A Linux Mint Cinnamon Desklet for displaying what is currently being played by Players supporting the MPRIS D-Bus Specification such as Rhythmbox, Firefox, Spotify, and more, using the playerctl command-line utility.
Note: The Code is really messy cause i do NOT know Javascript, this is my first time ever using it. (i know even less about CJS) But it works and i'm happy with it :D (also this was made with quite a lot of help from ChatGPT.)
Go to your Desklets folder ~/.local/share/cinnamon/desklets (or create it if it doesn't exist) and run git clone https://github.com/NicholasJDi/Music-Display-Desklet, go inside the generated folder and drag out the music-display@nicholasjdi folder into the Desklets folder and delete the Music-Display-Desklet folder, run sudo apt install playerctl and you should be good to go! (of course enable the Desklet)
I'm not sure what versions this is supported by so any help figuring that out would be appreciated, but i built this on Linux Mint 21.3 with Cinnamon 6.0.4 sorry if this doesn't work on your version.
Music-Display Desklet is as configurable as i could get it. (without it being really performance heavy)
Desklet looks like this by default:
You can fully configure both text lines, you can do something like this:
For both lines you can change: format, font, font size, and font color.
The Title of the Track.
The Artist who made the Track.
The Album the Track is from.
The Player the Track is being played from. (rhytmbox,firefox,spotify. Note: this is the only Tag that is processed when the Player is Stopped)
Custom Tags are VERY powerful, they are formatted as %(prefix)[player]metadata:key(suffix)%
If metadata:key returns a valid Value (prefix) will be Prepended to the Tag and (suffix) will be Appended to the Tag. (prefix/suffix can have Custom Tags within them.)
The Player the Track must be played from for a Custom Tag to activate, leave empty to allow the Tag to activate for all Players (the same as %player%)
The Metadata Key to grab from. (xesam:trackNumber)
Run: playerctl metadata to show Metadata for the current Track.
Using all of these tags we can set line 1 to "%title%" and set line 2 to "%(by )[]xesam:artist(%( - )[]xesam:album(%( #%()[]xesam:discNumber(-)%)[]xesam:trackNumber()%)%)%" to show:
for Rhythmbox, Firefox and Spotify. (i'm using rhythmbox in these examples. Note: VLC has really bad Metadata support, that's why its not referenced here.)
Check 'xesam:comment' for lines formatted as "[(hours):(minutes):(seconds)]: (Title)"
If these lines exist it will replace the %title% with the provided title.
Additionally when enabled, the %()mix()% tag can be used to grab the xesam:title, if no timestamp lines are provided it will return an empty string.
This can decrease performance a lot.
A Comma-separated list of Values to treat as null in Custom Format Tags (Unknown,None,N/A,0)
The Interval for how often Track data is updated. (Playing/Paused)
The Interval for how often Players are checked for. (No Player/Stopped)
A Comma-separated list of allowed Players. (rhythmbox,spotify)
Whether or not to treat the Whitelist as a Blacklist
The Space between the Buttons and the Text.
Makes it so none of the Buttons are there, just the Text.
Hide the Previous/Next Buttons, without setting Button Size it will look like this:
The size of the Buttons, when setting this with hidden skip buttons it looks like this:
Custom Texture to use for the Buttons. (forcefully rendered as a square)
Also the inspiration for this is from https://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/10br3xj/my_desktop_theme_for_2023 (you can also use Hidamari and dual-datetime@rcalixte to get an almost perfect match to this :D)
If your wondering, this is my desktop: (fonts are Minecraftia and Lobster)
Music-Display Additions is a Sister Desklet of Music-Display Desklet that shows current Time and Art of a Track using similar systems.
Same as Instillation for Music-Display Desklet, just also drag out music-display-additions@nicholasjdi.
Music-Display Additions Configuration is quite complex
Whether or not to Disable the Desklet, this is also in the Context Menu.
The X and Y Size of the Desklet.
Whether or not Text is Enabled.
%time|(modifier)%, %position|(modifier)%, %length|(modifier)%. (%time%)
0:00 = 0:01-1:17:03
00:00 = 00:01-1:17:03
00 = 1-1:17:03
0:0 = Adaptive to song length from other modifiers above
0 = 1-1:17:3
(default is 0:00)
The Font of the Text.
The Color of the Text.
The Anchor Position of the Text, Values are: Top Left, Top Right, Bottom Left, Bottom Right, Center.
The X and Y Offset of the Text from the Anchor Position.
The Anchor Position of the Text when no Art is found, (not Art Enabled = false) Values are: Top Left, Top Right, Bottom Left, Bottom Right, Center.
The X and Y Offset of the Text from the Anchor Position when no Art is found. (not Art Enabled = false)
Anchor Text within Art when Art is not the same aspect ratio as the Desklet.
Whether or not Text Outline is Enabled.
How large the Text Outline is in Pixels.
The Color of the Text Outline.
Whether or not Art is Enabled.
The size of the Margin around Art.
The Color of the Margin around Art.
The Color above the Margin, behind Art. (for if Art is transparent)
Whether or not Per Track Art Overrides are Enabled.
The Anchor Position of Art when Art is not the same aspect ratio as the Desklet. (not Art Enabled = false) Values are: Top Left, Top Right, Bottom Left, Bottom Right, Center.
The Directory to fetch Art Overrides from, Files are formatted as "(Artist) - (Title).png" so "Lemmino - Cipher.png" for example. (jpg and webp are also supported.)
Check 'xesam:comment' for lines formatted as "[(hours):(minutes):(seconds)]: (Title)"
If these lines exist it will use the provided title for overides.
(this can also be used to set overrides that do not rely on xesam:title which is nice.)
This can decrease performance a lot.
How often the Desklet checks Time and Art. (lower values make time grabbing more accurate)
How often the desklet checks for Players.
A Comma-separated list of allowed Players. (rhythmbox,spotify)
Whether or not to treat the Whitelist as a Blacklist
