LAN Media Sharing Plugin Wombat Share

[javajunky]

In the interim period before the plugin submission process is completed I've put this here for people to try, please note this is version 0.25 and as such is a beta.

This little plugin will allow you to share your media library with everyone on your network with no configuration. This is similar to Hydra ML but works with large playlists.

Features:
+ Dynamic network discovery
+ zLib used for playlist transmission
+ Support for very large playlists.
+ Multi-threaded, should not lock-up your winamp at any time.
+ Low bandwidth usage, communications via http and multi-casting.

To-Do List:
+ Bridging nodes, between two multi-cast visible networks (Some routers within lans do not support multi-casting)
+ Context menu on media list.
+ Bug fixes (experiences random, but rare crashes.)
+ Caching of remote playlists.
+ Passwording of media lists
+ Barred IP support.
+ Selectable Shared Media
+ Seperation of video and audio files.

This code could not have been done without jnetlib, zLib and the wicked code in ml_wwww. Oh and its all free
Please let me know what you think of it!

(Uses ports 9000 udp and port 9005 tcp for firewall configuration. Needs to be able to accept connections on 9005.)

[javajunky]

*bump* 9 downloads and no feedback *Sniff* ...

[CraigF]

its very very basic, and i couldnt get it working properly.

[javajunky]

Thanks for the feedback ..>Gotta start somewhere. It is meant to be basic to reduce configuration complexity. In what way do you feel it should be more advanced ?

In what way did you have problems getting it to work ? It *will* only work on winamp 5 not quite sure why, looking into it... Any feedback appreciated

[javajunky]

Updated version. No longer causes crash on Winamp 2.9x. Users of this Winamp will not be able to share their music, but they will be able to see other user's music and play that.

[WHEREamI]

well, haven't had time to test any actual functionality (ie, get others on the network using it), but here's what strikes me right off the bat:

- Utilize the whole area of the media library pane. ie, use relative sizes for the listboxes.
- increase the size of the "Update Visible Media" button, as it barely fits, and would look better with some border.
- Configuration dialog is huge for the tiny amount of config it has.

~WHEREamI

[javajunky]

Cheers dude, I agree totally on all counts I'm trying to make the network code/functionality as robust as possible first then work on the aesthetics secondarily, do you think this maybe the wrong approach for this community ?

[javajunky]

Oops! Just discovered a daft bug where I'll have been opening large numbers of sockets on your machine without closing them correctly. I've fixed this so it now closes sockets correctly. Grr school boy errors!

[javajunky]

version 0.5 now published. Unless anything is attached beneath here, the most up to date version is on the plugins page.

[wakingrufus]

does this allow for downloading as well?

[javajunky]

No, however this is a very popular feature and I could dead easily implement it

[Claydough]

Ideas

Good job so far. Here are a few ideas:

1) Ditto on the GUI updates.
2) Ditto on adding downloadability.
3) Impliment more complete info about the files when streaming. (current track position, ID3 info, etc.)
4) Customizable columns.
5) Context menus.
6) Playlist access.
7) I can't tell if you've already implimented it, but add internet access for known IP addresses (low priority, of course).
8) If you do the 'net access, make sure that can be turned off.
9) By default, the computer name should be the windows user name (if available), followed by the IP address.
10) Allow the password protection of libraries.
11) When downloading a file through your plug, automatically add it to the library.

[javajunky]

1) Am working on, I'm developing this plugin in an absract fashion so I can allow mutliple media players to share their libraries, this does mean I've concentrated on the network layer so far. But will do the GUI promise
2) I'm nervous about this one, before I can do this I need to put connection limiting in so no-one will get their bandwidth 'raped'
3) Not entirely sure how to do this, if the mpeg stream doesn't contain this information I can't put it in thee stream..or can I ?. Bizarrely for me on my player at work I get the track position, but the guy who sits next to me doesn't !(Same version of winamp, weird huh!)
4) Okey, at the minute I'm just pretty much using the default sdk example
5) Am working on, the code's already in there, just struggling to stop the popup appearing at (0,0)
6) Not entirely sure what this means? Share the current playlist as well?
7) Manual IP will be implemented to allow sharing on a LAN that has a router that isn't multicast-enabled. However I doubt this would work behind NAT you'd need to setup forwarding rules
8) I will have an 'enable' checkbox generally at some point
9) Agreed, will fix that
10) In the pipeline
11) See 2)

Thanks for the feedback, its appreciated!

[ibi]

Just downloaded from plugins page and installed (so latest version?).
I like the idea a lot, I liked Hydra ML except.. it seemed to miss lots of tracks and/or get names of songs wrong, plus it didn't seem to like the iPod plugin.
So I was pleased to see someone was making a hopefully working version of what hydra was supposed to be.. unfortunately, I don't know how to use it.. Am I being stupid? Is it your own IP or another computers IP you are supposed to put in those IP boxes? and which box?
Nothing happens when I enter any IP into either box..
A readme with some basic instructions would be nice

[javajunky]

You're right it would be I should probably do that! The boxes are actually a red herring they're gone on my desktop version (the plugin download is the latest version available yes).
You should just install the plugin, your other friend(s) on the network all install the plugin, et voila they will appear in your media-library window. If you click their IP (or friendly name if they've configured) and their tracks will appear. You can then use these like you'd use any other winamp media library window.