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[Jesh - The Skins...]

I appear to have the same issue.

Windows XP, SP3
Dark Matter: Subspace
Yahoo Widgets 4.5.1
WMP 11
Playlists created.

When I open the WMP/iTunes Remote Widget, I get the warning screen about WMP being the default, every time.
I can play music via the folder icon or by dragging and dropping, and it creates a current playlist. I can use any of the controls, switch over to the settings console, turn on the animation, etc.
But when I open the playlist menu, it's empty. If I click on any of the scroll arrows (up or down) the widget becomes unresponsive. Music will keep playing, but none of the controls will work any more.

If I right-click and change the preferences, they won't save. Even if I safely avoid the playlist and prevent the widget from freezing and properly close the widget down. When I open it again, I get the same splash warning and default options.

When I change the settings over to iTunes Remote, nothing happens. It won't change, I can open the settings and the option will be back to WMP.

When I try the iTunes Remote widget that comes with Yahoo Widgets, it works just fine.

Roman, our resident widget coder will probably ask you for a debug file later on. Strange that its happening because none of that happens with me.

Send me an email jschader at theskinsfactory dot com and i'll send you the widget file again. Maybe something got corrupted. Let's start there. We'll figure it out.

[Roman]

Sorry about the issues guys, we never saw anything like this in testing. But i'm digging through the code and checking all dependencies to solve this.

It would be helpful if you run the skins in debug mode and show me what the debug display window is printing. Here are instructions:

right click on the Yahoo! Widgets icon in the taskbar while holding CTRL + SHFT you'll see a 'debug mode' option at the bottom of the menu. Select that and re-start the widget. Let me know if you see any errors in the debug display as it loads or as you try to access the playlist functions or click any buttons.

Thanks!

[Mindslinger]

Debug offers the following:

Loaded Widget 'DarkMatter: Subspace' from C:\Program Files\The Skins Factory\Hyperdesk\DarkMatter Subspace\Hyperdesk Engine\DarkMatter_Subspace.widget
Darkmatter.kon (Included file 'darkmatter.js')
Darkmatter.kon (Included file 'wmp.js')
Darkmatter.kon (Included file 'itunes.js')
Darkmatter.kon (Included file 'tooltips.js')
uncaught exception: Error calling Item(): 80070003

The last error line appears on start-up.
When I right-click and try to change the preferences to switch from WMP to iTunes, this line appears:

uncaught exception: DOMException [Not found]

[Roman]

Hey everyone,

Your errors seem to point to a media library read error. It might be possible that your WMP library is corrupt or may contain a single corrupt item. This is not a rare occurrence, but usually WMP will try to fix itself. The widget is designed to sort your music albums and display them on the custom playlist. Here is where the widget seems to fail.

I can't say that this is definitely what's causing it since i can't reproduce the error on several computers, but you can try restoring the media library and it might fix it.

Please note that this will reset all your Windows Media Player album entries and playlists. Your songs and videos are not erased, but you will need to add them to the library again.

You can find instructions in this Microsoft KB article, but i've broken it down to make things a little easier:

This works only for WindowsXP & Windows Media Player 11

First step is to close Windows Media Player and the widget. If you are sharing your library with Media Center or XBOX 360 or any network device, you'll need to turn that off. You can do that through the WMP options. Select the "Library" tab and click on the "Configure Sharing" button. Deselect the "Share my media" checkbox.

Next step is locating the library database. You'll be able to find it within this directory path:


C:\Documents and Settings\[user name]\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player


replace [user name] with your specific user name.

You will see one or several files with the *.wmdb extension along with some folders and XML files. This is your media library database. To back it up simply move the contents of that folder into another folder of your choosing. Moving the files might take a while depending on the size of your library.

Make sure the folder is completely empty, and start Windows Media Player. Now try running the widget in debug mode and see if you get the same error. If all works well, you should see the default WMP playlists on display when you click the playlist button.

If this does not fix your problem, you can restore your library by closing all Media Player dependent programs and going back to the folder. Delete the new library files and move back the files you backed up. Re-start Windows Media Player.

Let me know if this works for you guys.

[bmetelsky]

Hey everyone,

Your errors seem to point to a media library read error. It might be possible that your WMP library is corrupt or may contain a single corrupt item. This is not a rare occurrence, but usually WMP will try to fix itself. The widget is designed to sort your music albums and display them on the custom playlist. Here is where the widget seems to fail.

I can't say that this is definitely what's causing it since i can't reproduce the error on several computers, but you can try restoring the media library and it might fix it.

Please note that this will reset all your Windows Media Player album entries and playlists. Your songs and videos are not erased, but you will need to add them to the library again.

You can find instructions in this Microsoft KB article, but i've broken it down to make things a little easier:

This works only for WindowsXP & Windows Media Player 11

First step is to close Windows Media Player and the widget. If you are sharing your library with Media Center or XBOX 360 or any network device, you'll need to turn that off. You can do that through the WMP options. Select the "Library" tab and click on the "Configure Sharing" button. Deselect the "Share my media" checkbox.

Next step is locating the library database. You'll be able to find it within this directory path:


C:\Documents and Settings\[user name]\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player


replace [user name] with your specific user name.

You will see one or several files with the *.wmdb extension along with some folders and XML files. This is your media library database. To back it up simply move the contents of that folder into another folder of your choosing. Moving the files might take a while depending on the size of your library.

Make sure the folder is completely empty, and start Windows Media Player. Now try running the widget in debug mode and see if you get the same error. If all works well, you should see the default WMP playlists on display when you click the playlist button.

If this does not fix your problem, you can restore your library by closing all Media Player dependent programs and going back to the folder. Delete the new library files and move back the files you backed up. Re-start Windows Media Player.

Let me know if this works for you guys.

Roman - you da man! It immediately fixed the problem! Thanks for all the help.

[Roman]

Roman - you da man! It immediately fixed the problem! Thanks for all the help.

Great! I'm glad that fixed it for you.

[Mindslinger]

That did the trick for me too.
The playlists now appear and I can switch it over to iTunes.

Thanks for the quick help!

[Osan-gar]

Wow!

I'm running Vista, so I'm still on the sidelines re: Darkmatter. I've been looking thru the threads just to see what I can see and I gotta say-

The response / help on this WMP / Widget issue is Impressive!!!!

It may end up being awhile before I can get in on the fun, but just reading this thread.... its making me even More stupidly excited to get my quivering hands on DarkMatter; cuz even If I have a problem, it shouldn't be a problem for long. Very Encouraging!


Jesh, Roman- Uber-Kudos to both of you!!!!


take it easy.

[Jesh - The Skins...]

Wow!

I'm running Vista, so I'm still on the sidelines re: Darkmatter. I've been looking thru the threads just to see what I can see and I gotta say-

The response / help on this WMP / Widget issue is Impressive!!!!

It may end up being awhile before I can get in on the fun, but just reading this thread.... its making me even More stupidly excited to get my quivering hands on DarkMatter; cuz even If I have a problem, it shouldn't be a problem for long. Very Encouraging!


Jesh, Roman- Uber-Kudos to both of you!!!!


take it easy.

Thanks Osan

[playmakerx]

Hi there,
I got a problem here: everytime I right click on the dark matter widget, change preferences and save, then close the yahoo widget application with or without closing the dark matter widget first, it always turned out that my changes haven't been saved as expected to be. WTF? Since I do not have the above playlist problem (right click and the current playlist is ok), I suppose it's not because of the media library. Is the dark matter widget I downloaded corrupted? If so, would you be kind enough to send me another copy? It works when I select or disselect the "enable startup message", but won't work when I select the "enable playlist tooltips" and "enable animation", so weired.I'm a newbie to yahoo widgets, and it's also my first time of using wmp11. To note, my OS is Windows Wp Sp2 Chinese Simplified. Any advice? Thanks in advace.

Leo

[Jesh - The Skins...]

Hi there,
I got a problem here: everytime I right click on the dark matter widget, change preferences and save, then close the yahoo widget application with or without closing the dark matter widget first, it always turned out that my changes haven't been saved as expected to be. WTF? Since I do not have the above playlist problem (right click and the current playlist is ok), I suppose it's not because of the media library. Is the dark matter widget I downloaded corrupted? If so, would you be kind enough to send me another copy? It works when I select or disselect the "enable startup message", but won't work when I select the "enable playlist tooltips" and "enable animation", so weired.I'm a newbie to yahoo widgets, and it's also my first time of using wmp11. To note, my OS is Windows Wp Sp2 Chinese Simplified. Any advice? Thanks in advace.

Leo

What's your order reference number and email address? You can send it to hyperdesk (at) theskinsfactory.com

Also it takes a second for the tooltips to show up. We didnt want you to hover and see them right away as that would get annoying. The animation fx are the lights pulsing which you only see during playback.