DAAP/iTunes Plugin (1 Viewer)

[brickbat]

The one posted by mpod is for bonjour. With that one, you are still communicating with itunes via the network and use of it is limited to network shares only. The one I had in mind in my original post was;

http://developer.apple.com/sdk/itunescomsdk.html

 

[mPod]

...then you misunderstood the concept, I'm afraid. What you posted now relies on iTunes. Using Bonjour does not, you can even use 3rd party servers to distribute your music (or virtually any files, even printers) via your network. Plus using the stuff I posted not only works in one way as a client, it can also act as a server, just like iTunes does.

The iTunes SDK uses iTunes. There's no point in having to use iTunes as a bridge. Also, this method is sloooooooow like hell. Not what you'd want when browsing music.

 

[simex]

...then you misunderstood the concept, I'm afraid. What you posted now relies on iTunes. Using Bonjour does not, you can even use 3rd party servers to distribute your music (or virtually any files, even printers) via your network. Plus using the stuff I posted not only works in one way as a client, it can also act as a server, just like iTunes does.

The iTunes SDK uses iTunes. There's no point in having to use iTunes as a bridge. Also, this method is sloooooooow like hell. Not what you'd want when browsing music.

AFAIK DAAP Server/Client is implemented by iTunes itself. Bonjour is Apple's implementation of mDNS and DNS-SD. (The implementation on Linux for instance is called Avahi)
iTunes uses Bonjour to broadcast the fact that it is a DAAP server. Bonjour does not implement DAAP.

The only way that I'm aware of being able to talk to iTunes 7 devices is via ... iTunes 7
The point of my plugin was that you didn't need iTunes.



The plugin is also stalled for development.
It was coming to the point where I was starting to think in terms of a generic file access system (similar to using URL protocols eg. file://c:/music.mp3 would be a local file) with plugins that register the fact that they can handle a particular protocol (eg. I would register the fact that I can do daap://mymac/playlist/4/55.mp3 for instance).
However, such a change would require some major changes for MediaPortal.
Maybe MP2 can include such a thing? Then things like ftp access, daap access and possibly upnp can be added easily and history search and sort would work without (too much) extra effort from protocol plugin developers.

Of course the other major interruption to the plugin development is that we now have a proper Windows Media Centre box hooked up to the TV now...

I'm more than happy to put up the code that I had done so far. It's not very good since it's the first ever plugin I've written for MP and I found that I needed to know most of the music system to write something that seemed so simple, which is why it became a plugin (with me re-implementing the music view, etc) rather than a plugin to music directly.

Who knows. If the other housemates get sick and tired of Media Centre crashing during Thumbnails and adding random .ehome files around the place, then I may come back to it.

I'll add a link to the code when I find it again (since I'm at linux.conf.au right now lol)

Simex

 

[vertiger]

I'm more than happy to put up the code that I had done so far. It's not very good since it's the first ever plugin I've written for MP and I found that I needed to know most of the music system to write something that seemed so simple, which is why it became a plugin (with me re-implementing the music view, etc) rather than a plugin to music directly.

Who knows. If the other housemates get sick and tired of Media Centre crashing during Thumbnails and adding random .ehome files around the place, then I may come back to it.

I'll add a link to the code when I find it again (since I'm at linux.conf.au right now lol)

i would be interessted in the DAAP Library, to add the functionality to my plugin (shoutcast directory plugin)

 

[x-cimo]

The only way that I'm aware of being able to talk to iTunes 7 devices is via ... iTunes 7
The point of my plugin was that you didn't need iTunes.

You can access the itunes 7 library (in read only) with a open source DAAP server called Firefly

So if we actually get the DAAP plugin implemented into MP, it would be possible to stream itunes music without iTunes..

Thanks for posting what you have so far

 

[simex]

The only way that I'm aware of being able to talk to iTunes 7 devices is via ... iTunes 7
The point of my plugin was that you didn't need iTunes.

You can access the itunes 7 library (in read only) with a open source DAAP server called Firefly

So if we actually get the DAAP plugin implemented into MP, it would be possible to stream itunes music without iTunes..

Thanks for posting what you have so far

No problem, I wish I had more time to devote to this

I wasn't aware that Firefly could access iTunes 7 shares - from what I saw there is a pretty convincing argument that it7 uses a weird hash system involving Certificates and other things such that without a cert it couldn't be done.
If Firefly have managed to do this, why hasn't other programs that do DAAP picked it up? It's a pretty big thing!
Or maybe files shared via firefly can be seen on it7. This would make more sense

IF we have a DAAP plugin then it will be possible to list, play and maybe download music from a iTunes share. There are many things possible (including supporting adding DAAP tracks into a playlist mixed with other tracks) that are probably only going to happen with the generic file access system (using protocol handlers such as file:// and daap://) which may mean a fairly large re-write of the way that MP accesses files and resources.
I'll see if I can make a suggestion post so it can be included in MP2 (because if you are re-writing things anyway you may as well put this kind of thing in )

I'll be able to post my code (once I find it) when I get back home from linux.conf.au
*should* be able to


Simex

 

[x-cimo]

Well as for iTunes 7 its true that its no longer possible to connect to it with 3rd party apps. The way firefly does it is by reading the iTunes Library directly and making its content available trough daap. It's not as good as if we were accessing iTunes7 directly, but its almost the same. (Except that you need firefly install.).

Sorry if I wasn't clear enough .

 

[simex]

Not a problem

Probably the best way to get around this whole issue is to use Firefly for it's UPnP support and when MP2 comes out it should All Just Work(tm).

Yes, you may have spent time setting up the best playlist of all time, but that's meaningless if Apple don't want you to play it elsewhere


Simex


I've since had a look at the MP2 Architecture documents.
DAAP and others that would have been part of the "Generic Protocol Access" or whatever I called it earlier, seem to exist as "Providers" in the new Architecture.
In other words I should be able to develop a Provider plugin that does nothing more than expose DAAP shares to the Media Manager for putting into your My Music

Three cheers for MP2!

Simex

 

[Zaarin]

Given the date of the last post, I'm assuming this project has been abandoned. Obviously the new DAAP validation has not yet been cracked... which is unfortunate - I'd love to be able to play my music from iTunes via MediaPortal. I'd especially love it to update both ways (playback count etc.)

Hmmm.... oh well...