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 content so either create one or copy one from a built-in skin.

Skin Example

Here is the main.xml for the Control skin:

<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 can be "Transparent" or a specific color expressed as "rrggbb" (e.g. "ffffff" for white)
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", or "ratings"

"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	current Standard View font name
FontSize	size/height of font	current Standard View font size
FontStyle	"bold", "italic", or "bold,italic"	current Standard View font style
TextColor	specific color expressed as "rrggbb" (e.g. "ffffff" for white)	current Standard View text color
HAlign	horizontal alignment of text "left", "center", or "right"	"left"
VAlign	vertical alignment of text "top", "center", or "bottom"	"top"

"image" type

Attribute	Description	Default
Tooltip	expression that gets evaluated and displayed as a tooltip when hovering over the image
TrackOffset	file number offset from current file 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}

"ratings" type

Displays Standard View skin's star ratings buttons

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