Got another Spotify app in the oven. Not quite finished, but it’s getting there
I put this together real quick last night because I realized that I wouldn’t mind seeing some different things on my Spotify background instead of just a list of tracks.
Daft Punk filling up the screen
Check it out at https://github.com/andrewburgess/spotify-wallpaper
I recently came across how to access the current user for the Spotify App API.
To access, you need to include the following section in your manifest.json file
"ApiPermissions": {
"core": ["private"]
}
Then you can use
sp.core.user
which will return an User object
I put together a quick CSV parser that will return a list of strings from a given line. Handles the cases of quoted entries containing both double quotes and commas within the particular cell
public static List<string> SplitCSVLine(string line)
{
var ret = new List<string>();
var quoted = false;
var tokenQuoted = false;
var currentToken = new StringBuilder();
foreach (var c in line)
{
switch (c)
{
case '"':
if (quoted == false && tokenQuoted == false)
{
quoted = true;
tokenQuoted = true;
break;
}
if (quoted && tokenQuoted)
{
quoted = false;
break;
}
if (quoted == false && tokenQuoted)
{
currentToken.Append(c);
quoted = true;
break;
}
break;
case ',':
if (quoted)
{
currentToken.Append(c);
break;
}
ret.Add(currentToken.ToString());
currentToken = new StringBuilder();
tokenQuoted = false;
break;
default:
currentToken.Append(c);
break;
}
}
return ret;
}
Spotify now has an application framework, yet the documentation is still fairly limited. Here are some things that aren’t in the documentation that will be helpful. (Note: I’m using jQuery in my application)
Starting Things Off
There are some imports and variables to declare in order to understand the examples below.
var sp = getSpotifyApi(1);
var views = sp.require("sp://import/scripts/api/views");
var models = sp.require("sp://import/scripts/api/models");
var ui = sp.require("sp://import/scripts/ui");
Display a playlist using Spotify’s List item
var list = new views.List(playlist, function (track) {
return new views.Track(track, views.Track.FIELD.STAR |
views.Track.FIELD.SHARE |
views.Track.FIELD.NAME |
views.Track.FIELD.ARTIST |
views.Track.FIELD.DURATION |
views.Track.FIELD.ALBUM);
});
$("#playlist").append(list.node);
The constructor for the List class takes three arguments. In the above example, I only use the first two, which are: a playlist object to display, and a method for returning exactly how to display the tracks in the playlist. There are a number of different fields that can be added into the tail end of the views.Track() constructor, but the ones listed are a good start.
To make the list use the light theme
list.node.classList.add("sp-light");
Display Artist/Album Image
The API includes a class for displaying images based on a URI that can be resized to fit a container.
var track = sp.trackPlayer.getNowPlayingTrack().track;
var img = new ui.SPImage(track.album.cover);
$("album-cover").append(img.node);
If you want to include Player controls over the image, use this:
var player = new views.Player();
$("#album-cover").empty().append($(document.createElement("a")).attr("href", track.uri));
var img = new ui.SPImage(track.album.cover);
$(player.image).empty();
$(player.image).append(img.node);
$("#album-cover").children().append(player.node);
You can programmatically set the context/playing status of the player using player.context = playlist.uri and player.playing = true. You can also use the player.play(track, playlist.uri) method to start things off.
Hopefully these few things help, and I’ll be sure to add a new post with additional examples as I come across them
I recently had to scramble to put together a script to change a column of strings from being all UPPERCASE to being Capitalized. It wasn’t enough to just capitalize the first letter of the string because some of the strings were multiple words that all needed to be capitalized.
Luckily I stumbled upon this function at http://www.sql-server-helper.com/functions/initcap.aspx which is an implementation of a built in function for Oracle, but is missing in MSSQL
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[InitCap] ( @InputString varchar(4000) )
RETURNS VARCHAR(4000)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @Index INT
DECLARE @Char CHAR(1)
DECLARE @PrevChar CHAR(1)
DECLARE @OutputString VARCHAR(255)
SET @OutputString = LOWER(@InputString)
SET @Index = 1
WHILE @Index <= LEN(@InputString)
BEGIN
SET @Char = SUBSTRING(@InputString, @Index, 1)
SET @PrevChar = CASE WHEN @Index = 1 THEN ' '
ELSE SUBSTRING(@InputString, @Index - 1, 1)
END
IF @PrevChar IN (' ', ';', ':', '!', '?', ',', '.', '_', '-', '/', '&', '''', '(')
BEGIN
IF @PrevChar != '''' OR UPPER(@Char) != 'S'
SET @OutputString = STUFF(@OutputString, @Index, 1, UPPER(@Char))
END
SET @Index = @Index + 1
END
RETURN @OutputString
END
GO
I realized that I could leverage this function to aid in updating my dataset to set the strings to their proper casing. In order to accomplish this, I had to write another query which would let me update each individual row in the table with a different value.
The method I chose involved an in-memory table to store the capitalized names which I could then join to my UPDATE query to complete the process
DECLARE @Names TABLE (id INT, name NVARCHAR(100)) INSERT INTO @Names (id, name) (SELECT [id], dbo.InitCap([name]) as name FROM Counties) UPDATE Counties SET name = (SELECT name FROM @Names as n WHERE n.id = Counties.id)
The temporary table has two columns, id and name. I insert the id from the base table, as well as the modified name which has the InitCap function applied to it.
Once the table is created, it’s attached to the UPDATE statement to select the correct data from the temporary table and store it to the linked column in the base table.
One of our projects needed the title attribute filled out automatically for image elements. I had originally thought that Sitecore handled this automatically, but apparently that is not the case, so I put together this Pipeline Processor (built off of a source that I have forgotten unfortunately, but will link to if I remember).
The first thing to do is put the following in your Web.config:
<pipelines>
<renderField>
<processor type="Your.Namespace.AddTitleToImage, Your.Assembly" />
</renderField>
</pipelines>
After putting that in your Web.config, create the following class with the appropriate namespace/assembly information:
public class AddTitleToImage
{
public void Process(RenderFieldArgs args)
{
if (args.FieldTypeKey == "image")
{
args.Parameters.Add("title", ((ImageField) args.GetField()).Alt);
var renderer = new ImageRenderer();
renderer.Item = args.Item;
renderer.FieldName = args.FieldName;
renderer.FieldValue = args.FieldValue;
renderer.Parameters = args.Parameters;
args.WebEditParameters.AddRange(args.Parameters);
var result = renderer.Render();
args.Result.FirstPart = result.FirstPart;
args.Result.LastPart = result.LastPart;
}
}
}
This works on any image that Sitecore has to render in the page that is being produced, so you can be ensured that the title attribute will be set when using a Sitecore image.
I’ve been working occasionally on a project to help generate Spotify playlists using some of the various tools that are available (right now Last.FM and EchoNest).
The repository is located here: https://andrewburgess.kilnhg.com/Repo/Miscellaneous/Group/Spotify-Tools
At the moment, only the similar artist generators for Last.FM and EchoNest are working, but I’m hoping to add in additional functionality when I feel more motivated, as well as create a more intuitive interface.
If you decide to build the application for yourself, you’ll need to get a Spotify API Key, Last.FM API Key, and an EchoNest API Key, then create a new class in the project root called Keys, and assign the appropriate properties with the received keys.
You can open issues in my bug tracker here: https://andrewburgess.fogbugz.com/. Just sign up for an account and click New Case on the main page.
Very catchy tune
