LRH Enterprises

Many radio stations are using OMT’s iMediaTouch for automation and Live DJ assist. The OMT On Air program can be configured to output an XML file whenever the current playing cue changes, as well as when the cue list itself changes.

This WordPress widget will display part of the contents of that XML file, specifically what automation (OMT iMediaTouch) is reporting as “playing”. It displays the title, artist and album,  or if nothing is playing, it displays ‘Live DJ’.

The plugin has several configurable options: You can change the title, the default program (currently ‘Live DJ’) which displays when nothing is ‘playing’, and the location of the callsign_band.xml file generated by iMediaTouch On Air (which of course you must have turned on.)

If your WordPress is hosted on the same system as the xml file, you can tell it to grab the file directly, otherwise you specific the URL and it is retrieved.

You can also turn on (or off) the use of ajax, which when on, will retrieve the current song every two minutes.

Sure, I’ll make more options and features, as soon as I figure out what they should be! The widget is currently serving our purposes over at WUMD, but one never knows when ‘purposes’ will change.

UPDATE: (Sep. 14, 2011)

A new version has a couple of new features, as well as better security for the ajax processor.

One new option is to set the initial ‘loading’ text in the widget. This text is displayed until the ajax process has retrieved the first response, after which it is replaced with the playing cut information or the default program text is nothing is playing.

The second new option lets you output the widget content in a div pair instead of the ul/li markup. I’ve found on some themes the output looks better in a div markup. In trying to be non-technical user-friendly, I’ve labeled the option as “output as non-list” which means not to use the unnumbered html markup.

UPDATE: (Sep 13, 2013)

The new option.

The latest version has a new feature, the option to include a footer after all the on air information. This would commonly be used to include a request line phone number, or any other information you might want to display nearby all the time. I also renamed some functions to ensure they are in the correct namespace. No issues have been reported, but I as trying to bring it up to consistent with my other code. I’ve included here images of the new field in the admin widget edit, and as it might be displayed.

I’m showing the old and new admin screens here so you can see the additions, and it helps to create a little history!

If you have an idea for the widget, I’d sure like to hear it! Right now, I’m thinking about adding an optional “played” and “next” display, showing the previously play cut, and the next cued cut, as reported by OMT.

UPDATE: (Nov 13, 2015)

A few new features have been added to make the widget a bit more flexible.

The first is the option to not display the ALBUM. A cut display is normally TITLE, ARTIST, ALBUM.

The next new option allow you to specific which music categorys are allows to be displayed, or which ones to suppress. For example, to only show category ALT and BLU, put ALT,BLU into the Categorys field. To instead specify which categorys to not show, start the list with a minus sign, as in -POD,COM.

And lastly, an option to show the most recently played cuts, specified as a count. The default, which is 0, will show only the currently playing cut. If nothing is playing, the  default program is displayed. Setting to -1 will show the most recently played cut instead of the default program if nothing is currently playing. And specifying a number greater than zero, will let it try to display the current playing cut, and the most recent cuts in most recently played order.

If you are using the widget, drop me a line! I’d like to see how it looks on your web page!