[LiquidIce629]

XBMC AJAX Interface (BETA 2)
by liquidice
[email="[email protected]"][email protected][/email]




Download XBMC AJAX Interface BETA 2 version here: http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/2691
(the old BETA 2 version can still be found http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/2623)


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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 /ajax/]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.



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version notes - beta 1

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.

It uses XBMC's Web Server HTTP API:
http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=Web_Server_HTTP_API

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.


huge thanks to everyone in #xbmc, pike, nad, kraqh3d, and everyone else who has contributed to the HTTP API and XBMC Media Center!

[B4tm4n]

i`ve got it running in opera 8.52.
its seems to work ok. haven`t got a touchpanel
to test.
all my music is on smb shares and it is displaying
album art fine.the only problem is displaying
it in the opera browser all of the song library,
on the left and the playlist on the right
doesn`t fit on the screen but i think thats just
the way operas coded and not your app.

great first release.

cheers b4tm4n.

[Livin]

tried it on ie6... get "failure t:" when trying to navigate any of the music library sections.

[pike]

tried it on ie6... get "failure t:" when trying to navigate any of the music library sections.

@ affini liquidice clearly stated it only works in ff

@ liquidice thx for your work so far. a couple of things

i use ff 1.5 and it doesnt layout properly on my screen (i use 1024x768 on my laptop)
this design won't work well for general usage im afraid, nevertheless, thanks for sharing your code

[Livin]

@ pike : i know, i just thought i'd give feedback.

i do not use ff as on the two computers i've tried in on (my amd 3000+ at home and ibm thinkpad t42 at work) it crashes constantly.

ie is just more stable from what i've seen. i actually like ff better, i wish i could use it!

maybe version 2.0

[drakethegreat]

the reason it doesn't work in both is because when you mix technologies like javascript, xml, and css in complicated ways like ajax then you have compatibility issues almost no matter what. sucks yes but you have have no idea how much work google puts in to make their stuff work across browsers and yet google maps still doesn't work in older versions of mozilla and safari.

so if he can get it working in ie thats awesome but otherwise its not as if its a bad interface.

[DragonSpirit]

works pretty good on mine running firefox 1.5 on linux. although the interface is displayed in a way that looks all out of place, probably mainly because i am sure i am using a lower screen resolution then you. at 1024x768 the picture in the upper left goes under the menu, and the picture on the upper right is out of place, and the play, pause, next, previous buttons are wrapped, i'm sure all of this might be fixable if the buttons were just big enough for the text and icon to fit in, if possible. very nice interface though, like it alot, works great other then those little bits. a huge improvement over what comes by default with xbmc.

[Solo0815]

tried it on ie6... get "failure t:" when trying to navigate any of the music library sections.

me too. using ff 1.5.0.1

[drakethegreat]

dang i hope liquid gets a second version out at some point. goofy is busy as hell right now and so am i. liquid you should make something sweet and i promise to ues it for you. :thumbsup:

[incognegro]

very impressive.........works fine on portable firefox 1.5.0.1 but messed up on firefox 1.07. all the buttons start overlapping each other. i wont even test it on ie cause i consider it a virus (that just wont go away). anyways, it gets the job done but the "play folder" option doesnt seem to work. everything else works fine though and i have a suggestion; it would be cool if there was a button similar to the "custom path" button called "play url" then while ur surfing you could just copy and paste a link for xbmc to stream with ease.

any plan to extend this to my videos, my pictures etc.? what about a volume button?

[Livin]

any updates?

[LiquidIce629]

quick update...

here is a screenshot of the interface running with a custom firefox skin to make the scrollbars bigger:




i am also working on a version of this web interface that will work for small touchscreen devices like a pda or internet tablet.

i will release updated files soon.

[Livin]

cool... just one thing... those scrollbars are huge!

[LiquidIce629]

eh, yeah i suppose the scrollbars are a little chunky. it's pretty easy to resize them by editing the css file in the themes directory of firefox.

anyways, you will find the latest release of the ajax interface at the top of this post. let me know what you think.

more to come soon...

[cliosport]

wow! looks great thanks