I use iTunes for my media player. How do I integrate it into the task bar for my theme? I see the audio player and controls but there is nothing to play.

Use the itunes modules instead of winamp ones.

Does that mean I have to get a whole new theme? If not, how do I change it?

*sigh*

while we are at it shall we end world hunger?

Oh, when you said "my theme," I thought it was something you were working on, meaning, you had a clue about Litestep and structure etc. You'll want to start reading for a while: http://wiki.litestep.com/Index

hehe "for a while" We'll see yah in a few years. :)

That means you have to hook itunes control "bangs" (provided by a module) to the visual "elements" in the theme (provided by a module too, but not necessarily the same one). It's like hooking up a new head unit for your car stereo. You don't get a new car just to update the stereo - at least I hope not. And you don't have to replace all the speakers/amps/subwoofers either. =P

Hi - I've found a couple of good iTunes modules: iTunesStat-0.2 and iTunesControl-0.3 which are available at http://www.nullified.com for free.

I'm a litestep beginner, and though I've looked through the wiki I can't seem to find the solution to my problem anywhere. I integrated the iTunes Control into the theme I'm using successfully, but I can't seem to use the iTunesStat module to display the track information i nthe same way winamp did.

I've loaded the module in theme.rc, and I have a label ready to display the text... but I don't know how to actually pull the text from iTunes. From the iTunesStat documentation:

"Overview:
---------
iTunesStat is a LiteStep module which will grab some simple stats from iTunes
and allow these stats to be viewable as a label.
xLabel, xLabelLight and LSLabel are supported.

This module is no where near complete. Other stats will be available in later
versions. Don't ask when later versions will be released.

Settings:
---------

iTunesLabelName
This is the name of the label that will display the stats.

iTunesActiveLabel
This is the text that makes up the label when iTunes is running.
Placing any of the following strings into the pattern will cause them to
substituted for their value:
%track_name - The name of the currently active track.
%album - The name of the album.
%artist - The name of the artist
%comment - A comment associated with the track.
%bitrate - Bitrate of the track in kbps.
%samplerate - Sample rate of the track in Hz

As an example:
iTunesActiveLabel "Track: %track_name (%bitratekbps || %samplerateHz)"
would produce something like:
Track: Track Name (192kbps || 44100Hz)

iTunesInactiveLabel
This is the text that will show in the label when iTunes is not running.
There are no strings that can be substituted into this label.

iTunesLabelUpdateInterval
This is the duration in milliseconds that the label will be updated.
Default is 500 milliseconds.

There are no bang commands included with this module."

From this I have no idea where I should be putting these "settings" nor how to embed the iTunesActiveLabel into the theme. Could someone please help me or refer me to a site which has a great explanation of this kind of thing? Many thanks!

what is the setting you used in xLabel to display the information?

Sorry, I guess I'm being a real newb here... I don't actually know what you're asking. In my theme.rc file there is
*Label xiTunesStatus

I've been trying to use
xiTunesStatusText "[iTunesActiveLabel}"

All I see in my label is "iTunesActiveLabel" ...I gather this isn't correct, and I haven't set what should be in the ActiveLabel. To be honest I'm not even sure where I should place the settings for itunesstat-0.2 or which format to use.

Sorry guys - there doesn't seem to be any tutorial for this kind of thing anywhere! Google is usually my friend but he's been a little unhelpful today...

If anyone manages to find an example of itunesstat in use in a theme or can manage to get it working for themself, I'm sure by seeing someone else's code I could work it out.

For the iTunes module settings this ought to work:
iTunesLabelName xiTunesStatus
iTunesActiveLabel "Track: %track_name (%bitratekbps || %samplerateHz)"
iTunesInactiveLabel "iTunes is OFF"
iTunesLabelUpdateInterval 500

For xlabel you simply need to specify the size and position of the label, colors, fonts, etc., as per the xlabel docs. You don't need to set the text value at all. I used the settings above and just directed the text to an existing label as a test. It seemed to work fine.

And to help you out with what you had been using you have [iTunesActiveLabel}. If that were a valid command for xLabel it would be [iTunesActiveLabel]. Might have just been a type-o but never can be too sure around here.

Indeed. A syntax-checking editor can help catch some of those, at least.

Thank you very, very much guys. I didn't realise I wouldn't need to set the text label, but now I feel like I'm getting more of a grip on how labels actually work.

One more (stupid) question: where do I put the module settings you've helped me with? Which file should they be in?

Thank you for all the help - this is a great community. :)

If you want, everything can just be in theme.rc, which is guaranteed to be "included" (per the OTS2 standard). More complex themes are often broken into additional files - one per module, or one per theme "component", etc., as the themer sees fit. These additional files must then be "included" by the theme.rc file. Look at some of the existing themes for some examples - check out how "include" lines are used in them.

So... the short answer is "theme.rc", the long answer is "wherever you want". =)

Thanks guys, I finally got it working. I appreciate all the helpful answers - it seems hard to find solutions to such simple problems in a guide or tutorial... guess it just needs an experience hand to guide us newbs!

Many thanks. Now I know how to do this stuff a little better I might try teach myself a bit more by creating my own theme. :)

Always an excellent idea.