Songcrafters.org

New Festival Jukebox Player

I finally got around to creating a new jukebox player that doesn't need Flash. It works in any modern browser that supports the HTML5 <audio> element (http://caniuse.com/#feat=audio), which is practically all of them. However, results will vary from browser to browser since they each have their own little quirks and bugs. It works best in Firefox.


Unfortunately, I haven't found a solution to the problem of songs stopping unexpectedly in browsers that are based on the WebKit layout engine. But I have found that browsers built with more recent versions of WebKit seem to work a lot better than browsers built with older versions of WebKit. So be sure to keep your browsers updated - perhaps this problem will eventually go away as WebKit improves. In the meantime, you can still use the old Flash jukebox by clicking the "Flash Player" link (assuming your device supports Flash, as many don't).

If the new player doesn't work well on your device and it doesn't support Flash, there is a new "Playlist" link that might be an alternative for some people. It lets you download the playlist so you can load it into any media player that supports the XSPF (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML_Shareable_Playlist_Format) playlist format, such as VLC (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VLC_media_player). For example, you can right-click on the Playlist link and select "Copy Link Location". Then you can open VLC and press Ctrl-V (or select "Open Location from clipboard" from VLC's Media menu) to paste the location. You should then see the entire playlist in VLC and you can play any or all of the songs. You can even sort the playlist in VLC or drag individual songs to the desired position in the list. Pressing Ctrl-L in VLC toggles the playlist view. If playlists work well for you in VLC or another media player, I'd recommend that you set up a file association in your operating system so that files with the extension ".xspf" will automatically open in your media player. Once that's set up, you'll only need to click on the Playlist link in the HTML5 jukebox player to immediately load the playlist into your media player without any copying and pasting.

Here's a screenshot of the FiftiesFest playlist loaded into VLC:


Currently, the new HTML5 jukebox is only available for festivals. So member jukeboxes, "On This Day", "Latest Songs", etc. still use the old Flash player. I'll eventually change these to the new HTML5 player too but I can't say when that will be.

I also got the [singlemp3][/singlemp3] tags to work with the single-song HTML5 player. It's exactly the same player that you get for attached songs. So now you can play songs that are hosted offsite (alonetone, for example) without the need for Flash.

Here's an example using the [singlemp3][/singlemp3] tags to play a song hosted on alonetone:

Thanks 64g. A cracking bit of work.

Downloaded Firefox and it works like like a charm. Showed up but didn't play in safari.  Can't say I like Firefox much as a phone browser but it's defiantly better than puffin. This, as always, is incredible work 64 and greatly appreciated. I'll try the download option later. I love listening to the jukeboxes while driving and Puffin cracks,pops and pauses too much to enjoy consistantly. Not too put any pressure on you good sir but I can't wait for the latest and OTD jukeboxes to be included.
You rock good sir!!

Thank you !!!!


Your amazing work is appreciated !!

Finally I can listen without so much hassle on my pieDevices

i don't know what we would do without you guid sur. i know my windows phone is not up to the task but i know you tried everything to resolve that. behind the scenes you pulled some rabbits out of the hat. your sterling work here is greatly appreciated.

Thanks again, 64!!

I take my hat off!

Quote from: Hook on July 04, 2016, 06:34:53 AMI can't wait for the latest and OTD jukeboxes to be included.

You rock brother!

Great news, thanks 64 :D

64 - the singlemp3 tags are now registering plays in alonetone if you just view the page here without playing.

Eg 1) alonetone told me I had listened to your Dr Who a load of times when I haven't (I'm on a pc with a disabled soundcard at work). Eventually I tracked it down to accessing this thread.

2) So I looked at my Profile, Song Posts page on here. That immediately registered plays for all 10 songs displayed.

Nice one 64, Thanks....

Alex

I'm loving this!!!!!

Quote from: AndyR on July 06, 2016, 01:24:53 AM64 - the singlemp3 tags are now registering plays in alonetone if you just view the page here without playing.

Should be fixed now. I've set the preload (http://www.w3schools.com/tags/av_prop_preload.asp) property to "none".

Yep.

Nice one - you da man! :)

I hate to be the voice of gloom, but now I can't get anything to play (on my Windows desktop in work running IE10).  Used to be I couldn't play song files in posts, but could play jukeboxes, now neither plays.

 :(

Quote from: ODH on July 07, 2016, 05:50:12 AMI hate to be the voice of gloom, but now I can't get anything to play (on my Windows desktop in work running IE10). 

I can understand the HTML5 player not working for you because, if I'm not mistaken, IE10 doesn't support HTML5 audio. You need at least IE11 and even then there could be a few problems. But I can't think of any reason why the Flash player wouldn't work. It's basically the same player we've always been using.

The only possible explanation I can think of is that IE10 isn't handling the few lines of JavaScript that allow the "Flash Player" button to do its thing. Microsoft's version of JavaScript has always been crap, so I suppose that's a possible explanation. If the button doesn't work, then you won't be able to access the old Flash player.

I've got an old laptop computer here which I'm fixing up for my brother. It has IE9 on it, so I'll experiment with it later to see if our players will work in it. I know the HTML5 players won't work, but it should be able to use the Flash players. I'll let you know what I learn from that.

Quote from: ODH on July 07, 2016, 05:50:12 AMUsed to be I couldn't play song files in posts, but could play jukeboxes, now neither plays.

Are you saying that you couldn't play song files in posts with the HTML5 player only? Or are you saying that even when you clicked on the "Flash Player" link it wouldn't play? The latter would be hard to believe since it uses the same old Flash player that the jukeboxes used and you said they worked.

There are still a few jukeboxes that I haven't yet converted to the new HTML5 player - Golden Oldies (https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?action=festival;sa=GoldenOldies), Geir Sings The Beatles (https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?action=festival;sa=GeirSingsTheBeatles), Florida MET 2013 (https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?action=festival;sa=Florida2013), Norway MET 2012 (https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?action=festival;sa=Norway2012), Yorkshire MET 2011 (https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?action=festival;sa=Yorkshire2011), and Norway MET 2010 (https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?action=festival;sa=Norway2010). Do those jukeboxes still work for you? They should. I haven't done anything to them.


Is the management and IT department of your employer aware that running IE10 is a big security risk? Microsoft stopped supporting it on 12 January 2016 (except on Windows Server 2012 and Windows Embedded 8 Standard). That means that any newly-discovered vulnerabilities in IE10 can, and most likely will, be exploited by hackers. It would be a shame if your employer's computer systems were destroyed by hackers or their data stolen or held for ransom just because they can't be bothered to upgrade their web browsers.

Quote from: ODH on July 07, 2016, 05:50:12 AMI can't get anything to play (on my Windows desktop in work running IE10).

I've tried IE9 and found that, as you said, neither the HTML5 player nor the Flash player worked. The JavaScript for the "Flash Player" button/link was failing in IE. I fixed that, then started experimenting with the HTML5 audio. To my surprise, I found that IE9 can actually play MP3s using HTML5! The trouble is, it only works when there's a direct link to an MP3 file that has the extension ".mp3". It can't handle the links to our MP3 attachments. It just ignores them. Since the vast majority of our MP3s are attachments, I can't make the new HTML5 player work in IE. So, as a workaround, I've made the players and jukeboxes default to the Flash Player whenever the browser is IE 10 or older. As far as I know, IE 11 should work okay with the new HTML5 players but I have no way to verify that.

It's not an ideal solution since IE users (ver. 10 and older) won't be able to access the new HTML5 player at all. But at least they'll be able to play MP3s in song posts and listen to the jukeboxes, provided that they have the Flash plugin installed and working in IE.

Thanks for taking the time, 64.

Quote from: 64Guitars on July 07, 2016, 02:56:47 PMThere are still a few jukeboxes that I haven't yet converted to the new HTML5 player - Golden Oldies (https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?action=festival;sa=GoldenOldies), Geir Sings The Beatles (https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?action=festival;sa=GeirSingsTheBeatles), Florida MET 2013 (https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?action=festival;sa=Florida2013), Norway MET 2012 (https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?action=festival;sa=Norway2012), Yorkshire MET 2011 (https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?action=festival;sa=Yorkshire2011), and Norway MET 2010 (https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?action=festival;sa=Norway2010). Do those jukeboxes still work for you? They should. I haven't done anything to them.

Yes, they still work the same way; go to the page and the jukebox loads and plays automatically.

I fired up my Windows 10 laptop at home last night and tried on Microsoft Edge and the new jukeboxes wouldn't play there either.  Or songs in posts either, come to that, same as in work.  It must be me, Microsoft don't like me, and the feeling's mutual.

The new ones work fine on my iPhone, though (whereas jukeboxes didn't used to).

*** Hold the phone, though  ***

Just went into the OTD jukebox and it did load and play.  Then I tried the Latest Songs one and that did too after a while.  Couldn't get them to work yesterday, now they seem to be okay.  Defies logic.

Excellent work Mr 64 you are indeed our Mr spock of the great ship songcrafters.
Bravo sir.

Thanks 64, all that knowledge and work for a noble purpose, you are a songcrafter saint

Great news!

I finally got the member jukeboxes to include songs that are hosted offsite. The way it currently works is that it looks for an attached MP3 file in the first message of the topic. If it finds one, it includes it in the jukebox as it's always done. But if there is no MP3 attached to the post, then it scans the body of the message for [singlemp3][/singlemp3] tags and uses the URL found between the first pair it finds (any subsequent singlemp3 tags in the message are ignored). Note that if a message has both an attached MP3 and singlemp3 tags, only the attached MP3 will be included in the jukebox. Also, it only looks for singlemp3 tags. Offsite files that use other players (SoundClick, SoundCloud, ReverbNation, Mixposure, 4shared, and Mikseri) are not included in the member jukeboxes.

Currently, this new feature only applies to the member jukeboxes. When I have time, I'll get the Latest Songs, On This Day, and Overlooked Gems jukeboxes to include offsite files as well.

WOW

You are amazing good Sir !!

Thank you for all your good work to make this the greatest site on the web !

Good one 64 now I can listen more on the iPhone cheers

The Latest Songs, On This Day, and Overlooked Gems jukeboxes now include offsite files too.

The Overlooked Gems jukebox now has 396 songs in it, compared to 139 songs before I made the change. That's partly because there are a lot of offsite files included now, and it's partly because I removed a 5-year time limit on which files are included. I don't remember why I had that time limit on it. Maybe I didn't want to have so many files that people would feel overwhelmed by it. In any case, I decided to remove the limit, so now it includes all songs ever posted by current members which currently have less than 3 replies.

Anyway, have a listen to some overlooked gems and post a comment if you can.

Dude, you are the coolest of cool!
Rock on!

Wowsers - that's MIGHTY COOL, nice one :)

For attached MP3s, the MP3 player will now display the song title and artist, along with other information pulled from the MP3 file and its ID3v2 tags. So please make sure you include appropriate information in the ID3 tags of your MP3 file before attaching it to your message.

You can edit your ID3 tags in many audio editors, such as Audacity. Or you can use a separate Tag Editor program. I use EasyTAG, which is available for Linux and Windows. But there are many more tag editors available, and a lot of them are free. This Wikipedia page lists a few:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_editor#List_of_tag_editors (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_editor#List_of_tag_editors)

If you want to change the tags of a previously-uploaded MP3, you'll have to replace the attachment. To do that, edit your message and un-check the old MP3 attachment. Then attach the new, updated file to your message.

Thanks 64G !!

One question...... If we replace a file will the song appear on the new date in the OTD jukebox or will the time of the original post be the time stamp for the attachment?

The date of a song post is whenever the topic was created. This can't be changed, even when the message is edited (there's a separate "modified" time for that). So changing the attachment won't affect the automatic jukeboxes (member jukebox, Latest Songs, On This Day, and Overlooked Gems). However, whenever you replace a song that's in one of the festival jukeboxes, it will stop working in that jukebox because the URL for the attachment will change. In that case, just let one of the admins know and we'll update the festival jukebox.

If you've used the Song Info box in your post, the song title is redundant now if it's also being displayed from the ID3 tags. If you want to fix it, just remove the song title from after the equal sign in the opening tag (but don't remove the equal sign).

Before:

[song=Same Old Blues]
Written by J.J. Cale

Music by 64Guitars         Vocals by oldrottenhead
[/song]
(https://songcrafters.org/community/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=25420.0;attach=185460)

After:

[song=]
Written by J.J. Cale

Music by 64Guitars         Vocals by oldrottenhead
[/song]
(https://songcrafters.org/community/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=25420.0;attach=185461)

Your'e The Man 64........


Alex

Thanks 64... the way you run this site & the time and effort you selflessly devote to helping us all vent our musical spleens is above and beyond the call of duty. You're a star, mate!

(https://songcrafters.org/community/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=25420.0;attach=185537)

I'm making some changes to the Flash part of the MP3 player so that it has the same user interface as the HTML5 player. While I'm working on it in the coming days and weeks, some features of the Flash player may not work. Currently, the Play and Stop buttons work, so you can at least listen to songs. I hope to have the volume controls working soon too. They kinda work now but not very well. The time display, progress bar, "<", ">", "Repeat" and "Mute" buttons currently don't work at all but I'm confident that I'll get them working eventually.

The HTML5 player is not affected. All of its features should continue to work normally. The jukeboxes aren't affected either. It's just the single song players in the posts that I'm changing now. When I get them working properly, I'll probably do the same to the jukeboxes, but that won't be for a while.

Sorry for the inconvenience but it shouldn't be for long and, hopefully, the end result will make it all worthwhile.

I lost my old windows 8 phone on holiday just got a new windows 10 phone using edge browser. Nothing plays. And I can't see any songs in songplayers. Aside from that phone is fab. Hopefully as browser is updated things will function for me again.

I can now see songs in songplayers but not playing.

Working fine for me in both Windows 7 & Linux Mint  :)

Thanks again for all the work, 64  :)

Quote from: Oldrottenhead on July 31, 2016, 07:52:23 AMI lost my old windows 8 phone on holiday

A lucky break!

Quote from: Oldrottenhead on July 31, 2016, 07:52:23 AMjust got a new windows 10 phone

Why????  ???  You finally get rid of one crap Windows phone and you go and replace it with another crap Windows phone. Why didn't you get an Android phone or iPhone?   ;)

Quote from: Oldrottenhead on July 31, 2016, 07:52:23 AMNothing plays.

I'm not surprised. It's a Windows phone.

Quote from: Oldrottenhead on July 31, 2016, 09:04:04 AMI can now see songs in songplayers but not playing.

It won't play in the Flash player because Windows phone doesn't support Flash. But the HTML5 player should work. Does the time display in the player progress at all or is it stuck at 0:00? Is it just the single song players in the song posts that aren't working or do the jukeboxes also not work? If you download the MP3, will it play on your phone?

i love my windows phone, it's just rubbish for songcrafters lol! i hate android phones and iphones are overpriced. even my kids are impressed with my windows 10 phone and they both have iphones.

on my windows phone i can download and play the songs,but the player is always stuck at 0.00.

now on my pc using firefox in windows 10. all the jukeboxes are blank and only giving me a flash player option, i hope that is to do with your current work and will resolve itself.

all the jukeboxes look like this on my pc.

(https://songcrafters.org/community/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=25420.0;attach=185538)

My android works quite well, especially for songcrafters!
And my ipad was working fine with Firefox ,haven't used it on songcrafters in awhile cause the android just works so familiar good

Quote from: Oldrottenhead on July 31, 2016, 05:01:25 PMnow on my pc using firefox in windows 10. all the jukeboxes are blank and only giving me a flash player option, i hope that is to do with your current work and will resolve itself.

Oops! Yes, that's my fault. I removed some code that wasn't needed by the single song player anymore, not realizing that the jukeboxes still need it. I'll fix it up shortly.

Okay, I think all of the jukeboxes are back to normal now.

Progress report on the Flash player

Most features of the Flash player now work except the following:

• Clicking in the progress bar to change the current position is not yet implemented, although the "<" and ">" buttons do work, so you can skip back and forth 10 seconds per click.
• Repeat button is not working.
• Pausing the song, then clicking the Play button causes the song to restart from the beginning instead of resuming from the position where the pause button was clicked.

I'll try to fix these last few issues in the next few days.

Quote from: 64Guitars on July 31, 2016, 08:10:30 PMOkay, I think all of the jukeboxes are back to normal now.

magic!

Coolest of the cool!

Jukeboxes aren't working in Android this morning. I'll try around a bit to check other players. After my arrogant android outburst...I feel I be being played?? ::)

I had to refresh my browser before the jukeboxes started working again. Uno clear your history and cache. I think that is the terminology.

Quote from: Hook on August 01, 2016, 05:08:39 AMJukeboxes aren't working in Android this morning. I'll try around a bit to check other players.

As oldrottenhead said, clear your browser's cache. That's the most likely cause of the problem. If the old, broken files are still in your browser's cache, it will use them instead of getting the new, fixed files from the server. By clearing your cache, you force the browser to fetch the new files from the server. Then all should be well. If not, let me know.

Ok, cleared the cashe. On the latest songs jukebox most song play but Fenderbender new tune won't load at at all. Haven't tried individual post players yet. Snagging a second on my phone.

And I see no playbbutton on jukeboxes.
It wouldn't play I Fenderbender postbeither. Dowloaded but would play.

Quote from: Hook on August 01, 2016, 04:28:37 PMAnd I see no playbbutton on jukeboxes.

When I created the new HTML5 jukeboxes, I decided to combine the previously separate Play and Pause buttons into a single button that toggles between Pause and Play. When the jukebox page is first loaded, the first song should automatically start playing. So the button is labelled Pause, since there's no need for a Play button if it's already playing. If you click the Pause button, the button label should then change to Play.

I'll probably make the same change to the individual song player, but haven't yet.

Quote from: Hook on August 01, 2016, 04:28:37 PMIt wouldn't play I Fenderbender postbeither. Dowloaded but would play.

The only explanation I can think of is that the filename of Fenderbender's song contains an ampersand ("ELANI T&A.MP3") which can have a special meaning in HTML and some operating systems. Perhaps that's confusing your Android web browser. Can you play it in the individual song player in the song post?

https://songcrafters.org/community/index.php?topic=25532.0 (https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?topic=25532.0)

Quote from: 64Guitars on July 31, 2016, 11:10:30 PMProgress report on the Flash player

Most features of the Flash player now work except the following:

• Clicking in the progress bar to change the current position is not yet implemented, although the "<" and ">" buttons do work, so you can skip back and forth 10 seconds per click.
• Repeat button is not working.
• Pausing the song, then clicking the Play button causes the song to restart from the beginning instead of resuming from the position where the pause button was clicked.

Just the Repeat button to work on now. Everything else should be working.

As always, thanks so much for your efforts, 64. It is not lost on us.

Bruce

What Bruce said

I have lost count of the beers I owe him. Cheers big ears.

Listening on my iPad (latest song juke) in Firefox,all songs cut off midway & next song never starts.
Not criticizing just FYI, you know that I known just how much you rock sir!
Will try other browsers, must get something accomplished now...

Quote from: Hook on August 03, 2016, 03:58:07 AMListening on my iPad (latest song juke) in Firefox,all songs cut off midway & next song never starts.

Same experience. I think it is the same experience we've had on iOS devices for a looooooong time now. Unless Apple changes something, I think we'll have to live with it. :(

The problem isn't just with iOS devices. I think it's any WebKit-based browser which, unfortunately, is most of them except Firefox (though Firefox for iOS is based on WebKit).

In Midori 0.5.11 (a WebKit browser for Linux), I have the same problem with the current Latest Songs jukebox. But I'm pretty confident that the jukebox code is not causing the problem. To prove it, I made the following test page which is much simpler than the jukebox but plays the same four songs using very basic HTML5 code:

https://songcrafters.org/64guitars/h5audio-test.html (https://songcrafters.org/64guitars/h5audio-test.html)

In Midori, the songs on that test page stop prematurely, just as they do in the Latest Songs jukebox. So the jukebox code can't be the cause.

Here's the test page code for anyone who's interested. You can see that it's very simple, so there's not much chance of a coding error, unlike the jukebox code which is very complex and therefore has a greater chance of bugs.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
   <title>HTML5 Audio Test Page</title>

   <style>
      body { text-align: center; background-color: #666666; color: #ffffff; }
      h1 { font-size: 20pt; margin-bottom: 10px;}
      h2 { font-size: 17pt; margin-bottom: 60px;}
      h3 { font-size: 12pt; margin-top: 40px; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;}
   </style>
</head>


<body>

   <h1>HTML5 Audio Test Page</h1>
   <h2>Files hosted at Songcrafters.org</h2>


   <h3>"You've Got a Friend" by heg577</h3>
   <audio controls>
      <source src="https://songcrafters.org/community/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=25538.0;id=185545" type="audio/mpeg">
   </audio>


   <h3>"The Coming Punch" by Hook</h3>
   <audio controls>
      <source src="https://songcrafters.org/community/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=25536.0;id=185544" type="audio/mpeg">
   </audio>


   <h3>"I Didn't Mean It" by Willie</h3>
   <audio controls>
      <source src="https://songcrafters.org/community/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=25534.0;id=185542" type="audio/mpeg">
   </audio>


   <h3>"Elani" by Groundy and fenderbender</h3>
   <audio controls>
      <source src="https://songcrafters.org/community/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=25532.0;id=185540" type="audio/mpeg">
   </audio>

</body>

</html>


I don't think the Songcrafters server is the cause of the problem but it might be a contributing factor. To test this, I uploaded the four songs to weebly.com, then made a copy of the test page and changed all the links to the files on weebly.

https://songcrafters.org/64guitars/h5audio-test-weebly.html (https://songcrafters.org/64guitars/h5audio-test-weebly.html)

In Midori, it seems to play more reliably than the files hosted on Songcrafters. However, it does still stop in the middle of the song some of the time. I suspect that the difference in reliability between the files hosted on Songcrafters versus the same files hosted on Weebly is down to the speed of the server. Songcrafters is on a shared server and it can be quite slow sometimes. I don't think it's unacceptably slow, but it might be slow enough to make this WebKit problem occur more frequently.

The funny thing is that the problem doesn't exist at all in Firefox (except the iOS version based on WebKit). All four songs in the Latest Songs jukebox and in the test page play all the way through every time. In fact, I don't think I've seen any songs stop prematurely in Firefox. I've only seen it happen in the WebKit-based browsers.

I'd recommend that everyone who uses a WebKit-based browser should keep it up to date as I've noticed that my Epiphany browser, which is also based on WebKit, works more reliably than the Midori browser (though not perfectly). I checked the WebKit versions in each and found that the version in Epiphany is more recent than the version in Midori. So you may find that updating your browser (which updates the WebKit version it's based on) will help. You should also keep your OS up to date; especially iOS since WebKit is built into it. When you update iOS, you're updating WebKit too, so you may find that your WebKit-based browser works better after updating the OS.

Nice  - Appreciate your development work 64G. Thanks

Great work, 64G - it's great to have all the audio element/mp3 info in the song player, and also nice to be able to listen to jukeboxes on the iPhone (even if WebKit frequently ends up losing the thread).