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j•Clip Readme PEARSoft Corporation PO Box 812528 Wellesley, MA 02482 www.pearsoft.com www.getjclip.com Latest Version: V2.0 j•Clip brings the power of web search to iTunes. j•Clip™ is a trademark of PEARSoft Corporation. © 2008 PEARSoft Corporation. All rights reserved. j•Clip relies on the 'iTunes COM for Windows SDK'. Copyright (c) 2004 Apple Computer, Inc. All rights reserved. Thank you for using j•Clip! We would like to hear from you! If you have any comments or suggestions about j•Clip, please send them to jclip@pearsoft.com. Section 1. User information Section 2. Technical information Section 3. Known issues Section 4. Version history Section 1. User information Mouse Button Commands on the j•Clip window • Right-Click - Brings up the j•Clip menu (described below) • Left-Click - Drag the j•Clip window anywhere on the screen • Double-Click - Brings iTunes to the foreground and 'clips' j•Clip on top of iTunes • Mouse scroll wheel - Spin to adjust j•Clip window opacity when the j•Clip window has focus • Clicking on the j•Clip window sets its focus, indicated when the 'j•Clip' text is set in black • Gripper - Adjusts the size of the j•Clip window • The j•Clip window always stays on top, unless minimized (see 'Minimized' below) Window commands on the j•Clip window • 'x' - Close j•Clip • '_' - Minimize j•Clip • '<' - Go to previous radio station or track • '>' - Go to next radio station or track • 's' - Display Saved Searches window What j•Clip does After installation, you will have both a j•Clip desktop icon and a Start/All Programs/PEARSoft Corporation/j•Clip link. You can use either one to start j•Clip. Start j•Clip. If iTunes is not running j•Clip will start it for you. You'll see a colored window clipped onto the track display of iTunes. This is no ordinary track window anymore! Are you listening to a radio station or a track from your playlist? Hover the mouse over the window and right-click. j•Clip just created a search string of the current artist and track you're listening to and has the results ready for you to browse in its pop-up menu. Just follow the Web menu... MENU ENTRIES: Web At the moment you right-clicked, j•Clip constructed a web search string based on the track you were listening to then established web search links using this search string. The links are listed in Web's submenu. Just follow Web's menu arrow. • The first section makes it easy for you to go directly to the iTunes Music Store. Once there, type in the artist and track information to find the track. • The second section contains the search string used along with direct links to Google, YouTube, Yahoo, Microsoft Live Search, Wikipedia, MySpace and Facebook. Select any link and you're taken directly to the website with the search field automatically populated and all your search results displayed. • The third link is to the radio station you're currently listening to. Most radio stations are very good at providing track information. However, note that j•Clip depends on the accuracy of the underlying track information, regardless if it's from the radio station or a playlist. For example, if a radio station provides only the artist name and not the track name, then only the artist name would be used in the search. Most radio stations though are excellent at providing all the track information. If neither artist nor track information is available, you may need to just wait a few seconds for the radio station to update the track stream then try clicking the Web menu again. After you're taken to a search website, j•Clip automatically populates the search field based on the track information. Sometimes radio stations will add some additional information to this string - such as the year the song was recorded. For better search results simply remove any unwanted text from the search field then update the search. See the Known issues section for more information. Search Sites • Select any of the sites to include as the destinations of your search string. Selections are denoted with a checkmark to the left of the entry. Search Keywords • Select any of the keywords to include in your search string. Selections are denoted with a checkmark to the left of the entry. Save Searches • Select this option to save all of your search strings for later access. Selection is denoted with a checkmark to the left of the entry. When this is enabled, you will see an 's' enclosed in a square on the j•Clip window. Click this to display the Saved Searches window (described below). Appearance [1] Colors This allows you to change the window color. Spin the mouse wheel to adjust the window opacity. The selected color will also be used for the Saved Searches window. [2] Exterior • Border When Border is checked, a thin black border will surround the j•Clip window. • Shadow When Shadow is checked, j•Clip will take on the appearance of a window floating on the desktop. • Flat, Glow, Gradient This allows you to change the exterior texture of the window. In conjunction with the current color, Flat sets the window to a single tone; Glow gives the exterior a glow ambience; Gradient gives the exterior a gradient texture. [3] Tracks Hide or show the current artist and track information. [4] Radio Station Hide or show the current radio station information. [5] Volume Hide or show the volume control. [6] Artwork Hide or show available artwork. Artwork is usually available when listening to your playlists. It may not be available when listening to the radio. If this setting is set to 'Show' and no artwork is available, a generic image is displayed. Note that j•Clip stores artwork locally on your hard-drive, so lots of artwork may use considerable disk space. About j•Clip [1] This provides the current version information [2] Automatically check for updates at startup Select this to automatically check for product updates when you first start j•Clip. [3] Check for updates now Click this to check for product updates right away. [4] Link to our website Saved Searches Window Activated when the 's' button is clicked from the main j•Clip window. The Saved Searches window contains a list of your previous searches, listed by Artist and Track. Click any column to sort alphabetically by ascending or descending order. When you select an entry in this list it will be the subject of the Saved Searches Web link. *Click the column headings to sort by ascending or descending order. If a new search does not appear in alphabetical order, then it was added to the bottom of the list. Just click the column heading and it will sort automatically and be positioned properly. Mouse Button Commands on the j•Clip Saved Searches window • Right-Click within the search list - Brings up the context menu (described below) • Left-Click - Drag the Saved Searches window anywhere on the screen • Left-Click in the Saved Searches list - If the entry contains a YouTube link and the 'Use j•Clip Video Player to view YouTube video links is checked, then the j•Clip video player will playback the selected video; in any other case, the browser is launched with the associated web link • Double-Click - 'clips' the Saved Searches window under the j•Clip window and adjusts the width • Mouse scroll wheel - Spin to adjust the Saved Searches window opacity when the window has focus • Clicking on the Saved Searches window sets its focus, indicated when the 'Saved Searches' text is set in white • Gripper - Adjusts the size of the Saved Searches window • The Saved Searches window always stays on top, unless minimized with the j•Clip window (see 'Minimized' above) Operation: [1] Use j•Clip Video Player to view YouTube video links Check this if you want to watch your videos in the j•Clip video player. Links formatted in the YouTube fashion qualify as valid video links [2] Artist/Track/Link column headings Click any column to sort your playlist Context Menu: [3] Web Similar to the Web link described above, however the search string is populated based on the track you selected from the 'Searches' list. In addition, the currently selected 'Search Sites' and 'Search Keywords' are used. [4] Add new entry... Select this option to add a new Artist/Track/Link to your Saved Searches list. Note that the 'Artist' field is required [5] Edit entry... Select this option to edit an existing entry [6] Delete entry... Select this option to delete an existing entry; you will be prompted to confirm the delete [7] Delete all entries... Select this option to delete all of you saved search entries; you will be prompted to confirm the delete [8] Add web link to entry... First, copy a web link to the clipboard (for example, in YouTube right-click on a video link and select 'Copy shortcut'); then select this context menu option to add the web link from the clipboard. Web links can originate from any source, however you must use a properly formatted YouTube link when using the j•Clip video player. j•Clip Video Player The j•Clip video player relies on the YouTube embedded video player control. To use this there are a few prerequisites needed: • You’ll need Adobe Flash 8+ installed on your machine. You can get this from adobe.com. • You’ll need JavaScript enabled; In Internet Explorer go to Tools/Internet Options/Security Tab/Custom Level button/Scripting section/Set Active scripting to 'Enable'. • You’ll need the IE Web browser control enabled; In Internet Explorer go to Tools/Internet Options/Security Tab/Custom Level button/Miscellaneous section/Allow scripting of Internet Explorer Webbrowser control to 'Enable'. Section 2. Technical information If you are installing j•Clip on a Windows XP system, a couple of extra steps may need to be performed to install the Microsoft .NET Framework V2.0 & V3.0 software. These steps are handled automatically by the j•Clip installation routine but they could add four or five minutes to the installation time. Windows Vista users are not affected by these steps since the Microsoft .NET Framework V2.0 & V3.0 software is already included in Vista. j•Clip typically installs to the: (Windows Vista) '\Users\~name~\AppData\Local\PEARSoft Corporation\jClip' folder (Windows XP) '\Documents and Settings\~name~\Application Data\PEARSoft Corporation\jClip' folder where ~name~ represents your user account. This folder may not display in Windows Explorer. To display, perform these steps: (Windows Vista) In Windows Explorer, select Organize/Folder and Search Options/View tab/Hidden files and folders/Show hidden files and folders; then click OK. (Windows XP) In Windows Explorer, select Tools/Folder Options.../View tab/Hidden files and folders/Show hidden files and folders; then click OK. This folder contains two XML files distributed with j•Clip and an optionally generated third file: [1] jClipSettings.xml Contains your general j•Clip settings. [2] jClipSearch.xml Contains the list of search sites and search keywords used in j•Clip. • Each Search Site contained in jClipSearch.xml is represented by the 'jClipSearchSite' node. Here is an example: <jClipSearchSite>name The site name in text url The site's website address param The site's search page/populated search field artistOnly If true, include only the artist name in the search; if false, include both artist and track information in the search userPreference If 'Include', then include this site in the list of search sites generated when clicking the 'Web' option; if 'Exclude', then don't include this search site. • Each Search Keyword contained in jClipSearch.xml is represented by the 'jClipKeyword' node. Here is an example: <jClipKeyword>word The keyword. userPreference If 'Include', then include this keyword in the search string generated when clicking the 'Web' option; if 'Exclude', then don't include this search keyword. [3] jClipSavedSearches.xml If you have the 'Save Searches' option set to true (the default), you will accumulate a collection of searches, stored as artist, track and link triplets. These triplets are stored in the jClipSavedSearches.xml file. This file does not ship with j•Clip; instead it gets created on your system. • Each Artist, Track and MyLink triplet is represented by the 'jArtistTrack' node. Here's an example: <jArtistTrack>Artist The artist name Track The track name MyLink The web link associated with the artist and track Section 3. Known issues [1] iTunes blocks application connections while it is displaying any of its dialog boxes; this could prevent j•Clip from initially connecting to iTunes. For example, attempting to start up j•Clip while iTunes is running and the Edit/Preferences... dialog box is displayed will cause the j•Clip startup splash screen to wait indefinitely until you close the Edit/Preferences... dialog box. Consequently, please close any open iTunes dialog boxes prior to starting j•Clip. Another open dialog box instance occurs when iTunes first starts, then displays the "iTunes has detected that it is not the default player for audio files. Would you like to go to the Default Programs control panel to fix this?". The best solution is to check the "Do not show this message again" check box, then click either Yes or No. [2] As stated earlier in this readme, the accuracy of j•Clip depends on the artist and track content provided by the radio stations. Sometimes, radio stations will include some "filler" information with the artist and track information, such as the year the song was published. For better search results, remove the filler information from the search window once you are at the search website. For example, j•Clip displays a "Gerry Rafferty+Baker Street (1978) --- WIKIPEDIA" link in the Web menu; when you click the link you will be taken to Wikipedia with its search box populated and the results displayed. You may get more accurate results if you remove the "(1978)" then refresh the search. [3] Double-clicking on j•Clip normally brings iTunes to the foreground then places j•Clip on top. However, this may not happen if you've set Edit/Preferences/Advanced Tab/Minimize iTunes window to system tray. The best solution is to uncheck this option, then click Ok. Section 4. Version history V2.0 • Add Saved Searches window • Add j•Clip video player V1.0.1.0 Original release. |