Ok, so when we originally planned on having an mp3 player in the VHood, I didn’t think I’d end up writing iTunes in Flash, but wutcha gonna do. Obviously I’m exaggerating, but this is a pretty capable online mp3 player. This version loads the songs from xml, but the live version we have in the vHood loads from a database and even has file uploading working. Also, the file uploading grabs the id3 tags from the mp3 automatically, pretty sick.

This new version has more fleshed out controls, and also has the addition of a mini player. If you click on my wonderful placeholder graphic at the top right of the audio player, you can minimize the mp3 player to its miniPlayer view. Then, click on the “mp3″ text in the miniPlayer to bring it back. Obviously those buttons need some serious work, but the interaction works for now.

Flash Mp3 Player, v2
[SWF]http://www.labs.jarringsenses.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/audio_player_v2/audio_app_v_002.swf, 450, 400[/SWF]

One of the features we’ve been planning for the VHood is music uploading so that each user can play music stored up on the server, as well as see other peoples’ music and play those as well.

Here’s a little audio app I wrote to handle the mp3 player interface. It dynamically creates a playlist out of an xml file, as shown here, or from a database, which is how it’s done in the actual VHood. You can also dynamically reorder the playlist in case you feel my list doesn’t “flow” how you like. The code itself is based off of a tutorial at gotoAndLearn.com and I’m using the mp3 files he provided for that tutorial.

Flash Audio Player

So over the past month or so, I’ve been posting some experiments I’ve been working on for this project called the VHood, but never actually got around to explaining what it is. The Virtual Hood, or VHood for short, is a virtual hang out for friends to be together when life’s circumstances split them apart.

The main way to bring friends together is through chat: video, audio, and text. The VHood has all of these, and can actually handle multiple (currently up to 15 with the developer version of FlashCom) video connections at once, arranged in a carousel. Everyone can see everyone else at once, and everyone can hang out. We also want to implement uploading of photos, music, and videos, and also having a shared calendar of events.

It’s got a long way to go, but you can visit the current incarnation of the VHood at http://www.jm42.net/vhood . Use the login name: guest and the password: guest. It’s still very much in active development, so be forewarned: stuff WILL break, your browser MIGHT crash, and your PET CAT might die (ok, maybe not that last one). But again, you’ve been warned.