80 Responses to “New WordPress plugin: last.fm cloud”

1 On July 2nd, 2006 Stewart-T typed :

Hey, all i get is "No Artists."
Do you need to have tagged all your music on last.fm for this to work?
I got the tmp folder but still nothing is showing up
Any reasons u can think of?

2 On July 2nd, 2006 whoo answered:

stewart, did you read the text file inside the zip? and no, this has nothing to do with your tagged music.

3 On July 2nd, 2006 Gary King typed :

Screenshot?

4 On July 2nd, 2006 whoo answered:

Read my post Gary. There is no screenshot because you can see it working on my site.

5 On July 5th, 2006 Stewart T typed :

Just updated to 1.4 and still get "No Artists", Used the update cloud in options. Ive edited the plugin and put in my name "stewart1988" created the tmp folder (777 chmod) and still nothing
No idea why it aint working. Could it be something with my host?

6 On July 5th, 2006 whoo answered:

ok, just to confirm stewart, when you look in the tmp dir, there is nothing in there that resembles the cache file?

I looked and there is data in last.fm's text file for you : http://ws.audioscrobbler.com/1.....rtists.txt

Im guessing your host doesnt like "file_get_contents", so we can try something else. I cannot do anything right now though as I have to leave for work. I will work on a simple fix for you though.

While you wait, manually make the cache file, an empty text file will work. chmod the file to 777. Then try to update your cloud.

7 On July 5th, 2006 Matthew Gotth-Olsen (S!) typed :

I'm having some odd issues with is plugin, I'm getting

Warning: usort(): The argument should be an array in /home/www/web5/web/wp-content/plugins/wp-lastfm-cloud.php on line 104

On my frontpage (the theme is Hemingway btw), and in my admin panel I'm getting:

Warning: fopen(../temp): failed to open stream: Is a directory in /home/www/web5/web/wp-content/plugins/wp-lastfm-cloud.php on line 133

Warning: fwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/www/web5/web/wp-content/plugins/wp-lastfm-cloud.php on line 134

Warning: fclose(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/www/web5/web/wp-content/plugins/wp-lastfm-cloud.php on line 135

Now I've tried the original and different paths, triple checked permissions and I can't seem to figure out what is going on.

Can you point me in the right direction?

8 On July 5th, 2006 whoo answered:

did you make the dir for the cache file? what is it named and does it match what is inside the file? if all of that matches, then some hosts dont allow people to call file_get_contents, in which case youre with Stewart and will need to wait till I get home from work and get some sleep.

Sorry!

9 On July 5th, 2006 Matthew Gotth-Olsen (S!) typed :

I've tried both the supplied directory name for the cache and tried making my own. I have a little more leeway than Stewart does, as I have full admin access to the server, and can change what is necessary.

10 On July 6th, 2006 whoo answered:

Stewart and Matthew,

V1.6 includes a way to use CURL instead of file_get_contents.

There are two extra places now for you to edit:

In the script look for: // OPTIONS BELOW PAY ATTENTION
(that line occurs three times, once in the directions, and twice in the contents of the script itself)

Beneath the last two places you can pick which option to use. Make sure you only using one of the 2: One should be commented out, one should not.

comments look like this:

// this is a comment

Also, make sure that you are deleting your other wp-cloudxx from your plugins directory, so that you dont load multiple copies.
Let me know how that goes.

11 On July 6th, 2006 Matthew Gotth-Olsen (S!) typed :

Ah, you're too fast for me, I was just cludging together the Last.FM plugin that normally does songs and artists to just do top artists.

Thanks for this, I'm going to give it a shot right now.

12 On July 7th, 2006 whoo answered:

Looks like that solved your problem, Matt Nice cloud!

13 On July 19th, 2006 Christy (S!) typed :

Help.

Warning: touch() [function.touch]: Unable to create file ../tmp/lastfm.topsongs.cloud.cache because No such file or directory in C:\Domains\sogroovynow.com\wwwroot\wp-content\plugins\wp-lastfm-cloudv1.6.php on line 157

Warning: fopen(../tmp/lastfm.topsongs.cloud.cache) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in C:\Domains\sogroovynow.com\wwwroot\wp-content\plugins\wp-lastfm-cloudv1.6.php on line 176

Warning: fwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in C:\Domains\sogroovynow.com\wwwroot\wp-content\plugins\wp-lastfm-cloudv1.6.php on line 177

Warning: fclose(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in C:\Domains\sogroovynow.com\wwwroot\wp-content\plugins\wp-lastfm-cloudv1.6.php on line 178

Warning: filesize() [function.filesize]: Stat failed for ../tmp/lastfm.topsongs.cloud.cache (errno=2 - No such file or directory) in C:\Domains\sogroovynow.com\wwwroot\wp-content\plugins\wp-lastfm-cloudv1.6.php on line 181
No Artists.

14 On July 20th, 2006 whoo answered:

Christy,

Since your hosted on a Windows box, you might want to actually create your cache file — it just needs to be an empty text file that the server can write to, ie chmod'd to 666. See if that solves the problem. Make sure that the directory the cache file is in is chmod'd correctly also — that needs to be chmod'd to 777.

15 On July 21st, 2006 Christy (S!) typed :

Forgive my ignorance. I thought that is what I had done…I think I am just not understanding about the cache directory and the tmp directory.

I have a cache directory: C:\Domains\sogroovynow.com\wwwroot\wp-content\cache

Do I create a tmp directory in this directory? Or in this directory:
C:\Domains\sogroovynow.com\wwwroot\wp-content\

I want to be sure of where I create the directory, because I have the LAMEST host. I cannot change the permissions on files/directories, they have to do it for me. So I want to put it in the correct place.

And as for the two options, file_get_contents and CURL, do I delete the code for which one I do not need (in two places)…correct?

Again, sorry for my ignorance…I am usually better at installing these plug-ins than this. Thanks in advance for your help.

16 On July 21st, 2006 whoo answered:

Hi Christy,

I have a cache directory: C:\Domains\sogroovynow.com\wwwroot\wp-content\cache

For simplicity's sake .. do this:

at the top of the plugin it says:

$lastfmCache = "tmp/lastfm.topsongs.cloud.cache"; // no leading slash please

You need to make a directory named "tmp" (without the quotes) inside the directory you wordpress install is in .. thats the directory that wp-config.php is in.

When you are done, you will have a /tmp, a /wp-includes, and a wp-content. Follow?

That directory needs to be chmod to 777

Thats just the directory — the plugin attempts to create a file inside that directory. IF it has trouble, you may also need to create the file, in which case the plugin may still have trouble writing to the file after its created.

I have 0 experience with web sites hosted on Windows, so I've no clue how to help you if it cant write to the file. It may work just fine though.

–

Your second question: You do not have to delete any lines from the plugin. One option is commented out for you already — the commented out option is there for people that have problems with php. You may or may not need to use the second option, but you dont need to worry about that until you take care of the other stuff.

17 On July 21st, 2006 Christy (S!) typed :

Thank you! That was it…I was not creating the tmp directory in the right place. I'm excited! One last question (I promise). Is there anyway to limit the number of artists it displays?

Thanks again! It's a great plugin.

18 On July 21st, 2006 whoo answered:

haha well the code I borrowed had a limit of 50, if I remember correctly, (which seemed stupid since last.fm only goes as high as 50). I tested it when i was making the plugin, and setting it to a lower value wasnt working for me, so I chucked that part of it.

I'll look at seeing about making that adjustable — no promises though, I have a very busy couple weeks ahead of me.

I have your email though, so when I put something together, ill drop you a line.

Glad it worked for you too!! — Windows servers can be a real pita to get stuff working on. And now that you see how it works, you might want to rename that /tmp directory you created AND edit that one line in the plugin where its defined (see my last post), obviously. I say that because /tmp is such a common name, and the dir is chmod 777 .. you want to make it hard for ppl that might try to exploit that world-writable dir.

19 On July 28th, 2006 ToKo (S!) typed :

absolute useful plugin! thank you a lot, great work!
just a question here: is it possible to include the file with different settings more than one time on different pages?
right now it is on my sidebar.php (with settings max: 450 and min: but i want to include it on one of my pages (php exclude plugin is activated) with the settings max: 1000 min: 8 or so…would be great, if it works!
thanks anyway and have a nice day!

20 On July 28th, 2006 whoo answered:

toko,

You could do that, yes, but you will need to edit the file locally, change the name of the plugin at the top of the plugin file, and rename all of the funtions and locations where they are used, inside the plugin file, since you cant have duplicate functions (same names).

The other option would be for you to move the font settings into the function last_fm_cloud () {
and then call the plugin with the variable font settings inside the ().

It's something I could set up, I'll see what I can do.

21 On July 31st, 2006 henry (S!) typed :

is there any way this can be made into a widget?

22 On July 31st, 2006 whoo answered:

and what would the advantage to that be, henry?

23 On July 31st, 2006 henry (S!) typed :

That would allow users that are using a widget's enabled skin to not only use their widgets to build their sidebar, but also use this plugin along with the widgets.

(I am talking about porting this into a wordpress widget, not a dashboard widget)

24 On August 2nd, 2006 whoo answered:

So you're telling me that if you use widgets, that you cannot use plugins?

25 On August 3rd, 2006 Henry (S!) typed :

As it is right now, non-widget plugins have to go before all the other widgets or after all of the widgets.

See relevintage.com for what I am talking about.

26 On August 3rd, 2006 whoo answered:

I see .. I'll look at the widget docs this weekend and see what I can do for you. i don't use them though, so you will need to my beta tester.

27 On August 4th, 2006 functionista typed :

Hi bro, I want to display the cloud on one of my Wordpress pages, but when I insert the <?php last_fm_cloud(); ?> it won't display it. Is there any way to dislay it on something other than a theme file?

28 On August 4th, 2006 Henry (S!) typed :

If you would, that would be great. I will be your humble beta tester.

29 On August 18th, 2006 gwong typed :

functionista,

Try the RunPHP plugin.

http://dev.wp-plugins.org/wiki/RunPHP

30 On September 29th, 2006 Christy (S!) typed :

Hey! How's it going?

My last.fm cloud is now showing (well I think it is) ALL the artists I've ever listened to! Any ideas on how to fix?

Thanks!!!

31 On September 30th, 2006 whoo answered:

Hi Christy,

hmm…yeap, thats what it does, actually. I'll see what I can do about putting a variable (back) in so that you can limit that.

Btw, I saw Billy Squier at the Long Beach Sports Arena back in .. ****, it must have been ..1983-1984. His opening band was Saga, and they really outplayed him. I wasn't at all impressed.

32 On September 30th, 2006 whoo answered:

Christy, You might wanna give the latest version a try — that includes the ability to limit how many artists are used. Let me know please how that works out for you.

33 On September 30th, 2006 Christy (S!) typed :

That fixed it! Thank you! I still absolutely LOVE this plug in.

I did not ever get to see Billy Squier or Saga live. Seems like I remember hearing that he was not that great live. I still have my Saga - Worlds Apart CD; they were so great.

Thanks again!!!

34 On October 7th, 2006 jos typed :

when you click any of the artists in the cloud, it gives you a 404 page on last.fm, last.fm must have changed something …
[code removed by whoo]
hope this helps

35 On October 7th, 2006 whoo answered:

Thanks Jos for the headsup, version 1.6.3 adresses that change.

36 On November 28th, 2006 Chris typed :

I am going crazy - I have the same probs as Stew, Matt and Christy. And I tried to solve as described.
What I tried?
- I set my username
- I set the tmp-directory to 777 (because of a linux server)
- I generated a single file lastfm.topsongs.cloud.cache into the tmp
- I commentated out two times: in the first try 2 lines, the second try 6 lines (instead of 2 lines of first try)

The result in the Admin area after updating (Options > last.fm cloud)?
Warning: touch(): Unable to create file ../tmp/lastfm.topsongs.cloud.cache because No such file or directory in /srv/www/htdocs/web177/html/tools/cms/wp-content/plugins/wp-lastfm-cloudv1.6.php on line 165

Warning: fopen(../tmp/lastfm.topsongs.cloud.cache): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /srv/www/htdocs/web177/html/tools/cms/wp-content/plugins/wp-lastfm-cloudv1.6.php on line 189

Warning: fwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /srv/www/htdocs/web177/html/tools/cms/wp-content/plugins/wp-lastfm-cloudv1.6.php on line 190

Warning: fclose(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /srv/www/htdocs/web177/html/tools/cms/wp-content/plugins/wp-lastfm-cloudv1.6.php on line 191

Warning: filesize(): Stat failed for ../tmp/lastfm.topsongs.cloud.cache (errno=2 - No such file or directory) in /srv/www/htdocs/web177/html/tools/cms/wp-content/plugins/wp-lastfm-cloudv1.6.php on line 194
No Artists.

What is wrong? What can I do?
PLEASE HELP, GREAT LAST.FM-PLUGIN-GOD!

37 On November 28th, 2006 whoo answered:

Chris,

You're using the wrong tmp directory. It doesnt want /tmp (the /tmp that exists on ALL linux boxes.

It wants /srv/www/htdocs/web177/html/tools/cms/tmp …

38 On November 29th, 2006 Chris typed :

IT WORKS!!! WOW!!!!

THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

39 On December 12th, 2006 bjarne (S!) typed :

Hey! Nice work whoo! It's a realy nice ting to put om my web-page. But, I was just wondering if it was possible to put the last week top artist in to the cloud. Not the overall top artist… (Yup, there would probably be problem because last week top artist is only i xml file..)

40 On December 20th, 2006 Oktay Altunergil (S!) typed :

Hi. Great plugin.

One error report. If the band has a comma in the name like "Defiance, Ohio" the cloud shows "Defiance" only, and goes to that link on last.fm. This is presumably because you're using commas as a seperator in the cache file.

http://www.last.fm/music/Defiance%2C+Ohio

And a few requests:
1) I like the css for this plugin on your site -the one that looks like a ransom note. Any way to include that kind of a css sample or make it easier to modify the css?

2) More important than #1 , A way to display the cloud without using PHP calls. Something like <!–LASTFM–> in a post or a PAGE widget for instance? For now I've downloaded a plugin called Widgetize Anything and put the php call in there.

Thanks again.

Oktay

41 On December 21st, 2006 whoo answered:

Hiya Oktay,

Bands shouldnt have commas in their name Not to minimize your report, but you are probably the only person to have noticed this

1. The stock CSS in the plugin looks nearly exactly like my site, trust me I've made minor changes to the version I am running that allowed more control of text size — but its based on the same premise.

I do plan on eventually releasing what I am using here, but doing for the CSS alone.. probably not. So its going to take a major change in the code, or a major change in last.fm that breaks the plugins functionality before I get off my duff and do it.

Admittedly, also, I like having something unique. (For the time being)

2. I dont do widgets. My theme isnt widgetized, and I honestly have no motivation to learn how they work, whats required, etc.. I also, theoretically don't see the difference between your one line example and the one line of PHP Code? Whats the advantage with that, if you don't mind my asking? Outside of it being widgetized, which for me, means nothing.

I do take paypal though

42 On January 6th, 2007 David Lipkens typed :

Ok, sorry for the email I sended you, but I couldn't login yesterday.
I only have one problem left:
http://www.lipkens.eu/dali/?page_id=96

It gives me the next warning:

Warning: Division by zero in blah blah blah (edit by whoo)

43 On January 6th, 2007 whoo answered:

David,

I appreciate the apology for the e-mail — I do not and cannot respond to any support requests for plugins that are submitted via e-mail. Thats precisely what comments are for.

I can only assume that the errors you mention in your e-mail were related to you not following the install instructions inside the text file. I'll assume also, that you've gone back and read that file, since those errors are gone.

As far as the divsion by 0 error.. I don't know. Is the data getting put into the cache file? (in other words, I need more info.)

44 On January 6th, 2007 David Lipkens typed :

OK euh, more info

The problem in the mail is fixed (I put the tmp dir in the plugin dir.)

And the Division 0 things seems to be fixed also. I downloaded it again, and uploaded it. And it works now. Great plugin

It's totally normal that you don't send emails! So no problem about that

45 On January 6th, 2007 whoo answered:

Awesome! Glad you got it working!!

46 On January 16th, 2007 steve typed :

Wanted to repeat bjame's question. I did not see your answer:

Do you plan on making a last.fm/wp plugin similar to this but doing "weekly top artists" instead of the top overall?

thanks!

47 On January 17th, 2007 whoo answered:

hmm, I hadnt planned on it, steve, but if the rss format is the same it wouldnt be too terribly hard to do. I'll look into it this weekend. How's that?

48 On January 17th, 2007 steve typed :

take your time. your plugin is appreciated

49 On January 21st, 2007 whoo answered:

…wanted to post back and say that I looked at the feed for the weekly top artists, and I will probably be putting together a beta plugin for that the weekend of my birthday (the 27th of Jan).

50 On January 22nd, 2007 whoo answered:

ok, one more update on the weekly artists cloud for those that have asked..

My ease in doing that is somewhat hindered because the "simplest" way to do is with PHP 5's simplexml functions, and I, by choice, dont use PHP 5 — so I'm semi-stuck.

I've managed to grab the artists name successfully, using a PHP4 method, but am struggling with getting the actual count to plug into the script. I'll badger my mentor once he's available, and see what he says.

51 On January 22nd, 2007 whoo answered:

another update!

I found a way to test this on my host, so we're good to go. Anyone wanting to use this will need to have PHP 5 available though, its just the simplest way.

Progress can be followed by keeping an eye on this page:

http://www.village-idiot.org/gobo/5.php5

and keep in mind that you may occasionally see errors since I may be screwing with something, and/or just decided to leave it broke

52 On February 5th, 2007 MisterBrightside typed :

Hey, thank you very much for that plugin. I tried to create a new plugin which lists the most heard tracks on last.fm. I edited - or let's say: I tried to edit your plugin, changed some prefixes, but I'm not that keen on that. Do you know which things should be edited?

Thank you

53 On February 7th, 2007 damian typed :

just a question if there is a way to not separate the artist name on lines. For example, on my site, Jack Johnson is serarated, Jack on one line, and Johnson on the other. I noticed on your site, there artist names stay together. Is there a way of doing this?

54 On February 13th, 2007 Jagge typed :

Thanks for a great plugin
It used to work for me, but it doesn't anymore. When I force an update, I get this error:
"Fatal error: Call to undefined function: curl_init() … on line 176."

After getting this error, I upgraded to latest version (1.6.3) and changed only my username.

The tmp/lastfm.topsongs.cloud.cache file is created and permission are good.

What could be wrong ?

55 On February 13th, 2007 whoo answered:

Jagge,

if your getting that error, and it worked before, you have either changed hosts, or your current host upgraded PHP and didnt compile in CURL support. You can comment out the CURL stuff in the plugin, and use the other option to grab the file that creates the cache.. its all explained in the readme, and the lines are commented in the plugin file. Or you can simply ask your host to put back CURL support.

56 On February 18th, 2007 Dadi (S!) typed :

Hi there, the plugin looks good but I cannot get it to work

I can update the plugin in the Admin panel and get simply No Artist back there but no PHP errors, and Your Last.fm cloud has been updated. When I on the other hand try to display the cloud on the homepage:

Warning: touch() [function.touch]: Unable to create file tmp/lastfm.topsongs.cloud.cache because No such file or directory in /…/wp/wp-content/plugins/wp-lastfm-cloud.php on line 95

I have tried both curl and get_file, but same results and I also have a tmp folder where /wp-content is. If I try to change the location of the tmp file then I get an error in the admin area but right now withe the tmp file in the wordpress root where wp-config.php is then the admin runs smooth with the end result, No Artis and the before mentioned error on my homepage.

Dont get it

57 On February 18th, 2007 whoo answered:

Dadi,

the temporary folder goes in your wordpress root, NOT inside wp-content. Thats why you get the errors when you move it.

If you arent seeing artists, then bring up the file your trying to load off last.fm the feed for your account:

http://www.last.fm/user/dadi

Is that you, because if it is, that explains your problem.

58 On February 18th, 2007 Dadi (S!) typed :

Thanks for the quick reply whoo.

My tmp folder is in my wp root, maybe I wasnt being very clear, what I meant is that /wp-content and /tmp are at the same place, that is the WordPress root.

Good guess but no, wrong profile Currently at Tracks played: 27,197 and 357 artists so that should not be a problem.

59 On February 18th, 2007 whoo answered:

dadi,

check your e-mail

60 On February 19th, 2007 Dadi (S!) typed :

Hi Whoo

Issue is solved. Because I have WP not installed on my blog root the file was written to one place and then access at another. My hack:

$admin_cloud_path = "../../$lastfmCache";

That is add ../ for every directory that your WP installation is deeper than your blog root.

I.e if you have your WP installed at yoursite.com/wordpress/wp-admin the admin cloud has to be "../../$lastfmCache" if you blog is at yoursite.com

On another note, for those who are requesting Widget version, use King Text Widget which executes PHP very well and has a lot of features.

Great Plugin, thanks

61 On March 10th, 2007 whoo answered:

For anyone that might still be interested in seeing this converted over to a Weekly Top Artists format — there were a few that asked for it — I've done it. You can see the output here: http://www.village-idiot.org/cloudy and the most recent info on the progress is here: http://www.village-idiot.org/a.....p-artists/

62 On April 13th, 2007 Dexter typed :

Why using font tag?! You should instead use span and make the output valid XHTML strict

63 On April 13th, 2007 whoo answered:

I should block comments from non-English speaking foreigners too, but I don't.

You will notice MY own cloud does NOT use the font tag. I already said that was a possibility for the next version. READ before you comment.

64 On April 15th, 2007 Blabber typed :

You write some good plugins but you have a serious attitude problem.

65 On April 15th, 2007 whoo answered:

My blog, my attitude. That's how it works.

66 On July 5th, 2007 Christy (S!) typed :

hey whoo! I just upgraded to WP 2.2.1 and now my cloud isn't working - though it was initially. It just says "no artist." Any ideas?

Thanks!!

67 On July 5th, 2007 whoo answered:

this plugin has nothing to do with and doesnt care what wordpress version you are using. If you don't see artists. go into options => last.fm cloud and force an update. As long as you have a feed, that ought to fix it.

68 On July 23rd, 2007 hdh typed :

First of all: great plugin; keep up the good work.

I agree with Dexter that the use of font elements should be avoided as they are non-standard. However, the php file is very transparent and one can easily edit it to fit one's needs.

The font element can be replaced by span but a more elegant solution is to just drop these elements altogether and just add the style argument to the a element itself.

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