Topic: open source iPhone sync api [proposal] (Read 44739 times)

benn600 · « **Reply #100 on:** March 26, 2009, 08:35:18 pm »

A lot of people like Apple because their products are a bit different, a bit simpler, arguably a bit more thought out than other products. Who thinks that them remaining so locked up helps their business? If only everyone could boycott them and say it's because they are so uptight about everything! It's so great to see companies with products that have seemingly no restrictions beyond the technically impossible! And even then, someone could make those things possible!

It really comes down to a choice: the best desktop interface OR the best portable interface. MC/random device or iTunes/iPod. I'm not really a big portable music guy...I listen on trips or such but it's rare. My iPhone right now has no music or video on it. It's because I haven't taken a few hours to output my music to mp3 and sync [sine my last wipe and restore]...it's nice to have it but I just don't really come across a need. The two times I wanted some music recently in the past few months I just used Pandora. I think I'm just tired of all the fighting with the iInterfaces....lost the little interest I had in portable music. I won't deny that the spark returns from time to time--but each time I end up at least partially disappointed and driven further away from portable music.

gvanbrunt · « **Reply #101 on:** March 27, 2009, 04:29:10 pm »

Sorry everyone, I've been tied up for the last month and haven't been able to do anything. I should have some more time again in about 2 weeks. It shouldn't take to long to knock of a pretty big chuck of functionality then. I'll let everyone know as so as I can start again.

ThoBar · « **Reply #102 on:** March 27, 2009, 08:56:46 pm »

Cool, thanks for the update... I think there's a few people here waiting with bated breath.

Doof · « **Reply #103 on:** March 28, 2009, 10:58:54 am »

Quote from: confishy on March 27, 2009, 08:56:46 pm

Cool, thanks for the update... I think there's a few people here waiting with bated breath.

To say the least.

gvanbrunt · « **Reply #104 on:** March 28, 2009, 06:29:41 pm »

Ya I know.

I haven't forgoten about you or the plug in. I will get back to it shortly. Hang tight....

hit_ny · « **Reply #105 on:** April 11, 2009, 02:13:33 pm »

Quote from: benn600 on March 26, 2009, 08:35:18 pm

Who thinks that them remaining so locked up helps their business? If only everyone could boycott them and say it's because they are so uptight about everything! It's so great to see companies with products that have seemingly no restrictions beyond the technically impossible! And even then, someone could make those things possible!

Did you read gvanbrunt's post here ?

Of course the part that is less clear is why all of a sudden. The iTunes shop has been running for a very long time now and previous generations are not so encumbered.

Doof · « **Reply #106 on:** April 21, 2009, 09:48:17 am »

JONCAT · « **Reply #107 on:** April 21, 2009, 09:51:14 am »

Haven't had new music on my iPhone i months, too lazy to deal with iTunes and hybrid workaround (and too busy)

Hope all is well; we'll get there!

DC

gvanbrunt · « **Reply #108 on:** April 23, 2009, 04:31:14 pm »

Good news is, I'll probably be finished all the stuff that was occupying my time by the end of this weekend. So I hope to get back to the plug in next week.

gvanbrunt · « **Reply #109 on:** May 10, 2009, 10:00:18 pm »

Good news. I got to work on the plug in again. I now having it reading the files and properties off the ipod. Still a long way to go but one chunk is now working. I'll keep at it this week.

JONCAT · « **Reply #110 on:** May 11, 2009, 01:52:19 pm »

Awesome! Keep up the great work.

DC

krdavies · « **Reply #111 on:** June 01, 2009, 10:45:25 am »

Would I be being cheeky to ask how you're doing the the development? I use Media Center solely as an iPod interface and there is an element now and again of asking myself why I'm avoiding iTunes so relentlessly. Smartlists would be trickier to set up but I wouldn't have to think about whether the next iPod/iPhone I buy will work with my preferred software.

gvanbrunt · « **Reply #112 on:** June 02, 2009, 07:58:00 pm »

You're not being cheeky at all... sometimes I need a kick to notice I've been lax in letting everyone know what is going on.

If you haven't heard from me in a while, by all means give me a nudge.

So here is where we are at. I've got the plug in reading all the properties (that I know of) that the regular iPod plug in does. However it is a little slow, so I decided to look into all the other possibilities out there. They are using the iTunes dll that communicates with an iPhone directly, a native app on a jailbroken iPhone to do the dirty work, and using SSH via wireless to directly read the db, among the real possibilities. All have various shortcomings, and none is 100% reliable. So I've decided to proceed using the iTunes API which should always work. Then after that is working we can look at other possibilities.

So how slow is it? To read in 12000 tracks from my 80GB iPod takes about 30 seconds. I don't think this is computer dependant, but rather iPod dependant so I don't think this will change much on slower computers. Not that that is unreasonable, just that I was hoping for better. It shouldn't matter much during file transfers though as most of the overhead is actually moving the file, and I think that will be about as fast as it is in iTunes.

Next up is to actually move and delete files (if needed) to see how well that works. This should not take me long, hopefully I will be done on the weekend. Next I need J River to do their end and do the programming to detect the iPhone (which I think is already in there) and to load my plug in if installed.

JONCAT · « **Reply #113 on:** June 02, 2009, 08:00:47 pm »

Sounds like real progress, I'm impressed. 30 seconds for 12K......hell that ain't shabby at all! When this plug-in becomes a reality, I will be very very pleased.

hats off,
DC

zxsix · « **Reply #114 on:** June 02, 2009, 09:10:16 pm »

Now that version 14 are out, are you going to direct your efforts to that version?
I was planning on upgrading within the next couple of builds when I get back home from a work trip out of town.

glynor · « **Reply #115 on:** June 09, 2009, 12:49:16 pm »

Wow. I'm SUPER excited about this.

JONCAT · « **Reply #116 on:** June 09, 2009, 12:54:40 pm »

Me too.

Everyone now, join hands....and pray.

gvanbrunt · « **Reply #117 on:** June 18, 2009, 08:11:14 pm »

Here is an update for everyone.

First to reply to a couple of threads...

30 seconds for 12k isn't too great when you compare that speed to JR's ipod implementation... that takes seconds...

Still not too bad.

As for MediaCenter 14, I'm going to concentrate on 13, but it should work in either unless JR is planning on changing the interface, but I doubt they will. I was actually working with it on 12 that I had as a side by side installation. More on the 12 thing below.

So what have I been up to? Well last I posted I said I would probably get a basic working implementation going by the weekend. I was just getting around to it when I noticed my soundcard was crackling like it used to during the early days of Vista (Creative Labs anyone?) Anyhow, I thought I had better quickly update my driver. Quick was not exactly how it worked out.

During the install it BlueScreened and after that my OS was pooched. Weirdest thing I ever saw and I do this for a living. As soon as I tried to use DirectSound the driver would crash. Along with it would take down other soundcard related services like... Parental Controls? Are you kidding me? That takes out the entire network when it's down. Needless to say, after 3 hours, I decided to rebuild from scratch.

So I have been working with Windows 7 to some degree at work and from that experience and the other info on the net I decided to slap the RC on due to its stability. It has been rock solid and fast so far... Anyway I spent a couple of days of re-installing a pile of development software and transferring files over to a new drive the Win 7 is on. Then I deleted a pile of software on the old drive to make room and I was ready to go. I complied my first build and tried to run a debug session in MC12. I had that installed side by side with 13 so I could develop on one and use the other. Anyway, it didn't load the plug in. Nothing in DebugView, etc. I thought my Visual Studio settings were messed up during the transfer so I played around with them. No luck. I copied the last build I had from Vista to the new MC12 directory. No luck there. Was this in Win 7 issue?

Luckily I still had my screwed up install of Vista so I booted into that and MC12 loaded the plug in no problem. So I moved a copy of the new build over. It worked as well. So maybe this is a Windows 7 issue? I tried the plug-in in 13 on Win 7, and low and behold it works. Weird. MC12 will work with JR’s iPod plug in but not mine, and everything else works normally. Yet mine works in Vista MC12, Vista MC13 and Win 7 MC13. Considering that MC12 is a fresh install, I really can’t explain why it didn’t work.
During all this I had two major Phone System outages at work (I’m responsible for the VoIP systems there) so that took what was left of my free time.
Now the good news. I finally got to working on it again and have been doing some experimenting with correlating files between MC and ITunes. This weekend I will probably have a basic version working. I promise not to try to re install my sound card...

gvanbrunt · « **Reply #118 on:** June 24, 2009, 08:53:05 pm »

IT'S ALIVE!

I was able to dump @12000 tracks to my 80GB ipod. There are still a ton of things to do, so don't get too excited. Most importantly JRiver has to do their part to get iphone detection part done. In the mean time I'm going to make it read in a file that will contain the "PersistantID" of my iphone. I can then attach both the iPod and the iphone. MC will detect the iPod and load my custom dll and then it will in turn actually update the iPhone. There is still a lot to do. A short list is:

- handle more library fields.
- handle cover art
- handle conversions
- handle more of the options from the handheld dialog

At any rate I'm sure some of you will be happy to see some progress...

bwaldron · « **Reply #119 on:** June 25, 2009, 01:24:33 pm »

Quote from: gvanbrunt on June 24, 2009, 08:53:05 pm

At any rate I'm sure some of you will be happy to see some progress...

Definitely!

neFAST · « **Reply #120 on:** June 25, 2009, 03:28:51 pm »

Great news!

lOth · « **Reply #121 on:** June 26, 2009, 09:50:04 pm »

Quote

don't get too excited

too late...

neovibe · « **Reply #122 on:** June 27, 2009, 02:28:06 pm »

Just want to show my support for this project as MC is the only way I can manage a library of flac+cue and I should be getting an iphone 3GS.

Is there any intended features list for this?
And just a couple of questions, probably too soon for these but I can't resist:
- how will it handle flac+cue (converts to track by track mp3 album? where to? keeps it in a separate library?)
- how will it handle mp3+cue (cuts losslessly in mp3 tracks or re-compresses as it cuts?)

just my curiosity and excitement with this project, keep it up.
And thank you!

dcpoppy · « **Reply #123 on:** June 27, 2009, 04:30:41 pm »

I also would like to express my interest and excitement - thanks and keep up the good work!

ThoBar · « **Reply #124 on:** July 15, 2009, 01:58:15 am »

Any more good news?

Doof · « **Reply #125 on:** August 06, 2009, 05:21:01 pm »

Any update on this? Is this still an active project?

gvanbrunt · « **Reply #126 on:** August 10, 2009, 06:01:15 pm »

Hi All,

I'm sure many of you are have been wondering what happend to me. I've been busy with other projects, but I haven't stopped with this one either. I've run into a bit of a roadblock that slowed me down for sure. The problem is MC doesn't seem to be able to "match" file and tries to resync all of them. I've played around with all kinds of combinations so I'm not really sure what I'm doing wrong. I think I'm going to need someone at JRiver (You there Matt??) to give me the code (or sudo-code) that MC uses to match files.

Thanks for everyone patience.

Matt · « **Reply #127 on:** August 10, 2009, 08:16:11 pm »

Quote from: gvanbrunt on August 10, 2009, 06:01:15 pm

Hi All,

I'm sure many of you are have been wondering what happend to me. I've been busy with other projects, but I haven't stopped with this one either. I've run into a bit of a roadblock that slowed me down for sure. The problem is MC doesn't seem to be able to "match" file and tries to resync all of them. I've played around with all kinds of combinations so I'm not really sure what I'm doing wrong. I think I'm going to need someone at JRiver (You there Matt??) to give me the code (or sudo-code) that MC uses to match files.

Thanks for everyone patience.

I think you just need to be sure to fill in the artist, album, name, track #, genre, and composer when you give the files back to Media Center from the device. That way, it will be able to match them with the files in the sync.

gvanbrunt · « **Reply #128 on:** August 11, 2009, 07:56:08 am »

That may be it. Composer isn't a property of MJFileAutomation so I guess I just set it Via the Set function? I did the same thing for Date Modified as it is needed for one of the options settings.

echamp1 · « **Reply #129 on:** August 12, 2009, 02:53:52 am »

gvanbrunt, do you think there is a chance that we might see a preview build of this tool of yours? I'm eagerly anticipating your release... I have a feeling it will finally allow me to sync all of my music over to my iPod Touch by transcoding them into reasonably sized files. All the current tools available only do half the job, yours might be the end all solution we've been waiting for! Good luck getting it done, you have my support!

lOth · « **Reply #130 on:** August 12, 2009, 10:53:34 am »

gvanbrunt, I have this feeling a number of people would be willing to pay you to prioritize this project

Getting rid of iTunes is actually priceless...

gvanbrunt · « **Reply #131 on:** August 12, 2009, 09:12:04 pm »

Geez, getting paid would make me feel too much like Steve Jobs...

Seriously though; my day job has been eating up a lot of time lately. Summer also cuts into things. I wish I had more time to devote to this.

Tell you what though; I will release something as soon as I get the sync problem worked out. Keep in mind, it will only work for those that have both an iPod and & iPhone. The detection part happens in MC not the plug in, so I have to let it call the plug in when it detects an iPod, but actually load to the iPhone. JRiver will have to do their part and call the plug in when an iPhone is detected before only an iPhone is needed.

I’ll try to get it out in the next two weeks.

lOth · « **Reply #132 on:** August 15, 2009, 08:37:26 am »

Quote

I will release something as soon as I get the sync problem worked out

Yay!

Quote

it will only work for those that have both an iPod and & iPhone

Uho.

Just for the first sync or every single time?

And I assume an iPod Touch won't do.

Doof · « **Reply #133 on:** August 15, 2009, 09:33:54 pm »

Quote from: lOth on August 15, 2009, 08:37:26 am

Just for the first sync or every single time?

And I assume an iPod Touch won't do.

I'm assuming the problem is that MC won't detect the iPhone or the iTouch as a portable device and so his plugin never gets invoked. Plugging in a MC supported iPod model does trigger the plugin, though and that's why it's needed.

gvanbrunt · « **Reply #134 on:** August 15, 2009, 10:00:16 pm »

Yes exactly. Matt has stated that JR will eventually provide the detection, but currently it does not.

gvanbrunt · « **Reply #135 on:** August 27, 2009, 10:21:43 pm »

Just a quick update for everyone. I've gotten the code much more smoothed out and only have one major issue left due to a bug in the iTunes sdk. At this point I can sync files to an iPod as long as they don't require conversion. It's real basic and doesn't even do playlists yet but that isn't a big deal.

I'm going on vacation and I may have time to finish things ups to get something out. That may prompt JRiver to get their end done. A lot has gone into this up to this point so adding playlists, and other support should hopefully come out faster. Up till now a lot has been figuring out the best way to do things.

Hopefully I'll get this out soon.

echamp1 · « **Reply #136 on:** October 09, 2009, 02:07:22 pm »

We haven't heard on this front in quite some time. How is the project coming along? Any chance of a beta test version to be released?

ThoBar · « **Reply #137 on:** November 08, 2009, 07:08:00 pm »

I'm guessing this is now dead-in-the-water?

gvanbrunt · « **Reply #138 on:** November 08, 2009, 08:16:10 pm »

Sorry for not getting back to everyone in some time. Not dead in the water, but derailed a bit. I've had a lot of personal and work things pile up and had to be attended to. I will get back to this as soon as I get a chance.

neovibe · « **Reply #139 on:** November 19, 2009, 06:22:41 am »

Hi everyone.

I know the people pushing this forward are not paid for developing this and time is precious these days, but still need to ask if there has been any progress or if we can expect the most basic functionality anytime soon.

I reckon this is the "most-wished-ever" plugin for MC...

thanks all for your effort.

PS: getting my iphone soon, installed itunes and discovered why MC is the only way to go: found out you need to manually re-add you music folder to the library to update for any changes... (ok, so everyone already knew but didn't...). Pathetic....

zxsix · « **Reply #140 on:** November 19, 2009, 09:23:59 am »

neovibe: in the meantime, check out prod's MC to itunes sync utility.
not as seamless as this plugin may one day be, but it works today and it's really not much of a hassle once it's set up.

neovibe · « **Reply #141 on:** November 19, 2009, 10:07:29 am »

Quote from: zxsix on November 19, 2009, 09:23:59 am

neovibe: in the meantime, check out prod's MC to itunes sync utility.
not as seamless as this plugin may one day be, but it works today and it's really not much of a hassle once it's set up.

That can very well be all I need from a quick look I took. Only thing I need to get around that doesn't seem to be supported is the situation of cue files... thank you

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Author Topic: open source iPhone sync api [proposal] (Read 44739 times)

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