Newbie help required: accessing iTunes track properties in Xcode

One word: ScriptingBridge .. If you can do it in AppleScript (Which you can), you can do it with the scripting bridge.


http://developer.apple.com/library/...BridgeConcepts/Introduction/Introduction.html

If you aren't keen on reading, the three major steps involve creating the iTunes.h file from your iTunes application folder using 'sdef' and dragging it into your project, which they show you precisely how to do at the link and then add the ScriptingBridge.framework

You import a few things:

Code:

#import <ScriptingBridge/ScriptingBridge.h>
#import "iTunes.h"

Then you can do something similar to this:

Code:

	iTunesApplication *iTunes = [SBApplication applicationWithBundleIdentifier:@"com.apple.iTunes"];
	
	NSLog(@"%@",iTunes.currentTrack.name);
        NSLog(@"%d",iTunes.currentTrack.rating); // Between 0 and 100

 

I created an Application where I wanted to access my iTunes library metadata. The file is stored in an XML that can be read quickly by the system. By default, the file is in '~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music Library.xml'. I used the following tidbit of code to find the file:

Code:

        NSArray *musicPaths;
        NSEnumerator *pathEnum;
        NSURL *pathURL;
        NSString *ITLPath = nil;

        // Find the iTunes Library
        musicPaths = [[NSFileManager defaultManager] URLsForDirectory:NSMusicDirectory inDomains:NSUserDomainMask];
        pathEnum = [musicPaths objectEnumerator];
        pathURL = [pathEnum nextObject];
        while ((ITLPath == nil) && (pathURL != nil))
        {
                NSString *TestPath;

                TestPath = [[pathURL path] stringByAppendingPathComponent:@"iTunes/iTunes Music Library.xml"];
                if ([[NSFileManager defaultManager] fileExistsAtPath:TestPath])
                {
                        ITLPath = TestPath;
                }
                else
                {
                        pathURL = [pathEnum nextObject];
                }
        }

At the end, the ITLPath variable should have the file name. Then to read the data, I just did:

Code:

NSDictionary *ITLDict;
ITLDict = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithContentsOfFile:ITLPath];

Look at the XML file to get an idea how the data is organized. You can do something like:

Code:

 tracksDict = [ITLDict valueForKey:@"Tracks"];

... then iterate over the Tracks in the library to build up whatever data structures you want. You can get playlist data and all kinds of stuff.

Pull out data like:

Code:

NSString *track_filename = [trDict valueForKey:@"Location"];

 

This combined with the ID3 library of your choosing seems like the best bet and is absolutely what I would do if my requirement were to use objective-C and make a native app. As you describe it however it seems like your use case is better suited to an AppleScript combined with a nice ID3 command line utility. I say this just because the C based ID3 libraries I've seen aren't the easiest things to deal with... In my opinion anyway.

 

No need to apologize, everyone starts somewhere. Unfortunately if you have an idea for something that would be useful, it's something good to strive for, because it is something you want so it might keep you interested. However, it's probably not a good "First project" because rarely can you do something useful your first go.

-Lee