So, I'm trying to implement a solution to a problem that I posted on superuser.
What I'm trying to do
I want to write a (Windows) application to synchronize podcast subscriptions in iTunes (and possibly iPhone/iPod touch apps, though I'll ignore them for now) between multiple computers that are using the same iTunes account.
How I'm planning on doing it
My initial thought was to do the following:
1) Grab the list of all podcast subscriptions from iTunes on computer A
2) Do some synching, giving new podcast urls to a program on computer B
3) Subscribe to the new podcasts in iTunes with computer B
I think I could do all this by parsing the ITL file, which is where subscription information seem to be stored. I haven't been able to find any documentation for this, though.
Maybe I'm going about this wrong and using the iTunes COM interface would be a decent way to grab the list of subscribed podcasts (step 1) and then subscribing to them (step 3). Is there a smarter way to go about doing this?
Summary
Before I reinvent the wheel, is there already a solution for synching podcast subscriptions among multiple computers?
What is the most appropriate method for grabbing a list of podcasts that iTunes is subscribed to?
What is the most appropriate method of subscribing iTunes to new podcasts?
As a note, I e-mailed Apple's Developer Support with pretty much the same questions, but apparently asking questions about documentation/API doesn't count as technical support.
Thanks,
On OS X there is no way to get iTunes' list of podcasts. You can ask for podcast tracks (and kind of arrange them by album name), but iTunes will not tell you anything about the actual podcasts themselves (URLs, status, name etc.).
I have zero experience of iTunes on Windows, but I'd be very surprised if the API were more comprehensive than the OS X one.
Related
iTunes has stopped updating this podcast because you have not listened to any episodes recently ...
Has anyone found a workaround for this annoyance with iTunes for the PC? I listen to podcasts with rockbox, so podcasts are never updated in iTunes, and I have to manually tell iTunes to resume updating my many podcast subscriptions.
I've read this is in-built, but perhaps some clever readers of this post have come up with a way to fool iTunes (a script temporarily changing the system date, a hack to some iTunes control file or script, etc.).
Thx.
I'm playing around to make an app that lets people stream cartoons that I make. It's a very simple app, one ImageView is just loading in a html-homepage in a UIWebView. Witch contain links to .mov files. So if you tap them a movie will start playing. This is because I just want to update the html-file with new cartoons every week.
Is this an "ok" way to do things code:ing-wise? Or am i obligated to us some Objective-c streaming functions?
Is there a specific file-type that i have to use in the movie-files on the server?
Is the HTML static in your app, or does it point to a server? If it's the former, you may be able to get the app approved doing it the way you suggested, depending on the reviewer. If it's the latter, you're unlikely to get it approved by apple.
They tend to frown upon web sites bundled into apps, and will tell you to simply make your website usable with the phone. See section 2.12.
My suggestion is to spend a bit more time and offer iOS users a better - and more immersive - experience than is available via the web. As I'm sure you've found, there are many built-in ways to stream movies and to present them in a manner that surpasses a web-page-like experience.
I want to make the podcast player on our website register plays with iTunes, to get a better ranking on iTunes. I figured this could be possible if iTunes provided an iTunes URL for every episode, but I cannot find one. I've tried looking at the search/lookup API, but it seems to me it doesn't output individual episodes.
Anyone know if this is possible? Registering/tracking plays to iTunes.
iTunes does not provide usage or download statistics. See their explanation from http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/specs.html#tracking :
Please note that iTunes does not provide usage statistics, because we do not host feeds or episodes. Some podcasters have created
mechanisms for tracking the number of times that each episode has been
downloaded.
If the goal is to get better ranking, encourage your podcast listeners to subscribe, review, and rate for your podcast. Those things are more visible in the iTunes store and to potential new listeners & subscribers.
If you are using a CMS like WP there are plenty of plugins that will give you the analytical data that iTunes (stitcher et al) dosn't provide.
of course, all itunes does is provide a nifty UI for listeners to find your cast; it PLAYS off of your site. I wasn't satisfied with the "popularity bar" on my 'cast...cuz the what is it popular relative to? other casts in same category? all of them? ...
anyway I was already using "seriously simple podcasting" - a wp plugin to properly config my 1400x1400 jpg, my cast and all its meta-data so itunes could
crawl & play it.
make no mistake, this is not a plug; just the way I found that works easy; they have a tracking plugin as well - it tells me number of unique downloads and whether the users are using mobile or desktop to access (not much but way better than nothing) - number of downloads was mainly what I wanted to know.
As for improving your ranking; max-out quality and quantity, make it something people (not just in your specific peer group) would WANT to listen to. Same deal for blogs, be funny, be informative, be creative, be unique, be scandalous, above all BE INTERESTING or your newest listener won't rate, subscribe, or even comeback. QUALITY is the only legit SEO for pages, 'casts, etc.
Do you guys know any API that provides access to episode air time? I want to make a little app that will remind me of episodes coming out from my favorite shows. (Something like a rss feed of what episodes came out since my last check.
(Feel free to link me to an existing app if existing).
http://thetvdb.com/ does that. Alot of larger projects, such as XBMC use it as their main API for such things.
FYI the API can be found here
We want to write a Windows/OS X app that sends podcast ratings info from an iPod and iTunes back to a server. Two questions:
Is there documentation for how ratings data are stored in iTunes,
if a user has iTunes set to auto-delete programs he has heard, is there a way to capture the ratings data before it's gone?
I doubt there is an official spec on the data file format, but you can find rating info in the "iTunes Music Library.xml" file in the iTunes directory. Look for a key called "Rating" with an integer value from 0 to 100. It won't be there if the user hasn't rated the item. For example, a 4-star rating will have a value of 80.
itunes stores its Music Library data and Ratings in an XML file on the user's machine. In windows its located in the "Music" or "My Music" folder.
You can open the "iTunes Music Library.xml" file and look for the Rating element to see what the user rated each song. Since its XML, it's pretty self-explanatory. That should be pretty easy to open and parse from the program you're writing.
I think iTunes doesn't remove the podcasts from its xml file until the program is closed. You should be able to grab that rating data as long as itunes is still open.
In addition to the xml file, there is also a COM interface that will give you access to all of the library info, including the rating for each song. The SDK is documented.
I don't know what language you want to use, but I have used the C# to interface with iTunes and it was very smooth.
You can download the SDK at http://developer.apple.com/sdk/