Hello everyone,
If you have been following my blog, you saw that I recently posted details about the protocol activation of the XBox Video app: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/hmahrt/archive/2013/07/11/windows-store-apps-xbox-video-protocol.aspx
Having found out the commands and parameters of the video app, and knowing that the XBox apps share a common framework, it was quite simple to investigate the commands and parameters of the XBox Music app as well.
For this posting, I figured out the GUID of a song and an album by sharing them from the music app. It generated nice links for me, which I could have sent by email:
- http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/redirect?type=track&id=f0e3c507-0100-11db-89ca-0019b92a3933
- http://marketplace.xbox.com/es-es/redirect?type=album&id=2de4c507-0100-11db-89ca-0019b92a3933
The syntax to activate the Music app by its protocol is the same as the one for the Video app: microsoftmusic://<command>?<parameter>=<value> [&<parameter2>=<value2>] (except for the protocol name, of course)
Details
This command behaves a bit different compared to the video app. If you just provide a song id here, it will take you to the details page of the artist. To get to the details of a song or an album, you have to specify the desiredMediaType. (Please note that you have to specify the idType in such a case as well. Otherwise the app will assume that the idType is Canonical and it will not find the item.)
- id (required)
- type: GUID (e.g. f0e3c507-0100-11db-89ca-0019b92a3933)
- dialogOnly
- type: bool
- desiredMediaType
- possible values:
- Album
- Artist
- Track
- idType
- possible values:
- Canonical
- ZuneCatalog
To display the album that I shared earlier, this is what the link has to look like: microsoftmusic://details?id=2de4c507-0100-11db-89ca-0019b92a3933&desiredMediaItemType=Album&idType=ZuneCatalog
Play
This command has pretty much the same parameters as “details”:
- id (required)
- type: GUID (e.g. f0e3c507-0100-11db-89ca-0019b92a3933)
- startIndex
- type: integer
- desiredMediaItemType
- possible values:
- Album
- Artist
- Track
- idType
- possible values:
- Canonical
- ZuneCatalog
- gamerTag
- type: string
Playing music is quite easy. To play an album, just use the album’s id: microsoftmusic://play?id=2de4c507-0100-11db-89ca-0019b92a3933 To play a song, just use the song’s id: microsoftmusic://play?id=f0e3c507-0100-11db-89ca-0019b92a3933
Location
Works the same as in the video app: It takes you to a specific screen.
- id (required)
- possible values:
- homeHub
- musicMarketplaceFeatured
- gamerTag
- type: string
ShowPerfTrackLog
This command is the same as for the video app and enabled some kind of performance logging. Once it is activated, a text box will appear in the About section of the settings. There is only one parameter:
- enable (required)
- type: bool
I hope this helps you create a more immersive experience for your users!
Cheers,
Helge Mahrt