The Playing Now Popup introduced in MC 33 automatically displays track information when the currently playing track changes. Pressing Ctrl+i on the keyboard will display the popup manually. The amount of time it shows for and other display properties can be edited in the settings accessed through Tools > Options > General > Interface > Playing Now Popup or by clicking on the popup and selecting Settings from the menu. The content and layout is defined by a skin file and there are some built-in skins to choose from (selected in the popup settings). You can also create a custom skin.
Custom Skin Creation
To make a new custom skin, create a new folder under "[MC_PROGRAM_FOLDER]\Skins\Playing Now Popup". For example, create "C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 33\Skins\Playing Now Popup\My New Skin". A file named main.xml is required in the new folder to define the popup so either create one or copy one from a built-in skin.
Skin Example, "Control"
- <MJPS version="1.0">
- <SKIN Name="Control" Author="J River" />
- <POPUP>
- <Settings Width="300" Height="115" BackImage="" BackColor="" Border="yes" />
- <ContentItem Type="image" Name="Thumbnail" X="15" Y="10" Width="75" Height="75" Source="[Large]" />
- <ContentItem Type="text" Name="Name" X="100" Y="10" Width="195" Height="15" Text="[Name]" FontStyle="bold" />
- <ContentItem Type="text" Name="Artist" X="100" Y="27" Width="195" Height="15" Text="[Artist]" />
- <ContentItem Type="text" Name="Album" X="100" Y="44" Width="195" Height="15" Text="[Album]" />
- <ContentItem Type="text" Name="Details" X="100" Y="61" Width="195" Height="15" Text="[pn_position] of [pn_count] - [Duration] - [File Type] - [Bit Depth]//[Sample Rate]" />
- <ContentItem Type="rating" Name="Rating" X="15" Y="88" Width="100" Height="20"/>
- <ContentItem Type="image" Name="Previous" X="115" Y="78" Width="35" Height="35" Source="{PlayerBar,PreviousButton,0}||{PlayerBar,PreviousButton,1}||{PlayerBar,PreviousButton,2}" Tooltip="Previous: Char(10) [Name] by [Artist]" Command="10004,0" TrackOffset="-1"/>
- <ContentItem Type="image" Name="Play" X="150" Y="78" Width="35" Height="35" Source="{PlayerBar,PlayButton,0}||{PlayerBar,PlayButton,1}||{PlayerBar,PlayButton,2}" Tooltip="Play//Pause" Command="10000"/>
- <ContentItem Type="image" Name="Stop" X="185" Y="78" Width="35" Height="35" Source="{PlayerBar,StopButton,0}||{PlayerBar,StopButton,1}||{PlayerBar,StopButton,2}" Tooltip="Stop" Command="10002"/>
- <ContentItem Type="image" Name="Next" X="220" Y="78" Width="35" Height="35" Source="{PlayerBar,NextButton,0}||{PlayerBar,NextButton,1}||{PlayerBar,NextButton,2}" Tooltip="Next: Char(10) [Name] by [Artist]" Command="10003,0" TrackOffset="1" />
- </POPUP>
- </MJPS>
Skin Reference
<Settings>
This element is required and specifies global settings for the popup.
| Attribute |
Description |
Default
|
| Width
|
overall window width
|
|
| Height
|
overall window height
|
|
| BackImage
|
image used as the background
- can use "./image.png" for an image in same skin folder
|
|
| BackColor
|
color used as background
- "Transparent" or a specific color expressed as "rrggbb" (e.g. "ffffff" for white)
|
Standard View dialog background color
|
| Border
|
draws border around window
|
"no"
|
| MouseBehavior
|
specifies how mouse behaves over images
- 0: considers full rectangle for hit testing
- 1: ignores transparent pixels for hit testing
|
"0"
|
<ContentItem>
One or more of these elements defines the content displayed.
Required attributes
| Attribute |
Description |
Default
|
| X
|
horizontal position of top left corner
|
|
| Y
|
vertical position of top left corner
|
|
| Width
|
item width
|
|
| Height
|
item height
|
|
| Type
|
type of content
- "text", "image", "ratings", or "time"
|
|
"text" type
| Attribute |
Description |
Default
|
| Text
|
expression that gets evaluated and displayed as text
|
|
| Tooltip
|
expression that gets evaluated and displayed as a tooltip when hovering over the text
|
|
| TrackOffset
|
track number offset from current track to evaluate expression, can be negative
|
"0"
|
| FontFace
|
font name
|
Standard View's font name
|
| FontSize
|
size/height of font
|
Standard View's font size
|
| FontStyle
|
"bold", "italic", or "bold,italic"
|
Standard View's font style
|
| TextColor
|
specific color expressed as "rrggbb" (e.g. "ffffff" for white)
|
Standard View's text color
|
| HAlign
|
horizontal alignment of text
- "left", "center", or "right"
|
"left"
|
| VAlign
|
vertical alignment of text
- "top", "center", or "bottom"
|
"top"
|
| TooltipOptions
|
options for the tooltip of the form "BACK_COLOR,TEXT_COLOR,BORDER_COLOR,ALPHA", where colors are specified as above and alpha specifies the background transparency (10-255)
- ex: "ff0000,00ff00,0000ff,255"
|
|
"image" type
| Attribute |
Description |
Default
|
| Tooltip
|
expression that gets evaluated and displayed as a tooltip when hovering over the image
|
|
| TrackOffset
|
track number offset from current track for thumbnail and tooltip, can be negative
|
"0"
|
| Command
|
command executed when clicked, "MC_COMMAND, PARAMETER"
- example for Next: "10003,0"
|
|
| Source
|
up to 3 images (only 1 required) specified like so: "NORMAL||HOVER||PUSH"
Source types:
1) track thumbnail
- "[Large]", "[Medium]", or "[Small]"
2) file name, "./image.png"
- ex: "./normal.png||./hover.png||./push.png"
3) Standard View skin image, "{SECTION,IMAGENAME,IMAGE#}"
- ex: "{PlayerBar,PlayButton,0}||{PlayerBar,PlayButton,1}||{PlayerBar,PlayButton,2}
|
|
| TooltipOptions
|
options for the tooltip of the form "BACK_COLOR,TEXT_COLOR,BORDER_COLOR,ALPHA", where colors are specified as above and alpha specifies the background transparency (10-255)
- ex: "ff0000,00ff00,0000ff,255"
|
|
"ratings" type
- Note the Width attribute is ignored and is calculated from all the images laid out horizontally with the specified Height.
| Attribute |
Description |
Default
|
| StarImages
|
Specifies the images used for the rating stars (3 required), "IMG_UNSTARRED||IMG_STARRED||IMG_CHANGESTAR"
- ex: "./Starred_No.png||./Starred_Yes.png||./Change_Star.png"
|
Uses rating star images from Standard View
|
| ClearImages
|
Specifies the images used for clearing the rating (2 required), "IMG_CLEAR_NORMAL||IMG_CLEAR_OVER"
- ex: "./Clear_normal.png||./Clear_over.png"
|
Uses clear rating images from Standard View
|
"time" type
| Attribute |
Description |
Default
|
| Text
|
template that gets filled with current playback times
- {e} - elapsed time
- {r} - remaining time
- {t} - total time
- ex: "{e} // {t}"
|
|
| Other "text" type attributes are the same
|
|
|
Special expression strings
| String |
Description
|
| [pn_count]
|
displays number of tracks in Playing Now
|
| [pn_position]
|
displays playing track number
|
| [pn_mcversion]
|
displays the current MC program version
|
| Char(10)
|
inserts a line break
|
