Und3rw0r1d
Oh, just one thing missing. I can't find the replay and shuffle buttons.
Murphy boosh
A new, simplified look for Songbird, with its feathers all ruffled up
Description
This layout was designed by Tyler Murphy.
- The player controls are located in the servicepane
- You can optionally move the Album Art pane to the top of the service pane. When moving the pane to the top, it applies to all feathers (Something that I want to change in the future). Thanks to atreiu for the code. If you happen to have the Power Tools add-on installed, you might run into troubles enabling this option.
The Lucida Grande font is used throughout most of the feather, if you don't have it, download it:
Lucida Grande
Lucida Grande Bold
Grid View is a highly recommended add-on for Murphy! And most other addons are feathered, if you want your favorite addon skinned or made purdyer, let me know ;)
What I'm working on now:
-Moving the Service Pane contents to the Nav-bar.
-A new, just controls-based player layout(similar to Pure Player).
Comments, suggestions, and bug reports are very welcome!
Release Notes
-Update for 1.10
Images
(7)Comments
(125)Subscribe
RnB_001
Where r the replay & shuffle buttons?
Great feather :-)
ethanjim
really impressive! absolutly love it, ive never really deviated away from the default feather but i had to for this :)the only bug i can see is that the album name gets cut off a bit
boosh
@Und3rw0r1d, RnB_001: I purposely kept them out for simplicity, but since it looks like more people are gonna miss it, i'll look into adding them back in. For now you can access them through the Control menu item.
@ethanjim: You're talking about the bottom of the Album name, right? I guess I didn't play any albums with p's and y's and such when testing. I'll get that fixed. Thanks ethanjim!
boosh
@ethanjim, After more testing, it looks like it cuts even more off if you don't have the Lucida Grande font installed. I would suggest downloading it(in my description). I'll try to fix it for all fonts though.
jfty.009260
Very beautiful. I like the style -- it looks very elaborate, professional, polished, and stylish. I also like the color scheme.
But if you have time on your hands, can you please make a version of this feather in the conventional style (as in with the player controls in one horizontal row)?
Oh, and the stars in the Rating section in the metadata window seems to need more contrasting with the background. Also, if you're going with Lucida Grande, it'd look good if it was also used in the song list -- but then Tahoma is also an excellent choice, so go with what you like more.
Can you add support for some add-ons like LyricMaster (a better-looking style) and Birdtitle (the title bar for the pop-up window becomes streched due to the X button)?
Sorry for so much requests, but it's such an intriguing skin...it just looks so unique. I hope you understand. :D
jfty.009260
Something I observed...the progress bar of the song doesn't start at the leftmost point, it's indented a few centimeters to the left.
And another request: How about doing something similar to the volume bar as the progress bar? Like making it have a trailing light to the left. Just an idea >_<
deOmega
Awesome work. You definitely stepped out of the box on this one. I do fine the scroll bars width to be a bit overwhelming.. I don't know.. nice job overall.. still getting used to the realization that this is Songbird :)
jfty.009260
Upon further inspection, the MashTape pane gets cropped on the right when the right sidebar is pushed further to the left.
klint
Hi
Yes, excellent and refreshing work indeed! Thanks a lot.
Say, maybe a stupid idea, but would it be feasible to spare some space in the left bar by putting all the command buttons and progress meter as a transparency overlay on the Art display pane?
Similarly to the command buttons of the Now Playing Album art: when you move the mouse over the album art middle zone, the playing commands appear, and when the mouse is not in that zone, player command panel is hidden...
This would be the same amount of space saved for playlist, radio and bookmark nodes..
Just my 2.5cts!!
jfty.009260
@deOmega: Strangely enough Songbird 1.4 makes use of really big scrollbars by default. I guess feather developers have no choice but to accept this.
boosh
@jfty.009260:
Thanks for all the suggestions!
player controls horizontal: ya i'll see if i have the time. i'll try to put it as another option in this feather.
rating stars: i'll see if i can improve it ;)
addons: yup, I love addon skinning, so those will hopefully roll out soon.
progressbar: ya, its annoying, i've kept trying but keep failing at it.. its cause my 'remainder button' is so big, i'm definitely gonna fix it though.
volume bar as progressbar: i'm not sure if that would be possible, but would be really neat!
mashtape: thats mashtapes fault, not mine.
Thanks for all the suggestions again!!
@deOmega: I'm a fan of skinny scrollbars, so I'll definitely make them a few pixels smaller! Thanks for pointing that out!
@klint: Awesome suggestion, similar to what Pure Player does on the default skin..? I'll see what is possible. I eventually want to put the Library, Radio, Playlists, etc. nodes as "buttons"(i.e. with dropdowns for playlists) in the nav-bar to save a ton of space. But that is gonna take more time, and a lot of help from the devs. So your suggestion might be a tad easier.. i think..? We'll see. Thanks for the suggestion!!
jfty.009260
@klint: Yeah, that's a very good idea!
@boosh: Hmm, what I meant about the volume bar is that it would look like the progress bar, with the part from the leftmost point till the rightmost point all lit up, kinda like YABS' volume bar [http://addons.songbirdnest.com/addon/1295]. It'd be also nice if the default mute and saturated volume buttons were displayed so you'd know if it's fully mute or fully...full, for lack of a better term. Again, these are just ideas, so it's up to ya.
Thanks for hearin' us out -- I really appreciate it. It's great that you have the enthusiasm to develop this... I think I've switched my allegiance (from YABS) to this feather. Kudos and more power!
jfty.009260
Hmm I tried to make a LyricMaster theme. I ripped one image from Ne+ theme though. >_> Obviously, it works with the epic Murphy theme. I think I was using Lucida Grande on the lyrics pane. Check it out if you wish.
stevo
This looks great! Only a few minor issues that I can see visually, but the idea is awesome! I have been waiting for someone to do a different layout for ages!
On my MAC: http://twitpic.com/vlroz
boosh
@jfty.009260: ahh gotcha! And thanks!
@stevo: Thank you soo much for the screenshot!! I'll try to fix those issues.
deOmega
@boosh,
I would like to modify my comment about the scroll bars :).. maybe it is the blue that is overwhelming as opposed to the size.. in a sense, the width of the scroll bars gives the theme a 'sturdy' look that is consistent with everything else. Take that for what it is worth.. awesome regardless.
verso
Fantastic, I'm a fan already! Great work all the way, aside from the awesome layout, I just love the look of buttons and the clean, sober feel of the playlist background. - Few small suggestions: 1. would you maybe consider lightening the dark browser tabs background to blend in with nav-bar background? 2. I noticed you made service pane min-width wider, which looks great with hidden tab bar, but a little less so when the library tab is there. You might want to consider widening the library tab to match the min service pane width. 3. I'm loving the small nav-bar buttons, but a clean, space saving feather like this would look good with a slightly bigger font size, imo. And btw, I can't seem to find the miniplayer; and one last thing: the Player Controls menu entry is still there.
Thanks so much for your effort!
verso
Forget the "bigger font size" suggestion, I thought I had the correct font installed, but was mistaking - it looks great with Lucida Grande.
boosh
@deOmega: they are pretty dang blue, i'll see if they look better toned down a bit. Thanks!
@verso:
tabs/library tab size: I totally forgot about them when skinning, I'll get those fixed. Thank you!
miniplayer: there is none right now, i just took it out completely cause I was contemplating making a new one from scratch, but am having second thoughts now, hah. but ill probably just put in the regular one for now till/if i have any ideas about a new one.
Player Controls menu entry: ill try to take those out, since they dont really do much now.
Thank you for all the comments & suggestions, I appreciate it!
verso
@boosh
Thanks again for taking on the task of realizing such an excellent and difficult idea! And I'd vote strongly in favor of an all new mini player layout (from this point of view, I suggest you don't put in the default one [although I like the new look very much] - you might get lazy and we definitely don't want that:)
verso
Thank you, wonderful update, the browser bg you added gives the feather a nice compact feel, the wider library tab totally did the trick also (the feather looks really stable, orderly and space conserving). Also, I like the shuffle/repeat buttons changes. Thanks again!
verso
Oh, and one more request/suggestion. I like the separator delimiting the space between service pane items and the control pane - but it's only there when the player is inactive, I think it would look good in active mode also.
deOmega
@boosh,
Well done imo.. I hope others can appreciate it, but what i am seeing here is that it is great that I do not even know whether or not you have decreased the size of the scroll bars, because they simply do not stand out as a distraction as before.. they blend in very well. This is great imo.
By the way, I am using this addon called new tab button, to help me get to the browser, as there are no bookmark features in this version of songbird... anyway, I am not seeing it in up by the back and forward nav buttons when using this feather.
Again, absolutely superb work.
A suggestion if it matters.. and if possible.. over by lyric master.. If you can do the same background property for the artist, album and and song, as you have in the library,
it may be a nice touch. (Akin to how verso has blue fancy underlines).. unless it would be overkill.
I am sure you noticed also that that pane is a different shade of black to anything else in the theme, not a complaint, as it may also add a touch, but pointing out just in case :)
creat0r79
Superb skin. I just miss something, there's no feedback from the play/pause and previous/next controls when hovering over them, such as...i don't know... glow or something. Whenever I move the mouse over them I seem to be waiting for something.
I don't know if it's just on my end or it's 'by design'
ihavnoclue
I agree with creat0r79, a little glow or something similar would be excellent
boosh
@verso: Ya, for some reason only the inactive state of the faceplate shows up right now, I'm gonna have to move some XUL around to get the regular faceplate to show up. I'll keep trying at it. Thanks!
@deOmega: Mmm, yes! That does need some consistency. I'll have updated addons in the next release, and you can tell me how they look! For the new tab addon, I'm actually having that disappear on other feathers, like purple rain, too. It might be an issue with the addon. But I will have that button skinned in the next release.. Hopefully it shows up for you then ;)
@creat0r79, ihavnoclue: Thanks for the comments! It's in the works as I type, Tyler is working on it ;)
Thanks for all the comments and suggestions everyone!
creat0r79
Great, thank you. Can I start nagging: Is it done yet, is it done yet..... :D
ihavnoclue
Thanks boosh, Tyler.
The new black scroll bars are more uniform with all the other black, but I think the blue ones work a little better.
The blue also matched the bar showing time elapsed from the song (sorry dont know the name) and the blue letters when selecting something like library.
deOmega
hmm. boosh, the new tab THINGIE :) shows up on my system using Purple Rain and Ne+.
I am using windows 7 32bit
boosh
@ihavnoclue, I was a fan of the blue too, but they were just a tad too distracting for scrollbars. They might be back in the future though, cause I love blue so much. hehe. I'll try to tone them down a bit to see if I can bring them back to life :)
ihavnoclue
@boosh that does make sense,
Also I found a strange little detail today, I like how when you go over the button to hide the sidebar, bottom bar thing, it turn into an arrow, but the one to hide album art doesn't which I find strange
boosh
@ihavnoclue: I made the service pane one a "generic" image, because you can put it the Album art pane at the top or bottom. I could flip it so the arrow points the right direction when the album art pane is at the top, which is preferred for this feather. But if someone decides to keep the album art pane at the bottom, the arrow will be pointing the wrong way when collapsing/opening. What do you think? Should I just put the arrow in that works for the top album-art pane?
verso
@boosh
How about this?
(Another small request: it seems the min-vol button is not selectable?)
boosh
@verso, dang, it looks like its cause of all the crazy margins i have going down over there from the Shuffle/Repeat buttons, making it not selectable. I think I might have to move those to above the "faceplate" eventually, that should fix it.
boosh
And verso again, What I've decided to do with the miniplayer is keep the same one(sorry), cause I like the way it works. But we're going to make a another layout(or two) for this feather: One that is same as the regular layout, and another that is a PurePlayer-ish size/layout, but built into Murphy. Hopefully that one turns out interesting.
saturnine
Wow, this is a nice feather. Really polished. However, how do you move the album art pane to the top? Doesn't seem to be working for me.
boosh
@saturnine: You can do it through the addon options. Go to Tools > Addons. Go to Murphy, and hit the Options/Preferences Button. And check it. If its not moving, its probably because you have the Power Tools add-on installed, which has the same tool for doing that.
I'll eventually default it to the top when i can get it to not affect other feathers..
deOmega
@saturnine
tools/add-ons/Murphy/options... check the box
saturnine
Also, it would look better if the rating stars and scroll bars were blue also so that they stand out more.
deOmega
lol.. whoops.
saturnine
Thanks for the help guys.
mmmaiqo
aloha guys.... i'm to new into this... i get this awsome feather but i cant make that this looks like the samples images..... i use mac and the only feature i cant make work is the displays way of albums... anyone can help please....!?
saturnine
It would be cool if the player controls were movable in the service pane as well. Maybe there is a way to make the service pane act as a grid. This was all three (player controls, album art, and navigation) have interchangeable positions and can rearranged to the preference of the user.
deOmega
I like the color you chose for the lyrics pane.. makes the feather look balanced. If i could suggest a bit smaller text for the artist and album... and you could have probably gotten away with a dark separator between the artist, album and song, that looks similarly faded, but ridged or guttered like the library view.
When i introduce people to Songbird, the first thing that impresses them is the appearance... Skins like these really make people fall in love with Songbird enough to use it even though it still has performance issues.
This feather has really matured fast. The only other thing I am waiting on is the compatibility with the new tab addon.
Thank you for your work, and take care.. looking forward to more work from you.
Thanks to all of you guys that work so hard on these feathers. I do envy you.
verso
@boosh
Select radio station, try adjusting volume by clicking volume bar.
jfty.009260
New update's looking great. Good job. :D
I'm just waiting for the alternative layouts.
boosh
@mmmaiqo: Send me a screenshot of what you have so far so I know what you're still having trouble with.
@saturnine: Movable controls, thats more of a Songbird feature request kinda. It takes a while to get everything in the right place with the XUL and CSS.. You might want to try out shifty. But I have a feeling it will severely break something with my layout. :/
blue scrollbars: refer to the comments i have been having with deOmega and ihavnoclue. I'm gonna see if I can come up with something different to see if it can work.
@deOmega: Your suggestions, consider them done. I'll modify those for the next release. For the New Tab Button, can you uninstall and reinstall the addon to see if it shows up for you. Cause I see it for me :( If not I'll try to investigate more.
@verso: Weirdest bug ever! Thank you for letting me know!
verso
@boosh
It's a close match, but I think it came in 2nd place (right after the lazy splitters:)
HenningStummer
This became my most favorite feather! Great job.
But after the last update, Songbird started in mini player and I had to restore it to the full window manually. Not a big thing, but it could confuse some people...
...and the only thing that I'd change: IMO the font size in the player pane (title, artist) is a bit too big; 1-2 points smaller would fit better. Just my opinion ;)
Anyhow keep up this great work!
deOmega
boosh,
I uninstalled and reinstalled but it is still a problem. no worries on my end though,if you do not hear any other complaints, because what I simply installed the songbird bookmarks and that addressed the need I had for that tabs addon.
boosh
@HenningStummer: Ya I was afraid of that, I tested an upgrade before the upload and it didn't do that, but I know see that it does do that :( I think every time Songbird sees a knew layout added it defaults to that. So I know know in the future to change the name of all the xul layouts before uploading if i dont want people to see the actual new one by default. I have been contemplating to upload a new one that would fix it for all the people who have't updated yet, but kept resisting, I should of just should have done it from the start, but o well :/
And the smaller text size: I'll talk to Tyler about that, I like it big cause it gives it more attention, but when the Track info is long, the autoscrolling can be annoying :/ So ya, i feel ya :)
stevo
This is turning into an awesome feather, it beats RubberDucky and Gonzo hands down, I also think it is a much better design then the current purple rain. I made a small modification (I can post a patch if you like) so that on my Mac it uses the native window frame and window controls, the only thing is the color is still grey :P but there is a component in Purple rain that I am going to build so that it will change the color (you can check out the source of the current trunk to see what I mean).
I'll post a patch when I have something on that too.
Thanks again for a great alternate layout.
boosh
stevo, YES! I would love that patch! I looked at the component thingy that Purple Rain uses and had no clue what was going on :/
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
BR-Charles
Beautiful!
ronjouch
This. Is. Awesome. Thank you for your excellent work.
I have one comment: the lines separating list items are a bit heavy (1px black line + 1px gray line) and bring a lot of noise. Maybe making them thinner/lighter could be more usable and pleasing.
shadyabhi
Very well developed feather.. Its perfect
boosh
@ronjouch: Ya that black could probably be bumped up a few rgb's since its pure black right now. Thanks for pointing that out.
Thanks BR-Charles & shadyabhi!!
verso
Hi, one small observation regarding the "adjust-volume-by-clicking" problem, I'm not sure it'll be helpful, but here it is: the problem seems to go away after refreshing UI. Usually this (which I'm sure you've noticed, since all feathers behave this way) brings back the play/pause etc. buttons and the ability to click as well. - Not sure this helps.
boosh
I believe its from the Shuffle/repeat buttons getting disabled during radio - i either need to make the clickable area smaller or move them to the top of the faceplate :( Thanks verso!
deOmega
This is simply another feather that is just about as close to perfection as they can get... in my eyes. Thank you boosh.
mattevt
I love it, my new favorite. The only thing I'd like to see is the option to re-size (up and down, not just side to side) the player controls/album art sections. You know, so there's more room to view my playlists.
boosh
Thanks deOmega - I still have plenty of more ideas for this one so hopefully it can get even better.
mattevt, Right now I'm working on hiding/moving the service pane contents & playlists to the nav-bar so it's more clean over there. I keep hitting a few snags, so it might be a while till the next update. Thanks for the suggestion!
simplysped
A lighter version of this would be awesome
dael99
when we have various playlist created, it's a pain to have the players and the 'now playing' pane...
Would be so hard to put album artwork as background of the player controls? (with some kind of opacity = 0.7 or something) this way we don't need to expand the 'now playing' pane.
declarationend
Really nice feather ! Slick.
OmnipotentGeass
Great Skin
boosh
@dael99, sorry for the late reply, I'm not sure yet how hard it would be to implement, but that seems like a pretty popular feature request so I'll definitely look in to it in the future.
Thanks declarationend & OmnipotentGeass!
kyods
Any chance of having Murphy bumped up for 1.7? Honestly, I can't imagine Songbird without it now.
boosh
Definitely, I will before 1.7 comes out. Sadly theres a nasty bug out that I'm waiting for a fix/workaround until I upload. The good thing is I'm already done updating it :) You can download it here:
Murphy for 1.7
kyods
Boosh, you rock, bro. Thanks a lot!
uport
I really love this design, I'm using it now and it pretty much looks like the screenshot. I'm really new to Songbird though and I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to move the album art above the service pane. How is it done?
uport
nevermind, I found it.
deOmega
Hi Boosh,
Is the border supposed to appear this way? Like windows. And search bar as well.
http://i49.tinypic.com/15dq9uw.jpg
Using official 1.7 release (released today) and windows 7.
boosh
Son of a.. No it isnt. I enabled the Mac system borders and remember enough to upload separate builds for Windows/Linux but I guess I forgot to actually change it. Stupid me.
Thanks a lot deOmega! Appreciate it!
deOmega
You are welcome. Thank you very much...the update worked of course.
ethanjim
I really liked the native borders with this feather, made songbird feel a bit faster and snappier, or maybe it was in my head. "The stick to side" worked with it as well :)
boosh
@ethanjim, I was using it with the native for about 2 months(since I was dropboxing with Tyler for testing) and was loving it. (I'm a window-snap whore) I actually contemplated putting them as an option for all my feathers. I'll look into re-adding them as another 'View' for 1.8 because of your feedback. All you have to do is change the false to true in the install.rdf where you see <songbird:showchrome>false</songbird:showchrome>
boosh
@ethanjim, its up, and should be looking good now :)
tonblom
It is the best looking feather. For 1.8 I would like the player controls back just above album art at the bottom, as an option. Also it would be nice if the menu bar of the album art is the same height as the bottom and side panes
boosh
Thanks tonblom,
> player controls back just above album art at the bottom, as an option.
That's sadly something I can't do anymore because of the new service pane code in 1.8. The upside of the new code is that I could add the option (view) to move the player controls to the top of the Service Pane.
> menu bar of the album art is the same height as the bottom and side panes.
That's something I want to keep in for at least a full release cycle to get more feedback on it. The only reason I made just that one smaller is because most people will either have it closed or open and not mess with it that often. You may also notice that you can click the entire bar to close/open it. So thank you for the feedback :)
phatair
Hi, what is this for a great album cover view in the top of the middle?
boosh
It's Grid View, it hasn't been updated for the latest release though.
bluedriver
this is the best looking feather for songbird! beautiful!
control player in the bottom like the original father?
txgecko
Love it! There's plenty of nice feathers out there, but they always feel at least a bit like they're mimicking itunes layout, and this is nice and unique. as a side note, while grid view hasn't been update yet,
griddy does almost the same thing and it is compatible with 1.9
DailyActivist
The best feather. Thanks for your work.
This is minor, but it would be nice to be able to remove the lines (between each file/category) in the libraries.
boosh
You can go to:
%appdata%\Songbird2\Profiles\[YourProfile].default\extensions\murphy-player@michael.purses\chrome\skin\base-elements\bg-empty-table.png
You can change the image to whatever you prefer :)
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Downloads: 96,711
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based on 28 ratings
based on 28 ratingsImages: 7
Comments: 125
Last Updated: 7 months ago
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Name: Murphy
Author:
Contributors: Tyler Murphy
Version: 1.4 version history
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Und3rw0r1d
Great work! This is now my favorite feather, it's really well contructed :D