Custom Server Pages

Just talk about kJams stuff with each other, describe things you did that worked, talk about your setup, anything that doesn't fit into the other forums!
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djunod
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Custom Server Pages

Post by djunod »

Have any of you KJ's modified the kJams server pages to include your own graphics or theme?

DeusExMachina
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Re: Custom Server Pages

Post by DeusExMachina »

I was directed here by Dave. I have modified the server pages extensively. Some of my changes have been rolled into the "canonical" server pages in the main distro, others are specific to my needs.
Changes I have made off the top of my head:
• Autologout after a preset period of time
• Forcing first and last name submissions for singers (necessary if you really want to use server)
• Adding a nested dialogue to the New Singer button to help prevent people from adding themselves multiple times
• Capturing the delete key so that it does NOT act as a back button (WTH thought that was a good keyboard short cut W3C?!?)
• Modified text after search to warn users NOT to submit a new search before the first one returns results
• Modified song submission confirmation to flash in red three times, to be more apparent, to help reduce multiple submissions of the same song.
• Changed the CSS to properly align misaligned divs
• Placed kJams logo behind scrolling search results (eventually this will be replaced by a running slide show of pics from events, populated by pics in a preset folder.
• Added a script to catch attempts to close the window, to prevent people from killing my server pages.
And probably a few more I have forgotten.

Also going to add resizeable main div to allow the page to load correctly on Android devices.

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djunod
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Re: Custom Server Pages

Post by djunod »

8)

I was wondering if any KJ's or venues had modified the pages to have their own logos, themes or changed the text.

When I was up in Seattle, the Hula Hula (a 7 day a week karaoke bar) uses kJams and has a dedicated kiosk for people to put their songs in. I was surprised that they hadn't customized it to have a Tiki look to it.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/hula-hula-seattle

http://hulahula.org/

At some point in the future, I do want to make it so that KJ's can place theme information with the web server so that wtkJams can be customized too.

DeusExMachina
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Re: Custom Server Pages

Post by DeusExMachina »

I was considering it, but the way it is currently architected, I would have to swap out the logo for each venue I use. So I settled on the idea of having a running slide show translucent behind the search results. The pics reside in a dedicated folder. Alternately, I may use the art panel, though there are future plans for that, so I have been leaving it alone.
For venue tagging, I mostly use the ShowScreens, using custom graphics and the [venu] tag. I have these on my rotation screen, which comes up between songs, and various other ShowScreens. (You can see an old version of my original ShowScreen, since for some reason Dave includes it in the default kJams Pro download.)
You could, of course, swap out the assets for the page based on the current venue, and build the page with php. Then again, for a venue like the one you referenced, one could always just write a one-off, just for that specific venue. kJams really isn't necessary for all that.
If the venue info was available as an exposed AppleScript variable, you could also swap out assets based on the current venue. Many ways to skin a cat.
But your access to the info, as well as coding skillz, seem well beyond mine, so this is probably all obvious to you.
I use server exclusively. I use a number of dedicated machines that all access the server. They are placed around the bar for easy access:
https://karaoke.kjams.com/forum/viewtop ... hilit=lava

dave
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Re: Custom Server Pages

Post by dave »

dudes, i'm all for this, i think it's a great idea.
it's in fact the reason that i serve the web site from the prefs folder, rather than from the app itself, so that you can modify the assets in the prefs, and they don't get replaced when you update kjams. (i used to serve directly from the app, so if you customized your current copy of the app, it used to all disappear when you update)

anyway, it's probably simple to add graphics into the Venue folder and serve custom graphics from there (that way you have different graphics at different venues).

let me know your top 3 feature requests for custom graphics and i'll put'm on the list!

DeusExMachina
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Re: Custom Server Pages

Post by DeusExMachina »

Well, Dave, first things first. In our previous discussion, I think I recall you mentioning that the artwork panel was intended to eventually contain pics of the current user. Is this still the case? (Not sure how you will get these pictures, logistically, but eh.) (On second thought, certainly, it would be trivial on iJams, or any mobile app, since the user probably has lots of self-pics ready to upload.) (On third thought, hmm, simple. Add a facebook login and let people snag pictures from there. Done. In fact, you could just use fb login as the login mechanism, and have it use the users main pic as their user pic.)
Anyway, right now the artwork panel just has the kJams logo, which can be moved anywhere, so that is open to customization. Other than that, I am not sure how you can rearchitect in such a way that things are easily customizable by non-coders. Where exactly would these graphics go on the screen? You would need some sort of moveable div, but once you have that, anyone that knows enough to place it and add a graphic can just do it without any need for kJams' intervention.

For example, as for djunod's venue exemplar, I was thinking you could flank the main display with Tiki Totems, like columns on either side of the display, and maybe add a bamboo frame around the browser pane.

Here is what my current server page looks like:
My current server page
My current server page
The large kJams logo in the back is where the slide show goes.
Last edited by DeusExMachina on Tue May 17, 2016 12:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

dave
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Re: Custom Server Pages

Post by dave »

Okay how about this:

i'll add a banner at the top, that is a graphic served from the venue folder. a user can drop "banner.xyz" into a venue folder and that will be served instead of the default. (xyz is whatever graphic format, jpg, png, gif, maybe .mov would work too)

DeusExMachina
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Re: Custom Server Pages

Post by DeusExMachina »

Well, alternately, just an alternate graphic, other than the brushed metal, that fills the background bounding div. Then it can be anything.

dave
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Re: Custom Server Pages

Post by dave »

yeah, just in terms of what's easy for me, i can add a graphic banner at the top. the brushed metal is tiled.

DeusExMachina
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Re: Custom Server Pages

Post by DeusExMachina »

Sure. What I was thinking, though, was a user using a graphic sized so that it tiles only once. I suspect that if the graphic is available over server, that people like me can hack the page to do whatever they want with it. :)

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Re: Custom Server Pages

Post by DeusExMachina »

By which I mean, if you do what you were going to do, and have a banner graphic available, some enterprising young fellow could take that and use it in other ways (such as a window background). I.e., there would be nothing extra to do on your end.

DeusExMachina
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Re: Custom Server Pages

Post by DeusExMachina »

Just to clarify, all I am saying is if you implement the banner graphic, like you already plan to, the ability to make custom backgrounds can happen automatically, by the end user adding their own specialty code.

dave
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Re: Custom Server Pages

Post by dave »

i'll keep it in mind

Bmurray
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Re: Custom Server Pages

Post by Bmurray »

ooOOo umm heya guys,

I'm really interested in that bullet list of enhancements that DuesExMachina rattled off at the beginning of this thread. :D

I'd love to take advantage of those features too. Would you be willing to share your code?

dave
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Re: Custom Server Pages

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