[WIDGET][4+] Generic Music Controls

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batesapps

Senior Member
Apr 11, 2013
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90
Iam looking at some options now for the controlled media application. Currently it controls the media application that is registered with the OS which can be a bit unpredictable on occasion especially for streaming applications which tend to unregister very soon after stopping.

Thanks for listing the application trying them as people post what they have tested with.

As for bugs, when I start up the music from the widget, it defaults to Google music and re adds it to the media players lists and it does this even when I remove Google music from the media player lists (I want it to default to Mort player). If I launch Mort player from the app drawer, the widget controls the player as expected.
 
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drakenabarion

Senior Member
Dec 13, 2010
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OnePlus Nord 2T
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Interesting idea.<br />
So just just the title, album etc with hidden controls and no coverart?<br />
Would probably remove the current media application as well in view, would clutter up the text?<br />
<br />
Visible<br />
+-------------------------------+<br />
| Track<br />
| Artist - Album<br />
+--------------------------------+ <br />
<br />
Hidden<br />
+-----------------------------------+<br />
| Previous | Play | Next<br />
| | |<br />
+-----------------------------------+ <br />
<br />
Oh exactly this. I think it would be nicely simple while highly functional. :)

Thanks for replying ;)

Sent from my Nexus⁴ running CM10.1 (JB 4.2.2) using XDA premium app
 

batesapps

Senior Member
Apr 11, 2013
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90
Should be easy enough to add, With any luck should be in tonight or Ill get to it this weekend I have a few other request that look like good ideas.


Just curious your using CM10 instead of stock on a Nexus4 , just for fun or was there a specific feature ? Looking at picking up a Nexus phone next time I upgrade.


Oh exactly this. I think it would be nicely simple while highly functional. :)

Thanks for replying ;)

Sent from my Nexus⁴ running CM10.1 (JB 4.2.2) using XDA premium app
 
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arman68

Senior Member
Sep 22, 2006
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Great idea. I love the idea of hidden controls behind the actual useful information. I used the same concept in my clock shown in the screenshots: it has 5 hidden control areas: 1 in the middle, and 1 in each corner, all of them relevant to the information shown in that area. It is highly functional.

Back to your widgets:

4x1 and 4x2 widgets with the album art AND the metadata with hidden controls would be great. You are right about not needing a media player shortcut. However, I think fitting 3 controls on the right of the album art would be fiddly to be accurate enough for fingers, and since [previous] is rarely used, I think your original concept of only 2 controls (play/pause and next) would be best. So, to summarize:

Display:
Art | Metadata

Controls:
player/menu | [play/pause] [next]


Another topic: I have not managed to reproduce the problem of launching musixmatch when tunein radio was playing. Maybe it was just a fluke, like pressing play just when the app lost the stream.
 

batesapps

Senior Member
Apr 11, 2013
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Do we want to change the text color if its paused/stopped?

Great idea. I love the idea of hidden controls behind the actual useful information. I used the same concept in my clock shown in the screenshots: it has 5 hidden control areas: 1 in the middle, and 1 in each corner, all of them relevant to the information shown in that area. It is highly functional.

Back to your widgets:

4x1 and 4x2 widgets with the album art AND the metadata with hidden controls would be great. You are right about not needing a media player shortcut. However, I think fitting 3 controls on the right of the album art would be fiddly to be accurate enough for fingers, and since [previous] is rarely used, I think your original concept of only 2 controls (play/pause and next) would be best. So, to summarize:

Display:
Art | Metadata

Controls:
player/menu | [play/pause] [next]


Another topic: I have not managed to reproduce the problem of launching musixmatch when tunein radio was playing. Maybe it was just a fluke, like pressing play just when the app lost the stream.
 

batesapps

Senior Member
Apr 11, 2013
125
90
Opps responded to the wrong post. But a good point regardless :)

Ill add a version of your 4x2 widget this weekend. Looking forward to your feedback.

I think for now it is not very important. Once, you have well defined which widgets are needed, and out seems like a pause indicator would be good, you can revisit it.
 
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drakenabarion

Senior Member
Dec 13, 2010
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OnePlus Nord 2T
Nothing Phone 2
Just posted a version with this widget. Have to admit pretty sexy. Looking forward to your feedback. :victory:

Looking forward to trying it out :D (edit I guess it takes a bit for the play store to know there is an update)

As for cm10.1, that are many features not in stock such as power controls in the notification bar, customised navigation bar, theme engines (although my current theme is advanced stock which holo themes anything gingerbread themed that is left over in older apps), and lots of little tweaks that I use but forget they are even tweak. Its more subtle than other roms as almost everything is in line with Google style policies. :)

I just got the update and it's looking great like that. It's also very very resize friendly!

I am just wondering how it would be for people who have completely white desktop images. Personally I tend to stay with darker images so it won't affect me. Really living it as it is.

Now if Mort player would behave correctly with the widget, then I think that makes this the ultimate perfect widget for me.

Sent from my Nexus⁴ running CM10.1 (JB 4.2.2) using XDA premium app
 
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batesapps

Senior Member
Apr 11, 2013
125
90
Interesting media application and wow has the developer put a lot of features in that. Did some quick testing looks to work as expected, what issues are you having?

Mort???

View attachment 1880432

Looking forward to trying it out :D (edit I guess it takes a bit for the play store to know there is an update)
Now if Mort player would behave correctly with the widget, then I think that makes this the ultimate perfect widget for me.
 
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drakenabarion

Senior Member
Dec 13, 2010
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Nothing Phone 2
Interesting media application and wow has the developer put a lot of features in that. Did some quick testing looks to work as expected, what issues are you having?

Mort???

View attachment 1880432

Yeah its a really great player full of features yet simple layout :D

When I click your widget, and Mort isn't running, play music starts playing and the widget controls play music until I exit play music.

Also, I deleted play music from the list of players in the widget settings. The widget should not be in control of it at all in that case, right?

I am not sure it is related to the widget or player but I don't use any player other than Mort. I guess it maybe has unusual ways to control how it launches itself. Mort isn't usually autodeteced as a music player in apps that detect installed players.

[Edit] Oh it worked after removing play music then rebooting. Now it behaves as I would expect!

Edit: Now you have officially replaced all my widgets :D Thanks for making this!

Sent from my Nexus⁴ running CM10.1 (JB 4.2.2) using XDA premium app
 
Last edited:

batesapps

Senior Member
Apr 11, 2013
125
90
Thanks for the detailed response.

The media controls are a collection of functionality pulled from different source, Iam attempting to mimic the functionality of the generic media controls that apple has (but better of course ;) ).
It should automatically pick up any media player that attempts to register with Android, which it looks like it has. The add/remove media applications are mostly for badly behaving media applications (Pandora was one until about a week ago) just to determine the current/last running media application.

The controls "should" control the current media application as determined by Android, mostly means that you have to start playing first after a reboot. Iam looking into a better way now (more consistent). From what I can tell mort is super persistent about being the current media application so you should not have too many problems. Streaming applications like Spotify can get a little inconsistent playing a random application instead of what is reported (usually google music).


Yeah its a really great player full of features yet simple layout :D

When I click your widget, and Mort isn't running, play music starts playing and the widget controls play music until I exit play music.

Also, I deleted play music from the list of players in the widget settings. The widget should not be in control of it at all in that case, right?

I am not sure it is related to the widget or player but I don't use any player other than Mort. I guess it maybe has unusual ways to control how it launches itself. Mort isn't usually autodeteced as a music player in apps that detect installed players.

[Edit] Oh it worked after removing play music then rebooting. Now it behaves as I would expect!

Edit: Now you have officially replaced all my widgets :D Thanks for making this!

Sent from my Nexus⁴ running CM10.1 (JB 4.2.2) using XDA premium app
 
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batesapps

Senior Member
Apr 11, 2013
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Uploaded anther version with 2 new widgets.

View attachment 1884136

View attachment 1884137



- 4x4
- Transparent
- Play/Pause on the left
- Link to all application upper right
- Next on lower right.
- Notes - Was going to add link to current app on the upper left but could not figure out a way to get icon.

- 4x2
- Transparent
- Play/Pause, next and previous
- Title, Artist, Track

Moving on to widget configuration next. Should greatly reduce the number of widgets.

I have tried the new update. You added a lot of widgets! I guess this is just for testing, to see what works and what doesn't. So after testing them, here are my comments; first screenshot of the widgets I think are worthwhile:
View attachment 1877436

Top left: album art only. Looks good, but no useful functionality. Not for me, but I can see why some people would want it.

Top right: album art with controls. This is my favorite. I love the design and hidden functionality. I think it could be improved though: when nothing is playing, instead of darkening the album art, how about displaying only the album art in standard colours (no title, no shortcut to mediaplayer), and having all the touch events launch the mediaplayer selection (or mediaplayer if only one)?

Second row: transparent controls only. Resizes well down to 2x1. Simple and functional, there is a use for it.

Third and fourth rows: transparent metadata with controls and shortcut, but no album art. Resizes well to 3 wide, but not 4 wide. 1 high looks kind of squished. 2 high looks too spaced. Shortcut icon looks a bit out of place (stands out too much, and clashes with the clean design).

Fifth row: album art, metadata, controls and shortcut. Ideal width is 4, 3 looks squashed. Same comment as the previous widget for the height. I wish it was transparent.

I think what you need is combine the last 2 widgets (3rd,4th + 5th row) into a single 4x1 widget, with the following features:
  • Album art on the left, resize to fit in a square with 100% of widget height. Touch event should launch the mediaplayer or selection menu.
  • Only show song title, to give more space to the controls.
  • Previous, Play/Pause, Next buttons
  • No mediaplayer shortcut, since this is already handled by the album art. I was hesitating whether an indication of which player is active would be useful, but actually the album art already kind of perform this function since it shows what would play.
  • Transparency option.

You could also expand the above into a 4x2 widget, with bigger album art (of course) and more metadata shown (artist and album).

There is one more widget which is worth keeping as well: it is the other big layout, with the controls at the bottom.



Yes. I think Microsoft designers did an awesome job on that tile interface for phones. It looks good, provides good user customisation options, and is very functional. Here is another picture showing how well one of your widgets fits in it:
View attachment 1877470
 
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batesapps

Senior Member
Apr 11, 2013
125
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This version of Plex??

I mostly stream my music now Spotify, Songza, Pandora and the like. Wrote the app because Spotify, Pandora and Pocket Cast didnt have notification controls then got a little carried away ;). Its been interesting see what everyone uses found musiXmatch (does lyrics), Shuttle (Really clean and best auto coverart Ive tested) and MortPlayer (SUPER customizable) have been some of the highlights. I assume Plex lets you stream from your home server as well as keep local versions for offline playing?

Well, i'm using plex mainly for music, especially in offline mode when not at home.
 

blackbearblanc

Senior Member
Sep 20, 2011
4,415
6,696
www.blackbearblanc.dk
Hi. Would it be possible to make a 4x1 widget with album art, with buttons beside that, but transparent background ?
I don't think its on the huge list of widgets.

3y8u7uva.jpg
 

batesapps

Senior Member
Apr 11, 2013
125
90
Yeah trying out several different widgets to see what people think about. Will trim those down and add sample images soon. Working on adding widget configuration for transparency, text color etc.

I can add a quick one while I add the configuration, just a heads though it will be removed when I add configuration since it will basically be the same as existing.

Couple of questions.
- If its a resizable 3x1does that work? or does does your launcher not support resizing?
- With/Without currently running application icon. People have be 50/50 split if they want that.

Hi. Would it be possible to make a 4x1 widget with album art, with buttons beside that, but transparent background ?
I don't think its on the huge list of widgets.

3y8u7uva.jpg
 

NewTo@ndroid

New member
Sep 29, 2012
4
3
These widgets are brilliant - I use the Walkman music app, it is by far the best music app I have used but came with no widget - these work absolutely perfectly with it and complete my music listening setup, many thanks.
 

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    Media Utilities

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    *** Public Open Beta ***

    If you ever wanted to use a single widget or have a single place to control all of your media applications, then you are in luck. Media Utilities is designed to give you unified tools for all of your media applications.

    Do you like Pandora or Spotify, but wish each had notification controls? Media Utilities provides unified notification controls that let you control the most recently started media application as well as easily jump to it.

    Hate having to search for your media application just because you paused it? All of the controls keep track of the last running media application to let you easily resume or launch it.

    There are several widgets available on the Play store that let you play/pause any media application. But few show you all of the meta data. Media Utilities gets all the meta data including cover art from your favorite media application (Pandora, Spotify, Songza, etc.) and displays it in a clean, unified widget.

    Media Utilities provides several different widgets to satisfy your particular needs, from a classic, single row design to a larger widget that displays cover art with hidden controls for the ultimate in clean design.

    Media Utilities is now in open beta. Feature requests and feedback are encouraged and would be greatly appreciated.

    Widgets

    View attachment 1912586
    3x3
    Large cover art controls on bottom.

    View attachment 1912587
    2x2
    Large cover art, controls hidden in the cover art.

    View attachment 1912602
    2x2
    Large cover art, controls hidden in the cover art. Clean version no title no current app.

    View attachment 1912607
    3x1
    Highly configurable standard music controls

    View attachment 1912614
    1x1
    Resizable coverart selecting the cover art launches current application.
    Designed to be used with other widgets to design your own music screen.

    View attachment 1912617
    1x1
    Designed to look like a desktop icon. Shows the current application. Selecting launches the current applications.
    Designed to be used with other widgets to design your own music screen.

    View attachment 1912623
    2x1
    Standard music controls. Highly configurable and resizable both vertical and horizontally.
    Designed to be used with other widgets to design your own music screen.

    View attachment 1912627
    2x1
    Just text, Title, track, album.
    Hidden controls.
    Designed to be used with other widgets to design your own music screen.

    View attachment 1912628
    4x2
    Highly configurable standard music controls
    Note: the lower one will be available in the next version

    View attachment 1912636
    3x1
    Cover Art on the left large text on the right, hidden music controls under the text.
    Highly configurable.
    Note: available in the next version

    View attachment 1912641
    Example widget config page.
    Current Configuration
    - Optional Gradient
    - Background color
    - Background transparency
    - Border color
    - Border width
    - Optional show current running music application
    - Optional show your music application *NEW*
    - Text color
    4
    Just posted v.104

    Lots of new toys to play with.
    Updates:
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    MU_ALBUM - Album name
    MU_ARTIST - Artist name
    MU_TRACK - Track name
    MU_COVERART - URI to Bitmap containing current coverart
    MU_ISPLAYING - 1 if playing 0 if not
    MU_CURR_APP - Current media app "pretty" name
    MU_CURR_PACKAGE - Current media app package name
    - Rewrote direct mode from scratch. Should be far more reliable now. Its soo much better Ill probably make this the default in the next release.
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    - Added Pebble watch support?? Based on the API this should basically fill out all media information for Pebble watches. Dont have a watch yet so this is just a best guess right now.
    4
    The official version with both shortcuts and tasker plugins is now available.

    Tasker Plugin:
    View attachment 1999322
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    Short Cut:
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    Firstly, thanks very much for putting this together. Having one widget to rule them all is such a cool feature!

    Now, a feature request. I use LMT launchers PIE control to provide access to things I want access to without having to jump out of whatever app I'm currently using. One of these things being media playback controls (play/pause, next and previous tracks) triggered from Tasker tasks. These buttons, however, have limited success as not all media apps support them. What would be really cool would be if Tasker could ask your app to control whatever media app it's currently controlling... safe in the knowledge that your app has the smarts to actually make it happen.

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    It's no biggy really. But it would be very nice to have reliable playback controls or to be able to quickly bring whichever media app you're currently using to the foreground. Anyway, thanks for your time developing this. It's much appreciated!
    3
    I am using Media Utilities with Zooper and have a bit of a problem with the cover art.
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    Can I ask you how you managed to get the coverart working? I always get the full path to the file written, never got it to display an actual image.

    Sent from my Xperia Z

    You both should check out the tutorial I linked to earlier. It should clear up any problems :)
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    3
    Just a quick update to show that Iam not dead ;)

    Ive been swamped this week, the updates for widget configuration are coming along really well, Ill post a new version next week. It was time to do some cleanup so this change is taking longer then I wanted.

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