NEW MP3 Media Page

mosc · Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2004 5:38 pm Post subject: NEW MP3 Media Page

Check out the new MP3 Media page on electro-music.com. This is a sortable listing of all the MP3 files posted on our forum. We hope this will make it easier for people to listen to the music our members are creating. In time, we'll add some more advanced searching capability, and more.

Let us know what you think of this new feature. As always, comments, thoughts, suggestions and complaints are welcome.

(I'd like for people to kick the tires and uncover any bugs before I post this to the front page. --Thanks)

elektro80 · Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2004 6:06 pm Post subject:

hey... this is excellent!

Obviously there should perhaps be several alternative listings. Now sound files in the patching/tech forums are included too. perhaps and Artists/Online forum listing should be the default .

And perhaps we could figure out a way to attach a link that will list all the artists files

And a way for the file owners to edit metainfo/the comments field

This is a list of all mp3 files onsite? Or did you include .ogg and other formats?

mosc · Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2004 6:13 pm Post subject:

Good suggestions. The sorting stuff is certainly a must do in the short term.

The original poster can change the descrition by editing the post.

Metadata in the mp3 can't be edited on the forum, only with a MP3 editor.

I didn't include ogg and wav files. An oversite I guess.

EDIT: Just added ogg and wav. Anything else?

seraph · Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 6:24 am Post subject:

I immediately noticed that new feature of the site. that's cool but not as cool as a portal for mp3 links (or other media formats) could be Cool

elektro80 · Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 7:15 am Post subject:

Sorting by forum/context

Obviously there should be several different searches/listings

1. Artist forums and Online Music only
2.Hardware/gear forums like Clavia..
3. Schmooze and whatnot
4. custom listing
5. Absolutely everything only restricted by permissions

and there should possibly be a preconfigured "button" /listing request for every member that possibly excludes everything NOT in the Artist/Online Music forums.

The current media page is cool and this feature should be kept even if we get a mp3 internet directory up and running.

BTW: I just rememberd some kind a discussion some years ago about music links and the fact that this equals publishing/distribution. A directory itself is a content service which equals publishing/distribution. so.. we are back to rights managment practices and all that noise. What we need right now is some org like the EFF analysing this for us for free and coming up with some kind of valid disclaimer or whatever.

blue hell · Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 8:01 am Post subject:

Great idea !

Is it possible to add an extra column that gives the file sizes ?

When I'm using a dial-up link (I do when at home) I think the file size to be relevant information.

Or instead maybe an estimate of the download time (although personally I think this 2nd option would actually be less user friendly most people seem to not agree with me on this).

Jan.

elektro80 · Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 9:01 am Post subject:

Yeah... file size is still an issue.. It could be as easy as a toggle for show file size/ do not show file size. This could also be set in the profile instead.

mosc · Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 10:05 am Post subject:

I put the filesize in. Even easy things take time. You can sort on it too. I think I'll leave it in - no toggle - because putting it in the profile is a pain. Sooner or later I'm going to have to get into that profile thing though.

Thanks for all the excellent feedback.

blue hell · Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 10:14 am Post subject:

mosc · Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 11:17 am Post subject:

mosc · Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 3:55 pm Post subject:

I just added the ability to select some of the special forum groups as Elektro80 suggested. The code is getting a little messy, but I can add more forum categories for the select menu if there are suggestions.

The code sorting and selecting is all in the clear as parameters to the URL so if you want to make links to special combinations, you can do that. For example, if you just want to see the media files in Stein's artist forum, use this URL,

http://electro-music.com/mp3media.php?forums=69

Multiple forums separated by commas are allowed, of course.

elektro80 · Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 4:06 pm Post subject:

Hey! You did it! This interface is excellent! Well done!

mosc · Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 4:17 pm Post subject:

Well, thanks, but there are still a few glitches in there that you'll notice if you start writing your own URLs. Still, I think I'll leave it alone for a while unless someone finds a bug, or has a good suggestion for improvement.

elektro80 · Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 4:25 pm Post subject:

GLITCHES???

Shocked

Uhh.. we are not risking transmuting a section of the known civilized universe into a jovian cheese vending machine or something? When you say stuff like that you always makes me think about "the Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy".

blue hell · Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 4:28 pm Post subject:

To me this seems to be very usable.

One thing puzzled me a bit though.

You said that by using comma separated forums I can select multiple forums, but there seems to be no easy way to find the numbers for the forums. Am I missing something or were you planning to do more work on this, or ?

It's not that I'm expecting very much use for more sophistication in the user interface, but it made me a little curious, that's all.

As long as not much more music is available this seems a perfect interface that will enable the music to be found and explored.

I think all forums could be in the drop-down list ? Or do not that many forums have music in them maybe ?

Jan.

mosc · Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 4:40 pm Post subject:

Jan, you hit on the main problem. I could do a bunch of DB queries and get a list of the forums. I'll do that eventually. For now, if you want to know the forum number, just go to the forum index and put the mouse over any forum link and the URL that shows up in the bottom of your screen will have a ?f=32 or something. That's the forum number. Like this one is f=6. ]

It's a bit of a kludge now. Like if I add a new artist forum. I have to go to the media file and add the number there. Embarassed

I should really have some scanner that finds all the forums with media and put's them individually in the select menu along with the special categories, like artists and NM.

blue hell · Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 4:53 pm Post subject:

At the bottom of this page is a "jump to" drop down thingy having all forums (at first glance), maybe some of that can be re-used ?

I assume it to be just that particular one 'nearly right' forum database query example you'd be looking for ?

Can you single-step the PHP code and use breakpoints to zoom in on it ? There should be some tools for that if I'm not mistaken.

Jan.

mosc · Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 5:13 pm Post subject:

I don't know about single stepping, but you can put in print statements. Yes, that jumpto thingie is something perfect for this, isn't it.

blue hell · Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 5:31 pm Post subject:

I'll try to check out some of this stuff http://php.resourceindex.com/Community/Tools/Development_Environments/

later this week.

Jan.

Tokyohunter · Joined: Sep 07, 2004 Posts: 9 Location: London

Good feature this,gonna spend time this evening downloading most of the list as time allows.

mosc · Posted: Sun Sep 26, 2004 8:46 am Post subject:

Thanks, Tok. This is just the start. There is a lot of good stuff uploaded in the forums, but much of the music of the members is off-site. I've found that taking baby steps gets you there faster than one big leap.

Michael Chocholak · Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2004 4:15 pm Post subject:

Hey, very cool feature! I'm always cruising the site checking for new tracks to listen to, but I usually decide to come and DL later. Then I always forget where they are. Now I can zero in. Very Happy