Exporting has five configuration sections:

Realtime Exporting
Archiving
Images
Music Browser
Miscellaneous

Realtime Exporting

Archiving

Images

Image List

The image list is a unique feature that enables Now Playing to get an image file URL for the current album. The expected use of this feature is for displaying cover art on generated web pages, although any image - any file, really - can be linked using the image list (to display a different file for every track, see image template below). The <QCD_COVER> tag in the template file will be replaced by the URL retrieved from the image list, if one is found, or from the image template. If no entry is found for a given album, the tag is ignored.

How it works:

1. Now Playing reads artist and album names from QCD and searches the image list. If a URL is found, it will be used.
2. If no URL was found, Now Playing will search the image list for the album name with an empty artist name field. This is to allow for compilation albums, where each track has a different artist, to avoid having to have many entries for the same album, for each artist.
3. If still no URL was found, Now Playing tries to generate a URL from the image template. If an image template exists, a URL will always be generated, regardless of whether the URL is valid.
4. If the image template is empty, Now Playing assumes there is no image for this album.

Use Current Data - retrieving artist and album info from QCD:

The use current data button retrieves the artist and album info from QCD, and places them in the corresponding fields of the dialog box. This makes it easier to enter information to the image list, since the artist and album values retrieved are the same values Now Playing will use when searching the image list to find an image for this album. Note: pressing this button when the current album is a compilation album (various artists) will leave the artist field empty to enable album-only searches, as explained above in how it works.

Retrieve Image URL - retrieving current info from image list:

The retrieve image URL button reads the artist and album fields of the dialog box (regardless of whether it's the current album), and searches the image list for the corresponding URL. This is the same action Now Playing performs when searching the image list, so it's a simple way to see which URL is in the image list for a given album, if any. The search result is displayed in the URL field. Note: pressing this button discards the previous contents of the URL field.

Add/Change Image URL - adding (and removing) info to (from) image list:

The add/change image URL button reads the artist, album and URL fields of the dialog box (regardless of whether it's the current album), and adds the info to the image list. Any previous URL for this album will be replaced by the new URL. Note 1: Now Playing does not check the validity of the URL. Note 2: any spaces in the URL field will be replaced by the string defined for this purpose in the image template configuration. Note 3: If the URL field is empty when pressing this button, any info for this album will be removed from the image list.

Guess

The guess button suggests a URL for the artist and album fields of the dialog box. The suggestion is based on the image template, the filename extension, common filenames that are given to image files, and the assumption that we wouldn't be pressing the button if the image was accessible already. It's not always right, of course, but it can point you in the right direction.

Image list file

This is the location of the image list file.

Image Template

The image template offers a number of advantages over the image list:

• Information is retrieved automatically, nothing has to be entered.
• Image template can be track-specific.

There is also one drawback to using the image template:

• If an image template exists, a URL will always be generated, regardless of whether the URL is valid. This, in practice, renders the <QCD_ONLYIF[NOT]_COVER> tags useless.

Using the image template is simple:

1. Enter the URL to the template field exactly as you want it to appear in the exported file, but instead of entering real artist, album and track names, use the tags %alb, %art and %trk respectively. Now Playing will replace the tags with actual data during the exporting process.
2. The spaces in field names... field should be filled depending on your image files. Your template probably includes artist name, which probably has spaces in the name. Since spaces are not valid characters for URLs, these must be changed. The following table explains what to fill into this field, using Suzanne Vega's Solitude Standing as an example. Obviously QCD and Now Playing both recognize the artist as "Suzanne Vega" and the album as "Solitude Standing". Let's say our cover files are in the form "artist-album.jpg". What to do with the spaces?

Note: the quotation marks are not part of the filenames or the replacement strings.

Of course, you can still use the image list for retrieving URLs that don't have the template format. Now Playing checks the image list first, so any exceptions to the template rule will be retrieved from the list, without having to forego the template.

Random Images

The <QCD_RNDIMAGE> tag (available from version 1.1) is meant for HTML background images, but can be used for any purpose. When the exported page is created and this tag is encountered in the template file, Now Playing will randomly select a GIF or JPG filename from the folder entered in this field, and insert the filename without the path to the exported file. For more information, see creating template files.

Music Browser

Miscellaneous

General buttons