Menu Buddy is a software tool that provides GNOME panel menus through the deployment of Python scripts.
The Menu Buddy plugin is a useful tool for creating GNOME panel menus for music files. It currently consists of a couple of Python scripts, which can be used to play or enqueue songs in XMMS. These scripts are not highly powerful yet, but there is potential for a more flexible system of menu creation that allows for automatic construction of different types of menus based on directory hierarchies.
The menu_buddy script is used for scanning a hierarchy of music files and creating a set of Gnome menus that can direct xmms to play those files. This allows users to play or enqueue files in xmms straight from their menu, which is very convenient.
To use menu_buddy, the user needs to provide the source and destination directories. The source directory is the top of a hierarchy of directories containing the files, and the destination directory is the top of a directory to write the menu files into. The assumption is that the user has their music stored under one main music directory, using some meaningful hierarchy, and there's only music stored down there.
Menu_buddy constructs a menu hierarchy that directly matches the hierarchy under the source directory, so any directory or tree thereof can be played or enqueued in xmms. Also, at the top of the menu structure, it creates menu options that allow users to pause, start, or skip forward/backward in xmms. The interaction with xmms is purely in terms of command line options that can be passed to xmms; there is no special linking or whatever.
For example, if the user has all of their music stored under the directory "/music", with top-level folders for different genres, and inside each genre, the files are sorted first by artist and then by album. They can use the following command to create a new menu hierarchy in their "favorites" menu called "Muzik" which allows them to play or enqueue their music:
menu_buddy /music ~/.gnome/apps/Muzik
It may take a few seconds to churn through the music files, depending on system load and how much music the user has. Also, the user needs to be able to write to the output directory they specify, but since it will typically be in their home directory, this should not be a problem.
In the latest release, GPL stuff has been added to source files.
The menu_buddy script is used for scanning a hierarchy of music files and creating a set of Gnome menus that can direct xmms to play those files. This allows users to play or enqueue files in xmms straight from their menu, which is very convenient.
To use menu_buddy, the user needs to provide the source and destination directories. The source directory is the top of a hierarchy of directories containing the files, and the destination directory is the top of a directory to write the menu files into. The assumption is that the user has their music stored under one main music directory, using some meaningful hierarchy, and there's only music stored down there.
Menu_buddy constructs a menu hierarchy that directly matches the hierarchy under the source directory, so any directory or tree thereof can be played or enqueued in xmms. Also, at the top of the menu structure, it creates menu options that allow users to pause, start, or skip forward/backward in xmms. The interaction with xmms is purely in terms of command line options that can be passed to xmms; there is no special linking or whatever.
For example, if the user has all of their music stored under the directory "/music", with top-level folders for different genres, and inside each genre, the files are sorted first by artist and then by album. They can use the following command to create a new menu hierarchy in their "favorites" menu called "Muzik" which allows them to play or enqueue their music:
menu_buddy /music ~/.gnome/apps/Muzik
It may take a few seconds to churn through the music files, depending on system load and how much music the user has. Also, the user needs to be able to write to the output directory they specify, but since it will typically be in their home directory, this should not be a problem.
In the latest release, GPL stuff has been added to source files.
What's New
Version 0.0.2: N/A