Well my word was in danger if I didn’t release this before the new year arrives 😀 so here it is, Version 0.4 of iTuny the Launchy companion to control your iTunes from the confort of your keyboard.
So what’s new on this version… well 5 new features and some bug fixes from the previous version 0.3 so let’s get this straight.
New Features:
- PrevAlbum and NextAlbum (this code is from jarethbone so the credit goes to him, i just added a message to tell you the info)
- Artwork on the Track info window, this is something i’m just testing so please let me know if you like it this way or the other way. I changed the tooltip version of the Track info to a window that auto disappears after an amount of time. This window contains the same info as the tooltip version + the artwork. so to call this just do the same as before iTunes Track. The tooltip version is still there but now to call it you have to type iTunes info and the tooltip version will appear.
- Art, this is a window with just the artwork. That’s all. It disappears after an amount of time.
And finally but not less the feature that I love (I hope you will), the TAG feature (as suggested by Rob here at my blog).
The Tag feature let’s you do that. Tag the current playing song. By now it lets you tag the next fields:
- Name
- Artist
- Album
- Composer
- DiscNumber
- Genre (Rock, HardRock, Pop, etc…)
- Grouping
- PlayedCount
- Track (this is the Track number)
- Year (4 digit)
- VolumeAdjustment (from -100 to 100)
To use it just type:
- iTunes Tag > name “multispace name”
- iTunes Tag > name singlespacename
After sometime typing it you could use itag or tag and launchy will recognize this as your preferred action for that word.
Fixed Bugs:
- Problem with Main Music playlist (Musik) in German . Reported by Lakriz
- Problems with the installer, in some cases it wouldn’t create the links correctly.
The RAR (556k) contains:
- iTunes Control.exe
- iTunes.ico
- iTunes Control.au3 (source code)
- NA.jpg (the no artwork image)
To install it just double click the iTunes Control.exe and the installer will popout.
By some reason Avast Antivirus is giving me false positives on all autoit scripts, so don’t be fooled this script is safe, contains NO virus, trojan or any other malware. The source code is on the package for you to see.
Hope you like the changes, and comments are always welcomed.
Update: 0.4.5
This fix an issue with the Query function that in some iTunes installations returns nothing every time.
Thanks Sebastián.
Download: 0.4
Previous versions: 0.1(vbscript), 0.2(vbscript), 0.3(autoit exe)
Sourceforge Thread
Launchy Website
hey, thanks for your work.
i can sense that the features that provided are really great, but i can’t figure out how to install it, could you mind explain it a bit? (exe locations and link locations)
Well Tommy, for you to install iTuny you have to double click the iTunes Control.exe after that you choose the locations for the exe and the links.
there are 3 options for each part. You can install the exe in almost any part of your harddrive and the links got to be on a folder that launchy is watching.
if you are using XP or 2000 you can install the exe and links on the Launchy Utilities folder, if you are using Vista try to install the exe on another folder outside program files and the links can be anywhere.
Just select the locations on the dialog box that appears after you double click the iTunes Control.exe
Hope this helps you to install it.
I really appreciate the work you’ve put into these scripts, it really makes using iTunes that much easier for me. I do have two requests:
A way to set the delay before a window or tooltip disappears
In the Track Info tooltip, always have 5 blocks, but some of them would be stars, others not. This would make it easier to tell a particular track’s rating at a glance. I.e.,
3 stars (* * * . .)
4 stars (* * * * .)
… etc.
Thanks again!
M
Thanks for the comment M. 🙂 i appreciate it.
I’ll take your request and note them down for the mext release of iTuny.
Glad you like it.
Im using Vista, and it says it was installed correctly, however when I run the Exe file the install window pops up. how do you use this plug in?
well, first of all Thanks Sebastian for using this plugin. Now this is a link based plugin, this means that in order to use this application you have to use the links that the installer creates and an application launcher like launchy.
Launchy indexes the .lnk files that the installer creates and then on launchy you type the command you want to execute.
I.E.:
This is the complete list of features:
all can be accessed after Launchy rebuilds its index and includes the newly created links.
the latest items starting from Art are described in this blog post.
hope this helps and enjoy iTuny 🙂
feel free to give suggestions and comments.
Thank you! Awesome! it works perfectly! the only one I have not been able to use is “Query”, but I guess I will get it.
Thanks again!
Excellent job!
Hi, have you had any luck getting this working with Launchy 2.0 yet?
Actually I’m using it with launchy 2.0 in my laptop, as it’s not really a plugin and more a companion I didn’t have to port it to 2.0
What problems are you having?
If I attempt to do iTunes play for instance it gives an AutoIt Error that says Line -1: Error: Variable must be of type “Object”.
That’s weird… I got that error long ago when testing Launchy Alpha and Beta and by some reason if I installed Launchy 2.0 and even closing Launchy 1 i got the same error.
I thought it was the iLike sidebar that caused the problem because if I disabled it iTuny worked correctly, but after disabling Lanchy 1 from starting at start and a fresh reboot the error corrected itself.
Have you tried that?
I don’t have iLike installed. I tried a reboot and that didn’t do anything.
Are you on Windows Vista? another way it can do that is if you have iTuny installed on the Utilities directory, i haven’t managed to make it work on that directory on any Vista machine. I myself have iTuny installed on the Documents directory and the links are over the start menu.
Are you using the latest version of iTuny? if don’t try using the v0.4, but if you do have the latest version please tell me your system enviroment in order to reproduce the error so I can fix it.
Thanks for your patience and interest in iTuny.
I am running XP SP2 with iTuny 0.4 and Lanchy 2.0 . I tried installing in the start menu instead (after completely removing it) but I get the same errors.
Thanks for helping me with this, I look forward to using your software.
mmm That’s much more weird to me… :S the only answer that I see is a problem with the iTunes installation, the error is because it cannot create the iTunes Application Object, so maybe iTunes is not properly registered on your system… :S
Another question, have you installed any iTunes plugin? if you do have a plugin installed the plugin worked right?
Thanks.
It works! I repaired the iTunes installation using the itunes installer and the commands are fine now. Thanks!
Can you explain how the query command is supposed to work? Are tracks meant to appear in launchy as you type or in a playlist created in iTunes?
Great news!! 😀
I’m Glad it Worked 🙂
The query function is meant to search and display the songs on a playlist in iTunes. This is mainly because is not a properly said Launchy plugin and the results cannot be integrated with launchy itself. 🙁
By now that’s how it works. 🙂
iTunes query | “Satellite”
And iTuny creates a new iTunes playlist called iTunyResults where it puts all the results it got from your search query. 🙂
Hope you find iTuny useful and pleasant to use,
Any comments and/or suggestions are welcome.
I just installed ituny and tried to search for an audiobook. I’m afraid that it won’t find it… I’m guessing it is a bug.
Anyway, thanks a bunch for making this!
Actually, I think I figured out the problem. It seems that ituny only searches the itunes music folder while I have my music throughout the my music folder.
thanks first of all for this plugin its awesome.
any idea why the volume control wont work?
i mean mute is fine for now but ya know…volume control would be awesome
I just instally this and first of all this is great!
but i cant figure out how to rate a tune, any help?
Great plugin! Thanks!
Hey, excellent plugin…. but I can’t get the query function to work… I have all my music divided in folders inside “My Documentsmy musiciTunesiTunes Music”… is there anything I can do?
Just a quick question. How to I rate my songs through the application. At the moment it brings up a little dialogue box saying “iTiny :: Message New Rate:” but fades away quickly and doesn’t do anything else.
I’m not sure what keys i should be pressing.
Everything else works fine though!
Thanks in advance
Brian… when the song is playing, type itunes rate in launchy, then press tab and type a number from 1 to 5, the enter
Thanks a million for that. It didn’t help that I had Launchy set to fade out after selecting a short cut…it was there but I couldn’t see it!!!
Awesome plug-in by the way.It’s something that was really needed. Looking forward to your next project…!
Thanks Sebastián for the help.
Brian thanks for using iTuny.
I want to do something similar for winamp, but actually I’m short in time.
I hope to post my new work on here.
No problem… any idea why query isn’t working for me? I get the message:
“couldn’t find any tracks with your search query”
and if I use Itunes Track I get:
“error: unknown function name”
Everything else works fine..
That’s weird Sebastián. Would you please tell me if the command iTunes Info command works?
What language is your iTunes on?
Yes… Itunes Info works… I’m using Itunes 7.6.2.9 in english
The folder structure of my library is this:
My DocumentsMy MusiciTunesiTunes Music
Let me see if i can replicate the issue.
I have iTunes 7.6.0.2 I’ll update right now.
It’s weird but the 0.4 version could have some issues with the library in the new version of iTunes.
Let me see.
Thanks.. I’ll be checking regurlarly to see if you come up with something…
Thanks Sebastián but I have a sad story…
I Updated to 7.6.2.9 and suddenly the whole iTunes COM interface broke away.
Something happened with the update through the Apple Update Software that broke my iTunes install.
I have tried to fix this thing but I had no luck 6 install/uninstall cycles didn’t helped.
If you know a way to fix this would be really helpful, because right now I’m getting really frustrated with iTunes.
omg… well, I had similar issues some time ago and what I did was uninstall itunes, quicktime and anything that could be apple related… and then installed itunes again… hope that helps…
Thanks Sebastián, I’ll try that. Hope this helps ’cause it’s getting really frustrating and annoying.
I’ll keep you informed.
I have found what happened with the Query function, the library was instantiated in the wrong way.
You could download the latest version from here:
http://dev.idgrouponline.com/Launchy/iTuny_0.4.5.rar
I keep getting this error in WinXp SP2:
I couldn’t install iTuny on the specified location.
If you are using Windows Vista, try executing the exe as Administrator.
Can I just copy the .exe to where it needs to go?
Actually yes, the problem with the manual installation is that the links that do the calling to ituny with the defined commands have to be created manually too.
You can use the readme to see the commands that iTunes Control receives to create the links.
But actually it’s really weird that the installer is not working… where are you trying to install the exe and the links?
for some reason the installer didn’t work for me… if i double click on the exe, nothing happens.. on another machine it worked perfectly.. and also, the 3.0 version worked fine for me! i’m using it right now… just thought i’d let you know! 3.0 seems to suit me well for now! =)
ps. great work!
Thanks Guru for the comment.
It’s really weird that the 0.4 version didn’t worked, I’m about to release version 0.5 with some new features.
That’s awesome! I hope 0.5 works! =) The problem with 0.4 is probably my machine, which is all messed up. Do you have an ETA on 0.5?
ETA? O_o
Estimated time of arrival =) like, do you know when it would be released?
And also, i’m very sad today! I updated my itunes yesterday, and today when i tried to use ituny with it (remember, version 3.0) it gave me an error =/. The error:
Line -1:
Error: The requested action with this object failed.
Correcting:
i meant version 0.3 ^^
Now I just tried installing 0.45 again and did not suceed…
Is it possible to just put the files in the launchy folders? Would it work? If so, could anyone send me the files? The installer does not work for me =/
well, i’ve downgraded my itunes and it seems to be working fine! let’s hope it stays that way until 0.5 is here! =)
How do you uninstall/remove iTuny? Thanks!