Has anyone devised a procedure for pushing playlists from iTunes into JEmplode? I'd like to organize all my music in iTunes, and then force those playlists into the Rio Car without having to maintain duplicate and unsynchronized playlists.

I was thinking there might be a way to do this using iTunes XML or CSV export, possibly importing into JEmplode. I can massage the XML or CSV output from iTunes into any conceivable format using Crystal Reports -- that's not a concern. Just wanted to check and see if anyone had done this before I spend a few hours reinventing the wheel. Thanks!

Let us know how it goes.

There was talk of better iTunes integration, but it never really got enough support to get off the ground ... If you can export xml/csv it would be pretty trivial to import it into jEmplode.

how can you import xml/csv into jEmplode?

Well, you can't But it would be pretty easy to add it...

o.k. i see.
what do you need to do it Mr. jEmplode?
first thing is TIME, i guess!!!

doing a single mass import will not be hard ... i would just need the xml/csv format. However, doing a _second_ import after you've already done one import pretty much turns into the syncing-a-PC-and-an-Empeg problem unless you can specify the FID of the tunes to update, which you probably can't. So maybe I spoke too soon.

do you think it is possible to write an iTunes plug-in for the empeg?
i am not a programmer, so if this question is stupid, i am sorry.

I suppose anything's possible, but good luck with that one ... basically, when we solve the sync-with-PC problem, it will be easy to add iTunes import.

word!

If you can export xml/csv it would be pretty trivial to import it into jEmplode.

Take a look at the iTunes playlist file (~/Music/iTunes/iTunes\ Music\ Library.xml). It is already XML and looks pretty simple to parse. Or you could go the other way and write an iTunes plugin that uses the Java-Objective C bridge to call jEmplode functions to do that actual uploads. My gut feeling is this would actually be pretty easy (I have some vague idea of what I am talking about having once written an OS X screensaver module in ObjC/Java just to see how it worked). Howerver, iTunes doesn't support nested playlists and I wouldn't want flat playlists on my empeg so I don't really see the point. Although I guess you could use jEmplode's soup functionality to do playlists automatically.

Of course at this point I would step back and ask what the point of all this would be? It is a lot of work to do something that jEmplode already does (quite well).

-Mike

the point is one software less!

the point is one software less!

Nah, either way you would still be using jEmplode. Either to import an XML file and do the actual sync or behind the scenes as a sync engine to do the actual work (with iTunes handling the UI). I can kind of see the point if you let iTunes actually maintain your music files (store them in it's directory structure under your home directory). I wonder how many people actually do though. I have all mine on my server in a directory format (Genre/Artist/Album/Song) that mirrors how I want them on my empeg. That way they are accessible by my roommate and any other software that I want to use with them. So every once in a while I just re-add the top level directory to jEmplode and let it figure out the changes and handle the sync.

So mschrag, how modular is jEmplode at this point? Could it be used just as a synchronization library without any of the UI or ID3 stuff (putting aside for the moment if it would be worth the trouble)?

-Mike

I can kind of see the point if you let iTunes actually maintain your music files (store them in it's directory structure under your home directory). I wonder how many people actually do though.

I tried letting iTunes handle my playlist organization for a while, and it just screwed everything up. It does some things well, but I don't like the way it organizes playlists. I think emplode and jemplode are much better.

- trs

The sync libraries are totally separate ... In fact, I use those libraries in a couple different projects.

The sync libraries are totally separate

Well, that is one piece of the puzzle then. I might consider looking into the iTunes plugin angle just out of personal curiousity (I don't see it as the best solution for my needs), but I can't find any source code for an existing iTunes Device Plugin. I have the iTunes plugin SDK, but it only has sample source code for a display plugin which is totally different. Anybody know of an existing iTunes device plugin that is open source?

-Mike

you might want to wait till the next jEmplode .. things are split out a lot better .. I used those libraries in a couple other projects, so it forced me to clean up the abstractions in there. You can still do it in the current version, but it's definitely nicer in the new one.

Empeg playlists are hierarchical whereas iTunes playlists are not. I manually rearrange all my iTunes encoded music to be stored in a folder hierarchy which facilitates easy playlist creation in Jemplode (i.e., Artists\ArtistName\Album or Compilations\Classical\Composer\Album). Basically, all I am looking to do is somehow synchronize the static one-level iTunes playlists into Jemplode based on FID or some other unique identifier. It would greatly facilitate re-setting up my iPod playlists like "Workout Music" and "Asian Underground" -- both static playlists. Might be kind of nice to also be able to synchronize the Smart Playlists, too. I haven't looked into this too much yet, but I look forward to seeing what y'all come up with. :-)

Hello,

are there any news about this feature? I want to manage my music-collection at home via iTunes and have a complete backup at my empeg. Does somebody a hint or suggestion to manage this?

Regards,

Falk

I think I heard of someone using mt-daapd to manage a music collection on a linux box through iTunes. You could then use rsync to synchronize it to your empeg.

For that matter, now that I think of it, you could use rsync with cygwin on a windows box to sync your iTunes folder. Check out cwRsync I'm not sure if you could get mp3tofid to work with cygwin, but it'd be worth a shot. Anyone who's used this stuff before care to comment?

Yes, you can use rsync in conjuction with an application called mp3tofid (I believe it's written by Pim).

You can find it here. Don't ask me how to set it up, because I haven't done it myself yet. There's a readme at that link that seems pretty informational though.