The Unofficial BBC Radio Widget

FAQ

for version 4.21, updated 24/04/2010

The widget brings up a RealPlayer error, and my computer becomes unresponsive.

The BBC have removed their RealPlayer streams, and RealPlayer plugin does not handle it gracefully in Dashboard. Upgrade to v4.1 or higher immediately.

I get Flash errors about “a potentially unsafe operation” or a script “causing Adobe Flash Player to run slowly”.

Flash is panicking over nothing, and those errors are misleading. For some reason, Flash seems way more picky for some users than others. If you’re unlucky enough to be getting these errors, you can change your Flash security settings to always trust the widget (on that page, choose Edit Locations... > Add Location > Browse for Files..., and select ~/Library/Widgets/BBC Radio.wdgt — where ~ is your Home folder.).

Something’s not working properly after I’ve upgraded the widget.

Make sure you’ve refreshed the widget with ⌘R, or rebooted. There’s a Dashboard/Safari bug which means widgets don’t upgrade cleanly without a little help, especially under Leopard + Safari 4. (As of 4.02 the widget will offer to restart Dashboard for you, which should achieve the same thing.) If you’re still having trouble, read on!

I’ve got no sound! / The volume slider isn’t working. / Why is the volume slider disabled?

Are your speakers on?... If you’re using v4.1 or above, the widget has no control over audio volume, and has to use the volume you’ve set at the BBC iPlayer site. This means if you mute the volume at bbc.co.uk/iplayer, it will be muted in the widget!. ⌥ (option) click the volume slider to be taken to the iPlayer site to change your volume, and pause then play your station on the widget. I’m sorry this is so clunky, there isn’t much I can do. If this doesn’t help, see the next question...

I just get a spinning progress indicator. Nothing seems to happen!

Be aware that the progress indicator for version 4.1 and above is now just a guess; it may take a shorter or longer period for audio playback to begin. Make sure you’re upgraded to at least v4.1, and make sure your sound isn’t turned off! Reboot if this doesn’t seem to help. Finally, check to see that you can play the radio here; if you can’t, you may need to upgrade your Flash player. Contact me if you still have problems.

The audio cuts out for a few seconds every time I leave Dashboard. / Audio sometimes doesn’t start if I leave Dashboard.

This is usually a timing issue, as there are a couple of (I believe unavoidable) situations where things can go awry. If you leave Dashboard after audio has started, but before the spinning progress indicator has stopped, you’ll get a stutter; if the indicator has stopped, but playback has not begun, it may never start. Please either leave Dashboard quickly, before playback and before the indicator stops, or after playback has started and after the indicator has stopped.

The widget is telling me to install RealPlayer / Flash.

Do as it says! Click the error text to go to a download page. After installing RealPlayer, you may need to run it and allow it to ‘configure your web browsers’ (install its plugin). Then, close all copies of the widget – hold down the option (⌥) key, hover over the widget with your mouse, and click the ‘x’ which appears in the top left. When you open a new one, it should see the plugin; if not, try rebooting.

I’m sure the RealPlayer / Flash plugin is installed and working correctly, but I’m still getting an error.

Make sure you’re upgraded to at least v4.1. Note that as of v4.1, RealPlayer is largely irrelevant to BBC Radio Widget. Close all copies of the widget (refreshing isn’t good enough), and reboot. Check whether this test page detects Flash when opened in Safari (even if you’d usually use another browser). If it’s still not working, get in touch, including the results from the test.

It keeps telling me I’m not connected to the internet, but I know I am.

Are you completely sure? It could also just be a temporary problem with the BBC webpage that the widget tries to reach. Try ⌥ (option) clicking the play button; that bypasses the connection test. If it works, and you keep having this problem, you may want to consider setting this preference permanently; see this question for details.

One of the stations doesn’t work.

Ensure you’re running the latest version available, and try rebooting. Please let me know if there’s still a problem.

The widget says my Mac OS version can’t fetch this station’s schedule.

Unfortunately, old systems don’t have the necessary javascript functions to correctly process the information for some stations. Hopefully, this is something I can work around in a future version of the widget.

Some or all of the schedules aren’t working, or are incorrect.

Chances are, this is a temporary problem on the BBC’s end. The schedule information is relatively new, and still in beta. If the problem persists for more than a day, please drop me an email about it.

The station I selected isn’t the one that’s playing!

Ensure you’re running the latest version available, and try rebooting. Please let me know if there’s still a problem.

I’m outside the UK and trying to listen to the cricket / football / rugby, but I get a recording telling me it’s not available.

Licensing restrictions mean the BBC sometimes restricts coverage of sporting events to UK IP addresses. If you get this message throughout the day, even when it’s supposed to be original BBC content such as talk or discussion programmes, there may be a problem. Please let me know about it here.

Is there / will there be an iPhone version?

No, I’m afraid not. But check out this blog post.

Are there any hidden settings I can change?

Yes, a couple. First, you may know about how to use between RealPlayer and Flash (UK-only) methods of streaming: ⌥ (option) click the ‘i’ button. From v4.02, you can also skip the plugin and connection tests by option-clicking the play button.

In v4.03 upwards, there are a couple of hidden plist keys, UseRPHack and DisableTests, which allow you to set whether the RealPlayer 11 stop/start hack is used or not (largely irrelevant in v4.1 and above), and whether the widget checks for an internet connection / plugin existence. It is recommended that you don’t use these, as they override the default behaviour (UseRPHack, for instance, is determined by your operating system version), but if you really want they can be set by entering a command in Terminal.app (inside /Applications/Utilities/):

defaults write widget-com.phantomgorilla.widget.bbcradio DisableTests -bool yes

Or, to restore the default behaviour,

defaults delete widget-com.phantomgorilla.widget.bbcradio DisableTests

Obviously, type UseRPHack with yes or no instead of DisableTests to set that key instead. Use at your own risk! The only one that is likely to be useful is DisableTests, in case the widget is persistently misreporting your internet connection to be down.

Where can I find a full changelog for the widget?

Here.

What licence is the widget released under? Can I redistribute it, or include it on a compilation cd?

The widget is released under a custom licence, which allows modification for personal use and family-and-friends level distribution. Feel free to learn all you can from the source code, and use small snippets of it; but redistribution on a large scale, of this widget or any port or modified version of it, requires prior permission in writing.