Adding support for different codecs...

Yeah, sorry about that (typo).. It's just so small to have its own issue..

Anyways, the problem is as follows.. audio module sets its link as <a>download audio file</a>. To change this to work with multiple codecs it could insert the link as download: <a>MP3</a>, and then another module could add links after it so that it would look like this download: <a>mp3</a> | <a>vorbis</a> | <a>flac</a> | <a>real</a>..

The problem I see with that is this: audio.module is creating the initial link, but it is also creating the play count link after it. The comment module, as well as other modules, adds their links... so the final product could end up looking like this:

download: <a>mp3</a> | 3 downloads | 4 plays | <a>add new comment</a> | 5 reads | <a>vorbis</a> | <a>flac</a> | <a>real</a>

download: mp3 | 3 downloads | 4 plays | add new comment | 5 reads | vorbis | flac | real

There are also multiple multiple codecs that getID3 supports, so the list of codecs could potentially be very long...

Additional codecs also render the filelength and fileformat info inaccurate.. So the way I put it associates the fileformat as the title of the link... much cleaner IMO...

Maybe we could add a hook for the audio-info so that other modules could display list items inside it? That seems like a waste of resources for what it would do, though.. Right now I'm just overriding theme_audio_display by reloading $node->body.

I wish preview worked, because I have no idea if the above is going to display properly...

so you want to add multiple file formats on a single node?

Yes, that is exactly what I'm referring to, sorry I wasn't more specific earlier. The flash player (AFAIK) will only play mp3's, so the other codecs would only be there for downloading...

This is indeed a tiny step IF we want the audio module itself to handle multiple codecs. However, my intention with the above patch is to let another module handle the extra codecs, while audio.module handles the rest (writing the tags, etc.).

So, in that case, yes there would be no way not to have an mp3 associated with the node, b/c the node could not have been created in the first place without it.

Does that clear it up some?

Man.. apparently i need some lessons in communication (my wife would agree)...
okay... here goes...

the 'how':
you create a node with audio.module... upload your mp3 file... then edit the node... the other module, audio_codecs (not a node module; uses nodeapi) adds a form element allowing you to upload an additional format for this audio (vorbis, flac, etc.).. the tags are then written to the new file(s) using audio_write_id3tags(), and the info is saved to an audio_codecs table (stores all the file info, such as mime_type, bitrate, sample rate, etc. etc.)

the 'why':
there are definitely advantages to different formats.. ogg acoustically is much better than mp3, with flac obviously being the best choice for audio fidelity.. at any rate... mp3 is far down on the list in terms of 'quality', so offering users different formats is a nice option to have...

the patch: the real issue with the patch is audio_write_id3tags()... as it is, there is no way to change the tagformat, which is essential when writing to different codecs.. consider the following code, adapted from getID3:

<?php

function audio_codecs_tagformats($fileformat = 'mp3') {
  switch ($fileformat) {
    case 'mp3':
    case 'mp2':
    case 'mp1':
      return array('id3v1', 'id3v2.3', 'ape');

    case 'mpc':
      return array('ape');

    case 'ogg':
      // metaflac doesn't (yet) work with OggFLAC files
      /*if ($datatype == 'flac') {
        $return = array('metaflac');
      }
      else {*/
        return array('vorbiscomment');
      // }

    case 'flac':
      return array('metaflac');

    case 'real':
      return array('real');

    default:
      return array();
  }
}

?>

the other issue with the patch is the download links (hopefully the above post explains that well enough) .. I'm not crazy about the idea of a seperate page to choose which format you want to download as... but, hey, that's debatable... what i would prefer is a list right on the node of the different codecs available for DL...

so as it is, the module reloads the body from the database, and overrides the formatting that audio.module does, adding all the codecs that are available for download in the audio-info <ul>... i'm convinced there is a better way of doing this.. but i have yet to think of it...

please tell me that all makes sense.. otherwise let's just close the issue, and i'll commit myself to an asylum...

cheers...

i concur...