Hey just wanted to say great job on this app, it really is amazing.

I got pretty much everything working really well except for one feature I see on the YouTube videos and such.  That's the "play artist xxxxx"

So when I say something like "play artist the Beatles" I get the TTS feedback from Vox and XBMC responds to the request but all I end up getting is an empty playlist and nothing else happens (no music).  Every other iteration of playing music seems to work fine though (play genre rock, play album Abbey Road etc).  The artist request is the only thing that doesn't work.

Anyone else have this problem?

Thanks,
Brett

Welcome Brett. 

No, that's a new one, and very strange.  Please post your version # for VoxCommando, XBMC and tell us if you are using the stock English XBMC commands that come with VoxCommando.  If you have edited them then please send us your voicecommands.xml file.

It would also help a lot if you could send us your Voxcommando and XBMC logs.  You can enable the Vox logs directly on the Options drop-down on the main window and the file is called voxLog.txt  - I'll assume you know how to enable logging on XBMC or can figure it out with a quick web search.

Hey James,

So my version is 0.939.  So I pretty much am using the vanilla version of the app setup without anything custom.  The only thing that I did when setting up was put in the correct xbmc ip and l/p and then do the GenXML.  So one thing that might be a bit different in my setup is that my XBMC runs off my local server with the mysql setup, pretty much as described here: http://lifehacker.com/5634515/how-to-synchronize-your-xbmc-media-center-across-every-room-in-the-house.  It doesn't seem like that would make a difference, but I just thought I would through it in there just in case.

So for the logs.  Below is the log from Vox in order to play the artist "the beatles"

5/9/2012 1:28:04 PM   255   focused: XBMC
5/9/2012 1:28:06 PM   617   received udp command:StartUp;1
5/9/2012 1:28:41 PM   955   alternate:play artist The Beatles
5/9/2012 1:28:43 PM   400   focused: VoxCommando
5/9/2012 1:28:46 PM   952   alternate:play artist The Beatles
5/9/2012 1:28:46 PM   953   alternate:play artist Eagles
5/9/2012 1:28:46 PM   991   doCommand:play artist
5/9/2012 1:28:46 PM   991   action repeat set to: 1
5/9/2012 1:28:46 PM   992   Action:  TTS.Speak - Playing songs by The Beatles
5/9/2012 1:28:47 PM   26   action repeat set to: 1
5/9/2012 1:28:47 PM   26   Action:  XBMC.Send - ClearPlayList(0)
5/9/2012 1:28:47 PM   40   sending this command to xbmc: http://10.0.0.42:8080/xbmcCmds/xbmcHttp?command=ClearPlayList(0)
5/9/2012 1:28:47 PM   52   action repeat set to: 1
5/9/2012 1:28:47 PM   53   Action:  XBMC.Send - AddToPlayListFromDB(songs;strArtist='The Beatles' order by Random())
5/9/2012 1:28:47 PM   118   sending this command to xbmc: http://10.0.0.42:8080/xbmcCmds/xbmcHttp?command=AddToPlayListFromDB(songs;strArtist='The Beatles' order by Random())
5/9/2012 1:28:47 PM   145   action repeat set to: 1
5/9/2012 1:28:47 PM   145   Action:  XBMC.Send - execbuiltin&parameter=ActivateWindow(musicplaylist)
5/9/2012 1:28:47 PM   158   sending this command to xbmc: http://10.0.0.42:8080/xbmcCmds/xbmcHttp?command=execbuiltin&parameter=ActivateWindow(musicplaylist)
5/9/2012 1:28:47 PM   182   action repeat set to: 1
5/9/2012 1:28:47 PM   182   Action:  XBMC.Send - SendKey(0xF024)
5/9/2012 1:28:47 PM   550   sending this command to xbmc: http://10.0.0.42:8080/xbmcCmds/xbmcHttp?command=SendKey(0xF024)
5/9/2012 1:28:47 PM   563   action repeat set to: 1
5/9/2012 1:28:47 PM   563   Action:  XBMC.Send - SetPlaylistSong(0)
5/9/2012 1:28:47 PM   637   sending this command to xbmc: http://10.0.0.42:8080/xbmcCmds/xbmcHttp?command=SetPlaylistSong(0)
5/9/2012 1:28:47 PM   652   action repeat set to: 1
5/9/2012 1:28:47 PM   652   Action:  XBMC.Send - Action(79)
5/9/2012 1:28:47 PM   673   sending this command to xbmc: http://10.0.0.42:8080/xbmcCmds/xbmcHttp?command=Action(79)

And here is the XBMC log:
13:28:43 T:4552   DEBUG: ------ Window Init (Pointer.xml) ------
13:28:47 T:4552   DEBUG: HttpApi Start command: ClearPlayList  paras: ClearPlayList; 0
13:28:47 T:4552   DEBUG: HttpApi Start command: AddToPlayListFromDB  paras: AddToPlayListFromDB; songs;strArtist='The Beatles' order by Random()
13:28:47 T:4552   DEBUG: CMusicDatabase::GetSongsByWhere query = select * from songview where strArtist='The Beatles' order by Random()
13:28:47 T:4552   ERROR: SQL: Undefined MySQL error: Code (1305)
                                            Query: select * from songview where strArtist='The Beatles' order by Random()
13:28:47 T:4552   ERROR: CMusicDatabase::GetSongsByWhere(where strArtist='The Beatles' order by Random()) failed
13:28:47 T:4552   DEBUG: HttpApi Start command: execbuiltin  paras: execbuiltin; ActivateWindow(musicplaylist)
13:28:47 T:4552   DEBUG: Activating window ID: 10500
13:28:47 T:4552   DEBUG: ------ Window Deinit (Home.xml) ------
13:28:47 T:4552   DEBUG: ------ Window Init (MyMusicPlaylist.xml) ------
13:28:47 T:4552    INFO: Loading skin file: MyMusicPlaylist.xml
13:28:47 T:4552   DEBUG: CGUIMediaWindow::GetDirectory (playlistmusic://)
13:28:47 T:4552   DEBUG:   ParentPath = []
13:28:47 T:1172   DEBUG: Thread Background Loader start, auto delete: 0
13:28:47 T:4552   DEBUG: HttpApi Start command: SendKey  paras: SendKey; 0xF024
13:28:47 T:4552   DEBUG: CApplication::OnKey: dollar (f024) pressed, action is
13:28:47 T:1172   DEBUG: Thread Background Loader 1172 terminating
13:28:47 T:4552   DEBUG: ------ Window Deinit (Pointer.xml) ------
13:28:47 T:4552   DEBUG: HttpApi Start command: SetPlaylistSong  paras: SetPlaylistSong; 0
13:28:47 T:4552   DEBUG: HttpApi Start command: Action  paras: Action; 79
13:28:47 T:4552   DEBUG: ------ Window Init (DialogKaiToast.xml) ------
13:28:52 T:4552   DEBUG: ------ Window Init (Pointer.xml) ------
13:28:53 T:4552   DEBUG: ------ Window Deinit (DialogKaiToast.xml) ------
13:28:57 T:4552   DEBUG: ------ Window Deinit (Pointer.xml) ------
13:29:00 T:4552   DEBUG: SECTION:UnloadDelayed(DLL: special://xbmcbin/system/ImageLib.dll)
13:29:17 T:5824   DEBUG: Thread Jobworker 5824 terminating (autodelete)
13:29:17 T:6488   DEBUG: Thread Jobworker 6488 terminating (autodelete)
13:29:17 T:6688   DEBUG: Thread Jobworker 6688 terminating (autodelete)
13:29:17 T:7116   DEBUG: Thread Jobworker 7116 terminating (autodelete)
13:29:48 T:4868  NOTICE: ES: Client  from 10.0.0.42 timed out

what version of XBMC please.

if you want to try something, remove the order by Random() from the addToPlaylistFromDB action.

I'm on Eden now.  I tried taking out the random part of the http command and that worked.  When I put the random back in the return value I get in my chrome window is "nothing added".  Does the random feature work on pre-eden?

Yes. It used to work fine with pre-eden.  It may work with Eden as well normally. I need to check.

Just to be sure, you are using Eden 11.0 Final.  Not nightlies?

I mostly use MediaMonkey for music, but I will experiment a bit with Eden and see what I can learn.  The random feature is nice so hopefully there is a fix.   I thought the play genre command used random as well so maybe it is something finicky like a space or a capital letter that Eden is suddenly sensitive to.

so I tested the standard configuration on Eden and it still works fine.  I think the problem you are having is related to the fact that you are using MySQL instead of SQLite which is what XBMC normally uses.

It's lucky that everthing else still works.  I think with MySql you can just change Random() to Rand() and hopefully it will work.

So for the play artist command, the parameter would be

AddToPlayListFromDB(songs;strArtist='{1}' order by Rand())

please let us know if it works for future reference, even if you are not interested in using the random feature.  Thanks  

by the way, good job with the info and logs needed to figure this out.  It makes a huge difference to me, and it's a pleasure to help when questions are asked thoughtfully and useful information is provided.

Awesome, that fixed it.  No problem on the logs, glad to be of help on this although I doubt you can account for someone using MySQL instead of SQLite in future releases!

Anyway, thanks again for figuring this one out and for your great work on the app again.

Yeah, I won't try to auto-fix it since it is probably pretty rare, but now I will recognize the problem right away and I'll know the fix.  And this topic is here for anyone who looks.  Thanks.