Brandon Fuller | MT-NowPlaying: A Movable Type Plugin

MT-NowPlaying: A Movable Type Plugin

Current version is 2.0.0.0 released on 2007-04-12

What This Plugin Does
Requirements
Installation Instructions
How To Use The Tags
Frequently Asked Questions
Examples
Donate
License
Download
Version History
Contact

What This Plugin Does

This plugin will allow you to publish what song you are listening to on iTunes, Windows Media Player, or Winamp at the time you write a blog entry.

Since Movable Type does not have ready access to your computer's media palyer in most cases, a Now Playing plugin is required to complete process. That plugin is available here.

Requirements

This plugin only works with Movable Type version 3.3 or higher.
This plugin will only work in static (not dynamic) templates.
You must purchase a Now Playing in order to use this Movable Type plugin. There is a trial version available.

Installation Instructions

Install the Now Playing plugin.
Configure the Now Playing plugin to publish an XML file to your server. Be sure this is working and the file is on the server.
Download the latest version of the plugin.
Unzip the contents of the file.
Copy the file NowPlaying.pl to your Movable Type "plugins" directory. (If you don't have a plugins directory, create a plugins directory in the same directory where your mt.cgi file is located. Then upload NowPlaying.pl into the newly created plugins directory.)
Go into your blog settings. Click on the Plugins tab. You should see an entry for MT-NowPlaying. Click on Show Settings and configure as desired.
If you have any trouble, be sure to check the Movable Type Activity Log for errors.

How To Use The Tags

This plugin will only work in static (not dynamic) templates.

MTNowPlaying
This tag prints the value of the specified attribute name. This tag must be placed within the context of an entry (for example, inside a <MTEntries> block or Individual Entry Archive template). You must provide the following attribute:
- name="tag"
  This is a required parameter. The name parameter specifies which attribute of the song data to print out. It can be set to any one of: title, artist, album, genre, track, numTracks, year, kind, comments, time, bitrate, rating, disc, numDiscs, playcount, compliation, urlAmazon, urlApple, image, composer.
MTNowPlayingIf
A container tag that conditionally generates its contents based on the existence of a value in for the tag name given. This tag must be placed within the context of an entry (for example, inside a <MTEntries> block or Individual Entry Archive template). You can provide one of the following attributes:
- name="tag"
  This is a required parameter. The name parameter specifies which attribute of the song data to perform the operation on. It can be set to any one of: title, artist, album, genre, track, numTracks, year, kind, comments, time, bitrate, rating, disc, numDiscs, playcount, compliation, urlAmazon, urlApple, image, composer.
- state="0|1"
  If 1, then tag shows output when value exists. If 0, then tag shows output when value does not exist.

Examples

1. Adding the song you are currently listening to while writing a blog entry to your Main Index template.

<p class="posted">
   <MTNowPlayingIf name="title">
      I was listening to 
      <MTNowPlayingIf name="urlamazon">
         <a href="<$MTNowPlaying name="urlamazon"$>">
            <$MTNowPlaying name="title"$>
         </a>
      </MTNowPlayingIf>
      <MTNowPlayingIf name="urlamazon" state="0">
         <b><$MTNowPlaying name="title"$></b>
      </MTNowPlayingIf>
      by <i><$MTNowPlaying name="artist"$></i> when I wrote this.<br/>
   </MTNowPlayingIf>
   Posted by <$MTEntryAuthor$> at ...

If you enjoy using this plugin and/or would like to see it enhanced, please donate a buck or two...or fifty. I will use the money to buy my wife dinner so she lets me keep working on this stuff for free and does not complain.