Integrated audio player

1) figure out what the html should look like, ie how do you show an audio file so the browser will show the player inline?
2) create a new module that registers a factory implementation of GalleryItem called GalleryAudioItem. this class will have a render() function to generate the html from step 1.

model your code around GalleryMovieItem which is part of core module.. you new module will register GalleryAudioItem with the mime types it supports.. then whenever a file is added to G2 with one of those mime types it will be saved using your entity instead of GalleryUnknownItem. and when that item is loaded for display it will call your render() function.

i can give more detail if needed but this should give you some ideas...

it won't change the behavior for any audio files you've already added.. they are already in the db as GalleryUnknownItems.. but if you registered your GalleryAudioItem with the appropriate mime types and G2 can recognize those mime types based on file extension (Site Admin / Mime Types after activating mime module, in current G2 nightly/cvs) then newly added audio items should use your class.

i'd have to check a few g2 files for what all is needed to make it work. but from what i see you just edited the core module.
there are more actions needed to make it work.
- you'd have to reinstall your g2 such that it runs the install core module code again and registers the audio item stuff in the database
- you'd probably have to change a few more things in your GalleryAudioItem.class and then you'd have to run gmake in your modules/core/classes/ directory such that it generates the g2_AudioItem database table creation files, which will get executed when running the g2 installer.

Hi

I've been studying the developer documentation to help me understand G2, and I'm coming to the conclusion that it would be best if I developed an audio module, rather than trying to adapt the core files.

Here's what I propose. Could a more experienced developer tell me if this is possible before I spend most of my life for the next few weeks trying to figure out how to do it please! And any helpful pointers, sample code from other modules, or suggestions would be very very welcome. G2 seems incredibly powerful and well designed - but a little daunting to a newbie used to basic hacking around in standard php/smarty code without your clever system of map files etc.

Anyway, here's the plan for what my module will do:
1. register with the core module to take control of the audio MIME types and any Audio Items.
2. On upload of wma and rm files, it will create a wax or ram meta-file in the same way that thumbnails are created and stored for photos. These will be created from an admin definable template.
3. provide instances of inline media players for the relevant audio MIME type in the photo display page.
4. Add display of two URLs (for users with sufficient permissions) to allow users to copy and paste a link to stream the audio file by linking to the meta-file, or a link to actually download the file itself. Like the GetURL mod for photos.

Now I have a feeling this is quite ambitious and that I might fall flat on my face pretty quickly, but I'm going to have a go, and learn about G2 in the process!

But I really would appreciate a few pointers to get me going!

Thanks very much
steve

Thanks Valiant

I think I have 1 and 4 nearly figured out. Though I will probably have some more questions when i get deeper into it!

For number 2, wax and ram meta files are simply plain text files, in XML markup. When a media player loads one of these meta files it knows to stream the filenames within the list - in this case that will be just one file.

Here is a full featured .wax file:

<ASX version="3.0" BANNERBAR="FIXED">
<TITLE>Programme Title</TITLE>
<COPYRIGHT>Copyright (c) 2005 Owner</COPYRIGHT>
<LOGO HREF="http://website.com/logo.gif" Style="MARK" />
<LOGO HREF="http://website.com/icon.gif" Style="ICON" />
<!--Don't change any of this section.-->
<ABSTRACT>Hello world</ABSTRACT>
<MOREINFO HREF="http://website.com/info.htm" />
<BANNER HREF="http://website.com/banner.gif">
<MOREINFO HREF="http://website.com/bannerinfo.htm" />
<ABSTRACT>Click here to visit our website</ABSTRACT>
</BANNER>
<COPYRIGHT>Copyright (c)2005 owner</COPYRIGHT>
<ENTRY>
<TITLE>Track name</TITLE>
<REF HREF="track.wma" />
<MOREINFO HREF="http://website.com/info" />
<LOGO HREF="http://website.com/icon.gif" Style="ICON" />
<COPYRIGHT>(c)2005 owner</COPYRIGHT>
<PARAM NAME="Programme" VALUE="programme name" />
<PARAM NAME="Publisher" VALUE="publisher name" />
<PARAM NAME="PREBUFFER" VALUE="TRUE" />
</ENTRY>
</ASX>

But it could be as simple as:

<ASX version="3.0" BANNERBAR="FIXED">
<ENTRY>
<REF HREF="track.wma" />
</ENTRY>
</ASX>

So it should be easy to create a template that's editible by the admin, and have gallery take this template and put the file path and name in.

Would this file then be stored in the database or in the filesystem? What does gallery currently do with thumbnails?

I would want it so that the audio could be streamed from external websites by copying and pasting a URL to the meta file provided by gallery, into posts to the other website.

Thanks very much for taking the time to help me get started.

Steve

there is a suggestion, that would be nice, here:
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=577892&group_id=7130&atid=357130

if you want it, you should vote for it here:
http://gallery.menalto.com/sfvote/50
(it goes up or down with the votes, so search for the topic nr 577892)