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376

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: Ethervane Radio

« Last post by tranglos on January 15, 2011, 04:33 PM »

Clicked on one of them, sorry don't remember which one, and I got this pop-up:

-bob99 (January 15, 2011, 03:18 PM)

Perfectly normal. It's the Windows Firewall making sure you want to permit ER to use the network.

Most stations use port 80, so ER looks just like a web browser to the firewall. But some stations run on other ports, and if Windows Firewall hasn't yet seen ER access one of those non-typical ports, it may pop up the prompt. Allow or deny as you prefer.

377

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: Ethervane Radio

« Last post by tranglos on January 14, 2011, 02:35 PM »

This is outstanding.

Where is the default db drawn from?

-allen (January 14, 2011, 12:59 PM)

All kinds of sources. Websites, conversion from other formats, etc. I did eliminate a large number of stations that yield 404 and other permanent connection errors, but there still is a number of stations that are or appear defunct. I'll try to trim them at some later point.

378

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: Ethervane Radio

« Last post by tranglos on January 13, 2011, 07:20 AM »

@tranglos

How do I flush the 'History' listing? I tried to manipulate the ethervaneradio-config.ini file by changin the HistorySpan=o but ER still shows a list of radio stations under the 'History' tab. I also changed HistoryMaintain to false but no help there either, the list is still there.

-PhilB66 (January 12, 2011, 09:25 PM)

These config options don't do anything yet, and right now there is no way to clear the history inside the program. There are three things you can do:

1) delete the database entirely. ER will recreate it, as long as you have kept the "Distrib" folder from the original zip file. Downside: you'll lose your Favorites as well.

2) Download a free program to manipulate SQLite databases, such as SQLiteSpy (doesn't require installation). Open the database file in this program. There is a pane on top where you can type commands. Paste the following code:

DELETE FROM [history];

and hit F9. This will clear the contents of the history table.

3) In the configuration file, in the section "EthervaneRadio.HistoryMenuOptions", set the menu item count to zero. Make the following change:

[EthervaneRadio.HistoryMenuOptions]
MaxMenuItemCount=0

Methods 1 and 2 will clear the history, but it will start growing again as you use the program. Method 3 will ensure the History menu stays empty.

379

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: Ethervane Radio

« Last post by tranglos on January 12, 2011, 09:01 PM »

Installing on my Win 7 tonight.  Meant to ask before.  Should I 1st delete the files in the folder where I placed the earlier version or will they be overwritten after I unzip and copy or move the latest version to the folder? Should I have also deleted the files in the user app data folder before updating?  

-bob99 (January 12, 2011, 08:25 PM)

You did well. Just extract the new version over the earlier files. There's no need to delete anything in app data.

I noticed on my XP this morning that even after updating it had still remembered some favorites I had chosen during my random selections with the previous version. Ver 0.1.2b didn't attempt to create the database file like the 1st installation did.

-bob99 (January 12, 2011, 08:25 PM)

That's because the database already exists. Your favorites (and now, history) will persist, as they should.

In case I need to change the structure of the database with some future release, I'll do my best to keep the existing data, but I'm not making this a cross-my-heart promise as long as ER is at alpha stage. That said, I'm not planning on any heavy restructuring.

As for the configuration, it's still partly in flux. You can keep the configuration file as well, or you can delete it, so that ER will create a new one with all the default settings. (Defaults can change between versions, as was the case with volume control.) Pretty soon I'll add a proper configuration dialog, so this will be less of an issue.

380

General Software Discussion / Re: Another reason to drop Kaspersky?

« Last post by tranglos on January 12, 2011, 01:59 PM »

It sounds like you are using it.  Are you happy with it's performance like Darwin?

-superboyac (January 12, 2011, 11:22 AM)

I am indeed. It is quite unobtrusive, too. I never see it or feel its presence unless I deliberately open the interface. But, I have yet to see my first alert from MSE.

381

General Software Discussion / Re: Another reason to drop Kaspersky?

« Last post by tranglos on January 12, 2011, 11:21 AM »

That's reasonable.  Still, if it's available, I'll opt out.  I'll try it again, but can someone confirm the opt thing?

-superboyac (January 12, 2011, 11:13 AM)

In version 1.x the choice was between sending a little less information to MS and sending a little more.

In version 2.x, fresh out of beta, there is a "No, thanks" option as well.

382

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: Ethervane Radio

« Last post by tranglos on January 12, 2011, 10:24 AM »

But the CJFH test still isn't even after the config change to False.

-bob99 (January 12, 2011, 09:22 AM)

This is to be expected. The server is really configured in an abnormal manner. Only browsers can handle such unusual cases, because a lot of programmer time is devoted to making sure every last website can be displayed, no matter how badly designed.

At least with ER handling playlists by itself, rather than handing them all off to the BASS library, I can tweak the code so that more stations can play successfully. In some cases the station is simply gone, but there are probably many other stations like CJFH - they exist, but require much "special attention" to handle.

Side note: I had no idea how many badly configured sites exist. You'd think website owners, radio stations in particular, would go out of their way to make it easy for people to reach them. But that would be too rational for human beings to be In the early days of the web, where html documents were nearly all hand-crafted, syntax errors in html were the norm, things like mismatched tags, etc. Today most output is computer-generated, so it takes only one small effort to get things right, but still there are monsters out there.

I was writing a parser for ASX playlists, which seems to be the most common format in use today (more common than m3u and pls put together). It's a very simple XML format. There were originally about 5400 asx playlists in the database, and of those, over 1100 (about 20%) were invalid XML. Tags were unmatched, tag case was all over the place (XML tags are case sensitive, so that <FOO> </foo> is not valid), and sometimes the playlist had the asx extension, but in fact was m3u or some other format. That meant I could not be using a regular XML parser for these files, and instead had to spend a few days writing code to handle all those misshapen formats. It was an interesting experience!

383

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: Ethervane Radio

« Last post by tranglos on January 11, 2011, 10:09 PM »

Tried running it on my Win 7 x64 with "CJFH" station and it also crashed.  It didn't just go away like in XP. Win 7 popped up a screen "Ethervane Radio Has Stopped Working" but it did not have a reason why.

-bob99 (January 11, 2011, 09:56 PM)

Thanks, Bob! I've just posted an updated version that should not crash anymore. More explanation and download link in my post immediately above this one.

384

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: Ethervane Radio

« Last post by tranglos on January 11, 2011, 10:05 PM »

The crashing bug has been fixed. I couldn't really let it go, so I installed Delphi on the laptop and found the problem. No other changes in this release, but ER should no longer crash/disappear on trying to play a station.

Download link in the top message:
https://www.donation...25068.0;attach=54553


Tech note: the error would occur after ER downloaded and analyzed a playlist that appeared to be empty (no valid links to audio streams were found in the playlist). Now ER will no longer crash, but for some stations it still cannot read the playlists properly. The situation with CJFH is a good example: when ER asks for the playlist, the server responds with '200 OK' message, so the body of the response should contain the playlist. Turns out, the body contains a random html web page with a redirection URL (to the real playlist) embedded in a refresh directive. I've never been a web admin, but this is not right: the server's response code contradicts what the server actually does. It's like being told the light is green, when it is actually red. I'll try to handle such pathological cases later.

For now - and here's the reward for having read this far - there is a configuration setting that may let ER play more stations, including the dreaded CJFH and perhaps others that were causing the crashing problem before. Close ER and edit the configuration file (found under "Application Data/ethervane/ethervane radio"); the file is named "ethervaneradio-config.ini". In the file, find the line

SelfHandlePlaylists=True

and change it to

SelfHandlePlaylists=False

Save the file and restart ER. Now the BASS library will be handling all the playlists requests itself. Normally, ER downloads and parses all playlists, because according to the docs, BASS only supports m3u and pls formats. However, the docs appear to be inaccurate, and BASS supports other popular playlists formats as well, such as asx, so there may be no need for ER to do any handling of playlists directly.

385

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: Ethervane Radio

« Last post by tranglos on January 11, 2011, 07:43 PM »

@tranglos

The radio station was 'Afterhours'. No problem playing this station with RadioSure (also Baas based).

-PhilB66 (January 11, 2011, 07:22 PM)

OK, I have good news, kind-of. The previous release of ER does not crash in this way. It still won't play the station (in the case of CJFH, the server returns 200 OK, but also sends a redirection URL to the correct playlist file. Browsers handle this situation somehow, ER does not, yet).

But it is clear now that the crashes are caused by some change I've introduced in the last few days, so I will definitely be able to fix the problem. And the stations should eventually be playable.

386

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: Ethervane Radio

« Last post by tranglos on January 11, 2011, 07:39 PM »

The program doesn't yet have its own web site - that will happen eventually.

if you want some space on our member server just ask!

-mouser (January 11, 2011, 07:32 PM)

Thanks, mouser, that's very kind. (I actually still have a login, but never used it.) All I need is time :-)

387

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: Ethervane Radio

« Last post by tranglos on January 11, 2011, 07:18 PM »

I have tried for several minutes but can't find the download button for the Ethervane Radio. 
I love oldies and christian radio and would love to be a supporter but can't find where to start. 
Yes, I did watch your help video.
DavidtheChristianguy

-DavidtheChristianguy (January 11, 2011, 07:16 PM)

Hi David,

The program doesn't yet have its own web site - that will happen eventually. The download link is in my first message, at the top of this thread. The file is an attachment to the message. Try this link:

https://www.donation...25068.0;attach=54522

Or try clicking here

388

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: Ethervane Radio

« Last post by tranglos on January 11, 2011, 06:53 PM »

Got it! Isn't it just a lucky happenstance that my power supply blew up today, forcing me to switch to an old, old XP laptop? I've seen the crash and yes, ER just puff and disappears. The log did have the name of the station that caused this, and I can confirm it crashes every time I try to play the station.

For the curious: search for "CJFH". This will produce one station. Play it, and ER will just die on the spot. Now if someone could try and see if the same thing happens on Windows 7 as well, I'd appreciate.

Sorry I can't do anything about it at the moment. As soon as my coding machine is back up, I will investigate further. Meanwhile, I'll try playing the same station using other BASS-based players (aimp, screamer).

389

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: Ethervane Radio

« Last post by tranglos on January 11, 2011, 06:44 PM »

All initialization stages completed
SEARCHING : 1  Search : 251 ms  Load: 0 ms  Populate : 10 ms
Session 1 abandoned

Started ER, Esc, search for a station, double-clicled on the entry in the 'Find Radio Station' window... ER just crashed after a sec.

-PhilB66 link=topic=25068.msg231420#msg231420

Looks like it's crashing as soon as it's trying to load a station from the database, but this is extremely unlikely. More likely, the log file hasn't had a chance to flush. As soon as I have access to Delphi again, I will enable flushing the log after each and every line - that should preserve more inforomation. Too bad I can't do it right now (my main 'puter pretty much went up in smoke today, from too much exertion no doubt :-) )

Do you recall what station it was you that you tried to play? Are you running XP too? Can you play other stations successfully, or does it always crash this way?

390

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: Ethervane Radio

« Last post by tranglos on January 11, 2011, 05:09 PM »

Just wanted to say it's a good thing I released version .2 last night, because today in the morning my Tagan power supply fried... barely a month after its 36-month warranty expired. Isn't it just cute. Blew all the breakers in my apartment, too.

Since the design of my case requires a power supply with the motherboard cable at least 55 cm long, and such are hard to come by (most are thirty-something cm), I'm now on my emergency laptop, back to XP, with no coding tools at all.

Looks like a dry week or two, until I find a suitable power supply and get it delivered.

391

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: Ethervane Radio

« Last post by tranglos on January 11, 2011, 05:04 PM »

Most times it selects a station and starts playing fine.  Occasionally after selecting random Ethervane just shuts down. Immediately on the screen and a few seconds later in the task bar.
Anything else I can provide to help figure out why this happens? When I restart it and go to the debug log it's empty.

-bob99 (January 11, 2011, 09:48 AM)

Thanks for the report, Bob. The log is cleared when the program restarts. You'll need to find the log file and make a copy before you restart the player. On XP, the log file is located in:

c:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Ethervane\ethervaneradio\log\

It would help to know the stations which cause this error, and if it happens consistently. Feel free to email me the log file.

(This worries me a little, because the behavior you describe indicates the error may not be coming from my Delphi code. It is very rare for a Delphi app to just crash and disappear. Usually even the worst problem should end up as a message in a dialog box. A crash like you've described is much more likely to be caused by the bass dll, the library I'm using for streaming audio. It would be great to see a log file!)

...and since I'm now temporarily back on XP, my emergency laptop, I may be seeing the crash myself. Will try!

392

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: Ethervane Radio

« Last post by tranglos on January 11, 2011, 05:35 AM »

Thank you, happygrandad, it's great to have you with us!

393

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: Ethervane Radio

« Last post by tranglos on January 10, 2011, 07:38 PM »

New release: version 0.1.2. Uploaded 2011-01-11

Download: please use the attachment link in the top message in this thread.

Changes in this version:

1. A number of new features regarding volume control:

- By default, the volume slider controls only the radio player's internal volume, not the global Windows volume as before. Previous installations will keep the earlier behavior. Delete the configuration file to enable the new default.

- Mute function is now implemented (press 'M' or Backspace to toggle). The mute setting affects only the radio player. Global Windows volume is not muted.

- Added an option to set global volume on startup to a predefined value. Disabled by default. (Can be enabled in the configuration file)

- Added an option to save and restore last-used volume for each station played. Enabled by default. (Can be disabled in the configuration file). Please note: when restoring a station's volume, both the global (system-wide) volume level and the radio player's internal volume level are updated. This is the only way to ensure consistency. It makes little sense to save and restore only the radio player's internal volume, since the global volume level may be set differently each time.

- Volume slider is updated when system volume changes (with a slight delay; only when global volume control is enabled)

2. Added a simple VU meter. (Can be disabled in the configuration file)

3. Favicon is displayed for currently playing station, if the station's website has one.

4. Station playback history is now stored: date and time the station was last played, number of times the station has been played, total time the station has been played, and the station's volume (see above). This information will be used more heavily in the future, but for now it is used to sort the Favorites menu (default: most often played stations first) and the History menu (default: most recently played stations first). Likewise, connection errors are now stored for each playback source; in the future this data may be used to prioritize sources.

5. The player's state and the name of the station being played are shown in the title bar.

6. Added navigation functions: Back (Alt+Left arrow) plays the previous station; Forward (Alt+Right arrow) plays the next station. This sequence of stations is only maintained during a single program session, similar to Back and Forward buttons in a web browser.

7. Added a feature to play a random station (press 'R'). It tries to select stations that have never been played yet. (Still needs some fine-tuning).

8. Debugging log slightly improved; shows more details and uses color-coded severity levels.

9. Lots of minor fixes and improvements.

Known issues: Nothing major yet. Playback of some stations stutters once at the beginning. This affects only some stations and other players exhibit it too, but I hate it, so I'm listing it as a bug

Next up: More detailed display (playback timer, current track information); search improvements (I know the search window is really weak right now); hotkeys; UI to configure settings.

394

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: Ethervane Radio

« Last post by tranglos on January 10, 2011, 05:01 PM »

<blush!>

Ah!  Always great to see tranglos developing new software. One of the best!

-superboyac (January 10, 2011, 04:34 PM)

395

Developer's Corner / Awesome xkcd today

« Last post by tranglos on January 07, 2011, 12:16 PM »

Totally safe for work.

396

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: Ethervane Radio

« Last post by tranglos on January 05, 2011, 09:27 PM »

Mouser, I think this is one of the "goes without saying" things It's totally on the list, and it's important, but the list is crowded at the top.

I've already implemented a few critical features since the initial release, so there will be a new release in a few days. Right now I'm trying to find out if there's a Delphi implementation of ISimpleAudioVolume interface - and there doesn't seem to be. I expected volume control was going to be easy...

On edit: There is of course a lot more to be improved in the search window. Right now it doesn't display match count, and afer you hit enter you can't easily get back to the search input box - plenty of basic stuff like this. No history, no clearing, no notification on "match not found", etc. I should ahve waited for NANY 2012!

And I'll need to add some kind of synonym substitution as well.  For example, for stations in the US, the database contains "United States". If you type "USA" instead, you won't get what you expect.

397

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: Ethervane Radio

« Last post by tranglos on January 02, 2011, 06:37 AM »

I was thinking something tiny (but with basic buttons) to tuck away somewhere: (see attachment in previous post)

-Perry Mowbray (January 02, 2011, 01:18 AM)

I like that! There is some tricker involved in making a Delphi application that has multiple, switchable "main" windows, but I think I know how to make it work.

(What did you use to design this screenshot?)

398

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: Ethervane Radio

« Last post by tranglos on January 01, 2011, 11:06 PM »

One thing that's already available and might be useful: portable mode.

ER does not modify the registry in any way. It will automatically set itself to portable mode (database and all config files in the same directory as the program) if you run it from a removable drive, such as a USB drive. However, it can also run in portable mode when installed on a hard disk:

In the same folder as the program, find a small file called master.config. Open it in any text editor and change the line

portable=0

to

portable=1

And save the file. When you start ER, it will again create the database, this time in a folder called 'data' under where the executable is. You can then use the program right there or copy the whole directory to a USB drive, etc. Using ER in portable mode may make it easier to backup the whole installation, including the database.

The only important thing to watch for: if you want to run ER in portable mode from a hard disk, do not install it under "Program Files", because it will not be able to save its configuration or modify the database. Just treat it as any other portable application in this respect.

399

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: Ethervane Radio

« Last post by tranglos on January 01, 2011, 10:27 PM »

Is it possible to make the volume application specific rather than Global?

-Perry Mowbray (January 01, 2011, 10:08 PM)

Planned. (Though I think Mute should always be global, because it is typically used to silence all sounds e.g. when you're taking a phone call). There is already an option to choose whether volume control is global or for the application only, but only the global control works for now.

There's also going to be a way to save and restore volume for individual stations - some play quietly, others are quite loud. It's one of the history-related features.

400

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Pledge: Ethervane Radio

« Last post by tranglos on January 01, 2011, 08:22 PM »

No.. I don't want skins either or visualisations... was just thinking of a smaller window, or more controls in the Task Icon (and hotkeys?).

-Perry Mowbray (January 01, 2011, 08:20 PM)

Hotkeys definitely - to bring up the main window, start and stop playing. As for the task icon menu, what else do you think should be there?