Peerless Player History

A Brief History of This Project

I started this project back in 2013 because I was not happy using either Windows Media Player or iTunes to play my music collection. I wanted an app that I could organise my music library the way I wanted and so I started to code my own app.

This project has been written in 3 languages during the course of it's evolution. I started using Python 3, but became frustrated after a few years with the limited GUI elements I had available to use. I thought if only I had the power of HTML5 and CSS3 I could design a responsive and good looking GUI. So I started the second evolution redesigning the app as a web app using a Chronium browser, which used the power of HTML5 and CSS3 and switching languages from Python 3 to C# and Javascript.

Again the web app had it's limitations. To run on a PC it had to run off a local server and was difficult to deploy as a downloadable app. Working in a browser sandboxed the app from accessing the local directory, which restricted operations on the locally stored music directory. I needed to find a better option to create a native desktop app.

In 2018 I discovered Electron and started this, the third evolution of this app. Electron is a framework using a Chronium browser and Node.js to create native desktop applications using web technologies. Once more I began redesigning the app switching languages from C# to Javascript. It is now a downloadable Windows app, with automatic updates using the power of Javascript, HTML5 and CSS3 on the front end and Node.js on the back end.

Python Version 1 Screenshots from 2013

• 
  Idle Page
• 
  Playing Page

Release Notes

Release Date: 18.01.2021

1. Bug fix in queueing next album to play.
2. ISC license details added to Help menu.
3. Close X button added to large image display for album art and biography image.
4. Track notifications updated with artist and app name.
5. Vertically centred large artwork to window size.
6. Github link added to Help-About.
7. Animation on hover added to social media icons.
8. Bug fix to stop screen scrolling to top when new track loads.
9. Info button added to album display to show more details about the album.
10. Biography page updated with drop down read more button.
11. Bumped electron to 8.5.2 - ini to 1.3.8 - jquery-validation to 1.19.3

Release Notes

Release Date: 19.10.2020

1. Added dropdown boxes to select tempo, mood and genre in metadata.
2. Enabled Content Security Policy.
3. Moved shell operations to back end.
4. Moved image operations to back end.
5. Moved file system operations to back end.
6. Disabled remote module.
7. Added blur effect to modal box background.
8. Bumped Electron to 8.2.3