Friday March 29, 2024

SqueezeboxPlayer Widget

Author: Wayne Eggert
Originally Posted: 11/09/2005
Last Updated: 01/14/2006




What is this Konfabulator Widget?
This was a cool little sidetracked project I got myself involved in. SqueezeboxPlayer is a Konfabulator widget for the SlimDevices Squeezebox. Konfabulator is this neat application that allows you to run these cross-platform (WindowsXP,OS X) desktop widgets anyone can create. You can interact with applications running on your system, but the real power lies in its ability to interact with the web. Basically the sky is the limit with these things.

What is SqueezeboxPlayer?
SqueezeboxPlayer connects to the XML feed that SlimDevices provides on the SlimServer software. It shows the current song information & album cover and allows for some basic interaction with the SlimServer (play, pause, skip, etc). It has been tested with SlimServer 6.2 on a Windows XP machine. I'm certain it won't work with the older SlimServer 5.x branch due to XML differences, however it probably stands a good chance of working on some of the older 6.x branch.

Where's the download?
Unfortunately I will not be posting a download at this time. My first experience with widgets was modifying a buggy SlimServerMon to get it working with SlimServer 6.x. I was successful & made some improvements and figured until the newer version of SlimServMon was posted, I could help out anyone who had been waiting months for a fix. When the new version of SlimServMon came out, I would post a link to it & my patched version would be obsolete. So I spent hours fixing bugs, posted the download on here & gave ample credit to the author. Several days later I was sent a cease & desist email from the author and asked to remove it from the website. Shortly after, I re-coded my own version & created custom graphics & fount it humbling that I could recreate everything I liked about SlimServerMon within a couple days. I have since contacted the author again to try to work something out (ie. post links to his software, give him credit for the idea.. and ultimately help Squeezebox users who have been without a working update for 6 months), but he still claims copyright ownership & that he is still working on updates to the software.

Unfortunately because I have viewed & modified the code to SlimServMon, I am not at liberty to release my own version. If I hadn't looked at the code & had asked the author if I could modify his program & was declined, I could then have coded my own & it could not be claimed that I had viewed his code to write my program. If anyone else wants to write something like SlimServMon, I would suggest not viewing the code at all & simply reading the SlimServer XML interface documentation & some basic Konfabulator widget tutorials. You could then legally release a program like it without being involved in a copyright dispute.

Again I apologize, there is currently no download and am sorry that the author of SlimServerMon feels as he does.




Comments:
What Copyright?
Posted 05/17/06 4:32PM by Anonymous Techdoser
I am interested in using this widget too. I was looking at developing my own, but unfotunately, I'm not that good at coding. As for the original designer's claims, I don't understand since there is no indication of a copyright in the version he posted, he clealry labeled that his work was based on ideas from others and most of the other widgets I find posted are based on the work of others. The Widget community is focused on freely sharing each other's work and using it to develop new ideas based on that work - this seems totally counter to that spirit.
HTML Equivalent
Posted 11/23/05 8:05PM by Anonymous Techdoser
This widget is a great idea and I would love to see your version of it. What a shame the original author is being so petty.

I have a suggestion. Why not recreate the functionality in a page which can be put on the slimserver. I'd love to see the artwork and current track displayed on my PC and would be happy to do so in a web browser.

This would not then offend the author of slimservermon as it would be an original work.