Playing Now Popup

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="JRiver" />
  <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="15"/>
    <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" Command="10000" HideStates="2,3" />
    <ContentItem Type="image" Name="Pause" X="150" Y="78" Width="35" Height="35" 
                 Source="{PlayerBar,PauseButton,0}||{PlayerBar,PauseButton,1}||{PlayerBar,PauseButton,2}" 
                 Tooltip="Pause" Command="10000" HideStates="0,1" />
    <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", "yes", or "yes||WIDTH||COLOR" (color specified as above) example: "yes||2||ff0000"	"no", width of 1, Standard View text color
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", "time", or "volume"

"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) example: "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, "MCC_COMMAND, PARAMETER" example for Next: "10003,0" [index] can be used for PARAMETER. which substitutes the track index given by TrackOffset example: "10015,[index]" special command that pops up list of tracks, "showtracks" or "showtracks||SHOWNUMBERS||TRACKEXPRESSION" example: "showtracks||1||. [Artist] - [Name]"
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" example: "./normal.png||./hover.png||./push.png" 3) Standard View skin image, "{SECTION,IMAGENAME,IMAGE#}" example: "{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) example: "ff0000,00ff00,0000ff,255"
HideStates	playback states when the image will be hidden example: "0,1" where 0=stopped, 1=paused, 2=playing, 3=waiting, 100=mute_on, 101=mute_off

"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" example: "./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" example: "./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 example: "{e} / {t}"
Other "text" type attributes are the same

"volume" type

Attribute	Description	Default
BackImage	Specifies the image(s) used for the slider background (only first 1 required, parameters are as specified in Standard View skin), "IMAGES_FILE||NUM_IMAGES||IMAGE_SCALE||MARGINS" example: "./Playerbar_SliderVol.png||4||2||5,14,5,0"	Uses volume slider images from Standard View
FrontImage	Specifies the image(s) used for the slider front, see above example: "./Playerbar_SliderVolFront.png||4||4||30,1,30,1"	Uses volume slider images from Standard View
ThumbImage	Specifies the image(s) used for the slider thumb/handle, see above example: "./Playerbar_SliderVolThumb.png||4||2"	Uses volume slider images from Standard View

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

OS-specific values

You can have OS-specific values if the default ones are not working well on platforms that you did not design the skin on. This is particularly useful for text and fonts. Add a child element to ContentItem named "Windows", "Mac", or "Linux" and override any of the default attributes. For example, for a different font in Mac you could have something like this:

<ContentItem Type="Text" Name="TrackName" x="248" y="2" Width="100" Height="13" Text="[Name]" FontFace="Segoe UI" FontSize="13" >

<Mac FontFace="Helvetica" FontSize="10" />

</ContentItem>