeg and phone while able to just click to a slot in your car the size of a DIN slot, just shallow.

Or a nice port into a phone app would be good by me! wink
Posted by: mlord

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.95 - 13/04/2021 01:33

The best we have seems to be the rather excellent Android remote control app for the empeg. Still needs an empeg on a network, but everything else is done from an Android device.

Not quite the same thing, but thar she be.
Posted by: BartDG

Re: Empeg Weblite 0.95 - 19/04/2021 20:09

I'm still hoping for an Android app emulating the Empeg with the MP3's that are on the phone. That would be awesome. But I know that the chances of that ever happening are really, really slim...