Web Design

Tutorial for Adding a Midi Jukebox to your MSN Group

*This is the new and improved, v2.0 of this tutorial
(The frames page has been eliminated to simplify things.)

So, you want to have music on your MSN Group? Everyone told you it was impossible right? Well, they were wrong. With my simple tutorial for making an ASX file (a play-list which points to various .midis already on your Group), your own Windows Media Player will become the jukebox!

Windows Media Player 9 is required for this to work:

Click the headphones to listen now!
Step One:
Download some free to use midi files and upload them to your Documents folder at your Group. For simplicity sake, make a special folder just for this purpose. Our tutorial's example called the sub-folder "midijukebox" (without the quotes) to make it easy to understand.

Note: You may also use mp3 files but you are still restricted to the 1MB file size limit!

Step Two:
Making the .ASX file:
Here is a sample .ASX file (you may copy this code and paste it into a Notepad file on your computer, but you'll still need to change details to fit your specific Group and midi names).

<ASX Version = "3.0">
<TITLE>Vocal's Midi Message Board</TITLE>
<ENTRY>
<TITLE>Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy Train</TITLE>
<REF HREF="http://groups.msn.com/WebDesign/Documents/midijukebox/crazytrain.mid" />
</ENTRY>
<ENTRY>
<TITLE>Creed - One</TITLE>
<REF HREF="http://groups.msn.com/WebDesign/Documents/midijukebox/creedone.mid" />
</ENTRY>
<ENTRY>
<TITLE>Kiss - detroit rock city</TITLE>
<REF HREF="http://groups.msn.com/WebDesign/Documents/midijukebox/detroitrockcity.mid" />
</ENTRY>
<ENTRY>
<TITLE>ZZ Top - La Grange</TITLE>
<REF HREF="http://groups.msn.com/WebDesign/Documents/midijukebox/lagrange.mid" />
</ENTRY>
<ENTRY>
<TITLE>Depeche Mode - Master & servant</TITLE>
<REF HREF="http://groups.msn.com/WebDesign/Documents/midijukebox/masterandserve.mid" />
</ENTRY>
<ENTRY>
<TITLE>Foo Fighters - Monkey wrench</TITLE>
<REF HREF="http://groups.msn.com/WebDesign/Documents/midijukebox/monkeywrench.mid" />
</ENTRY>
<ENTRY>
<TITLE>Guns n Roses - November Rain</TITLE>
<REF HREF="http://groups.msn.com/WebDesign/Documents/midijukebox/novemberrain.mid" />
</ENTRY>
<ENTRY>
<TITLE>Led Zeppelin - Over the hills and far away</TITLE>
<REF HREF="http://groups.msn.com/WebDesign/Documents/midijukebox/overthehills.mid" />
</ENTRY>
<ENTRY>
<TITLE>Quiet Riot - Cum on feel the noize</TITLE>
<REF HREF="http://groups.msn.com/WebDesign/Documents/midijukebox/quietriot.mid" />
</ENTRY>
<ENTRY>
<TITLE>The Ramones - I wanna be sedated</TITLE>
<REF HREF="http://groups.msn.com/WebDesign/Documents/midijukebox/sedated.mid" />
</ENTRY>
<ENTRY>
<TITLE>Queensryche - Silent Lucidity</TITLE>
<REF HREF="http://groups.msn.com/WebDesign/Documents/midijukebox/silentlucidity.mid" />
</ENTRY>
<ENTRY>
<TITLE>Gordon Lightfoot - Sundown</TITLE>
<REF HREF="http://groups.msn.com/WebDesign/Documents/midijukebox/sundown.mid" />
</ENTRY>
<ENTRY>
<TITLE>Jimi Hendrix - Voodoo Chile</TITLE>
<REF HREF="http://groups.msn.com/WebDesign/Documents/midijukebox/voodoochile.mid" />
</ENTRY>
</ASX>

You can now edit it to your own specifics and add your own links & titles. Just use my .ASX File which you have saved, as a template, and replace:
1. Our songs with yours.
2. Our Group name with yours.
2. Our sub-folder name with your subfolder name.

For each [entry] to [/entry] section, you will have to title your song and supply the proper URL/Location of the midi file where it is located at your Group. You can get the proper URL by right-clicking the midi file in your Documents folder and picking copy shortcut, then paste it where it is supposed to go in your .ASX file's code. The more songs you want in your jukebox, the more [entry] to [/entry] sections you will need (including everything in between). For my .ASX file, I used 13 songs, so I have 13 complete ENTRY sections. You may wish to start with 4 or 5 to make sure it works and then edit the file for more as you go.

Step Three:
Save your .asx file:
Call it jukebox.asx to keep it simple and make sure the All Files is selected in the drop-down list during the saving stage.

Now upload the saved .asx file (jukebox.asx) to your Group's Documents folder.

IT MUST HAVE AN .asx FILE EXTENTION OR YOU HAVE SAVED IT INCORRECTLY!

Now link to your .asx file any way you please, from any page on your Group. (Like the headphones animated .gif above.)

Enjoy your new jukebox!
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me on the Message Boards.

This tutorial is © 2003 Vo©aL/Web Design

You may not copy this tutorial in any way. You must provide a link to my tutorial here at Web Design, if you wish to share it with others.

If your Windows Media Player does not play the file, follow these instructions to configure it properly:

Open Windows Media Player.
Click Tools, then Options.
Click the Security Tab.
Make sure that the Run Script Commands When Present is checked (selected).
Under the File Types Tab, be sure that the following types are selected: asf, wma, wmv, and midi.
(and mp3 if you are using mp3's)
Press Apply, then OK, and then Close Windows Media Player. Click the jukebox and it should work now.