iTunes for windows

Alex Tweedly alex at tweedly.net
Tue Dec 20 17:47:30 EST 2005


Scott Rossi wrote:

>Recently, Thomas McGrath III wrote:
>  
>
>>I have a project that involves iTunes. I want to extract locally a
>>users playlists and song/podcast list from their computer and do some
>>things in Rev. I then want to put/import some content back into iTunes.
>>
>>I figure I can use Applescript on the Mac but I don't know about
>>iTunes for Windows. Is anyone familiar with doing things like this on
>>Windows?
>>    
>>
>
>  
>
>>What are the options available? On the extraction side can I use an
>>output from iTunes? Is there an XML file etc.?
>>
>>On the importing side is it acceptable to just ask the user to drop/
>>import a folder into iTunes from my output? Or is there a way to send
>>a command to iTunes to tell it to do the import?
>>
>>I am just starting this project and any and all help or input is
>>greatly appreciated.
>>    
>>
>
>As Sims suggested, you might be able to parse an XML file to get what you
>need.  If you're looking to *talk* to iTunes, you need to use COM, according
>to Apple.  An SDK is here:
>http://developer.apple.com/sdk/itunescomsdk.html
>
>If you build an external, please let me know.  I've been interested in this
>for months.
>  
>
I knew an external was beyond me, so I built a "proof-of-concept" web 
server. It's written in Python, using the COM interface (i.e. Windows 
specific). For now it implements only a few commands:
   version    - returns a version string
   stop        - stops the server
   backTrack - go to previous track
   nextTrack - skip to next track
   getCurrentTrack - get info on track currently playing
                 track number, duration (seconds) and track name - 
separated by ":"
   getCurrentTrack?all - get ALL info on track currently playing
                 attribute name : attribute
   getLibrary - returns album/artist/track for everything in the Library 
playlist (":" separated)
   addFile?pathname - adds the file (or folder of files) <pathname> to 
the library playlist.

If you want to try it (and have Python installed on your windows 
machine), you can find it at
http://www.tweedly.net/RunRev/iTunesHTTP.pys

If you haven't got Python, you can download it (and the Windows COM 
interface) at
http://www.python.org/2.4.2/

If you don't want to install Python but want to play with this, let me 
know and I'll build an executable and put it up on my site. And if there 
is a specific other command you'd like to be supported, just let me know 
and I can add them (assuming the COM interface supports it, and assuming 
I can figure it out :-)

I didn't, in the end, build a Rev library - it's a set of simple URL 
calls, e.g.
   put URL ("http:127.0.0.1:7979/getCurrentTrack") into myVar
or
   put URL ("http:127.0.0.1:7979/getLibrary") into myVar
   set the itemDel to ":"
   repeat for each line L in myVar
       put item 1 of L into myTrackName
       put item 2 of L into myArtist
       put item 3 of L into myAlbum
       etc.
   end repeat
or
   put URL ("http:127.0.0.1:7979/addFile?D:/NewMusic") into myVar


-- 
Alex Tweedly       http://www.tweedly.net

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