[SFOS] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

https://i.imgur.com/fx1rcDv.png

Talefish is a directory based audio book player.

One of the main goals of Talefish is to provide a place to listen to your audio books separated from the system media library.

Be sure to check out the application options by using the main page pulley menu.

Some of the current features are:

• Remember listening position – even if you've opened another directory since
• Custom Playback Speed (within the limits of qml Audio)
• Metadata support for most common file types
• Album Cover support for most common file types with fallback for image files in the currently opened directory
• Skip forward/back by predefined durations or swipe the album cover area to skip to track beginnings
• Slumber sleep timer integration: Rewind a bit if Talefish is paused by slumber
• Open files from other applications by using mimer
• Open files/directories from the command line (-e to enqueue to current Playlist)

Please try it and tell me if you like it (or why you don't)!

You can install it from Openrepos: https://openrepos.net/content/velox/talefish or from the jolla store ("harbour").

Feel free to send pull requests or bug reports on https://github.com/jgibbon/Talefish.

A Transifex page to help our great translation community is available at https://www.transifex.com/velocode/talefish
https://www.transifex.com/projects/p...art/image_png/

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

Yeeeey! Finally! Thank man! The only thing missing is a donation link ;)

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

A thank you like this goes a long way, no donation link necessary. ;) You could hunt down the flattr link on the jolla store page for my sleep timer 'slumber', but that's way too much work.

People on Openrepos showed interest in more file formats, so
Release 2 is out:

• now lets you open *.mp3, *.m4a, *.m4b, *.flac, *.ogg, *.wav files (ability to play should equal system media player)

Let me know if there should be more file extensions allowed (and which ones).

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

Sorry, you were right. I always blame other people for failing to confront their assumptions with a reality check and now I fell into the same trap. I found no donation link for one of your apps and assumed there was none for the others too. I checked it out now and you were right again. a Flattr donation requires creating an account. I will have to think about it when it's not 1am and I have not had a couple of drinks. I will probably end up creating one since that seems to be the "official" way of supporting Saifish app developers.

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

Even I was too lazy to dig that out.
Well, now that you've done it I have to, haven't I? It seems to be https://flattr.com/thing/4974623.
But Feedback (or a "thank you" note like yours) is really the best "donation" I can get. I like it when stuff I build for myself turns out to be useful to someone else.

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

YYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS !!

At least I can see the cover images for my AAC files. THANK YOU.

Now, some improvement ideas:
1. Being able to open a high level folder, let say "Music", and so being able to browse not by folder, but by Artists and Albums
2. I didn't use too much from now, but I think gesture could be better used..more on this later, as soon as I've been able to run it for few hours.

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

Glad you like it!

That would be nice to have, but I've got two problems implementing this: I don't use the system-wide media tracker, just list files and don't have access to metadata like artist/album. Also it would require recursive scanning for which I don't know a good user experience (a lot of waiting without much feedback isn't nice). At least the first part should be solveable eventually but it'd take a while, so I'd have to say "maybe I'll have a look at some other time".

Yes please, gestures really could be better – looking forward to your ideas.

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

Please, please, please no tracker. That is the main advantage of your app over anything else: purely directory based. Whoever wants to sort their albums by metadata can choose one of the myriad alternatives. Please KISS.

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

Exactly my thoughts. Also, I just want my Audio books separate from my Music.
What I meant earlier was that I might be able to use some lib to (optionally) read meta data while "scanning" for durations in the (to be honest, far) future.

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

I totally agree to NOT use Tracker too. Didn't think about the consequences of being able to browse by Albums and Artists. Thanks.

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

Small issue: The artist and track being played are not shown on the lockscreen, but controls are.

The Talenfish icon is not explicit enough imho, but that's a matter of taste.

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

Great app. Best app for sail.

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

Hi. Thanks for app! But I can't open folder from sdcard... It not supported?

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

/media/sdcard/<sdcad-id>/...

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

Should work – if you look closely, the files in my Screenshots (first post) are on my sd card.

Reasons I can think of:

• Didn't you find the sd card? It's in /media/sdcard/[something] – when opening, you have to tap on the line with the directory name and arrows to go to the parent directory.
• Were you unable to "accept" the open dialog? This is only possible when there are supported files in the current folder. Files in subdirectories will not be opened. You have to have permissions to read the files.
• Does it try to open but does not get anywhere after this? Well, that's bad and could be either a bug in my application, corrupt files, background radiation in your area and/or an imminent alien attack.

edit: pichlo was faster with the piece of information that was most likely missing – thanks!

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

My files located in /media/sdcard/bla-bla/Audiobooks/Name_of_book/files.mp3.
I can navigate to Name_of_book, thats all..

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

I use Talefish for music and my files are in

/media/sdcard/bla-bla/Music/Artist_name/Album_name/files.mp3.

It works like a charm.

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

When you're in Name_of_book, tapping the "GlassItem" Indicator top right or swiping the whole page to the left should accept the dialog and open the files in there.

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

Exactly what I tried to do, but without success. Also tried to rename the book folder name to something short/with and without spaces/symbols. But always the same result...

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

Could you put a Screenshot of the folder view for me on imgur or somewhere and send me the Link via DM? Perhaps I can see something. Spaces etc should not be a problem under normal circumstances. Are the mp3 files visible?
Or… I think I got it… maybe they are named .MP3 instead of .mp3? I'll push an update tonight allowing unusual capitalization of file suffixes.

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

Haaaa, you are right ! The mp3 with capital letters "MP3" :D
Waiting for new update ;)

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

Files with uppercase suffixes are now displayed/opened as well with the current build.
Mixed suffixes like *.oGG or *.Mp3 are still ignored (for now?). ;)

Many thanks for reporting,
have fun!

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

I will try to find the lock screen issue – at the moment, mpris simply ignores my attempts to set the values.

Heh, I really like the tape icon, but do you have an idea to make it better? Perhaps I like that as well… :)

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

Thanks, No it can see and play my files. But now I have another issue..
When I skip forward - app crashed
When first file finished and should start the next one - app crashed
:(

Edit:
After some crashes, I think it start to work....

Another strange thing, when it start "Reading duration" I noticed that on some files instead the time it write "error"...

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

It's already such a gift to have this app, I won't dare...and it's your app. The icon won't prevent me to use it :D

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

Oh Dear. Hopefully I'll be able to reproduce that in the next days to find a fix. Sorry for the rough start.
Do the files have a duration when you look at the playlist page? And do they work if you tap on them there? If it's always the same files that crash the player, could you send one of them to me?

Tip: To save your changed settings or your position and opened files, close the app normally before it crashes. ;)

Aww, Thanks. That's pretty motivating!

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

Looks like I have a bug report too, sorry :(

When I play an album and it's finished, then I open another album and start playing, Talefish starts playing the last song of the previous album even though it already shows the name and time of the first song of the new one. I have to press Pause, rewind to the beginning and press Play again to make it behave.

It is 100% reproducible.

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

No need to apologize, thanks for reporting as well! Will try to squash some of those bugs on the weekend. :)

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

Hi. Sorry for delay.. I checked playlist and here all trecks shown normally with time. For now it working ok. Thank you!

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

After being able to use it for a couple of album playbacks, here is my main comment: I've the feeling the Talenfish UX is oriented "track playback". For example, you can tap on a track to play it, but you've to "Open Directory" to play the whole album.

That's totally personal, but I would have expected quite the opposite, Talenfish being "album first" instead of track.

My 2 cents.

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

Since it's mostly QML, maybe it'd be worth to put the source on GitHub or so?

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

The main use case for me was audio books, of which many I have are made into a few, long tracks. So, yes, it's single album/directory focussed.

From another thread:
The problem with talefish is: It's pretty but not a very good app beneath that – and QML only, which does not help in a lot of areas.
If someone convinces me they'd be able (or willing enough to learn) to help, I'll put it on github, but I think some players are just doing a better job.
I don't say I'll never try to do it, but it basically would have to be rewritten to be nice. Currently I have no short term goal to do that (by myself ;) ).

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

Happy holidays, everyone. Talefish is a wonderful software.

If I were allowed to make a wish, I'd love to have it somehow tied in with gPodder to "automagically" enqueue podcast downloads in sequence.

So far, I've been adding podcast directories to Talefish. However, those are not necessarily in the right order.

Anyway, velox, you are doing a great job! Many thanks!

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

This application is amazing.

Feature Request: can you add a timer which decides to stop playback. Would be nice to have when listening to audiobooks in the evening / in bed.

Sorry, I just now realosed that there's slumber. Integration woukd be nice anyways :)

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

Slumber was part of Talefish initially, until I realized that having a good sleep timer as a standalone tool for all media players multiplies it's "usefulness per code maintainance" ratio (also: most sleep timers in players are not nice since it always has to be a secondary feature). Because the timer portion was much more mature/useable, I made slumber. It should work pretty seamlessly with Talefish.

edit:
I don't think the gpodder integration be easy. But the sorting of directories might be: Have you tried sorting the open dialog by using it's pulley menu?

cheers all, thanks for your appreciation ;)

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

I am not convinced with "always" and "has to be". A well integrated sleep timer can, for example, not just cut off in the middle of the word when the time comes. It can, for example, wait for the end of the current track and then gently fade to silence (in case the track ends abruptly). An even better integrated sleep timer can do even more advanced things, like recognise that there is a quiet passage ahead and stop there.

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

Thank you so much for that helpful reply, Velox! As for the pulley menu, indeed I had somehow managed to miss it. Sorry about that. :o

Here is another question, though: Is there a way to add a file or a directory to the established playlist without overwriting the previous choices?

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

velox:
First of all, what's wrong with app being QML-only? What's wrong with the app itself?

I'll hopefully be a Sailfish user from next vacation (if I manage to port it to my phone) so I couldn't make a direct check, but a quick search yields no other audiobook players for SFOS

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

If those new files are at the end of the list of opened files, it should work, because the way Talefish saves the progress is quite simple (some might say stupid). It saves three values of each directory already played, of which only two are really relevant to setting the progress:

• current index (number of the file in playlist played)
• duration played in file
• percentage played in directory (this is only used to display the percentage bars in the open dialog)

While this means you may get weird behaviour if you choose to reopen a directory with different sorting, you should be fine just reopening the directory when adding files at the end. I hope this helps as well.

Well, qml is not a bad thing in general. Actually I think it's really nice to do user interfaces and some other things with it. Directory based media handling, for example, sadly is not one of those things*: I haven't found a nice way to query file durations (or any way at all to get file meta data like ID3), so if you open a directory, it has to open each file and hope that it's a valid format that is read within the limits of a "watchdog timeout". For large directories that's taking a while and may even trigger the systems crash handler dialog.
Basically, opening files and searching for matching covers (easter egg: you can put different jpgs named somehow similarly to the corresponding audio files in the opened directory to match them) is just a bunch of more or less dirty hacks put together.

Also: Kudos for trying to port your device!

*) I really would like someone to prove me wrong here!

Re: [WIP] Talefish, directory based audiobook player
 

Well, tbh, when I create QML apps, I create everything possible in QML. Often it's much faster to write some QML code than to mess around with the C++ integration, which is not a one-liner. Of course you can't do everything in QML.

As for the concrete case: have you tried doing that in parallel? In QML it was called a WorkerScript or so iirc. Besides, I don't think you have any other way to find out the duration than to query every file unless you use tracker or any other indexer - which you don't want.

Maybe you could use some libmediainfo or so to query the data about the files and something for querying the MIME type (ignore the file if the MIME is bad). You could use a QThread so as to make it parallel. But I guess you can't do much more with QML only.

You really should ask for details on the mailing list or IRC because I don't know which libraries are on SFOS and which not.

As for the image querying, I don't get what you mean.

Anyway, you could simply document the quirks and say: "it's simply all that I need" :)
If someone needs more, they can always fork and implement it themselves and don't have to mess with the boring UI stuff.

/edit: btw. libmediainfo on Arch Linux