I am hoping others will find this useful enough to want to help push it further - I love music in my shop and started developing this so we can have one central music server connected to our shops speaker system, but every computer in the shop can control it. Quite a few of the basics are in order so you should be able to use it as is…but this application could be so much more! Anyone up for helping develop it further?
If it is all the same to everyone wishing to contribute I would like to be the Project Leader. For more details on the existing project and source code visit http://www.beebeography.com/remoteitunes/index.html.
It is so appropriate to initiate this project here as I have already recieved help from so many people at MacScripter, specifically code from Jonathan Nathan and Mark Bogdanoff, that I found from this site, aided in a few wonderful features.
The software Template:
Application Name: Remote iTunes (please advise if this is already in use.)
Abstract:
Remote iTunes is a remote control for iTunes that allows the user to control a remote computer’s iTunes application as if they were using iTunes itself. This enables one iTunes server, one central sound system, to be contolled by any number of networked compuers. The goal is to reproduce as many features of iTunes as possible. And, this application should serve as a means to update/change the remote iTunes library - the user can upload new tracks, sync the remote iTunes with their local version (to duplicate playlists, library content, and make sure track data like ratings will be transfered with the tracks). I would like it to adhere to the iTunes look and feel as closely as possible for ease of use.
I want to clarify that this is not intended to be an application to connect to any computer, just ones you know the login/password for - just like connecting from the Finder. You will not be able to pirate music by stealing it from the remote computer, nor will you be able to gain access to the computer if you do not already have access to it.
Existing features include:
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Basic music control - playing, stopping, next/previous, playlist viewing/creating/deleting
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Current playlist search by Genre, Artist, Title, or All in a search-as-you-type search field
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Complete equalizer control
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Repeat & Random control per playlist, and a few more…
New features still to be added:
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Table views that behave more like the real iTunes - ability to sort the playlist table view and still keep it synced with the remote computer so it behaves correctly - so that the current track is marked correctly, when double clicking a track the correct track will actually play, when dragging tracks onto new playlists the correct tracks are added - I believe this can be done better in future versions by using the data base id number of the remote tracks. Ability to display/hide columns as the user wishes?
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Adding tracks to the server computer from your computer - preferably a drag and drop operation - that will initiate a transfer of the files and add them to the remote library.
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A sync feature to update the remote iTunes with the local iTunes data - for example: playlists can be synced that will a) create the playlists on the remote computer b) upload the tracks c) add them to the playlists.
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Better & more thorough user-defaults support.
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Customize the look and feel of certain UI elements by custom OBJ-C classes - like column headers and the track progress diamond. The tables could be re-done to look metallic like itunes. The track progress could be a sub-classed slider so we could drag it to update track position (just like iTunes).
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Re-create the browser for the Library.
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Check boxes to enable/disable selected tracks
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Better error handling when network errors occur.
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Allow for editing of track data (partially in the works now)
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Smart playlist building? This would ROCK!
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The ability to remember previous iTunes servers
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The ability to create folders of Playlists like iTunes 5 can, and remember these when re-connecting to the server
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The abiltiy to sync an iPod connected to your local computer with the Server so you can bring in new music and upload it from the iPod easily
14+) Any other feature(s) that iTunes has that this remote lacks … what would you like to see?
Are you Providing the GUI? - Yes, for any missing GUI elements
look to iTunes for examples.
– Version of XCode Tools used.
Tiger - XCode 2.1
Dependencies on other Applications?
iTunes 4 or 5 (earlier versions might work…have never tried)
First Responder(s)
Your ideas and help are welcome!
jONATHAN bEEBE
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