zPlayer - My own little audio/video player

[CYCho]

zPlayer is the name I used when I introduced the early version of this player in my blog back in early 2009 and, therefore, has nothing to do with the mobile media player of the same name which started marketing in 2015.

After I retired from active duty in 2002 I spent much time listening to music. First I started with CD's and LP's, then quickly moved on to mp3 files. I converted many of my CD's to mp3 and I collected many more from various sources which were freely available at the time. As the number of my mp3 files grew, I put them in folders according to their genres and my favorite classifications. I mainly used Windows Media Player to listen to them and I slowly began to dislike wmp because it had massive user interface while I just wanted to listen to music in the background while I was doing other work in the foreground, hopping between folders from time to time. It was the time I was beginning to learn AutoIt and I thought I should make my own player with AutoIt. Coming from a sales career with no experience in programming, it was not an easy task. Somehow, after about 2 years of learning and trying, I had my own audio player which worked with only hotkeys without any graphical interface. I gave it to some of my friends who were not as computer-savvy as I. They liked it but definitely wanted something to clcik with mouse. So I came up with very rude gui which took a form similar to what it is now.

The attached source files include one au3 file, one icon file and 14 jpg files. The jpg files are used for drawing a graphical player and are fileinstalled in @DocumentsCommonDir folder. This player uses WMPlayer.OCX as its engine and supports all audio file formats supported by wmp and additional codecs installed. I would like to thank many forum members for kind answers to my questions and would appreciate it if anyone could review the code and give me any suggestion. This player works for me, but I don't know whether the code is presentable as an example. I am posting this here with a hope to learn much from AutoIt community.

Edit:
August 4, 2020:
Video function was added.

 July 23, 2023:
1. Changed playback engine from IE-embdded WMPlayer.ocx to Winmm.dll.
2. Further reduced main GUI to bare minimum.
3. Eliminated fileinstalls. Media control icon files were replaced with unicode characters

Please see Downloads section of this forum for the latest version of this player.

Edited May 10, 2024 by CYCho

[Xandy]

Hello @@CYCho,

Thank you for this example program.  I've made a few audio scripts and wanted to see another example.  When I run your script, I am asked to locate a folder with music.  I navigate to My Music folder select a folder that contains MP3s and receive a script crash.

"E:\Programming\AutoIt\AutoIt_Forum\zPlayer\zPlayer\zPlayer.au3" (554) : ==> Variable used without being declared.:
If WinExists($winListView) Then
If WinExists(^ ERROR

 

Edited March 14, 2019 by Xandy

[CYCho]

@Xandy, Thank you.

I corrected the error and uploaded the new file a minute ago. Thanks for your comment.
 

Edited February 13, 2021 by CYCho

[Xandy]

Your code appears good.  I learned about FileInstal() because of how you use it to copy images.

I was curious if holding CTRL, ALT, or SHIFT would get the keys stuck, if used with Send("Volume UP").  The solution for that is SendEx(), which will force the modifiers keys to first be released.

But I didn't execute your script to a point where I could check this.

Edited March 14, 2019 by Xandy

[CYCho]

Ctrl+Alt did not create any problem for me so far and, as a matter of fact, I didn't know about SendEx(). Sure enough I wanted to learn something this way. Thanks.

[Xandy]

Thank you, script is working for me now.  Modifier keys are not becoming stuck.  Maybe this doesn't happen with HotKeySet(..) or Send("Volume Up/Down").  Either way nm.

The reason I stopped using the script (for now) is it was eating my CTRL+ARROWS.  I like to use these shortcuts to navigate words in a text.  There are several solutions to this problem, I could remap the hotkeys.  I could change the Song Next keys to respond to _IsPressed("11") And _IsPressed("25") and then your script would not eat the keys, yet still respond to them.  The song would change and my cursor would jump between words.  Not sure what I want to do yet.

Edited March 14, 2019 by Xandy

[CYCho]

Please let me know if you find a solution not to worry about stuck keys. It hasn't been a problem for me yet, but who knows? I just wanted to navigate around my music folders without a gui.

[Xandy]

If it hasn't been a problem for you.  It most likely not an issue and there is nothing to worry about.  If a key ever gets stuck wrap your Send() calls with a SendEx() call, just copy SendEx() from the Internet and use SendEx($string) instead of Send($string).  I wouldn't bother though, not if, keys aren't getting stuck.  I'm almost sorry I said anything.  There's no need to fix it if it isn't broken.

[CYCho]

An error in tray menu was found and corrected.

[nacerbaaziz]

this example is very good

thank you very much

i hope you continue developing this program

with my greetings

[CYCho]

@nacerbaaziz, Thank you very much for your encouragement!

[CYCho]

According as @Bilgus suggested, "#AutoIt3Wrapper_Au3Check_Parameters=-d -w 1 -w 2 -w 3 -w- 4 -w 5 -w 6 -w- 7" was added at the top of the code and all ensuing errors were corrected. Most of the errors were related with lack of keyword "Local" before assigning value to a local variable, and it seemed to be purely a matter of good coding practice. I'm glad I learned this though.

Edited March 16, 2019 by CYCho

[CYCho]

Some features were added.
1. Now you can click the slider in the graphical player to jump move the play-back position in a file.
2. The player now supports a manually made playlist with actual music files in other folders. This feature can be used for creating a playlist for a special occasion. For example, some carols can be included in the playlist and put in "Carols" folder: actual music files may reside anywhere in the computer.
3. A small help message box was added and can be triggered by Ctrl+Alt+h.

Edited March 18, 2019 by CYCho

[CYCho]

When resizing the playlist window, the minimum width was set at 450. Anything narrower would not be meaningful.

[CYCho]

For those non-AutoIt persons who visit this site as a result of Google or DuckDuckGo search, I attached a compiled executable file to the first post above. 

Edited April 2, 2019 by CYCho

[CYCho]

What should happen if the folder was changed or 'Play Next File' command was issued while the playback was in 'paused' status? This problem was addressed in today's revision.

[CYCho]

An error was found and corrected in restoring previous play-back environment when the mode of playback was 'Shuffled.' 

[CYCho]

I don't know when I will stop changing little things with this program. It happens that I make changes from time to time, maybe too soon, too often. If you have downloaded this program, please see if there was an update.

[CYCho]

I uploaded the source code in the Downloads section of this forum and deleted files attached to this topic.

Edited May 3, 2019 by CYCho

[CYCho]

I made several big and small updates during the past one year period and uploaded the latest version in Downloads section. As I started this project as a learning process, I would greatly appreciate any comments or suggestions for improvement. Thank you.

Edited August 6, 2020 by CYCho