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Clients


Skin-Panel

The Skin-Panel is a control interface for DeliPlayer with a skin GUI. A skin is a set of bitmaps that make the GUI look more appealing.
Basically the available functionality of the skin-panel is the same as that of the conventional panel. However, there are some restrictions. Most obvious, a skinned window can not be resized. Also, you cannot specify which components you want to display, as you can in the conventional panel.
The configuration of the skin-panel is reduced to the selection of the desired skin.
DeliPlayer skin-system is not fixed to one layout, every skin can define its very own. Also, using several graphics with one skin-layout is possible.
If you want to create a skin for the Skin-Panel, please contact us (please include an example of your previous work ($<$100kb in size)).


Browser

The Browser is a full featured SQL database application that helps you maintain large sets of tunes. It is like an extremly powerful playlist client with hirarchy support. You can choose the underlying database yourself, the only condition is that it must support ODBC level 2.
The Browser is not yet finished and will be released as a stand alone application. Of course you will be able to control DeliPlayer from within the Browser.


Panel

The Panel is one of two convenient ways to control Deli. It displays lots of information DeliPlayer extracts from the tunes and lets you control the playback. It also gives the possibility to switch on/off the Reverb, Equalizer, Wide Stereo and StereoJoin effects (for more inrmation see the stream plugins section).
You can also show/hide all display plugins from within the Panel.
Most likely you did not read this documentation prior to trying it, so you might already be familiar with the default looks of it. Yes - it does not have a skin, and - yes - its not very colorful. But it is very powerful.
Here is a list of items the Panel can show: Some are very straight forward, others need some explanation:
Album, Artist, Comment, Date, Tracknum and Genre are typically retrieved from MP3 files, where they are stored in a so called 'ID3' structure at the end of the stream. You can only view these in the Panel, to edit them you need to open the MP3 Info Editor. Another way Deli's could know about the Album etc. is the Browser client.
The Progress bar displays the play progress of the song. In opposite to the Position Slider it cannot be used to change the playing position.
Filesize and Realsize display the total size of all files belonging to a song. In case of e.g. MP3 or ProTracker the song consists of only one file but there are several fomats that split the songs data in several files. for example Richard Joseph, StarTrekkerAM and TFMX.
The Format line informs about the format of the currently playing tune.
Control Flags: These activate or deactivate special effects Deli applies on the audio data. Currently you can control Reverb,Bass,Treble and StereoJoin. (see the plugins' section for more info)
Position Slider: This is one nasty feature of DeliPlayer. You can jump to any position in almost all songsformats. For MP3 this is nothing special but think of all the exotic formats or even emulated songs. You no longer need to listen to e.g. boring intro-parts, now you can easily skip them.
The Songname does not need much explanation. There are formats that can name even their subsongs.
Frequency and Resolution: Do not mix these up with the Frequency and Resolution your Soundcard supports and Deli generates. The frequency and resolution the Panel displays is the maximum quality of the instruments of the currently playing song. For Protracker songs this would be 22.050 Hz and 8 bit because the Amiga audio-hardware was limited to these values. It is the maximum sample quality a Protracker instrument can have. Of course the final output Deli produces is better than the virtual quality. E.g. when playing a Protracker tune (4 channels) with scaled mixing and all effects turned off - the real output quality would be 22.050 Hz and 10 bit. When interpolated mixing is used 16bit data is produced. If you don't unterstand this ... let it be, its not important, just don't get confused by the values you see in the Frequency/Resolution line of the Panel.
Duration: This is the current position in the song. It is displayed in hours, minutes and seconds.
Number of Subgongs: Tells you how many subsongs a tune has and which subsong is currently playing. Not all formats support subsongs, not all songs in formats that do allow them actually have subsongs.
Channels: The number of virtual channels the current songs uses. The number of virtual channels tells how many instruments a song uses simultanious. This has nothing to do with the number of channels of the output Deli produces.
Volume Control, Balance Control: ditto This is a complete list of what the Panel can display. To customize the window, open the configuration window from the Panel's context menu (click the right mousebutton with the mouse over the Panel window to open the context menu).

The Panel Configuration

The Panel's configuration window is split into 3 pages.
The first page controls what kind of information is displayed in the Panel window. Entries in the left list are currently not visible, entries in the right list are visible. To move entries from the left list to the right list (which makes them visible in the Panel window) mark them and press the '$>>$' button between the lists. To move entries from the right list to the left mark the entries and press the '$<<$' button. If you want to move a single entry from one list to the other list you can also do that by double clicking the entry.
Entries in the right (visible items) list can also be reordered by selecting entries and pressing the 'U' and 'D' buttons for moving them up/down in the list.
Four default configurations can be activated with the buttons below the lists.
The second page contains layout rules for the Panel window: Button Height: All Panel window elements are sized depending on the font. Some fonts make the buttons very high. You can enter any value from -10 to 10 to adjust the button height. Border Spacing:
Amount of pixels between the last/first window element and the window border. Vertical Spacing:
Amount of pixels between the Panel window controls. Font:
Here you can select the font that you want use in the Panel window.
The third page: Always on Top of other windows: ditto Hide Caption on Startup:
Activate this checkbox if you want the Panel window to initially appear without a window title bar. Hide Border on Startup: ditto Always save Configuration and Windowposition on Exit: ditto Display Tooltips: ditto Display-Plugins to Front when the Panel is activated:
Whenever the Panel window is activated (e.g. by selecting it in the ALT-TAB list or clicking on it) it will also bring all open display-plugin windows to the top. Clients to Front when the Panel is Activated:
Same as last option but brings up all client windows.

Playlist

A playlist is a list of songs/files that are played in a predefined order. If you have used other players prior to DeliPlayer, you might already be familiar with playlists.
Like the Panel the Playlist controls the replay and displays the songname and playingtime of the current song. But it's main purpose is to continuosly play songs from a predefined list. DeliPlayer's playlists are unlike other playlists not plain text files containing the filenames to play, but a small database.

The Window

The main component in the playlist window is the list-control. It has column headers that describe what is being displayed in the respective column. By clicking on a column header you can sort the list by that column. Clicking it again reverses the sort order. The current sort order is indicated by a little up/down arrow. By double-clicking the header separators the respective column gets resized so that the longest visible entry is fully visible. By clicking the header separator and keeping the mouse button pressed, you can manually resize the column's width by moving you mouse. By draging the header itself you can reorder the list columns. Note that the new order will only prevail until the window is recreated (when a new configuration is applied). The first list-control column leaves some space on the left side of the columns entry to display little images that visualize certain aspects of that entry. Here is a list of all possible images and their meaning: Playlists are saved in DeliPlaylist's own format and can (of course) be loaded at any time to play and/or modify them. Besides loading its own lists the DeliPlaylists can also import 'm3u lists saved by other players. Supported are plain and extended m3u lists. We highly recommend reevaluation all entries that are imported from extended m3u lists because they contain inaccurate information.

The Menu

\fbox{\parbox{3cm}{\bf Playlist}}
\fbox{\parbox{3cm}{New List}}
Discards the current playlist and creates a new one (with the name 'default.playlist')
\fbox{\parbox{3cm}{Clear List}}
Dicards the content of the current playlist. (the listname and the path remain unchanged)
\fbox{\parbox{3cm}{Load}}
Discards the current playlist and loads another playlist. Besides loading DeliPlayer's own lists, the Playlist can load M3U lists (extended M3U lists are also supported).
\fbox{\parbox{3cm}{Save}}
Stores the current playlist under the same name as it was loaded or the last time saved. If the current list still has no name, Save behaves the same way as 'Save As'
\fbox{\parbox{3cm}{Save As}}
Stores the current playlist under a new name. A file dialog will pop up where you can enter the new name.
\fbox{\parbox{3cm}{Exit}}
Quit the Playlist.
\fbox{\parbox{3cm}{\bf Edit}}
\fbox{\parbox{3cm}{Edit Entry}}
\fbox{\parbox{3cm}{Evaluate Selected}}
\fbox{\parbox{3cm}{Evaluate Unscanned}}
\fbox{\parbox{3cm}{Evaluate All}}
\fbox{\parbox{3cm}{Add Entries}}
Opens a file dialog where you can select files that you want to append to the current playlist.
\fbox{\parbox{3cm}{Remove Selection}}
Removes all selected entries from the current playlist.
\fbox{\parbox{3cm}{\bf Play}}
\fbox{\parbox{3cm}{Next}}
Play the next song from the playlist. The first song will be played if no song is currently being played or the playing song is not present in the playlist.
\fbox{\parbox{3cm}{Play}}
Plays the first selected entry in the playlist or if the replay is currently paused it will continue playing the paused song.
\fbox{\parbox{3cm}{Pause}}
Pauses the currenly playing song.
\fbox{\parbox{3cm}{Stop}}
Stops the currently playing song.
\fbox{\parbox{3cm}{\bf Order}}
\fbox{\parbox{3cm}{Sort}}
Sorts the entry the current playlist as configured.
\fbox{\parbox{3cm}{Shuffle}}
Shuffles the entries in the current playlist.
\fbox{\parbox{3cm}{\bf Config}}
Opens the configuration window. See below for more information about configuring the Playlist.

Shortcuts

Playlist Shortcuts
Shortcuts Function
Ctrl+A Select all entries
Ins Open Add Files requester
Del,R Remove selected entries
$<$Return$>$ Play selected entry
B,V Play previous entry
N,$<$Space$>$ Play next entry
$<$Esc$>$ Cancel Drag&Drop operation
Keypad Add Play next subsong
Keypad Sub Play previous subsong
F Shuffle all entries
P,Y Toggle Pause
S Stop


The Playlist Configuration

The configuration window of the playlist can be reached through the menu. It consists of 5 pages:
Modes:
Most of the checkboxes in this window are quite selfexplanatory. If 'Close Window only Hides' is activated, closing the playlist window will not quit the playlist application but minimize it to a trayicon. Doubleclicking this trayicon restores the windows size and position.
Flags: Progressive: When enabled, the Playlist will proceed to the next entry in the list when the end of the currently playing song is reached and repeat is 'zero'. If this box is disabled, the song will play over and over again or stop playing at the songend, depending on the settings in the DeliPlayer's configuration. Usually you will not deactivate this switch. Play Subsongs: Activating this option also includes all subsongs when proceeding thru the playlist. Restart Playlist: When a playlist is completed (last/first entry is played) restart playing the playlist again. Shuffle on Restart: Shuffles the playlist when its end is reached. Record Playlist: Records a playlist rather than playing it. Whatever Deliplayer plays will be record in the list so you can later play exactly the same songs (in the same order). Auto Remove Unknown Entries: Entries DeliPlayer reports as unplayble are removed from the playlist if this switch is active. Auto Remove Unloadable Entries: Entries DeliPlayer reports as unloadable are removed from the playlist if this switch is active. List Follows Progress: Make the playlist follow the progress in the playlist so that the playing song is always visible in the Playlist window.
Sort On this page you can configure the sort-behavior of the Playlist. When selecting the Sort function from the menu the entries in the playlist will be ordered by the items in the 'Sort by' listbox. Why more than one entry ? Imagine you have two or more songs with the same name, in this case the second sort-entry will be used to order these songs, If there are still equalities the third item will be used, and so on. Select the 'Reverse Sorting' checkbox if you want ro reverse the sort order. That is Z-Y-X-...-B-A 9-8-...-1-0.
Columns: Here you can specify what information about the entries will be displayed in the playlist window. Layout: On this page you can configure the layout and components of the Playlist window. Show Control Buttons: When selected, the playlist window will contain the 'play' 'stop' (and other) buttons to control the replay. Show Flag Buttons: Displays a row of toggle buttons that are equivalent to the same named entries in the configuration 'Flags' window. Show Menu: Display the menu bar in the playlist window. If the menu is not displayed, you can open it by RMB clicking while the mouse is over the playlist window. Show Playing Information: Displays a row containing the songname, the playing-time and the repeat count of the current song. Show List Information: Display a additional bar in the playlist window contain the name of the current playlist, the position in the playlist in minutes and seconds, as well as index position. Button Height: All Playlist window elements are sized depending on the font. Some fonts make the buttons very high. You can enter any value from -10 to 10 to adjust the button height. Border Spacing: Amount of pixels between the last/first window element and the window border. Vertical Spacing: Amount of pixels between the playlist window controls. Font: Here you can select the font that you want use in the Playlist window.
Patterns: Here you can specifiy either a 'accept' or 'reject' pattern. The patterns can contain a wildcard ('*') as the very first and/or very last character, eg: 'mod.*', '*.xm' or '*displayme*'.
Multiple patterns are separated with the '$\vert$' character, eg: 'mod.*$\vert$*.xm$\vert$*.s3m'. The pattern you specify here is applied only when adding directories or directory trees. If you drop a single file onto the playlist or append it via filerequester, it is not matched against the activated pattern. That way you can explicitly add files that are accidentially mapped out by a pattern. (imagine a funny musician named a tune 'mod.I.love.diz' and your reject pattern contains '*.diz')
Evaluation: Automatically Evaluate Files: Whenever new entries are added to the list, the playlist will automatically evaluate them. Lowercase Songnames: When storing the songname of an entry it will first converted to lowercase characters. Uppercase First Letter: When evaluating the songname of an entry, the first letter will be converted to uppercase (This is done after optionally lowercasing the whole name). Stip Leading Spaced: When storing the songname of an entry all leading spaces are removed from the songname. Repeat each Score until Progressing: ditto Calculate ETAs: Here you can specify for how many songs the 'Expected Time to Air' will be calculated. Note that ETA calulating stops at the first song with unknown duration. Playtime for Songs with unknown duration: ditto Stop Progress if failed Loads in Sequence exeed: ditto

Timer

The Timer is another DeliPlayer client. It allows you to e.g. shut your computer down after specified number of played tunes.
You can choose one of the following actions: Note that under Windows NT$^{TM}$ you need the 'shutdown' priviledge to perform a system shutdown, a reboot or power down. You should better not use this feature as an administrator on a server system that needs to be up and running all the time. The trigger for the selected action can be any combination of the following: Optionally you can request a warning (in form of a requester) before the action is actually performed.
next up previous contents
Next: Conclusion Up: DeliPlayer documentation Previous: Plugins   Contents
2000-11-26