Scheduler Enhancement

[barlav]

I added a custom queue feature last year that allowed me to add a "remote control" so viewers can select the songs right from their phones. This basically does what the op is looking for.  It stops the running schedule, plays the requested song(s) and then returns to the regular schedule. It doesn't pause and resume a running sequence though...it stops it, plays a requested song, and then restarts it.

My show runs a random/repeating playlist. When user requests a song xlights stops, plays the song and then starts the random playlist again when finished. The changes are rudimentary at this point but it worked great for me this season.

Let me know if you're interested and I'll send you the modified xlights program that you can play around with.

[greg s]

Barlav,
I would be interested in this.  I have been using just such a feature with LOR for several years using a phone interface system and it works exactly as you described.  I am hoping to move over to XL/Nutcracker completely if I can get this feature working.

Basically how I am set up now is each runs a script that replaces the currently scheduled show, if there is no que it then defaults back to a looping show with several songs in it.  Once again currently doing this with LOR.

People that have visited the display in the past really love this feature, especially the teenagers my son being one of them.

If your wouldn't mind sharing I would really appreciate it.

Greg

[barlav]

xLights with queue modifications for anyone interested: (This includes an instructional document as well)

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/i5yt9klkx3d5kmh/AAD78-XzyQJZsmAgRUzK1qEea?dl=0

Archive contains everything needed to run and demo the queue system.  The version of xLights included is 2016.56 for Windows.

Please note that my changes to xLights are rudimentary. I added them quickly to get it working for my specific needs. I would recommend backing up your files prior to using.

Function:
When xLights is running an active schedule and a simple specific xml file that specifies a playlist is dropped into a specified directory, xLights will play the requested playlist immediately and then return to the original playlist.

xLights scheduler changes that faciliate the queue:
When a queued file is placed, xLights will do the following internally:
   1. Stop schedule.
   2. Move current xlights_schedule.xml to xlights_schedule.save
   3. Create a new xlights_schedule.xml for the requested playlist using same time constraints as original schedule
   4. Start new schedule with the requested playlist
   5. When requested playlist ends schedule will stop. Original schedule will be restored. Original schedule will be started.

I was going to take the time to improve my changes with the scheduling part of the queue system but with the news that Keith is re-writing the scheduler I am going to hold off and wait until that is in production and then migrate over to that. 

[keithsw1111]

The song queuing functionality is now in the new scheduler.

[derekb]

Thanks. This will be fun to play with. Sorry for not answering sooner, I didn't think it would get addressed and just drop any thought of it. But this is cool and this community is awesome!

[Boof63]

Had to use scheduler in xlights as stuffed my Pi. it worked a treat and so thanks for leaving ion and updating as well
Boof63