Version 1.1.1 Released

Release date: 09/05/2024

Version: 1.1.1

Third Release of Harmonic Apolo: Enhancing Organization and Usability

The third release of Harmonic Apolo brings harmonious changes that enhance the organization and usability, through simplicity and efficiency. By refactoring the codebase and introducing a separation between the Model and GUI, this release focuses on making the code more maintainable and easier to understand. Also focuses on bringing changes that make the program easier to use.

What has changed?

• Architecture Pattern: The project now employs a separation between Model and GUI, aiming to organize the code better. While the MVC pattern may be considered in the future, this initial approach provides a solid foundation for continued development.

• Refactored Codebase: The code has been streamlined and modulated for improved legibility and maintenance. This refactoring allows for a clearer structure and more efficient code management.

• Fixed Linux Playlist Initialization: A bug affecting the automatic initialization of a playlist with music from the Linux music directory has been corrected, ensuring smoother functionality for Portuguese speaking users.

• Corrected JRE Path: The path of the JRE has been properly set for package creation, ensuring the executable functions correctly.

• Drag and Drop Functionality: Users can now add songs to a playlist more easily through drag and drop functionality onto the playlist panel.

Installation Instructions:

• Download the Harmonic-Apolo.jar file for any operating system or Harmonic-Apolo.exe natively for Windows.

• Make sure you have Java installed on your system if you want to use the jar. Java version issues may result in incorrect drag-and-drop functionality or JVM issues in the .jar file (running the program via terminal eliminates these problems).

• Run the Harmonic-Apolo.jar or Harmonic-Apolo.exe file to start the music player.

Feedback:

Thank you for using Harmonic Apolo! If you have any feedback, suggestions for improvements, or encounter any issues, please don't hesitate to contact us at apoloharmonico@gmail.com.

Version 1.1.0 Released

Release date: 25/03/2024

Version: 1.1.0

Second Release of Harmonic Apolo: Elevating the Music Player Experience

With euphoria and euphony, Harmonic Apolo's second release is presented. Building upon the foundation laid in the initial release, this iteration focuses on optimizations and visuals, but also brings new features. All of these enhancements are aimed at offering a comfortable and intuitive music playback experience.

What has changed?

• Enhanced GUI with JAudioTagger Integration: Harmonic Apolo now boasts an improved graphical user interface empowered by the integration of JAudioTagger. Users can now revel in a visually pleasing experience as the player showcases detailed information about the music tracks, including album artwork, title, and duration, directly within the playlist interface.

• Dynamic Playback Bar and Time Labels: A dynamic playback bar has been introduced, accompanied by two informative labels displaying the total duration of the track and the current playback time. This addition offers users better visibility over their music playback progress.

• Optimized Thread and Timer Management: The code has been simplified and optimized. Previously it used separate threads for GUI rendering, audio playback and tracking the playback frame count for pause/resume use. Now a Timer replaces this third thread to track the frame count, also updates the playback time and the play bar every second. This optimization not only enhances performance but also resolves any potential issues related to rapid pause and resume actions.

• Simplified and Documented Codebase: The codebase has undergone significant simplification and optimization. Variable names, classes, and methods have been refactored for clarity, and comprehensive documentation has been added to improve code readability and maintainability.

• Improved Error Handling and User Feedback: Bugs have been fixed, and exceptions have been added to enhance error handling. User-facing messages have been refined to provide more intuitive and informative feedback, ensuring a smoother user experience.

• Efficient Packaging with Maven Shade Plugin: With the migration to Maven Shade Plugin for JAR creation, Harmonic Apolo now offers a more compact and efficient distribution package. Moreover, the addition of the launch4j-maven-plugin facilitates the creation of platform-specific executables, including a Windows .exe file for seamless deployment.

• Streamlined Music Library Management: Adding multiple songs to the playlist is now a breeze. Harmonic Apolo allows users to effortlessly add multiple music tracks in one go, simplifying the music library management process.

• Automated Playlist Creation and faster use of songs: No more starting from scratch. Upon launching the application without a pre-existing "playlists.byte" file, Harmonic Apolo dynamically populates the playlist with all the MP3 files from the system's default music directory, ensuring instant access to a curated selection of tracks. And to improve this instant access, the first song in the first playlist will always be selected when opening Harmonic-Apolo.

• Deleting unnecessary files: In addition to simplifying the codebase, unnecessary files were deleted, making the program lighter.

Installation Instructions:

• Download the Harmonic-Apolo.jar file for any operating system or Harmonic-Apolo.exe natively for Windows.

• Make sure you have Java installed on your system if you want to use the jar.

• Run the Harmonic-Apolo.jar or Harmonic-Apolo.exe file to start the music player.

Feedback:

Thanks for trying Hamonic Apolo! If you have any feedback, suggestions for improvements or encounter any issues, please don't hesitate to contact us at apoloharmonico@gmail.com

Stable Version 1.0.0 Released

First version of Harmonic Apolo, has all the basic and essential features of a Music Player.

• Create, name and delete playlists
• Add or delete songs in a playlist
• Manipulates mp3 with all the functions of a playback control, with the exception of the playback bar (play, pause, resume, next, previous and repetitions)
• User-created playlists are saved with Java serialization. When adding or deleting songs and deleting playlists, the changes are automatically saved in a file called "playlist.byte" and it must remain in the same jar folder so that when you reopen it, the previously created playlists are there.