Songbird can now announce tracks using the super sexy Growl notification system for OS X.
Yes, we need album art and global hotkeys before this is actually cool, but it was late, and I was killing time waiting for VLC to compile.
To try it out…
- Download Growl for OS X
- Run Growl.prefPane and set it to load on startup
- Download the Songbird Growl Extension
- In Songbird, choose File -> Extensions, and then Install and Restart.
When Songbird plays in the background you should see track notifications appear. To change how the popups look check the Growl pane in your System Preferences.
As always feel free to modify the code however you like (Quicksilver integration?). Comment below if you have questions or drop by #songbird on irc.landoleet.org.
UPDATE: It seems this extension is only compatible with OS X 10.4 and above.
18 Comments
SubscribeI don’t use MacOSX but looks pretty neat!
I’m in the process of creating an extension that gets Album covers (and some more info) from last.fm if you want I can send you the code… I don’t think you need it, BTW
so far… no notifications.
I am not much familiar with growl, but I installed it.
Songbird doesn’t show in the growl apps window.
I’ve restarted growl & songbird, but not the machine. That’s my next step. & I’m avoiding it.
Suggestions?
BUT… great idea & I want it to work!
Jeff
hrm…
When you start for the first time you should get a growl notification saying that things are set up correctly. After that it should only make announcements when the track changes and Songbird is not the frontmost application.
If you open Console and start Songbird do any interesting messages go by?
What version of OS X are you running?
If you open terminal and type “whereis osascript” does it report anything?
Excellent. I look forward to trying it
I should probably wait until we have an official cover provider, but if someone wants a temporary fix just change the URL at line 106 of growl_controller.js (http://publicsvn.songbirdnest.com/trac/browser/extensions/growl/chrome/content/growl_controller.js#L106)
ok…
whereis osascript: /usr/bin/osascript
in console there are a few items relating to growl, one is like: “chrome/content/growlhelper.scpt: [00000301] main audio output debug: audio output is too slow (62647), trashing 46440us”
and there are several like: /chrome/content/growlhelper.scpt: execution error: Can’t get item 4. (-1728)
is that a clue? There are a lot of others that don’t include growl one of which includes: main private warning: config file /Users/xxxxxxxxx/Library/Preferences/SongbirdVLC/songbirdvlcrc does not exist yet
maybe I need to trash all my songbird prefs, etc?
“execution error: Can’t get item 4″ is definitely a clue.
What version of OS X are you running?
Looking at the man page for osascript I found “Prior to Mac OS X 10.4 osascript did not allow passing parameters to script”
mac os x 10.3.9
I feel your pain. I run 10.3.9 at home.
Actually I’m surprised to hear Songbird works at all on 10.3.9.
Anyway thanks for taking the time to test for me. If I come up with another way to talk to AppleScript I’ll let you know.
I just got a little bit jealous and added notifications to the Minimize to Tray extension. Check http://www.songbirdnest.com/node/700#comment-3662
Yay features!
Nice work.
The growl format should be customizable. So I can specify say “%Track% by %artist% in %album%” and it would show up as Track by Artist in Album.
_______________________
“When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things.”
1 Cor 13:11
>>> Download the Songbird Growl Extension
There’s no need to download it. You can install the extension by dragging the link to the extension on to the Songbird UI.
This isn’t in the addons list. Why isn’t this in the addons list? I just thought I should mention that.
quicksilver integration would make a world of difference to alot of keyboard-dependant users like me; currently the quicksilver itunes integration allows for global hotkeys as you mention, for shuttle nav / search of collection including ability to rate tracks or query currently playing track. I can’t wait for this feature in songbird and I think it’s just a matter of time. . .
Would airport support be possible at some future point or is this proprietary? I just ask because I can see songbird quickly replacing itunes on all fronts.
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Franz
Hi!
I was enjoying this great feature with Songbird 0.2.5 but since 0.3, it’s not working… Do I have to install something else than Growl itself (like GrowlNotify) ?
Thanks for your good work!
It seems your download link isn’t working? Help!
Thanks :o)
Hey. The add-on mentioned in this post is reaaally old. I’d suggest using
Conlan’s Song Notifier instead:
http://addons.songbirdnest.com/extensions/detail/39
Am pretty sure it maps to Growl on OSX