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[LiquidIce629]

XBOX AJAX Interface beta1
by Liquidice
[email protected]

This is the first release of the AJAX interface for XBMC. It is a touchpanel friendly web-based GUI written completely in Javascript which makes use of the prototype framework and script.aculo.us effects.

This GUI has drag and drop functionality. To add a song or album to your playlist, simply drag it from the music library column on the left to the playlist on the right. You can also add and play songs by single clicking and using the button interface.

I have also implemented some functions to download album art and would like to get feedback if this is working for others. I have been doing most of my testing with MP3's located on an SMB share.

If no songs are playing it will take a screenshot and display it in the browser., if you click on the screenshot it will refresh. I am probably going to add a 'controller' interface so that it will be easy to navigate the tv interface remotely.

(IMG:http://static.flickr.com/52/110263253_8384b36867_o.jpg)

Watch a short movie that shows the AJAX interface in action:
http://rapidshare.de/files/15118738/xbmc_ajax_demo.swf.html (swf)


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Installation:

Download the zip file here:
http://rapidshare.de/files/15118834/XBMC_A...3-9-06.zip.html

Just unzip and upload the ajax folder into your XBMC/web/ directory

Press yes if it asks to overwrite 'styles'. Dont worry, the original webpages will stay safe.

Once uploaded navigate Mozilla Firefox over to /ajax/]http://[xboxIP]/ajax/

It should be run in a browser window of at least 1024x768 and it will only run in Firefox for now.

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I'm looking for feedback on this. The features I can implement are currently limited to what the HTTP API provides.

If there are graphic designers out there who want to help me make this the official XBMC 2.0 web interface i'm down to do it, but I might need some help on the design side of things.

Huge thanks to everyone in #xbmc, pike, kraqh3d, and everyone else who has contributed to the http api and xbox media center!

[LiquidIce629]

I've reposted the file on sourceforge. Get it here:
http://sourceforge.n...377&aid=1446874

[edwinmcdunlap]

Looks interesting, I'm going to try it.

Can't get it to work.

This post has been edited by edwinmcdunlap: Mar 10 2006, 03:42 AM

[edwinmcdunlap]

nvm, works now.

thanks!

[mhernie]

The ajax stuff is really interesting.  I think flash is great, but I would like something that is more universal so I can use it on my little Nokia 770 web tablet (and maybe my windows smart phone).  Flash kinda chokes on these devices.

Well done LiquidIce, looking forward to your progress on this....


Does this work with the new party mode?

This post has been edited by mhernie: Mar 10 2006, 03:52 AM

[mhernie]

a few comments...

I can't seem to get my cover art to show up like yours does in the video you posted.  My art is pretty organized with a folder.jpg in each album folder.  Anything I'm doing wrong?

When I drag in items from home file folders, everything works fine.  When I drag from 'Library' folders, the song track title shows up as a number instead of text (i.e. 32.mp3) in the playlist window.  Maybe it's because you are bringing in the actual filename in 'Home' file folder mode versus ID3 track title?? from library database....

When I double click (or double tap my touchscreen) the animations for displaying the cover art for the album you are trying to choose seems to jump all over the place.

wish list...

Scroll bars.  Can you increase the size of the scroll bars.  Can't easily use them on my touchscreen.

Library Quick NAV.  Would be great to be able to quickly go to artist by letter.  For example, tap on artists, then have both scroll ability to choose AND also a horizontal selection of first letters to quickly display all artists with that letter.

Anyway.  thanks again for this!!

[mike315]

this is fiyah.

nice work.

[effinboy]

is there any setting in XBMC or anything that I need to enable for this to work. I'm just not able to connect for some reason. :-/

[pike]

might be a good idea to enable the webserver under settings/network  

[japhule]

Pretty cool.  Can you get this working for Videos also?  I've got a ton of music videos and movie trailers that I would like to use this interface with to control a playlist of videos.

[JustinT9669]

it looks good in the beta stages, I wonder how it would be when its done.

This post has been edited by JustinT9669: Mar 13 2006, 07:48 AM

[imamafackinhokie]

very well done.

[imamafackinhokie]

Cleaning up the buttons would be nice - making them look more like the PMIII skins.

I'll post a few more comments after I mess around with this more

[LiquidIce629]

Making some progress, check out beta 2:

XBOX AJAX Interface beta 2
by Liquidice
[email protected]



DOWNLOAD IT HERE: http://sourceforge.n...159&aid=1458081

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Installation:
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Just unzip and upload the ajax folder into your XBMC/web/ directory

Once uploaded navigate Mozilla Firefox over to http://[xboxIP]/ajax/

Please use the Firefox browser, IE does not like my CSS or scripts.


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CHANGES
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version notes - beta 2

-fixed some issues with local file paths being escaped incorrectly

-Fixed lots of CSS problems with text wrapping and buttons being pushed off screen.

-tried and failed to get thumbnails from local folders- When I send an escaped directory name (ex. f:\\My%20Music\\Eminem%20-%20Marshal%20Mathers%20Lp) it does not return the correct CRC, or the image path it returns is invalid. Album art works perfectly from SMB paths though unless there are special characters in the directory $%^&*() .. what is the correct way to escape these directories for the GetThumb Command?

-initial support for IE. If you ignore the error popups, most features seem to work ok. I honestly don't know if this will get fixed soon. I have already developed a custom Firefox skin for this project which makes the scrollbars bigger. This skin along with the latest Firefox Release (1.5.0.1) works consistantly on several computers both windows and linux for me.

-updated GUI Graphics
-cleaned Up Drag and Drop code.

-lowered polling interval to prevent timeouts in javascript and the script execution delay bug.
-added javascript to disable right click
-added javascript to disable text selection

-added volume control for xbmc (optional code for controlling a/v reciever through external ip control system)

There is still more to come, just wanted to get another release out there since this is much more useable than the first release. I always welcome feedback and feature requests, and if anyone wants to use all or parts of my code, feel free to make modifications as long as you contribute your changes back to the community.

[bios]

Very nice indeed, keep up the good work!!