Pandora Timeshifting App: Main Discussion Thread

[cooper]

But given the amount of bytes you should be able to calculate how much playing time there should be in there...

[kickarse]

I got to thinking after using it for a while...

Perhaps under the MP3 directory that the app creates to split it into the Station. I have a Heavy Metal Station and a Techno station... confuses the heck out of me... Also to name the file this Artist Name - Name of Song.mp3

Something like below...

- MP3

--- Heavy Metal

------ Artist Name

-------- Artist Name - Song name.mp3

--- Alternative

------ Artist Name

-------- Artist Name - Song name.mp3

--- Techno

------ Artist Name

-------- Artist Name - Song name.mp3

It helps when I am searching my collection for songs to know who it's from on the fly.

Also helpful is choosing where to store the mp3s...

[nyb141]

Folder structure is user to user preference. Most people import the mp3s into their music player from various folders and search easily since songs are tagged. As long as a song has a good ID3 tag, who cares what's it saved as on the computer?

However I agree that "Artist Name - Song Name.mp3" should be the format followed when saving the song.

Basic functionality we need perfected before any fancy features are added is:

• * Save songs locally to a specified folder

* Save song in format mentioned above

* Write ID3 tag with Artist and Song name by default. Retrieving additional info to improve ID3 tag should be optional.

* The ID3 comment could be the station name

Anyway, just my opinion. I'm a developer myself.

[irieb]

nyb141, kickarse

very good suggestions - I especially like the one about putting the station name inside the comment.

I liked the way nyb141 has listed and priortized the tasks - I will use them as a reference when I get a chance to build a new release.

thnx for the feedback.....

Cooper, ddkk

I will put this feature on hold until a future release - I have confirmed the reload hack works -- the player did not time out after running the entire nite - I know it's ugly and it will be delt with in due time...

cooper your def on to something - the trick would be calling a beacon servlet from the ui piece -- shouldn't be that bad it all.......

fellas -- thnx for the suggestions

jdwaters

I just drag the entire mp3 dir into itune when I want them made avialable - but more recently I have created a playlist for each pandora station and drag and drop each station dir into the corresponing itunes playlist

hope this helps......

[ddkk]

jdwaters

I have my file types for mp3 set to itunes player so all I do is double click on the file and it automatically plays in itunes. No drag and drop necessary.

[cortechs]

Man good job!

I got a problem thou with both of your betas; when I run your aps, it always saves the first song while only 580kB were cached.

Are you sure you're waiting for the next song to start caching before saving/renaming the song? or is it a function tied to a timer?

Might also be due to my crappy slow connection!! :oops:

I also have this wierd error:

INFO Thread-2 server.Server - processing url: GET /favicon.ico HTTP/1.1

INFO Thread-2 servlet.ProcessAction - processing static request. path: GET /favicon.ico HTTP/1.1

INFO Thread-2 servlet.ProcessAction - path = favicon.ico

INFO Thread-2 servlet.ProcessAction - documentType = ICO

INFO Thread-2 server.Server - No enum const class enums.FileType.ICO

It's apparently looking for a favicon that is not included with the code.

And finally, the program gets lost (desynchronized) if you fastforward songs and don't have the next cached.

I try to explain: if I fastforward like say 2 songs in a row, i just had the next song(the 3rd one i'm listening to) starting to cache, the program sees that I have skeeped the tracks because the artist + title are right but it uses the wrong "access-x" file to save/rename. The result is an MP3 with the right name but actually the wrong song in it and of small size ( a couple of KB). Again, I think that might have something to do with the way you check if a file is done downloading before saving/renaming it.

****Update: it appears that the program catches up with the desynchro after a couple of songs (might be when the new xml arrives from pandora.com)

Anyway, keep up the great work.

[kcmop8ntballa]

i keep getting a message that says address in use.How do i fix that

[irieb]

new release available for download

http://www.tengbob.com/pandoras-jar-beta.3.zip

nyb141, kickarse

use default.properties to specify archive dir

filenaming complete, easier to manage now

option exist for cddb lookup now

station name in comment - when available

thnx for the suggestions

cortechs

I've added some logic around this - both the funky 500 kb SWF file on first song and the fast forwarding - I have not been able to reproduce, but then again I didn't really hammer it too hard - hopefully it will at least behave better.

this one bothered me too - i think it's resolve - let me know

kcmop8ntballa

try a different port

to start server

java -jar pandora.jar 8085

to start client

http://localhost:8085

also make sure u do not have 2 local instances of the app running

hope this helps

[cortechs]

Alright!!

All my problems but the favicon "warning" seem to be fixed in this beta.

Great job :D

[nyb141]

irieb

Very nice work. Working very well for now. I'll be testing it today.

I have one suggetion for now. When "cruise control" is set to off (also cddb lookup is off) the user is primarily sitting at their computer and controlling which song they like/dislike and select which song they would like to rip song by song. I think a nice option would be to let them input the additional ID3 tag info on their own.

For example if Pandora is playing some nice Trance mix, cddblookup may return genre as 'Electronic' if it finds the song. Usually doesn't find the song info anyway for mixes. The user may want it tagged as 'Trance' genre instead to match their existing collection. I think giving the user the flexibility to overwrite the song attributes would be nice. Of course this is only reasonable when "cruise control" is off.

With more handy options being added to your app, the interface may have to be changed with time so all options don't become cluttered.

Nice work.

[kickarse]

Awesome! Thanks for implementing!

I am getting a rip error though. The java cmd windows says "(MP3processor.java:39) - access file not found trying again after 1 sec"

the beta 2 version did work though just peachy... wierd...

[irieb]

kickarse

I've added a condition to wait for the access files to be buffered - sometimes if the buffer is lagging you will see the message appear several times as it's waiting for the cache to be created.

This usual happens when you first launch pandora - as it has to cache 2 files.....

If your are getting the message over and over after about a minute there is def something wrong - if you get a chance can you please try it again and let me know what happens -- This could pontencial be a serious bug since there is no logic to break out of the loop if there are not at least 2 access files in the tmp dir.

thnx

[freakyash]

Hi

I am still having much trouble getting this to work. Everything opens up and Pandora works ok but I have not managed to get a single mp3 using this ever.

When I click grab it all the player says is:

fetching ID3 information and tagging MP3 for artist (Fatboy Slim) song (Everybody Needs A 303)....

It will remain saying that until the next song starts to play and no mp3 is saved.

I would be very grateful if anyone could help me fix this problem.

Many thanks

Ash

[irieb]

freakyash

What version of the app are your running?

Make sure you have the current release:

http://www.tengbob.com/pandoras-jar-beta.3.zip

What version of java - in cmd [java -version] - should be 1.5.0x

Looks like your getting hung up in the ID3 lookup, sometimes the lookup to cdbd times out - u can disable the feature in the new version. Try it and see if it helps

Please try the above steps and if you are sill having problems send me (irieb@mac.com) your log file - padoraJar.log in your dis dir?

You'll be up and running in no time....

thnx

[nyb141]

irieb

I used the program entire day and everything works fine. However, I did notice some issues:

* When cddb lookup is off, song will be ripped to:

%Directory%StationNameArtistName-SongName.mp3

With cddb lookup is on, song will be ripped to:

%Directory%StationNameAlbumNameArtistName-SongName.mp3

I don't think the album name should create a folder on the drive since a song may be in a folder and another song by the same artist may be outside the folder.

* The html page by default sets these options:

last.fm data - off

cddb lookup - off

cruise control - on

pandora username - blank

last.fm username - blank

last.fm password - blank

I used the app all day and for some reason after several hours the page would refresh. This happened four times to me today by itself. Once due to inactivity with the pandora tuner. Other times I don't know why.

When this occurred all the settings were reset to default setting and songs were ripped to an incorrect folder (pandora username was cleared and station name could not be retrieved). At the same time I had cruise control set to off and on the reset it turned on and ripped songs I did not want.

I suggest putting all these setting into an xml config file. That way you read and write the settings. For example, if cruise control is set to off, the xml config file would be updated with that value. If a reset occurred for any reason the app would initialize setting currently set in the xml config file. This applies to the rest of the settings as well.

This feature would make the application much more robust. Users using it everyday would not have to re-enter all their info and settings in the app. The xml config file would allow for much more extensible future settings such as directory to rip to, naming conventions, etc.

Thanks.

[shrimp]

I'm trying to get this to work on OS X with Camino. It loads Pandora, but doesn't download the mp3.

This is the message I get:

Not Found

The requested URL /pandora/process was not found on this server.



Apache/1.3.33 Server at shrimp.local Port 80

I put the pandora in a sub folder on OS X's built in webserver. So I got to http://my.ip.ad.dr.es.s/pandora/pandoraGrabber.html to get to it.

[irieb]

nyb141

again nyb141 thank you for your feedback, all very good suggestions.

when i get a chance to do a new release, i will get all your features in - you are def a big contributer to this project - big props.....

FYI

A temporary workaround is to modify the pandora.js file.

Set:

var SONG_COUNT_BEFORE_RELOAD = 20;

to a big number - it will delay the reload logic but the pandora app will time-out after a while

shrimp

unfurtunalty mac os is currently not supported - when i get the time i will look into it - it has been on my mind and believe it will not be too difficult to implement - i will def keep u updated.......

[shrimp]

shrimp

unfurtunalty mac os is currently not supported - when i get the time i will look into it - it has been on my mind and believe it will not be too difficult to implement - i will def keep u updated.......

Thanks. For now I'll try it with FireFox and such and try looking at the code, but I don't know java, so chances are I wonn't know what to do about it.

[Josh]

Looks like Pandora has updated their flash file..

Beta 3 is trying to call https://www.pandora.com:443/radio/tuner_6_9_0_3.swf, while Pandora.com is calling https://www.pandora.com:443/radio/tuner_6_9_0_4.swf.. and since 6.9.0.3 isn't there any more.. your program doesn't work. It was working great last night though.

Any update/hack to fix this?

Thanks.. and really really nice program.

Josh

[Josh]

Actually.. that was easy enough. Just update that URL in pandoraGrabber.html.

[kickarse]

Yeah that worked... You have to find it in two places in the code...

Oh and beta 3 works fine.. I just had to wait.. heh

I do like the idea of having Station NameArtist Name-SongName.mp3

One thing though is that Proxy access isn't connecting for CDDB or for LAST.FM

[wadeall]

Hi this looks like a wonderfully useful app -if only I could get it to work.

I've now run the pandora.jar and gotten the screen saying lets grap some music. However when i try typing the http://localhost in Firefox I just get the message Unable to conect. Firefox cannot establish a connection to the server at localhost. Hopefully Im doing something trivial wrong?/ Any idea what? I noticed an earlier posting re flash 8+ I have probbaly got the latest version of flashplayer installed, (not sure how to tell) is this an issue?

Wade

[Extreme_One]

Hmmm

This has suddenly stopped working for me.

The flash movie isn't loading.

If I navigate to http://www.pandora.com their player works fine.

Are they now blocking this app?

[Josh]

Extreme_One.. look up two posts.

Find https://www.pandora.com:443/radio/tuner_6_9_0_3.swf in the HTML file, and replace it with https://www.pandora.com:443/radio/tuner_6_9_0_4.swf -- there are two instances of this, so replace both.

Josh

[sometypeofguy]

Nevermind... see above post.