Last.fm has made available their new API two weeks ago — and it’s a big step forward. I did apply for a preview to update my WordPress plugin Last.Fm Records before the API hit the streets, but alas. So the last few evenings I’ve written version 1.4.
Version 1.3 had a really ugly parseHTML function to parse the HTML pages requested on last.fm. Now that the API returns relatively clean XML, the first thing I did was to update the XML parsing to the functionality available in PHP5, which means I no longer support PHP4. All the Amazon and Musicbrainz requests have been replaced by requests to the new API. Great news is that almost all relevant feeds in the new API include urls for cd covers: only user.getWeeklyAlbumChart (cds you listened to last week) is lacking those: why?
Thanks to the new API the plugin is much faster, finds more images than the previous version, and is now in beta. If you want to test drive it, let me know in the comments. I’ll release this new version after testing it thoroughly. I’ll be listening to songs with single quotes and ampersands in the title!
Oh, and yes, the request (by a human being) for a fallback option has been implemented: when the period you set in the options returns not enough cds, the plugin requests more info from longer ago.
Welkom! Op deze pagina's vind je meer info over mij en het werk dat ik als zelfstandig programmeur uitvoer (en hier en daar een spelletje).
12 Comments
Hi there,
I am using you widget for wordpress since quite a while, currently running 1.3.1 and I would be glad to test the new version.
I am still using WordPress 2.3.2 though. Do I need to upgrade before?
Cheers,
Christoph
Hi Christoph, the obvious answer would be that it’s always wise to stay updated. To be honest, I don’t know. I haven’t done any upgrading to the overall structure of the plugin since 2.3, but how this works out in your case?
As I wrote earlier, you need PHP5. And if you have uploaded missing cover images yourself (on the options page of the plugin) they will not be shown in the current test version. Before I release the plugin I wil add a function to convert the images to the new caching system.
Hello.
I’ve used your Last.Fm Records for a long time.
I wanna try 1.4.
My Website is brand-new WordPress 2.6.
Hi Dai, I’ll mail it to you. Thanks for the offer to help me out!
I would love to test out the new version, I have been a long time user for this plugin, and I would really like the chance to give 1.4 a shot.
I’m definitely interested in this beta with WP2.6 as well…I’ve been wanting to put covers on my site for a long time!
I’m definitely interested in testing the beta.
Hi Jeroen,
I’d love to beta test the new last.fm plugin if you are still looking for folks. I just updated to WP 2.6 too.
ah! hola, thats the reason. i also upgraded to WP 2.6 and did see the changes on the last.fm site. as a last.fm fan i would be more than happy to test the beta. thanks for the great work with last.fm records!
Really nice to see all this interest in the new version. Always wanted to have my own community :-)
I’ve added my latest remarks about the new version in the comments here.
Hi,
it’s a pity not to support php4, becouse my ISP is still running it and I can’t even test the new plugin… and the old one, does not work :(
Anyway,
Good work! :)
Great plugin. Looks great!
One problem I’m having though is that it keeps the most played records overall from before I did a reset on my listening. Is it a bug in the last.fm cache?
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