Author Topic: Game Bar Widget  (Read 15062 times)

Steven

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A widget for controlling MusicBee via the XBOX Game Bar (which despite its name, runs on your desktop PC). For those of you not familiar, just press Win G to open the game bar and when installed, the MusicBee widget will be available to add to the game bar, and also available to be pinned so its always open.

Unfortunately its not straight-forward to install and you need to follow these instructions very carefully
- unzip https://getmusicbee.com/download/plugins/MusicBeeGameBarWidget.zip to a folder eg. the MusicBee\Plugins folder, but it can be anywhere

Install the MusicBee plugin certificate - this only needs to be done once.
- These instructions apply to Windows10 20H1 or above. In older windows 10 versions, you need to enable developer mode
1. in Windows Explorer, open the root folder where you installed the plugin
2. and double click on: "MusicBeeXBoxWidget_1.2.0.0_x86.cer"
3. click the "Install Certificate" button
4. select "Local Machine" and click "Next". Click OK to confirm the UAC dialog.
5. select "Place all certificates in the following store"
6. and click the "Browse..." button
7. select "Trusted People" and click OK   (not Trusted Publishers!)
8. click "Finish"

To install the widget (you must already have installed the certificate exactly as described above):
- in the root folder you installed the plugin
- double click on "MusicBeeXBoxWidget_1.2.0.0_x86.msixbundle" and click "Install"
- in MusicBee, enable the CD Art-Display plugin in Preferences/ Plugins
- thats it - if you press Win G, MusicBee Game Bar widget should be available for pinning and adding to the game bar menu

The widget will work with older MusicBee versions but for artwork to display you need v3.5 from the downloads page
Last Edit: April 13, 2023, 09:54:27 AM by Steven

PWN3D_

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That's perfect!

One or two things i did notice:
-The musicbee audio settings on the audio setting sliders menu is showing the "artist" and "tittle" tags only for the first track you play and stay like this until you restart Musicbee. I don't know if it is intended to show those tags artist/track but I feel like just showing "Musicbee" is enough as tag can be a little bit too long to display on this list and can be a little bit confused when adjusting the sliders. Or make it refresh the artist and track name everytime but I feel like the widget is enough for this already.

-Maybe a mute button on the widget itself, even though it's maybe redundant with the audio settings menu but I feel like a simple press on the highspeaker icon could make it work just like musicbee itself.

In any case, thanks for this !

Steven

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It should normally detect a track changing, however I suspect you shut down musicbee while the widget was active and in the current implementation, the connection will not be re-established when MB is restarted, so I will look to address that

edit:
if you redownload the plugin from http://www.mediafire.com/file/xks8rup0gir6shq/MusicBeeGameBarWidget.zip/file and follow the Install widget instructions, and then enable CD Art Display in the plugin preferences, then it should work for the scenario where MB is shut down/ restarted
Last Edit: November 11, 2020, 08:17:31 AM by Steven

PWN3D_

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It should normally detect a track changing, however I suspect you shut down musicbee while the widget was active and in the current implementation, the connection will not be re-established when MB is restarted, so I will look to address that

edit:
if you redownload the plugin from http://www.mediafire.com/file/xks8rup0gir6shq/MusicBeeGameBarWidget.zip/file and follow the Install widget instructions, and then enable CD Art Display in the plugin preferences, then it should work for the scenario where MB is shut down/ restarted

Thanks steven,

So after the reinstall of the widget from your link (CD Art Display plugin was already activated) the track changing is working in the widget when MB is shutdown then restarted.

However the track changing in the audio setting of the gamebar is not and only pick the first track played after a MB restart but I don't know if the track name is suppose to be displayed here in the first place.

landcross

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Huh, nice! I didn't receive any notification about the reply on my initial wish-list post, so I'm only seeing this now  :-X
Nevertheless, I'm certainly gonna try this out. Many thanks Steven! :D

Any chance this can go in the Widget Store for easier installation? I personally don't mind, just wondering.

coldwin

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Is there a possibility of adding a button for love or rating? I have a shortcut for pressing love, it would be nice to have some kind of display on it.

fellipec

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I registered to the forum just to thank you!

AvikB

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It seems the cert has expired 2 months ago, and can not install it. Is it possible to provide an updated cert?

berkkrkc09

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I am trying to install too(late, lol) and the certificate is ancient now. Is there a workaround to install or is the certificate ever going to get updated?

Steven

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the install has been rebuilt with a refreshed certificate

Turk

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Please please please don't think I'm ungrateful - this is EXACTLY what I've been after - saves tabbing out of games just to fwd,back,pause,play tracks in MusicBee -AWESOME !!

but here comes the but (sorry) the volume control slider option - am I doing something wrong?
I select the volume setting (number) with "A" button on the XBox controller, then Dpad right to the slider, "A" again to select the actual "button"/slider/setting, then dpad Left or Right to change volume IF the widget hasn't already jumped automatically back to  eh Back track - so I end up going back a track 20 times more than I do actually changing volume.  :-X

If I do manage to get the volume to change up or down, when the widget reverts back to its initial state [when it feels like it rather than remaining as selected] the volume changes back to what it was previously set to.
I think I need to press Down on the Dpad to "save" the change? or B or X or tbh I dont know - it seems random or i get lucky and the moon and planets are in alignment at that precise time.

As said THANK YOU - I'm genuinely appreciative but - is it a Games For Windows Live, oops having terrible flashbacks, the XBox game bar just being typical microsoft jank or  is there anything I can do to fix this volume "game" of silly buggers?
I'm currently playing Elden Ring and i think changing volume is harder than the boss fights.  :)

The reiterate please dont take this badly - it's a plugin/widget I've been waiting for. I'm assuming its the Xbox bars stubbornness to have people add "unapproved" third party widgets added???

Is there anyway selecting the volume's number and pressing up or down on the DPad could change volume instead of having to select the slider so it holds requiring "B" or button to revert back to play/pause or even a to add a setting with a chosen timer to prevent the widget auto returning from vol control window to "< Play/Pause >" ? or (as said, its microsofts "awesomless" causing this issue?

pps Thanks for the best Audio player on the planet !!!

ps using current version install + beta 3.5.8150 P
Last Edit: May 30, 2022, 04:09:30 PM by Turk

ECHO

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The certificate as of writing this post has expired, is there a method for installing the plugin without needing a certificate that will be deprecated, maybe on the Windows Store itself.

Steven

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the certificate still had a couple of weeks but in any case I have rebuilt it.
Its available on the same link

helloindustries

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