Music and iTunes Library Plugin Setup details

[Nephelyn]

This will probably go on the wiki once the release is ready to rock but here is a short description of the usage.

1) Click play on folder or file or main menu entry for more options (sorry non standard mce remote does not contain this option yet).
2) The plugin can read an iTunes xml library and/or normal music library.
3) It will make use of backdrop and folder like MB currently handles it.
4) There is a c:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\Plugins\MusicPlugin.xml that gets create on first run, will discuss options below. Once this is create MB needs to be closed, changes made to it.
5) Normal music library can be specified with a normal vf file or via the config in point 4.
6) The plugin makes use of MC's normal player.
7) The plugin does NOT read tags at all, it is too slow.
8) Currently only mp3, acc and wma (wpl, discussed later) are supported.
9) iTunes library, if specified will be read in once until it changes.
10) On change of modify date of iTunes library MB will request to reload the library, after which it is read from cache.
11) iTunes library loading can take anywhere from 5seconds plus depending on the size, 400gigs took 30 seconds or something.
12) If normal library loaded via config (point 4) icons on main menu and multiple directories not supported for now.
13) Icons for iTunes on main menu not supported yet.
14) When you rebuild the itunes library it needs access to the internet to get the xml definition from the apple website.
15) Playlists created and saved with the MC music player are saved to a default location (special folder music/playlists) this can be accessed via the plugin see below.
16) Icons or a image for a song can be specified, see below.

Config file discussion:
On first run it will create a xml config file in the same directory as the plugin, which is usually c:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\Plugins\MusicPlugin.xml
Then you need to close MB, and edit the config file
Default is:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Settings>
<Setting ShowGenreIniTunesLibrary="True" /> = Will show genre in itunes library so true results in genre/artist/ablum
<Setting ShowArtistIniTunesLibrary="True" /> = Will show Artist in itunes library so true results in artist/ablum - if ShowGenreIniTunesLibrary and
ShowArtistIniTunesLibrary are false it will show only Album.
<Setting LoadiTunesLibrary="False" /> = Load the Itunes library specified below.
<Setting iTunesLibraryXMLPath="usually something like c:\Users\ _UserName_ \Music\iTunes\iTunes Music Library.xml" /> = itunes xml library
<Setting RefreshiTunesLibrary="False" /> = Force a refresh on next load, will still request, if yes then reload library and set this to false
<Setting iTunesVirtualFolderName="iTunes Library" /> = The virtual folder name in MB
<Setting LoadNormalMusicLibrary="False" /> = Load normal music library specified by MusicPath
<Setting MusicMBFolderName="Music Library" /> = The virtual folder name in MB
<Setting MusicPath="C:\music" /> = Path of music to load into MB
<Setting InitialPath="C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\StartupFolder\..\ImageCache" /> = You should never change this, if you do it will just change back - kind of for office use
<Setting SongImage="" /> = An image to use for songs in MB
<Setting ShowPlaylistAsFolder="True" /> = Will show a playlist folder that will point to the default place where play lists are saved by MC
<Setting PlayListFolderName="_Playlists" /> = Folder name of playlists in MB
</Settings>


Any questions? Oh and i don't know when the next release is.

[jcalton88]

Any questions? Oh and i don't know when the next release is.

Haha, smart to put that in. Looks good, is it in the trunk yet? I may have to grab it and try it out, :ugeek:

[Nephelyn]

Yes on the trunk ...

[craigt]

Wow, seriously cool... will be setting it up tonight.

[jcalton88]

I thought the two of you were related? Figured CraigT would have had insider info to this prior to everyone else, :shock: :lol:

[Nephelyn]

Yip he is my brother, but we don't live together :) and those changes happened in a night.

[jcalton88]

Haha, guess things happen too fast sometimes, lol.

[artbatista]

I keep getting this error:




Any ideas?

This is with the latest trunk (1370)

I can't find an error log anywhere.

Happens when I try the itunes library or the regular library.

Here is my config:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Settings>
<Setting ShowGenreIniTunesLibrary="True" />
<Setting ShowArtistIniTunesLibrary="True" />
<Setting LoadiTunesLibrary="False" />
<Setting iTunesLibraryXMLPath="usually something like c:\iTunes\iTunes Music Library.xml" />
<Setting RefreshiTunesLibrary="False" />
<Setting iTunesVirtualFolderName="iTunes Library" />
<Setting LoadNormalMusicLibrary="True" />
<Setting MusicMBFolderName="Music Library" />
<Setting MusicPath="C:\music" />
<Setting InitialPath="C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\StartupFolder\..\ImageCache" />
<Setting SongImage="" />
<Setting ShowPlaylistAsFolder="True" />
<Setting PlayListFolderName="_Playlists" />
</Settings>

Art

[jcalton88]

Works fine for me, but a suggestion to fix your problem...

Change:
<Setting iTunesLibraryXMLPath="usually something like c:\iTunes\iTunes Music Library.xml" />
(its the sixth line in the config.xml)

Change that to the path of your Itunes xml file. I don't think MB recognizes the "usually something like" part :D :D :D

Or if you are using the regular library, try changing line 11 to reflect the path to your music folder.

[artbatista]

Tried with the proper path to the itunes xml file and with the proper path to the reg library too.

I think this is something else, inmediately after the error MB closes and dumps me back at the main menu.

Tried on two different machines and still nothing. Could someone be kind enough to post a working xml file for the plugin?

Maybe I am being dense and missing something really simple.

Here I disabled the regular library and enabled the itunes library. I have checked the path names and all seems proper.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Settings>
<Setting ShowGenreIniTunesLibrary="True" />
<Setting ShowArtistIniTunesLibrary="True" />
<Setting LoadiTunesLibrary="True" />
<Setting iTunesLibraryXMLPath="c:\iTunes\iTunes Music Library.xml" />
<Setting RefreshiTunesLibrary="True" />
<Setting iTunesVirtualFolderName="Music" />
<Setting LoadNormalMusicLibrary="false" />
<Setting MusicMBFolderName="Music Library" />
<Setting MusicPath="C:\music" />
<Setting InitialPath="C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\StartupFolder\..\ImageCache" />
<Setting SongImage="" />
<Setting ShowPlaylistAsFolder="True" />
<Setting PlayListFolderName="_Playlists" />
</Settings>


The plugin won't launch from MediaBrowser, but I can go the regular MCE music library icon and I can access the itunes library from there. It just refuses to launch from MediaBrowser. I think something is messed up with the registry key that MB looks to launch it.

Art