Sonder VS WebNowPlaying-BrowserExtension

The date layout is inspired by Rainmeter skin Sonder

Thank you so much! :) For the taskbar customization I've used Windhawk to change the taskbar size and clock:https://windhawk.net for the taskbar docked style: https://github.com/torchgm/RoundedTB and for the topbar and widgets, I've used rain meter with this two skins(highly recommend em):https://www.droptopfour.com and https://www.deviantart.com/michaelpurses/art/Sonder-Rainmeter-skin-838147223 for the wallpaper: wallpaper engine(https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2950288512).

date and weather: https://www.deviantart.com/michaelpurses/art/Sonder-Rainmeter-skin-838147223

Sonder for the time : https://github.com/mpurses/Sonder

Weather, date and time: Sonder

I am super confused about how to use and install the webnowplaying extension. I have installed and configured rainmeter, I looked around for answers and read the readme files for both the plugin(https://github.com/tjhrulz/WebNowPlaying) and the extension(https://github.com/tjhrulz/WebNowPlaying-BrowserExtension) but I still cant understand what exactly i am supposed to do. Mainly, im wondering if I need the js file in the extensions folder for spicetify and how people are using webnowplaying by only downloading the extension. sorry if i sound erratic, its because i have been doing this for the past 6 hours and it is 3am

The webnowplaying plugin is a 3rd party plugin and what you need if you want to use an online source for music, including the online version of spotify. It requires that you have the plugin installed, have a browser extension added to your browser, and a skin that's coded to use it. Using this method offers much more functionality than the pervious one (and works with the app when you use it in conjunction with spicetify's webnowplaying extension; more below), but because it's 3rd party, when it does sometimes break, there is no guarantee if or when it will be fixed. For example, earlier this year, spotify updated its site and broke the browser extension which effective makes this method unusable with spotify unless you use spicetify as well. But, since the update was apparently released to different places at different times, there's nothing the creator can do until they get it. And, since there hasn't been any updates on the issue in months from what I've seen, for the foreseeable future, this method is only available for online sites other than spotify.

Anyways, even though I don't quite understand what exactly you're getting at, the issue might be related to a recent change to the spotify website that broke the webnowplaying plugin - which is what spicetify uses to work with rainmeter.

Webnowplaying plugin: While not technically an official part of rainmeter, it's so ubiquitous it might as well be. This plugin allows support for the online version of spotify, along with other online sites. It also provides more functionality, but for it to work you need to install a browser extension as well. Note: this only works with the online version of spotify, not the app. Unfortunately though, the spotify site has been updated recently and somewhat broken things. So, while this is a great option, it's might be best to wait if the online route is the one you want to take.

For that, you would need to update the skin to use the webnowplaying plugin and install the appropriate browser extension. Note: that means the skin will work with the online version, but not the app.

You don't really need spicetify, but you do need the webnowplaying browser extension.

A skin using webnowplaying and a browser extension, which works with the online version of spotify.

b) a skin using the webnowplaying plugin (set it to webnowplaying), the appropriate browser extension, and the online version of spotify

You don't need spicetify at all for it to work, the skin comes with what you need save the browser extension. Also, if you're trying to use the latest version of spicetify, than that's likely what's causing the issue there as I don't think it's been updated for the newest version of spotify yet.

With spotify specifically, you need to know that using spotify the app and spotify the online service are different things to rainmeter. For the app, a skin needs to use the now playing measure, of which spotify is one of the partially supported players you can use. For the online service, a skin needs to use the webnowplaying plugin and you need to install a browser extension. On top of all that, you may also need to install spicetify-cli (for help with that, please visit their community); however, it appears the latest spotify update has broken things in regards to it.