Winamp Dashboard

[blo]

Greetings Forum Dwellers,

We are interested to hear your thoughts on the Winamp Dashboard. What you like, what you don't like, any feeds you want to suggest for new modules, how we can make it more dynamic, etc.

Let it rip!

[retchless]

Sadly, I would never use the dashboard unless I could make it my browser homepage as well. And even as my browser homepage, the visual design of the dashboard seems to try to match typical Media Library width and style. So if I may rank my dev priorities:

1) nicer style... something with a little more visual affordance

2) horizontal scaling... If my media library is scaled to fit a large percentage of my 1280x1024 resolution screen, there's tons of wasted space. Just better overall usage of the resolution that I currently have allocated to the dashboad

3) Custom RSS feeds might be nice. A Digg.com module!

4) Browser integration.

[STanger]

how about ShoutCast Wire being directly integrated into it? and make it able to copy downloaded podcasts directly to portable device?? HMmmmm???

[pile0nades]

I use it for things that directly relate to Winamp, such as skins, plugins, and shoutcast/tv modules. For everything else, there's Netvibes which the Dashboard is a pretty good minimal clone of.

I don't like the fact that there can only be 2 columns of modules. Also, when I open it, I get an IE error, which I thought I had turned off. I guess it comes from embedding IE into the window, which is a known problem in the Firefox IETab extension.

[NO_Dashboard]

Ok, i created my account for only one reason. TO POST THIS ONE POST!

PLEASE KEEP WINAMP CLEAN! REMOVE THE COMPLETE DASHBOARD FUNKTION.

Me an all my friends saw the Dashboard...
...and we immediately deleted Winamp.


We all love winamp and will keep on using it. But we only use the old versions WITHOUT this #+ß´! "Dashboard".

And if winamp won't remove the Dashboard or offer an option to Disable it completele we have to look for an other Programm....


ThX.

Dashboard =

[DrO]

1) it's an option in the installer so if you blindly clicked next then it's your own fault in this case (and i believe that the option would have been marked in bold to indicate a new item in the install from previous installs)

2) you can uninstall it via the preferences -> plug-ins -> media library and selecting uninstall after selecting the ml_dash item

yes it sucks and is pointless but as shown it's optional like just about everything else in the program so is part down to your own issues of not checking the options in the installer correctly when installing.

-daz

[DJ Egg]

Close Winamp and delete ml_dash.dll (Winamp\Plugins folder).

Though as DrO said, and you obviously didn't see, there's an option to not install it in the first place in the Installer Options.

[NO_Dashboard]

^^

kk thX

didn't recognized the option^^.... ;p
no time to read^^... ;D

THX

but my opinion is still that i do not like the Dashboard^^^;P

[DrO]

thankfully it's not a hard-coded in feature so as long as you remember to uncheck it in the installer it shouldn't then install it when you upgrade to newer winamp versions. such is the benefit of the main parts of winamp being built up as plugins so that they can be removed/left out as needed.

and everyone is entitled to their own view on that feature

-daz

[Koopa]

I have to agree, as long as these "features" are uncheckable in the installer it's ok, and ml_dash has just a few kb.

[percy74]

From what I can tell, the Dashboard feature is largely for keeping up on new music, concerts, and charts, as well as new things Winamp. For my uses, I have no need for Dashboard, Now Playing, streams, podcasts, etc. I use Winamp strictly to play and organize music and sync my iPod. I would rather see the energies spent on "improving" Winamp to go toward things like id3v2.4 support and anything that would speed up/enhance file organization and playback. There's my two cents.

[CraigF]

It must be real handy that its separate developers working on each then, so theres no conflict. or, to put it plainly, dashboard and its ilk has no bearing on winamp core development.

[Axellink]

The dashboard is no good for me either, nice idea but it's just another box I have to tick in the winamp installation recently.

[CraigF]

well, you should only need to uncheck it once since the installer remembers your prefs

[seyss]

too gay for WA

[bubba_lugnut]

sorry, but i do not like the dashboard format at all. did like the media library the way it was, how do i get it back? have winamp pro and love the features of pro, but im hittin my head against the dashboard...

thumbs down

[DJ Egg]

Originally posted by DJ Egg
Close Winamp and delete ml_dash.dll (Winamp\Plugins folder).

Though as DrO said, and you obviously didn't see, there's an option to not install it in the first place in the Installer Options.

[waffles]

I read about the dashboard and had no intrest in installing it.

What I'd really like to be able to do is stop the notice that tells me about the dashboard every time I start Winamp. How can I do that?

[DJ Egg]

What notice?

EDIT

Ahh! That's got nothing to do with the dashboard.

http://www.meggamusic.co.uk/winamp/s...rsioncheck.png

Winamp > Prefs (Ctrl+P) > General Preferences:
Uncheck "check for new versions of winamp at startup"


Though of course, if you upgrade to 5.32 (the latest & greatest, and only supported version) then you wouldn't see that update message even if the option was enabled ;-)

[zackbuffo]

First, I have to admit, I didn't take a closer look at the dashboard functions, but I can't see any benefit from the dashboard so far.

I guess I can access all functions and offers in a similar way with a browser like Firefox. Besides I have much better control about what's going on with the shown content in Firefox.

That's the point I'm concerned about: for me, dashboard is just another way to bother me with ads and content, I can't really control.

No feature for me!

By the way, I totaly agree with percy74: The improvement of the main features playback and especially file organisazion, seems to me way more important than the dashboard feature.

[argonaut]

After spending about two hours with the dashboard I really have yet to see any benefit it provides. Granted it is still in beta and something useful might come of it, but for now it is rather pointless. Having obnoxious ads does not help.

It is kind of nice to be able to move the boxes around so easily.

Some of the links take you to pages that make the "Back" button useless because it redirects a second web page.

Clicking on an album cover in "Music Now" (Goldfrapp I think) takes me to "AOL Music Now". Clicking back does not work. Clicking "Home" takes me to some king of "AOL Member and Guest Login." Home still does not work. I would think "Home" would take me to the Dashboard Home and not AOL home.

Oh, did I mention the ads ...the ads are really annoying. As a Firefox user it would be nice if the ads at least were able to launch in my default browser (Firefox) instead of IE.

This is going to be added to the list of items that won't be installed next time. How about focusing on core Winamp functions instead of this silly pointless stuff. Ad revenue? Pressure from the AOL mothership?

[zackbuffo]

Why use the IE engine at all? Don't we all know about IE quality? Why not use the standard browser engine? Then you have the choice. I don't install firefox on my PC to avoid security risks in IE and on the other hand use a WA feature that's based on IE. Not to mention, it dares to ask for cookies - I hate them all!!!

Another concern: If I open the media library, it automatically shows beta-Dashboard. I hate software, that forces me to look at something I don't want to. That's, at least for me, a point of software-quality, to be the one to decide and not the software. Any choice to configure WA to show my mp3s after opening ML?

[DrO]

it's a gimmick, that's all it can really be counted as. it was not done by the guy who works on the main core (who whilst this was being done was doing all of the unicode changes/replaygain/etc etc that came out for the build that this was first included).

don't like it, don't use it as seems to be the case from a lot of plugin lists that i've seen and from comments like people like yourself.

as for the comment about using IE, it's down to a common denominator of the IE webbrowser control and associated apis being available on all windows machines (if people remove it then that's their own fault and any browser is insecure as soon as a user becomes involved )

the media library should be remembering the last view it was set to when closed and shouldn't be switching back to the dashboard view (though easiest solution is to just uninstall the plugin as detailed further up in this thread).

however annoying it is, the main thing is that it's not hard coded in and can be removed (i know that philosopy has been pushed hard by one of the devs regarding the changes so be thankful that winamp's keeping it's modular nature)

-daz

[edit]
hey Egg - and to think i used my 15min lunch break to reply to this thread

[DJ Egg]

It doesn't automatically show the Dashboard page every time you open the Media Library. It shows whatever view was active previously, ie. if Local Media > Audio was the active view then it still will be when you next open the ML or Winamp.

This is also assuming you're using Winamp 5.32 and not 5.3 or 5.31.
Local Media > Audio is the default view in 5.32.
Dashboard might have been the default page in 5.3.

It uses an embedded IE page because IE is installed on 99% of pc's.
We can't just use the system's default browser to embed web pages into the client. We'd have to ship the gecko engine with winamp to be able to embed a mozilla page, which would add lord knows how many more MB to the installer.

As already said, if you don't like the dashboard (which seems to be the general consensus round here) then delete ml_dash.dll and uncheck Dashboard in the installer options (like just about everyone else does) ;-)

Also, if you don't know how to block ads and cookies in Internet explorer, then don't come moaning about it here :-p


[edit]

bleh, too slow again - hi dro :-)

[zackbuffo]

Alright, next time I do a little more research before posting. I use WA5.32 and, yes, ML remembers the last active view.

Yes, I know how to handle cookies in IE, but that's a very personal thing between me and IE. I get mad, if IE just shows up somewhere on my PC.

Third, I do like Winamp, no doubt about that , but I'm no friend of too many gimmicks for a software - especially if the core features could be improved first.

Last, of course I could uninstall dashboard, but the question was, do I like it or not. I don't.

[lanfear]

To me, the Dashboard is not Winamp core functionality.

If I want to browse, I use my browser. If I want to listen to and manage my music collection, I use Winamp.

There are more important things to focus on than turning Winamp into a pseudo-browser with RSS-feeds in a Dashboard. Can I bring up the "browse by genre"-thingie?

[Serious Poo]

OK, you pissed me off with this dashboard thing. I paid real money for WinAmp Pro and now you're serving advertisements in it? This is flat out unacceptable. Please stop it. Now.

[DrO]

dashboard is not covered by what you paid for with winamp pro (a quick search should find you what paying for pro covers but i'll say it doesn't cover add free online based services). and has been pointed out before in this thread, just don't use the feature if you don't like it - it's not like you're being forced to

-daz

[Benski]

Originally posted by lanfear
Can I bring up the "browse by genre"-thingie?

Right click on "Local Media"
Choose "Add Smart View"
Click on the "Filters" tab
Change "Filter Set" to "Genre/Album"

It's certainly not perfect yet (really needs to be Genre/Artist/Album), but it gets the job done. This was added very recently in 5.32

Kinda like Dashboard..

I dont really use my media Library alot

But I have recently..

and the reason for this is because of the nature of my music involvement and the rapidity of the filling and emptying of my hard drive. ( needs emoticon trying to snort records )

but i do like the fact that you have the whole sites major updates and new stuff like skins and so on right here blam.. no crap..no open browser go to site then read .. read .. read,, waste more time load some more pages..its quick and while you have opened the program and are thinking about it..

I give it all thumbs up..

and as far as OMG Ads!

you probably don't complain about it when you hit the porn sites..

and after WinAMP giving this program away to like .. what BILLIONS of people..How do you expect this thing to be funded.. I mean I hate all the ads and crap too.. there absolutely is no place you can go even to the bathroom .. without having a point of advertisement being stuck in your face these days...I had to deal with my issues..

I get spammed somehow terminator.exe might go off in your system..Ya know..

I cant really see how though you can really complain about simple ads that you see when you go to iTunes or when you open up just about everything even Professional DJ Software..

"You cant ruuun.. and will never be able to hiiide mah nizzle...da man be comin foorr ya"

LMAO..'quote from a not-so-famous friend of mine..

however I too would not recommend any more than what is there.. Partnerships and so on are beneficial to the WinAMP project.. however done correctly..

Overall I think it is a good thing within the Media Library



Edit: IE on the IE engine inclusion..

Its a theory as to why this was included.. but my guess is because of the behavior of the engine and it capabilities.. though FireFox ( or Gecko ) can be configured to be as fast as Safari 2, it does not support Active X controls and plug-ins as the Internet Explorer engine would..

LOL.. I dunno in what I do I have to consider three browsers.. OPERA FIREFOX and IE actually AVANT .. they all do something a little differently from the last..If I had Mac I would be testing it as well.. So its not really about the monopolization of the ideal.. plus if you un-installed IE not matter how badly you hate it.. It was a major mistake...for several reasons..

[njnjn]

Originally posted by DrO ... so if you blindly clicked next then it's your own fault -daz

While performing the installation, I looked a lot -- not blindly -- at that Dashboard option.

I clicked through the different installation options, and I remember that there were no descriptions of any of the items -- including Dashboard.

I didn't click "Next" blindly. I clicked assuming Winamp was providing something that I might be interested in.

I bounce any alleged fault of my "blindly clicking" back to Winamp for slipping in another jukebox function without providing any guidance regarding whether it's something I might actually be interested in.

---------
<Tangent>
Instead of “It was your own fault....,” how about a little more diplomacy towards fellow Forum Members?
</Tangent>
---------

The set of Jukebox functions increase the complexity of Winamp considerably. Please accept my vote for a version of Winamp that doesn't have any Jukebox functions. Bookmarks and History are sufficient for me.

I should not have to become familiar with the function of an installation-check-box before I discover I'm not interested in installing the function. Installing Jukebox functions should be avoidable by unchecking a single checkbox.

---------

I found uninstalling the Dashboard was easy as pie. This worked for me, and didn't ruin any other functions in my Winamp:

1) Close Winamp.
2) Go to the Program Files folder.
3) Right click on the Winamp folder, and Search (of Find) "dash." The search will find three files, dashboard.wb, ml_dash.ini, and ml_dash.dll.
4) Delete them into your Recycle Bin. After you're satisfied that your Winamp still works, delete them from your Recycle Bin.

Thanks,
njnjn

[siebe83]

I guess it would be nice if the installer included descriptions of the various components.

For instance, for the Dashboard:

Winamp® Dashboard enables users a unique ability to customize their experience within the media player, permitting each user to design a dashboard that best meets their needs. Users can pick and choose from a wide variety of widgets that contain both personalized feeds of their own top tracks and albums as well content about artists news and events, top shared playlists, top new albums, top stations, viral videos, and more. Users are able to choose from 35 web feeds they can add to their Dashboard, including Netflix® Top 100, RollingStone.com®, Digg™ Nation, Slashdot®, AOL® Music Now, Game Daily™, SHOUTcast® and many more. Combined with Winamp’s ever-increasing libraries of plug-ins and skins, Winamp Dashboard delivers the most personalized media experience on the web.

I know what I'd do after reading that...


(description stolen from here)

[Koopa]

Siebe, nice idea, but the lenght of the description text in NSIS is limited, so just a very short description is possible.

[siebe83]

"Useless shit" short enough?

But seriously, an installer with descriptions would be nice. I've seen it a few times in NSIS installers so it must be possible, but I guess they've got better things to spend their time on, dunno...

[Koopa]

"Useless shit" short enough?

That should fit.

Section descriptions are easy to do, but Winamp's installer contains many files, so many textes must be written. Just take a look at my essentials pack installer for descriptions.

[A Crazy German]

I just really don't use it at all. I thought I would but after playing around with it I just don't like it.

[lanfear]

Originally posted by Benski
Right click on "Local Media"
Choose "Add Smart View"
Click on the "Filters" tab
Change "Filter Set" to "Genre/Album"

It's certainly not perfect yet (really needs to be Genre/Artist/Album), but it gets the job done. This was added very recently in 5.32

Cool! How did I not see this!? (Now I see it in the version history...) Big thanks for sharing!

[Cianca]

any chance to combine dashboard with last.fm portal functions?

[YtseJam]

Did Winamp become a platform for web services now?
Where's 5.33 or 5.4/5.5?!

[Koopa]

Where's 5.33 or 5.4/5.5?!

Still unborn.

Just if you plan to ask, it will be released, when it's done.