Plugin for Napster with SOAP

I am new programming in C#.
It is possible to do plugins with GUI like MyMusic, MyTV in VB.NET
It is possible to implement SOAP to retrieve information of Napster(artist, music, covers, music samples)

How can i make the interface with XML for MP?
Only coded? or exist a WYSING program to make it?

Excuse my poor english

Originally Posted by orlando

I am new programming in C#.
It is possible to do plugins with GUI like MyMusic, MyTV in VB.NET
It is possible to implement SOAP to retrieve information of Napster(artist, music, covers, music samples)

How can i make the interface with XML for MP?
Only coded? or exist a WYSING program to make it?

Excuse my poor english

Somebody know?

[hamheed]

Hi Orlando,

Right now you will have to code your plugin using the C# language. You do not have to use VisualStudio.Net but I find this is the best IDE around for doing C# work right now.

C# has very good support for WebService, XML, and SOAP, so if Napster provides a WebService or SOAP interface you should be able to tap into that. As far as I know however, Napster is not a FREE service, so people would need to have an account created with Napster in order to use your plugin. I don't think this is a big problem though.

As for the screens themselves, right now you have to hand code them and create the graphics and stuff. I am in the process of writing a Screen Editor however, that should help this part of the process out in the future.

By the way, its an interesting idea for a plugin... If I understand you correctly, you want to write a plugin that will let you browse songs available through Napster, then allow the user to purchase the song, download it and add it into your Music collection...

Pretty cool

Originally Posted by hamheed

Hi Orlando,

Right now you will have to code your plugin using the C# language. You do not have to use VisualStudio.Net but I find this is the best IDE around for doing C# work right now.

C# has very good support for WebService, XML, and SOAP, so if Napster provides a WebService or SOAP interface you should be able to tap into that. As far as I know however, Napster is not a FREE service, so people would need to have an account created with Napster in order to use your plugin. I don't think this is a big problem though.

As for the screens themselves, right now you have to hand code them and create the graphics and stuff. I am in the process of writing a Screen Editor however, that should help this part of the process out in the future.

By the way, its an interesting idea for a plugin... If I understand you correctly, you want to write a plugin that will let you browse songs available through Napster, then allow the user to purchase the song, download it and add it into your Music collection...

Pretty cool

Yes, its a cool idea...
now...Plugin for Kazaa? jeje
I have a working sample to download music from Kazaa on VB6, now in VB.NET.
Can i rewrite or add from VB.NET to MP?

Thank's for you help.

[hamheed]

Orlando, ask around on the group about this, because I'm not 100% sure if you can use VB.NET. I assuming that you can since MediaPortal uses the .NET framework, so I can't see why using VB instead of C# would break anything, but I could be wrong...

I think the Napster idea is a bit safer then the Kazaa plugin, since napster is actually a legal service that people can sign up for and use safely without the threat of downloading a virus masked as an MP3 file... Just my thoughts...

[samuel337]

Originally Posted by hamheed

Orlando, ask around on the group about this, because I'm not 100% sure if you can use VB.NET. I assuming that you can since MediaPortal uses the .NET framework, so I can't see why using VB instead of C# would break anything, but I could be wrong...

No problems, MP plugins can be written in all of the .NET languages, including VB.NET. There are some minor downsides though. One is that some of the subroutine names that frodo has used in the interface description may interfere with VB.NET's keywords. The key example is in the Non-GUI plugin interface, where frodo has a Stop sub, but as Stop is a VB.NET keyword, you have to use [Stop] to tell VB.NET not to recognise it as a keyword.

The other thing is that VB.NET doesn't support operator overloading. This shouldn't be a problem, but I think frodo has used some here and there so you may have issues. Operator overloading is where you define a custom class, and you specify how the + or - or other operators work in relation to your class, e.g.

If there is a class in MP called MPClass and you want to add another instance of MPClass to it, you can't do MPClass += anotherInstanceOfMPClass as you can in C#. It will only work if frodo has coded in a workaround, e.g. MPClass.Add(anotherInstanceOfMPClass).

I hope this doesn't deter you - if I was more knowledgable in VB.NET, I would write the plugin in VB.NET rather than C#. The minor problems are easily worked around.

HTH

Sam

Somebody could send me an example of Plugin done in VB.NET? Something simple. For example, to add ' My Plugin' to main menu (MCE skin)and does something like ' Hello world'

Thank's