=== Grooveshark for Wordpress ===
Contributors: Grooveshark
Tags: music, Grooveshark, play, Post, posts, tinysong
Requires at least: 2.6
Tested up to: 2.9
Stable tag: 1.2.0

The Grooveshark plugin allows you to insert music links or Grooveshark Widgets into your blog.

== Description ==

The Grooveshark plugin is a Wordpress plugin that allows you to insert a link to music on [Grooveshark](http://www.grooveshark.com "Grooveshark") or a [Grooveshark Widget](http://widgets.grooveshark.com "Grooveshark Widget") that allows visitors to play music as they read your blog.

Grooveshark is a music website that allows visitors to listen to music and share music with friends. Registered users can also save favorite songs and playlists in Grooveshark. With millions of songs contributed by Grooveshark users, you can find just about any song and share songs with your friends and blog visitors.

The Grooveshark plugin utilizes the Grooveshark API to bring Grooveshark to your blog. Some of the main features are:

* Easily find and add any song on Grooveshark to your posts, in link or widget format, as you write your post
* If you are a registered Grooveshark user, find and add your favorite songs and your playlists to your posts
* Preview songs while you edit with no need to open external pages
* Add Grooveshark widgets to your blog's sidebar or admin dashboard
* Add RSS feeds to your blog's sidebar that share your favorites and recently listened songs with your blog visitors
* Allow your blog visitors to add music to post comments

== Installation ==

1. Upload the Grooveshark folder to your plugins ('/wp-content/plugins/') directory.
2. Activate the plugin from your Plugins page.
3. (Optional) Enter your Grooveshark username and password in the settings page to access your favorite songs and playlists. Your login information will remain secure.
4. Add music to your blog. The Add Music box will appear below the post content when you edit your posts. You will have the option to add music to your post, sidebar, or dashboard.
5. Customize your Grooveshark Sidebar and Grooveshark RSS sidebar widgets in the admin Widgets page. Enable Music Comments in the Grooveshark Settings Page.

== Frequently Asked Questions ==

= Who can I contact for support? =

Send all support questions to the author: roberto.sanchez [at] escapemg.com.

= What do I need for the Grooveshark plugin? =

The requirements to use the Grooveshark Wordpress plugin are:

* Most standard Wordpress requirements for version 2.6 and higher.
* PHP 5
* Curl enabled in PHP.
* Javascript enabled in browser.

Optional requirements are:

* Flash version 9.0.0 or higher needed for in-edit music playback.

Requirements for blog visitors are:

* Flash version 9.0.0 or higher needed to play Grooveshark widgets and music on Grooveshark.com.

= Do I need to register a Grooveshark account? =

You only need to register a [Grooveshark](http://www.grooveshark.com "Grooveshark") account if you want to add music from your favorite songs and your playlists on Grooveshark. The plugin will notify you if you choose these options, but didn't enter your username and password from Grooveshark.

= When I install the plugin, I get a fatal error: call to undefined function curl_init(). Why is this happening? =

The curl functions are included with PHP starting with version 4.0.2 and later. If you have an older PHP version, you will need to upgrade.
Additionally, for users running their blogs on XAMPP, curl may not be enabled by default. You will need to enable curl in your php.ini file by uncommenting the line extension=php_curl.dll. More information can be found [here](http://chrismeller.com/2007/04/using-curl-in-xampp "here.")
Finally, it may be possible that your webhost has curl disabled for security reasons. Many of these webhosts offer curl support for a higher hosting fee, so you will need to talk with your webhost about your options.

= What benefits does the Grooveshark for Wordpress Plugin bring to my blog? =

The plugin allows you to bring Grooveshark and it's extensive music library directly to your blog. Several admin tools allow you to easily add music to any post and page, add a Grooveshark Widget to your Wordpress sidebar or dashboard, and even give your blog visitors the ability to share music with everyone who reads your blog.

The services provided with this plugin are great for music blogs. Instead of hosting music files yourself, you can let Grooveshark take care of serving music to your blog visitors. Insert a Grooveshark Widget or a link to a song on Grooveshark, and Grooveshark will take care of the rest. Having music easily accessible in your blog will bring value to your blog and give your visitors another reason to keep coming back. Best of all, it's all free.

= How do I let my blog visitors share music? =

The plugin comes with an option to allow blog visitors to add music to comments they make on your blog. Once you enable this option, visitors will normally find an "Add Music To Your Comment" section below the comment edit textarea, and here they will be able to search for any song on Grooveshark and add music to their comments.

To enable music comments, go to Grooveshark Settings (under the settings tab in admin navigation for Wordpress 2.8 and later) and click the Enable button next to the "Allow Music Comments" option. Once you have enabled music comments, you can customize how visitors can add music to their comments. You can decide whether they can embed Grooveshark Widgets or links to music on Grooveshark. You can also set widget width and height for comment-embedded Grooveshark widgets. For links to songs on Grooveshark, you can customize the introductory phrase for the link and the playlist name that will show on the link. You can choose from 20 widget color schemes to have the Grooveshark Widgets blend perfectly into your blog. Finally, you can set a limit on how many songs visitors can embed into their comments.

Note that your Wordpress template must support comments or have comments enabled for your visitors to use music comments.

= How can I add a Grooveshark Widget to my Wordpress sidebar or dashboard? =

As of Grooveshark for Wordpress version 1.2.0, you now have the ability to add music to your wordpress sidebar and your wordpress dashboard as easily as you can add music to your posts. You have several options for adding music to your sidebar. 
Your first option is to add music to your sidebar from the Edit Post and Edit Page pages where you would normally add music to your blog posts. To add music to your sidebar, check the "Yes" radio input for the "Add to Sidebar" option, found under "Appearance" in the "Add Music" box. Checking yes will save the widget both to your post and to your sidebar, both having the same songs and styles that you chose under appearance. Note that you must then activate the widget in the Widgets page. The plugin currently allows you to save one Grooveshark Widget in your sidebar. Also, only music widgets can be saved, so you won't be able to add Grooveshark links. Finally, once a Grooveshark sidebar widget is activated, if you choose to add any subsequent widget to your sidebar, the new widget will override the old widget.
Right under the option to save to your sidebar, you will also find an option to save to your dashboard. If you click the "Yes" radio input, your Grooveshark widget will be saved to your Wordpress Dashboard Widgets that you see on your admin Dashboard Page. You don't need to do any further activation like you do with the sidebar widget, but, as with the sidebar widget, you can only have one Grooveshark widget saved as a dashboard widget.
Your second option to use the Grooveshark Sidebar on your blog is to activate it from your widget page. Once you have installed the plugin, you will find "Grooveshark Sidebar" as an available widget in your Widgets page. Drag Grooveshark Sidebar to one of your sidebars and configuration options will be presented to you. Here, you will find a reduced version of what you find in the "Add Music" box when you edit posts and pages. You can select one of your Grooveshark playlists, or any playlist you have created on your blog using the plugin, and choose the widget width, height, and color scheme. Links to Grooveshark are placed next to each playlist so you can see the playlist contents and decide if you want to include it in your sidebar. It is recommended that you keep widget width to 200px, since this width is least likely to interfere with your site layout. Also, if you did not provide your login information in the settings page or you did not create any playlists using the plugin on your blog, you will not find any playlists available. Once you have selected your playlist and styled it, click save and the widget will be saved to your sidebar.
When you want to completely remove the Grooveshark Widget from your sidebar, simply go to the "Grooveshark Plugin Options" page through the Wordpress Settings tab, and click the "Clear" button to remove your Grooveshark sidebar widget. You can also remove your widget in the Widgets page under the Appearance tab.

= How can I add RSS feeds of my music to my blog sidebar? =

Once you install the plugin, you will find a Grooveshark RSS widget when you go to the admin Widget page. Simply drag this widget to one of your sidebars. You will have the option of showing your favorite songs feed and your recently listened songs feed. Any visitor to your blog can then subscribe to your feeds. The feeds are updated periodically as you listen to songs and add songs to your favorites, so anyone subscribe to your feeds will be able to share your taste in music even as it changes.

= Why does the Grooveshark Widget disrupt the appearance of my blog posts? =

This can happen in two ways:
If you choose to add a Grooveshark Widget to your wordpress sidebar, it is recommended that you keep the widget width to 200px, since this width fits best with the default wordpress theme. If a Grooveshark Widget disrupts the appearance of your blog from your sidebar, decrease the width of the widget (under Appearance in the Add Song box when you are editing posts or in the Widgets page) but do keep in mind that the minimum width is 150px.

= Why does the Grooveshark Plugin slow the load time for my edit pages? =

When you first provide your login information in the Grooveshark Settings page, the plugin will retrieve all your playlists and their songs from Grooveshark. If you have many playlists and songs saved to those playlists, this process may take several seconds to complete. However, after the initial retrieval of your playlists, all playlist information is stored by the plugin locally, reducing the need to retrieve playlist information. Once the playlist information is saved, your edit page load times should return to what they were before.

== Screenshots ==

1. Grooveshark for Wordpress Add Music Panel
2. Grooveshark for Wordpress Administration Panel
3. Grooveshark for Wordpress Post Widget