GeoMP32 is a plugin designed to 'remote control' an audio application within the shell. It adds some new functions like a floating playlist menu, time display and some more buttons than its predecessors.
GeoMP32 cannot play music files on its own. Rather, it relies on a host application to play the files, GeoMP32 just controls what the application is doing.
Features
- Supports inset / standard styles.
- Reports playback status textually or graphically and playback time.
- Popup playlist menu - right click the title.
- Full playlist search.
- You can specify a maximum width for the title or it can Auto Size.
- Scrolls titles if they don't fit in the available space.
- Tooltip with the current filename and playback status.
- Right-shift recycling.
- Double click the title to copy it to the clipboard.
- Double click the time to toggle the time display mode.
- Configurable player controls on the bar.
- You can drag and drop files onto the title to add them to the play list and play them.
- You can make the play or open controls launch your player if it isn't running.
- Controls match your Geo Bar colours. You can replace the internal control bitmaps with your own bitmaps if you want.
- You can completely hide GeoMP32 when your player isn't running.
- Can be made to support other players... If you know C++ and Windows
- Not all players support these functions. All these functions work with Winamp 2.x and Winamp 5.x. Other players may have limited support.
Current issues/limitiations
- Can't hide the title or the controls.
- Won't work on a vertical bar.
Supported Players
Registry Entries
| Name |
Type |
Meaning |
| Style |
String |
Can be either 'Inset' or 'Standard' |
| Show Status |
String |
Can be 'No' for no status info, 'Text' for the playing status to be tacked on to the end of the title, or 'Graphic' which superimposes a graphic indication of the status over the title. |
| Title Width |
Dword |
Width of the title in pixels. |
| Auto Size |
Dword |
'0' means the width of the title is taken from the value in 'Title Width', whereas '1' will automatically resize the title to the size of the filename. |
| Max Auto Size |
Dword |
Upper limit in pixels for the auto size to stop it taking over the entire screen. |
| Scroll Title |
String |
'No' will keep the title static, 'Normal' will scroll the title continuously like Winamp and PingPong! will bounce the title forwards and backwards. Scroll only happens when the title doesn't fit in the available space. |
| Font |
String |
This determines the font used for title, e.g. "Tahoma,10". If you specify just the font name, "Tahoma", then a default font size is used. |
| Time Font |
String |
As above but this alters the font the time display uses. e.g. you could set a smaller font for the time. |
| ButtonAction1 |
String |
This specifies a control action. The value for a Button Action can be: 'Play' 'Open' 'Stop' 'Pause' 'Previous Track' 'Next Track' 'Volume Up' 'Volume Down' 'Shuffle' 'Repeat' (scroll down to see "how to add controls to GeoMP32") |
| ButtonAction1Bmp |
String |
You can override the internal bitmap for a control by adding the string value - "ButtonAction1Bmp" and a value containing the path to your bitmap. These bitmaps support pink transparency. |
| ButtonAction1Bmp2 |
String |
Some Button Actions (Shuffle, Repeat) are toggle buttons. This string value overrides the internal bitmap for the secondary toggle bitmap. This has no effect for non toggle buttons. |
| Auto Start |
Dword |
Set this to '1' so that when your player isn't running, the play or open button will try and start it up for you. |
| Auto Start Path |
String |
Specifies the path to the player .exe. If you've set and specified 'Auto Start', then this is the .exe file that will be launched when a player isn't currently running. |
| Scroll Timer |
Dword |
This is how often the title is scrolled in milliseconds. Smaller values should make the title scroll faster but will use more CPU time. |
| Full Hide |
Dword |
Set this to '1' to completely hide GeoMP32 on your bar when your player isn't running. This will override 'Auto Start', so you'll need to manually restart your player to make GeoMP32 reappear. |
| Playlist Numbers |
Dword |
Set this to '0' to turn off numbering in the playlist menu - which then lets you jump to a song title by pressing the first letter of the title, whereas before you would have to press the number instead. |
| Max Playlist Height |
Dword |
Specifies the maximum height for the playlist popup in pixels. The Playlist autosizes itself if it is smaller than the maximum height. |
| Max Playlist Width |
Dword |
Specifies how wide you want the playlist to be in pixels, to stop your song titles getting clipped. |
| Playlist Playing |
String |
This controls how the playing song in the playlist popup is indicated. It can be 'None' for no indication (apart from the initial selection indication in the popup), 'Bold' to make the song bold, 'Graphic' to append a play / pause / stop graphic next to the song or 'Bold Graphic' to combine the previous two options. |
| Show Time |
String |
Displays playback time in minutes and seconds on the bar. It can be set to 'No' for no display, 'Playing' to show the time at the point of playback or 'Remaining' to show how long there is until the end of the song is reached. |
To add controls to GeoMP32, create a new String Value called 'ButtonActionX' where X is a number between 1 and the number of controls you want on the bar.
- Controls appear in the order they are defined by 'ButtonAction'
- GeoMP32 won't let the same control appear twice on a bar.
- ButtonAction values need to start from 1, and be sequential without gaps.
Hotkeys
The defaults assume you've got some fancy multimedia keyboard which also stops them clashing with any other existing hotkeys. They are:
| Action |
Keystroke |
| Play |
Shift + Play / Pause Key |
| Pause |
Ctrl + Play / Pause Key |
| Stop |
Shift + Stop Key |
| Previous Track |
Shift + Previous Track Key |
| Next Track |
Shift + Next Track Key |
| Open |
Shift + Launch Media Select Key |
| Open Directory |
Ctrl + Launch Media Select Key |
| Volume Up |
Shift + Volume Up Key |
| Volume Down |
Shift + Volume Down Key |
| Rewind |
Ctrl + Previous Track Key |
| Fast Forward |
Ctrl + Next Track Key |
| Toggle Shuffle |
Ctrl + Alt + S |
| Toggle Repeat |
Ctrl + Alt + R |
| Playlist |
Windows Key + P |
| Playlist Search |
Windows Key + Alt + P |
| Copy song title to clipboard |
Windows Key + Alt + C |
If you don't like these keys, open RegEdit and have a look at the GeoMP32 hotkey definitions under
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\geO\geOShell\Services\Hotkey\szIDs
Remember to recycle Geoshell to ensure your new hotkeys are used!
Pressing F3 when the playlist menu is up, activates the playlist search. Type a search string in and the playlist will show you all the matching song titles. Use cursor up and down to move through the entries and return to select the currently highlighted entry. Pressing DELETE clears the current playlist. Pressing ESCAPE cancels search mode and returns you to the normal playlist window.
Credits
GeoMP3 for the look and the feature set. 'frontend.h' from Nullsoft which lays out the Winamp API. 'QCDCtrlMsgs.h' from Quinnware for the QCD messaging API. steel_space for 'foo_remote.dll' and API for Foobar. Kez for his GeoAmp buttons.
Thanks
- Silverion for retyping/reformatting/transferring the whole document to the new GeoShell Docs.
- The bold and the brave - Chemikkel, Dansx6 and Raz0.
- ?TheMonster, my Windows 98 test team .
- People on the board who supply feedback, suggestions and are brave enough to download inbetween versions.
Contact and feedback
Bugs? Hopefully not. No warranty? Certainly. Questions and suggestions? Possibly.
meester_jones@lycos.co.uk
I'm also about on the forum as well.
Version History
(may need updating)
1.31 - You can now press Delete when the playlist popup is up to clear the playlist.
- Basic support for Foobar2000. Requires the 'foo_remote.dll' and Foobar2000 v0.7.
- Added 'Time Font' option, so you can specify a different font for the time display.
- Fixed a bug where GeoMP32 wouldn't appear if you'd got '?FullHide' on and started your player afterwards.
- Optimisations to the time drawing code.
- Added hotkey to copy the current song title to the clipboard.
- Fixed painting bug with Geoshell 4.11.
1.3 - Searchable playlist. Press F3 when the playlist popup is up, or the playlist search hotkey to activate the song search edit area.
- Implemented toggle button actions 'Shuffle' and 'Repeat'.
- Better QCD support. Still no playlist though.
- If a player's .exe location can't be determined from the registry, it will fall back to using the path specified in 'Auto Start Path'.
- Added hotkeys for shuffle toggle, repeat toggle, playlist, playlist search and the secondary file browser.
- Fixed playlist crashing on exit under Windows 98.
- Squashed some stupid resource leaks in Windows 98.
1.21 - Pressing CTRL + the 'Open' button will open a secondary file browser if the current player supports this - e.g. the Dir Browser in Winamp.
- New 'Playlist Playing' option 'Bold Graphic', which combines the 'Bold' and 'Graphic' options together.
- You can now click on the bar to cancel the playlist popup.
- Fixed a bug in the bitmap loader for the controls which meant the internal button graphic wasn't shown if a user specified bitmap file couldn't be opened.
- Playlist popup now appears correctly with Multiple Monitors.
1.2 - Initial internal support for multiple players. Basic support for Media Player 6.4 - song title and controls.
- Improved playlist popup. You can use Home, End, Page Up, Page Down for faster navigation, or the scrollbar. The playlist now opens up at the file you are currently playing. Pressing the first character of a title also takes you to that entry in the playlist.
- You can now specify how the playing song in the playlist popup is indicated.
- You can specify how wide / high you want the playlist to be, to stop songs getting clipped.
- Playback time / remaining time display on the bar. You can double click the time to flip between the two modes.
- You can now hold down the volume up / down buttons to do faster increments.
- Added hotkeys for 'Rewind' and 'Fast Forward'.
- Removed 'Winamp Path' key. If you want 'Auto Start' to work, you'll need to set a path to your player in the 'Auto Start Path' key.
- Added key 'Playlist Numbers' to turn numbering off / on in the playlist.
- Fixed some title scrolling issues.
1.1 - Basic playlist support. Right click on the title area and if Winamp has a current playlist, it will be displayed in a popup menu, which you can use to select the song you want.
- Hotkey support. Uses the media key set from GeoMP3 as it's defaults.
- Implemented basic copy to clipboard - just double click on the title.
- Implemented fast forward and rewind. Press the left mouse button and hold down 'Next track' or 'Previous track' buttons to fast forward / rewind. A normal single click does the original function.
- Added key 'Full Hide' which stops any title / control elements appearing when Winamp isn't running.
- Fixes to the method to automatically determine the path to 'Winamp.exe'.
- Fixed Mouse-Over-Alpha not occuring.
- Changed button action from 'Eject' to 'Open'. You will need to edit your ?ButtonAction value accordingly.
- If you press 'Open' and have 'Auto Start' set, it will now open Winamp.
- Fixed some title scrolling bugs.
- Fixed some timer problems.
1.0 - Initial Release.
