JAM User Guide (v1.

2)

Table of Contents
I. foobar2000 Installation
II. Optional Requirements
III. Additional Components
IV. JAMInstallation
V. Setup
VI. User Interface
VII. Miscellaneous
VIII. FAQ
IX. Uninstall / Switch to Different Skin
X. Credits
XI. Changelog


I. foobar2000 Installation
You can skip this if you already have foobar2000 on your computer.
1. Download foobar2000 from http://www.foobar2000.org/download. It's recommended that you download the latest stable version available.

2. Install foobar2000. Follow the instruction on the installer and choose standard or portable mode. You can find the differences between them here http://www.foobar2000.org/?page=ReleaseNotes&version=096.


II. Optional Requirements
Internet Connection
Some components will rely on your connection in order to fetch data from the Internet (e.g. lyrics, artist bio, artworks, etc. ).

Last.fm Account
JAMoffers great Last.fm integration. It's strongly recommended that you have and then connect your last.fm account so it can sync and show your loved tracks, playcounts and charts directly from foobar2000.
In addition, you can download the standalone scrobbler component (foo_audioscrobbler) from http://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_audioscrobbler.


III. Additional Components

Custom Database (foo_customdb.dll)
Facets (foo_facets.dll)
Playback Statistics (foo_playcount.dll)
Quick Search Toolbar (foo_quicksearch.dll)
Soft Playlists (foo_softplaylists.dll)
Columns UI (foo_ui_columns.dll)
UI Hacks (foo_ui_hacks.dll)
Biography View (foo_uie_biography.dll)
ELP Playlist (foo_uie_elplaylist.dll)
Graphical Browser (foo_uie_graphical_browser.dll)
Lyrics Show Panel 3 (foo_uie_lyrics3.dll
Panel Stack Splitter (foo_uie_panel_splitter.dll)
WSH Panel Mod (foo_uie_wsh_panel_mod.dll)


IV. JAM Installation
Exit foobar2000 before continue. Backup your current config, just in case something goes wrong.
1. Move 'components' and 'skins' folders to foobar2000 installation folder.

2. Move 'configuration' folder to :
- If you use standard mode : foobar2000 app data folder
(i.e. C:\Users\<your username>\App Data\Roaming\foobar2000, or just simply type %appdata%\foobar2000 on Windows Explorer address bar)

- If you use portable mode : foobar2000 installation folder (same as step #1)

3. Rename 'sqlite3.bak' in skins\Jam\Scripts folder to 'sqlite3.exe' (without quotes)

4. Run foobar2000. If user interface option window pop up, choose 'Columns UI'.

5. From here, foobar2000 interface should changed to JAM.

Note:
If youre already using previous version of Jam, It should be OK to copy all folders again to their respective locations. But again, its recommended to make a backup copy first (especially the configuration folder).
Also please note that you will lose any interface modifications youve made in the previous version (panel placements, fonts, colors, etc).


V. Setup
1. Add Music Folders
Open Preferences (CTRL + P or via preferences icon on the bottom bar) -> Media Library -> Add your music folder(s). Load your music by importing playlist files, type in Searchbox, or via Facets (see Interface section).

2. Import last.fm data
a. Expand the bottom bar, you will see a red icon right beside the rating stars.
b. Right-click on it, fill your last.fm username and password. After that it will change to a love icon.
c. Right-click again, choose what to import (loved tracks only, or with playcounts) via 'Library import'.
Steps below only necessary to create smart playlists based on your last.fm top tracks, loved tracks, and similar tracks of currently playing song.
d. Open Preferences -> Tools -> Soft Playlists, fill your last.fm username & password. Click OK to close prefs. window.
e. Right-click on empty area -> splitter settings. You will see $set_ps_global(lastfm_username,<username>) code near the top of the page. Change <username> with yours then click OK to close splitter settings window.
Please note that the code above only available in default color scheme (Dark grey w/ green).




















VI. User Interface















1. Expand or collapse the left bar. Any active panels besides it will be resized.

2. Search icon. Click on this will also expand the left bar.

3. Interface Switcher: Collection, Playlists, Now Playing, Song Info, Artist Info, Lyrics, Charts & Settings.

4. Show or hide the bottom bar. Any active panels above it will be resized.

5. Rating and Love buttons. Instruction to set love button already explained in Setup section.

6. Context commands for currently playing song: create a smart playlists, add to playlist and properties respectively.

7. Menu commands: EQ, Console and basic option.

8. Volume control. Slide to adjust volume, or click the icon to mute / unmute.

9. Playback Order options. Please note that you cant use Repeat and Shuffle at the same time. Turn repeat to off first before turning on shuffle, vice versa.

10. Minimize, Maximize/Restore & Exit buttons. Maximize button only visible on default window size (1200x600 px), otherwise it will change to Restore button to quickly resize the window to its default size.

11. Launch library viewer (Facets) on separate window, available only on Collection and Playlists interface. Since it's not integrated on main window, you will have to arrange what Facets displays (artist/album/songs) manually on first launch.

12. Graphical Browser panels. These panels will show relevant results (artists/albums) from Facets selection, playlist contents or search query. Single-click to highlight its contents on the song list.






VII. Miscellaneous

Artist Pictures & Album Artworks
foobar2000 will download and save artist pictures and album artwork of currently playing song. The artwork will be saved in the same location where the song is, while the artist picture in one folder higher.
So lets say your music folder structure is like this :

- Music
- Artist 1
- Album A
- Album B
- Artist 2
- Album C
- Artist 3
If you play a song from Album A, the artwork is saved in Album A folder while the artist picture is saved in Artist 1 folder. After that, these images will be shown on some panels (Biography View, ELPlaylist, Graphical Browser) and on the main
interface and bottom bar as well, depending on your preferences (See Display Settings below).
Its obvious that your songs must have at least Artist and Album info on its metadata.
You can also download the album artwork manually via bottom bar or graphical browser (middle click on item).
You might have to manually crop artist pictures with aspect ratio smaller than 16:10 (e.g. 2:1, both W:H or H:W) to 16:10 or a bigger ratio, otherwise it wont displayed properly.

Display Settings
Display Settings can be accessed via Settings interface.

Available settings :

Color Schemes : Choose from 3 different color schemes (Dark grey w/ green accents | Dark grey w/ blue accents | White + dark grey w/ red accents)
Artwork Type : Choose to display album artworks or artist pictures.
Source Priority (for album) : Choose artwork source priority: embedded or downloaded artworks.
Overlay Effect : Enable / disable overlay effect.
Bar Opacity : Choose from 5 opacity levels.
Seekbar Length : Choose to display full-length or dynamic seekbar. Dynamic seekbar length is calculated by song title or artist & album string length (whichever is longer).
Additional Vol bar : Choose to enable/disable the second volume bar


Resizable Window
Resizable window is available since v1.1. A couple things worth to mention:

Its still not possible to resize the window to smaller size.
Sometimes I notice a slightly delayed response (lag) when expanding / collapsing the left bar and bottom bar, especially when theres too much graphical elements shown.
Almost all panels blinking when you resize the window, it's normal since they also change accordi ng to the window size.

Color Schemes
As of v1.1, Jam has 2 new color schemes. Although it looks like just a merely color variations, the truth is, each scheme is configured in independent ColumnsUI preset.
So any interface modifications (panel placements, fonts, etc.) youve done in one particular color scheme doesnt also applied in another schemes.

Theres one exception though, and its for Playlist Switcher panel. This panel setting takes effect globally, thats why the background and font colors stay the same in all color schemes.







VIII. FAQ

Q: On expanded bottom bar, I get rasl text instead of love button. What went wrong?
A: You havent renamed the sqlite3.bak file. Refer to step #3 in Jam installation section.

Q: How to load my whole library to foobar?
A: Open collection interface -> click one of the artists/albums/songs button -> Facets window will open, click All on top of each column list.
If thats the first time you open Facets window, it will only show 3 blank columns. Right-click on each column caption to add new list (artist, album, etc)

Q: foobar is laggy on startup and when switching between interfaces?
A: That could happen if there are too much songs (starts with a few thousands) shown in the active playlist, thus also showing massive number of graphical elements.

Q: Search box doesnt work, it only showing a red highlight box from my query. What caused it?
A: foobar cant find any results from your search query. Make sure you already added your music folders and check your spelling.

Q: Is it possible to find specific items (artists/albums/songs) from the search box, rather than displaying all items that matched with my queries?
A: Yes its possible, You can use foobar query syntax (e.g. %artist% IS Owl City). Refer to this page for more examples.

Q: How do I enable scrollbar on my song list?
A: On ELP panels, used in 'now playing', 'collection' and 'playlists' interface.
Right-click one of your songs -> Settings -> go to 'style' tab -> change scrollbar option to 'show' (always show) or 'default' (only when necessary)

On Graphical Browser panels, used in 'collection' & 'playlists' interface.
Right-click one of items (artist/album) -> Settings -> go to 'others' tab -> click 'show scrollbar' box

Q: New downloaded pictures won't appear automatically?
A: Nope, foobar can't load those new images right away. Try to switch between interfaces (or color schemes) to reload them.

Q: In collection and playlists interface, some of my albums failed to display their artwork, although Im sure my songs has embedded artworks.
A: Those panels cant read embedded artworks, only artworks from external images.

Q: Okay, but why do they showing incorrect images?
A: foobar will search for artwork image in the same folder where your songs stored. Starting with image that has identical filename as the album title, then more common filename ( front.jpg, cover.png, etc.) and finally any images inside the
folder if none of them are found. Incorrect images might show if theres another images beside the artwork inside the folder.

Q: Ive rated some of my songs via another player or another foobar skin. But it seems theyre not showed on this skin?
A: Jam uses other rating system, provided by Playback Statistics component. Its possible to show/write to embedded ratings inst ead with few extra steps (FYI one of the step is not recommended by the component itself).
If you want to try it anyway, just let me know in the comment and Ill send you a note.

Q: Im getting some errors and not really sure what caused that.
A: Just describe your problems in the comment (preferably with a screenshot to point it out). If its WSH related things (usually indicated by aw crashed message or popup windows when you start foobar), open console window and upload the
log to pastebin or similar sites.

Q: I want to make some mods, but I dont know how to do that and how things work.
A: Check my collaborative How to skin foobar2000 tutorials w/ Markkoenig and slowboyfast. Itll help you get started.

Q: Why I cant see any bitrate info on my lossless files?
A: I think bitrate info isnt that important for lossless files (and other formats with variable bitrate / VBR settings). Instead of it, I put the codec profile like V0, V1 fast, etc.

Q: Some of the downloaded artworks are in really good quality, and the others arent, in fact they are worse than the embedded artworks?
A: Source for those images is their respective last.fm album page. There is no standardization in terms of quality (or size) so you only get whats available there.

Q: Song Info interface isnt consistent; I can see a lot of info on some of my songs, but only a few on the others.
A: Starting from v1.2, it will only show existing tag in song metadata, instead of reserving space for each tag then returning blank if that tag isnt found.

Q: I listen to online radio a lot, is it possible to grab the album artwork of the playing song, or at least the radio logo?
A: Its not possible, only song title, artist name (of course if theyre properly tagged), radio name, URL, and genre are available to show.
Q: How can I prevent foobar from downloading any images?
A: Just delete / move the foo_uie_biography.dll from components folder.



IX. Uninstall / Switch to Different Skin
Here are your options:

1. Soft Uninstall This is only restore the layout to the original one, other independent configuration (like your media library folders, last.fm account info, etc) is not affected.
A. Open Columns UI section in Preferences window (Prefs. -> expand the Display menuon the left side -> Columns UI), go to Main tab and click Quick Setup button. You can choose one of the presets available in the drop down menu to
quickly change the layout.
B. Now switch to Main Window section (on the left column of the Prefs. window), and click Reset page button. DO NOT click Reset all.
C. Restart foobar.

2. Hard Uninstall This will revert all changes and back to the state where you first install foobar (without any 3
rd
party skin)
A. Open Preferences window -> Click Reset all button.
B. Restart foobar.
Note :
Additional components used in Jam remains in the components folder, regardless what uninstallation methodyouchoose. You can manually delete them, though. Refer to the Additional Components section for the list of these components.
If you want to switch to a different skin instead, just do the Step B in Soft Uninstall and close foobar before doing anything the new skins author tells you to do.



X. Credits

Thanks to marc2003 for his WSH Samples.
Thanks to endlessicons.com for the antenna icon.
Thanks to Markkoenig for the new Volume Bar code.
Special thanks to iosuiscloud for supporting this skin development.

Also thanks for your great interest and awesome feedbacks for this skin. Really appreciate that!
























XI. Changelog

v1.0 [17 Oct 2013]
Initial Release

v1.1 [11 Nov 2013]
New: 2 new color schemes
New: Resizable window (beta)
New: Smart playlists based on last.fm
New: Overlay effect now available for cover artwork
New Alternative Now Playing list (much simpler one)
Fix: Missing app label on Windows taskbar
Fix: Missing 'tick' and 'play' symbols.
Misc.: Buttons rework
Misc.: Remove 'Artist Picture' option. Last.fm now only providing 1 image per artist.
Misc.: Disable saving artist/album metadata in .lfml files
And other minor improvements & fixes

v1.2 [11 Dec 2013]
Change default color scheme to dark grey w/ blue
New : Redesign Collection & Playlists interface
o Collection : 3 columns w/ vertical scrolling (Default layout is still available to choose)
o Playlists : Full-size cover artwork
o Collection & Playlists : Reduce the song list relative width, to give more room for panels on the left side
New: Reconfigured Song Info interface (only showing existing tag & add extensive technical info)
New: Redesign ELP panels
New: Optimization for streaming contents (dynamic artist & title info, station name, etc.)
New: More external artwork image source for Graphical Browser panels (front.jpg, cover.png, etc.)
New: Sort option for ELP panels (artist -> album date -> album name -> disc number -> track number -> title)
New: Full and dynamic main seekbar length
New: Gear button show extended menu
Fix / New: Better Volume bar code, as well as an option to show a second volume bar
Fix: Songs grouping with identical album title (e.g. Greatest Hits, The Best of, etc)
Misc.: Disable manual download for artist picture. Its not working anymore since Last.fm changed their API policy
And other minor improvements & fixes (lots of it!)