The media hive :: Snowblind
Welcome to the media hive's Snowblind skin. Skin in this context really means "user interface." The media hive is specifically designed to allow web developers and graphic artists to create new interfaces without requiring any programming skills. While this document is primarily a discussion of this specific skin, as the hive's reference skin Snowblind is also useful for learning about all the features the hive offers. Because the hive is extremely flexible in how it can be skinned, the features discussed below may not be present, or may be presented differently, in other skins.This document is divided into three sections: the main Snowblind screen is documented below, followed by the search screen, and the user settings screen.
The Main Screen
The main Snowblind screen consists of three functional sections. Across the top are the controls, which let you do various things, such as manipulate the playlist (play, clear, repeat, etc.), manage saved playlists, access user settings, and more. Below it, the left two-thirds of the screen display catalog content. When you select a media type - music, movies, etc. - the catalog area presents you with a way of navigating around your collection of media to find the items you want to add to the playlist. The right third of the screen shows the playlist; it is designed to be very interactive, so you can watch or listen to your media collection the way you want to.The Snowblind skin uses a development methodology called AJAX to minimize the number of times your browser needs to reload the page in response to your actions. You will notice that when you explore the catalog or interact with the playlist, only the area of the interface that receives new data is redrawn.
Logging In, Logging Out, and Playing
Before going an further, a brief note on logging out of the hive. You'll notice that each time you connect to the hive you need to log in. The first time you log in, the system assigns a "session ID" to you. If you click the "logout" link, the system revokes this ID, and assigns you a new one when you log in again. So far this is like any other system, but the tricky part is that your media player needs to send the session ID to the hive to get permission to play. Which means that the media player can't play if you log out, as your session ID will be revoked. The solution to this is to not log out. If you close your browser, then run it again later and connect to the hive, you will still have to log in, but your session ID will be unchanged. Because your session ID stays in the system until you explicitly log out by clicking the logout link, you can stop and start your media player independent of your browser session. The logout functionality exists for situations where you need extra security, perhaps because you share a computer, or previously shared a hive link with someone that included your session ID.
All the functional aspects of the Snowblind skin are numbered in the above image, and explained below.
Note: for demonstration purposes the music media type is shown; however, all the concepts discussed below apply to all media types (music, movies, tv, audiobooks, etc.).
Note: for demonstration purposes the music media type is shown; however, all the concepts discussed below apply to all media types (music, movies, tv, audiobooks, etc.).
- Clicking the media hive logo returns you to the main page from anywhere in the Snowblind skin.
- The types drop-down list allows you to select what types of media (music, movies, etc.) will show in the catalog below.
- Clicking on a view preset will change the way the hive displays catalog entries. For example, the "By Artist" view lets you browse the catalog by first clicking on an artist's name, and then an album by that artist. The "By Albums/Songs" view shows a list of albums first, and then the songs in the album you select. "By Albums/Artists" shows albums first, then allows you to select songs by the artists on the record - useful for "various artist" collections or when multiple artists have albums with the same name.
- Clicking on a letter of the alphabet restricts the catalog view to entries that start with that letter.
- Clicking on this "add" link will add everything by the artist to the playlist.
- Clicking on the artist name will display all albums by this artist.
- Clicking on this "add" link will add an entire album to the playlist.
- Clicking on the album name will show the songs on the album.
- Clicking on this "add" link will add a single song to the playlist.
- This is the playlist. It shows the items that will be played when you connect to the hive with your media player. Clicking on the "Playlist" link refreshes the playlist. Clicking the "play forever" link will cause the hive to add random entries to the playlist; the playlist will not repeat until all entries in the catalog have been played, at which point the selection process starts over.
- Each item in the playlist has a set of controls associated with it. These are, from left to right: set cursor (the location that new entries are added to the playlist); perform action, which performs the action selected in the actions list on the playlist entry (see #17); move entry up/down; remove entry from playlist; make the entry the active entry (if the playlist is playing, it will start streaming the new active entry).
- Clicking on a playlist entry will display it in the catalog.
- The black and gray notes indicate the active and next playlist entries. The active entry is the one that is playing, or will play once you start your media player. The gray notes indicate the entry that will play after the active entry.
- This line represents the cursor; it is the location where new entries will be added to the playlist.
- If the playlist contains more entries than can be shown at once (see the user settings sections for information on configuring how many entries the playlist will display at once), these controls allow you to navigate the pages of the playlist.
- These links apply to the playlist as a whole. "Reset cursor" will reset the insert location, if one has been set, to the end of the playlist. "Repeat active" will play the active entry again before moving on to the next entry. "Repeat all/one" will cause the entire playlist, or a single entry, to repeat indefinitely; "repeat off" cancels repeat mode. "Shuffle on" causes the playlist to play in random order; "shuffle off" cancels shuffle play. "Clear playlist" clears the playlist.
- The action list contains a set of actions that can be performed on a playlist entry. To use one, select an action from the action list, then click the "A" link next to the playlist entry you wish to apply the action to.
- Enter text here to search the catalog. The search function is case-sensitive. (For the technically-inclined: the search string is actually a regular expression).
- These controls interact with your media player. The "play" button will start your media player playing the media hive's playlist. It does this by downloading an m3u playlist file; your browser must be configured to use your media player to play m3u files for it to start playing automatically. If an mhive media player plug-in is available for your player, the hive will control it directly when any of these control buttons are clicked. See the downloads section of the media hive website for media player plug-ins.
- These links represent the management functions of the media hive. "Playlists" takes you to the playlist management screen. "D/L Playlist" allows you to download the entries in the current playlist as a zip file. Clicking the "#" link will cause the filenames in the playlist zip file to be numbered according to their order in the playlist. The "Settings" link takes you to to the user settings page. The "Logout" link logs you out of the hive.
The Search Screen
To search the hive's catalog, simply enter some text in the search field (located on the main screen - see #18 above) and click the search button. The media hive will look for matches in each attribute of the active media type, and will bold the entries that match the search criteria, as shown in the screenshot below.Search text is case-sensitive. This is because the search text you supply is actually a regular expression, allowing a great deal of flexibility in searching if you learn the fundamentals. Understanding regular expressions is not necessary to use search, however; you'll do fine if you just type in some text to search for. Here's a quick reg-ex tip: if you want to match an upper-case or lower-case letter, surround both letters with brackets. For example, "[Rr]olling" will match both "Rolling" and "rolling".
There will usually be more than one link per line in the search results section. First, the "add" link will add all catalog entries associated with the match. For the music type, that may be all songs by an artist, all songs on an album, or simply a single song, depending on which attribute matched your search request. And depending on how the active media type is configured, some of the data in the search results may link back to the catalog for further browsing.
Note: as before, for demonstration purposes the music media type is discussed, but
the search function is capable of searching any media type.
- Clicking on this "add" link will add everything by this artist to the playlist.
- Clicking on this "add" link will add the entire album to the playlist.
- Clicking on this "add" link will add the song to the playlist.
- Clicking on any artist name in this column will go to the catalog view of albums by this artist.
- Clicking on any album name in this column will go to the catalog view of songs on the album.
The User Settings Screen
The media hive has a sophisticated user settings system. It does the basics, such as allowing you to configure things like how many entries display per page of the playlist. But it also has a few tricks up its sleeve, such as configuring skins on a per-agent basis, and binding user settings to a specific IP address.Per-Agent Skin Settings
Before we get started, let's define what an agent is: it's a particular version of a particular browser, like Firefox 1.5 or IE 6 service pack 1.Consider a situation where you might want to use different skins with different devices. For example, maybe you access the hive from your desktop computer, and because it has a high-resolution monitor you want to use a skin that displays as much data as possible on a single page. But let's say you also use the hive as your living room media center, so you need a skin that uses a large font so it looks good on a TV. And you also use your mobile phone sometimes as a remote control. You don't want to change skins each time you use a different device - that would be a hassle, or maybe even impossible if you were going from desktop to mobile phone. Fortunately you don't need to - each time you connect with a different agent, the hive remembers the skin you used, and uses it again when you reconnect with that same agent. So your mobile phone will never try to load the same skin as your desktop. (And if the PC hooked up to your TV uses the same agent as your desktop? Read the next section to find out how to solve that.)
Binding Settings
When you install the hive and log in for the first time, only one set of settings exist, called "default." Until you change this, these default settings will be used no matter where you access the hive from. But what if you want to downsample your media when you play it from work, yet want to listen to it at full quality when playing it from home? In this case, when you are logged into the hive from work, access the settings screen and scroll down to where it shows your IP address. To the right you will see a link called "bind." When you click this link, your current settings are copied and applied specifically to this IP address. Now whenever you change your user settings from work, you are changing only the copy that gets used when you log in from this IP address. If your internet provider changes your IP address, you don't need to rebind you settings; instead find the "migrate to x.x.x.x" link to move your settings over to your new IP address. There is also a "delete" link next to each set of bound settings for when you no longer need to have a configuration bound to a specific IP address.
Note: you must click the "Save" button for changes to take effect.
- This list allows you to change the look-and-feel of the media hive.
- The spawn media player setting is set to on by default. When checked, the media hive sends an m3u playlist file to your browser, which in turn should start your media player, when the play link on the main page is clicked. There are times when this file doesn't need to be sent, however (for example, when using a media player remote control plug-in); in those cases, this setting allows you to prevent the m3u from being sent.
- Binding links - see the "Binding Settings" section above.