new servicepane!

Thursday, May 6. 2010  –  Category: Songbird

My project for the last month or so has been implementing the new servicepane for Songbird: Picture 1Our old tree-based widget was horribly inflexible for… well pretty much anything.  Our new binding uses XUL elements to build up a much better looking widget (IMHO).  We’ve now divided top level nodes into groups, collapsible by clicking on the group headers (with bonus whizzy animation to boot!).  We’ve also made badges, and an API for adding them which should allow add-ons to have nice count badges like the Concerts & New Releases add-ons do above.  The badge API will also allow you to have arbitrary image badges, which is how we implement the eject button for devices.

Perhaps the best part of the new servicepane is the fact that it’s all just XUL elements and widgets, which means you can get your node, and tweak it via JS as much as you like (within reason).  Additionally, since all the styling is just CSS, Featherers have a lot more flexibility to change the layout and style the way the servicepane looks now.

It’s in trunk now so should be in tonight’s nightly builds.

2 Trackbacks to “new servicepane!”

  1. Tweets that mention that’s whacked » Blog Archive » new servicepane! -- Topsy.com
    May 6th, 2010 at 17:15
  2. Nouveau panneau de services « Frenchbirds
    May 8th, 2010 at 05:14

15 Comments to “new servicepane!”

  1. Antoine Turmel (GeekShadow) Says:
    May 6th, 2010 at 15:17

    It definitively rocks ! I’m looking fordward the API :)

  2. Kristina Says:
    May 6th, 2010 at 15:53

    awesome-awesome. thanks Stevel!

  3. jasperjones Says:
    May 6th, 2010 at 21:40

    frist

    i like

  4. fukid Says:
    May 6th, 2010 at 23:35

    hey it looks much better

  5. Neil T. Says:
    May 7th, 2010 at 00:06

    Looks a lot better – keep up the good work guys!

  6. ParalaX Says:
    May 7th, 2010 at 09:58

    Great news!

    Unfortunately, since I have my Z5500, I use digital signal to transfer the audio, wich means no enhencements from my X-fi soundcard. And songbirds doesn’t support Dolby Digital output.

    Any chance to have this function, + some DSP, like spatialization, equalizer, virtual subwoofer, surround delay and level…? Like with jriver media center (the only one I found that do that…)

  7. SongbirdHater Says:
    May 13th, 2010 at 05:26

    Is that new crap Windows only? Is it closed source? Is it patented? How much it cost?

  8. Forest Says:
    May 13th, 2010 at 06:17

    http://blog.wolfire.com/2010/05/Linux-users-contribute-twice-as-much-as-Windows-users

  9. Bradley Holton Says:
    May 15th, 2010 at 22:37

    A good site with excellent articles. Thanks for such a wonderful informative and entertaining read. Quotations are a great way to inspire you to perform at your best and to remember sage advice from the smartest minds in the world.

    Regards, Bradley Holton.

  10. Jimm Merphy Says:
    May 17th, 2010 at 01:27

    Very nice color. I want to see it in action. :)

  11. Drew Noakes Says:
    May 22nd, 2010 at 01:44

    Looking forward to trying this out. It’d be great if the official release of SB had an option to auto download beta versions, as some other apps do.

    Also, I’ve been trying for a while now to create a Songbird bugzilla account, but it seems to be broken. I’d lodge it as a bug in bugzilla, but, well, I think the irony is plain to see there. This link (http://bugzilla.songbirdnest.com/createaccount.cgi) says that an email’s on the way, but it never arrives. I’ve checked spam folders and have used several different email accounts without any luck. Sorry, but I don’t know where else to mention this. I’d love to start providing some feedback on issues I’m seeing.

    Thanks for your contributions to this exciting project.

  12. seks urunleri Says:
    May 25th, 2010 at 05:01

    really nice sharing thanks

  13. Sam Says:
    May 26th, 2010 at 15:00

    I’d just like to say that I’m pissed at Songbird and POTI. As a long, long longtime Songbird and linux user (since 0.1) I’ve been pushing Songbird as the media player of choice for all my friends – linux, mac or windows. Unfortunately it seems that the linux community – a very strong community, might I add – is no longer worthy of Songbird.

    Why exactly are linux users no longer worthy of new songbird versions? It’s not like Songbird – with a relatively strong open source community – has anything in common with linux users. And I guess nobody who works at POTI is a linux user.

    Why the hate? Why are we being ostracized?

  14. Gryphon Says:
    May 27th, 2010 at 11:01

    @Sam: It’s not hate, it’s their understanding of the cost/benefit of continuing to maintain that OS. They believe, rightly or wrongly, that there are simply not enough Linux users to make it worth the trouble.

    If you’d like to convince them otherwise, sarcasm is probably not your best path – it doesn’t tend to encourage people to take you seriously.

    I think they chose poorly, based on faulty data. But it is ultimately THEIR decision. That’s kind of the point of open software. If you want to support a Linux branch of Songbird, check http://getnightingale.org/

    If you REALLY want to support it… get involved in development. Fix bugs, improve code, add features. If you can’t do that, donate time and money to support those who can. It’s way more effective than snarky blog comments.

  15. Wes Says:
    June 3rd, 2010 at 11:12

    I can’t even look at Songbird any more. It used to be my player of choice on both Windows and Linux, but now I just get sad when I open it on Windows. I’m off to look for alternatives, it’s been a good run guys.

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