Add a mini-mini player

[eFiggy]

OS: OS X 10.11.3 and Windows 8.1, and Windows 10

Issue Description: I checked Issues for this Enhancement but didn't see anything on it. Can a smaller version of the mini player be made available? I like being able to have easy access to viewing the song information, but I don't like it taking up too much space on the screen.

I'm not on my Windows PC so I had to do a quick Google Image search, but MusicBee's mini player is something that I'm looking at:

Of course, I'd prefer that the window not be as wide, or at least be resizable (and no need for a visualizer), but you get the idea. Thank you for this wonderful app and thanks in advance for your consideration!

[JamesCoyle]

I'd love something like this to pop up when left clicking on the taskbar notification area icon. Just some window which shows the album art, song name, thumb up/down, and the song controls.

[lcsnwmn]

My request is similar enough, I figured this is as good a place as adding a new issue:

Can you add an option in the Desktop settings to make the song info (title, artist, album) always visible, but the playback controls only visible on hover? Having the progress bar always visible as well would be cool, but understandably difficult to separate from the controls from a UI perspective.

[Irubataru]

My request might be very window manager specific, or maybe it isn't as multiple desktops are becoming common enough.

Basically it would be great if it was possible to spawn multiple windows, or more specifically have both a full gpmdp window running as well as the mini-player at the same time. I like having the mini player active in the desktop I have my browser, but it would be great if I could have a full version running at the same time at a different desktop to make switching songs a bit easier.

[oczki]

Another idea would be to add a hotkey for "toggle mini/normal player". As long as the minified player toggles back to the same place it was before, this could be almost as useful as having two windows.

[Langthjem]

Installed latest version as of today. Entered mini mode, and have no option to return to normal. Dragging the borders just resizes everything.

[MarshallOfSound]

@Langthjem Have you tried clicking the button in the bottom right 👍 Should be in the same place as the button you used to enter the mini player.

[Langthjem]

@MarshallOfSound That's actually the problem. The button is hidden, and since dragging the border resizes the window and content, you can't make the window big enough to actually click the button, it's always just out of reach.

[MarshallOfSound]

Gonna go out on a limb and guess your a linux user with I3 as your window manager? (Just guessing).

If you want to get that button and someone else on your PC is messing with scaling just use the Cntrl+ and Cntrl- hotkeys to zoom in and out (should do the trick)

[Langthjem]

@MarshallOfSound Sorrym should've disclosed more info. I'm on Win10 Pro. Will try the zoom trick. UPDATE: Just tried on my laptop. Now I get a true miniplayer. Could multimonitor setup be the culprit? On the stationary I'm getting window caption regardless of mini or normal.

[my-ugly-code]

Did the mini player get a title bar added? Maybe it's just me losing my mind, but I swore (Windows 10 Pro) the mini player had no top/title bar before the last update, now it gets a title bar with truncated text...which doesn't seem useful. Sorry if this seems OT or is out of place here.

Is this what @Langthjem is referring to as the 'window caption' above?? I'm also on dual monitors (laptop + 1 external) if that helps isolate anything here.

[MarshallOfSound]

Sorry if this seems OT or is out of place here.

Definitely not the right place for it 😆 I don't really like issue hijacking 👍

Did the mini player get a title bar added?

No it didn't, if you have nativeFrame enabled that it always had a title bar. Otherwise it doesn't have a title bar. You probably changed the option without realizing what it did (it only takes affect on restart)

[my-ugly-code]

@MarshallOfSound You're spot on, and apologies for adding this in the wrong area. I felt it was related to the comments above.

Changing (uncheck) the 'Use system window borders" option removed the title bar, so was my own fault in the first place. Hostages/hijack released :)

[nickalbrecht]

@Langthjem Did you ever find a solution for why the Mini player has no UI (for switching out of Mini Player mode or otherwise) after you enter it? At the moment, the only thing I can do to get the UI back is close the entire program.

[MarshallOfSound]

@nickalbrecht That is a fixed issue pending release. #1998 #1992

[lewisaronmilne]

Music Bee has a mode where you could have a bar span across the top of the screen. This is the least intrusive mini player option I've ever used. Would something like that be possible to add.

[gregsdennis]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned WinAmp's docked player. The mini player for that was tiny, yet quite functional.

Much like the MusicBee mini-player that @lewisaronmilne mentioned. I'd like something out of the way, prefereably with an "Always on top" or "Dock" option.

EDIT Found the "always on top" option.

For WinAmp, I'd keep it centered at the top of my screen, always on top.

[reduckted]

Is this feature still something that you'd accept contributions for? I know it has the "help wanted" tag, but it's a few years old, so thought I'd check first. 😄

My situation might be a bit unique. At work, I do all of my development on a VM that's full screen. Given that it's a VM, playing music through it isn't ideal, so I run GPMDP on my PC. I have the mini player set to be always on top, which makes it sit above the VM, and to keep it out of the way, I move it so only the top of the mini player is sitting over the Windows 10 taskbar. Like this:

If I want to skip tracks or use the thumbs up/down, I drag the window up where I can see it, do what I need to do, then drag it out of the way again.

I'd absolutely love a smaller mini player - preferably one that's the same height as the Windows 10 taskbar! 😁

If you're still looking for help on this, I'd be willing to give it a shot.

[reduckted]

I've hacked together a proof of concept that allows the current mini player to resized down to a much smaller window.

The smallest I can resize the window to is 39px (which is great for me, because my Windows 10 taskbar is 41px high 😄). It seems like something (maybe Electron, or maybe Windows) is preventing it from getting any smaller at that point, so I'm not sure we'd be able to get something as small as Winamp's mini player.

[pcnate]

This is perfect! I can tell you I prefer the box as it is now but controls are limited/glitchy and it would be nice to have a way to open the main window in addition to the mini player so I can modify playlists and select music without messing with the size/position of the mini player on my right screen.

[reduckted]

@pcnate it would be nice to have a way to open the main window in addition to the mini player

You're in luck! 🎉

I've been playing around this some more and now have a completely custom view showing in a separate window which, in my opinion, is infinitely better.

It's also resizable:

It's currently limited to 39px high on Windows due to a limitation/bug. That should be resolved by upgrading to a newer version of Electron (https://github.com/electron/electron/issues/20183).

It can go smaller on Linux though. In theory, that's what it would do on Windows with a newer Electron version.

And just like the rest of GPMDP, it supports custom styles. Here's a dark theme:

@MarshallOfSound Do you have any opinions on this? It still needs a bit of a tidy-up and there's some teething issues on Linux, but I can submit a draft PR if you'd like.

[eFiggy]

@reduckted this is amazing! Looking forward to hopefully seeing this kind of functionality soon!

[reduckted]

I've created a draft PR (#3701) for anyone who wants to test it out. 🎉