[blindmime]

First, I'm wondering if there is a module that is pretty much just like songs, but for beats/loops/source files. I found a thread with someone else asking the same thing who was pointed to OinkBa's Media Pro template package, but this appears to be a skin with a page that displays "beats" from a Producer quota who are using the songs module rather than a specific beats module.

I need my artists to be able to upload songs AND beats. I have considered using the songs module for both and adding a custom field where they would select whether the upload was a song or a beat. But if they don't select the right option, beats and songs will intermix in the ranking lists which cannot happen. The other option is to have artists create separate accounts for artist and producer, which is what I'm doing, but this seems confusing to new people so it seems I need a separate module.

So at this point, I'm initially wondering if there is not, in fact, a pre-existing module. I don't need payments attached as we don't sell the files.

If there isn't one, I will probably work my way through the documentation and create one. I've read through the docs and some of the things will be a learning experience for me, but it seems do-able. Is there anything I should be aware of that isn't in the doc jrYouTube module example for creating something like this? The docs seem like they cover everything.


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[daddysylem]

The problem I see with trying to create a Module for this is.......
What would a Module like this actually do????

No matter what you do a Beat and Song are nothing more than music files (MP3's). So there is really no way to tell them apart unless the Artist thats uploading the Song or the Beat can "Tag" it as a Beat during the upload process. And the simplest way of doing that would be to create a custom form field that the Artist would need to choose Song or Beat when the file is uploaded. You could then use that form field to seperate the Songs from the Beats in Lists and Charts on your site.

Just my 2-cents.......
Greg -


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[blindmime]

My experience is that if you don't have a separate module it's unavoidable that you'll have beats that are tagged as songs and vice versa. In fact, I'm finding that even if you force artists to set up two completely separate accounts with quotas set up as producers who can only upload beats and artists who can only upload songs (using the song module for both), you have people who set up a producer account and upload songs into it and wonder why their songs don't show up in the song rankings. That's where I'm at now. So the next step seems to be creating a separate module for beats so songs and beats are clearly separate things.


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[daddysylem]

blindmime:

So the next step seems to be creating a separate module for beats so songs and beats are clearly separate things.

My point was.........
How do you create a Mod that can separate the two when both Beats and Songs are Music Files???
Jamroom can't automatically separate them because all Jamroom sees are "Music Files".......
So I'm not exactly sure how creating a Module will help change that.

It seems to me that no matter what you create, It will still require some kind of action on the users part to separate a "Song Music File" from a "Beat Music File" when its uploaded to the Jamroom Profile.

Maybe I just don't understand the concept of what your doing.........
If you can explain exactly how you invision your Module working, it might help me understand...

Greg -


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[blindmime]

You answered your own question. Because jamroom can't automatically separate them is why you need another module, a separate place to upload them and separate ranking modes. Or why *I* need another module. My jamroom is a collaborative site. Artists create source files and upload them. Other artists download them and use them in their songs, then they upload the songs. It would be simple to add a form field and have artists check whether they are uploading source files or songs into the current songs module, but if one artist uploads a source file and calls it a song then the song playlists become tainted with source files.

With all the beats-oriented jamrooms I see around here, I'm surprised there isn't a module already. But I guess most either focus only on beats or they have producer accounts who only upload beats and artist accounts who only upload songs. Artists in my jamroom usually wear both hats so it would nice to do both in one control panel.


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[daddysylem]

I understand what you want....

But you never answered my question........
How do you propose to code a way to automaticlly separate the MP3 files into Beats and Songs on upload??
No matter what Module you create, its going to require some kind of user interaction.
The user is going to have to choose if he's uploading a Beat or a Song.

Which brings you back to your original problem of users choosing the wrong thing.......

Greg -


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[Paul]

I think a module to do this would be pretty straightforward. Just need to copy the song.php to beat.php and change all instances of 'song.php' to 'beat.php'. Then do something similar with the song ranking script and include that in the module. Then with a simple module cp file include beats in the control panel. You'd also need a beats database table, of course, so the module is now getting a bit more complicated
Shoot me a PM and I might be able to help.
Cheers
Pa


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[blindmime]

daddysylem:

I understand what you want.... But you never answered my question........ How do you propose to code a way to automaticlly separate the MP3 files into Beats and Songs on upload?? No matter what Module you create, its going to require some kind of user interaction. The user is going to have to choose if he's uploading a Beat or a Song. Which brings you back to your original problem of users choosing the wrong thing....... Greg -

I would separate beats and songs by having an additional module just for Beats. With that, you'd have separate ranking modes. Users would have a button for SONGS and a different button for BEATS in their control panel. When they are in the BEATS control panel, the entry fields would be different; it would be more obvious that they are creating a jamroom beat upload.


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[daddysylem]

blindmime:

I would separate beats and songs by having an additional module just for Beats. With that, you'd have separate ranking modes. Users would have a button for SONGS and a different button for BEATS in their control panel. When they are in the BEATS control panel, the entry fields would be different; it would be more obvious that they are creating a jamroom beat upload.

I understand now.......
So basically your just going to duplicate everything in Jamroom used for Songs and just call it Beats.
Sounds like a big job.......

Greg -


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[blindmime]

Yeah, Greg. That was my overriding question. Having not done a module myself, is the documentation enough to get someone with very basic php through a module that complicated?

daddysylem:

blindmime: I would separate beats and songs by having an additional module just for Beats. With that, you'd have separate ranking modes. Users would have a button for SONGS and a different button for BEATS in their control panel. When they are in the BEATS control panel, the entry fields would be different; it would be more obvious that they are creating a jamroom beat upload. I understand now....... So basically your just going to duplicate everything in Jamroom used for Songs and just call it Beats. Sounds like a big job....... Greg -

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[Michael]

blindmime:

...is the documentation enough to get someone with very basic php through a module that complicated?

no.

and you wont just be able to copy the way songs.php works and create it without altering core JR files.

copying the way songs.php works might get your songs INTO the database, but the normal way to get that data back out is via a {jr_ranking mode="song"} call in the templates.

There is no {jr_ranking mode="beat"} ranking call, so you would need to add that ranking modifier in. (there are docs on how to add to the ranking calls.)

Its a big job. I would guess bigger if you try to copy the songs.php system than if you built your own module from scratch.


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[Paul]

Quote:

Its a big job. I would guess bigger if you try to copy the songs.php system than if you built your own module from scratch.

I don't agree. I've often just copied to song.php file to something else as a basis for something custom, just altering the filename and occurances of the filename within the file. Seems to work ok.
Similarly, just copying the JR song ranking script to a module, renaming the file and the functions within then tweaking the mysql query to do something that JR doesn't is often a quick way to get extra functionality.
Admittedly it isn't documented and might be beyond a novice module developer, but I think it would be straightforward to build a 'beats' module that supported {jr_ranking mode="beat" etc}
My 2p
Pa


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