Now Playing & vatsimindicators.net

If you want to provide dynamic information about your currently playing song in your MP3 playing software (during your long-haul flights or offline moments), you can do it via vatsimindicators.net!

First: you should have an account in vatsimindicators.net and advanced features enabled. If you do not have account yet, register now!

Install (Winamp) Now playing plug-in

First step is to install a compatible Winamp Now playing plug-in to your computer. The service is designed to support the format of a popular Antti & Lauri Nevala's plugin that you may download here:

http://www.cc.jyu.fi/~ltnevala/nowplaying/

Also other plugins might be supported and supports can be added later.

Install Now playing plugin as instructed in the plug-in's manual.

Preparing Your User Profile

After the plug-in is installed, go to your vatsimindicators.net user profile (My Profile in the top of the site) and click yourself to the Advanced User Profile page. If needed, enable the advanced features as instructed by the service.

You should enable your user account to receive Now Playing information from your Winamp. Check the checkbox labeled "Enable my account to receive Now Playing information". After that, enter an "Update Key" of your choice to the profile. The key is to prevent misuse and to authorize your Winamp to send the information of the currently playing song to the server. DO NOT USER YOUR VATSIM OR VATSIMINDICATORS.NET PASSWORD AS AN UPDATE KEY

Save the settings and your user profile is ready to receive Now Playing information.

Configure the Plug-In

Third step is to configure the Now Playing plug-in to send the information to vatsimindicators.net. Open the configuration window of the installed Now Playing Plug-In. In Nevala's plug-in, the configuration window looks first like this:

Go to the HTTP Post tab and enter following details:

[x] HTTP Post Enabled
URL: www.vatsimindicators.net/ind.pmd/bin/gw_nowplaying
Port: 80
Extra data: user=your_vatsimindicators.net_username&key=your_update_key

The bold data above will be replaced by appropriate information. The update key is the key defined to your user profile.

Click "Apply" to apply your changes.

Go to the General Options tab and finalize your configuration. Check Enabled to enable the Plug-In to send information to the server. Song history is suggested to be one but it can be up to 9 but only one song is saved by the server. Higher numbers than 1 waste bandwith (ok - I have number 2...)

Change the Indicator URL

The indicators can add the Now Playing information only if you use your username-based indicator URL to show the indicator. Now Playing information cannot be shown if you use your VATSIM ID in your indicator URL.

Read more about Advanced Features to find out the correct URL format.

That's it

Now the server receives the information of the songs you are listening to and views info in supporting indicators. =)