Frisley

MediaMonkey & Launchy (Update)

Well some time has passed since the last update of this topic. I’ve been really busy lately and had little to no spare time to develop and continue with this little project.

Yesterday I installed the new version of MediaMonkey and start testing it again, I’m an iTunes fan because of it’s podcast management and it’s really easy to use interface but i’ve been looking for something different that can handle my iPod and my SmartPhone (Omnia i900L with WM 6.5.1  6.5.3) and i think i just found it 😀

The issue was that I got so accustomed on using iTuny and Launchy that the transition from my keyboard to my mouse was not a thing i wanted to… so that’s why I took over my almost dead dream… to port iTunys functionality to MediaMonkey 😛

I started with babysteps (Play, Pause, Stop , Next, Previous) and now I added Rating, Notifications, Track Information, and Twitter “integration” allowing you to post your current playing song to twitter in the way you want it 😀

On iTuny you could post to twitter but with an standard format: Listening: TrackName – TrackArtist (TrackAlbum) but now you can use the format you want using special tags xD and add the text you want.

MMonkey Config Window

MMonkey Config Window

Here you can see the new Twitter String box this field lets you construct your post to twitter just remember (not more than 140 Characters including the track info)

I hope to get the first beta out really soon (maybe this week)

See ya soon 😀
Comments are welcome 😀

UPDATE: Hi everyone! I’ve been working on MMonkey to make it better 🙂 right now i added some functionality to it like the useful TAG command letting you edit artist, album, tracknumber, grouping, genre, played counter, etc. I added the AutoDJ function so you can turn it on or off, and some other stuff making this a better app.

If you are willing to beta test it comment pls and I will let you know where to download the beta to try it. Thanks and Greetings.

Frisley

MediaMonkey & Launchy

Well long time no see… I’ve been really busy on my office with a lot of work thanks to God and our selling team  🙂

iTuny has been well recived and that made me really happy, even not looking for that. Thanks to Lifehacker for both Download of the day articles they published and all the people that downloaded the application. 🙂

Now after seeking some replace for iTunes I found MediaMonkey, I have to say this is a really great media player but it lacked of something… something that lets me control it via Launchy. 🙁 I know, i know… I became an addict of the keyboar launchers and I hated when I, in the middle of working on something, wanted to go to the next song and call launchy just to remember that I can’t do that because there is nothing like iTuny… 🙁 and I loose precious minutes to change a song.

So I decided to create MMonkey (got to find a better name) this little application will control MediaMonkey from the confort of your keyboard through launchy 😀 yay!

By now this alpha that I’m using just has the basic functions, Play, Pause, Stop, Next, Previous, Volume and Rate.

If you want to try this (I repeat is alpha) comment asking for it. BTW, I will release a beta version soon a couple of weeks I hope.

See ya soon.

Frisley

Firefox 3 and Launchy integration hack

Well I wanted to integrate launchy with firefox 3 bookmarks for quite some time and never got the time to find a workarround ’till today.

Thanks to my beloved Lifehacker Magazine I was able to do it with this article.

On the short it says:

  1. Open Firefox
  2. type about:config on the location bar and press enter
  3. then type browser.bookmarks.autoExportHTML and from FALSE passit to TRUE with a double click.
  4. Restart Firefox
  5. Rebuild your index
  6. You’re ready to go! 

This will allow launchy to index your firefox bookmarks, the only problem with this workarround is that it will index the new bookmarks after you close firefox. This is because firefox dumps your bookmarks to the bookmarks.html file when it is closed.

Hope this helps

Frisley

iTuny version 0.5 Released

Well it’s about time to release this new version, this app comes with a lot of improvements, better coding (I hope) and support for other services.

The change log is in the rar file, but in short:

  • Twitter support
  • Pownce support
  • Snarl support (needs snarl installed on your machine)
  • new commands (config, party, twitter, pownce)
  • new configuration window
  • proxy support (if you are behind a firewall on your house or office and want to use the twitter or pownce feature)
  • popup and snarl time control

So here are some screenshots:

config1

config2

config3

partyfunc1

iTuny comes with alot of improvements for you to enjoy. Please let me know if you want another feature or find any bug.

Hope you like this 🙂

0.5: Dropbox / Badongo

For some history here are the older versions:
0.4.5: Dropbox / Badongo
0.4: Dropbox / Badongo
0.3: Dropbox / Badongo
0.2: Dropbox / Badongo
0.1: Dropbox / Badongo

Frisley

Installing Plugins on Launchy

Well, for those of you that don’t know how to do it, here is a little tutorial on how to install those dll’s on launchy 2.0.

First of all you have to download the plugin from it’s site or from the sourceforge site, let’s take the Google Calendar Plugin for launchy 2.0 (download)

After the download is complete, you have to unzip the files contained it’s time to install.

Move the files to your {launchy installation folder}plugins folder, in my case C:Program FilesLaunchyplugins

After moving the files call launchy and go to the Options dialog under the Plugins Tab you’ll see the newly installed plugin.

Now just enjoy.

Frisley

iTuny v0.4 released

Well my word was in danger if I didn’t release this before the new year arrives 😀 so here it is, Version 0.4 of iTuny the Launchy companion to control your iTunes from the confort of your keyboard.

So what’s new on this version… well 5 new features and some bug fixes from the previous version 0.3 so let’s get this straight.

New Features:

  • PrevAlbum and NextAlbum (this code is from jarethbone so the credit goes to him, i just added a message to tell you the info)
  • Artwork on the Track info window, this is something i’m just testing so please let me know if you like it this way or the other way. I changed the tooltip version of the Track info to a window that auto disappears after an amount of time. This window contains the same info as the tooltip version + the artwork. so to call this just do the same as before iTunes Track. The tooltip version is still there but now to call it you have to type iTunes info and the tooltip version will appear.
  • Art, this is a window with just the artwork. That’s all. It disappears after an amount of time.

And finally but not less the feature that I love (I hope you will), the TAG feature (as suggested by Rob here at my blog).

The Tag feature let’s you do that. Tag the current playing song. By now it lets you tag the next fields:

  • Name
  • Artist
  • Album
  • Composer
  • DiscNumber
  • Genre (Rock, HardRock, Pop, etc…)
  • Grouping
  • PlayedCount
  • Track (this is the Track number)
  • Year (4 digit)
  • VolumeAdjustment (from -100 to 100)

To use it just type:

  • iTunes Tag > name “multispace name”
  • iTunes Tag > name singlespacename

Portapapeles-1

After sometime typing it you could use itag or tag and launchy will recognize this as your preferred action for that word.

Fixed Bugs:

  • Problem with Main Music playlist (Musik) in German . Reported by Lakriz
  • Problems with the installer, in some cases it wouldn’t create the links correctly.

The RAR (556k) contains:

  • iTunes Control.exe
  • iTunes.ico
  • iTunes Control.au3 (source code)
  • NA.jpg (the no artwork image)

To install it just double click the iTunes Control.exe and the installer will popout.

By some reason Avast Antivirus is giving me false positives on all autoit scripts, so don’t be fooled this script is safe, contains NO virus, trojan or any other malware. The source code is on the package for you to see.

Hope you like the changes, and comments are always welcomed.
Update: 0.4.5

This fix an issue with the Query function that in some iTunes installations returns nothing every time.
Thanks Sebastián.

Download: 0.4
Previous versions: 0.1(vbscript), 0.2(vbscript), 0.3(autoit exe)
Sourceforge Thread
Launchy Website

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Frisley

iTuny 0.4 on the works

Well long time since the last news of iTuny, so here we are with some minor changes and some fixes to the installer.

First the new additions:

  • Albumart display ( iTunes album )
  • Track Info with Albumart (iTunes info)

ituny_info

ituny_info_noart

The installer got some issues with the place it put the links in some machines (kindda weird) but not it’s fixed. I Hope to got this version out before Christmas. 😀

As i said before, this is on the works and the shots are just previews.
Your comments are welcomed.

By the way a big Thanks to Gina Trapani and Daniel (sorry i don’t know your last name) for the featured download in Lifehacker.com , this was a great and beautiful surprise and i just noticed it on my GReader (’cause i’m a lifehacker fan myself) 😀 here’s the link to the article in lifehacker. 😀

featured

Article on Lifehacker

Have a nice day and i hope you could get your hands on 0.4 before christmas 😀

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Frisley

Launchy 2.0 Beta 1

launchyIconWell now launchy has reached the beta stage of it’s development, so it’s time to test it and review this early adopters release.

Since version 1.0 this amazing utility has come a long way, with lots of fans and many plugins written for it from gcal to iTuny going through Todoist, Opery, etc… (plugins forum), to a total rewrote from scratch in order to use Qt as it’s UI component and using for background coding C++.

There has been some mayor UI changes, the Alpha rendering it’s much better and doesn’t dissapear after a hibernate on my laptop. Launchy now respects the parameters case so if you send Play it remains as is and doesn’t lowercase it, the options dialog is much more tidy, so is the main interface.

 

Launchy beta 1 comes with a new skin and a new icon as you can see here:

launchy2The new skin gives launchy an improved look and feel, and the new icon makes it easy to find and relate to the keyboard and the launch action.

if you right-click on the interface it shows you the option and the exit menu entries.

You can access the options clicking on the icon on the top-right corner of launchy.

 

options

The General Options had a facelift too and had some extras added to it, like the ability to control launchy’s transparency and fade in/out time in that can be set with the sliders.

You can change the shortcut keys to activate and deactivate launchy, as the rest of the previous 1.0 options.

 

 

 

 

 

options_skinThe Skins Dialog had a revamp to, now you can have a preview of the skin, the skinner’s info and the selection list of your currently installed skins.

By default Launchy comes with 4 skins, Black Glass, Mercury, Quicksilver2 and the default shown on the screenshot.

The skin format changed too, now instead of an .ini file, the skin is configured with a .qss file.

 

 

 

 options_catalog

The Catalog is now where you define the folders you want launchy to scan for your files, shortcuts, mp3’s, video files, documents, etc…

As you can see in the screenshot, the dialog changed alot from version 1.0 and it’s much more organized, there are two checkboxes there that says Executables (to index exe files) and Directories (to search on the folders subdirectories), the depth in which you want launchy to submerge in your folder tree, a button to rescan the folders, and more.

By default launchy comes with 3 folders to index, your start menu, the shared start menu and the Utilities folder.

 

If you are thinking in testing this version keep in mind that your old configurations need some backup before installing and running launchy 2 beta 1. I had some trouble with this when I first started launchy 2 beta 1, because it overwrote my config files and all my previous indexed folders where no more on the Catalog tab, so i had to reconfigure launchy to search on my folders, add the filetypes, etc…

 

options_plugins

The Plugins dialog has a more organized face, the plugin list on the left and the properties (if the plugin has) on the right. In this screenshot is the Weby properties dialog.

The checkbox let’s you activate or deactivate the plugin.

Weby has now included Foxy and the internet explorer indexing plugins.

 

 

 

 

options_aboutWell this is the description on the new beta of launchy, this new version comes with really great improvements and features.

I just came across with some issues at first start, like iTunes and iLike not playing well when I start them from launchy (for some weird reason that i still don’t actually get), but a restart of my laptop restore everything to normal, and this seems more a problem of the iLike bar and iTunes than Launchy’s fault.

So, if you want to test this beta, keep in mind this… It’s a BETA, so there are still some bugs that need to get fixed, but the overall experience was really great.

My advice, wait for the v2.0 to be released, it’s going to be an amazing release.

 

Launchy website
Launchy 2 beta discusson forum and Download

 

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Frisley

iTuny v0.3 Released

ituny

Well here you have the latest version of iTuny, the Launchy companion to control iTunes.

This versions comes with a lot of improvements and some bug fixes, but this release took another approach, it returned to amadawn’s original AutoIt version.

I had to almost rewrite the entire plugin from scratch, add all the vbScript features and some extras to deliver this little monster. 🙂

This version comes with:

Fixed Bugs:

  • Prev Bug fixed

New Features:

  • Installation GUI (Beta)
  • Create Playlists
  • Add current song to a Playlist

Older Features (but new to Amadawn’s version):

  • Search Songs
  • Rate Songs
  • More Info from the current song, including Rate, Play Count, Song Length
  • Toggle MiniPlayer
  • Toggle Visualizations
  • Toggle EQ Window
  • Search a playlist

To install just dobleclick the iTunes Control EXE and the Install GUI will appear, choose your locations and press install.

I’m still having issues on Vista running the exe and installing the links, so if you are using Windows Vista install the controller and links in another location outside “Program Files”.

I’m working in displaying the albumart on a splash screen to make the info more eyecandy.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Download
iTuny Launchy Sourceforge Thread
Launchy Website

Frisley

iTuny v0.2

Well, i’ve finished the last bug fixes and new features added to iTuny.

What is iTuny?? iTuny is a vbscript that allows you control iTunes from any interface that permits sending parameters to the script. This script is actually thought for launchy, so the main idea is to control iTunes from Launchy.

So what’s new on this release??

  • Added the playlist focus function, this works like this:
    iTuny | pl “Name of the playlist” (if the playlist has a name with spaces)
    iTuny | pl Nameoftheplaylist (if the name has no spaces)
  • New references in the help function, so it’s easy to get the commands list.

What’s fixed??

  • The Show and Hide function had a bug where if you call the eq window and then hide it and call the show function the eq appear instead of the main iTunes window.

Download Version 0.2

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