Playback Stats

• This is a topic for intermediate/advanced users with a good understanding of how JScript Panel works with relation to handles and handle lists. The code snippets assume you’re familiar with callbacks and how to implement your own buttons, menus, etc. For casual users, there are 2 complete scripts that make use of this database without requiring any script knowledge. See Rating and Last.fm Lover on the Samples menu in the Configuration WIndow.

Overview

A new way to store your own playback statistics has been added. Many may choose not to use it because of the limitations but since I’ve added it for myself, I might as well document it for anyone who does.

The main limitation is that playback stats are bound to $lower(%artist% - %title%). This won’t change so don’t ask! It uses the same methods for storage as the foo_playcount component meaning there should be no issue with large collections. The obvious benefits are being able to write any value you like directly and if you record plays in real time, you can set the time you have to listen to anything you like.

First of all, there are 5 fields available through title formatting in any component and search.

%jsp_playcount%
%jsp_loved%
%jsp_first_played%
%jsp_last_played%
%jsp_rating%

To write these values, 5 handle methods have been added.

var handle = fb.GetFocusItem();
handle.SetPlayCount(12); // Must be a whole number, use 0 to clear.
handle.SetLoved(1); // Must be a whole number, use 0 to clear.
handle.SetFirstPlayed("2018-01-12 00:00:00"); // String, use "" to clear.
handle.SetLastPlayed("2018-01-12 00:00:00"); // String, use "" to clear.
handle.SetRating(5); // Must be a whole number, use 0 to clear. Max value can be 10, 20, 100 etc...
handle.ClearStats() // Should be obvious what this does!

You can of course store dates using any format you like. I just choose to use the same format as foobar2000 uses so I can use them in time based queries.

After updating value(s) for a handle, you must use RefreshStats so the foobar2000 core and all other components are made aware of the changes. There is a simple handle method for this.

var handle = fb.GetFocusItem();
handle.SetRating(5);
handle.RefreshStats();
handle.Dispose();

If dealing with any kind of bulk operation updating many handles at once, you really should use the handle list alternative of RefreshStats. Using the handle method inside a loop could be very bad for performance. Instead, you should do something like this.

var items = plman.GetPlaylistItems(plman.ActivePlaylist);
for (var i = 0; i < items.Count; i++) {
	items.Item(i).SetRating(5);
}
items.RefreshStats();
items.Dispose();

This triggers the on_metadb_changed callback within all JScript Panel instances and also on_playback_edited if the playing item was updated.

Storage

All data is stored inside index-data\835F0B63-D96C-447B-9CCB-714FA8304911 which will be inside your foobar2000 profile folder. This filename is exclusive to this component. Any other files in this folder will belong to other components such as foo_playcount.

Like foo_playcount, data is remembered for up to 4 weeks when no matching track is part of the Media Library or any playlist.

Example

Here’s a crude example that updates as you play using the same rules as Last.fm for the amount of time you have to play a track. Of course it can be modified in any way you like. This snippet requires a system with IE9 or later for the Date().toISOString function. On a lesser system, you’d have to construct it yourself from the year, month, date, etc.

var time_elapsed = 0;
var target_time = 0;

var tf_fp = fb.TitleFormat("%jsp_first_played%");
var tf_pc = fb.TitleFormat("$if2(%jsp_playcount%,0)");

function get_date() {
	// returns current time formatted like "2018-01-14 09:04:50"
	var d = new Date();
	var t = d.getTime();
	var offset = d.getTimezoneOffset() * 60 * 1000;
	var tmp = new Date(t - offset).toISOString();
	return tmp.substring(0, 10) + ' ' + tmp.substring(11, 19);
}

function on_playback_new_track() {
	time_elapsed = 0; //reset
	// this example uses the same rule as last.fm
	// half the track length or 4 minutes - whichever is lower
	target_time = Math.min(Math.ceil(fb.PlaybackLength / 2), 240);
}

function on_playback_time() {
	time_elapsed++;
	if (time_elapsed == target_time) {
		var date_time = get_date();
		var m = fb.GetNowPlaying();
		var cp = parseInt(tf_pc.Eval()); // get current playcount
		m.SetPlaycount(cp + 1) // increment playcount by 1
		if (tf_fp.Eval() == "") { // only write first played if it's currently empty
			m.SetFirstPlayed(date_time);
		}
		m.SetLastPlayed(date_time) // always write last played
		m.RefreshStats(); // notify foobar2000 core / other components
		m.Dispose();
	}
}

Properties

If you open the Properties dialog for a single item, you’ll see the full information like this on the Details tab.

If you select multiple items, you’ll see a calculated total playcount.