--Developer page--

Welcome, you’ve just found the SlimConnect developer page.
This page is intended to explain a bit more about SlimConnect and go into some technical details.
You can either select a topic of interest below or just read the whole story.
Have Fun!

History of SlimConnect.
What is SlimConnect?
Demo application.
How to build my own application with SlimConnect?
Join the club!
IDE.
Links.
Q&A.

History of SlimConnect
It was just one of these surf around the internet and develop just something days. I was just surfing, playing a bit with my SliMP3 player (yes, I still got the old model). So I was just wondering what more can I do with my new cool gadget. So I was just reading around at the slimdevices website. In the community section I spotted some COM component to put some text on the display of your player. So I found something to play with for that moment, off course I downloaded the project and started looking at it and was wondering how they build it.
I found out that they build it on top of the slimServer command line interface. So at that point I became curious about the command interface, I was wondering what else could be done with it. So I found out, you could do about anything with it. Knowing all this, I couldn’t resist trying and playing around with the command line interface. Since I’m a worked a lot with Java, I wanted to implement something in Java. After putting some text on the display and playing around with play lists, I asked my selves the question: How can I make this code useful? I decided to implement more commands (all of them actually) generalized stuff, document it and share it with the world so more people can enjoy playing around with their player, code a bit and have fun with what ever you are building. So here we are, this is the project you can have a lot of fun with and I’ve called it SlimConnect!

What is SlimConnect?
Knowing all about the history of SlimConnect, you can probably guess what SlimConnect is and does. I still would like to add some words and explain a bit more.
I started SlimConnect to provide an easy to use API (in Java) to your slimServer enabling you to play around and build what ever creative idea you have, without needing to deal with all technical communication stuff. The communication stuff is done by SlimConnect. I also added some object orientation to the model, so now we can think about playlists, players, songs and their properties instead off just sending some text.

Demo application
After reading all these words about how nice and easy SlimConnect would enable you to do just about anything with your SlimServer (and of course all connected playing devices), you might like some more words and examples how to start.
After an email Doug asking for an example, I was reminded, I also like examples! I did build a GUI to demonstrate some of the possibilities of SlimConnect but never finished it and also didn’t release it. So after the email, I started again back on my old cool project willing to show the world how easy and nice it is to build an application with SlimConnect. I started with a nice Swing based GUI to demonstrate some commands like play, pause, put text on the display, etc. That demo application is finished and is also released on SourceForge see the files section.
Here is how to play around with the demo:
• Make sure you have Java installed (see links section how to get it)
• Download the binary demo application (.zip)
• Extract the zip file to where ever you would like to have the demo application.
• Start the program by double clicking on the demo.jar file.
• Off course you can also use “java –jar demo.jar” on the command line (if you like to do so).
• In the fist screen enter the name or IP address of the SlimServer.
• Press connect
• And just play around with the GUI
Here’s a screenshot of the demo app:

demo application


If you like to read the source code of the GUI, compile it yourselves or better extend by implementing more functionality into it and make it look better, you’re very much welcome to do so. Also as you might have read before, if you have questions, please don’t hesitate to send mail. I like read people being interested!

How to compile and build the GUI?
Just download all files from SourceForge.
Use the binary releases to get all required libraries; they are all in the demo application project. Set up a project in your favourite IDE (or one of my favourite IDE’s). Just code away.

How to build my own application with SlimConnect?
Grab your IDE and…
Check out the unit test included in the SlimConnect project about all commands are used and tested in it (see com.breeweb.slimconnect.test.TestSlimp3Delegate).
Also check out the API documentation (I’ve put quite some work in it)
And last but not least... here’s an example (Yes it's that easy!):

get a connection with the server 

slimp3Delegate = Slimp3Delegate.getInstance(url.getText(), portNr);

get the current play list 

slimp3Delegate.getCurrentPlayList();
play, next, put two lines on the display for a number of seconds 
slimp3Delegate.play();
slimp3Delegate.playlistNext(1);
slimp3Delegate.setDisplay("text at line one,"and line two", 12);

Join the Club,
If you’re inspired by all of this and would like to help taking SlimConnect to the next level, by contributing with the interface of the demo GUI or you’ve got other great idea’s just send me an email and Join the Club!
If you’ve built something with SlimConnect and want to share your experience please just mail, I like to hear those stories.
use image to mail or follow link and use web form

IDE
Let me start by explaining this section. You might be an experienced developer happy with your IDE and not waiting on “politics”, please just skip this part.
I would like just to suggest some IDE’s for people who are a bit more new to the Java world and help them to get started selecting there first IDE. I would also like you to know that this section is all about my personal experience with IDE’s and might be a bit subjective. Ok enough about that, if you’re looking for an IDE, I would suggest to use
Eclipse, IDEA or WSAD
Eclipse is the good and also free available one (initiative of IBM/OTI).
IDEA is intelliJ’s product, a very good IDE and adored by a lot of Java developers, this one isn’t free.
WSAD is IBM’s (WebSphere Studio Application Developer). Actually it’s eclipse with a lot of plug-ins for enterprise development. Also this product isn’t free.
Ok one final word, I know I didn’t tell you all about these IDE’s and I didn’t name all others (on purpose) and this is a bit subjective what IDE is the best ánd off course this piece of text can be easily out dated so the best IDE on the market might be introduced after this writing, sorry :-)

Links
After telling you about all sorts of projects and products I would like to provide you with some links to each of them.

Project files
Sun
To download a java development kit
Jgoodies
I used some of these products in the demo application, just try it out if you're going to build a GUI in Java
Jakarta Apache
All fine pieces of Java available for everyone.
JUnit
All about JUnit and unit testing
slimdevices
You probably know this one.

IDE's
eclipse
WSAD
IDEA

Q&A
I would like to have some more questions before writing this part, else I consider the text above as clear enough :-)
Have fun!


Bas de Bree
use image to mail or follow link and use web form