nickm
Brilliant!
But I would love an option to filter by album artist instead of artist.
Releases zk7
Upcoming releases by artists in your library.
Description
Attention Everyone!
The Songbird team has seen the light, and has made this addon an officially supported one for Songbird 1.4. Hence, I will not be updating this for the new Songbird version and skin.
Their new addon is available here: New Releases
This addon provides you with a listing of upcoming albums, singles and compilation releases for the coming months. Can be filtered down to show releases only by the artists in your library.
Listings can be directly added into your Google Calendar to mark the day.
Since there are several addons currently available that can provide you with albums already released, this addon focuses only on future releases.
Feedback is of course always welcome :)
Release Notes
Compatible with Songbird 1.2
Misc fixes:
- Fix for filter not being deleted on save
- Fix for gcal all day event
- Fix for formatting issue with certain album names
Images
(2)Comments
(36)Subscribe
tdmurphy
This is a great add-on! It would be really neat if you could integrate it with a site like http://diditleak.co.uk/ and just have a "Leaked" column that says yes or no for each album to let the user know if it is available online yet.
One problem I have is that after I click the options button, it's not easy to get the little window to go away. I hit save, but it just stays open. I'm in OSX and it makes that type of preference window that slides down from the top, and the only way to close it seems to be by hitting apple+w. Maybe hitting save should close it and automatically refresh the view to update it to the changes.
GeekShadow
Very nice add-on, it should be proposed as a first-run add-on.
Here is a better CD icon for the node : http://geekshadow.com/images/node-icon.png
zk7
Thanks for the comments guys!
This is my first addon using the Mozilla/Songbird framework, so I am counting on the feedback I get for suggestions/bugs/features you would like for future releases (pun?).
@nickm - I can look into adding an option to compare your album artist data to the artist data I get from the server. Is this what you are looking for?
@tdmurphy - I noticed in OSX the preferences window does not show the ok/cancel buttons for some reason. I think you should be able to hit esc to close the window after hitting save, but i'll play around with that functionality.
nickm
It's not that important, but it's just because I have a lot of compilations (with an album artist of "Various"), so I have about 1500 artists in my library but I only have albums from about 500. I'm not really interested in the releases from someone on a random compilation so it ould be nice to be able to ignore them.
Seb
very good
Seb
is that possible to add a direct link with the artist albums into the user library in the artist column ?
Seb
It's possible to add the possibility to export the list in text format or print it ?
Seb
thks
seba_kerckhof
Awesome!
skorasaurus
Great concept ! Executed pretty well, especially with gcal functionality (I don't use gCal though, but I'm sure others do).
Besides the lack of releases on musicbrainz' calendar (I was pretty surprised to only get about 8 results for my library) was that some of the results were by 'various artists' . I presume that I received those because I have a few files which still have 'various artists' in the ID3 tag's artist field. I suggest to filter out the various artist release.
Good work, look forward to see more of your contributions to the songbird community,
skorasaurus, fellow songbird add-on writer.
zk7
Thanks sko!
I do have the issue with the 'Various Artists' releases myself. I have been looking into the option of comparing by the Album Artist field instead, or simply creating a user preference to allow filtering out releases by certain artists.
The MB database is a bit on the low side with future releases, but they have a pretty complete list of music already released.
Would there be any interest in adding an option for showing releases form the past 3 or 4 months? I know addons like Last.fm sidebar and Mashtape will show you this already, and I did not want to conflict with them.
Luckyrat
This looks like a really promising add-on.
The 'Various Artists' is a bit of a problem. However, it is not too bad at the moment when, out of my entire library, only a dozen releases are listed. Hopefully the MB database can be improved or an alternative data source can be found.
Defaulting to using the Album Artist field sounds like a good idea.
Personally, I'm not a big fan of the Mashtape approach to displaying this type of data. I often use other applications while listening to music so I can go for hours without checking up on what Mashtape or other add-ons are displaying. One central place to find a comprehensive list of upcoming and recent releases from all artists in my library is much more useful for me.
Have you thought about producing the data in iCalendar format so that it can be used by (pretty much all) other calendar applications?
So, in summary, any work towards fixing the various artists problem and improving calendar support would be welcome but in my opinion it is more important to find a way to handle multiple data sources and recent releases.
Thanks and good luck with the next stages of development!
GrahamS
This addon is sweet, thanks!
I have a couple of ideas/suggestions:
1) Ability to filter by release type, i.e. show only full albums, EPs or singles
2) Display the results in a calendar, or make it look more like the Concerts addon in date mode, which looks really nice. In fact it would be awesome if this addon were to be combined with concerts, seeing as they provide similar functionality.
zk7
I realize many users do not use Google Calendar and that integration would be useless to them, but I do urge you guys to try it out. gCal supports all standard calendar formats and syncs with pretty much any application/phone calendar that has sync support - which is why I hesitate about adding a "calendar view".
However I have been looking into a way to export the list as a file, and iCal format may be a good idea.
@Graham - Filtering is something in the works.
@Luckyrat - I did look into various other sources such as Amazon and Discogs while I was creating this addon, but they require API keys to access their services. While that approach would work for a webserver, it doesnt quite relate to an addon that would be installed on everyones computers. I agree that the MB database is bit sparse, especially as you go out more than 2-3 months, but it has an open webservice. It is community driven and so hopefully it will pick up in the future.
The majority of the data retrieved is clumped for the next couple weeks, so if you check this addon even semi-regularly you shouldn't miss any release. I am still looking for any other sources though.
tdmurphy
The newest version fixes the preference window problem on OSX, and it is a great update overall. It would be neat if you could on the album release's name to bring you to its wikipedia entry, or the band's name to view their wikipedia, since these are the places I usually go to after I discover that there is a new album coming out to learn more about it.
NK4551
Hello, I have three suggestions for this add-on...
-Add a little indicator "Releases (3)" to show how many are on the list
-Release the CSS code so feathers can skin it to match
-Add more sorting options and filters so you can exclude artists/countries/genres/etc.
If any of those could be implemented, I'd be grateful.
Thanks for a great add-on though!
zk7
Thanks for the suggestions =)
Filtering is something I am working on for the next update.
The CSS for the listing page is isolated in its own file if you look at the addon files (I have two versions of it for the two themes), and I can make that available by itself somewhere.
I'll go ahead and update it with some helpful comments in the next update for any feathers developers.
@tdmurphy - Unfortunately a site like wikipedia does not have a uniform naming convention for artist pages, making it hard to provide links to the correct page. However this is a good idea (its usually what I do too) so its something I'll keep on the backburner.
Caelte
Hey thank you for this great addon. The filtering options you're working on, would make the work with the addon much easier.
Your idea with also showing past releases is very good. If you implement this feature maybe you can make a point in the options "Check for releases x months in the past." as you did for future releases.
(Sorry for bad english)
tdmurphy
I didn't think about how difficult it could be to find a certain Wikipedia page since they aren't always named the same way. I was trying to think of a work around, and maybe this method could work.
First, it could check to see if a Wikipedia page existed for the artist's name with (band) added to the end. For artist names that have other meanings, this is usually how the Wikipedia article is named. For example, since a grizzly bear is a type of animal, you have to go to the article named "Grizzly Bear (band)" to view their page. If an article named like this exists, it is probably exactly what the user is looking for. If an article with that name doesn't exist, it could just go to the article without (band) added to the end. For example, since the article for John Lennon would just be called "John Lennon", instead of "John Lennon (band)", it would go to that page if the (band) one didn't exist.
Of course, this is only possible if there is a way to tell if a Wikipedia article exists under a certain name or not. I think it would be possible though, since if you type in a term that an article does not currently exist for, it will bring you to a search query for that term rather than an article with the term's name.
Luckyrat
Have you looked at the Wikipedia API?
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API
I've never used it so not sure if it can be used remotely and it may be more work than trying to parse HTML page results but it may be possible for you to send a query along the lines of "does page X actually exist?"
zk7
I'm thinking just bringing up wikipedia search results for the band name will probably be the best 'catch-all' case. But you can also get cases where the artist name is not exclusive, resulting in multiple variations.
Here are some examples:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana - page exists, but not one we want
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_(band) - probably the one we want
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_(British_band) - could be correct too
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dredg - correct page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dredg_(band) - does not exist
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spinners - gives us the two possible options
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spinners_(band) - does not exist
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spinners_(U.S._band) - could be correct
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spinners_(UK_band) - could also be correct
Lucky, thanks for the API link, but I think you are right about it being more work. If I load the entire release list with 200+ results, I don't want to query their webservice that many times consecutively.
Rolle
Very good! Thanks!
stevel
fan-friggin'-tastic!!!!!
StormtrooprDave
Great add on in theory. I just wonder if you need to add more sources for release information. I have a band called InMe in my library and I know they have a new album coming out at the end of August but it did not list it. They are not a big band but they're not tiny either so I thought it would've come up.
zk7
Thanks guys.
@StormtrooprDave - Yes, I have had this issue with a couple of artists in my library as well - and since the MB database is community driven some releases get missed as no one adds them. I am on the lookout for ways to use other sources.
NK4551
Uninstalling the add-on won't remove "Releases" from the servive pane. Any idea on how to uninstall without that sticking around?
vladak
Brilliant idea. One little bug: the add-on likes to stick to the first open tab. Opening new tab and selecting 'Releases' is being ignored - it opens the view stubbornly in the first tab.
adondai
Fantastic addon - been waiting for something like this. Of course like anything there's plenty of suggestions that could be implemented as comments above show, however as it is this this really handy.
My own suggestion, some kind of subtle highlighting (or similar) for artists in the normal library window with upcoming albums.
zk7
@NK4551 - That is simply your punishment for trying to uninstall my addon ;). Just kidding though, I thought I fixed that issue earlier. I'll look into it.
@vlad - are you trying to open the list in the last available tab or in the one currently open?
boosh
Could you use .row-even and .row-odd in your CSS instead of the dark and light themes, that way it will match whatever feather that is used?
Jeslimak
Is there any quick and/or dirty fix I can apply to remove the extraneous Releases entry in the Service Pane?
smirky
+1 on the "remains in service pane after uninstall" question...
Lilmarsu
Same problem here, Releases entry can't be removed.
zk7
Hey guys. The disabling of the addon because of the update seems to have broken the service pane node.
For a temporary dirty fix, you can remove the entry for the releases node from the service-pane.rdf file.
This is an XML file that resides in your Application Data\Songbird2\Profiles folder and lists all your service pane nodes.
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based on 16 ratingsImages: 2
Comments: 36
Last Updated: 5 months ago
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boosh
This is awesome! Thanks!