XUTube Plugin www

[dalanik]

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http://xlobby.lanik.org/XUTube.jpg
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XUTube plugin - integrates Youtube in XLobby.
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Stable release with example skin available:

http://xlobby.lanik.org/XUTube.v0.13.exe

Any comments welcome...

D.

[cpa]

Your installer is not working with vista. After clicking the install button I get a window with error on top and no message. It also does the same thing when I run as administrator. I hope you can fix this as I would love to try this plugin.

[dalanik]

The installer is developed by the French XLobby team, so there's not much I can do about it except post zipped plugin. I'll give it a try on my Vista machine and see if it works for me.

[dalanik]

Documentation available:

http://xlobby.lanik.org/XUTube.htm

XUTube plugin v0.10

PLUGIN FOR XLOBBY

by Dalibor Lanik

Installation:
* Run installer exe
Notice:

· Sample skin is provided with this plugin and automatically installed by the installer
· This plugin was tested with the last free Xlobby build.
· To start with the sample XUTube skin, set it up as your default skin in xlobby.xml, located in XLobby root folder, typically: c:\Program Files\XLobby\. Find the line with <skin>default</skin> and replace the skin name with „XUTube“ so it looks like this: <skin> XUTube</skin>

Commands:

There are several commands in this plugin. They can be found in configuration dialog of XLobby by pressing F2, under events tab, by adding plugin command.

Here is the list with brief descriptions what they do:

Get_tag [tag]
· Retrieves videos by tag, i.e. if you specify „george bush“ as a parameter, you will get all monkey videos.

Get_user [username]
· Retrieves videos by username, i.e. if you specify „dalanik“ you will get all my videos on youtube.

Get_featured [no paramaters]
· Retreives featured videos.

Get_popday [no parameters]
· Retreives most popular videos, for current day.

Get_popweek [no parameters]
· Retreives most popular videos, for current week.

Get_popmonth [no parameters]
· Retreives most popular videos, for current month.

Get_popall [no parameter]
· Retreives all most popular videos.

Make_HTML [no parameter]
· Creates HTML file in plugins/XUTube folder with link to selected video. This event should be added on selection of video to play because it creates page which will display selected video (see example skin).

Variables:

No variables are used.

Your configuration

When you first run XLobby with XUTube plugin and open configuration with F2, go to plugins, select XUTube and select "configure" button, you ‘ll get configuration dialog and you can edit your settings.

All input values are mandatory. I included my developer ID in default config, please change it to yours, you can get one for free at Youtube.

All values are changed immediately when OK is pressed.

The values are stored in registry:
HKCU\Software\Visual\XLobby\XUTube

Databases

1 database is created by XUTube:

· xutube.xml - contains all links to videos and descriptions, etc.
o fields:

§ parameter (equals to id)
§ display (Item Name)
§ Author (author of video)
§ Id (youtube video ID)
§ url (url of video)
§ description (video description)
§ length_secs (length in seconds)
§ rating_avg (average rating)
§ rating_count (number of ratings)
§ view_count (number of times viewed)
§ tags

Errors and logging

Errors are logged in file c:\program files\xlobby\xutube_log.txt.

To do:

If you have any comments, suggestions or requests, send a post to Xlobby forum, plugins\XUTube plugin topic, or e-mail me at mailto:dalibor@lanik.org

Dalibor Lanik
Prague, June 2007

[cpa]

dgemily informed me about the arrow button to setup xlobby's directory for the installer. I now have your plugin installed. I will provide you with feedback once I get running. thanks for your help.

[cpa]

Here are a couple of problems.
1 - Any thumbnail I select will run the same video every time.
2 - The mouse does not work correctly in the youtube window that plays the video. when I click on the video screen lets say the pause button. It highlights in red but does not repond to the click. the same is true with all other video window related items.

I am trying to set up xlobby to work with a remote since it is being used on my tv. This plugin appears to be more on the mouse friendly side.

[dalanik]

1 - Any thumbnail I select will run the same video every time.

Hm, the Make_HTML command of the plugin is making the HTML page to be opened with the link to selected video. Open the file manualy (in plugin folder) and see if it contains the right video. There should be 2 HTML files, one with link to video and other empty one, which "stops" the video by loading this page.

2 - The mouse does not work correctly in the youtube window that plays the video. when I click on the video screen lets say the pause button. It highlights in red but does not repond to the click. the same is true with all other video window related items.

Not sure about this one, truth to tell I never tested it with mouse. I made it to be used with remote, without the possibility to pause/stop video etc. the only way to stop it is to exit the page. I had to tweak the HTML code a bit in order to auto-start the video... maybe that is causing problems.

I'll get back to you when I get home and test it.

D.

[dalanik]

I made a small video of xutube in action:

http://xlobby.lanik.org/XUTube_demo.avi

Apart from not being able to pause/ffd/rew video via remote, it looks pretty much integrated into xlobby, I even managed to get rid of that stupid explorer scrollbar

D.

[Marbles_00]

I've integrated this plugin and your XGetPhoto's plugin into my new skin. I just want to say thanks for providing us with some cool plugins.

So far, they are working great.

[dalanik]

Glad to hear it's working. I'll be updating these days, right now there is no control of bad searches, so it could crash or misbehave if you search for something by tag that is not found. I added better error handling.

D.

[cpa]

After reading marbles remark could my problem be related to my wide screen monitor. Or is vista still the primary suspect.

[dalanik]

I thik Vista is primary suspect, not because of Vista but could be Internet Explorer 7...?

I tested on 3 different PCs all running XPSP2 with IE6 and it works... can someone else confirm it works?

Anyway, I posted new version with better error handling, and also fixed a bug that overwrote youtube database on exit

http://xlobby.lanik.org/XUTube.v0.11b.exe

D.

[cpa]

This last version does not play any video. No sound, video or window for the playback. I would guess it is a vista problem like you said before.

[dalanik]

Actualy, I'm having problems with it on 1 PC (my "production" HTPC!!!) as well, it is opening xtube object, but goes immediately to "replay this video" screen... hm, probably I don't have all updates on that PC...

D.

[Marbles_00]

I'm using your new version without any hassles. Was watching a ton of videos last night. My only issue was that it didn't bring in the coverart right away. I thought it may have been a bug, tried out your earlier one (I had saved it), which worked fine. I then went back to your updated version and again everything worked fine. I would say that for everything to come in right, it may have took 3 xlobby restarts. But it may have been just me.

No problems now.