nControl FTP Lister

Hi all, 

I'm not normally very active on the PDR Forums but feel now is a good time to start.

Recently I've been working on a large project that uses an nControl with a couple of AudioScience cards as a very crude media-server in conjunction with a couple of XDaB Nions for distributing audio and paging over the network.

The Project itself utilises 26 instances of the nControl MediaPlayer device, each instance being used as a single zone BGM feed, plus there are a couple of extra players for global audio sources.  As you can probably see, editing 26 MediaPlayer devices strings can be a bit labor intensive and even more so if these need to be changed regularly on a live system.

Given the benefit of using an nControl means it already has the FTP partition in play (which also means that any media doesn't clog up the .npa file) got me thinking, 'Can the contents of the FTP partition be retrieved as string information into nWare?'....and after sometime I came up with the following plug-in device.

Essentially - it uses Python scripting to interrogate the FTP partition, retrieve all the necessary path and file name string information automatically and output this for use within the nWare environment. It then displays two tables, the first (left-side) is a crude file browser; the second, is the same list that can be re-ordered by the user by specifying a 'play position'.

Each output node from the Plug-in block is currently a multiplexed string, the reason for this is to integrate nicely with Josh's 'Load&Play' plug-in and also, another plug-in device which I shall be posting on here hopefully very soon.  The reason for 64 separate output nodes = you can have 4 x AS Cards in an nControl (so 64 separate players)

There are a few caveats with this plug-in at the moment which are:
- Written in nWare (1.7.1) - Not a caveat, but for reference.
- It will only run on nControl platforms (Windows based) - I do not know the results of using with a Nion (Currently Un-tested)
- I recommend that only one instance be used per nControl project file.
- You will need a physical nControl to test this out - emulation not supported.
- There is a limit of 30 media files in any directory (ie 30 in the Root, 30 in Directory 1, 30 in Directory 2......) but no limit to the number of Directories.
- Only a single Root level directories can be used.  (Nested directories currently un-tested)
I.E.
Allowed:
    + Root
    | File 1
    | File 2
    + Directory 1
        | File 3
        | File 4
    + Directory 2
        | File 1
        | File 2

* Not Allowed:
    + Root
    | File 1
    | File 2
    + Directory 1
        | File 3
        | File 4
*        + Directory 3
*            | File 5
*            | File 6
    + Directory 2
        | File 1
        | File 2

On a plus-side, if you add/remove media to the FTP partition, the plug-in will reflect this and update pretty much instantly when you gesture the device.

I have also added in a second page of zone labels that are integrated into the 'send output to:' bump buttons, so you can at least have some trace-ability as to where you're sending your strings too in a large project and not just a numbered output.

Although it is a little clunky looking, functionality wise it seems to do the job pretty well so please, if you get a chance to test it drop me a line with any odd behavior / strange findings or questions you might have?

Cheers,

Lee 

Last edited by Lee Freer (2015-07-15 10:22:47)