Hi,
I'll reply for each desired improvement:
Standalone HikaShop MP3 module with multiple display templates (list, grid, featured catalog).
Can't you already do this with a normal products listing module and the current plugin ? I'm not following you. A HikaShop content module can already be configured in a list or grid, and you can select the item layout, and customize it via the Display>Views menu if necessary to move or remove elements with the view builder interface. And the current MP3 preview plugin should be able to add the MP3 interface to each product of the module too.
Inline preview/play button directly on product listings and modules.
This is already the case with the current version of the MP3 preview plugin. This was added 2 months ago when you requested it. Is that not working ? Did you properly configure the listing position setting of the plugin ?
Custom metadata fields for tracks (genre, tempo, artist, author).
The library we're using has an issue with the metadata when slicing MP3 files. Because of this, the plugin has to remove the metadata from the MP3 files. I've reported the issue to the developer in 2023:
github.com/falahati/PHP-MP3/issues/14
Unfortunately, I'm not a specialist of the MP3 format and I don't know how to fix this. Maybe using another library might help but the solutions are scarce. I've tested several solutions listed here
stackoverflow.com/questions/1404969/auto...imming-an-mp3-in-php
but besides the falahati/PHP-MP3 library, the others had more issues or were impractical.
Improved user flow for quick browsing and listening, closer to modern streaming platforms.
I'm sorry but this is too vague. The MP3 preview plugin is not meant to emulate Spotify.
Now, having something like
bestaddon.com/product/ba-audio/
, with a custom javascript MP3 player with playlist support is outside the scope of this plugin.
Having an MP3 player with playlist that could somehow integrate with the products and the MP3 preview plugin is not impossible, but it's a lot of work, especially if you want multiple catalog styles. And it would have to be done as a module or another plugin which could override normal products listings with its own interface. Frankly speaking, I'm not too keen on spending weeks developing something this involved and having only a handful of merchants really interested in purchasing it for a couple dozen euros.