View Issue Details
| ID | Project | Category | View Status | Date Submitted | Last Update |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0001301 | MMW v4 | Install/Config | public | 2004-05-09 03:22 | 2004-10-15 17:23 |
| Reporter | rusty | Assigned To | |||
| Priority | immediate | Severity | feature | Reproducibility | always |
| Status | resolved | Resolution | reopened | ||
| Summary | 0001301: Branding Kit | ||||
| Description | Working on the assumptions that: -OEMs will require custom versions of the client with various elements branded -We do not want to spend an inordinate amount of time building /testing custom versions of the product We should create a 'kit' that allows OEMs to easily create branded versions of the product with minimal involvement from the development team. Such a 'branding kit' should allow the OEM to customize: -what languages will be made available -what license(s) are included -whether MP3 encoding is included (from a UI and file inclusion perspective) -the application icon -the splashscreen -any application icons -the product name (in key app strings--need to define which ones) -In product links for: --Forum --Registration --Various plugin pages --Update server --Home page (in About screen) -Help contents We'll probably need to discuss this over IM, once you've had an opportunity to analyse this to decide which elements we will have to do ourselves, and which, if any, we will give the OEM the flexibility to do. My preference is to allow the OEM to do it all, however, this may not be realistic. The next best thing would be for all of this to be configurable at build time, however, this would imply a fair amount of addiitonal work on our side in terms of testing each individual build for each OEM. | ||||
| Tags | No tags attached. | ||||
| Fixed in build | |||||
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I forgot a couple of other obvious issues. It should be possible to customize: -which www nodes appear -which search bars are active -what the search options are for each search bar |
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fyi, specific requirements mentioned by Pontis: 1) Replace the 780x650 graphic that appears when MediaMonkey is started with a new one that you would provide to us, that would contain imaging and text along the lines of 'Pontis Media Manager, powered by MediaMonkey', + copyright text. 2) Replace the 32x32 icon that is installed to the desktop with a new one that you would provide. The text associated to the icon would be Pontis Media Manager. 3) Replace the 16x16 icon that appears in the system tray and the title bar with a new one that you would provide. 4) Renaming MediaMonkey in the Title Bar to: Pontis MediaManager - powered by MediaMonkey 5) Users should be able to upgrade with standard versions of MediaMonkey (and via the MediaMonkey upgrade notification functionality. However, Pontis branding changes must remain in effect. |
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Quetionable areas: -what languages will be made available: Why? Should only subset of languages be allowed? That could cause problems, e.g. if a user installs a language pack and it doesn't appear in MM. -Help contents: Do you mean a specific help file for this case or anything else? -For now I haven't considered the added requirements (www nodes, search bars), it would be possible to customize them as well, but more work is involved. Btw, the startup screen graphic is 336x280, however it shouldn't be problem to update the window to show any dimensions. |
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-re. subset of languages, I don't think that's critical. -re. Help Contents: I mean that any mention of $MediaMonkey$ in any language version of the help file should be replacable with $Product Name$, based on the contents of the /brands directory (not sure if this is possible). -The only other item that I'd assumed but I'm not sure if it's clear in the requirements is that as with Help, it should be possible to replace _every_ $MediaMonkey$ string in the app with $ProductName$, based on the contents of the /Brands directory. Also: re. 'MediaMonkey' - I think it would be a good idea to have 2 variables: a) $Full Product Name$: e.g. Pontis MediaManager - Powered by MediaMonkey b) $Abbreviated Product Name$: e.g. MediaMonkey OR MediaManager edited on: 09-15-04 11:45 |
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Raised priority to 'immediate' based on branding requirements. Important: we may want to implement this initially on the 2.2.2 branch since there's no need for it just yet on 2.3. edited on: 09-20-04 22:46 |
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One other feature: the branding kit should be able to specify the default skin. |
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posting discussion for later review: Ok, I'll include it soon. btw, do you expect to have a build tonight that includes the branding kit? i.e. is it going well? I think that the branding kit won't be complete, but the most of it will be ready. Here's the document I write about its features so that you can create a better description and see what's currently implemented: Description of branding features: - Splash screen: 'Splash .png' or 'Splash.jpg' in 'Brand' subfolder. - Icons inside MM - using standard mechanism for them. - Main application icon: in 'Brand\MainIcon.ico' - should contain a standard set of icons (48x48, 32x32, 16x16, best of all in misc. number of colors used true color, 256, 16) - Tray icons: 'Brand\Tray16.ico' for 16 color icon for older Windows and 'Brand\Tray256.ico' for newer Windows (both are expected to be present). - Text settings: in 'Brand\Brand.ini', section [Brand]: - 'Title' - Application title used in many places in MM. so far so good ! :) I also have the installer pretty much ready for conditional compilations of installations for different brands (or without brands). So the things remaining that will interest Pontis are: - replace MM string in all locations (so far it's only in the main ones) - possibly replace some hyperlinks (Gold order, etc.) Sounds great! In terms of MM string, are you creating 2 of them? i.e. full name and abbreviated name So far I'm creating only one string (MM) which should be ok for almost all places. We will probably need to add some exceptions from this, e.g. for 'powered by' string, etc. ... but we'll fix this individually. Why not create two strings? Otherwize we'll have to make manual changes each time? No, I just mean that for now it isn't clear where to use other strings and so I replace 'MM' by 'xxx' everywhere. We'll need to specify places where the replacement should be different (e.g. App title, about box, etc.). Such different strings will be also replaced automatically. ok. The only other items that I think are necessary for the test build are: 1) MP3 licensing policy 2) Ability to add another URL to the About panel (Above MediaMonkey) Re. 1) I haven't done that yet, because it isn't yet clear what the limitation really should be and how should it look like for all the modes (CBR, ABR and VBR). 2) That should be ok. Re. 1) isn't it as simple as disabling any encoding for any bitrate > x irrespective of CBR, ABR, VBR? (Pontis is expecting this in the build that we send them). And I almost forgot: 3) Default skin (wanted by iRiver). Re. 1) We should review this in more details, there are several things: - VBR is chosen by quality - we have to decide how to disable this (completely disable VBR?) - Bitrate (min) and (max) - probably keep enabled completely - There should also be some kind of explanation to the user why something is disabled (e.g. some hyperlink saying something and linking to a web page describing all the details). I just reviewed the UI. The only place where it appears that the Long version of the product name is required is: 1) In the installer 2) In the popup that appears the first time the app is run 3) In the 'About' dialog (not the title bar, but the second instance of 'MediaMonkey') Do you mean that 'xxx - powered by MM'? Yes. Where should it be in the installer? Re. 3) Ok. Re. 2) Won't that be too long there? Also I think we can make the 'powered by' string non-localizable, ok? re. 2) I don't think so, but I guess it's not critical if it's obvious from the installer. Re. non-localizability: ok I don't see any suitable place for it in the installer. I'll indicate all changes to the installer: First screen: -Title Bar: Setup - Pontis MediaManager powered by MediaMonkey -Welcome to the Pontis MediaManager Setup Wizard -This will install Pontis MediaManager powered by MediaMonkey v2.2 on your computer . Destination Screen: -Where should Pontis MediaManager powered by MediaMonkey be installed? -Setup will install Pontis MediaManager powered by MediaMonkey into the following folder. . A dditional Tasks Screen: -Select the additional tasks you would like Setup to perform while installing Pontis MediaManager powered by MediaMonkey . File Associations Screen: -Which file types would you like to associate with Pontis MediaManager powered by MediaMonkey . Ready to Install Screen: -Setup is now ready to begin installing Pontis MediaManager powered by MediaMonkey on your computer . Completion Screen: -Completing the Pontis Me diaManager Setup Wizard -Setup has finished installing Pontis MediaManager powered by MediaMonkey on your computer.... -Launch Pontis MediaManager . Final Note: when I actually create the config files, I'll probably use the long form: Pontis MediaManager (powered by MediaMonkey) Although it can be good for marketing purposes, I think it looks a bit strange, doesn't it? Also it would probably be problem to do this in InnoSetup - it defines two strings: - Application name - Application name with version number I'm not sure if I could include two different application titles. It's not for marketing reasons. It needs to be obvious because otherwise it's completely confusing when the user sees refernces to MediaMonkey in the online help, or links to the MediaMonkey forums. i.e. the user needs to know that its a relabelled version of MM (at least until the time when we can change all aspects of the product via the branding kit). As far as getting around the innosetup limitations: can you specify whether the app name or app name + version # appears in specific slots? I'm not sure I understand. I can specify one string for all the places where you see MM in the installer and another string for places where you see MM 2.2. So you can't place MM 2.2 in some places that currently show MM? No - only in all of them. Hmm... so I guess that means that our only option is to have Pontis MediaManager (powered by MediaMonkey) instead of MM, and Pontis MediaManager 2.2 instead of MM22 in all places in the installer. Ok, I'll try. I'm going to make the build now, so it should be uploaded in an hour. great. please indicate in the bug exactly which of the features we've discussed have/haven't been implemented. |
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Everything that's done looks good. The only change I would request is for the installer: File Associations screen has 'Pontis MediaManager' which seems to indicate that it's possible to have 3 versions of the appname in the installer: 1) Pontis MediaManager 2) Pontis MediaManager 2.3 3) Pontis MediaManager (powered by MediaMonkey) Assuming the above is correct, then considering that the TitleBar shows 'Pontis MediaManager (powered by MediaMonkey)' I think it would be preferable to change all other instances to simply 'Pontis MediaManager' (it appears far more unwieldy than I'd imagined). The other things that are outstanding are that I think should be supported appear as entries in the branding doc that I'm sending by mail. |
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Tested build 2.3.794 Installer looks good. MP3 encoding limitations look good (though I still need to test more). A few issues for followup: 1) change the readme to be more brand agnostic 2) Tips dialog says 'MediaMonkey Tips' 3) Numerous entries in the options panel say MediaMonkey instead of 'MediaManager' (note: we may want to add ShortTitle entry to brands.ini for this purpose). 4) The 'About' icon shows the MediaMonkey icon instead of the branded icon 5) The title bar should show the FullTitle 6) Upgrade to Gold Version to enable MP3 options isn't aligned correctly. Also the text should be modified slightly to: To enable all MP3 options, upgrade to the Gold version! 7) Most importantly: the icon for PontisMediaManager shouldn't be Bart! edited on: 09-25-04 22:53 |
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Fixed in build 795. 1) Will you supply the file? 2-3) There were also some other places - fixed. 6) Is centered now. 7) Where have you seen the icon? It wasn't included in 794 build, I guess it persisted from an older build. |
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Everything looks good except: 1) I've sent you 2 readmes. It's impossible to make the readme generic, as I'd originally thought. The only thing that can be done is customize it. Thus, what we'll probably want to do eventually is add a bit of scripting to your install script to: a) automatically rename the first instance of MediaMonkey to 'FullTitle', and rename all subsequent entries to 'Title'. 7) The icons still show Bart! The icons that I'm referring to are the installed icons (the ones that are copied by the installer to the desktop and to the quicklaunch bar. |
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Per discussion, there are some problems when the user installs branded version on top of MM. So what's left is: 1) Modify installer so that MM and branded versions don't conflict 2) Add versionsURL to brands.ini (to allow for the possibility of setting an alternative location for upgrade policy) 3) Add the readme/what's new docs |
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Fixed in build 796. 2) 'VersionXMLURL' added to Brands.ini |
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Tested Pontis MediaManager 2.2.3. It worked fine--the only issues that appeared are: 1) ...\My Music\MediaMonkey is the default directory. Not a big deal, but it's an issue that we should resolve in 2.3 (for numerous reasons other than this as well). See bug 0000107. 2) The Pontis icons don't look good on the dark background. I'll resend new versions that fix this problem. Note: upon further investigation, it appears that MM uses MainIcon.ico incorrectly. i.e. instead of using the 16x16 version of the icon, it scales down the 48x48 version (incorrectly) for the taskbar, and the titlebar, leading to the appearance of artifacts. 3) When uninstalling, the following error message always appears: C:\Program Files\Pontis MediaManager\Brand is not accessible. The folder was moved or removed. 4) When uninstalling, MediaMonkey registry settings are deleted. It would probably be a good idea to not delete the settings if they are used by another instance of the application. Not sure whether this is fixable or not. edited on: 10-11-04 22:43 |
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Per IM discussions: issues 1) and 4) can be postphoned. Upon further investigation, issue 3) is not an issue--it no longer seems to be reproducible (I'm guessing that focus may have rested on a file in Explorer, but I'm not sure). That leaves issue 2, which, as discussed over IM, is consistently replicable, and the only way to prevent it is to use the Tray16 icon for the taskbar/titlebar. Is this a feasible solution? |
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It is all fixed now (build 783). All branding data is stored in MM.exe except from the splash screen. |
