Setup support for custom tags

Overview

This example show how you can add information in a custom tag to SqueezeCenter, the information will be added in the Song Info page in the web interface, the sub menu to the right of Now Playing and to the right of the track level in all other browse menus. We till finally also as a browse menu making it possible to browse music by performers in same way as you normally can browse artists. This example is applicable to other types of custom tags, performer is just an example.

The idea with this description is mainly to provide a bit more details regarding setup of Custom Scan and Custom Browse and this configuration is just used as an example to show the possibilities.

Installation

To setup this you will have to install the following plugins

• Custom Browse plugin
• Custom Scan plugin

If you are using SlimServer 6.5 or earlier, you probably want to look at the old guide instead.

Scanning custom tag

The first thing to do is to make sure the custom tag PERFORMER is actually scanned into the SqueezeCenter database. Before this we have of course used a taggning software to put the tags in our music files. We have stored the tag as a single value with a semicolon character separating the different perfomers:

PERFORMER="Performer1;Performer2;Performer3"

Custom Scan will use the standard MULTIPLE ITEMS IN TAGS setting found under "SqueezeCenter Settings/Music Library" for the separator character, so make sure this is set to the semicolon character or use the separator characters you have configured when setting the tags in the music files.

1. Goto "SqueezeCenter Settings/Plugins/Custom Scan" in the web interface
2. Click the Custom Tag scanning module to change it settings as
   • Enable in automatic and full scans: Selected
   • Tags to scan: PERFORMER
3. Click Apply to save the changes
4. Select the settings section "Manage scanning" and then click the Scan link beside the Custom Tag scanning module

The performer information has now been scanned into the SqueezeCenter database, it will still not be shown anywhere though.

Adding a browse menu

We now want to add a browse menu beside the Browse/Artists menu that instead is called Browse/Performers and works the same way as the artists browsing mechanism.

1. Goto "SqueezeCenter Settings/Plugins/Custom Browse" in the web interface
2. Select the settings section "Manage menus" and click the Create new menu link
3. Select the Custom Tags Albums menu type
4. Change menu parameters
   • Menu name: Performers
   • Tag name: PERFORMER
5. Click Next and enter filename: performers.cb.values.xml
6. Click Save to save the menu

You should now have a Performers menu under the Custom Browse menu, we now want to move this inside the standard Browse menu so it can be found in the same way as the standard Browse/Artists menu.

1. Goto "SqueezeCenter Settings/Plugins/Custom Browse" in the web interface
2. Select the settings section "Enabled menus"
3. Find the Performers menu in the list and make sure both the Show in browse and home menu and Select enabled menus checkboxes are selected
4. Click Apply to save the changes

You should now have a Browse/Performers menu that works in similar way as the standard Browse/Artists menu but browse by performers instead.

Adding to Now Playing right menu

We now want to add a he performers to the Now Playing right menu, here we want to be able to see performers of a track in same way as artists normally are shown. We would also like to be able to right click on a performer and browse its albums and songs.

1. Goto "SqueezeCenter Settings/Plugins/Custom Browse" in the web interface
2. Select the settings section "Manage header/footer items" and click the Create new menu link
3. Select the Custom Tags Albums for song menu type
4. Edit menu parameters
   • Menu name: Performers
   • Menu prefix: Performer
   • Level 1 tag name: PERFORMER
   • Object type: track
5. Click Next and change the filename to: trackperformers.cb.context.values.xml
6. Click Save to save the changes

The performers of a track when right clicking on a track on the SqueezeBox/Transporter will now be shown as:

Performer: Performer1

You will also be able to right click on the performer to browse the albums of the performer. This will work in Now Playing menu but also in all the browse menus.

Adding to Song Info page in web interface

The next step is to add the performers to the Song Info page shown when selecting a song in the web interface.

1. Goto "SqueezeCenter Settings/Plugins/Custom Browse" in the web interface
2. Select the settings section "Manage header/footer items" and click the Create new menu link
3. Select the Custom Tags Albums for song menu type
4. Edit menu parameters
   • Menu name: Performers
   • Menu prefix: Performer
   • Level 1 tag name: PERFORMER
   • Object type: trackheader
5. Click Next and change the filename to: trackheaderperformers.cb.context.values.xml
6. Click Save to save the changes

The performers will now be shown in the Song Info page when clicking on any song in a menu created by Custom Browse, it will be shown as:

Performer: Performer1 , Performer2 , Performer3

However, when you click on a song in one of the standard browse menus or in the current playlist window you will still see the old Song Info page without performers.

Showing customized Song Info page in all places

We obviously want our customized Song Info page to be shown independent if we click on a song in a Custom Browse menu or on a song in the current playlist window or standard browse menus. To accomplish this we will need to change the skin in SqueezeCenter to one of the skins provided with Custom Browse.

1. Goto Server Settings/Interface in the web interface
2. For the Web Interface parameter select either ClassicCB, DefaultCB or FishboneCB skin
3. Click Apply to save the changes

The customized Song Info page which contains performers should now be shown when you click on a song in the web interface.