Re: [Banshee-devel-list] Ideas about LiveRadio extension

[Frank <funtastix googlemail com>]

Hi Bertrand,

first of all, thanks a lot for the input. I'm glad you seem to like the idea of LiveRadio, as it is the different approach to RadioStationFetcher that made me write it. I already have some thoughts about your suggestions. See them below...

2010/3/7 Bertrand Lorentz <bertrand lorentz gmail com>

Hi all,

Some time ago Frank asked for some feedback about the new LiveRadio
extension he created. I just got around to play with it, so here are a
few random thoughts and ideas about it. I hope they'll be useful.

But first, how is it different from the RadioStationFetcher extension ?
It also allows you to search and browse radio stations, but you can
listen to a station without adding it to the "Internet Radio". If you
like it, you can then add it to your stations with one click.
I think I quite like this approach.

1/ It might be nice to combine all the sources for stations (shoutcast,
xiph and live365) into one screen, without necessarily separating
between each origin. If I'm looking for a "ambient-electro-metal"
station, I don't want to do 3 searches.
Thus, the LiveRadio source wouldn't have any child sources, and its
contents would be similar to what is now currently in each child.
Being able to disable a station source, and having settings for each
(username, etc.) is still useful.

I've already come to the same point, but I am still overwhelmed with the number genres of one source, so I am still evaluating the options of combining the searches. My current favorite is the idea of leaving the child sources in place and adding a combined view in the main source, (re)moving the current statistics view a bit out of there, maybe using a tabbed notebook of some sort. That way, the user can choose if he will only navigate a certain source or deal with the big lists of combined genres and combined results.
 

2/ I think it would be nice to use Mono.Addins to have pluggable station
sources, instead of doing that "by hand".
An extension can itself be extended. For example, look at what is done
in the Banshee source with the Banshee.Dap extension being extended by
each specific Dap extension (Ipod, MassStorage and Mtp)

Unfortunately, I don't have much knowlege about Mono.Addins, so I will need to look into that. It's always better to use existing tech, than inventing a new wheel. I assume the Dap code will point me into the right direction.
 

3/ There are configuration option for the HTTP proxy. Wouldn't it be
better to use the system settings for that ?
I think those are used automatically, but I'm not sure.

The proxy config for the sources is used only for their own requests. I do actually think, I will have to switch to Banshee.Net instead of using System.Net. That's on my list. I actually had to create the proxy settings, as I am sitting in Thailand, with a weird internet configuration, that would not allow any xiph.org requests at all without proxy, while shoutcast never liked the proxy that I used for xiph. I don't know about their webserver config, but I do need the proxy config per source, unfortunately. Still, I must agree, what a use case!
 

4/ The preferences dialogs have Cancel/Apply/Save buttons. Preferences
should be applied immediately, if possible. The dialogs then only needs
a Close button.

I wasn't actually aware of this. I actually added the apply button, because going through the tabs, the user might want to save his config for a source before messing with another. On the other hand, the config is not very complex, so simple might do. I have to look into a nice and easy way of doing this, as the widgets in the config dialog are actually provided by the addins.
 

5/ The refresh button should have a different icon. The
Gtk.Stock.Refresh icon might probably fit better.

 

Very true! Will do as soon as I open the project again. But, made me think of something else: Can anyone think of an icon to use for the child sources? How do I actually add custom icons for my extension? So far, I "stole" the internet radio icon.

Well, I hope I've managed to make myself clear.

Of course, you can all now doubt my credentials for making this kind of
suggestions, after having a look at the AlarmClock extension... ;)

...I did ask for it ;)

--
Bertrand Lorentz <bertrand lorentz gmail com>
> http://bl-log.blogspot.com <

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