HydrogenAudio

Hydrogenaudio Forum => General Audio => Topic started by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-01-08 14:19:14

Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-01-08 14:19:14
Hi All,

iTSfv – iTunes Store file validator is an add-in for iTunes. It is aimed for iTunes users who are keen on maintaining or having the goal of achieving iTunes Store file standard tags for all the tracks in their iTunes Music Library.

iTSfv has many number of visible and hidden features.

• Fill Track Count, Disc Number and Disc Count
• Fill AlbumArtist from Artist tag
• Add Artwork from explorer to tracks without embedded artwork
• Copy Folder.jpg to album folders
• Backup and restore play count and ratings
• Report tracks with missing tags (Artwork, Track Number, Lyrics etc.)
• Capitalize each word of tag and rename file accordingly
• Add new tracks to library (manually or by automatically monitoring)
• Delete unreferenced tracks from library

Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-03-10 07:18:15
I have just finished up an auto Rating system and this is how it looks in my Top 25 Most Played smart playlist.

(http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/234/itunesratingsv3lv1.th.jpg) (http://img80.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itunesratingsv3lv1.jpg)

Considering PlayedCount, Last Played Date and Date Added, what do you guys think?

Edit:

My Top Rated:

(http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/4935/itunesratingsv33topraterx9.th.jpg) (http://img100.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itunesratingsv33topraterx9.jpg)
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-03-10 20:35:54
I have just finished up an auto Rating system and this is how it looks in my Top 25 Most Played smart playlist.

(http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/234/itunesratingsv3lv1.th.jpg) (http://img80.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itunesratingsv3lv1.jpg)

Considering PlayedCount, Last Played Date and Date Added, what do you guys think?

could you explain how it works? And how did you get the .5 rating to work?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-03-10 23:02:11
Hi Jojo,

Sure; I am more than happy to explain. I thought My Rating is more like the current status how you 'feel' about the song. Our all time best songs will be always accessible in Top 25 Most Played smart playlist. Therefore giving 5 Stars for best songs will not be good idea because a month or two later that song will not deserve a 5 Star rating by you as your taste changes in favor of other songs.

So we need a system that automatically increments and decrements My Rating.

The Rating is a function of Played Count, Last Played and Date Added. The more played count, the Rating will go higher. The more days since last played, the Rating will go down. The more days since Added to library and played recently, in other words, when older songs were recently played, they will be favored more than new songs which were played recently.

If you see the screenshot, #3 Dhol Wadja with 322 played count has got a 4 Star rating. #4 Me & U with 318 played count has a got 4.5 Star Rating. Why? I haven't played Dhol Wadja since January and I have played Me & U more recently.

You will also see, #24 Me & U (Dope Remix) has got a 3.5 star rating with 148 played count where as #17 Like Glue has got only 1.5 star rating because I haven't played it since November!

I you like the idea, you are welcome to try it.

The top one is the Latest Beta:
http://wmwiki.com/downloads/itsfv/beta/?M=D (http://wmwiki.com/downloads/itsfv/beta/?M=D)

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-03-10 23:58:05
And how did you get the .5 rating to work?


5 Stars will go to the song most played Count or songs which are very close to most played count, AND played recently. 80% of the weight for the Rating comes from Last Played.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-03-11 00:31:13
I like the idea a lot since I've been fiddling around with smart playlists in order to achieve that. Anyway, does your program act as a plugin for iTunes or how does it work? Or do I have to run it each time I want the playlist to be updated.
And how did you get the .5 rating to work?


5 Stars will go to the song most played Count or songs which are very close to most played count, AND played recently. 80% of the weight for the Rating comes from Last Played.

I think you might have misunderstood my question. I wasn't aware that iTunes is able to display ratings in 0.5 increments. So I was wondering how got that to work.

later
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jens Rex on 2007-03-11 00:38:52
On a more general note, I never understood the fascination with ratings. Ratings are subjective, and only ever valid for one person - the rater, eg. myself. I already know what I like. I can look at any given song in my playlist and tell you whether I like it or not, without a rating tag.

Other than that, why would I keep music in my playlist that I don't like? If I were to rate a song 'zero' because I hate it, I might as well just delete it.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-03-11 01:09:29
I like the idea a lot since I've been fiddling around with smart playlists in order to achieve that. Anyway, does your program act as a plugin for iTunes or how does it work? Or do I have to run it each time I want the playlist to be updated.


iTSfv works as an add-on. Whenever you feel like it -- e.g. when a friend comes over and you wanna show your best picks from play lists of the past few months, (JensRex, this is why I rate) -- you run iTSfv for the library to re-evaluate the Ratings.

Indeed I had misunderstood the question. I see the . (dot) before 5 now. The 0.5 increments happens when you pro grammatically give a rating like 90/100 which interprets as 4.5 out of 5.

JensRex, on the side note, I myself collect music as full albums. Deleting a track will be the ultimate damage that could be done to my library.
iTSfv wil in factl tell me what albums are incomplete. Right Click > Logs > Albums with inconsecutive tracks.



By the way, here is another feature run down.

Here I have searched in iTunes for all tracks that has the ` instead of '

(http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/4509/itsfv46tagreplacepy4.th.jpg) (http://img241.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itsfv46tagreplacepy4.jpg)

and I am going to replace them.

Cheers.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-03-13 03:14:51
Here I have searched in iTunes for all tracks that has the ` instead of '

[a href="http://img241.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itsfv46tagreplacepy4.jpg" target="_blank"]
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-03-14 10:40:01
Glad to realize the same, Jojo.

Here is another feature run down : Decompile Album

(http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/3851/itsfvdecompilealbumqb4.th.jpg) (http://img225.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itsfvdecompilealbumqb4.jpg)

Say I have a Compilation album with different Artist tags but I want to move it to one Artist (Ministry Of Sound i n this screenshot), also preserving the Artist tag in each song.

I am going to move the Artist to Track - Artist.mp3 and move it out of Compilations. The new Artist for the track will be Ministry of Sound.

This process is captured in action in the screenshot.

Edit:

In ID3 tag point of this, for a track this is what happens.

From:

Track: Voodoo People
Artist: The Prodigy
Album: Maximum Bass 2
Compilation: True

To:

Track: Voodoo People - The Prodigy
Artist: Ministry Of Sound
Album: Maximum Bass 2
Compilation: False
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-03-16 07:56:33
#3.

Sometimes even CDDB has either CAPSLOCK or simple letters in ID3 tags.

(http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/9463/itsfvcaptilizingfirstless6.th.jpg) (http://img46.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itsfvcaptilizingfirstless6.jpg)

Within iTunes you can fix it with iTSfv > Selected Tracks > Capitalize First Letter.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: x5nder on 2007-08-23 13:44:28
Small bug report -- I hope this can be fixed in the application and that it isn't a .NET-bug:

My music is on a network drive. My iTunes-library path is \\N2100\iTunes. However, opening iTSfv gives an error that the path is invalid, probably because it isn't a local path. Is this easily fixable?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-08-23 14:19:36
Hi x5nder,

Thanks for pointing that out. It was FileSystemWatcher not accepting a Network folder as a monitor folder.

Next time you check for Updates, it should notify you the download URL for the latest build fixing the issue.

5.4.0.1 Fixed bug where music folder that is a network folder could make FileSystemWatcher crash [x5nder]
5.4.0.0 iTSfv will remove white spaces in Artist, Album and Name tags  during validation
5.3.0.1 Albums didn't show Disc Number if the Disc Count was absent
5.3.0.0 Force update Artist Folder thumbnails in music folder (useful in Windows Vista)
5.2.5.0 Added AlbumArtist statistics to Statistics window
5.2.4.0 Ability to set Compilation tag before validating tracks
5.2.3.3 Previous stats file will not be accidentally overwritten if the parsing iTunes library task was interrupted
5.2.3.2 Manually checking updates did not prompt the Update status dialog box

Cheers
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: patashnik on 2007-08-24 00:02:35
McoreD, thanks for the useful utility.

One feature request -- while I know iTSfv will identify files without album art, would it be possible to add a function to identify files with album art below a certain resolution specified by the user? This would be handy for identifying low-res art for upgrading.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-08-24 00:35:33
Pleasure pataashnik. Yep, definitely. A new build will be released as soon as it is build and tested. There are a few things the SDK is not helping in this regard, so those stuff has to be taken care of before implementing this feature. Will do post when it is ready.

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-08-25 02:06:35
http://wmwiki.com/downloads/itsfv/beta/iTS...5.0.1-setup.zip (http://wmwiki.com/downloads/itsfv/beta/iTSfv-5.5.0.1-setup.zip)

5.5.0.1 Repetitive Check for Update would give false update notification in McoreSystem.dll
5.5.0.0 Ability to log tracks with low resolution artwork. Dimensions are specified in Options [patashnik]
5.4.1.0 GUI reconfiguration to support additional functionality

pataashnik, have a look at this build and appreciate feedback.

In iTSfv > Validate > Checks

Tick checkBox Check for Low Resolution Artwork
Press button Validate iTunes Music Library

once the process is complete

Report will have something similar to

(http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/7930/itsfv55lowresreportvh1.th.jpg) (http://img214.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itsfv55lowresreportvh1.jpg)

or

Right Click iTSfv
Open Log Files > Tracks with Low Resolution Artwork

Should give something similar to

590x600 for F:\Music\Ian Van Dahl\Lost and Found\01 I Can't Let You Go.mp3
590x600 for F:\Music\Ian Van Dahl\Lost and Found\02 Inspiration.mp3
590x600 for F:\Music\Ian Van Dahl\Lost and Found\03 Where Are You Now_.mp3
590x600 for F:\Music\Ian Van Dahl\Lost and Found\04 Crying.mp3
590x600 for F:\Music\Ian Van Dahl\Lost and Found\05 Crazy.mp3
590x600 for F:\Music\Ian Van Dahl\Lost and Found\06 My Own.mp3
590x600 for F:\Music\Ian Van Dahl\Lost and Found\07 Waiting 4 You.mp3
590x600 for F:\Music\Ian Van Dahl\Lost and Found\08 Do You Feel The Same.mp3
590x600 for F:\Music\Ian Van Dahl\Lost and Found\09 Come 2 Me.mp3
590x600 for F:\Music\Ian Van Dahl\Lost and Found\10 Time 2 Go.mp3
590x600 for F:\Music\Ian Van Dahl\Lost and Found\11 Rollercoaster.mp3
590x600 for F:\Music\Ian Van Dahl\Lost and Found\12 Without You.mp3
590x600 for F:\Music\Ian Van Dahl\Lost and Found\13 Believe.mp3
590x600 for F:\Music\Ian Van Dahl\Lost and Found\14 Walking Away.mp3
590x600 for F:\Music\Ian Van Dahl\Lost and Found\15 To Fall In Love.mp3
590x600 for F:\Music\Ian Van Dahl\Lost and Found\16 State Of Mind.mp3
600x540 for F:\Music\Muse\Black Holes And Revelations\01 Take A Bow.mp3
600x540 for F:\Music\Muse\Black Holes And Revelations\02 Starlight.mp3
600x540 for F:\Music\Muse\Black Holes And Revelations\03 Supermassive Black Hole.mp3
600x540 for F:\Music\Muse\Black Holes And Revelations\04 Map Of The Problematique.mp3
600x540 for F:\Music\Muse\Black Holes And Revelations\05 Soldiers Poem.mp3
600x540 for F:\Music\Muse\Black Holes And Revelations\06 Invincible.mp3
600x540 for F:\Music\Muse\Black Holes And Revelations\07 Assassin.mp3
600x540 for F:\Music\Muse\Black Holes And Revelations\08 Exo Politics.mp3
600x540 for F:\Music\Muse\Black Holes And Revelations\09 City Of Delusion.mp3
600x540 for F:\Music\Muse\Black Holes And Revelations\10 Hoodoo.mp3
600x540 for F:\Music\Muse\Black Holes And Revelations\11 Knights Of Cydonia.mp3
600x540 for F:\Music\Muse\Black Holes And Revelations\12 Glorious (Bonus Track).mp3

Report mode as in http://wmwiki.com/downloads/itsfv/tracks-2...T09-report.html (http://wmwiki.com/downloads/itsfv/tracks-20070825T09-report.html) will be in the next build.

The first run will be slow as it is caching Artwork dimensions to a file. The runs after that will be faster.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: patashnik on 2007-08-25 03:46:42
Excellent, McoreD, thank you very much! I'll check it out for sure and offer feedback as necessary, but from what I see here you've implemented my request very well. I sincerely appreciate it!
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-08-30 02:28:56
Hi everybody,

I'm learning to use this useful piece of software. Here's a bug report (it happens when I click on "validate selected tracks") :

Code: [Select]
See the end of this message for details on invoking 
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.InvalidCastException: Unable to cast COM object of type 'iTunesLib.iTunesAppClass' to interface type 'iTunesLib.IiTunes'. This operation failed because the QueryInterface call on the COM component for the interface with IID '{9DD6680B-3EDC-40DB-A771-E6FE4832E34A}' failed due to the following error: Cette interface n'est pas prise en charge (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80004002 (E_NOINTERFACE)).
   at iTunesLib.iTunesAppClass.get_SelectedTracks()
   at iTSfv.frmMain.btnSelectedValidateAlbum_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnClick(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnClick(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mevent)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)


************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
iTSfv
    Assembly Version: 5.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 5.5.2.5
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/iTSfv.exe
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.VisualBasic
    Assembly Version: 8.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 8.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Microsoft.VisualBasic/8.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Runtime.Remoting
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Runtime.Remoting/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Runtime.Remoting.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Configuration
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Configuration/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Configuration.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Xml
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll
----------------------------------------
McoreSystem
    Assembly Version: 1.11.0.2
    Win32 Version: 1.11.0.2
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/McoreSystem.DLL
----------------------------------------
Interop.iTunesLib
    Assembly Version: 1.9.0.0
    Win32 Version: 1.9.0.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/Interop.iTunesLib.DLL
----------------------------------------
yef3ziro
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
Accessibility
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Accessibility/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Accessibility.dll
----------------------------------------

************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this
application or computer (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.

For example:

<configuration>
    <system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer
rather than be handled by this dialog box.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-08-30 03:16:16
Jose, that's strange. What version of iTunes are you running, not version 7.3? Will there be more description to reproduce the error? This is like one of the core functionality and it is unfortunate that it is not going well.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-08-30 04:48:28
Jose,

I have changed how iTunes is initialized. Coming from a C# base, I had new iTunesAppClass but in VB.net it is recommended to have New iTunesApp.

Could you please replace the binaries with the files in this zip, mainly iTSfv.exe
http://wmwiki.com/downloads/itsfv/beta/iTS...5.3.0-patch.zip (http://wmwiki.com/downloads/itsfv/beta/iTSfv-5.5.3.0-patch.zip)

and have a retry?


It turns out that the problem is outside of iTSfv afterall.

Try this:

Could you please replace the binaries with the files in this zip, mainly iTSfv.exe
http://wmwiki.com/downloads/itsfv/beta/iTS...5.3.0-patch.zip (http://wmwiki.com/downloads/itsfv/beta/iTSfv-5.5.3.0-patch.zip)
It should do the following programmatically.


Q: I'm seeing something about COM in my error log in QTFairUse6. (E.G. com_error: (-2147319779, 'Library not registered.', None, None) ). WTF?
A: Try the following: Click start, run, and type "iTunes /regserver" and click ok.

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-08-31 08:11:45
It solves the problem (see my other topic for all the details).
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-08-31 14:42:15
Jose,

Well, that would be great IMHO, it would make things clearer.

Done in v5.6 BETA : Options > Validate > File System

So I don't see any option that would say "Export Artwork next to the MP3" or something...

It was indeed exporting the Artwork next to MP3, regardless of you having iTunes to organize music or not. Like I mentioned before, iTSfv gets the mp3 file path and determines the folder to export the artwork. So wherever the mp3 file is, the artwork files will be created there.


And where is the log to be located ? I haven't found it... Maybe there isn't a log file for Validate Selected Tracks.



Actually there was no log file with no Artwork at all. There was only a log file for tracks that artwork was added. Done in v5.6.

Cheers.

Download:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248)

Source:

http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/itsfv/itsfv5/ (http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/itsfv/itsfv5/)
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-08-31 14:58:16
I have a few questions to throw at you, out of curiousity.

Now I have distributed my 25 test MP3 in 3 separate folders, and I have re-created an iTunes library so that iTunes can find the MP3's at their new locations (of course I don't use the option "keep the iTunes Music folder organized" because my file system is different

You shouldn't have any problems with that for exporting %Artist% - %Album%.jpg files. However I will tell you a case where not using the option "keep the iTunes Music folder organized backfires you. Say you have two albums in the same folder and wish to export Folder.jpg. As the folder.jpg differs from one album to the other, the second folder.jpg will overwrite the first one because two folder.jpg cannot obviously reside in the same folder.


What I'm getting is 24 "Artist - Album.jpg" files instead of 25 (well, in face I should get 21, don't you think ?).

I do! So what are those extra 3 "Artist - Album.jpg" files? Are they album arts from any of the already download album arts?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-08-31 15:23:30
Thanks for the quick update. I'm going to try it out right now. 

EDIT : I've just tried 5.6.0 beta. IT WORKS BEAUTIFULLY ! THIS IS TOTALLY AWESOME !!!   

It was indeed exporting the Artwork next to MP3, regardless of you having iTunes to organize music or not. Like I mentioned before, iTSfv gets the mp3 file path and determines the folder to export the artwork. So wherever the mp3 file is, the artwork files will be created there.

All right, but in that case what's the use of the "Validate > File System" preferences tab ? I see "Export Artwork to...". Maybe you meant "Export Artwork from..." ? (well, it doesn't matter anyway, since it works for me  )

I will tell you a case where not using the option "keep the iTunes Music folder organized backfires you. Say you have two albums in the same folder and wish to export Folder.jpg. As the folder.jpg differs from one album to the other, the second folder.jpg will overwrite the first one because two folder.jpg cannot obviously reside in the same folder.

Of course. But this never happens in my entire library. When one album contains several CDs, I name each CD "Album name (CD 1)", "Album name (CD 2)", etc... And each CD has a separate folder.

what are those extra 3 "Artist - Album.jpg" files? Are they album arts from any of the already download album arts?

I'm sorry ! The 3 extra files are your "AlbumArtSmall", "Artwork" and "Folder" files. They are not "Artist - Album" files, so everything is OK. 


Oh, one more thing : I still can't see the log. Where should it be ? Thanks.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-08-31 15:35:51
EDIT : oops, this time I think I've found a small bug.

When I try to generate "Artist - Album.jpg" files, I get 21 files, so that's perfectly OK.

But if I try to generate "Artist - (Year) Album.jpg" files, I only get 6 files !!!

Of course I've checked : all my 25 MP3 have the "Year" tag filled in iTunes.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-08-31 16:13:33
Jose,

LOL I am as thrilled as you are.

Using %Artist% - (%Year%) %Album%.jpg I managed to get Lifescapes - (1997) Summer Thunder.jpg. Are you sure you did it right?

Options > Validate > Tracks > add %Artist% - (%Year%) %Album%.jpg  to ComboBox next to Import Artwork...
Press Apply
Options > Validate > File System > Choose %Artist% - (%Year%) %Album%.jpg
Press OK

[a href="http://img112.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itsfvexportfolderpattergh7.jpg" target="_blank"]

This should work after you have performed validation at least once with v5.6.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-08-31 16:37:20
Using %Artist% - (%Year%) %Album%.jpg I managed to get Lifescapes - (1997) Summer Thunder.jpg. Are you sure you did it right?

Options > Validate > Tracks > add %Artist% - (%Year%) %Album%.jpg  to ComboBox next to Import Artwork...
Press Apply
Options > Validate > File System > Choose %Artist% - (%Year%) %Album%.jpg
Press OK[/b]

Er, yes, this time I'm pretty sure I did it right. Like I said, I actually managed to get some jpgs, that were in the good file pattern "Artist - (Year) Album", so no problem about that... but I only got 6 out of the 21 expected !!!

I would have thought that I did something wrong if I I hadn't got any artwork at all... but 6 out of 21, I guess there might be a small bug or something... well, I don't know... what do you think ? 

Maybe I can email you some of my 8 Kbps MP3 so that you can see for yourself ? 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-01 00:42:28
Maybe I can email you some of my 8 Kbps MP3 so that you can see for yourself ? 


Jose, please do so.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-01 15:02:14
I surely would... if I had your email !! In fact I have tried to send the files to mcored@users.sourceforge.net, with no success.
Error : "message size 4060224 exceeds size limit 1048576 of server mail.sourceforge.net"
If you have a regular email address where I can send you 4MB... 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-02 00:48:17
Hi Jose, my email address is mcored at ii.net

Sorry I assumed HA members had the ability to email other members via member's profile but just realized it only brings up the board's interface to writing an email.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-02 08:32:05
Done.  I can't wait for your feedback ! 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: odyssey on 2007-09-02 11:44:27
On a more general note, I never understood the fascination with ratings. Ratings are subjective, and only ever valid for one person - the rater, eg. myself. I already know what I like. I can look at any given song in my playlist and tell you whether I like it or not, without a rating tag.

True, and I've thought of this several times. Still you could create a rating for yourself and the one you might be living with, and create powerful playlists that fits both of yours taste in music.
Other than that, why would I keep music in my playlist that I don't like? If I were to rate a song 'zero' because I hate it, I might as well just delete it.

I like to keep complete albums in my library, even if there's several songs i dislike. Also sometimes a track fits an album well even if it's not so great at all.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-02 13:35:04
Done.  I can't wait for your feedback ! 


Got the files.

Test MP3\Folder 1 - 8 files
Test MP3\Folder 2 - 8 files
Test MP3\Folder 3 - 9 files

In total there were 25 files.

I disabled Organize Music folder in iTunes.

Added the Test MP3 to iTunes and it started importing artwork. It missed artwork for 4 tracks.

Set iTSfv options like this:

[a href="http://img86.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itsfvjoseoptionsjt8.png" target="_blank"]

6 in Folder 1
7 in Folder 2
8 in Folder 3



Each file had the year tag proper

Note: There was one track 01 - Last Night.mp3 with no title and track number. I manually added the title and track number.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-02 14:18:37
All right McoreD, you're the best !

I'm going to retry as soon as I can (right now my girlfriend is playing on the PC... damn !!  ). I don't understand how I could get only 6 jpgs last time with the same options set... I'll keep you informed in a few hours.

Hey, just FYI : do you want to know why the iTMS missed 4 tracks ? In one of them the artist is "The Black Eyed Peas"... but the iTMS does only know "Black Eyed Peas" without the article !  (funny, I thought the iTMS guys were smart enough to skip the articles when browsing for artwork). And in the 3 others, if I remember well the album name is preceded by "[Single]", so I guess it's normal.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-02 15:07:03
I am going to release a new beta to handle other fixes. I will add %Artist% - (%Year%) %Album%.jpg to come up as default.

I also noticed the The Black Eyed Peas thing.

This is certainly weird:

When I try to generate "Artist - Album.jpg" files, I get 21 files, so that's perfectly OK.
But if I try to generate "Artist - (Year) Album.jpg" files, I only get 6 files !!!


Of the 6 files you have gotten, what are their name like?

Cheers, 
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-02 19:03:03
I'm totally puzzled !

I've simply restarted iTunes, then iTSfv. Then I've clicked on "Validate selected tracks", with NO MODIFICATION in the prefs since the last time... and now it WORKS !!! I get 21 jpgs with all the right file names !!!

So I really don't know what to say. This is weird.

BTW McoreD, where is the log ?? I still can't find it !!!

BIG THANKS.

Jose
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-02 21:49:00
LOL ok that's now really weird.

If you go to the iTSfv directory where iTSfv.exe is located, do you see some .log files? You can access them by right clicking iTSfv and the Open Log Files.

Glad you got it working anyhow!

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-02 23:45:15
MCoreD... you just ROCK. 

Not only have you come up with a great little piece of software. That alone could be enough for most people. But not for you.

You are most kind, responsive to people's questions (even the weird ones) and requests (yeah, even the weird ones too    ). You take people's ideas into consideration to improve your already great software, and you come up with new betas in a matter of hours ! 

You (and odyssey too of course !    ) have just helped me to begin recovering/converting quality iTMS artwork that I was longing for since the beginning of the year. I knew that patience would pay. I knew that I wouldn't need to scan all my 1000 original CD booklets. I knew that I could get better than 300x300 AMG or mid-quality Amazon artwork. And when odyssey helped me to reconsider all the iTMS thing, then I knew that someday, somebody would find a way to make all the artwork go automatically, once and for all, into my hundreds of album folders, with just a single mouse click.

You have just done that for me, and for that you deserve my total appreciation and respect.

So, like we sometimes say here in France : "... chapeau bas". 

Jose
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-03 17:06:44
LOL Thanks Jose,

You have been a great user and giving very informative/clear and precise feedback that made the enhancements even more enjoyable. So really appreciate that too.

I just made build 5.6.3.0 public in SF.net.

Version 5.06 - 200700908?

5.6.3.0 iTSfv will not allow synchrocleaning if iTunes music folder path is not set to location of most of the tracks are [Jonnno]
5.6.2.0 Ability to change Album Browser view without having to revalidate
5.6.1.3 Disabled modifying Album Browser modes while adding tracks to Album Browser
5.6.1.2 DiscCount was wrong for album names shared by different artists [ffs revalidation of entire iTunes music library is recommended]
5.6.1.1 During validation of last 100 tracks, DiscCount will not be overwritten for incomplete albums
5.6.1.0 iTMS Artwork can now be imported without the presence of artwork saved in the file system
5.6.0.1 Crashed during loading tracks data if album tag was empty [Chris]

Next time iTSfv loads, by default it will prompt to download the update.

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: kanak on 2007-09-03 18:19:19
@McoreD*

I was wondering if you could provide the formula you use for the rating system... mainly because i use foobar and don't intend to use itunes anytime soon, but the rating idea seems very interesting.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-04 01:31:38
@McoreD*

I was wondering if you could provide the formula you use for the rating system... mainly because i use foobar and don't intend to use itunes anytime soon, but the rating idea seems very interesting.


kanak, you are quite welcome to see the source yourself.
iTSfv is open source as of version 5.5.2.1.

The class mainly related to rating would be

http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/itsfv/its....vb?view=markup (http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/itsfv/itsfv5/iTSfv/cLibraryTasks.vb?view=markup)

However, the function takes other arguments such as user weighting to tune the rating system for their preferences e.g. if you dislike the idea of using skippedCount you can put a weight of 0% for that. It also takes the maximum playedCount for comparison.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-04 19:12:50
Hi McoreD, I have a new question for you.

OK, iTSfv works beautifully well. But of course, the iTMS doesn't have 100% of the needed artwork. Using other softwares, I've been able to recover additional artwork from Amazon & co., and to put it next to my FLAC/mp3 files.

Now my question is : could iTSfv automatically assign this new artwork to all the relevant iTunes tracks, eliminating the need to to it manually ?

I don't know if iTSfv already does it, but here's how it could work :
- iTSfv looks for all the selected files that don't have artwork,
- iTSfv checks the corresponding folders to see if there's already some jpg artwork,
- If there is, then iTSfv just tells iTunes to append it to the relevant files.

What do you think ?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-05 00:04:19
Hi Jose,

Could iTSfv automatically assign this new artwork to all the relevant iTunes tracks, eliminating the need to to it manually? Since iTunes 7 the Artwork is not saved directly to the file when you get Artwork via iTunes, so this was a real pain-ita for me.

If I understand correctly, you are asking if iTSfv will embed these new artwork into the tracks itself automatically so you don't have to do it manually? If then YES! That's like the first need for making this application and everything else was built around it.

You just have to enable Import Artwork to track from Artwork.jpg in Validate > Tracks which is enabled by default.

Cheers,
McoreD

By the way, if you haven't seen this yet, thought this would be interesting to you, iTSfv Manual, explaining all of its features:
http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/*checkout...df?revision=1.1 (http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/*checkout*/itsfv/itsfv5/manual-iTSfv.pdf?revision=1.1)
The PDF has bookmarks if you choose the Bookmarks from the left Panel in Adobe Reader.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-05 01:45:53
I'll take a look at the manual. Thanks.

Regarding my question, I was not asking iTSfv to embed the artwork *into* the tracks themselves, but rather to tell iTunes to generate iTunes-style .itc files in the iTunes artwork folders.

In other words, that's exactly what iTunes 7.x would do if you selected "info" on one particular track, then "picture", then "add a picture", then you look for the picture on your hard drive, then "OK". The picture will not be embedded into the track, but iTunes will create the .itc and link it with the track. I hope I'm clear enough.

If I understand well, right now iTSfv does only embed the artwork *into* the tracks. Maybe it could be good to have the choice, eventually.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-05 08:13:22
In other words, that's exactly what iTunes 7.x would do if you selected "info" on one particular track, then "picture", then "add a picture", then you look for the picture on your hard drive, then "OK". The picture will not be embedded into the track


Stop right there, Jose, when you add a picture manually, iTunes embeds the picture to *into* the file -- into the file that you did Get Info and added the picture.
iTunes  will also create an .itc file so that other tracks can access that.

Speaking of generating .itc files, it is certainly doable once the ITC specification is released by Apple. I had a look into there, there have been number of hacking attempts to figure out a spec by enthusiasts. However, I still don't understand why exactly we would need an add-on to create the ITC files if iTunes can do it by itself?

So basically what you are looking for is, adding artwork to one file, logically the first track of the album, so the rest of the tracks can access the artwork via the ITC file created.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-05 10:34:23
Stop right there, Jose, when you add a picture manually, iTunes embeds the picture to *into* the file -- into the file that you did Get Info and added the picture.
iTunes  will also create an .itc file so that other tracks can access that.

I thought that since iTunes 7, iTunes did no longer embed the pics into the files !  I'm sure that I have read that since iTunes 7, iTunes only handles .itc files...

Speaking of generating .itc files, it is certainly doable once the ITC specification is released by Apple. I had a look into there, there have been number of hacking attempts to figure out a spec by enthusiasts.

I don't understand : you are able to take an .itc and convert it to .jpg, but not the opposite ?

However, I still don't understand why exactly we would need an add-on to create the ITC files if iTunes can do it by itself?

I was just thinking of iTSfv telling iTunes to do it by itself for all the selected tracks, nothing more.

So basically what you are looking for is, adding artwork to one file, logically the first track of the album, so the rest of the tracks can access the artwork via the ITC file created.

Um, yes, you can say that. What I'm looking for is, making iTunes convert the .jpg to .itc, then linking the .itc to all the tracks with the same artist and the same album. But if it's too complicated, don't bother with that.

Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-05 10:47:35
Jose,

iTSfv doesn't save Artwork to file that way - converting .itc to .jpg.

iTunes indeed embeds the artwork to track if you manually add the artwork. The only time it doesn't embed is when it gets the Artwork automatically.

The iTunes SDK allows us to save the artwork to file, directly from embedded tracks or tracks that have the iTunes Store artwork. So that process was fairly simple. While conversion of iTC to JPG is certainly possible without depending on iTunes SDK, I didn't do it that way because 1/ it is not a 100% reliable way to do it 2/ using iTunes SDK is much more simple.

I am aware that people are attempting to find ways to inject .itc files using artwork out side of iTMS but I think the whole process is still under R&D.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: germanjulian on 2007-09-05 11:00:38
THANK YOU for the tool.... looks like what i need
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: urlwolf on 2007-09-05 18:07:46
Latest version 5.7.2 seems to be working. it read the entire itunes library, but then it got stuck in one album and the progress bar didn't move. No error reports.

I have tried several times. It gets stuck in exactly the same album (vangelis - masks).

Just a quick question.
The installer talks about a manual, but there's no pdf in the install directory. Are you working on that, or did I get a damaged distribution package that comes with no manual (got it from sourceforge)?

Thanks,
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: germanjulian on 2007-09-06 11:34:32
Hi,

A few questions cause I do not seem to get the program and what each feature does and I do not have a lot of time, these are somewhat itunes questions too, but you guys seem to know what you are doing.

First of all a weird bug: I did the scan and fix and capitalize the first letters and it decapitalized the artists… but did capitalize other stuff… wuppps. Took a while to fix cause I didn’t test first… 

Here are my questions:
1.   Some albums of mine do not have track numbers in the mp3 tag. Some way of guessing them of just assigning them from 1 to x automatically depending on how it is listed in the playlist (should mostly be correct)
2.   Cover Flow artwork. I cleaned all my mp3 of embedded artwork and downloaded album covers using itunes. There are plenty of artists without album artwork (radiohead even? And tool?) and I was wondering what happens if I do embed artwork into the id3 heards. I hate bad quality album art but if I drag a 300x300 jpg into the artwork my mp3 sizes will increase dramatically I presume? Is there some way to add cover flow only artwork from external sources into itunes?
3.   For some reason even the songs with Cover Flow artwork from itunes store do not always have a thumbnail artwork on my ipod, even though I can view the full screen artwork fine?!
4.   ID header versions…. Sight. Itunes does 2.4. however I think 2.3 might be more compatible with most other mp3 headers and windows? Which version of header should I use? I added some new albums and they did not have any id3 info in itunes however wmp sees them and another tagging program does?
5.   Lyrics: yes or no? how much kb does it add to an mp3 and do you guys use it.
6.   what can itsfv do? Is there some manual?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: kanak on 2007-09-06 13:37:16
kanak, you are quite welcome to see the source yourself.
iTSfv is open source as of version 5.5.2.1.


Thank you for your prompt reply!

Also, i just ordered an ipod, and i'm in the process of making my files to be "itunes/ipod friendly". My tags are stored in ID3v1 + APEV2, and I noticed that itunes can't read the ape tags. What irks me is that my genre tags (the custom ones like "alternative pop") and my rating tags appear to be stored in the ape tag and do not display in itunes (the normal ones like "blues" do display). I was wondering if there's a way your program could help me out in this matter.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Bluenote on 2007-09-06 13:52:43
Nice utility! I am particularly fascinated by the option to "adjust the rating according to play pattern for all tracks in library". The thing is, how exactly does this work? Does it scale the ratings according to play count, as the manual suggests? I'm asking because even my most played track doesn't score 5 stars, just 4.5.

Could you give a quick explanation of the algorithm involved?

Thanks!
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-06 13:59:35
Latest version 5.7.2 seems to be working. it read the entire itunes library, but then it got stuck in one album and the progress bar didn't move. No error reports.

I have tried several times. It gets stuck in exactly the same album (vangelis - masks).

Just a quick question.
The installer talks about a manual, but there's no pdf in the install directory. Are you working on that, or did I get a damaged distribution package that comes with no manual (got it from sourceforge)?

Thanks,


urlwolf,

Let me get some facts right.

You pressed Validate iTunes Music Library.
iTSfv parses the iTunes Music Library... 100%
iTSfv reads the tracks and sorts into albums (you can see in Album Browser)... 100%
Now when it starts validation, it gets stuck at Vangelis - Masks.

I have emailed a crash loggable build - 5.7.2.2 so if you could please retry and send me the log that would be nice.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: urlwolf on 2007-09-06 14:13:50
hmm, I haven't received any mail? which email did you send it to? (don't post it here  ) did it start with 'q'?
Thanks!
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-06 15:50:13
hmm, I haven't received any mail? which email did you send it to? (don't post it here  ) did it start with 'q'?
Thanks!


Ok don't worry, urlwolf. It didn't start with q and it is a different guy then.

Can you download this zip file

http://wmwiki.com/downloads/itsfv/beta/iTS...7.2.2-setup.zip (http://wmwiki.com/downloads/itsfv/beta/iTSfv-5.7.2.2-setup.zip)

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-06 16:09:13
Nice utility! I am particularly fascinated by the option to "adjust the rating according to play pattern for all tracks in library". The thing is, how exactly does this work? Does it scale the ratings according to play count, as the manual suggests? I'm asking because even my most played track doesn't score 5 stars, just 4.5.

Could you give a quick explanation of the algorithm involved?

Thanks!


Bluenote, glad you like the idea.

It not only takes the playedCount but other factors like LastPlayedDate, DateAdded, and SkippedCount. You can fine tune how much weight each of these factors should have for calculating the rating via Options. For example, if you don't like the idea of having SkippedCount involved, then you can have 0% weight for it and disable its influence completely. It also takes into account of song Length. So obviously if you played a 8 minute song 50 times and a 4 minute song 50 times, then the 8 minute song is gonna get more stars than the 4 minute song. 

Some developer discussion was carried in this thread:
http://forums.ilounge.com/showthread.php?t...t=automatically (http://forums.ilounge.com/showthread.php?t=173660&highlight=automatically)
thought it was interesting to mention.

You most played track didn't score 5 stars probably because you didn't listen to it recently enough or the track's length was lower than the average length of a track in the library. Like I said, there are many factors involved.

Thank you for your prompt reply!

Also, i just ordered an ipod, and i'm in the process of making my files to be "itunes/ipod friendly". My tags are stored in ID3v1 + APEV2, and I noticed that itunes can't read the ape tags. What irks me is that my genre tags (the custom ones like "alternative pop") and my rating tags appear to be stored in the ape tag and do not display in itunes (the normal ones like "blues" do display). I was wondering if there's a way your program could help me out in this matter.


While Mp3Tag would be your *best* bet to read APE tags and write them as ID3v2 tags,

http://www.mp3tag.de/en/download.html (http://www.mp3tag.de/en/download.html)

iTSfv will be able to generate reports for you on what tracks will be missing what tags.

http://wmwiki.com/downloads/itsfv/tracks-2...T12-report.html (http://wmwiki.com/downloads/itsfv/tracks-20070711T12-report.html)
http://wmwiki.com/downloads/itsfv/tracks-2...T09-report.html (http://wmwiki.com/downloads/itsfv/tracks-20070825T09-report.html)

If at least one of the tracks will have genre tag then iTSfv will fill the rest of the tracks with that genre. Same for artwork.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-06 17:08:33
(oops - sorry)
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-06 17:37:27
Hi,

A few questions cause I do not seem to get the program and what each feature does and I do not have a lot of time, these are somewhat itunes questions too, but you guys seem to know what you are doing.

First of all a weird bug: I did the scan and fix and capitalize the first letters and it decapitalized the artists… but did capitalize other stuff… wuppps. Took a while to fix cause I didn’t test first… 

Here are my questions:
1.   Some albums of mine do not have track numbers in the mp3 tag. Some way of guessing them of just assigning them from 1 to x automatically depending on how it is listed in the playlist (should mostly be correct)
2.   Cover Flow artwork. I cleaned all my mp3 of embedded artwork and downloaded album covers using itunes. There are plenty of artists without album artwork (radiohead even? And tool?) and I was wondering what happens if I do embed artwork into the id3 heards. I hate bad quality album art but if I drag a 300x300 jpg into the artwork my mp3 sizes will increase dramatically I presume? Is there some way to add cover flow only artwork from external sources into itunes?
3.   For some reason even the songs with Cover Flow artwork from itunes store do not always have a thumbnail artwork on my ipod, even though I can view the full screen artwork fine?!
4.   ID header versions…. Sight. Itunes does 2.4. however I think 2.3 might be more compatible with most other mp3 headers and windows? Which version of header should I use? I added some new albums and they did not have any id3 info in itunes however wmp sees them and another tagging program does?
5.   Lyrics: yes or no? how much kb does it add to an mp3 and do you guys use it.
6.   what can itsfv do? Is there some manual?


Oops!  That's indeed a bug. It was after I was trying to incorporate some enhancements.
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....st&p=514348 (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=57290&view=findpost&p=514348)
I hope odyssey can share this function to incorporate in iTSfv. I can't get my head around get it right at the moment.

So I decided to fall back to original simple function

Code: [Select]
    Private Function ffGetFixedCapitalString(ByVal tag As String) As String

        Console.WriteLine(ffGetFixedCapitalString2(tag))

        tag = StrConv(tag, VbStrConv.ProperCase)

        ' never replace different words here or iTunes would't find them
        tag = tag.Replace("Dj ", "DJ ")
        tag = tag.Replace("Feat", "feat")

        Return tag

    End Function


from the buggy

Code: [Select]
    Private Function ffGetFixedCapitalString2(ByVal tag As String) As String

        Dim simpleWords As String() = {"at", "by", "for", "from", "in", "into", "of", "off", "on", "onto", "out", "over", "to", "up", "with", "and", "but", "or", "nor", " a ", "an", "the"}
        tag = StrConv(tag, VbStrConv.ProperCase)
        Dim tagWords As String() = tag.Split(CChar(" "))

        ' get non-numeric words collection
        Dim scWords As New System.Collections.Specialized.StringCollection
        For Each tagWord As String In tagWords
            If Not IsNumeric(tagWord) Then
                scWords.Add(tagWord)
            End If
        Next

        ' simple the required words
        For Each simpleWord As String In simpleWords
            For Each tagWord As String In tagWords
                If tagWord = (StrConv(simpleWord, VbStrConv.ProperCase)) Then
                    If tagWord <> scWords(0) Or tagWord <> scWords(scWords.Count - 1) Then
                        tagWord = simpleWord ' take simple form
                    End If
                End If
            Next
        Next

        ' reconcontruct tag
        tag = String.Empty
        For Each tagWord As String In tagWords
            tag = tag + tagWord + " "
        Next
        tag = tag.Trim

        ' never replace different words here or iTunes would't find them
        tag = tag.Replace("Dj ", "DJ ")
        tag = tag.Replace("Feat", "feat")

        MsgBox(tag)

        Return tag

    End Function


for now. If odyssey you can help out in this regard, that would be really nice! 


1. iTSfv 5.7.1.0 and above will automatically add Track Number while adding new tracks to iTunes via iTSfv.
Here is how: http://wmwiki.com/downloads/itsfv/itsfv-ad...v-add-album.htm (http://wmwiki.com/downloads/itsfv/itsfv-add-album/itsfv-add-album.htm)

2. MP3 file will increase by the size of the artwork. Extra 50 KiB per file will roughly add 750 KiB extra for an album. I don't think that's really much. Personally I highly prefer embedding so the artwork is with the track anywhere you go. Afaik there is no external way as of yet to inject Artwork into iTunes Artwork database without iTMS downloading or embedding.

3. This happens when the track has no embedded artwork. If the track has embedded artwork it will definitely display it. iTunes is supposed to take care of this even if the artwork is not embedded, but it doesn't seem to work always. Once again, embedding would be the best solution.

4. I'd go with ID3v2 2.3 as it is both WMP and iTunes readable.

5. I add Lyrics as necessary. The file size will only increase only a slight bit.

6. Here is a PDF manual: http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/*checkout...df?revision=1.1 (http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/*checkout*/itsfv/itsfv5/manual-iTSfv.pdf?revision=1.1) 

Cheers,
McoreD

urlwolf, For beta versions, I haven't included the PDF in the setup to keep the file size small.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Bluenote on 2007-09-06 17:49:09
It not only takes the playedCount but other factors like LastPlayedDate, DateAdded, and SkippedCount. You can fine tune how much weight each of these factors should have for calculating the rating via Options. For example, if you don't like the idea of having SkippedCount involved, then you can have 0% weight for it and disable its influence completely. It also takes into account of song Length. So obviously if you played a 8 minute song 50 times and a 4 minute song 50 times, then the 8 minute song is gonna get more stars than the 4 minute song. 

Some developer discussion was carried in this thread:
http://forums.ilounge.com/showthread.php?t...t=automatically (http://forums.ilounge.com/showthread.php?t=173660&highlight=automatically)
thought it was interesting to mention.

You most played track didn't score 5 stars probably because you didn't listen to it recently enough or the track's length was lower than the average length of a track in the library. Like I said, there are many factors involved.


Thanks for the quick and helpful reply, McoreD - a fascinating read! And I even understood some of it.  Didn't realize the weightings were adjustable, have been playing around with them and looking at the results. At any rate, I think it's a great idea!

Thanks again for your useful and well-written program.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: germanjulian on 2007-09-06 19:31:09
thanks from me as well. good work. best itunes app i have ever seen (best music program after foobar as well)


mh so I do select only the box

Check for tracks without artwork and in tracks I select "import artwork from Artwork.jpg" and hit validate selected tracks.. it scans and doesnt do anything... as it doesnt import the artwork into the file
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-07 00:16:50
EDIT : Forget about this post, I think I've finally begun to made it work - silly me !!! 

Hi, it's me again. I'm currently trying the "Import artwork to track from Artwork.jpg" thing, but I just can't make it work.

I have in the same folder a MP3 and the corresponding "Artist - (Year) Album.jpg" artwork.
Of course I have checked in iTSfv (F2) that the "Import artwork in album folder from" is set to "%Artist% - (%Year%) %Album%.jpg".
I have also checked that the "Validate > Tracks > "Import artwork to track from Artwork.jpg" checkbox is checked.
Then I click on "Validate selected tracks", iTSfv seems to do its job but... nothing happens ! I don't see any new artwork in iTunes, and all my MP3 remain untouched (no artwork embedded).

I have tried several times, so I don't understand what's wrong.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Jose
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-07 01:08:31
Hi Jose, that is scary. 

Here is a quick demo of importing Artwork to tracks.

http://wmwiki.com/downloads/itsfv/demo/its...twork-user-set/ (http://wmwiki.com/downloads/itsfv/demo/itsfv-import-artwork-user-set/)

The only change I did since last time was

5.7.1.2 User preferences on what file to import as artwork, was ignored and checked Artwork.jpg first


Hi germanjulian,

When you pressed "import artwork from Artwork.jpg" where there Artwork.jpg files in the album folders?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-07 01:23:03
EDIT : Forget about this post, I think I've finally begun to made it work - silly me !!! 


 

Jose, how exactly?

germanjulian is having trouble so I thought we could shed some light.

Thanks,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: urlwolf on 2007-09-07 13:55:13
Thanks McoreD, downloaded and testing.
It's not that particular album; randomly, the program would just stop. Now I have read that if itunes is used for anything but playing music, itsfv would stop processing stuff. That could be my case

So, thanks for the nice pdf help system!

Will report back!
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-07 16:07:23

EDIT : Forget about this post, I think I've finally begun to made it work - silly me !!! 


 

Jose, how exactly?

germanjulian is having trouble so I thought we could shed some light.

Thanks,
McoreD

Well, I guess one part of my problem was that my jpgs didn't have exactly the "Artist - (Year) Album" syntax, so iTSfv didn't recognize them.

I think maybe you should add one option where iTSfv automatically recognizes a jpg inside the mp3 folder, (provided it's the only jpg in that folder) and appends it to the mp3 regardless of the jpg name. So no more hassle naming jpgs exactly as iTSfv wants : if you have a jpg next to the mp3, then iTSfv will find it and append it. What do you think ? 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: urlwolf on 2007-09-07 17:03:10
I have sent an error report.
I still get the same problem. Itsfv would just stop the analysis at some point. Maybe because my library is about 30000 songs?

I have done a piecemeal approach, selecting blocks of say 1000 songs, and hitting "validate selection' it fails often, but at least it gets some job done.

Too time-consuming, though.
Are you planning to release newer versions that address this issue?
Thanks
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-07 17:37:01
I have a similar problem, with smaller quantities. Selecting blocks of say 100 songs and hitting "validate selection" (for the "import artwork to file" thing), it just stops the analysis @ 30-40% or so, whatever the blocks I do select. No error message at all, it just plainly stops.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-08 00:23:46
Jose,

Yep, definitely an addable feature. With an option "Add Artwork from any file name from album folder if that is the ONLY file in that folder" is indeed a nice feature.

urlwolf/ Jose,

It's unlikely that it crashes because of the high number of tracks. Btw urlwolf, 30000 is impressive! I just passed 15000 tracks, and I will try to get there.

When validating the whole library, it has to take care of a lot of things. I hope future builds will able handle these issues without any errors. Before releasing each build with new features/tweaks, I make sure it validates my whole library so at least this way I am able fix as much as unexpected stuff. urlwolf, yes, definitely future builds will attempt to fix all these issues and be able to validate the whole library at once.

For now, if you could just validate currently selected album, we would be able to more specifically say what the error was. So

0/ select the tracks of the album in iTunes you want to validate
1/ load iTSfv
2/ press Validate Selected Tracks button

Appreciate the feedback guys,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-08 13:21:58
Hi Jose/urlwolf,

I was wondering if you could manage at least the Statistics part error free?

I've uploaded build 5.7.4.0

http://optusnet.dl.sourceforge.net/sourcef...v-5.7-setup.zip (http://optusnet.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/itsfv/iTSfv-5.7-setup.zip)

and if you could do the following test that would be great.

1. Load iTSfv
2. Go to Advanced
3. Press Show iTunes Statistics (the last button)
4. If asks to load from HDD then press No
5. See if you could get something similar to this

[/quote]

5.7.4.0 Import artwork from any single file that exists in the music folder. Enabled by default. [Jose]
5.7.3.0 Artwork will be converted to JPEG before saving if the embedded artwork was found to be in a different format

5.7.2.5 Already existed Custom format artwork file was not overwritten if embedded artwork was found to be larger
5.7.2.4 Removed a rare possibililty of validation while adjusting track ratings
5.7.2.3 Application crash while removing multiple artwork from read-only tracks
5.7.2.2 iTSfv will ask to report the bug via email on the event it crashes due to something unexpected [urlwolf]
5.7.2.1 DiscCount was cleared if entire music library was validated more than once without restart iTSfv
5.7.2.0 Automatically fill track number if not found while adding files to library using taglib-sharp.dll
5.7.1.2 User preferences on what file to import as artwork, was ignored and checked Artwork.jpg first
5.7.1.1 Revalidating library would crash iTSfv [bug got introduced after 5.02]
5.7.1.0 Forcing AlbumArtist and Album will be done prior to adding the tracks to iTunes using taglib-sharp.dll
5.7.0.0 Option to remove Multiple Artwork in tracks except for the first artwork


I have also updated the manual to include a step-by-step process on how to get iTSfv source compiled and running under Visual Studio 2005 or the free Visual Basic 2005 Express. Squashing bugs/issues will be really fast if you guys are interested in running iTSfv via debugger.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: urlwolf on 2007-09-08 14:20:25
5.7.4 throws unhandled exception when using synchroclean on my library.

I did the charts and it worked; however, since I don't play music using itunes (see below), the graphs where empty.

I should say that I have lots of ogg files in my lib.
Since I have just reported bugs, let me tell you what I think: this is a great idea.
As soon as this program works consistently and reliably, this is going to be a great asset to anyone wanting a well-maintained library!

NOTE: in my case, when using album view, iTunes takes an ungodly amount of memory (400-800Mb). That is ridiculous for any application. Is that your experience? It makes iTunes useless for day-to-day.

Thanks
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-08 15:38:49
urlwolf,

Thanks for the insight. Have to admit I didn't expect OGG playback in iTunes at all. I cannot begin to imagine how COM calls to ogg files would behave. I will experiment with ogg after I get OGG configured in iTunes.

Btw, with iTunes I have never gone up to 800 MiB RAM usage! It indeed rose up after v7.0 but the maximum I've seen in my PC was ~320 MiB with Cover Flow view. I have 2.5 GiB RAM. May be you have very high resolution artwork? Either way I agree that is ridiculous.

Cheers,
McoreD

Edit:

Re-ran Synchroclean for my music folder but unfortunately I can't reproduce that error.

(http://img359.imageshack.us/img359/3441/itsfvsynchrocleantf1.th.jpg) (http://img359.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itsfvsynchrocleantf1.jpg)
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Bluenote on 2007-09-10 13:42:08
Hi,
Recently upgraded from 5.2 to 5.7.... and now "adjust rating" no longer seems to work the way it used to! Now just a handful (maybe 4 or 5) tracks get rated, when previously it used to be hundreds. My iTunes library hasn't changed, nor have my weightings. Have you changed the algorithm by any chance, or am I missing something?

Thanks.... Bluenote
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-10 14:42:17
Hi Bluenote,

I hardly changed its algorithm - only a bug fix:

http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/itsfv/its...p;diff_format=h (http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/itsfv/itsfv5/iTSfv/cLibraryTasks.vb?view=diff&r1=text&tr1=1.5&r2=text&tr2=1.1&diff_format=h)

Did you have a customized weighting system? In 5.7 the settings were reset. While in Advanced tab, can you press F2 to go to Options and check the weightings?

(http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/755/itsfvratingry3.th.jpg) (http://img526.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itsfvratingry3.jpg)

To adjust ratings do you go to Advanced tag and press the first button? That should work without library validation complications.

(http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/5425/itsfvratednp6.th.jpg) (http://img510.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itsfvratednp6.jpg)

While adjusting ratings, iTSfv will also have iTunes Statistics ready. Can you please see if that is in order? After you press Adjust the Rating according to Play pattern, iTSfv will parse the library then while reading the tracks, you can press Display iTunes Music library statistics.

(http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/2967/itsfvstatscl1.th.jpg) (http://img251.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itsfvstatscl1.jpg)

A crippled statistics result would imply something seriously went wrong.

Cheers,
McoreD

P.S: A possible reason for this happening could be: While iTSfv is adjusting ratings, you are limited to use iTunes only for playback of songs. Anything else would interrupt what iTSfv is doing. For example, if you pressed Get Info while iTSfv is adjusting ratings, then iTSfv would immediately stop its process.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Bluenote on 2007-09-10 18:52:34
Did you have a customized weighting system? In 5.7 the settings were reset. While in Advanced tab, can you press F2 to go to Options and check the weightings?

(http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/755/itsfvratingry3.th.jpg) (http://img526.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itsfvratingry3.jpg)


Yup, I re-adjusted them - but even if I set them back to their defualt values I get this weirdness, where only 7 or so tracks in my library get rated above 0! (with the previous version it was several hundred)

To adjust ratings do you go to Advanced tag and press the first button? That should work without library validation complications.

(http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/5425/itsfvratednp6.th.jpg) (http://img510.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itsfvratednp6.jpg)


Yes, that's exactly how I've been doing it. I just realized though that iTSfv seems to add "Unknown Album" to songs where the album tag is blank.... why is it doing this?! I thought if I don't use any of the "validate" functions I'd be safe?

While adjusting ratings, iTSfv will also have iTunes Statistics ready. Can you please see if that is in order? After you press Adjust the Rating according to Play pattern, iTSfv will parse the library then while reading the tracks, you can press Display iTunes Music library statistics.

(http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/2967/itsfvstatscl1.th.jpg) (http://img251.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itsfvstatscl1.jpg)

A crippled statistics result would imply something seriously went wrong.


Looks fine to me.

Strange. The only thing that seems a little unusual is that after the rating process is complete (the program's title bar counts up to 100% twice) the display at the bottom of the window still seems stuck on "Adjusting My Rating" - I had previously assumed this is just cosmetic, however?

Hope I'm making some sense here, thanks again! Bluenote
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: urlwolf on 2007-09-10 20:29:12
itunes 7.4.1 is available. Will this make any advances in the "large library with ogg files" camp ?

Thanks!
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-10 23:21:39
Hi, sorry for the delay.

Just a word to say that everything seems to work perfectly so far.

The "Export artwork" works like a charm.

The "Import artwork" also seems to work, although I've only done some limited testing. The "Import every single jpg file in album folder" option looks great to me.

That's all for the moment. Thanks.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-11 02:46:29
Hi Bluenote,

Yup, I re-adjusted them - but even if I set them back to their default values I get this weirdness, where only 7 or so tracks in my library get rated above 0! (with the previous version it was several hundred)


I have enabled logging the ratings with parameter settings in this build:
http://optusnet.dl.sourceforge.net/sourcef...7.5.0-setup.zip (http://optusnet.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/itsfv/iTSfv-5.7.5.0-setup.zip)
Could you please re-run adjusting ratings?

It should give a log like:

Code: [Select]
*********************
* 2007-09-11 10:01:36
*********************

100 for DJ Doboy - Vocal Edition 20
100 for DJ Doboy - Vocal Edition 18
100 for DJ Doboy - Vocal Edition 14
100 for DJ Doboy - Vocal Edition 08
100 for Armin van Buuren - A State of Trance Year Mix 2006 CD1
097 for DJ Doboy - Vocal Edition 22
093 for Sean Paul - Get Busy
082 for Sean Paul - Like Glue
081 for Tiësto - Adagio For Strings
081 for Luminary - Dark Eyes (Funabashi Pres. Tom Porcell Remix)
080 for Victor Rathnayaka - Pembara Madhu
080 for Fonzerelli - Moonlight Party
079 for Tiësto - Heroes
078 for MinMini - Chinna Chinna Aasai
078 for 6th Lane - Ramayanaya
077 for Mr Sam ft. Kirsty Hawkshaw - Insight (Mr Sam Interpretation)
077 for Angelina - Pictures Of You (DJ Shog Remix)
076 for DJ Doboy - Vocal Edition 17
.
.
.
PlayedCount: 25%, SkippedCount: 0%, LastPlayed: 70%, DateAdded: 5%
Maximum PlayedCount: 346, Maximum Track Duration: 7380, Average Track Duration: 256


5.7.5.0 Enabled logging Track Ratings to file. Accessible via Context Menu > Logs > Tracks that Ratings was adjusted...
5.7.4.6 Delete the generated 0 KiB Music folder activity file on iTSfv exit
5.7.4.5 Tagging "Unknown Album" to songs where the album tag is blank is now optional [Bluenote]
5.7.4.4 Adjusting rating fails with 'Object reference not set to an instance of an object' if track tags were incomplete [Ryan]
5.7.4.3 iTSfv would crash it found a non existant track while determining folder where most music is
5.7.4.2 iTMS artwork was not embedded if no artwork was found in music folder and also disabled creation of Folder.jpg and Artwork.jpg
5.7.4.1 Fixed [ itsfv-Bugs-1790526 ] Arithmetic operation resulted in an overflow while adjust ratings [Andre]

Yes, that's exactly how I've been doing it. I just realized though that iTSfv seems to add "Unknown Album" to songs where the album tag is blank.... why is it doing this?! I thought if I don't use any of the "validate" functions I'd be safe?


Sorry about this. I jumped the gun and went ahead adding "Unknown Album" to tracks with empty Album Name as part of validation because having empty tags at the time didn't make sense. I have made this optional now for everybody and disabled by default. To enable Album Browser > F2.
iTSfv will never edit tags in tracks without user interaction again.

Looks fine to me. Strange. The only thing that seems a little unusual is that after the rating process is complete (the program's title bar counts up to 100% twice) the display at the bottom of the window still seems stuck on "Adjusting My Rating" - I had previously assumed this is just cosmetic, however?
Hope I'm making some sense here, thanks again! Bluenote



"Adjusting My Rating" stuck was the kicker feedback you gave me thanks. After a proper job, it should revert back to "Ready", which means that Adjusting rating job crashed. I think I know what caused it, a feature after 5.2:

5.4.0.0 iTSfv will remove white spaces in Artist, Album and Name tags during validation

For example, if you had "Best of Boney M " then iTSfv will fix it as "Best of Boney M".

It makes sense now. Because you had empty album tags, iTSfv attempted to trim out spaces and crashed.

5.7.4.4 Adjusting rating fails with 'Object reference not set to an instance of an object' if track tags were incomplete [Ryan] -- I think this is exactly what happened to you as well and the fix that you were after. 

I am quite confident it will work for you now.

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: urlwolf on 2007-09-11 03:08:49
Is there any way to tell itunes that you have more than one music folder?
I want to use the synch feature, to get covers for songs that I recently added, hopefully without having to rescan the entire library.

Thanks
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-11 03:15:19
itunes 7.4.1 is available. Will this make any advances in the "large library with ogg files" camp ?

Thanks!


urlwolf,

I tested a few OGG with iTunes using http://xiph.org/quicktime/download.html (http://xiph.org/quicktime/download.html)

iTune/iTSfv managed to read Artist and Album tags, nothing else. iTSfv couldn't set Artwork. iTunes just skips writing to OGG without any error.

Quote
"XiphQT vs. iTunes"

Track names (numbers, dates, ...) of .ogg files are missing, or displayed incorrectly, in iTunes - can you fix it?

Having the ability to play Ogg Vorbis files in iTunes was one of the main driving forces behind the qtcomponents project and also behind XiphQT development. However, iTunes is a proprietary software which does not provide a way to expand directly it's audio formats handling functionality by third-party developers. Given the iTunes support for QuickTime formats and architecture, writing a QuickTime extension (a component) has an effect of indirectly extending iTunes functionality. Unfortunately, iTunes support for QuickTime formats and extension mechanisms seems to be very selective - it is not even clear what exactly is supported as there is no single page of documentation about it.

Having said that, the XiphQT development efforts go into ensuring compatibility with QuickTime architecture and as complete (and proper) support for QuickTime extension mechanisms as possible. But the way applications, such as iTunes, choose to use, or not to use, QuickTime architecture is beyond our control.

Regarding the .ogg files meta-data missing in iTunes - to my knowledge, there is no way to fix this from the XiphQT source code point of view. However, there exist some AppleScript scripts that can help you with track's meta-data in iTunes


Theoretically you shouldn't have any error because of OGG because iTunes just *skips* writing OGG tracks. From iTSfv point of view, iTunes reports it as job done - no error.

Version 5.7.5 has a few fixes that probably has an answer to the synchroclean error you had. However iTSfv still supports file formats MP3/M4A that iTunes officially supports.

Is there any way to tell itunes that you have more than one music folder?
I want to use the synch feature, to get covers for songs that I recently added, hopefully without having to rescan the entire library.

Thanks


Just an excellent idea. Thanks. IIRC iTLU does this already which I forgot to implement.
For the next version, iTSfv will support
5.8.x.x Ability to look for multiple music folder locations for Synchrocleaning

Hi, sorry for the delay.

Just a word to say that everything seems to work perfectly so far.

The "Export artwork" works like a charm.

The "Import artwork" also seems to work, although I've only done some limited testing. The "Import every single jpg file in album folder" option looks great to me.

That's all for the moment. Thanks.


Jose, thanks for the feedback.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-11 09:34:54
Is there any way to tell itunes that you have more than one music folder?
I want to use the synch feature, to get covers for songs that I recently added, hopefully without having to rescan the entire library. Thanks


iTunes still doesn't allow multiple library paths with the ability to organize music. You can add tracks from folders other than the iTunes music folder path but they will not be organized.

I've been experimenting with an upgrade to Synchroclean® feature to support multiple locations.

(http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/3469/itsfv58multilibmp7.jpg)

Basically iTSfv will now additionally look for all the folders you specify in the above listBox for new tracks that's not in iTunes music library and offer to add them. iTSfv will NOT copy them to the primary music folder location set by iTunes. However, as previous versions of iTSfv did, iTSfv WILL copy music added from any other location if dragged & dropped to iTSfv. This is done so that you won't accidentally edit tags of a album folder you are seeding.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Bluenote on 2007-09-11 21:09:00
I am quite confident it will work for you now.


...and it does!  Great work, thanks McoreD - your skill as a programmer is only surpassed by your helpfulness. Rating feature now works as it did before, and I'm having fun playing with it again.

By the way - there's one more thing I was going to ask about, when I quit iTunes, it keeps telling me another script is still using it, even after iTSfv is no longer running, is anyone else seeing this?

But thanks again for sorting my problem out so quickly!

Bluenote
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-11 22:33:35
thanks McoreD - your skill as a programmer is only surpassed by your helpfulness

I agree. McoreD is an example to follow for other fellow programmers, because programming isn't everything : the ability to listen carefully to feedbacks and requests, and to be responsive and efficient, is even more important IMHO. Add a touch of kindness, shake everything, serve it cool, and there you have it folks : McoreD in all its glory.

 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: urlwolf on 2007-09-12 01:31:29
I agree, I have never seen a more attentive programmer in my entire llfe
Thanks McoreD!
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-12 03:13:39
Thanks... and you guys have been a pleasure to work with great enthusiasm which make it all enjoyable.

iTSfv 5.8.2.0
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...lease_id=538923 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989&release_id=538923)

5.8.2.0 All the log files will be stored in Documents\iTSfv Logs directory to allow Limited Users to run iTSfv when it is installed in Program Files
5.8.1.1 iTSfv crashed if embedded artwork was corrupt. [ itsfv-Bugs-1790529 ] generic error occurred in GDI+
5.8.1.0 While adding new music, tracks with ID3v2 2.4 will have the TrackNumber rewritten so that iTunes can detect them
5.8.0.1 Browse Album did not work for browsing album outside of iTunes Music folder path

urlwolf,

5.8.0.0 Ability to look for multiple music folder locations for Synchrocleaning. iTSfv will add these files to iTunes without copying

5.7.5.0 Enabled logging Track Ratings to file. Accessible via Context Menu > Logs > Tracks that Ratings was adjusted...
5.7.4.6 Delete the generated 0 KiB Music folder activity file on iTSfv exit
5.7.4.5 Tagging "Unknown Album" to songs where the album tag is blank is now optional [Bluenote]
5.7.4.4 Adjusting rating fails with 'Object reference not set to an instance of an object' if track tags were incomplete [Ryan/Bluenote]
5.7.4.3 iTSfv would crash it found a non existant track while determining folder where most music is
5.7.4.2 iTMS artwork was not embedded if no artwork was found in music folder and also disabled creation of Folder.jpg and Artwork.jpg
5.7.4.1 Fixed [ itsfv-Bugs-1790526 ] Arithmetic operation resulted in an overflow while adjust ratings [Andre]

Cheers!
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-14 03:17:30
Hi All,

Incorporating Jose/urlwolf/Bluenote feedback, in addition to two new features, I have increased error handling in iTSfv to handle different library configurations. Got rid of most GDI errors.

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/itsfv/iTS...use_mirror=osdn (http://downloads.sourceforge.net/itsfv/iTSfv-5.9-setup.zip?use_mirror=osdn)

Version 5.09 - 20070914

5.9.0.3 Artwork dimensions cache table was not loaded to memory if Validation was run more than once
5.9.0.2 iTSfv will no longer write interrupted validations to the XHTML Report
5.9.0.1 Log files included duplicate track entries if Validation was run multiple times under same instance [after 5.8.2.0]
5.9.0.0 Introduced a Menu system to easily navigate through the functions with ability to open statistics files
5.8.4.0 Tracks without at least Artist, Album and Name tags will be ignored by iTSfv
5.8.3.3 iTSfv will not display incomplete statistics anymore if the process of interrupted
5.8.3.2 AlbumArtist tag was overwritten as Various Artists all the time during validation for Compilations
5.8.3.1 Possible fix for [ itsfv-Bugs-1790524 ] Parameter is not valid at new cXmlArtwork
5.8.3.0 iTSfv will attempt adding artwork using TagLib to tracks iTunes failed to AddArtworkFromFile
5.8.2.1 Fixed [ itsfv-Bugs-1790522 ] HRESULT E_FAIL has been returned from a call to a COM component when iTunes fails to AddArtworkFromFile to some tracks
5.8.2.0 All the log files will be stored in Documents\iTSfv Logs directory to allow Limited Users to run iTSfv when it is installed in Program Files
5.8.1.1 iTSfv crashed if embedded artwork was corrupt. [ itsfv-Bugs-1790529 ] generic error occurred in GDI+
5.8.1.0 While adding new music, tracks with ID3v2 2.4 will have the TrackNumber rewritten so that iTunes can detect them
5.8.0.1 Browse Album did not work for browsing album outside of iTunes Music folder path
5.8.0.0 Ability to look for multiple music folder locations for Synchrocleaning. iTSfv will add these files to iTunes without copying
5.7.5.0 Enabled logging Track Ratings to file. Accessible via Context Menu > Logs > Tracks that Ratings was adjusted...
5.7.4.6 Delete the generated 0 KiB Music folder activity file on iTSfv exit
5.7.4.5 Tagging "Unknown Album" to songs where the album tag is blank is now optional [Bluenote]
5.7.4.4 Adjusting rating fails with 'Object reference not set to an instance of an object' if track tags were incomplete [Ryan/Bluenote]
5.7.4.3 iTSfv would crash it found a non existant track while determining folder where most music is
5.7.4.2 iTMS artwork was not embedded if no artwork was found in music folder and also disabled creation of Folder.jpg and Artwork.jpg
5.7.4.1 Fixed [ itsfv-Bugs-1790526 ] Arithmetic operation resulted in an overflow while adjust ratings [Andre]

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-14 11:13:32
Hi McoreD, I was thinking of a new small addition to iTSfv.

Let's assume you have validated your library and put some nice artwork in all relevant folders.

Let's assume you have this artwork doubled ("Artist - (Year) Album" and "Artwork" for instance, it could be anything else).

So, in order to enhance compatibility with all players, it still lacks "Folder" and "AlbumArtSmall".

Even worse, let's assume that in some folders the artwork has different patterns ("Artist - Album" and "Folder" for instance, or incorrect patterns like "Artist - Album" with typos for instance).

It could be useful to have an option that scans all relevant folders, finds all different patterns (including unknown ones like patterns with typos), then proposes to validate all this by creating all missing artwork files. For that, after scanning, iTSfv would show all the existing patterns PLUS the missing patterns in a window with checkboxes next to them (then you could select which patterns you want to create or not).

Of course the patterns you de-select would be automatically erased... 

Just my two cents to enhance this useful little program.

Jose
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Bluenote on 2007-09-14 15:10:12
5.8.4.0 Tracks without at least Artist, Album and Name tags will be ignored by iTSfv


OK, I need to ask - WHY?

Was working so nicely, and now the new iTSfv ignores a number of my tracks...
I realize on this forum a lot of people are obsessive-compulsive about tagging their music  but I have a number of tracks, especially classical, with no information on the artist or the album.
I still think these have a right to be counted, don't you?

Thanks again though, apart from this little hitch your program just gets better and better!

Bluenote
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-14 15:30:15
I realize on this forum a lot of people are obsessive-compulsive about tagging their music  but I have a number of tracks, especially classical, with no information on the artist or the album.

Shame on you. Tagging is EVERYTHING ! 

(just kidding)
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-14 17:37:23
Jose,

surely will take that idea into thinking. Cheers.

Bluenote,

Interesting theory. I was quite convinced that when you don't have at least Artist, Album and Track tags, the Ratings evaluation would be quite meaningless. The change was done to avoid any complications while validating. May be you are talking about Adjusting Rating? The change affects this part as well. I am making it completely optional so tagless tracks will still be able to pass through.

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/itsfv/iTS...use_mirror=osdn (http://downloads.sourceforge.net/itsfv/iTSfv-5.9.3.1-setup.zip?use_mirror=osdn)

Bluenote, Please let me know if the ignored files are included again.

Version 5.09 - 20071015?

5.9.3.1 Tweak 5.8.4.0 Tracks without at least Artist, Album and Name tags will be ignored by iTSfv is now optional in General > Validate. [Bluenote]
5.9.3.0 Added Tracks statistics to Statistics window which is similar to Top Rated smart playlist in iTunes
5.9.2.0 Statistics increased to Top 10 instead of Top 5. This is user configurable under Advanced.
5.9.1.1 Fixed another [ itsfv-Bugs-1790526 ] Arithmetic operation resulted in an overflow while adjust ratings
5.9.1.0 Parsing iTunes Music Library is now much faster as iTSfv now parses the XML database instead of iTunesLib. 15,000 Tracks under one minute.

Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: urlwolf on 2007-09-14 21:07:53
McoreD:

I still get hungups, even when analyizing only parts of my library.
The percentage in the title bar disappears, and the program just freezes.

Also, a new thing: there's a scroll bar that says "itunes: writing tags" on top of every other window, that is pretty distracting (just covering what you are writing  . Are you guys experiencing this? Is that intentional? Can we get the old behavior?

Thanks
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Bluenote on 2007-09-14 21:15:36
Bluenote, Please let me know if the ignored files are included again.


Thanks for that change! Unfortunately, I can't get the tick in the "Include tracks without Name, Artist and Album" to stay  I click on OK but if I open the options immediately afterwards, the tick is gone again!
Rating works well, but sadly excluding all my non-album tracks...

Nice new stats, by the way!

Thanks again.

Bluenote
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-15 01:48:14
Thanks for that change! Unfortunately, I can't get the tick in the "Include tracks without Name, Artist and Album" to stay  I click on OK but if I open the options immediately afterwards, the tick is gone again!
Rating works well, but sadly excluding all my non-album tracks...


Bluenote, thanks for pointing out that. Please replace the iTSfv.exe with this updated one
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/itsfv/iTS...use_mirror=osdn (http://downloads.sourceforge.net/itsfv/iTSfv-5.9.3.1-patch.zip?use_mirror=osdn)

I knew I was missing something and that was to set that option remembering.   
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-15 02:02:36
McoreD:

I still get hungups, even when analyizing only parts of my library.
The percentage in the title bar disappears, and the program just freezes.

Also, a new thing: there's a scroll bar that says "itunes: writing tags" on top of every other window, that is pretty distracting (just covering what you are writing  . Are you guys experiencing this? Is that intentional? Can we get the old behavior?

Thanks


urlwolf, that's really unfortunate in my end not being able to figure out what the error is. Now it comes to the point where I will have to suggest you to run iTSfv in debug mode - via Visual Basic Express or Sharp Develop.
I'd suggest the small download of SharpDevelop http://www.icsharpcode.net/OpenSource/SD/Download/ (http://www.icsharpcode.net/OpenSource/SD/Download/). It would be great to make use of the open source nature of iTSfv if you can.

1. Download http://downloads.sourceforge.net/itsfv/iTS...use_mirror=osdn (http://downloads.sourceforge.net/itsfv/iTSfv-5.9.0.3-src%2Bsetup.zip?use_mirror=osdn)
2. Install somewhere in My Documents you would like to save the source
3. Open SharpDevelop and browse for the iTSfv.sln
4. Right click References (shown below) and remove all unlinked DLLs
5. Right click References and Add Reference. Go to ".NET Assembly Browser" and Browse for the following DLLs in iTSfv folder: McoreSystem.dll, Interop.iTunesLib.dll, Graphing.V3.dll and taglib-sharp.dll.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Bluenote on 2007-09-15 05:11:40
Bluenote, thanks for pointing out that. Please replace the iTSfv.exe with this updated one


Works! Thank you!!

Minor point - the stats look a bit funny now with "Unknown Album" and "Unknown Artist" leading the field.  I guess this is a consequence of your new implementation? I wonder if these unknowns could simply be ignored for the stats calculations? Back in v5.8, that's how it used to work...

Another challenge for you?

But even if you're now understandably fed up with me and my partially tagged files.... thanks again for the quick fixes!

Bluenote

Sorry...... me again! This doesn't look right, does it?

Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-15 06:38:04
Minor point - the stats look a bit funny now with "Unknown Album" and "Unknown Artist" leading the field.  I guess this is a consequence of your new implementation? I wonder if these unknowns could simply be ignored for the stats calculations? Back in v5.8, that's how it used to work...

Another challenge for you?  But even if you're now understandably fed up with me and my partially tagged files.... thanks again for the quick fixes!

Sorry...... me again! This doesn't look right, does it? Why 2871 Unknown Tracks? Every single one of my tracks has a title, even if not an album title or artist. The saga continues....


Bluenote, yes right now we are struggling with issues by design. 

I wonder if these unknowns could simply be ignored for the stats calculations? Back in v5.8, that's how it used to work... ---- Changes are done so that for Top ## Genre, Album Artists, Artist and Album will IGNORE partially tagged tracks. Top ## Tracks will CONSIDER partially tagged tracks. So you will now see Unknown Artist - Fragile for a song "Fragile" if Artist tag is missing. For validation purposes (including Adjusting Rating) you still have the option to INCLUDE partially tagged tracks. Please let me know if that's what you like to see and if it really works as I described.

5.09.3.2 Partially tagged tracks will be accounted for Top # Tracks statistics

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/itsfv/iTS...use_mirror=osdn (http://downloads.sourceforge.net/itsfv/iTSfv-5.9.3.2-patch.zip?use_mirror=osdn)

I can explain how the 2871 tracks were counted as Unknown.  It was considered as an unknown when both Artist and Album Artist tag were absent. This won't happen again because of the new change described above.

Also the thing with Percentage counting twice (that you mentioned the other day) happens when iTSfv validates the last album, the progress percentage changes from Album progress calculation to Tracks progress calculation.

So iTSfv doesn't seem to crash with your Library? That's great to hear! How many tracks are there in your library?

Cheers,
McoreD

P.S: Also it's nice to see your interests in iTunes Statistics have rooted years back

Hi guys, a while ago I saw a program mentioned (possibly even here) that would generate statistics for the songs (which ones played, for how long etc.) on your iPod/iTunes. Was I dreaming? Tried doing a search but that didn't throw anything up. Would appreciate any pointers, thanks!


For others' interest: changes in src to make Statistics faster: http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/itsfv/its...=1.7&r2=1.8 (http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/itsfv/itsfv5/iTSfv/cStatsMaker.vb?r1=1.7&r2=1.8)
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Bluenote on 2007-09-15 18:07:04
5.09.3.2 Partially tagged tracks will be accounted for Top # Tracks statistics


Yay!  It works again! Now the stats look fine again, and I think the way it displays "Unknown" when the field is blank is an elegant solution.

So iTSfv doesn't seem to crash with your Library? That's great to hear! How many tracks are there in your library?


5459 and counting, Sir. Sadly that's about as many as will fit onto my 30GB iPod so it'll probably stay in the vicinity of that too...

P.S: Also it's nice to see your interests in iTunes Statistics have rooted years back


*cough* Thanks for being so discrete about my somewhat.... eclectic taste in music. I was too tired when I made my last post, otherwise I might have done a quick Photoshop job.

Thanks again! Now there's just that weird message about scripts being active... or is that an iTunes limitation?

Well I'm off to re-rate my tracks!
Bluenote
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-09-16 18:36:38
Is the exporting and importing feature entirely lossless? Could I be exporting all the artwork (regardless whether iTunes downloaded the artwork or if it was already embedded in the file) and then import all the artwork again and there wouldn't be any quality loss or filesize increase of the artwork?

thank you
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-17 05:46:08
Is the exporting and importing feature entirely lossless? Could I be exporting all the artwork (regardless whether iTunes downloaded the artwork or if it was already embedded in the file) and then import all the artwork again and there wouldn't be any quality loss or filesize increase of the artwork?


Jojo,

Yes the process is entirely lossless. iTSfv merely uses only the copy command to export and import JPG artwork using iTunes SDK with one exception while exporting PNG artwork as Folder.jpg. It is not proper to just rename a PNG artwork as folder.jpg so iTSfv converts any non-JPG artwork before saving as Folder.jpg. To import artwork you alway s have the flexibility to specify the file pattern and file type in iTSfv Options.

Thanks again! Now there's just that weird message about scripts being active... or is that an iTunes limitation?


Bluenote,

iTunes gives that message before quitting after 10-15 seconds of closing iTSfv? I've been releasing Debug builds as BETA versions so that could take a bit more time to finalize calls to DLLs. This is not something personally I have always experienced but I will try destroying the iTunesApp object on iTSfv close.


All,

Released last night was a new feature that might come handy. Basically you can select all tracks in a Playlist in iTunes and export (copy) the tracks to a folder you specify with a customized file pattern.

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/itsfv/iTS...mp;big_mirror=0 (http://downloads.sourceforge.net/itsfv/iTSfv-5.10.0.0-setup.zip?modtime=1189967284&big_mirror=0)

5.10.0.0 Support exporting selected tracks to another directory specified
5.09.4.1 Incorrectly identified folder with most music, if the iTunes music folder was within that folder
5.09.4.0 Support for dragging more music albums while iTSfv is already adding music to iTunes

5.09.3.3 Backup Ratings XML file save path defaulted to Logs Directory
5.09.3.2 Partially tagged tracks will be accounted for Top # Tracks statistics

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: urlwolf on 2007-09-18 01:09:52
Thanks McoreD,

I don't think I'll be able to compile the code and debug it... too much time.
Actually, I don't understand the new features in sychroclean, and how it intereacts with the folders in the 'explorer' section (this has changed in 5.10 I guess). the manual I have for 5.9 has old pictures.

This is getting too messy for simply getting covers. That's all I need. I think I'll try using mp3toys, which is pretty automatic, although pic quality is a lot lower.

I'll keep cheking this thread to see if the problems have been solved.

Thanks!
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-18 01:18:04
  

Well, I guess everybody has the right to make his own choices (even if they're not the best ones  ). See you urlwolf ! 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-09-18 03:00:38
iTSfv converts any non-JPG artwork before saving as Folder.jpg.

what's the file format iTunes uses when downloading the covers from iTunes? Is it always jpg?

Quote
To import artwork you alway s have the flexibility to specify the file pattern and file type in iTSfv Options.

what do you mean by that?

also, exporting the artwork to a separate folder doesn't work. It always switches back to the first option. The same is true for importing.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-18 10:38:14
urlwolf,

That's understandable. If I were you I'd defintely try

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=57392 (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=57392) - Artwork Downloader XUI which has gone some nice implementations including iTMS Artwork.

Yes the Explorer tab now supports specifying more locations to add new music files from. Manual 5.10 will have more detail information on this.


Jojo,

iTMS always has JPG files. This can be backed up by the URLs iTSfv uses for Artwork.

What I meant was: you can specify file type and pattern using strings such as %Album% - %Artist%.jpg/png etc and iTSfv will look for them as the primary source of artwork.

Good catch with the remembering setting, thanks! The options has been surprisingly missed since 5.2!

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/itsfv/iTS...use_mirror=osdn (http://downloads.sourceforge.net/itsfv/iTSfv-5.10.0.2-setup.zip?use_mirror=osdn)

5.10.0.2 Resume validation from last checked album checkBox setting will now be remembered
5.10.0.1 Export/Import to/from folder choices were not saved in Options
5.10.0.0 Support exporting selected tracks to another directory specified
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-21 01:10:11
Hi Gang,

Cooking right now is iTSfv 5.11 which has the

5.11.0.0 Ability to replace existing Artwork with higher resolution (usually 1425x1425) iTunes Music Store artwork if found

So basically when you validate selected tracks hereafter, iTSfv will look for iTMS artwork and use that to export/embed in the selected tracks.

iTSfv will make the query once per Album, not once per track, effectively reducing bandwidth and hdd usage.

Something interesting came up while testing. I realized there is no limit to the resolution in iTMS artwork? What is the biggest Artwork you guys found? When I thought iTSfv was stuck for a while, it was downloading a 10.1 MiB file and after checking it out, it is indeed a valid artwork with 5569x5540 resolution!

http://wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsfv/Ve...num%20Album.jpg (http://wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsfv/Vengaboys%20-%20(2001)%20The%20Platinum%20Album.jpg)

All the downloaded iTMS artwork are saved in

%AppData%\iTSfv\%AlbumArtist%\%Album% folders. I will make this user configurable in the final stages. Another change would be to Create a checkBox always import higher resolution artwork in Advanced > Tracks and extend the functionality to Validate Library.

Any feedback is welcome during this designing phase.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-09-21 01:39:47
Something interesting came up while testing. I realized there is no limit to the resolution in iTMS artwork? What is the biggest Artwork you guys found? When I thought iTSfv was stuck for a while, it was downloading a 10.1 MiB file and after checking it out, it is indeed a valid artwork with 5569x5540 resolution!

http://wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsfv/Ve...num%20Album.jpg (http://wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsfv/Vengaboys%20-%20(2001)%20The%20Platinum%20Album.jpg)

check out this post: http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....st&p=517693 (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=57392&view=findpost&p=517693)

Also, is it possible to search for album art based on ID3 tags? If so, how would I do that? In addition, I don't like adding Album names for my Singles (I just leave it blank). Therefore, iTunes can't find the album art for the songs, since it only searches for "Artist - Album". It would be nice if I could use the title of a song as the Album title to solve this problem.

thank you
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-21 06:15:16
Aha, so that explains why the huge size of the Artwork. I will have a look what I could do determining the file type, thanks.

Good idea about searching Album Art for CDS (CD Singles), I shall add that flexibility.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-21 12:08:08
I really don't see the use of uploading/downloading a 5000x5000+ size artwork... 1425x1425 already looks huge to me. Maybe someone can explain ?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-21 14:24:17
Jose,

It looks nicer with higher resolution in Full Screen Cover Flow
It looks nicer with higher resolution in HTPC Screen

I am not sure why iTMS has 5000x5000 artwork. From 1170 albums I ran across only once that had this size artwork. Everything else were aroudn 1425x1425.

Talking in terms of iTSfv, the option is certainly user configurable. In Options > Advanced > Internet you can enable/disable this setting.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-21 14:44:23
It looks nicer with higher resolution in Full Screen Cover Flow
It looks nicer with higher resolution in HTPC Screen

Sure McoreD, I know that... but no HTPC screen has 1425 lines.

Assuming one has a Full HD plasma display 1080p (1920x1080), one gets 1080 lines max., no more.
Assuming one has a Full HD computer display (1920x1200), one gets get 1200 lines max. in full screen mode. And even in full screen, Cover Flow covers don't occupy all screen.
And most of us still are in 720p (1280x720, 1366x768, etc.).

So, well, 900x900 or so I would understand, but 1425 or more, I really don't understand. Files become bigger, longer to open, and all this for what purpose ? 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-22 00:32:27
Jose,

I agree. It might be going over the line but everybody is jumping to the high resolution artwork bandwagon so you can't blame me for having that option in iTSfv. 


New Debug Log:

20070922T021301 Export Artwork Pass 1
20070922T021301 Replace Artwork.jpg? False
20070922T021302 Replace Deftones - (2006) Saturday Night Wrist.jpg? False
20070922T021302 Replace Folder.jpg? False

20070922T021302 Searching iTMS Artwork for Deftones - Saturday Night Wrist
20070922T021302 Start fetching: http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/W...day+Night+Wrist (http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/coverArtMatch?an=Deftones&pn=Saturday+Night+Wrist)
20070922T021305 Fetched http://a1.phobos.apple.com/r10/Music/6c/59...zi.sqhglzla.jpg (http://a1.phobos.apple.com/r10/Music/6c/59/50/mzi.sqhglzla.jpg)
20070922T021306 Old Artwork Size: 600x600, New Artwork Size: 1425x1425
20070922T021306 Replace 1 Hole In The Earth Artwork? True
20070922T021307 Old Artwork Size: 600x600, New Artwork Size: 1425x1425
20070922T021307 Replace 2 Rapture Artwork? True
20070922T021309 Old Artwork Size: 600x600, New Artwork Size: 1425x1425
20070922T021309 Replace 3 Beware Artwork? True
20070922T021310 Old Artwork Size: 600x600, New Artwork Size: 1425x1425
20070922T021310 Replace 4 Cherry Waves Artwork? True
20070922T021312 Old Artwork Size: 600x600, New Artwork Size: 1425x1425
20070922T021312 Replace 5 Mein Artwork? True
20070922T021314 Old Artwork Size: 600x600, New Artwork Size: 1425x1425
20070922T021314 Replace 6 U, U, D, D, L, R, L, R, A, B, Select, Start Artwork? True
20070922T021315 Old Artwork Size: 600x600, New Artwork Size: 1425x1425
20070922T021315 Replace 7 Xerces Artwork? True
20070922T021317 Old Artwork Size: 600x600, New Artwork Size: 1425x1425
20070922T021317 Replace 8 Rats!Rats!Rats! Artwork? True
20070922T021318 Old Artwork Size: 600x600, New Artwork Size: 1425x1425
20070922T021318 Replace 9 Pink Cellphone Artwork? True
20070922T021320 Old Artwork Size: 600x600, New Artwork Size: 1425x1425
20070922T021320 Replace 10 Combat Artwork? True
20070922T021322 Old Artwork Size: 600x600, New Artwork Size: 1425x1425
20070922T021322 Replace 11 Kimdracula Artwork? True
20070922T021323 Old Artwork Size: 600x600, New Artwork Size: 1425x1425
20070922T021323 Replace 12 Rivière Artwork? True
20070922T021325 Export Artwork Pass 2
20070922T021325 Replace Artwork.jpg? True
20070922T021325 Replace Deftones - (2006) Saturday Night Wrist.jpg? True
20070922T021325 Replace Folder.jpg? True


Version History:

5.11.3.0 Support application wide logging debug information, located in Logs directory : debug-yyyyMMdd-log.txt
5.11.2.0 Options to relocate iTSfv Logs, Artwork and Temporary directorys : Options > Advanced > Folders
5.11.1.0 Added options to always import higher resolution artwork during Library validation or Selected Tracks validation : Options > Validate > Tracks

5.11.0.2 Fixed problem with UNC paths having an extra leading slash removed [John]
5.11.0.1 For CD Singles with empty Album tag, iTSfv will look for Artwork based on Track Name [Jojo]
5.11.0.0 Ability to replace existing Artwork with higher resolution (usually 1425x1425) iTunes Music Store artwork if found
5.10.1.1 Fixed iTSfv crashing during Saving Artwork caused by: Error HRESULT E_FAIL has been returned from a call to a COM component
5.10.1.0 Statistics window tabs will show the number of Genre, AlbumArtists, Artists, Albums and Tracks count
5.10.0.2 Resume validation from last checked album checkBox setting will now be remembered
5.10.0.1 Export/Import to/from folder choices were not saved in Options [Jojo]
5.10.0.0 Support exporting selected tracks to another directory specified
5.09.4.1 Incorrectly identified folder with most music, if the iTunes music folder was within that folder
5.09.4.0 Support for dragging more music albums while iTSfv is already adding music to iTunes
5.09.3.3 Backup Ratings XML file save path defaulted to Logs Directory
5.09.3.2 Partially tagged tracks will be accounted for Top # Tracks statistics
5.09.3.1 Tweak 5.8.4.0 Tracks without at least Artist, Album and Name tags will be ignored by iTSfv is now optional in General > Validate. [Bluenote]
5.09.3.0 Added Tracks statistics to Statistics window which is similar to Top Rated smart playlist in iTunes
5.09.2.0 Statistics increased to Top 10 instead of Top 5. This is user configurable under Advanced.
5.09.1.1 Fixed another [ itsfv-Bugs-1790526 ] Arithmetic operation resulted in an overflow while adjust ratings
5.09.1.0 Parsing iTunes Music Library is now much faster as iTSfv now parses the XML database instead of iTunesLib. 15,000 Tracks under one minute.

Download:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-09-22 02:07:40
5.10.0.1 Export/Import to/from folder choices were not saved in Options

still doesn't work.

5.11.0.1 For CD Singles with empty Album tag, iTSfv will look for Artwork based on Track Name [Jojo]

I don't seem to be able to figure out how to use this.
So, I want to get artwork for all my songs that don't have any artwork from iTunes. How would I do that?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-22 03:11:26
Jojo,

Another good catch. This time Choices were fixed and saved (I thought this was the bug before) but not the actual patterns. I am sorry about this. Sometimes these go unnoticed among 100 other settings.

Here is a build hopefully this issue is fixed:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)

5.11.3.2 Export/Import to/from folder patterns were not saved in Options [Jojo]
5.11.3.1 Application could have crash while filling DiscCount if the track wasn't found in Albums Table

Basically what happens with Empty Album tag is that, iTSfv will look for Track Name instead of Album Name.

Example Log:

20070922T092835 Searching iTMS Artwork for Madonna - Hung Up (Radio Version)
20070922T092835 Start fetching: http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/W...(Radio+Version) (http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/coverArtMatch?an=Madonna&pn=Hung+Up+(Radio+Version))
20070922T092838 Fetched http://a1.phobos.apple.com/r10/Music/84/e9...zi.xieufiwb.jpg (http://a1.phobos.apple.com/r10/Music/84/e9/d2/mzi.xieufiwb.jpg)
20070922T092838 folderArtworkPath: H:\Users\Public\iTSfv\Madonna\Hung+Up+(Radio+Version)\iTMS.jpg
20070922T092838 trackArtworkPath: H:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\iTSfv\trackArtwork.jpg


HOWTO:
iTSfv > Options > Advanced > Internet > Download iTMS Artwork if available should be Checked
iTSfv > Options > Advanced > Validation > Include Tracks without Name, Artist and Album should be Checked


Now, provided that you have Artist tag and Name tag filled for CD Singles, iTSfv will look for iTMS artwork. Could you please check if this works? iTSfv > Logs > Debug... and see what the debug log file says.

Apart from CD Singles, other normal albums should get cover art too. I'd be very happy to hear some feedback on this.


Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-22 23:12:37
everybody is jumping to the high resolution artwork bandwagon so you can't blame me for having that option in iTSfv.

Blame you ? I wouldn't dare ! 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-09-23 00:55:17
5.11.3.2 Export/Import to/from folder patterns were not saved in Options [Jojo]

still doesn't work for export.

Quote
HOWTO:
iTSfv > Options > Advanced > Internet > Download iTMS Artwork if available should be Checked
iTSfv > Options > Advanced > Validation > Include Tracks without Name, Artist and Album should be Checked

ok and what do I do next? I just want the album art and not have it mess with my ID3 tags. Where do I have to click to start the process? This is so confusing.

Also, how do I get iTsfv to only handle selected tracks. I was seeing that as an option, but can't figure out how to do it. Finally, what does "Import Artwork from any single image file in album folder" do?

thank you
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-23 01:19:04
Jojo,

To add a new file export pattern, lets say %AlbumArtist% - (%Year%) %Album%.jpg go to

iTSfv > Options > Validate > FileSystem
In Export Artwork to following folder as comboBox type %AlbumArtist% - (%Year%) %Album%.jpg
Press Apply (now the new pattern is added)
Choose %AlbumArtist% - (%Year%) %Album%.jpg
Press Apply (now the new pattern is active)

To get iTSfv to export Arwork without messing with ID3 tags,
Uncheck EVERYTHING ( these are Copy AlbumArtist to Artist, Import Artist to Track, Fill TrackCount, DiscNumber and DiscCount ) in iTSfv > Validate > Tracks tab.
In iTSfv > Validate > FileSystem have Export Artwork to Album folder checkBox checked

Please use 5.11.3.7 version which supports exporting artwork without needing to embed them in tracks, which is the top most here http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)

To handle Selected Tracks, after you have done the above, just press the Validate Selected Tracks in iTSv.

What does "Import Artwork from any single image file in album folder" do?
Jose's great suggestion:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....st&p=515025 (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=51708&view=findpost&p=515025)

Please let me know how it goes.

I have realized the program would stop working iTMS Artwork is not found. The enthusiasm to release with new features asap brings the quality of the product down, even this is BETA. I am fixing it as we speak, to revert back to exporting whatever is embedded in the track.


Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-23 02:00:02
iTSfv 5.11.3.7 BETA
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)

Test Passed for Jojo's scenario

20070923T085352 Job Started: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED
20070923T085354 Export Artwork Pass 1
20070923T085354 Searching iTMS Artwork for Sean Paul - The Trinity
20070923T085354 Found saved iTMS Artwork: H:\Users\Public\iTSfv\Sean+Paul\The+Trinity\iTMS.jpg
20070923T085354 Saved iTMS.jpg as Sean Paul - (2005) The Trinity.jpg
20070923T085354 Searching iTMS Artwork for Sean Paul - The Trinity
20070923T085354 Found saved iTMS Artwork: H:\Users\Public\iTSfv\Sean+Paul\The+Trinity\iTMS.jpg
20070923T085354 Cleared F:\Music\Sean Paul\The Trinity\16 All On Me (Ft. Tami Chynn).mp3 Read-Only flag
20070923T085354 Undo clear F:\Music\Sean Paul\The Trinity\16 All On Me (Ft. Tami Chynn).mp3 Read-Only flag
20070923T085354 Export Artwork Pass 2
20070923T085355 Replace 1494x1494 with 1494x1494 for Sean Paul - (2005) The Trinity.jpg? False
.
20070923T085355 Export Artwork Pass 1
20070923T085355 Searching iTMS Artwork for Mr Sam - Lyteo - Interpretations
20070923T085355 Found saved iTMS Artwork: H:\Users\Public\iTSfv\Mr+Sam\Lyteo+-+Interpretations\iTMS.jpg
20070923T085355 Saved iTMS.jpg as Mr Sam - (2007) Lyteo - Interpretations.jpg
20070923T085355 Searching iTMS Artwork for Mr Sam - Lyteo - Interpretations
20070923T085355 Found saved iTMS Artwork: H:\Users\Public\iTSfv\Mr+Sam\Lyteo+-+Interpretations\iTMS.jpg
20070923T085355 Export Artwork Pass 2
20070923T085356 Replace 1417x1417 with 1417x1417 for Mr Sam - (2007) Lyteo - Interpretations.jpg? False
.
20070923T085356 Export Artwork Pass 1
20070923T085356 Searching iTMS Artwork for Tiësto - The Parade Of The Athletes
20070923T085356 Found saved iTMS Artwork: H:\Users\Public\iTSfv\Ti%c3%absto\The+Parade+Of+The+Athletes\iTMS.jpg
20070923T085356 Saved iTMS.jpg as Tiësto - (2004) The Parade Of The Athletes.jpg
20070923T085356 Searching iTMS Artwork for Tiësto - The Parade Of The Athletes
20070923T085356 Found saved iTMS Artwork: H:\Users\Public\iTSfv\Ti%c3%absto\The+Parade+Of+The+Athletes\iTMS.jpg
20070923T085356 Export Artwork Pass 2
20070923T085356 Replace 600x600 with 600x600 for Tiësto - (2004) The Parade Of The Athletes.jpg? False
.
20070923T085356 Export Artwork Pass 1
20070923T085356 Searching iTMS Artwork for Armin van Buuren - A State of Trance Year Mix 2006
20070923T085356 Start fetching: http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/W...e+Year+Mix+2006 (http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/coverArtMatch?an=Armin+van+Buuren&pn=A+State+of+Trance+Year+Mix+2006)
20070923T085357 Error fetching iTMS artwork
20070923T085357 iTMS Artwork Fetch Request Timeout
20070923T085357 Saved Track Artwork as Armin van Buuren - (2006) A State of Trance Year Mix 2006.jpg
20070923T085357 Searching iTMS Artwork for Armin van Buuren - A State of Trance Year Mix 2006
20070923T085357 Start fetching: http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/W...e+Year+Mix+2006 (http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/coverArtMatch?an=Armin+van+Buuren&pn=A+State+of+Trance+Year+Mix+2006)
20070923T085357 Error fetching iTMS artwork
20070923T085357 iTMS Artwork Fetch Request Timeout
20070923T085357 Export Artwork Pass 2
20070923T085357 Replace 500x500 with 500x500 for Armin van Buuren - (2006) A State of Trance Year Mix 2006.jpg? False
.
20070923T085357 Job Finished: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-09-23 03:02:48
thank you very much.

Here are some more bugs:

validation settings are lost after restart (the regular program, not in the options)
export setting (in folder), won't save user defined location
album art without any album name, is saved as "Artist - %Album%"
"only validate selected tracks" only worked once. now it won't do anything

also, I don't get the program to download music from iTunes. It won't even connect to the internet. It will just export the existing album art.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-23 04:02:34
Hi Jojo,

Thanks very much for the feedback.

album art without any album name, is saved as "Artist - %Album%"

Cheers and fixed, it willl revert to Track Name if Album Name is not found, if not at least Name is found then it will say Unknown Album -- hopefully we won't see tracks that ugly.

5.11.5.0 CheckBox text for Import/Export in iTSfv will now represent Import/Export settings in Options
5.11.4.2 Adding new file name patterns and using them will not anymore require pressing Apply button twice
5.11.4.1 Album art without any album name, were saved as "Artist - %Album%" [Jojo]
5.11.4.0 iTSv will not perform Export Artwork 2-pass anymore if Import Artwork checkBox is unchecked
5.11.3.7 Application crashed while exporting Artwork if iTMS artwork was not found

validation settings are lost after restart (the regular program, not in the options)

OK; I have been quite sure that every setting related to editing ID3 tags are saved and restored properly. Do you mean the checkBoxes in Checks tab? As they were merely checks, I haven't made it to save/restore. But I can.

export setting (in folder), won't save user defined location
Folder locations are saved and retrieved properly for both Import/Export custom folder locations. . I am not sure what I missed. 

"only validate selected tracks" only worked once. now it won't do anything

Could you please provide/paste the log file? You can access the log file via iTSfv : Menu > Logs > Debug...

Thanks
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-09-23 05:10:36
validation settings are lost after restart (the regular program, not in the options)

OK; I have been quite sure that every setting related to editing ID3 tags are saved and restored properly. Do you mean the checkBoxes in Checks tab? As they were merely checks, I haven't made it to save/restore. But I can.

that's what I meant. Never mind then.

Quote
export setting (in folder), won't save user defined location
Folder locations are saved and retrieved properly for both Import/Export custom folder locations. . I am not sure what I missed. 


See screenshot (http://img503.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bug7mi8.png)

Quote
"only validate selected tracks" only worked once. now it won't do anything

Could you please provide/paste the log file? You can access the log file via iTSfv : Menu > Logs > Debug...

there is no entry, since it won't even start.

How do I get the program to download iTunes artwork?

thank you
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-23 06:04:37
Thanks again Jojo!

OK; for Validate Selected Tracks not starting, I think I know - did you select only one track?
I didn't allow validating ONE track to prevent accidental mouse clicks, but I have it enabled now.

A Jojo Scenario

20070923T125740 Job Started: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED
20070923T125746 Export Artwork Pass 1
20070923T125746 Searching iTMS Artwork for Tiësto - The Parade Of The Athletes
20070923T125746 Start fetching: http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/W...Of+The+Athletes (http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/coverArtMatch?an=Ti%c3%absto&pn=The+Parade+Of+The+Athletes)
20070923T125747 Timeout set to 10000 milliseconds
20070923T125749 Fetched http://a1.phobos.apple.com/r10/Music/y2004...05.cpvrcggt.jpg (http://a1.phobos.apple.com/r10/Music/y2004/m10/d18/h14/s05.cpvrcggt.jpg)
20070923T125750 Added Artwork to F:\Music\Tiësto\The Parade Of The Athletes\04 Traffic.mp3 from H:\Users\Public\Pictures\Tiësto - The Parade Of The Athletes.jpg
20070923T125750 Export Artwork Pass 2
20070923T125750 Replace 600x600 with 600x600 for H:\Users\Administrator\Music\iTunes\Album Artwork\iTSfv\Tiësto - The Parade Of The Athletes.jpg? False
.
20070923T125750 Job Finished: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED


A Default scenario

20070923T130316 Job Started: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED
20070923T130319 Export Artwork Pass 1
20070923T130319 Replace 600x600 with 600x600 for F:\Music\Tiësto\The Parade Of The Athletes\Folder.jpg? False
20070923T130320 Replace 600x600 with 600x600 for F:\Music\Tiësto\The Parade Of The Athletes\Artwork.jpg? False
20070923T130320 Searching iTMS Artwork for Tiësto - The Parade Of The Athletes
20070923T130320 Found saved iTMS Artwork: H:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\iTSfv\Ti%c3%absto\The+Parade+Of+The+Athletes\iTMS.jpg
20070923T130320 folderArtworkPath: H:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\iTSfv\Ti%c3%absto\The+Parade+Of+The+Athletes\iTMS.jpg
20070923T130320 trackArtworkPath: H:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\iTSfv\trackArtwork.jpg
20070923T130320 Track Artwork Size: 600x600, Compare Artwork Size: 600x600
20070923T130320 Replace Artwork for 4 Traffic? False
20070923T130320 Export Artwork Pass 2
20070923T130320 Replace 600x600 with 600x600 for F:\Music\Tiësto\The Parade Of The Athletes\Folder.jpg? False
20070923T130320 Replace 600x600 with 600x600 for F:\Music\Tiësto\The Parade Of The Athletes\Artwork.jpg? False
.
20070923T130320 Job Finished: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED


I think this was affecting you?
5.11.5.1 Did not export iTMS downloaded Artwork if there was no embedded artwork in the track
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-23 06:16:44
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/itsfv/iTS...use_mirror=osdn (http://downloads.sourceforge.net/itsfv/iTSfv-5.11.5.1-setup.zip?use_mirror=osdn)

Version 5.11 - 20071015?

5.11.5.1 Did not export iTMS downloaded Artwork if there was no embedded artwork in the track
5.11.5.0 CheckBox text for Import/Export in iTSfv will now represent Import/Export settings in Options
5.11.4.2 Adding new file name patterns and using them will not anymore require pressing Apply button twice
5.11.4.1 Album art without any album name, were saved as "Artist - %Album%" [Jojo]
5.11.4.0 iTSv will not perform Export Artwork 2-pass anymore if Import Artwork checkBox is unchecked
5.11.3.7 Application crashed while exporting Artwork if iTMS artwork was not found
5.11.3.6 Did not export iTMS downloaded Artwork if the Import Artwork checkBox was unchecked
5.11.3.5 Log and Artwork folders paths were detected with two path separators if they were in root drive [Jonnno]

Jojo,

Please see if you could reproduce those errors with the latest build.

The debug file will let you know if the artwork was found in iTMS database.

Thanks,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-23 06:51:29
Do you ever sleep McoreD ? 

BTW, allowing validation of only ONE track is great, for instance if you want to get iTMS artwork for that great new song you've just downl... er, bought. 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-09-23 20:29:01
How do I download iTunes artwork? I've checked all the options you advised me to do and it still won't do it. It doesn't even want to connect to the internet...

Debug Log:

Quote
20070923T123000 Job Started: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
20070923T123037 Job Finished: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-23 23:47:51
Jojo, I think you've already asked that question, right ?

Have you tried simply using... (will I dare say it ?)... (suspense)... iTunes ? 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-24 00:03:12
lol Jose.

Jojo,

I tested with a track without embedded Artwork also. I am not sure what's going on!?

Would you be able to send me one of your mp3 that doesn't get iTMS artwork? My email address is  mcored@ii.net

Version 5.11.6.2

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)

Version History:

5.11.6.2 If Folder artwork dimensions match the embedded artwork dimensions, iTSfv did not look for iTMS artwork
5.11.6.1 Artwork available as TIF in iTMS were not found; they will now be converted to JPG and used as iTMS Artwork source
5.11.6.0 iTSfv will now search for Artwork from all the available iTunes Music stores in the world
5.11.5.1 Did not export iTMS downloaded Artwork if there was no embedded artwork in the track
5.11.5.0 CheckBox text for Import/Export in iTSfv will now represent Import/Export settings in Options
5.11.4.2 Adding new file name patterns and using them will not anymore require pressing Apply button twice
5.11.4.1 Album art without any album name, were saved as "Artist - %Album%" [Jojo]
5.11.4.0 iTSv will not perform Export Artwork 2-pass anymore if Import Artwork checkBox is unchecked

Log:

20070924T064343 Job Started: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED
20070924T064344 Searching iTMS Artwork for Tiësto - The Parade Of The Athletes
20070924T064344 Start fetching: http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/W...Of+The+Athletes (http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/coverArtMatch?an=Ti%c3%absto&pn=The+Parade+Of+The+Athletes) with iTMS 143441
20070924T064344 Timeout set to 10000 milliseconds
20070924T064345 Found Artwork in iTMS ID: 143441
20070924T064345 Fetched http://a1.phobos.apple.com/r10/Music/y2004...05.cpvrcggt.jpg (http://a1.phobos.apple.com/r10/Music/y2004/m10/d18/h14/s05.cpvrcggt.jpg) and saved as H:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\iTSfv\Ti%c3%absto\The+Parade+Of+The+Athletes\iTMS.jpg.
20070924T064345 Saved H:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\iTSfv\Ti%c3%absto\The+Parade+Of+The+Athletes\iTMS.jpg as H:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\Tiësto - The Parade Of The Athletes.jpg
.
20070924T064345 Job Finished: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED

Thanks
McoreD


The only way I can reproduce your log is by unchecking ALL checkBoxes, but you actually need at least "Export Artwork" checkBox checked in the main screen.

(http://img388.imageshack.us/img388/9122/itsfvjojono7.jpg)

I will post more screenshots in the arvo.

Jose, could you also please try 5.11.6.2 of iTSfv for exporting iTMS artwork? Thanks.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-24 00:43:28
Um, sure.    What exactly do you want me to test ?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-09-24 01:50:03
ok, the new built finally works. I didn't change any other options.

Debug-Log:

Quote
20070923T174458 Searching iTMS Artwork for xxx - xxx
20070923T174458 Start fetching: http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/W...=xxx&pn=xxx (http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/coverArtMatch?an=xxx&pn=xxx) with iTMS 143441
20070923T174458 Timeout set to 10000 milliseconds
20070923T174508 The operation has timed out
20070923T174508 Error getting iTMS Artwork URL with Store ID: 143441
20070923T174508 Start fetching: http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/W...=xxx&pn=xxx (http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/coverArtMatch?an=xxx&pn=xxx) with iTMS 143460
20070923T174508 Timeout set to 10000 milliseconds
20070923T174518 The operation has timed out
20070923T174518 Error getting iTMS Artwork URL with Store ID: 143460
20070923T174518 Could not get iTMS Artwork Path


is this supposed to be this way?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-24 04:14:42
Um, sure.    What exactly do you want me to test ?


Great! Could you do the following?

in iTSfv > Options > Validate > File System, export to following folder and choose a folder you like, you can leave the default if you wanna.
untick everything in iTSfv except Export Artwork to (see the screenshot above)
select few tracks from different albums using iTunes
hit the Validate Selected Tracks button in iTunes

now iTSfv should look for iTMS artwork and give a debug log something similar to Jojo has posted.
Could please copy & paste this log here?

ok, the new built finally works. I didn't change any other options.

is this supposed to be this way?


Yes it is supposed to be this way. Cool Jojo, it at least is functional now!

Code: [Select]
Searching iTMS Artwork for xxx - xxx


Why is it xxx?

That means your Artist tag = xxx and Album tag = xxx? 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-09-24 05:57:56
Code: [Select]
Searching iTMS Artwork for xxx - xxx


Why is it xxx?

That means your Artist tag = xxx and Album tag = xxx? 

yes, I masked it

also, does the program look for tif files as well? Because as you know, sometimes the jpg source isn't available so one would have to get the tif file.

Finally, I was thinking about another option. When searching for Artist - Song (when no album is available), could you omit whatever is inside the parenthesis of a song? I sometimes have the name of a Remix inside parenthesis and I think it messes up the searches.

thank you
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-24 08:33:23
Hi Jojo,

Yes, iTSfv will look for TIF, the code is updated and revised for this thanks to david_dl and now it can find 50 Cent - Curtis without a problem.

Next version of iTSfv will search each iTunes Music store for Artwork, and speed is improved.

20070924T152952 Job Started: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED
20070924T152955 Searching iTMS Artwork for Gypsies - Singgnore using iTunes Store (AU)
20070924T152955 Searching iTMS Artwork for Gypsies - Singgnore using iTunes Store (US)
20070924T152955 Searching iTMS Artwork for Gypsies - Singgnore using iTunes Store (UK)
20070924T152955 Searching iTMS Artwork for Gypsies - Singgnore using iTunes Store (NO)
20070924T152956 Searching iTMS Artwork for Gypsies - Singgnore using iTunes Store (CA)

20070924T152956 Could not find iTMS Artwork in any store.
20070924T152956 Export Artwork Pass 2
.
20070924T152956 Export Artwork Pass 1
20070924T152956 Searching iTMS Artwork for Good Charlotte - Good Morning Revival using iTunes Store (AU)
20070924T152957 Found iTMS Artwork using iTMS (AU)
20070924T152957 Replace 600x600 with 600x600 for F:\Music\Good Charlotte\Good Morning Revival\Folder.jpg? False
20070924T152957 Found saved iTMS Artwork: H:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\iTSfv\Good+Charlotte\Good+Morning+Revival\iTMS.jpg
20070924T152957 Replace 600x600 with 600x600 for F:\Music\Good Charlotte\Good Morning Revival\Artwork.jpg? False
20070924T152957 Found saved iTMS Artwork: H:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\iTSfv\Good+Charlotte\Good+Morning+Revival\iTMS.jpg
20070924T152957 Folder Artwork Path: H:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\iTSfv\Good+Charlotte\Good+Morning+Revival\iTMS.jpg
20070924T152957 Track Artwork Path:  H:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\iTSfv\trackArtwork.jpg
20070924T152957 Track Artwork Size: 600x600, Compare Artwork Size: 600x600
20070924T152957 Replace Artwork for 1 Good Morning Revival? False
20070924T152957 Export Artwork Pass 2
20070924T152957 Found saved iTMS Artwork: H:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\iTSfv\Good+Charlotte\Good+Morning+Revival\iTMS.jpg
20070924T152957 Replace 600x600 with 600x600 for F:\Music\Good Charlotte\Good Morning Revival\Folder.jpg? False
20070924T152957 Found saved iTMS Artwork: H:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\iTSfv\Good+Charlotte\Good+Morning+Revival\iTMS.jpg
20070924T152957 Replace 600x600 with 600x600 for F:\Music\Good Charlotte\Good Morning Revival\Artwork.jpg? False
.
20070924T152958 Job Finished: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED

So does the search work for you at least for some albums? How about the CD Singles?

I will look into this issue:

Artist - Name (Remix)
Artist - Name [Remix]
Artist - Name {Remix}

to be searched as Artist - Name.

Cheers.

Edit: Done.

Scenario:

The files
F:\Music\Madonna\Unknown Album\01 Hung Up (Radio Version).mp3
F:\Music\Madonna\Unknown Album\02 Hung Up (Tracy Young Remix).mp3
do not have the Album tag or Artwork embedded.

I choose to embed artwork.

iTSfv searched for Madonna - Hung up and embedded the found iTMS artwork to
F:\Music\Madonna\Unknown Album\01 Hung Up (Radio Version).mp3
F:\Music\Madonna\Unknown Album\02 Hung Up (Tracy Young Remix).mp3
Of course you can choose not to embed.

Log:

20070924T155129 Job Started: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED
20070924T155132 Searching iTMS Artwork for Madonna - Hung Up using iTunes Store (AU)
20070924T155133 Found iTMS Artwork using iTMS (AU)

20070924T155135 Added Artwork to F:\Music\Madonna\Unknown Album\01 Hung Up (Radio Version).mp3 from H:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\iTSfv\Madonna\Hung+Up\iTMS.jpg
20070924T155136 Added Artwork to F:\Music\Madonna\Unknown Album\02 Hung Up (Tracy Young Remix).mp3 from H:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\iTSfv\Madonna\Hung+Up\iTMS.jpg
20070924T155136 Export Artwork Pass 2
.
20070924T155138 Job Finished: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-25 01:54:27
Hi Jojo,

You can find the latest build addressing these issues here:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)

5.11.7.2 Search iTMS artwork during validation of last 100 tracks was ignored
5.11.7.1 CheckBoxes in Checks tab will now be remembered for next launch of iTSfv [Jojo]
5.11.7.0 Implemented several code optimizations to improve performance in validating tracks
5.11.6.5 Prevented rare cases where iTSfv could sometimes fail to overwrite folder.jpg
5.11.6.4 Remix tags for CD Singles will be ignored while searching for iTMS artwork [Jojo]
5.11.6.3 Using improved iTMS artwork search code thanks to david_dl from http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=57720 (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=57720)

5.11.6.2 If folder artwork dimensions match the embedded artwork dimensions, iTSfv did not look for iTMS artwork
5.11.6.1 Artwork available as TIF in iTMS were not found; they will now be converted to JPG and used as iTMS Artwork source
5.11.6.0 iTSfv will now search for Artwork from all the available iTunes Music stores in the world
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-09-25 05:02:35
wow! this is a great release. thank you so much.

5.11.6.1 Artwork available as TIF in iTMS were not found; they will now be converted to JPG and used as iTMS Artwork source

maybe you could reflect this process in the debug file? What compression options are you using? Maybe it would make sense to give users an option whether they want iTSfv to compress the artwork for them, or would rather have it download the original tif file and do the compression themselves?

Quote
5.11.6.4 Remix tags for CD Singles will be ignored while searching for iTMS artwork [Jojo]

that's so cool. I have another idea. Maybe get rid of the "CDM" in the album title.

later
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-09-25 05:49:09
I got an error:

Quote
iTunes version: 7.1.1.5
iTSfv version:    5.11.7.2
Error caused by:
Error HRESULT E_FAIL has been returned from a call to a COM component.
Error path:
  at iTunesLib.IITFileOrCDTrack.AddArtworkFromFile(String filePath)
  at iTSfv.frmMain.sEditTrackImportArtwork(IITFileOrCDTrack track, ArtworkSources artSrc)
  at iTSfv.frmMain.sEditTrack(cInfoDisc lDisc, IITFileOrCDTrack track)
  at iTSfv.frmMain.sValidateDisc(cInfoDisc lDisc)
  at iTSfv.frmMain.ssBwAppValidateAlbums(Int32 untilAlbum)
  at iTSfv.frmMain.sBwAppValidateLibrary()
  at iTSfv.frmMain.sExecuteJob(MethodInvoker mySub)
Errors during Validation:


this error happened while importing album art. I think the file name is too long.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-25 11:55:06
Hi Jojo,

Thanks, is it working for you now (as far as fetching iTMS artwork goes)?

Could you give an example how CDM would be used? I made sure the following to happen:

Artist - Name (Remix)
Artist - Name [Remix]
Artist - Name {Remix}

to be searched as Artist - Name. 

Is "CDM" outside of the brackets?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-09-25 16:17:27
Is "CDM" outside of the brackets?

yes. Some people prefer to tag their Singles the following way and it therefore ends up in the free tagging database.
For example:
Artist = Joe
Song = Lalala

There is no album, because it is a single. But some people would name the album after the song of the single and attach CDM to it. That way they know that it is a single and not an album. In our example it would look like this:

Artist = Joe
Song = Lalala
Album = Lalala CDM

A sophisticated way of solving this problem would be to check whether
$Album = $Song+"CDM" and if it matches, substitute the song name for the album name when doing the search.

cheers
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-25 16:30:48
For the singles, I prefer to name them as follows :
Artist = Joe
Song = Lalala
Album = [Single] Lalala

So this case could be taken into account also. 

@McoreD : I hope to be able to do the testing you asked for in a few hours.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-26 00:44:10
Just for the record, iTSfv found via the iTMS 17 out of 24 album art.

There's only one thing I don't understand : why didn't iTSfv also store the found artwork within iTunes ? No one of my iTunes tracks appear to be linked to the artwork... (I'm not talking about embedding artwork, just about linking the artwork to the tracks)



Jose, appreciate your time test. The debug log looked healthy!

I really didn’t understand “linked to the artwork”. It seems that you have chosen not to embed iTMS artwork, which is fine. iTSfv has exported the artwork, which is fine also. iTSfv cannot “link” the downloaded iTMS artwork with the artwork folder in iTunes Album Art folder if that’s what you are asking? In iTunes’s point of view, these downloaded iTMS Artwork are also just_some_manually_found_artwork and iTunes will not consider these as artwork until you embed them.

I have incorporated the suggestions for stripping out extra tags for CD Singles, including my own ideas. So far it will strip out CDM, CDS, [Single]. I should really use an external text file so we can feed more stuff outside of the program.

Version History since last build.

5.11.7.6 Saving iTMS Artwork could have crashed iTSfv if there were Illegal characters in path
5.11.7.5 Bug report email ask to attach error_log instead of pasting errors in the email body, to prevent error: data area passed to a system call is too small
5.11.7.4 Debug information will be written for tracks iTSfv failed to read
5.11.7.3 Prevent iTSfv crashing while adding artwork to some files probably with long file names [Jojo]

I am doing further testing before the next release...

Cheers guys!
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-26 01:17:05
Thanks McoreD !

I have a nice little improvement suggestion for you :

Let's say we have gathered a lot of artwork from different sources (iTMS, Amazon, etc.), all inside a single folder.

Let's say we have named all this artwork with the same nice pattern (example : "artist - (year) album").

It would be great if iTSfv could :
- Analyze all the artwork in the source folder (according to the file pattern that we'll specify in iTSfv of course)
- Take a destination folder (which we'll specify also)
- Take a directory pattern inside the destination folder (which we'll specify also)
- Search for the right subfolder and copy the artwork,
- Do this for all the artwork in the source folder.

Example :
File pattern : "artist - (year) album.jpg"
Directoty pattern : "artist\(year) album"
Destination folder : "Music", containing a lot of subfolders according to the Directory pattern
Analyzed file in the source folder : "Mark Knopfler - (2007) Kill to get crimson.jpg"

iTSfv finds the subfolder "Music\Mark Knopfler\(2007) Kill to get crimson", and then automatically copies the jpg in it, then it does the same for all the other jpgs inside the source folder ! Automatic jpg distribution in all the right folders !!!

Wouldn't it be nice ?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: david_dl on 2007-09-26 02:49:50
Thanks McoreD !
Example :
File pattern : "artist - (year) album.jpg"
Directoty pattern : "artist\(year) album"
Destination folder : "Music", containing a lot of subfolders according to the Directory pattern
Analyzed file in the source folder : "Mark Knopfler - (2007) Kill to get crimson.jpg"
Not sure if this feature has anything to do with iTunes, or iTSfv, but this batch script should do the job:
Code: [Select]
@echo off

set sourcedir=D:\Path\To\Image\Folder
set destroot=D:\Path\To\Albums

cd /d %sourcedir%

for %%G IN (*.jpg) DO call :process_album "%%G"

goto :eof
:process_album
set file=###%1###
set file=%file:"###=%
set file=%file:###"=%
set album=%file:*- =%
set albumext=%file:*.=%
call set artist=%%file: - %album%=%%
call set album=%%album:.%albumext%=%%
if exist "%destroot%\%artist%\%album%" copy "%file%" "%destroot%\%artist%\%album%\"
goto :eof
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-26 03:11:18
Nice to see you hear david_dl!

Jose, that's indeed a nice suggestion.

Actually a small enhancement done in 5.11.7.3 makes this possible ( I think! )

Code: [Select]
    Private Function ffGetArtworkSource(ByVal track As iTunesLib.IITFileOrCDTrack) As ArtworkSources

        Dim ra As New ArtworkSources
        ra.Track = track

        ' first check if user asks to download from iTMS
        Dim p As String = ffGetITMSArtworkPath(track)
        If p <> String.Empty Then
            ra.ArtworkSource = ArtworkSourceType.iTMS
            ra.ArtworkPathNew = p
            Return ra
        End If

        ' from here onwards source is a file
        ra.ArtworkSource = ArtworkSourceType.File

        ' secondly check for the user preferred filepath to import from
        If mIsDefaultImArtworkFolder = True Then
            ' if in default folder
            Dim albumDir As String = IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(track.Location)
            Dim artworkPath As String = albumDir + "\" + fGetFileNameFromPattern(My.Settings.ArtworkFileNameIm, track)

            Dim artworkFiles As New List(Of String)
            artworkFiles.AddRange(Directory.GetFiles(albumDir, "*.jpg", SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly))
            artworkFiles.AddRange(Directory.GetFiles(albumDir, "*.png", SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly))

            If IO.File.Exists(artworkPath) Then
                ra.ArtworkPathNew = artworkPath
                Return ra
            ElseIf artworkFiles.Count = 1 AndAlso My.Settings.ImportAnySingleArtwork = True Then
                ra.ArtworkPathNew = artworkFiles(0)
                Return ra
            Else
                For Each fileName As String In mArtworkFileNames
                    artworkPath = albumDir + "\" + fGetFileNameFromPattern(fileName, track)
                    If IO.File.Exists(artworkPath) Then
                        ra.ArtworkPathNew = artworkPath
                        Return ra
                    End If
                Next
            End If

        Else ' not DefaultImArtworkFolder

            For Each pattern As String In mArtworkFileNamePatterns
                pattern = fGetFileNameFromPattern(pattern, track)
                Dim artWorkPath As String = My.Settings.FolderPathImArtwork + Path.DirectorySeparatorChar + pattern
                If File.Exists(artWorkPath) Then
                    ra.ArtworkPathNew = artWorkPath
                    Exit For
                End If
            Next

        End If

        Return ra

    End Function


It is theoretically possible within iTSfv to do such thing IFF you set up settings like this:

Import settings:

[a href="http://img187.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itsfvimportcustomdirjg0.jpg" target="_blank"]
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-26 03:21:01
No, no, you're not missing anything : my log up there was just a test, so don't worry about the export artwork folder : I know how to handle it.

Thanks for answering my feature request : you're right, iTSfv can already do that ! Super ! 

Hey ! Guess what ? This time I may have got a bug !! 

Here's the story :
- I've got "Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here" in my iTunes.
- Using iTSfv, it seeks all the iTunes stores then it finds me a nice artwork (all white, two people shaking hands, one of them is on fire) and saves it in the relevant folder
- Using iTunes directly (my iTunes Store is the french one), it finds me another nice artwork (all black, two robotic shaking hands in the middle) and saves it as an .itc file somewhere.
- Let's say I like *BOTH* artworks, so I want to keep them both.
- So I tell iTSfv to validate the iTunes file, so that the second artwork found by iTunes can be saved next to the first one found by iTSfv (I've renamed the first one of course to avoid naming conflict)
- BUT iTSfv, instead of seeing that iTunes already has the black artwork, just keeps searching the iTunes Stores for artwork, finds AGAIN the white artwork (of course), and saves it next to the first one (the same of course) !

Same thing for "Cock Robin - The Best Of Cock Robin".

Am I missing something with the preferences ? 

EDIT : I've got it ! You've got to uncheck the "Advanced > Internet > Download iTMS Artwock" checkbox. But wouldn't it be better if iTSfv wouldn't do the Internet search when there's ALREADY an artwork present within iTunes, thus eliminating the need to check/uncheck the checkbox ? I don't know...  Maybe you could just add another checkbox (it would be the third one in that tab) : "Don't download iTMS Artwork if the Artwork is already present within iTunes". What do you think ?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: kanak on 2007-09-26 04:49:36
@McoreD:

I've been using itsfv a lot, and i find it to be indispensible. Thanks for all your work on i.

I have a couple of Feature requests:
1. Would it be possible to add a feature that creates m3u playlists out of selected tracks?

2. Also, is it possible to have a feature that would export the title, album, artist etc information to the clipboard? (e.g. Select tracks in itunes, click export and get stuff like Genre\Artist - Album\Title information). If this is possible, please make the export criteria customizable.

once again, thanks for all your hard work.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-26 08:27:09
Awesome you got that feature request sorted out.

BUT iTSfv, instead of seeing that iTunes already has the black artwork, just keeps searching the iTunes Stores for artwork, finds AGAIN the white artwork (of course), and saves it next to the first one (the same of course) !


That's a nice catch Jose. OK; that bug/feature is quite an interesting/sensitive one! I think I know the root of the problem : I have given priority to iTMS Artwork over iTunes's" Get Album Artwork" Artwork. So this is a problem with getting priorities right! I will have an option to to give priority.

(1) iTSfv Downloaded Artwork
(2) iTunes Downloaded Artwork

If you give "iTunes Downloaded Artwork" preference over "iTSfv Downloaded Artwork" then iTSfv will use iTunes downloaded artwork ( if found! ) to do its import/export business.

Even if iTunes track already had Downloaded Artwork, the reason why iTSfv searched for iTMS Artwork is because it was trying to download them and compare with the existing artworks to see the downloaded one is better or equal quality (it cannot be worse).

What do you think?

@McoreD:

I've been using itsfv a lot, and i find it to be indispensible. Thanks for all your work on i.

I have a couple of Feature requests:
1. Would it be possible to add a feature that creates m3u playlists out of selected tracks?

2. Also, is it possible to have a feature that would export the title, album, artist etc information to the clipboard? (e.g. Select tracks in itunes, click export and get stuff like Genre\Artist - Album\Title information). If this is possible, please make the export criteria customizable.

once again, thanks for all your hard work.


Kanak, thanks very much for you feedback. Glad you like it.

You probably have noticed the already implemented Copy to Clipboard feature in Selected Tracks. I will expand it a bit more to have other tags. So far it can do stuff like this, if you tried:


"Vocal Edition 18" by DJ Doboy in "Vocal Edition 18" - Played: 47 times - Rating: 100%
"Vocal Edition 20" by DJ Doboy in "Vocal Edition 20" - Played: 87 times - Rating: 100%
"Vocal Edition 08" by DJ Doboy in "Vocal Edition 08" - Played: 31 times - Rating: 100%
"Vocal Edition 14" by DJ Doboy in "Vocal Edition 14" - Played: 28 times - Rating: 100%
"A State of Trance Year Mix 2006 CD1" by Armin van Buuren in "A State of Trance Year Mix 2006" - Played: 31 times - Rating: 100%
"Vocal Edition 22" by DJ Doboy in "Vocal Edition 22" - Played: 20 times - Rating: 100%
"Get Busy" by Sean Paul in "Dutty Rock" - Played: 336 times - Rating: 89%
"Dark Eyes (Funabashi Pres. Tom Porcell Remix)" by Luminary in "Dark Eyes" - Played: 94 times - Rating: 88%
"Vocal Edition 17" by DJ Doboy in "Vocal Edition 17" - Played: 13 times - Rating: 86%
"All On Me (Ft. Tami Chynn)" by Sean Paul in "The Trinity" - Played: 237 times - Rating: 91%


You also must have seen the Export feature for exporting tracks?

I will make it possible to export m3u files also; currently there is an excellent full featured iTunes add-on for that purpose : iTunes Export

http://www.ericdaugherty.com/dev/itunesexport/ (http://www.ericdaugherty.com/dev/itunesexport/)

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: kanak on 2007-09-26 08:55:59
I will make it possible to export m3u files also


 

You are the best!
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-26 10:52:24
I think I know the root of the problem : I have given priority to iTMS Artwork over iTunes's" Get Album Artwork" Artwork. So this is a problem with getting priorities right! I will have an option to to give priority.

(1) iTSfv Downloaded Artwork
(2) iTunes Downloaded Artwork

If you give "iTunes Downloaded Artwork" preference over "iTSfv Downloaded Artwork" then iTSfv will use iTunes downloaded artwork ( if found! ) to do its import/export business.

Even if iTunes track already had Downloaded Artwork, the reason why iTSfv searched for iTMS Artwork is because it was trying to download them and compare with the existing artworks to see the downloaded one is better or equal quality (it cannot be worse).

What do you think?

I agree with you, an option to give priority would be good.

If we go one step beyond that, we also see that currently iTSfv just tries to find the best quality artwork. But it doesn't currently handle the fact that for a same album there might be different available artworks all around the globe, and that we might prefer a given artwork for aesthetic reasons even if its quality is not the best.

How could we handle that ? Well, probably by having an optional "preview" mode where you could see, for each selected track, one track after the other, a small preview of all available artworks with their size written below, and with iTSfv "suggestion" (best artwork according to iTSfv with a thick black border for instance).

So if we activate the optional preview mode (only for specific tracks), we'll have to select for each track the artwork we really want.

Suggestions for the "preview" window : one click = selection of the artwork we want (the thick black border moves), double click = see it in full size, "OK" button or "Return" key = validate the artwork we want, then go to the next selected track / next artwork.

What do you think ?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-26 11:13:57
Wow... That sounds all good. You express them very nicely in a logical order.

Yes, the real question is that when iTSfv found BOTH iTMS Artwork and iTunes Download Artwork, what should iTSfv do.

Did you also notice the

iTSfv > Options > Advanced > Validation :

Always look for higher resolution artwork while validating groupBox? What do you think of that?

If you have them disabled, iTSfv will not always look for higher resolution artwork (hint: it will replace the already has existing artwork).



Personally I would like less user interaction as possible. I normally start validating the whole library and go get a cup of coffee or to bed.
So the *optional* preview mode is a great idea to fix that issue.

In the mean time, going back to one of your first suggestions, I think the "Don't download iTMS Artwork if the Artwork is already present within iTunes" is a splendid idea!


Version History:

5.12.1.0 Added support for creating M3U Playlists from Albums in Disc Browser (aka Album Browser)
5.12.0.0 Support for creating M3U Playlists from selected tracks. File > Create M3U Playlist of Selected Tracks [kanak]
5.11.8.0 Compilation checkBox is now a radioButton which enables you to set "Various Artists" tag before adding tracks
5.11.7.6 Saving iTMS Artwork could have crashed iTSfv if there were Illegal characters in path
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-26 13:48:55
"Always look for higher resolution artwork while validating groupBox? What do you think of that?"
--> Good, but maybe not perfect. In fact it should depend on whether the optional "preview" mode is activated or not.
--> "preview" mode activated => look for all possible artwork
--> "preview" mode deactivated => always look for higher resolution artwork

What do you think ?

"Personally I would like less user interaction as possible. I normally start validating the whole library and go get a cup of coffee or to bed. biggrin.gif
So the *optional* preview mode is a great idea to fix that issue. "
--> Yes of course, it has to be optional. This way we will be able to validate 90% of the library with no user interaction, then handle the remaining 10% on an album-per-album basis using the preview mode.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-09-27 02:00:57
hi,

I hope my tiff file suggestion is still under consideration. At least have it show up in the log file.
The reason why that is so important is because tiff files are a) bigger in size (even the resulting jpgs) and b) the process is not lossless. So I think it makes sense to give people the opportunity to look it up in the log file.

here is the link to my suggestion: http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....st&p=518885 (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=51708&view=findpost&p=518885)

thank you
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-27 02:04:18
Hi Jojo,

That was added in a later build, see in Jose's LOG:

20070925T203138 Searching iTMS Artwork for Meat Loaf - Bat Out Of Hell (25th Anniversary Edition) using iTunes Store (China)
20070925T203141 Found iTMS Artwork using iTMS (China)
20070925T203146 Successfully converted Artwork to JPG and saved as C:\Documents and Settings\XXX\Mes documents\Mes images\iTSfv\Meat+Loaf\Bat+Out+Of+Hell+(25th+Anniversary+Edition)\iTMS.jpg
20070925T203146 Saved C:\Documents and Settings\XXX\Mes documents\Mes images\iTSfv\Meat+Loaf\Bat+Out+Of+Hell+(25th+Anniversary+Edition)\iTMS.jpg as I:\Temp artwork\TEST\Meat Loaf - (1977) Bat Out Of Hell (25th Anniversary Edition).jpg
20070925T203146 Exported Artwork.

Compression is pretty good. Optionally saving a copy of TIFF is indeed a great idea. I will also add that in an upcoming build.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-27 02:14:29
"Always look for higher resolution artwork while validating groupBox? What do you think of that?"
--> Good, but maybe not perfect. In fact it should depend on whether the optional "preview" mode is activated or not.
--> "preview" mode activated => look for all possible artwork
--> "preview" mode deactivated => always look for higher resolution artwork

What do you think ?


Thanks, I got it Jose, I got it all in my head now on how to do it. 
The way I like to have it is a bit more complicated. For discs that both iTMS and iTunes artwork were found, needs to be ideally queued for manually validating later after iTSfv has validated all other albums. So we don't have to sit there until the whole library is validated.

Another thing I hated happening was, some of my 600x600 were replaced by larger artwork 800x933 etc. I give square shaped artwork more priority than larger rectangular artwork.

So a new checkBox is that does:
Prefer existing square (width = height) artwork over larger non-square artwork.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-27 02:28:06
Thanks McoreD, I see what you mean, the queuing idea looks great (but will you implement a "preview" mode for the later validation ?).

For the square shaped artwork, I have some simple questions :
- Why exactly is square shaped artwork preferable ?
- Can we consider a 600x595 artwork as square shaped ? (some iTMS artwork are "nearly square"). I think maybe you should implement some kind of "tolerance" when the artwork is "nearly square" ? Let's say, to be concrete, when the "width/height" factor is between X and 1/X, X being adjustable (for instance X=0,99).

Example 1 : 600x595
600/595=1,0084
If X=0,99, then 1/X=1,01
0,99 < 1,0084 < 1,01. So the artwork is "nearly square".

Example 2 : 595x600
595/600=0,99167
If X=0,99, then 1/X=1,01
0,99 < 0,99167 < 1,01. So the artwork is "nearly square".

Example 3 : 600x590
600/590=1,0169
So the artwork is not "nearly square" (if X=0,99).
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-27 02:36:53
That's another amazing idea Jose. Square shaped artwork was preferred because otherwise they look ugly in the iTunes Artwork window with the white borders:

I just got this as a result during a test.


20070927T092851 Searching iTMS Artwork for 50 Cent - Curtis using iTunes Store (United States)
20070927T092852 Searching iTMS Artwork for 50 Cent - Curtis using iTunes Store (Australia)
20070927T092852 Searching iTMS Artwork for 50 Cent - Curtis using iTunes Store (United Kindom)
20070927T092852 Searching iTMS Artwork for 50 Cent - Curtis using iTunes Store (Norway)
20070927T092852 iTMS Artwork http://a1.phobos.apple.com/r40/Music/68/5b...dj.njxvgobl.tif (http://a1.phobos.apple.com/r40/Music/68/5b/ab/dj.njxvgobl.tif) was not retrievable from iTMS (Norway).
20070927T092852 Searching iTMS Artwork for 50 Cent - Curtis using iTunes Store (Canada)
20070927T092852 Searching iTMS Artwork for 50 Cent - Curtis using iTunes Store (Germany)
20070927T092853 iTMS Artwork http://a1.phobos.apple.com/eu/r40/Music/68...dj.njxvgobl.tif (http://a1.phobos.apple.com/eu/r40/Music/68/5b/ab/dj.njxvgobl.tif) was not retrievable from iTMS (Germany).
20070927T092853 Searching iTMS Artwork for 50 Cent - Curtis using iTunes Store (New Zealand)
20070927T092853 iTMS Artwork http://a1.phobos.apple.com/eu/r40/Music/68...dj.njxvgobl.tif (http://a1.phobos.apple.com/eu/r40/Music/68/5b/ab/dj.njxvgobl.tif) was not retrievable from iTMS (New Zealand).
20070927T092853 Searching iTMS Artwork for 50 Cent - Curtis using iTunes Store (Japan)
20070927T092853 iTMS Artwork http://a1.phobos.apple.com/eu/r40/Music/68...dj.njxvgobl.tif (http://a1.phobos.apple.com/eu/r40/Music/68/5b/ab/dj.njxvgobl.tif) was not retrievable from iTMS (Japan).
20070927T092853 Searching iTMS Artwork for 50 Cent - Curtis using iTunes Store (China)
20070927T092854 Searching iTMS Artwork for 50 Cent - Curtis using iTunes Store (Denmark)
20070927T092854 Searching iTMS Artwork for 50 Cent - Curtis using iTunes Store (France)
20070927T092854 iTMS Artwork http://a1.phobos.apple.com/eu/r40/Music/68...dj.njxvgobl.tif (http://a1.phobos.apple.com/eu/r40/Music/68/5b/ab/dj.njxvgobl.tif) was not retrievable from iTMS (France).
20070927T092854 Could not find iTMS Artwork in any store.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-27 02:44:07
Square shaped artwork was preferred because otherwise they look ugly in the iTunes Artwork window with the white borders:

Thanks McoreD. Is it the same for CoverFlow ? (personally I don't care much about the little artwork window)

BTW I hope we haven't hit a brick wall  I just got this as a result during a test.

What do you mean ? That Apple would somewhat be encrypting the artwork again or something ?
But in any case, the artwork should still be accessible via iTunes and the iTMS if we have a valid account. Am I wrong ? (I don't know - maybe iTunes knows how to do things better than iTSfv - or does iTSfv just try to control iTunes like it does for the other features ?)
Anyway, let's not panic for the moment (but let's retrieve a LOT of artwork while we can  ).
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-27 03:04:34
Jose, you don't see the white boarders in Cover Flow BUT because they are not square shaped, when iTunes resizes the view to be "square" the size of it becomes comparatively smaller than a 600x600 artwork.

(http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/2316/coverflownonsquaredpc2.th.jpg) (http://img296.imageshack.us/my.php?image=coverflownonsquaredpc2.jpg)

See what I mean? That Nelly artwork looks shorter.


I get different results for this TIFF test.

This file indeed exists:
Code: [Select]
http://a1.phobos.apple.com/r40/Music/68/5b/ab/dj.njxvgobl.tif

But you get a 403 which is an authentication error.

This file is not. Hence a 404.
Code: [Select]
http://a1.phobos.apple.com/r40/Music/68/5b/ab/dj.njxvgobl.jpg


I double checked with david_dl's CORE with command line and same result:

Quote
Searching for '50 Cent' - 'Curtis' => "H:\Users\Manno\Desktop\iTunesArtCmd\Music
\50 Cent\Curtis\folder"
Failed: The remote server returned an error: (403) Forbidden.
Press any key to continue . . .


I am waiting for david_dl's response in his thread:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....mp;#entry519380 (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=57720&pid=519380&st=0&#entry519380)

I am off for work now, will try to implement the discussion into code when I get back.

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-27 23:42:17
Hi McoreD.

I think I have folder/filenames that are too long!
That's a good explanation!
Do you think that's a possibility?

If so, I'll try to use foobar to shorten my file names.
Thanks,
-Jose

Date and Time:    2007-09-27T18:29:34

iTunes version: 7.4.2.4

iTSfv version:    5.12.1.2

Error caused by:
The specified path, file name, or both are too long. The fully qualified file name must be less than 260 characters, and the directory name must be less than 248 characters.

Error path:
    at System.IO.Path.NormalizePathFast(String path, Boolean fullCheck)
    at System.IO.Path.GetFullPathInternal(String path)
    at System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory(String path, DirectorySecurity
directorySecurity)
    at System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory(String path)
    at iTSfv.cArtworkITMS..ctor(String artist, String album)
    at iTSfv.frmMain.ffGetITMSArtworkPath(IITFileOrCDTrack track)
    at iTSfv.frmMain.ffGetArtworkSource(cInfoDisc lDisc)
    at iTSfv.frmMain.sValidateDisc(cInfoDisc lDisc)
    at iTSfv.frmMain.ssBwAppValidateAlbums(Int32 untilAlbum)
    at iTSfv.frmMain.sBwAppValidateTracksSelected()
    at iTSfv.frmMain.sExecuteJob(MethodInvoker mySub)


urlwolf, that's great to hear you figured out what makes iTSfv crash also sucks that it had be the hard way having to manually truncate all the long folder paths. That's quite a surprising thing to happen isn’t it? I never expected or knew Windows had a 260 character limitation. I knew iTunes would truncation the file name after 40 letters. So this has to do something with the folder path where iTunes or iTSfv is out of the solutions fixing the path.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-28 00:37:21
Hi McoreD,

I have another suggestion. This time it's about soundtracks. Do you see me coming ?

Personally, I like to name my soundtracks "name of the movie OST" (e.g. "Pulp Fiction OST"). Of course iTMS doesn't like it.

Furthermore, I have noticed that in the iTMS, most soundtracks have one of the composers as the main album artist. Forgive me, but when sorting my soundtrack albums, I generally don't care much about the composer's name, I only use the name of the movie. And if there are various artists, I don't see why I should name only one.

Let's take Armageddon OST for instance. I don't care much about Trevor Rabin being the composer of the main title. There are various artists in the soundtrack, so I don't want to put Trevor Rabin as the only artist. There are lots of other examples of soundtracks by a lot of various artists (Pulp Fiction, Saw, , with no main artist.

So for most of my soundtracks, I have an album name ("name of the movie OST"), but in the "artist" field I often have "Various" or something like that. And of course the iTMS can't find the corresponding sountracks.

Of course there are particular soundtracks, where the composer is really important (John Williams for Star Wars, Howard Shore for Lord of the Rings, James Horner for Titanic, etc, etc.). But they only represent a small part of my soundtracks, all the others being "Various".

Is there something we could do with iTSfv in order to :
- Handle the album name correctly (don't take the "OST" or the "Soundtrack" into consideration for instance),
- Handle the lack of a main composer for most of the albums ? (looks difficult, but maybe there's a solution ?). If we only search with the album name, we will have several answers. So maybe iTSfv could show a small dialog saying that there are several answers, and prompt us to choose the right one. What do you think ?
(remember, we are only talking about movies, that's a small part of a whole music library, so it should be handled separately, maybe via a checkbox that would say that we are looking specifically for sountracks).

Thanks.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-09-28 01:44:59
iTunes decided to encrypt their artwork again. iTunes album art fetcher attracted lots of attention lately, so I guess they pulled the plug.

Regarding the square artwork. I think it is an excellent idea. I noticed that some albums come in several editions. Explicit, Clean, Deluxe etc. Sometimes the Deluxe edition comes in some weird format, because it was probably released in special packaging, but there is at least one version that comes with square album art. Maybe there is a way for iTSfv to check all three and pick the square version (if desired).

thank you
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-28 02:38:16
Maybe the iTMS has decided to encrypt the artwork again to prevent direct downloading. But I guess the artwork still has to remain usable within iTunes for registered iTMS users (otherwise I don't see the use of the artwork !).

So the artwork download as .itc files must remain possible. And if we can download .itc files, then we can validate the corresponding mp3 and transform the .itc into nice JPEGs. Am I wrong ?

EDIT : I've just tried - it seems to work. As a test I've downloaded "Armageddon" artwork from the iTMS using iTunes. No problem of course. So now I can validate the corresponding file using iTSfv and get the jpg out of iTunes. Still better than nothing !
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-28 14:46:25
Hi Jose,

Handle the album name correctly (don't take the "OST" or the "Soundtrack" into consideration for instance): Future iTSfv versions will ignore the OST when searching for an Album in iTMS.

I am trying to understand your suggestion. Do you mean, it would be good to check for Soundtracks without Composer tag? I didn't really get the "Handle the lack of a main composer for most of the albums" part. That's a nice check to be added.

I am much like you when it gets to filling tags in Soundtracks except I don't add the OST bit. See my screenshot, in there I have Composer tag, Artist tag filled for known Artists and for the rest I have Various Artists.
(http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/3567/ituneslionkingjp3.th.jpg) (http://img410.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ituneslionkingjp3.jpg)

AlbumArtist: Various Artists (or one could have Soundtrack)
Album: Lion King
Composer: Hans Zimmer
Artist: Depends on the Track
Genre: Soundtrack

Hi Jojo,

Yeah, just like david_dl says, it was fun until it lasted. iTSfv will continue to have the feature (now turned off by default) hoping one day Apple will make it available again. As Jose said, iTSfv will get the JPG out of iTunes when you legally obtain the Artwork with an iTunes Store account. So there is no biggie for some of us here.

Version History so far:

5.12.2.2 Prevented application crashes while accidentally validating tracks in Read-Only media
5.12.2.1 iTSfv will no longer run as Top Most by default according to Windows Application Design Guidelines [Jim]
5.12.2.0 Added Options > Validate > Tracks > Do not import larger Artwork if they will show White Borders in the Artwork Panel
5.12.1.3 Prevent running Add New Files job when a user drags new files to iTSfv while iTSfv is already adding new music to iTunes
5.12.1.2 Disc Browser Artwork thumbnail will be rendered from previously determined Artwork Source eliminating a FileWrite
5.12.1.1 Fixed instability caused by enumerator is bound to has been modified error while background worker is busy [Gareth/Bruce]
5.12.1.0 Added support for creating M3U Playlists from Albums in Disc Browser (aka Album Browser)
5.12.0.0 Support for creating M3U Playlists from selected tracks. File > Create M3U Playlist of Selected Tracks [kanak]

Keeping things simple here, let me bring up an example. During exporting artwork to fill there is NO restrictions in resolution/sizes. During importing artwork (embedding) you can set limitations to iTSfv. If track already has 600x600 artwork and iTSfv finds there is a 1618x1417 artwork for that track, iTSfv will see if we checked "Do not import larger Artwork if they will show White Borders in the Artwork Panel" checkBox. If it is checked, iTSfv calculates the squareness of the artwork (1618/1417 = 1.1418) as Jose pointed out in a previous post. A ratio 0.9 to 1.1 are OK for Artwork Panel which do not display ugly white borders. If the ratio is out of these bounds, then the this artwork is ignored by iTSfv and will not be imported.

20070928T215110 Job Started: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED
20070928T215117 Replace 1618x1417 with 600x600 for F:\Music\Holly Valance\State Of Mind\Folder.jpg? False
20070928T215118 Replace 1618x1417 with 600x600 for F:\Music\Holly Valance\State Of Mind\Artwork.jpg? False
20070928T215118 Compare Artwork Path: F:\Music\Holly Valance\State Of Mind\Artwork.jpg
20070928T215118 Track Artwork Path:  H:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\iTSfv\trackArtwork.jpg
20070928T215118 F:\Music\Holly Valance\State Of Mind\Artwork.jpg with 1618x1417 will be ignored because it could cause White Borders.
20070928T215118 Track Artwork Size: 600x600, Compare Artwork Size: 1618x1417

20070928T215118 Replace Artwork for 1 Hypnotic? False
20070928T215118 Track Last Modified according to iTunes: 2007-09-28 21:51:01
20070928T215118 Track Last Modified according to Cache: 2007-09-27 13:02:57
20070928T215118 Updated Artwork dimensions Cache for F:\Music\Holly Valance\State Of Mind\01 Hypnotic.mp3
20070928T215118 Retrieved Artwork dimensions from cache: 600x600
20070928T215119 Compare Artwork Path: F:\Music\Holly Valance\State Of Mind\Artwork.jpg
20070928T215119 Track Artwork Path:  H:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\iTSfv\trackArtwork.jpg
20070928T215120 F:\Music\Holly Valance\State Of Mind\Artwork.jpg with 1618x1417 will be ignored because it could cause White Borders.
20070928T215120 Track Artwork Size: 600x600, Compare Artwork Size: 1618x1417
20070928T215120 Replace Artwork for 2 State Of Mind? False


Some of the other features planned becomes redundant for the time being until Apple offers public download of Artwork again. In the meantime iTSfv will continue to develop with other minor enhancements (I really liked the 5.12.0.0 Support for creating M3U Playlists from selected tracks. File > Create M3U Playlist of Selected Tracks [kanak]) and bug fixing to finally fully support validating large libraries like urlwolf mentioned.

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-09-28 17:41:18
I am trying to understand your suggestion. Do you mean, it would be good to check for Soundtracks without Composer tag? I didn't really get the "Handle the lack of a main composer for most of the albums" part. That's a nice check to be added.

In fact for the particular case of Soundtracks, I was thinking about giving the iTMS only the "album name" information, with no artist and no composer information. Thus, we will get several albums, and then we'll have to manually select which is the right one.

Why bother ? Because for a lot of sountracks, there are "Various artists", and I have the feeling that the iTMS doesn't handle this well : e.g. Armageddon OST attributed to Trevor Rabin as only artist, which is obviously wrong because Rabin only composed the instrumental main title (and maybe some other instrumental titles in the movie), and all other tracks are the work of well known pop-rock bands. So this is really a "Various artists" album, not a Trevor Rabin one (I guess).

So I think for Soundtracks we should give the iTMS only the "album name" information, that's all (maybe via a checkbox ?). In my example, we'll find several "Armageddon" albums, with different artists, but we'll easily be able to select the good one via a small results window with several rows : album name / artist / composer / year for instance.

Yeah, just like david_dl says, it was fun until it lasted. iTSfv will continue to have the feature (now turned off by default) hoping one day Apple will make it available again. As Jose said, iTSfv will get the JPG out of iTunes when you legally obtain the Artwork with an iTunes Store account. So there is no biggie for some of us here.

Well, the only real problem is that with iTSfv, we were able to check various iTMS stores around the globe, and get different artwork for a same album. With iTunes we are forced to check our local iTunes store, which is not so good for foreign albums. And we can't check several stores at a time, see all the results and get the best one according to our own criteria (what a pity !).
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-09-29 02:28:10
for the time being, couldn't iTSfv support getting artwork through my iTunes account? I like the flexibility of dropping CDM and also not having to export and then import the art again in order to have it saved within the file itself (because iTunes downloaded artwork will simply store it in it's own database)

Also, would be possible to somehow implement a feature that will take an iTunes store URL and grab the album art? http://www.thejosher.net/iTunes/methodtwo.php (http://www.thejosher.net/iTunes/methodtwo.php) was able to do that.
Here is how it could work: I supply the URL. iTSfv parses the contents' URL and copies the artist and album name. It then creates a dummy file within the iTunes database and changes its artist and album name accordingly. It then uses iTunes to download the art and exports it.

Just an idea, but that's how I currently have to do it, because iTunes simply won't find some artwork because of tagging discrepancies. Of course, one would have to have an iTunes account, but that probably isn't an issue for most of us.

What do you think?

thank you
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Bluenote on 2007-09-29 06:19:41
Hi, sorry to be the bringer of bad news.... but it looks like the "Adjust the Rating..." function (button under "Advanced") is broken in the latest beta.  It wouldn't add or update any ratings in iTunes. Works fine in v5.9. Can you confirm you get this too?

Thanks! Bluenote
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-29 12:02:26
Hi, sorry to be the bringer of bad news.... but it looks like the "Adjust the Rating..." function (button under "Advanced") is broken in the latest beta.  It wouldn't add or update any ratings in iTunes. Works fine in v5.9. Can you confirm you get this too?

Thanks! Bluenote



Hi Bluenote, in the latest beta, I had the same problem while adjusting rating today. A quick workaround (until the next beta) would be to have any checkBox in the Tracks tab checked after you press the "Adjust Rating...." 

Sorry about that. I smacked my head realizing this soon after releasing the beta today.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-29 15:30:10
I am trying to understand your suggestion. Do you mean, it would be good to check for Soundtracks without Composer tag? I didn't really get the "Handle the lack of a main composer for most of the albums" part. That's a nice check to be added.


Jose,

The iTunes Cover Art finders require both Artist and Album tags to search for a matching Cover - that is one way. We could may be additionally provide Composer tag if exists, and the AlbumArtist tag is just a non-descriptive "Various Artists" tag, try better results. But anything to do with downloading iTMS Cover Art is now render useless because Apple has locked us out again for public access..

Jojo,

Yes, for the time being,  iTSfv will get the JPG out of iTunes when you legally obtain the Artwork with an iTunes Store account -- which is really the first feature iTSfv supported.

About the Album URL idea, while that is an excellent suggestion, automating it becomes questionable.  If we supply the Album Art to iTSfv for each album, we might as well use Josh's web site to fetch the album art. Btw, I haven't yet seen an open source implementation of Josh's method #2 and not quite sure how to do that myself, and is something really interesting to dig into.

Anyways Jojo, as long as we have an iTunes Account, we will be able to rip a JPG out of it, which is the plus side.


5.12.3.0 Added support to retain ModificationDate in Tracks [Jim] in Options > Validate > Tracks
5.12.2.5 Adjusting rating did not function if no checkBox was checked in Tracks tab in build 5.12.1.2
5.12.2.4 Fixed Access is denied error (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED)) while importing artwork without exporting them [Jim]
5.12.2.3 Prevent iTSfv crashing for track is not modifiable error while restoring tags [Chris]
5.12.2.2 Prevented application crashes while accidentally validating tracks in Read-Only media
5.12.2.1 iTSfv will no longer run as Top Most by default according to Windows Application Design Guidelines [Jim]
5.12.2.0 Added Options > Validate > Tracks > Do not import larger Artwork if they will show White Borders in the Artwork Panel
5.12.1.3 Prevent running Add New Files job when a user drags new files to iTSfv while iTSfv is already adding new music to iTunes


http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Josh. on 2007-09-29 17:50:31
About the Album URL idea, while that is an excellent suggestion, automating it becomes questionable.  If we supply the Album Art to iTSfv for each album, we might as well use Josh's web site to fetch the album art. Btw, I haven't yet seen an open source implementation of Josh's method #2 and not quite sure how to do that myself, and is something really interesting to dig into.


Hi,

That page is modified from this script (http://tpemble.urfbownd.net/itunes/itunes-art.phps) (dependencies can be found here (http://tpemble.urfbownd.net/itunes/))... I can't remember what exactly I changed but it should be pretty simple to find out as it wasn't difficult for me IIRC.  I think it was actually just modifying the end JPEG URL... as I tried it just now and it seems to get the thumbnail just perfect.

Now if someone in here could help me with something I'd really appreciate it. For some reason, I can not get the iTunes COM to work. I've re-installed two or three times, ran /regserver more times than I can count... nothing. It's not just itsfv but iart, and some iTunes javascripts I have as well. And some visualizer. All give a COM error.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-09-29 20:26:43
If we supply the Album Art to iTSfv for each album, we might as well use Josh's web site to fetch the album art.

true. except that it currently doesn't work. We could make it work if we were logged into iTunes and that's where your program comes into place.


That page is modified from this script (http://tpemble.urfbownd.net/itunes/itunes-art.phps) (dependencies can be found here (http://tpemble.urfbownd.net/itunes/))... I can't remember what exactly I changed but it should be pretty simple to find out as it wasn't difficult for me IIRC.  I think it was actually just modifying the end JPEG URL... as I tried it just now and it seems to get the thumbnail just perfect.

do you think the script would be working again when used with a valid iTunes account?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-09-30 02:21:35
Hi, sorry to be the bringer of bad news.... but it looks like the "Adjust the Rating..." function (button under "Advanced") is broken in the latest beta.  It wouldn't add or update any ratings in iTunes. Works fine in v5.9. Can you confirm you get this too?

Thanks! Bluenote


Bluenote, I hope you like this release:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)

5.12.4.0 Faster Adjust Rating for Advanced > Adjust Rating avoiding load operation of Disc Browser
5.12.3.1 Artwork thumbnail was not shown in Discs Browser if artwork was added after the track was loaded to Discs Browser
5.12.3.0 Added support to retain ModificationDate in Tracks [Jim] in Options > Validate > Tracks
5.12.2.5 Adjusting rating did not function if no checkBox was checked in Tracks tab in build 5.12.1.2
5.12.2.4 Fixed Access is denied error (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED)) while importing artwork without exporting them [Jim]
5.12.2.3 Prevent iTSfv crashing for track is not modifiable error while restoring tags [Chris]
5.12.2.2 Prevented application crashes while accidentally validating tracks in Read-Only media
5.12.2.1 iTSfv will no longer run as Top Most by default according to Windows Application Design Guidelines [Jim]
5.12.2.0 Added Options > Validate > Tracks > Do not import larger Artwork if they will show White Borders in the Artwork Panel
5.12.1.3 Prevent running Add New Files job when a user drags new files to iTSfv while iTSfv is already adding new music to iTunes

From the looks of it, it's progressing well towards a non-BETA build.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-10-01 14:29:41
Back to problems ?...

With latest version (5.12.3.0), I'm no more able to do "Import Artwork in [...] from [...]". It doesn't work. No errors, nothing. It just doesn't do the job.

Example :
- Artwork folder : I:\Temp artwork\Reste
- Artwork 1 : "A Chorus Line - (1975) A Chorus Line - Original Broadway Cast.jpg"
- Artwork 2 : "Albert King & Stevie Ray Vaughan - (1999) In Session.jpg"
- Artwork 3 : "Ana Torroja - (1997) Puntos cardinales.jpg"
- In iTunes, the corresponding tracks are selected, and of course all the tags are correct.
- So the text next to the checkbox in iTSfv becomes "Import Artwork in I:\Temp artwork\Reste from %Artist% - (%Year%) %Album%.jpg
- But when I go to iTSfv and click "Validate selected tracks", nothing happens !

I've even done a test with a track that worked with previous iTSfv version (5.11.7.2). I've erased the embedded artwork imported by iTSfv 5.11.7.2, then tried to embed it again (same artwork, same place, everything identical) with iTSfv 5.12.3.0... doesn't work !!

What can I do ? Thanks.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Bluenote on 2007-10-01 15:30:52
More problems here

It seems the Auto Rate function just won't work like it used to..... now, it writes data to tracks like Album Artist, Disc Number etc. even though I don't want it to! All the boxes in Validate | Checks are unticked.
I thought this sort of thing should only happen during Validation. The Auto Rate function should only work on the ratings and leave the rest of the tags alone, or am I misunderstanding something here?

Thanks, Bluenote
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-10-01 15:38:53
Bluenote, is this 5.12.4.0? That build was specifically designed to be completely independent from the standard Validation procedure. So it shouldn't do this at all.

Jose, I will get to you soon after looking what's wrong.

,
McoreD

Edit: Problem reproducible. This was caused by a core change done to how patterns were saved for a feature planned in an upcoming build and left incomplete. Fixing it as we speak and thanks very much for pointing that out.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Bluenote on 2007-10-01 15:50:31
Bluenote, is this 5.12.4.0? That build was specifically designed to be completely independent from the standard Validation procedure. So it shouldn't do this at all.


Yup, it's 5.12.4.0. And if I click on "Adjust the Rating" I get my disc numbers and Album Artists filled in - just happened again.

Bluenote
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: urlwolf on 2007-10-01 16:34:38
Hmm, playing around wiht multiple music locations...

5.12.4 doesn't look like this:
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/3469/it...multilibmp7.jpg (http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/3469/itsfv58multilibmp7.jpg)
at all. It has three tabs: files, tags and options. Is that normal?

Now, since iTunes is dumb enough to only take one folder for a music library, If I use synchroclean it says that some of my music is not in that unique folder (of course) and that my library will be obliterated if I press ok.

What should I do?

Thanks

For the life of me that I don't understand the design philosophy of whoever thought up iTunes.

I have changed the location of some of my songs. There is no way IN HELL itunes will realize this. A simple "refresh library" button is missing!

Did these people not think that humans move files? Is iTunes designed for people who don't even know what a file is?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-10-01 18:12:03
urlwolf,

While you are in Explorer tab, press F2 to bring up Options for that tab, which will bring up the Options window similar to that imageshack screenshot.

I had completely disabled Synchroclean if a large portion of music is detected outside of iTunes Library, but I see the problemn not being able to override it. The reason why disabled was because, as part Synchroclean it will remove tracks from iTunes Library that are not in music folder. So if you had music stored in iTunes which is not in the iTunes Music folder then synchroclean would treat them as alien files and remove them. Next build of iTSfv will look in each additional music folder to see if the music files are in any of the music folder location specified, so this MsgBox should then hopefully disappear for you. If you however still have tracks that are not in any of the locations specified, then iTSfv will refuse to perform synchroclean.

In the mean time you can try Explorer > Get New Tracks which only focuses on adding new tracks to Library.



If you run Adjust Ratings as part of validating tracks/library, only iTSfv will update Tags.


Jose,

Hope this build works for ya. I did test it with empty artwork album, importing artwork from a custom folder.

5.12.6.3 iTSfv refused to synchroclean even if tracks were in any one of the music folders specified [urlwolf]
5.12.6.2 Importing Artwork from Custom folder did not work in build 5.12.3.0 [Jose]
5.12.6.1 Fixed delays occured in main GUI when retrieving Tracklist after clicking the disc in Discs Browser using a seperate thread
5.12.6.0 Prompt for overwriting AlbumArtist and Album tags before Adding new files to the library
5.12.5.0 Attempted some tweaks following [a href="http://aitech.ac.jp/~ckelly/midi/help/caps.html" target="_blank"]http://aitech.ac.jp/~ckelly/midi/help/caps.html (http://img108.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itsfvaddfilesek2.jpg) for capitalizing Name tag
[/b]5.12.4.1 Fixed Value cannot be null error while attempting to capitalize tracks that did not exist [Tom]
5.12.4.0 Faster Adjust Rating for Advanced > Adjust Rating avoiding load operation of Disc Browser
5.12.3.1 Artwork thumbnail was not shown in Discs Browser if artwork was added after the track was loaded to Discs Browser
5.12.3.0 Added support to retain ModificationDate in Tracks [Jim] in Options > Validate > Tracks

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)

Thanks,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: urlwolf on 2007-10-01 18:45:25
Thanks McoreD,

In the meantime, I was using itunes library updater 1.26.
It's extremely slow, maybe 1 soung per second.
That's probably because the partition Itunes library is in is almost full.

I'll fix that.
Still, in optimal conditions, is ITSfv faster thatn ITLU?

Thanks
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Josh. on 2007-10-01 21:09:28

That page is modified from this script (http://tpemble.urfbownd.net/itunes/itunes-art.phps) (dependencies can be found here (http://tpemble.urfbownd.net/itunes/))... I can't remember what exactly I changed but it should be pretty simple to find out as it wasn't difficult for me IIRC.  I think it was actually just modifying the end JPEG URL... as I tried it just now and it seems to get the thumbnail just perfect.

do you think the script would be working again when used with a valid iTunes account?


No clue.

I really haven't figured out on what condition, if any, Apple allows access to the non-encrypted art.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-10-01 21:55:30
@McoreD : the new build works again so far. Thanks !

BTW, is it necessary to reset all prefs with each iTSfv update ? I would prefer if all prefs were conserved. Is it possible ?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-10-02 00:08:06
Thanks McoreD,

In the meantime, I was using itunes library updater 1.26.
It's extremely slow, maybe 1 soung per second.
That's probably because the partition Itunes library is in is almost full.

I'll fix that.
Still, in optimal conditions, is ITSfv faster thatn ITLU?

Thanks


urlwolf, I really haven't tested both against speed. In optimal conditions iTLU will be faster because it does less checks? I am not really sure but I am going test it now. iTSfv does Synchroclean with one thing in mind: that tracks will never be accidentally deleted, which is not the case with iTLU because it doesn't do checks for user mistakes. For example, if you have music stored in F:\Music and you have don't have that path in iTLU music folder locations, then without warnings iTLU will delete any F:\Music\*.mp3 reference in iTunes. The difference is that iTSfv will refuse to synchronize if this is the case.

Jose, thanks for the feedback, it is not necessary to reset settings in every update. The bug in the previous build affected how the pattern was stored in the settings file. So I had to reset the settings file to read new values. Sorry about that.

Edit:

Tests were done for 15595 tracks. I ran synchroclean with same options for F:\Music.

iTLU took 21 minutes.

iTSfv took 27 minutes.

20071002T072422 Job Started: SYNCHROCLEAN
20071002T072422 Safety checks initiated before removing tracks outside of music folders.
20071002T072424 Looking for tracks outside of music folders to remove
20071002T072953 Finding new tracks in specified music locations...
20071002T075136 Finding new tracks in specified music locations... Done.
20071002T075136 Job Finished: SYNCHROCLEAN

I can make iTSfv do it 10 times faster however that needs some more testing.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Bluenote on 2007-10-02 01:50:20
I have not been able to reproduce that error. It didn't touch the ValidateDisc function at all. Advanced tab > Adjust Rating will not simply access Validate Disc code. 

If you run Adjust Ratings as part of validating tracks/library, only iTSfv will update Tags.


OK, thanks for confirming that. I think the problem was with my iTunes library, some stuff was messed up after my computer crashed with it open. Working now.

Keep up the great work, Bluenote
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: urlwolf on 2007-10-02 09:58:25
Quote
I can make iTSfv do it 10 times faster however that needs some more testing.


That's great to hear!

BTW, congrats McoreD -and me  - now that we know that long filenames are a problem, I have managed to validate my entire library (Yay!). It took some effort, but the results should be worth it (great 600x600 artwork, pretty automatic).

After I'm done downloading artwork, I'd like to insert it in tracks (right now, my artwork is in folder.jpg). However, some of my scans are huge.

Adding that to each track would be a waste.
Is there any way you can tell ITSfv "resize any jpg too large to a manageable size (e.g. <100kb) before inserting it into the tracks?

Thanks
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-10-02 11:04:38
Thanks and that's great news from urlwolf and Bluenote. 

An option to resize large artwork ( over xxx KiB ) to ###x### resolution would be an excellent feature addition.

urlwolf,

I have emailed you build 5.12.7.1

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)

5.12.7.1 If iTSfv finds there are tracks in iTunes which do not belong to any music folder location, instead of refusing, iTSfv will continue to Synchroclean, leaving those tracks
5.12.7.0 Implementation of finding new files to iTunes Library is now 100x faster which makes Synchroclean faster

I was quite amazed my self because, finding new tracks only took 10 seconds for a library with 15595 tracks.

Finding new tracks:

Code: [Select]
20071002T174802 Job Started: FIND_NEW_TRACKS_FROM_HDD
20071002T174802 Finding new tracks in specified music locations...
20071002T174810 Finding new tracks in specified music locations... Done.
20071002T174814 Job Finished: FIND_NEW_TRACKS_FROM_HDD


Using new finding new tracks method:

iTSfv took 5 minutes. (major chunk of that time is Looking for tracks outside of music folders to remove, which I am planning to make even shorter).

Code: [Select]
20071002T173839 Job Started: SYNCHROCLEAN
20071002T173839 Safety checks initiated before removing tracks outside of music folders.
20071002T173912 Looking for tracks outside of music folders to remove
20071002T174404 Finding new tracks in specified music locations...
20071002T174411 Finding new tracks in specified music locations... Done.
.
20071002T174443 Job Finished: SYNCHROCLEAN



If you could let me know how it goes when you press Explorer tab > Options tab > Get Tracks not in Library that would be splendid.

Thanks,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: urlwolf on 2007-10-02 18:37:03
I tried ´get tracks not in library´ and got a crash (emailed to you).

One question. Instead of using Artwork.jpg, can we tell ITsfv to use folder.jpg? All my art is in that format. that´d make itunes more complete.

Thanks
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-10-03 04:16:18
Maybe a small bug :

Prefs > Validate > Tracks

If I select "Import artwork in album folder from", I can type anything I want inside the pop-up menu in the right. That's OK.

BUT If I select "Import artwork in the following folder from", I can't type anything in the corresponding pop-up menu : I have only access to pre-defined options. This is the only pop-up menu to behave like this (if I go to Prefs > Validate > File System, both pop-up menus behave identically which is good of course).

What do you think McoreD ?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-10-03 08:29:20
I tried ´get tracks not in library´ and got a crash (emailed to you).

One question. Instead of using Artwork.jpg, can we tell ITsfv to use folder.jpg? All my art is in that format. that´d make itunes more complete.

Thanks


urlwolf, you can press F2 to access the Options while you are in Tracks tab where you can change Artwork.jpg to Folder.jpg using the drop down menu.

About the crash: did you get that straightaway after iTSfv found new tracks OR while it was adding new tracks? I will be going through this later today.

Jose,

Some parts of that behavior was intentional. I will double check this later tonight.

Thanks,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: urlwolf on 2007-10-03 11:57:31
Crash: It was while it was adding new tracks
It might have to do with 8-bit chars, since I was adding some anime soundtracks.

Does itunes alter my genre tags? Because a good 2000 songs of my previously carefully labelled collection has "miscelaneous" as genre.
I'm new to itunes, and finding plenty of things to like AND dislike. This would be a major ofense though.
   
Itsfv misses plenty of small artwork even when I selected "consider small artwork if smaller than 600 x 600". No idea why. Itunes misses albums that it has in their db. For example, one song from Areito got a cover, whereas the rest of the album (which itunes considered independently, because it was in a different directory) got no cover. I know that iTunes has the cover for that album. No idea why it ignored it, though.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-10-03 13:06:16
Some parts of that behavior was intentional. I will double check this later tonight.

Well, if it was intentional, how can I tell iTSfv to "Import artwork in the following folder from (%year%) %album%" for instance ?
("(%year%) %album%" being a new pattern, non-existing in the pop-up menu).
If it doesn't exist, and if I can't create it, how can I possibly do ?
Thanks.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-10-03 17:55:33
urlwolf,

iTSfv wouldn't modify any filled Genre tags in any way. iTSfv will show what iTunes can see. I will test more adding new files to iTunes. I haven't manged to crash it yet. I was wondering how was the speed compared to last time for the total time of synchocleaning.

Some important confirmations, I'd like:

1/ Do you mean 200x200 wasn't the smallest artwork you had, and iTSfv didn't report that in the low-resolution-artwork log file?

2/ Itsfv misses plenty of small artwork even when I selected "consider small artwork if smaller than 600 x 600" - do you mean iTSfv skipped those files without embedding artwork to them?

I see a tricky situation you described there, when same album located partially in seperate folders. Theoretically iTSfv is designed to handle that situation because, first iTSfv loads all the albums to Discs Browser, in this step, no matter where your files are, the tracks are sorted in to albums, and tracks will have artwork imported.

The only place I can see a possible trouble is If chkWinExportArtwork.Checked = True AndAlso chkImportArtwork.Checked = False Then but you have Import Artwork checked. 


Jose,

The intentional part was so that we could only input new patterns from one comboBox for simplicity. 
How can I tell iTSfv to "Import artwork in the following folder from (%year%) %album%" for instance? I see. I agree it was implemented in a confusing way! According to the current method, to do what you required,  will need you to go to "Export artwork to the following folder as" comboBox, input the pattern, press Apply and come back to the "Import artwork in the following folder from" comboBox. I will make all comboBoxes editable. Thanks!
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-10-04 15:37:40
urlwolf,

Loooking at your log file, it says:

Warnings during Validation:
Could not find file 'C:\Documents and Settings\xxxx\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music Library.xml'.

That's quite an error there! I am not sure how that XML file could go missing. An error like that would not have parsed the Xml file properly, and that's like a cause of error for iTSfv crashing while adding files.

I have also revised the code to handle any NullPointer exception whatsoever.

5.13.0.0 Option to resize large artwork to resolution defined as lowest high resolution in Options > Tracks [urlwolf]
5.12.7.3 Attempted fix 'Object reference not set to an instance of an object.' while adding new tracks to library [urlwolf]
5.12.7.2 New artwork file names and file name patterns addable from all comboBoxes in Import and Export tabs [Jose]



20071004T221958 Job Started: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED
20071004T222006 F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\Artwork.jpg artwork 5569x5540 resized to 600x597 as Artwork (600x597).jpg
20071004T222008 Added Artwork to F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\01 Shala Lalala.mp3 from F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\Artwork (600x597).jpg
20071004T222011 Added Artwork to F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\02 24_7 In My 911.mp3 from F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\Artwork (600x597).jpg
20071004T222013 Added Artwork to F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\03 Kiss (When the Sun Don't Shine).mp3 from F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\Artwork (600x597).jpg
20071004T222014 Added Artwork to F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\04 Uncle John From Jamaica.mp3 from F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\Artwork (600x597).jpg
20071004T222016 Added Artwork to F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\05 Cheekah Bow Bow (That Computer So.mp3 from F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\Artwork (600x597).jpg
20071004T222018 Added Artwork to F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\06 48 Hours.mp3 from F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\Artwork (600x597).jpg
20071004T222020 Added Artwork to F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\07 Your Place or Mine_.mp3 from F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\Artwork (600x597).jpg
20071004T222022 Added Artwork to F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\08 Skinnydippin'.mp3 from F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\Artwork (600x597).jpg
20071004T222023 Added Artwork to F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\09 Take Me to the City.mp3 from F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\Artwork (600x597).jpg
20071004T222025 Added Artwork to F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\10 Forever as One.mp3 from F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\Artwork (600x597).jpg
20071004T222027 Added Artwork to F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\11 Opus 3 In D#.mp3 from F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\Artwork (600x597).jpg
20071004T222031 Replace 5569x5540 with 600x597 for F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\Folder.jpg? False
20071004T222037 Replace 5569x5540 with 600x597 for F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\Artwork.jpg? False
.
20071004T222040 Job Finished: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)

The new checkBox is accessble from iTSfv > Tools > Options > Tracks
(http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/5474/itsfvresizeartworktx7.jpg)

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-10-21 07:15:07
Hi All,


Hope this helps someone. Feature 5.15.0.0 is looking at tackling easily adding artwork with whiteborders typically from amazon.com. I got really annoying having to

1. save the artwork from amazon.com to find whiteborders and
2. crop the edges using some editor and
3. save final and embed it to to track


The Add Artwork Window will be prompted when you

1.   Validate selected tracks and iTSfv finds a single artwork file in the album folder
2.   Drag & Drop an artwork file from a website or folder to the Artwork panel for a selected Disc in Discs Browser

So basically when you validate a disc here after, when you don't find the artwork in iTunes Music store, what you willl be doing is basically doing a google search for the artwork.

1. Select the disc in Discs browser and
2. Drag the artwork from the site to the Artwork panel

If you find one that has borders you can now crop and press Yes to add the cropped image.



[a href="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248" target="_blank"]http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248 (http://img524.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dragdropartworkfu3.jpg)

Version 5.14 - 20071014

5.14.0.4 Synchrocleaning more than once still showed up and attemped to add the new tracks detected from the first synchroclean
5.14.0.3 iTSfv will not quit while running active jobs if Close button was accidently pressed; ask for confirmation
5.14.0.2 Disc Browse will not show DiscCount tag in the Disc Name anymore to prevent unexpected misgrouping of tracks
5.14.0.1 DiscCount filling method will not clear existing DiscCount if user validates partial albums i.e. only disc 2 and disc 3 etc. [Daniels]
5.14.0.0 Context Menu operations for Disc Browser with ability to copy Tracklist to Clipboard
5.13.0.1 Genre tag in ID3v1 would be overwritten with Genre index in ID3v2 2.4. Tags via TagLib# are saved in ID3v2 2.3 to overcome this problem.

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-10-21 16:33:42
I got really annoying having to

1. save the artwork from amazon.com to find whiteborders and
2. crop the edges using some editor and
3. save final and embed it to to track

You bet it is ! I wish you had done this earlier, it would have saved me a lot of time !  Thanks McoreD !
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: heathabear on 2007-10-27 19:46:43
Wow. I'm in shock. I think this may be the single most useful add-on for anything that I've ever come across. Now if only I'd found it a week ago! I recently moved all my songs to a different drive and directory the hard way, which meant following a tutorial to manually edit the library file to reflect the new directories (by letter, so it was only 26 find/replaces). It worked, except for whatever reason, it didn't work for my songs with artists that started with a number. (311, 2Pac, etc.) Before I realized it, I had already cleaned my library of any orphaned files with iTunes Library Updater, and so I just decided to cut my loses, seeing as losing ratings and play counts for 30 or so tracks was better than losing it for 7000.  With your program, though, I was able to open my old library from my sister's computer, back it up, and then carry over most of those ratings using your backup/restore feature on my computer. However, there are still about 10 songs where the ratings and play counts that didn't carry over. I checked the backup xml file and it does have the play counts for those songs, but it's just not putting them in, even when I ran the restore feature a second time. Now, 10 songs isn't the end of the world, but more than anything, I'm just curious as to why that'd happen, so I just thought I'd throw that out there.

Edit: I'm using version 4.10 of iTSfv, if that helps, and version 7.1 of iTunes. (I originally got iTSfv from somewhere else and it seemed 4.10 was the latest stable release. Now that I see that isn't so, I can try it with the new version and see if that does the trick!) Tried it, still the same!

One more thing: Is there anything that would be able to go through my playlists and add in any tracks that had been deleted? During this whole process, I know some of my playlists must have lost songs, especially because there were about 20 more that had been corrupted for other reasons and then deleted as orphaned files.  I have all the playlists backed up, so I can go through manually and compare, but I was just wondered if there was an easier way to do it.

Anyway, thank you so, so, so much.  This little tool is about the neatest thing I've ever seen. Being able to back up my ratings gives me great peace of mind. 

Another Edit: (Wow, you're gonna kill me.) Just upgraded to 5.14 - very cool! One more question, though, and then I swear, I'm done: For "delete tracks not in music folder", if I mouse over it, it gives the destination as the iTunes folder. I keep my music elsewhere, so I changed it to that directory in options > explorer. However, it still gives the iTunes folder destination when I mouse over "delete tracks not in music folder." Additionally, if I close the program and re-open it and then go back to options, the folder I added as one of my music folders has disappeared. If I re-add it, is it safe to say that I can use this feature without having all my tracks deleted? (I'd back up the library, so I suppose it doesn't matter. But I'm just wondering.)

I'm done now. I swear. Again, thanks so much. Playing around with this thing has proven to be a great alternative to doing my homework.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-10-28 01:20:08
Hi heathabear,

Glad you like it.


iTSfv will look for the track in all the music folder locations (this means the default iTunes music folder plus the additional folder you specify in iTunes > Options > Explorer)
However I noticed the tooltip still only showed the iTunes music folder only. This cosmetic bug is fixed for the next beta release. Thanks.

It is safe to run Synchroclean the way it is now.

(http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/3583/itsfvdeletetracksmz7.png)

Version 5.15 - 20071215?

5.15.2.2 Delete tracks not in music folder tooltip will now display all the music folders set by user [heathabear]
5.15.2.1 Validating only disc 1 of a multi-disc album would have overwritten disc count
5.15.2.0 Ability to overwrite Disc Number and Disc Count before adding new files
5.15.1.2 Handle errors that can occur during forcing tags while adding files [Scott]
5.15.1.1 Fixed application crash while backing up Ratings for URL tracks [Mike]
5.15.1.0 iTSfv will prompt Crop Artwork Wizard when importing single file artwork while Validating Selected Tracks
5.15.0.1 Explorer tab will not be automatically activated for Drag&Drop of files other than audio
5.15.0.0 Drag&Drop Artwork to a selected Disc in Discs Browser and crop artwork before replacing artwork in the disc
5.14.0.6 iTSfv crashed while checking for lyrics in some track [Heiko]
5.14.0.5 iTSfv crashed if artwork path HasIllegalCharacters while getting artwork source[JaEson]


Is there anything that would be able to go through my playlists and add in any tracks that had been deleted? I am not sure I understood you properly. If iTSfv / iTunes Library Update deletes the invalid tracks from the Library, then they are gone from the playlists also. Pro grammatically remembering what files were deleted and upon adding the files to the library, adding the new tracks back to relevant playlsits would be really nice. Is this what you meant? If so, I have the idea in the head.

Quite a mystery there with the 10 non restored songs. The only thing I can think of is if you back up the ratings, change Album/Artist name before restoring them, it will be lost. Most likely you might not have done this but that's the only possible reason I can think of.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: kanak on 2007-10-28 04:18:09
I just wanted to thank mcored for this super useful tool, and more importantly, implementing pretty much every feature requested . Thank you for your tireless work.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: heathabear on 2007-10-28 04:38:52
Wow, thanks for getting back to me so quickly! And you even made a new beta to fix the music folder tooltip!

I am not sure I understood you properly. If iTSfv / iTunes Library Update deletes the invalid tracks from the Library, then they are gone from the playlists also. Pro grammatically remembering what files were deleted and upon adding the files to the library, adding the new tracks back to relevant playlsits would be really nice. Is this what you meant? If so, I have the idea in the head.


Ah, yes, that's what I mean.  Sort of the same as the back-up/recover play counts/ratings feature, but for playlists. 

Thanks again! I'm definitely having way too much fun with this thing. I just discovered the overwrite feature, so now I can update playcounts on those 10 mysterious tracks without manually playing the end of the song however many times to get the count up to speed. 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-10-28 16:21:17
I just wanted to thank mcored for this super useful tool, and more importantly, implementing pretty much every feature requested . Thank you for your tireless work.

I think McoreD should be nominated for the "Developer of the year" awards, in "Most proactive developer" & "Coolest dude".  categories.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: heathabear on 2007-10-28 16:41:19

I just wanted to thank mcored for this super useful tool, and more importantly, implementing pretty much every feature requested . Thank you for your tireless work.

I think McoreD should be nominated for the "Developer of the year" awards, in "Most proactive developer" & "Coolest dude".  categories.


Oh, I second that! Forget nominations, let's just give him the award. Really, I can't think of anyone who'd come close. 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: christian_s on 2007-11-19 22:16:36
Can I make iTSfv scan my albums in Itunes and attempt to grab artwork for albums that do not have albumart in iTunes? Most of my albums now have albumart about 75% I guess, but I still have a significant number of albums without artwork.

I can see that Tools > Options > Advance > Internet has an option to download artwork if available, but I want to be sure that iTSfv only attempts to fetch artwork for albums that do not have any art at the moment.

Also is it possible to afterwards see a log of which albums artwork was succesfully retrieved for?
- Chr
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Teknojnky on 2007-11-19 22:56:01
Well, silly me tried to use this application without itunes installed (since it did not specifically state that itunes was required)...

When I opened the options, then press OK the below error occurs...

Code: [Select]
See the end of this message for details on invoking 
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
  at iTSfv.frmOptions.sSettingsSave()
  at iTSfv.frmOptions.btnOK_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)
  at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnClick(EventArgs e)
  at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnClick(EventArgs e)
  at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mevent)
  at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
  at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
  at System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.WndProc(Message& m)
  at System.Windows.Forms.Button.WndProc(Message& m)
  at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
  at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
  at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)


************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.832 (QFE.050727-8300)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
iTSfv
    Assembly Version: 5.9.0.2
    Win32 Version: 5.16.0.0
    CodeBase: file:///J:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/iTSfv.exe
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.VisualBasic
    Assembly Version: 8.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 8.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Microsoft.VisualBasic/8.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll
----------------------------------------
System
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.832 (QFE.050727-8300)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.832 (QFE.050727-8300)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.832 (QFE.050727-8300)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Configuration
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.832 (QFE.050727-8300)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Configuration/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Configuration.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Xml
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.832 (QFE.050727-8300)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Runtime.Remoting
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.832 (QFE.050727-8300)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Runtime.Remoting/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Runtime.Remoting.dll
----------------------------------------
McoreSystem
    Assembly Version: 1.12.0.1
    Win32 Version: 1.12.0.1
    CodeBase: file:///J:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/McoreSystem.DLL
----------------------------------------
Interop.iTunesLib
    Assembly Version: 1.10.0.0
    Win32 Version: 1.10.0.0
    CodeBase: file:///J:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/Interop.iTunesLib.DLL
----------------------------------------
gua32km6
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.832 (QFE.050727-8300)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
Accessibility
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Accessibility/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Accessibility.dll
----------------------------------------

************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this
application or computer (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.

For example:

<configuration>
    <system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer
rather than be handled by this dialog box.


Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-11-20 05:14:29
Teknojnky,

Indeed. Noticed you are running a interim beta version. Could you download the latest stable beta version: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)
 
and reproduce the issue?


Update: I got mistaken for the assembly version. I see you are running a pretty much latest build. I will look into this issue. Does this happen to you every time you press OK after loading Options?

The 5.9 manual says

Requirements
* Latest iTunes version
* Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or higher
* Tracks with Album, Artist and Name tags completed

I will update the website to say iTSfv requires iTunes, thanks.


christian_s,

There is only one method in iTSfv to automatically grab artwork - this is some of us figure out how to decrypt the Album Art from Apple iTunes Store. iTSfv cannot automatically grab artwork for you in other means. Tools > Options > Advance > Internet has an option to download artwork if available works only when this is possible.

What you could do is with an iTunes Store Account, you can right click the tracks in iTunes and "Get Album Artwork" and then if you hit validate in iTSfv, then iTSfv will extract the Artwork as JPEG for you and store in the album folder.

Latest iTSfv versions support debug/log facilities that tells you where the Artwork was added from.


heathabear & Jose,

Thanks guys for the nice feedback.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: christian_s on 2007-11-20 19:40:47
@McoreD - thanks for the reply. Yep that is the process I use now. I select a album and "get album art". Then I make sure I have selected one album in iTunes and then I use the Album browser in iTSfv to validate the album. Doing this I automatically get the folder.jpg and related files.

Before I knew of iTSfv I was manually copying the art out of iTunes by using right click > Get Info > Art tab > Mark Art > CTRL+C > jump to Explorer and CTRL+V to paste the bmp file to the harddrive. After that I would then open the 1Mb bmp file in photoshop adjust image and save as jpg at the filesize between 20-100Kb depening on the artwork complexity.
After this I use mp3tag to embed the artwork - I have an action (macro) set up for that.

Artwork looks great, but man oh man is it laboursome to get in place if you do not have it setup to begin with.

Thanks for making iTSfv! - it's a great swiss army knife for finetuning the iTunes database.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-11-20 19:54:20
Hey Christian,

I'm interested in your mp3tag action (macro). Thanks in advance !
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Teknojnky on 2007-11-20 20:19:35
Teknojnky,

Indeed. Noticed you are running a interim beta version. Could you download the latest stable beta version: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)
 
and reproduce the issue?


Update: I got mistaken for the assembly version. I see you are running a pretty much latest build. I will look into this issue. Does this happen to you every time you press OK after loading Options?

Yea, it happened every time, even if no changes were made.

The 5.9 manual says

Requirements
* Latest iTunes version
* Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or higher
* Tracks with Album, Artist and Name tags completed

I will update the website to say iTSfv requires iTunes, thanks.

I had downloaded from sourceforge linked on the first post, so I assumed it was the most current.

I mostly missed the website, I just followed the links in this thread first post and did not notice anything stating itunes required. I assumed it used the itunes store without itunes, which is why I tried it out.

I am not really interested in re-loading itunes, my library is far too large for itunes to effectively manage it anyway.

It looks like a really cool and useful app tho!
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-11-21 01:19:54
Teknojnky,

Thanks! Yeah I understand how iTunes can get slow with a large library. Not trying to promote iTunes but you can still use iTunes to manage your music - you don't to add ALL your music at once to it or even play music from it and still enjoy 600x600 artwork from iTunes Store. If I were you what I would do is, install iTunes, add one album at a time to validate the music, repeat the step for other albums.

By the way that error is really strange, I haven't yet been able to reproduce that.

christian_s,

You don't to go to Discs Browser and press Validate Disc to get what you described. That's two steps.

Validate Selected Tracks button in the main windows should be able to extract the files you need in one go.

All,

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)

5.16.1.3 Fixed possible crash due to track has been deleted error while synchrocleaning [Thilo]
5.16.1.2 Adding multiple albums via would be tagged as one single album from build 5.15.3.0
5.16.1.1 Fixing Folder Icon for Windows Vista will not anymore fix all the Artists at once
5.16.1.0 Validate Selected Tracks is now in Context Menu accessible via System Tray icon
5.16.0.0 Copy nfo and log files from the source album folder to music library while adding one new album at a time
5.15.7.3 Fixed crash due to The artwork has been deleted while determining artwork sources [Kenny]
5.15.7.2 Fixed crash HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED)) while getting Artwork extension [Moses]
5.15.7.1 iTSfv crashed due to unknown errors parsing the iTunes Music Library.xml [Nick]
5.15.7.0 Added Google Search Album to Disc Context Menu in Discs Browser
5.15.6.1 Automatically filling Year tag is now optional via Validate &gt; Tracks. [steveqqq]
5.15.6.0 Statistics window title will contain the date statistics were generated.
5.15.5.0 Tags unreadable by iTunes but readable by iTSfv via TagLib are overwritten before adding to iTunes
5.15.4.1 iTSfv crashed if the disc being validated was not found in the discs table. [Manuel Jose]
5.15.4.0 Creation of Folder.jpg, Artwork.jpg, AlbumArtSmall.jpg can be saved from Resized Artwork [steveqqq]
5.15.3.3 Ability to save resized Artwork was not optional. Now in Options &gt; Validate &gt; File System: Disable automatic creation of Artwork (600x600).jpg
5.15.3.2 iTunes downloaded Artwork were not resized upon request before embedding to track [Shane, 1828250]
5.15.3.1 Attempt to prevent failure adding Artwork from images that were dragged from webpages
5.15.3.0 iTSfv will attempt to show the Album Artist and Album tags of the album you dragged to iTSfv
5.15.2.4 Stability fixes for validating Tracks deleted in iTunes while the disc is still loaded in Discs Browser
5.15.2.3 Added option to disable warning for adding tracks without Track Number. So then iTSfv will not warn for missing Track Number during long operations. [Scott]
5.15.2.2 Delete tracks not in music folder tooltip will now display all the music folders set by user [heathabear]
5.15.2.1 Validating only disc 1 of a multi-disc album would have overwritten disc count
5.15.2.0 Ability to overwrite Disc Number and Disc Count before adding new files
5.15.1.2 Handle errors that can occur during forcing tags while adding files [Scott]
5.15.1.1 Fixed application crash while backing up Ratings for URL tracks [Mike]
5.15.1.0 iTSfv will prompt Crop Artwork Wizard when importing single file artwork while Validating Selected Tracks
5.15.0.1 Explorer tab will not be automatically activated for Drag&amp;Drop of files other than audio
5.15.0.0 Drag&amp;Drop Artwork to a selected Disc in Discs Browser and crop artwork before replacing artwork in the disc
5.14.0.6 iTSfv crashed while checking for lyrics in some track [Heiko]
5.14.0.5 iTSfv crashed if artwork path HasIllegalCharacters while getting artwork source [JaEson]
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: christian_s on 2007-11-21 20:19:06
I'm interested in your mp3tag action (macro). Thanks in advance !

Hi Jose,
in mp3tag click on the Aa icon. You can then see a few default action.
Click the New icon > Give the Action a name like "CoverArt" > Click New > Select 'Import file from' > enter "folder.jpg".

In order to use the action you mark relevant files and press Action icon > Ok. Above action will use the directory folder.jpg file and add it as album art for the selected files. If you are working on several directories mp3tag will still use the local folder.jpg for each mp3 file.
Hope this helps.

iTSfv can also auto embed the art. I just like to check the art first, fix cropping, contrast and save the image so it's less than 100 Kb, but if of course depends on the complexity of the artwork.
- Chr
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: heathabear on 2007-11-23 18:23:16
I have a feature request, if it's not to much trouble, whenever you get the time:

You know the feature to copy selected tracks to clipboard? Would it be possible to make it copy in this format? "Artist - Track"
rather than how it does now, where it says "Song" by Artist from "Album"? Or maybe there's already an option for this, but I couldn't seem to find it.

Thanks! I'm still having way too much fun with this program.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Alpc on 2007-11-24 01:11:03
Hi, after going through so many pages, I still cannot figure if this software is able to add artwork into iTunes database without embedding it in the tracks... Especially since I can see that this is written as one of the features in this page - http://itsfv.sourceforge.net/ (http://itsfv.sourceforge.net/)

Would be great if anyone could point me in the correct direction...
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-11-24 03:13:52
Hi Alpc,

I'd really like to know that as well.

I am aware that people are attempting to find ways to inject .itc files using artwork out side of iTMS but I think the whole process is still under R&D.


The only way you can have iTunes to store Artwork without embedding artwork, as of now, is by "Get Album Artwork" feature in iTunes.

Hi heathabear,

Sure.  That copy to clipboard feature was a quick job just to get the track list for me when I wanted to paste my Top 25 in a MSN conversation. I will be doing a rework on this feature for the next upcomg build.

Cheers,
McoreD

P.S:

Alpc, I am really sorry if this sounded confusion: Add Artwork from explorer to tracks without embedded artwork
I meant Add artwork from explorer to "Tracks without embedded Artwork". Is there a clearer way to say it, somebody? Thanks.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-11-24 04:13:27
I have a feature request, if it's not to much trouble, whenever you get the time:

You know the feature to copy selected tracks to clipboard? Would it be possible to make it copy in this format? "Artist - Track"
rather than how it does now, where it says "Song" by Artist from "Album"? Or maybe there's already an option for this, but I couldn't seem to find it.

Thanks! I'm still having way too much fun with this program.


Hi heathabear,

I have released an update with the feature you requested.

5.17.1.0 Copy to Clipboard function now accepts different patterns  [heathabear]
5.17.0.2 DiscNumber and TrackCount tags were not overwritten while adding new files if their overwrite value is 1
5.17.0.1 Fixed crash due to Failed to compare two elements in the array [Wayne]
5.17.0.0 Added iTSfv Lite so that if iTunes is not detected iTSfv Lite will be loaded which can be used to validate audio files via drag & drop or folder browse
5.16.3.0 Ability to continue using Track Replace Assistant even after iTSfv Main window is closed
5.16.2.0 Double clicking Artwork panel in Discs Browser will open the current Artwork in the default image viewer
5.16.1.5 iTunes Store validator will be henceforth identified as iTSfv in its Window Title to avoid confusion with iTunes Window Title
5.16.1.4 Folder thumbnail did not fix if the Artist and Album names were identical

https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)

I hope the new way is much customizable?

Thanks for the comments. 

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Alpc on 2007-11-24 16:21:42
I am aware that people are attempting to find ways to inject .itc files using artwork out side of iTMS but I think the whole process is still under R&D.

Oh... sigh... Ok, back to search engine...

The only way you can have iTunes to store Artwork without embedding artwork, as of now, is by "Get Album Artwork" feature in iTunes.

Yes, I know... However, more than half of my albums are not found in iTunes, or the downloaded artwork is wrong - e.g. My album is "The Judds: Greatest Hits", which if you click on accessing iTunes store, it's there, but when you try to download the album artwork, you get the artwork for "The Judds: Greatest Hits Vol 2" instead!!! Or, the album is listed in the iTunes store, you check that artist, title, album and track number is the same as what is shown in iTunes, and yet iTunes cannot download the artwork... So, what do you do in those situations? Why can't iTunes allow import of artwork without embedding it in the tracks?!?!?! Sigh...

P.S:
Alpc, I am really sorry if this sounded confusion: Add Artwork from explorer to tracks without embedded artwork
I meant Add artwork from explorer to "Tracks without embedded Artwork". Is there a clearer way to say it, somebody? Thanks.

So what you are trying to say is for those tracks without embedded artwork, you can add the artwork from explorer into the tracks?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-11-24 22:50:49
That's exactly right Alpc! I knew at the time of writing it was ambiguous/dodgy. Is there a clearer way of saying it - I'd like to know.

For those albums that iTunes does not detect, I try to simplify the Album, Artist tags so that it matches the one in the iTunes Store. Eventually I manage to get it. I really really hope iTunes to continue support for embedding artwork into tracks but also to support your case as an option.

Cheers,
McoreD



5.18.0.0 Support creating valid XSPF Playlists according to http://validator.xspf.org/ (http://validator.xspf.org/)
5.17.3.0 Export M3U Playlist with Given Pattern in Options > Files System for each Album validated
5.17.2.0 Words to Ignore while captilizing are now retrieved using simple-words.txt in Log folder [lordtyris]

Code: [Select]
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<playlist xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" version="1" xmlns="http://xspf.org/ns/0/">
  <title>200711</title>
  <creator>iTSfv 5.18.0.0 XSPF Generator</creator>
  <info>file:///H:/Users/Manno/My%20Documents/My%20Music</info>
  <location>file:///H:/Users/Manno/My%20Documents/My%20Music/200711.xspf</location>
  <trackList>
    <track>
      <location>file:///F:/Music/Da%20Buzz/Wanna%20Be%20With%20Me_/01%20Wanna%20Be%20With%20Me_.mp3</location>
      <title>Wanna Be With Me?</title>
      <creator>Da Buzz</creator>
      <album>Wanna Be With Me?</album>
      <trackNum>1</trackNum>
    </track>
    <track>
      <location>file:///F:/Music/DJ%20Doboy/Vocal%20Edition%2002/01%20Vocal%20Edition%2002.mp3</location>
      <title>Vocal Edition 02</title>
      <creator>DJ Doboy</creator>
      <album>Vocal Edition 02</album>
      <trackNum>1</trackNum>
    </track>
    <track>
      <location>file:///F:/Music/Klaus%20Badelt/Pirates%20Of%20The%20Caribbean%20(The%20Curse%20Of%20T/15%20He's%20a%20Pirate.mp3</location>
      <title>He's a Pirate</title>
      <creator>Klaus Badelt</creator>
      <album>Pirates Of The Caribbean (The Curse Of The Black Pearl)</album>
      <trackNum>15</trackNum>
    </track>
    <track>
      <location>file:///F:/Music/Roxette/20%20Greatest%20Songs/06%20It%20Must%20Have%20Been%20Love.mp3</location>
      <title>It Must Have Been Love</title>
      <creator>Roxette</creator>
      <album>20 Greatest Songs</album>
      <trackNum>6</trackNum>
    </track>
  </trackList>
</playlist>


I still haven't got decent XSPF Player set up to test XSPF Playback myself. If anybody has a nice suggestion for Windows XP, that would cool to know.

Edit: Tried XSPF using foo_xspf in Foobar2000. The iTSfv generated XSPF were almost but not all the same as the foo_xspf generated files. The structure in was somewhat unfamiliar and failed validation at http://validator.xspf.org/ (http://validator.xspf.org/) so I am not sure I should incorporate features from there, instead I will except feedback from the next release of iTSfv.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: urlwolf on 2007-11-25 11:02:54
I'm still confused about synchoclean.
Right now, it realizes that most of my music is not in one itunes folder... so it says that it won't delete it.

However, When saying ok, the status bar says "checking track to delete"... not very reassuring

Can you explain what we can expect? Maybe change the message?
Thanks
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-11-25 12:28:31
Hi urlwolf,

Thanks, I have update the manual to include the following: 

During Synchroclean iTSfv will delete track entries from Music Library which are non-existent in HDD and tracks outside of your music library locations. iTSfv will then look for new music in your music library locations and ask you to add new music from Music Folders if new files are found.

(http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/4650/itsfvsynchrocleanurlwolyj8.th.png) (http://img91.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itsfvsynchrocleanurlwolyj8.png)

If iTSfv finds that most of your music are not in any of the music folders you have configured in iTSfv options then iTSfv will not remove music outside of your music folders. iTSfv will continue checking for non-existent files only.


I will also update the status bar message to say it is now checking for non-existent files.

(http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/5165/itsfvremovedeadtracksgs4.th.png) (http://img152.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itsfvremovedeadtracksgs4.png)


Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: heathabear on 2007-11-25 17:11:25

I have a feature request, if it's not to much trouble, whenever you get the time:

You know the feature to copy selected tracks to clipboard? Would it be possible to make it copy in this format? "Artist - Track"
rather than how it does now, where it says "Song" by Artist from "Album"? Or maybe there's already an option for this, but I couldn't seem to find it.

Thanks! I'm still having way too much fun with this program.


Hi heathabear,

I have released an update with the feature you requested.

5.17.1.0 Copy to Clipboard function now accepts different patterns  [heathabear]
5.17.0.2 DiscNumber and TrackCount tags were not overwritten while adding new files if their overwrite value is 1
5.17.0.1 Fixed crash due to Failed to compare two elements in the array [Wayne]
5.17.0.0 Added iTSfv Lite so that if iTunes is not detected iTSfv Lite will be loaded which can be used to validate audio files via drag & drop or folder browse
5.16.3.0 Ability to continue using Track Replace Assistant even after iTSfv Main window is closed
5.16.2.0 Double clicking Artwork panel in Discs Browser will open the current Artwork in the default image viewer
5.16.1.5 iTunes Store validator will be henceforth identified as iTSfv in its Window Title to avoid confusion with iTunes Window Title
5.16.1.4 Folder thumbnail did not fix if the Artist and Album names were identical

https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)

I hope the new way is much customizable?

Thanks for the comments. 

Cheers,
McoreD



Wow, that was so fast! Thank you so much! I can't wait to try it out!

You're the best!
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: christian_s on 2007-11-27 13:21:39
is it possible build a log file that list tracks that has artwork in itunes but does not have embedded art in the mp3 file?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-11-27 21:45:12
is it possible build a log file that list tracks that has artwork in itunes but does not have embedded art in the mp3 file?


Excellent idea. It is possible and will be included in the next build.

Right now the related log shows all tracks without embedded artwork.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: urlwolf on 2007-11-28 10:18:48
One question... Is there any way to tell 'validate' not to mess with my genre tags? I'm using itsfv ONLY to get cover art, everything else is a nuisance (having to have itunes installed to start with  ).

Also, how do you launch that 'lite' version that doesn't depend on itunes?

Thanks
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: christian_s on 2007-11-28 11:01:33

is it possible build a log file that list tracks that has artwork in itunes but does not have embedded art in the mp3 file?


Excellent idea. It is possible and will be included in the next build.

Right now the related log shows all tracks without embedded artwork.

Thanks McoreD - it's not urgent. I used mp3tag instead. By adding the Cover field I could list all tracks with no album art and then export the list to CSV. Now I'm just checking those albums one by one. Some have art in iTunes other have no art at all.

Btw is there a way to control if folder.jpg should be read-only or not?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-11-28 11:07:07
christian_s,

Here is an updated build that provides this functionality.

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)

5.19.0.1 Possible crash if resized source Artwork was not found while exporting Artwork [urlwolf]
5.19.0.0 Check for tracks with non-embedded iTunes downloaded Artwork [christian_s]
5.18.0.2 Fixed instability due to track has been deleted error while determining artwork source [James]

There was a bit of trick into it. If you had configured iTSfv to import Artwork, iTSfv would have immediately embedded the iTunes Downloaded Artwork into the track, so a check to see if the track had Downloaded Artwork will return false. So this check function is isolated from other checks because it had to be done prior to iTSfv messing with any track. That's how it is implemented now. A bit over-informative but thought a dev must find that logic interesting.

Cheers,
McoreD

Edit: Oops missed your post! Sorry there is no current way to control that. A future build will have this option in Options > File System.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-11-28 11:27:30
One question... Is there any way to tell 'validate' not to mess with my genre tags? I'm using itsfv ONLY to get cover art, everything else is a nuisance (having to have itunes installed to start with  ).

Also, how do you launch that 'lite' version that doesn't depend on itunes?

Thanks


urlwolf, sorry - what & when does iTSfv do with the genre tags? I will look into this issue immediately.

I am confused with your remark on iTunes. If I understand correctly you need iTunes first to download Artwork from iTunes Store and to get iTSfv to export those artwork to file. So without iTunes we are nowhere, right?

Inspired by Teknojnky's confusion on iTSfv dependancies, iTSfv Lite was a start to reproduce most of the iTSfv tasks (in the coming future) without the dependency of iTunes. Basically the ultimate goal is to reproduce all tasks that does not strictly require iTunes. Hopefully something for iTSfv 6.

iTSfv Lite will automatically show up if iTunes is not present. If iTunes is present, to fire up iTSfv Lite you will need to go to Tools > iTSfv Lite. It doesn't do much -- currently only a validator of tags to tell you what tags are missing.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Alpc on 2007-11-29 16:24:15
For those albums that iTunes does not detect, I try to simplify the Album, Artist tags so that it matches the one in the iTunes Store. Eventually I manage to get it. I really really hope iTunes to continue support for embedding artwork into tracks but also to support your case as an option.


I did that and I cannot see the difference between my tag and iTunes' tag... which leads to frustration on why the artwork does not get downloaded, especially since they don't exact have logs to show the issue, so that the issue could be pinpointed and resolved... Sigh...
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-01 08:47:57
I did that and I cannot see the difference between my tag and iTunes' tag... which leads to frustration on why the artwork does not get downloaded, especially since they don't exact have logs to show the issue, so that the issue could be pinpointed and resolved... Sigh...


Alpc,

That exact problem happened to me even when the tags were identical, last night. The artwork was not simply downloading. Checked out today morning and it got downloaded. Strange! But you should try again another time.

Some important bug fixes.

5.19.4.2 Discs Browser will not reload for options changed other than Discs Browser view in iTSfv Options
5.19.4.1 Words retrieved from simple-words.txt were not trimmed to remove illegal characters before usage
5.19.4.0 Options > Advanced > Ratings tab content is now moved to Options > Validate > Library
5.19.3.1 Schedule time if misconfigured will reset to 03:00:00 upon Options form load
5.19.3.0 When Year tag is empty, file name patterns will ignore year pattern if exists
5.19.2.2 Artwork was considered as resized if the resize setting was activated even if the source resolution was lower
5.19.2.1 Fixed possible file being used error while updating Artwork thumbnail in Discs Browser during validation
5.19.2.0 iTunes Downloaded Artwork are now temporarily saved in iTSfv Artwork directory (by default in Pictures) rather than in iTSfv Temporary Directory
5.19.1.1 GetAlbumArtist returned "Various Artists" if AlbumArtist was empty but Artist was not
5.19.1.0 Setting attributes Read-Only to Folder.jpg is now optional [christian_s]
5.19.0.1 Possible crash if resized source Artwork was not found while exporting Artwork [urlwolf]


I am back to Windows XP now. iTunes add-ons operates faster in XP than Vista it seems.

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-01 14:45:37
Also, i just ordered an ipod, and i'm in the process of making my files to be "itunes/ipod friendly". My tags are stored in ID3v1 + APEV2, and I noticed that itunes can't read the ape tags. What irks me is that my genre tags (the custom ones like "alternative pop") and my rating tags appear to be stored in the ape tag and do not display in itunes (the normal ones like "blues" do display). I was wondering if there's a way your program could help me out in this matter.


Noticed I had this unanswered kanak, sorry about that. If you drag and drop such files to iTSfv then iTSfv should be able to read the APE tags and add to iTunes. Please let me know if this works. iTSfv is using taglib-sharp which supports APE tags so my guess is that it should work.

2. Also, is it possible to have a feature that would export the title, album, artist etc information to the clipboard? (e.g. Select tracks in itunes, click export and get stuff like Genre\Artist - Album\Title information). If this is possible, please make the export criteria customizable.


You might have noticed that the later iTSfv versions supports more customization for Clipboard function. 

urlwolf, the Resize Artwork should function properly now.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: christian_s on 2007-12-05 21:30:42
...
5.19.1.0 Setting attributes Read-Only to Folder.jpg is now optional [christian_s]
...
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)


McoreD - Ur Da Man! :-) Thanks for  the option, appreciate it. It makes it easier when I sync my music directory with my media center.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-07 10:07:50
Hi All,

I am happy to release iTSfv 5.23 BETA which I plan to release as the last beta before a final during mid-December.

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)

If running older versions, it would be great if you guys could please upgrade to this version and use it instead. 

Release Notes:


5.23.0.0 Ability to remove Null characters in tags accessible via Tracks > Remove Null characters in Tags
5.22.0.0 Support for adding new music by Add folder to Library... menu item in File menu
5.21.0.0 Export index to Album folder using TreeGUI Directory Indexer engine
5.20.0.0 Support deleting Temp Files in iTunes folder in background. Activate via Options > Explorer
5.19.0.0 Check for tracks with non-embedded iTunes downloaded Artwork [christian_s]
5.18.0.0 Support creating XSPF Playlists valid according to http://validator.xspf.org/ (http://validator.xspf.org/)
5.17.0.0 Added iTSfv Lite so that if iTunes is not detected iTSfv Lite will be loaded which can be used to validate audio files via drag & drop or folder browse
5.16.0.0 Copy nfo/log/jpg files from the source album folder to music library while adding one new album at a time
5.15.0.0 Drag&Drop Artwork to a selected Disc in Discs Browser and crop artwork before replacing artwork in the disc

Version History:

5.23.0.0 Ability to remove Null characters in tags accessible via Tracks > Remove Null characters in Tags
5.22.0.5 Status Bar text will not be blank while validating tracks when the user clicks on a disc in Discs Browser
5.22.0.4 Debugging events to log should not cause program crashing anymore
5.22.0.3 Did not copy nfo/log/jpg files from source album folder if the album tag of at least one of the tracks had an appended space
5.22.0.2 Handle Catastrophic failure (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8000FFFF (E_UNEXPECTED)) while saving Artwork
5.22.0.1 By default Documents\iTSfv Logs directory is now in Documents\iTSfv\Logs directory
5.22.0.0 Support for adding new music by Add folder to Library... menu item in File menu
5.21.2.1 Warnings are now loggable in both alpha and beta versions of iTSfv
5.21.2.0 Ability to customize CSS in the iTSfv XHTML Report using an external CSS file via Options > Advanced > Report
5.21.1.0 Ability to customize CSS in the XHTML version Indexer using an external CSS file via Options > File System > Indexer
5.21.0.0 Export index to Album folder using TreeGUI Directory Indexer engine
5.20.2.1 Drag & Drop Artwork did not work due to a file access issue in debug.txt
5.20.2.0 Reconfigured GUI Controls in Options > File System to support future expansion of features
5.20.1.0 M3U Playlists generated during Validation will contain Relative paths instead of Full Paths
5.20.0.0 Support deleting Temp Files in iTunes folder in background. Activate via Options > Explorer
5.19.4.6 Discs browser will no longer display unreferenced discs due to interrupted validations pressing the Stop button by the user
5.19.4.5 Fix possible crash when clicking Discs Browser while reading tracks from Library
5.19.4.4 Status bar text will not show the "&" sign properly [McoreD/jmcilhinney]
5.19.4.3 Artwork from iTunes Music Store are saved in the same Artist\Album path as iTunes Downloaded Artwork path
5.19.4.2 Discs Browser will not reload for options changed other than Discs Browser view in iTSfv Options
5.19.4.1 Words retrieved from simple-words.txt were not trimmed to remove illegal characters before usage
5.19.4.0 Options > Advanced > Ratings tab content is now moved to Options > Validate > Library
5.19.3.1 Schedule time if misconfigured will reset to 03:00:00 upon Options form load
5.19.3.0 When Year tag is empty, file name patterns will ignore year pattern if exists
5.19.2.2 Artwork was considered as resized if the resize setting was activated even if the source resolution was lower
5.19.2.1 Fixed possible file being used error while updating Artwork thumbnail in Discs Browser during validation
5.19.2.0 iTunes Downloaded Artwork are now temporarily saved in iTSfv Artwork directory (by default in Pictures) rather than in iTSfv Temporary Directory
5.19.1.1 GetAlbumArtist returned "Various Artists" if AlbumArtist was empty but Artist was not
5.19.1.0 Setting attributes Read-Only to Folder.jpg is now optional [christian_s]
5.19.0.1 Possible crash if resized source Artwork was not found while exporting Artwork [urlwolf]
5.19.0.0 Check for tracks with non-embedded iTunes downloaded Artwork [christian_s]
5.18.0.2 Fixed instability due to track has been deleted error while determining artwork source [James]
5.18.0.1 When iTSfv finds out most of your music located not in the library folders during synchroclean it will show in status bar that it is only checking to remove dead tracks from the library [urlwolf]
5.18.0.0 Support creating XSPF Playlists valid according to http://validator.xspf.org/ (http://validator.xspf.org/)
5.17.3.0 Export M3U Playlist with Given Pattern in Options > Files System for each Album validated
5.17.2.0 Words to Ignore while captilizing are now retrieved using simple-words.txt in Log folder [lordtyris]
5.17.1.0 Copy to Clipboard function now accepts different patterns  [heathabear]
5.17.0.2 DiscNumber and TrackCount tags were not overwritten while adding new files if their overwrite value is 1
5.17.0.1 Fixed crash due to Failed to compare two elements in the array [Wayne]
5.17.0.0 Added iTSfv Lite so that if iTunes is not detected iTSfv Lite will be loaded which can be used to validate audio files via drag & drop or folder browse
5.16.3.0 Ability to continue using Track Replace Assistant even after iTSfv Main window is closed
5.16.2.0 Double clicking Artwork panel in Discs Browser will open the current Artwork in the default image viewer
5.16.1.5 iTunes Store validator will be henceforth identified as iTSfv in its Window Title to avoid confusion with iTunes Window Title
5.16.1.4 Folder thumbnail did not fix if the Artist and Album names were identical
5.16.1.3 Fixed possible crash due to track has been deleted error while synchrocleaning [Thilo]
5.16.1.2 Adding multiple albums via would be tagged as one single album from build 5.15.3.0
5.16.1.1 Fixing Folder Icon for Windows Vista will not anymore fix all the Artists at once
5.16.1.0 Validate Selected Tracks is now in Context Menu accessible via System Tray icon
5.16.0.0 Copy nfo/log/jpg files from the source album folder to music library while adding one new album at a time
5.15.7.3 Fixed crash due to The artwork has been deleted while determining artwork sources [Kenny]
5.15.7.2 Fixed crash HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED)) while getting Artwork extension [Moses]
5.15.7.1 iTSfv crashed due to unknown errors parsing the iTunes Music Library.xml [Nick]
5.15.7.0 Added Google Search Album to Disc Context Menu in Discs Browser
5.15.6.1 Automatically filling Year tag is now optional via Validate > Tracks. [steveqqq]
5.15.6.0 Statistics window title will contain the date statistics were generated.
5.15.5.0 Tags unreadable by iTunes but readable by iTSfv via TagLib are overwritten before adding to iTunes
5.15.4.1 iTSfv crashed if the disc being validated was not found in the discs table. [Manuel Jose]
5.15.4.0 Creation of Folder.jpg, Artwork.jpg, AlbumArtSmall.jpg can be saved from Resized Artwork [steveqqq]
5.15.3.3 Ability to save resized Artwork was not optional. Now in Options > Validate > File System: Disable automatic creation of Artwork (600x600).jpg
5.15.3.2 iTunes downloaded Artwork were not resized upon request before embedding to track [Shane, 1828250]
5.15.3.1 Attempt to prevent failure adding Artwork from images that were dragged from webpages
5.15.3.0 iTSfv will attempt to show the Album Artist and Album tags of the album you dragged to iTSfv
5.15.2.4 Stability fixes for validating Tracks deleted in iTunes while the disc is still loaded in Discs Browser
5.15.2.3 Added option to disable warning for adding tracks without Track Number. So then iTSfv will not warn for missing Track Number during long operations. [Scott]
5.15.2.2 Delete tracks not in music folder tooltip will now display all the music folders set by user [heathabear]
5.15.2.1 Validating only disc 1 of a multi-disc album would have overwritten disc count
5.15.2.0 Ability to overwrite Disc Number and Disc Count before adding new files
5.15.1.2 Handle errors that can occur during forcing tags while adding files [Scott]
5.15.1.1 Fixed application crash while backing up Ratings for URL tracks [Mike]
5.15.1.0 iTSfv will prompt Crop Artwork Wizard when importing single file artwork while Validating Selected Tracks
5.15.0.1 Explorer tab will not be automatically activated for Drag&Drop of files other than audio
5.15.0.0 Drag&Drop Artwork to a selected Disc in Discs Browser and crop artwork before replacing artwork in the disc
5.14.0.6 iTSfv crashed while checking for lyrics in some track [Heiko]
5.14.0.5 iTSfv crashed if artwork path HasIllegalCharacters while getting artwork source [JaEson]

Known Bugs:

http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=2...amp;atid=988851 (http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=204248&atid=988851)
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-12-09 07:00:57
Here are some bugs:

Advanced > Folders > can't change settings directory (reverts after clicking apply)
Advanced > Folders > Logs Directory > error when moving log files to new location

I've tried to import art work that I've exported with a previous version of iTSfv. This no longer works when there is no album name. When there was no album name, iTSfv would use the track name instead. That function is broken.

Also, here is a feature request:
iTunes has this annoying bug that once you put something in any of it's ID3Tags fields it won't delete it, it will only overwrite it. So, if you fill out the comment field or album field and later realize that you've made a mistake and that it should really be empty, iTunes won't update it. I've removed some some ID3Tags (using mp3Tag) and iTunes will still display the old information, even though the file no longer has a comment etc. If you modify a certain ID3Tag field or add information, it will update it, but not if you delete something.

So, would it be possible for iTSdv to read a file's realy ID3 tag and compare it to the iTunes database and then update the iTunes database accordingly?

thanks
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-09 10:44:41
Hi Jojo,

Thanks for the feedback. Getting prepared for a final release this is exactly what I expected. 

Fixed two folder move bugs.

I looked closely at the artwork import issue and tried to reproduce any expected behaviour.

Steps to reproduce:

iTSfv settings:
Export as %Artist% - (%Year%) %Album%.jpg
Export to H:\Users\Manno\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\Album Artwork\iTSfv

I made a copy of a mp3 file (Artist: Dolores O'riordan, Album: Are You Listening?, Name: Ordinary Day) , and added to iTunes
The track already had id3 data and I got Album Art from iTunes Store
I then cleared the Album tag
Selected the track and in iTSfv I pressed "Validated Selected Tracks"

(for iTSfv to accept mistagged files, I had to check "Include tracks without Name, Artist or Album" in Options.

Here is the log file.

20071209T192929 Job Started: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED
20071209T192931 Saved Track Artwork as H:\Users\Manno\My Documents\My Pictures\iTSfv\Dolores O'riordan\Ordinary Day\Artwork.jpg
20071209T192931 Found non-embedded iTunes Artwork
20071209T192931 Saved Track Artwork as H:\Users\Manno\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\Album Artwork\iTSfv\Dolores O'riordan - (2007) Ordinary Day.jpg
20071209T192931 Export Artwork Pass 1 Finished.
20071209T192931 Compare Artwork Path: H:\Users\Manno\My Documents\My Pictures\iTSfv\Dolores O'riordan\Ordinary Day\Artwork.jpg
20071209T192931 Track Artwork Path:  H:\Users\Manno\Application Data\iTSfv\trackArtwork.jpg
20071209T192931 Track Artwork Size: 600x600, Compare Artwork Size: 600x600
20071209T192932 Found non-embedded iTunes downloaded Artwork and set to embed..
20071209T192932 Replace Artwork for 1 Ordinary Day? True
20071209T192932 Replaced Artwork in E:\Uploads\McoreD\Completed\Dolores O'riordan - Are You Listening [2007]\Copy of 01-dolores_oriordan-ordinary_day.mp3 from H:\Users\Manno\Application Data\iTSfv\trackArtwork.jpg
20071209T192932 Replace 600x600 with 600x600 for H:\Users\Manno\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\Album Artwork\iTSfv\Dolores O'riordan - (2007) Ordinary Day.jpg? False
.
20071209T192934 Duration: 0 Hours 0 Minutes 4.65625 Seconds
20071209T192934 Job Finished: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED

The file was created from the Name tag instead of blank Album tag. So it was OK.



I then attempted the reverse.

iTSfv Settings:
Import using %Artist% - (%Year%) %Album%.jpg
Import from H:\Users\Manno\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\Album Artwork\iTSfv


I cleared the album art to make sure it embeds, selected the track and pressed "Validate Selected"

20071209T193049 Job Started: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED
20071209T193051 Added Artwork to E:\Uploads\McoreD\Completed\Dolores O'riordan - Are You Listening [2007]\Copy of 01-dolores_oriordan-ordinary_day.mp3 from H:\Users\Manno\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\Album Artwork\iTSfv\Dolores O'riordan - (2007) Ordinary Day.jpg
.
20071209T193051 Duration: 0 Hours 0 Minutes 2.21875 Seconds
20071209T193051 Job Finished: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED


So it seemed it is reading the Name tag instead of the Album tag if Album tag was missing.



The iTunes bug:

I recorded a small activity in iTunes to make sure if this is what you described?

http://wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itunes/itunes-tagging1/ (http://wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itunes/itunes-tagging1/)

In that video, I put a comment, clear it, and press OK.


I added an option to force read the tags from the file during validation.


5.23.2.0 Option to force update tags from file in Optiosn > Validate > Tracks [Jojo]
5.23.1.3 iTSfv crashed while moving Logs folder due to File System watcher activity file being in use [Jojo]
5.23.1.2 Settings folder relocation was not properly saved [Jojo]

5.23.1.1 Fixed possible crash due to Index was out of range error if tracks were deleted while reloading albums
5.23.1.0 iTSfv is now able to open the most recent tracks report in the Logs directory preventing Failed Open error


Thanks,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-12-09 20:26:29
thanks for fixing the bugs. Could I have a bug fix release? I was in the middle of something and would like to complete it.

I should have described the iTunes tag issue more clearly. The problem only occurs when you are using a program other than iTunes to the tagging. I use mp3Tag, since it is more flexible and I just don't trust iTunes. So, if you delete the comment field of a song using a 3rd party app and then go to iTunes and click on file properties, it won't get rid of the comment information although it is no longer part of the file's ID3 tag. If you however, just alter the comment tag (or album tag or whatever), iTunes does update its database.

Therefore, iTunes will update its database as long as you add a previously non existing tag or alter an existing tag. But it won't remove any information from it's database and replace it with an empty string. Unless of course, you use iTunes to remove the information.

Therefore, it would be nice to have an option that goes to the physical mp3 file and reads the ID3 tag and compares and possibly syncs it with iTunes database. Would such a feature be possible? I have been looking for ages to get rid of that bug.

thanks

Edit:
Here are some more feature requests: Create a playlist in iTunes with all the songs that have no album art. Other criteria such as no lyrics etc. would be nice too.

Fetch album art from amazon (since iTunes is broken) and maybe the same for lyrics.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-10 09:49:52
Wow Jojo! That was crazy. I was just then able to reproduce that iTunes bug!

Pick a track with a comment
Use Mp3Tag to remove a comment
Get Info in iTunes - and you still see the comment

I did a force update from file ( track.UpdateInfoFromFile() ) and it still had it!

So I am going to manually have this implemented.

Creating playlists log file style is a nice idea. I am going to work on that after the bug fix release.

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)

5.24.0.0 Option to force update tags from file in Options > Validate > Tracks [Jojo]
5.23.1.3 iTSfv crashed while moving Logs folder due to File System watcher activity file being in use [Jojo]
5.23.1.2 Settings folder relocation was not properly saved [Jojo]
5.23.1.1 Fixed possible crash due to Index was out of range error if tracks were deleted while reloading albums
5.23.1.0 iTSfv is now able to open the most recent tracks report in the Logs directory preventing Failed Open error


P.S: Did you mean create playlist in iTunes or as a M3U file?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-10 13:55:11
5.25.0.0 Create validation results as iTunes Playlists (playlist of tracks without artwork etc.) [Jojo]
5.24.1.0 Creating Log files are now optional via Options > Validate > File System > Logs

(http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/3687/itsfvitunesplaylistsss4.th.png) (http://img528.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itsfvitunesplaylistsss4.png)

Had some design issues with creating validation results in iTunes as playlists. iTunes lets same track to be added to the user playlists making possibiblity for multiple entries. There is no way I found to effectively check if the track already exists in the playlist. So the current implemention overwrites the iTSfv playlists. Thought this was the better option than letting iTSfv multiple tracks to the created playlists making it useless.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: urlwolf on 2007-12-10 14:10:49
McoreD: a quick note to let you know that winamp 5.5 now offers the option to get cover art. It does so from gracenote I think.
It might be that some covers that itunes doesn't have, gracenote does. Since winamp is known to have a nice API (maybe available for .NET stuff?) it'd be great to have itsfv check that as a second source (if any better than amazon etc as sugested by jojo).

Cheers, and congrats. Looking really good.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: urlwolf on 2007-12-10 14:28:25
by the way do you use any program to get todos, feature request etc under control? Something that generates a changelog after you check the changes you have implemented/bug squashed? There must be something out there... I wonder.

Thanks
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-10 20:34:02
by the way do you use any program to get todos, feature request etc under control? Something that generates a changelog after you check the changes you have implemented/bug squashed? There must be something out there... I wonder.

Thanks


Interesting that you asked. I am not sure of an automated way but I try to stick to this convention:

Versioning

*.0.0.0 implies Major rewrite of the application
x.*.0.0 implies New features
x.y.*.0 implies Minor tweaks to existing features
x.y.z.* implies Bug fixes

You would notice that in the 52 KiB Version History.txt.

For feature requests / bugs etc the official place would

http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=733912 (http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=733912) for FR
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=2...amp;atid=988851 (http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=204248&atid=988851) for Bugs

but we are used to discuss it here, I know . 




Thanks for the tip on Winamp API, urlwolf, that's sure something to look for in the near future. It's that I haven't look at artwork sources other than iTunes is because 1/ they are inferior most of the time 2/ amazon having white borders padded for real 300x300 artwork 3/ web programming isn't really my familiar thing.

By the way, I always forget to mention, if anybody interesting in coding / contributing a feature / enhancement they are highly welcome to join the iTSfv project.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-11 03:51:34
Fetch album art from amazon (since iTunes is broken) and maybe the same

for lyrics.



I am on the fence for this one unless somebody could help us out with an

Amazon class similar to
http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/itsfv/its...amp;view=markup (http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/itsfv/itsfv5/iTSfv/cArtworkITMS.vb?revision=1.18&view=markup)
in any language


I am going to look at AlexVallat's Album Art Downloader scripts for Amazon to see what I can come up with.




I recently came into contact with a person - http://forums.ilounge.com/showthread.php?t=213911 (http://forums.ilounge.com/showthread.php?t=213911) - who had a really large iTunes music libary. It was 1.28 TiB, yes 1310 GiB! The number of songs were close to 250000. Backing up Ratings which imo is the fastest operation in iTSfv had taken up 4.5 hours. I also understood that iTSfv parses the iTunes Music Library.xml file everytime it loads, so I guess it had taken up some time just to load iTSfv as well. Removing this functionality was a core-change so I am going to work on after the final release this mid December. I am thinking of 5.25 as a nice version number to freeze code fo the final build. Anymore changes until 15th would be bug fixes or enhancements that will not have side effects.

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-12-13 01:48:09
So it seemed it is reading the Name tag instead of the Album tag if Album tag was missing.

just tried with the newest release and neither the import nor the export of album art is working when there is no album name available. I used the "%Artist% - %Album%.jpg" exporting scheme and a user defined folder. If there is an album name available, it does work just as expected, using the same options. And also, I chose to validate selected tracks only.

Quote
5.24.0.0 Option to force update tags from file in Options > Validate > Tracks [Jojo]

thank you. seems to be working. Do you read ID3v1 tags or ID3v2 tags or APE tags? Or all? And which one gets the priority if more than one of these is present?
Quote
P.S: Did you mean create playlist in iTunes or as a M3U file?

iTunes playlist, because that way I can identify where I have missing artwork and look for other sources. Or I don't have iTSfv run through my entire library if I just want to import some artwork.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-13 03:49:27
Hi Jojo,

Thanks for getting back with feedback.

I was wondering: what really happens when you choose to import / export artwork with that given pattern? Does iTSfv skip that track completely? Are there any debug information written in the debug.log? Quick question: have you checked "Include tracks without Name, Artist or Album" in Options? This sucks because a personal testing shows otherwise.

iTSfv uses the TagLib.dll to read and write all the tags. It's one of the best opensource DLLs out there imo. More info: http://forum.taglib-sharp.com/index.php (http://forum.taglib-sharp.com/index.php) It reads ALL tags, and to my knowledge the priority is ID3v2, ID3v1 and APEv2.


Saving validation results to iTunes Playlists is already done in v5.25. I will release it in a few hours as soon as I get back home from work.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-12-13 06:08:25
have you checked "Include tracks without Name, Artist or Album" in Options?

busted. That was it. It seems to me that there needs to be a major re-haul of all the options. It has just become too much. I know, it is a boring task but well worth it
Also, check the HTML code for tracks-20071212T21-report.html , there is CSS stuff showing up. I think you forgot to to introduce the CSS header or something.

thank you for iTSfv 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-13 10:25:32
  

I am glad it worked out well.

About the organization of Options, Jojo, that's true. I restructure them as I go.

So I think this makes a good beta release before the final.

I spotted the CSS error too, thanks for that.

5.25.0.0 Save validation results as iTunes Playlists (playlist of tracks without artwork etc.) [Jojo]
5.24.3.0 Removed dead and foreign track information is now logged to file [Leif]
5.24.2.0 File System Watcher can now be disabled via Options > Advanced > Validate
5.24.1.3 Artwork was not resized before importing if there was only one artwork file with any name
5.24.1.2 iTSfv continued to load Discs Browser even if the user only had the two checkBoxes: remove Dead and Foreign tracks checked
5.24.1.1 Validation report did not properly implement the CSS style if there was no external CSS path set
5.24.1.0 Creating Log files are now optional via Options > Validate > File System > Logs
5.24.0.0 Option to force update database from tags in tracks via Validate > Library [Jojo]

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)


In this build, you could test the iTSfv playlist creation in iTunes.

How could I do it without you guys,

Thanks again,
McoreD


P.S: Option to force update database from tags in tracks is now in Main Window: Validate > Library [Jojo]

Jojo, Wrap the CSS part with <style> and </style> to see it properly.  Sorry about that, it's for sure fixed in this new build.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-12-15 21:39:15
should you ever decide to implement lyric downloads, check out this site: http://lyricwiki.org/LyricWiki:SOAP#Current_Progress (http://lyricwiki.org/LyricWiki:SOAP#Current_Progress)

thanks
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: christian_s on 2007-12-17 12:10:24
... It has just become too much. I know, it is a boring task but well worth it  ...

I agree with that. The application is great, but UI wise it's tricky to understand for a new user.
I'm only using the application to extract artwork and add/remove tracks to the itunes library and I'm a bit worried about if the application will suddenly change my tags or file structure.

Maybe one way would be to organize the UI after process, like:
Working with Album Art
Working with Text tags
Working with Library, add music, remove non existing tracks
Working with Backups
Working with Checks/Logs
etc

to really make it fancy maybe the tool could show a preview window with suggested actions that will be taken if the user press commit/run, MS SyncToy for file copying has that sort of feature for example.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-12-18 01:11:06
I've installed 5.25 beta and the "update database from files" no longer works. I chose "selected tracks only". I removed the comment information of a file, but it is still showing up.

I'm a bit worried about if the application will suddenly change my tags or file structure.

I second that
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-18 02:51:14
Jojo, the 5.24.0.0 Option to force update database from tags in tracks via Validate > Library feature was moved from Options Window to the Main Window’s Library tab in the final build. I have not changed anything other than that. I will double check this to make sure when I get home. The Lyrics is going to be a nice addition, thanks for that Jojo.

About the GUI... that’s a tricky discussion. Let me explain the way it is organized as it is now: (a simplified interpretation of the manual)

The main window’s Validate tab is divided to 4: Checks, Tracks, Library and File System.

Checks tab functions will NOT alter any thing. It is merely checking for validity.

Tracks tab functions can alter the tags depending on what you have selected: these include embedding artwork, writing track count, disc count etc.

Library tab functions can update the iTunes Library database, once again, depending on what you have selected. For example adjusting ratings, updating tags from file etc. These do not change the track’s ID3 tags but the library database. Ratings etc are not saved in the track itself – that’s why.

File System tab functions include all the action that can modify your file system. By that what I mean is adding files: exporting artwork, index file or playlist file.

iTSfv by design do not modify file structure.

The iTSfv Options are extending the options for each of the tabs in the Main Window. Pressing F2 from any tab in the Main Window will take you to the related Options tab. I agree that there are still can be inconsistencies as to how things are organized. But I was explaining the current logic of the organization of the controls.



to really make it fancy maybe the tool could show a preview window with suggested actions that will be taken if the user press commit/run, MS SyncToy for file copying has that sort of feature for example.


iTSfv’s Task List would be to perform the tasks of checkboxes you have selected in Checks, Tracks, Library and File System. I could gather a list of the checked Checkboxes and present it to the user after the user pressed the “Validate Selected Tracks” or “Validate Library”.


Edit:

I checked the Update database from tags in file and it seems to work with most songs however it looks like it won't work for tracks that has Comment tag like: 00000388 0000038F 000019DC 00001A3C 00029855 00029855 00007083 00006F23 00013880 00013880.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-18 13:23:40
Hi Jojo,

5.26.0.0 Add missing Lyrics using LyricWiki via iLyrics: http://code.google.com/p/ilyrics/ (http://code.google.com/p/ilyrics/) [Jojo]
5.25.4.1 Composer tag if present in the tag was written as Artist tag during updating database
5.25.4.0 Improved code for choosing Best Artwork for all instances
5.25.3.2 Adjusting rating did not work while in Schedule mode
5.25.3.1 Some fixes to prevent decapitalizing "Finale: Up" as "Final: up" etc.
5.25.3.0 Comparing Track Artwork will be up to 50% faster as the Track Artwork dimensions are retrieved from Cache for comparison
5.25.2.0 iTSfv will be able to open the last log file that was created
5.25.1.0 Synchroclean Options including a new Silent Mode are now in Options > Validate > Library


20071218T222034 Job Started: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED
20071218T222035 Found 2 sources of Artwork:
20071218T222035 Artwork from File as F:\Music\Michael Jackson\Bad\Artwork.jpg with 600x600
20071218T222035 Artwork from Track as H:\Users\Manno\Application Data\iTSfv\trackArtwork.jpg with 600x600
20071218T222035 Choosing F:\Music\Michael Jackson\Bad\Artwork.jpg as the best Artwork
20071218T222035 Replace 600x600 with 600x600 for F:\Music\Michael Jackson\Bad\Folder.jpg? False
20071218T222035 Replace 600x600 with 600x600 for F:\Music\Michael Jackson\Bad\Artwork.jpg? False
20071218T222035 Replace 600x600 with 600x600 for F:\Music\Michael Jackson\Bad\Michael Jackson - (1987) Bad.jpg? False
20071218T222036 Exported Index to F:\Music\Michael Jackson\Bad\Michael Jackson - Bad.html
20071218T222036 Compare Artwork Path: F:\Music\Michael Jackson\Bad\Artwork.jpg
20071218T222036 Track Artwork Path:  H:\Users\Manno\Application Data\iTSfv\trackArtwork.jpg
20071218T222039 Track Last Modified according to iTunes: 2007-11-20 02:09:16
20071218T222039 Track Last Modified according to Cache: 2007-09-12 11:38:27
20071218T222040 Updated Artwork dimensions Cache for F:\Music\Michael Jackson\Bad\01 Bad.mp3
20071218T222040 Track Artwork Size: 600x600, Compare Artwork Size: 600x600
20071218T222040 Replace Artwork for 1 Bad? False
20071218T222042 Added lyrics to "Bad"
20071218T222042 Compare Artwork Path: F:\Music\Michael Jackson\Bad\Artwork.jpg
20071218T222043 Track Artwork Path:  H:\Users\Manno\Application Data\iTSfv\trackArtwork.jpg
20071218T222043 Track Last Modified according to iTunes: 2007-11-20 02:09:17
20071218T222043 Track Last Modified according to Cache: 2007-09-12 11:38:27
20071218T222043 Updated Artwork dimensions Cache for F:\Music\Michael Jackson\Bad\02 The Way You Make Me Feel.mp3
20071218T222043 Track Artwork Size: 600x600, Compare Artwork Size: 600x600
20071218T222043 Replace Artwork for 2 The Way You Make Me Feel? False
20071218T222045 Added lyrics to "The Way You Make Me Feel"
20071218T222045 Compare Artwork Path: F:\Music\Michael Jackson\Bad\Artwork.jpg
20071218T222045 Track Artwork Path:  H:\Users\Manno\Application Data\iTSfv\trackArtwork.jpg
20071218T222045 Track Last Modified according to iTunes: 2007-11-20 02:09:18
20071218T222045 Track Last Modified according to Cache: 2007-09-12 11:40:49
20071218T222045 Updated Artwork dimensions Cache for F:\Music\Michael Jackson\Bad\03 Speed Demon.mp3
20071218T222045 Track Artwork Size: 600x600, Compare Artwork Size: 600x600
20071218T222045 Replace Artwork for 3 Speed Demon? False
20071218T222048 Added lyrics to "Speed Demon"



I went ahead releasing a beta hours after another just for the excitement. Hope you find usable and give feedback.

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-12-18 14:40:50
Hi McoreD, It's been a while. 

I'm very excited about this new LyricsWiki feature, since LyricsWiki seems to be a reliable site  (like most people I just hate incorrect lyrics - I wish we could have one day an "AlbumArtWiki" site  ).

Do you think that you could implement an option where all found lyrics would be stored in separate text files according to a user-definable titleformatting pattern ?
e.g. \Lyrics\%album artist%\(%year%) %album%\%tracknumber% - %title%.txt (or .lrc, etc.).

This way, we could easily handle the created files with, for example, the excellent Lyrics Show Panel plugin for foobar2000 (it can find lyric files in a hard drive according to a given pattern).

What do you think ?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-18 15:43:59
Hi Jose,

Nice to hear back from you! Sure that could be done.. and the customizations will follow the patterns just like for currently implemented for Artwork, Index and Playlists. 

Creating new folders according to pattern is a great idea too.

I will see what LRC files are and see what I can come up with.

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-12-18 20:48:01
thanks for the new release.
Do you think that you could implement an option where all found lyrics would be stored in separate text files according to a user-definable titleformatting pattern ?

I agree, this would be a nice addition along with an importing feature. That way, one could export all existing lyrics, remove them from the files and have them fetched through lyricswiki. And then, import the old lyrics for the files lyricswiki didn't have any lyrics.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-18 23:56:04
Spot on right there, Jojo, http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/itsfv/its...rtby=date#l1870 (http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/itsfv/itsfv5/iTSfv/frmMain.vb?annotate=1.86&sortby=date#l1870) shows that I have placed the lyric update code *after* reverting back to the previous last modified date. This is what excited releases tend to do =D I will fix it in the next update.

Definitely a lyrics-yyyymmdd-added.txt is nice.

Lyrics are not added to files that already has lyrics – yes, hence the checkbox.text is “Import *missing* lyrics from LyricWiki”. Should I have an overwrite option? Could be dangerous I’d think.

The parameters are used only Artist and Song. So no album tag is used. I think that’s good news for all of us.

The tolerance – good question. The name tag of the track is passed through http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/itsfv/its...sortby=date#l66 (http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/itsfv/itsfv5/iTSfv/mLibrary.vb?annotate=1.7&sortby=date#l66) code to remove (, [ and { as you see. I remember it being suggested earlier in the forum so it was easy as I had that already implemented. 

Imported lyrics still doesn’t replace ` though. It would be *great* to do this. Before the lyrics are added, I will pass them through a set of suggested replacable characters that sure includes ` sign.

Great idea – however there is no manual interaction (preferred) currently planned for importing lyrics or another feature. Validating library for me is an overnight task so it makes sense to have everything auto. I’d like to have a manual mode during validating *selected* tracks though. Surely one for todo list.

Like I said before something indeed is weird going on with the id3 updating. When I had comments like 00000388 0000038F 000019DC 00001A3C 00029855 00029855 00007083 00006F23 00013880 00013880 they *looked* empty in MP3Tag  but were displayed in iTunes. Another weirdness was, updating a bunch of tracks at once did the track but just one track at a time didn’t update. Are you running the latest MP3Tag 2.39i? I cant remember if this happened after 2.39 was updated to 2.39i. this is also under close inspection. Do you have the old build of iTSfv that you said works? Could you please run that and see if it updates the tag properly and the later version of iTSfv don’t?

Thanks,
McoreD


Edit: The new version also might crash while validating an album that has no album art. I just had a crash report emailed to me mentioning this.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: christian_s on 2007-12-19 12:48:23
When I had comments like 00000388 0000038F 000019DC 00001A3C 00029855 00029855 00007083 00006F23 00013880 00013880 they *looked* empty in MP3Tag  but were displayed in iTunes.

In earlier versions of Itunes I got that type of comments inserted in my mp3 file. I think it was a way for iTunes to store rating, last played etc for each file. Later version of mp3tag does not show this tag, maybe the tag isn't comments but itunes_comments so you will only see the tag in the extended tag editor in mp3tag?
Dunno for sure
- Chr
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-19 13:48:20
Hi Jojo/Jose,

(http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/3371/20071219200812vu4.png)

5.27.0.0 Export Lyrics to Album folder or Custom folder [Jose Hidalgo]
5.26.5.1 Index file name pattern was reset after pressing Apply button
5.26.5.0 Quirkly symbols in Imported lyrics text can be replaced using replace-words.txt in Settings folder [Jojo]
5.26.4.0 Support creating sub-directories for patterns e.g. %AlbumArtist%\(%Year%) %Album%\%TrackNumber% - %Name%
5.26.3.0 Words to skip during search opearations for Album tags are retrieved from Settings\skip-album-words.txt
5.26.2.0 Lyrics added tracks are logged to file: tracks-yyyyMM-lyrics-added.log [Jojo]
5.26.1.2 Modified Date did not retain after importing lyrics [Jojo]
5.26.1.1 Build 5.25.4.0 onwards crashed while validating tracks with no sources of artwork [James]
5.26.1.0 File Validator has the option to add missing Lyrics using LyricWiki 
5.26.0.0 Add missing Lyrics using LyricWiki via iLyrics as a DLL: http://code.google.com/p/ilyrics/ (http://code.google.com/p/ilyrics/) [Jojo]
5.25.4.1 Composer tag if present in the tag was over-written as Artist tag during updating database
5.25.4.0 Improved code for choosing Best Artwork for all instances
5.25.3.2 Adjusting rating did not work while in Schedule mode
5.25.3.1 Some fixes to prevent decapitalizing "Finale: Up" as "Final: up" etc.
5.25.3.0 Comparing Track Artwork will be up to 50% faster as the Track Artwork dimensions are retrieved from Cache for comparison
5.25.2.0 iTSfv will be able to open the last log file that was created
5.25.1.0 Synchroclean Options including a new Silent Mode are now in Options > Validate > Library


Here is a Test Release of the above changes:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)


Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-12-19 15:26:19
McoreD : have I already said that you are sooooooooooo great ?

Thanks for the new feature. I'm going to test it in the next few days.

Oh, just a question : is it possible to download lyrics and store them as separate files, all in a single operation WITHOUT embedding them in the music files first ?

And FYI : .lrc files are timestamped lyrics.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-12-19 21:45:55
5.27.0.0 Export Lyrics to Album folder or Custom folder [Jose Hidalgo]

Would it be difficult to allow those lyrics being imported from files?

Quote
5.26.5.0 Quirkly symbols in Imported lyrics text can be replaced using replace-words.txt in Settings folder [Jojo]

maybe it would make sense to give an option that replaces those symbols for the entire lyric library or maybe even for all information such as artist, album, lyrics etc?
Also, couldn't we integrate that into the settings interface? It seems to me that .txt files should be logs only and all the settings should be handled through the program's interface.
Here is another MS weirdness: – should be -

Also, I just realize that iTunes has no way of mass deleting lyrics. Maybe that would be a useful addition too.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-12-19 21:57:05
Like I said before something indeed is weird going on with the id3 updating. When I had comments like 00000388 0000038F 000019DC 00001A3C 00029855 00029855 00007083 00006F23 00013880 00013880 they *looked* empty in MP3Tag  but were displayed in iTunes. Another weirdness was, updating a bunch of tracks at once did the track but just one track at a time didn’t update. Are you running the latest MP3Tag 2.39i? I cant remember if this happened after 2.39 was updated to 2.39i. this is also under close inspection. Do you have the old build of iTSfv that you said works? Could you please run that and see if it updates the tag properly and the later version of iTSfv don’t?

I've never seen any of those tags and I'm still using mp3Tag 3.39. Anyway, with the new version of iTSfv it is working again. I'm not sure if I did anything different or if iTunes just had to be restarted or whatever, but it is working.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-19 23:34:55
This is so awesome. You guys are coming up with great ideas and I am excited implementing them and we both enjoy the product. It is a pure win-win situation!

iTSfv has no limit in scope within sensible boundaries. So anything is possible!

Importing lyrics wouldn’t be hard Jojo. It will be in the Options > Tracks. Just like there is Options > Tracks > Artwork already, there can/will be Options > Tracks > Lyrics. It makes – the organization, right? Options > Tracks will have all the options regarding Tracks tag editing.

Jojo, I was going to ask: does the replace-words.txt make sense to you? Each line in the text file is separated by 4 commas (this is how CSV files are done). The first word before the ,,,, is the word you are going to replace by the second word after the ,,,, delimiter.

Do you mean iTSfv GUI should handle add/removing entries in the txt files? First off, I thought it was a bit of overkill. Secondly it is more efficient simply editing it in Notepad. I could make menu links to open these text files! I think that would bridge both of our expectations. You might have noticed, starting with a recent build of iTSfv. all the LOG files are in the Logs folder. All the Settings files are in the Settings folder to avoid confusion.

Currently there are 3 settings files.

Simple-words.txt – words in this file will be forced to be simple case while capitalizing tags.

Replace-words.txt – words in this file will be used to replace strings in Lyrics. It is not incorporated into replacing other tags: Artist, Album, Name yet. However you might have noticed I had “Armin Van Buuren,,,,Armin van Buuren” there which was an attempt to implement it to replacing those artist etc. tags.

Skip-words.txt – words in this file will be skipped when iTSfv searches for iTMS Artwork (which is useless for now). For example Umbrella (CDS) album tag will be read as simply Umbrella, to expand the search results.

I was trying to put  – in the text file to replace it as - but I for some reason couldn’t do that. May be a Unicode problem I had? I suppose you already inserted that to your txt file.

Jojo, MP3Tag don’t seem to read those comments like 00000388 0000038F 000019DC 00001A3C 00029855 00029855 00007083 00006F23 00013880 00013880. The new version of iTSfv attempts to detect these (could be risky?) and remove them.

christian_s, I doubt they are data of Ratings. I cleared them and still managed to retain the ratings information. To my knowledge, all non-id3-tag metadata are in the iTunes Music Library.xml. I believe those also get transferred to a database in iPod when you sync with the iPod.


P.S:

Another thing I forgot to mention was that the “Update Database from tags in file” was renamed and moved to Tracks tab as “Update Database refreshing tags in file” to better reflect what it does. It was contradicting due its nature to have in the Library tab because the process involved “touching” the tags in the files. It re-reads the tags and re-writes the same tags so that iTunes detects them. The relevant function is here:

http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/itsfv/its...rtby=date#l1807 (http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/itsfv/itsfv5/iTSfv/frmMain.vb?annotate=1.87&sortby=date#l1807)

Also if interested, here is the code snippet for the detection of those junk comments. Please offer better suggestion if necessary.

http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/itsfv/its...rtby=date#l1785 (http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/itsfv/itsfv5/iTSfv/frmMain.vb?annotate=1.87&sortby=date#l1785)
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-12-19 23:45:01
This is so awesome. You guys are coming up with great ideas and I am excited implementing them and we both enjoy the product. It is a pure win-win situation!

I never dreamed I'd hear a developer say that.    McoreD, some foobar devs really ought to learn from you as a person (yes, I dare say it, simply because that's what I think). Yes, it's a win-win situation, but only because you have allowed it to happen. Had you acted like some people I know ("I won't implement that", "I want to keep it simple", "You guys don't know what you are talking about", "I Am The Dev" (replace Dev with God if you want  ), "I don't care about user suggestions", etc, etc... bullsh*t IMHO), this situation wouldn't have happened, and of course iTSfv wouldn't be as good as it is already. So again, thank you for that.

BTW, am I wrong or you have not answered me ?

Oh, just a question : is it possible to download lyrics and store them as separate files, all in a single operation WITHOUT embedding them in the music files first ?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-19 23:57:23
Oh, just a question : is it possible to download lyrics and store them as separate files, all in a single operation WITHOUT embedding them in the music files first ?

And FYI : .lrc files are timestamped lyrics.


Ooops Jose you right! I got myself lost in my long post and thought I answered you but I haven’t.

I finished coding that bit just before coming to work. So now it is possible to export lyrics without embedding them to the tracks first. Reminded me of the old days where it wasn’t possible to export artwork without embedding them first 

Thanks I also wikipediad LRC files yesterday. Just like you said, the LRC includes those timestamps which are not included in the Lyrics we import from LyricWiki or am I wrong here? I’d very much like to implement exporting LRC files but the mysterious timestamps are holding the grudge on that. The moment I get to know how to retrieve timestamps it will be there in iTSfv. So at the moment it only exporting the lyrics as TXT files.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-12-20 00:07:24
A .lrc file is just a plain text file, no more no less, with timestamps included in the text between brackets at the beginning of each line. There is even an "extended lrc" format now, which allows timestamps per word and not per line.

And you are right, LiricWiki files are not timestamped. But most of all, they are verified and accurate, which is much more important IMHO. In fact I hope one day there will be a dedicated "timestamped lyrics" section in LiricWiki, so when we type a song's name we will find BOTH the plain text and the timestamped version. But it doesn't exist yet. And the problem of .lrc files that you can find elsewhere is that they often are not verified / accurate, so...

But I don't think you ought to care about all that, because only the lyric reading software need to care about decoding the timestamps in .lrc files. You just need to save them as plain text files with the suffix .lrc (mandatory), that's all. Then the lyric reading software will be able to recognize them.

Oh, and regarding this part : "it is more efficient simply editing it in Notepad. I could make menu links to open these text files!". Well, it's not so simple if we must edit hundreds of files while iTSfv could do the find/replace automatically in batch mode... 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-20 00:35:10
Oh, and regarding this part : "it is more efficient simply editing it in Notepad. I could make menu links to open these text files!". Well, it's not so simple if we must edit hundreds of files while iTSfv could do the find/replace automatically in batch mode... 


Jose, no no. I think either you misread my reply or I misread Jojo's reply? I got the impression you understood it as me talking about replacing words in Lyrics using Notepad? That’s not what I meant.

What I meant was the settings files like this:
http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/itsfv/its...txt?view=markup (http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/itsfv/itsfv5/iTSfv/Resources/replace-words.txt?view=markup)

I thought Jojo was suggesting to edit these files via the iTSfv GUI where as I was suggesting to edit those files simply in Notepad.

iTSfv indeed will do it in a batch mode when it comes to replacing words *using* the words in the replace-words.txt

Please respond.


Jose, so is it okay as it is now, to add the extension .lrc in iTSfv Options > File System > Lyrics for exporting lyrics as .lrc?

I could probably detect if they are timestamped or not and prevent exporting to .lrc if there is no timestamps and export to .txt instead. What do you think?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-12-20 04:20:51
Jojo, I was going to ask: does the replace-words.txt make sense to you? Each line in the text file is separated by 4 commas (this is how CSV files are done). The first word before the ,,,, is the word you are going to replace by the second word after the ,,,, delimiter.

yes, it makes sense to me. However, all the config files are in my logs folder and not in the settings folder where they should belong 

Quote
Simple-words.txt – words in this file will be forced to be simple case while capitalizing tags.

I'm not sure I understand.

Quote
I was trying to put  – in the text file to replace it as - but I for some reason couldn’t do that. May be a Unicode problem I had? I suppose you already inserted that to your txt file.

why didn't it work? They look both very similar...

Quote
Jojo, MP3Tag don’t seem to read those comments like 00000388 0000038F 000019DC 00001A3C 00029855 00029855 00007083 00006F23 00013880 00013880. The new version of iTSfv attempts to detect these (could be risky?) and remove them.

not even in the "Extended Tags" menu? I have never seen such tags in any of my files. Did you say that iTunes displays them as comments?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-20 05:36:13
Jojo,

I remember your past attempt to move the Settings folder. May be this is why? A quick fix:

Go to iTSfv > Options > Advanced > Folders.

See where Settings folder is

Browse for Settings folder, create a new folder called “Settings” in My Documents\iTSfv\Settings (preferred)

When asked to move data, say NO! Close iTSfv and reload and it shall create the new files. You could now move the old settings txt files from the Logs folder if needed.



Okay simple-words.txt: Line 9 here : http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/itsfv/its...;sortby=date#l9 (http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/itsfv/itsfv5/iTSfv/mFileSystem.vb?annotate=1.9&sortby=date#l9) 
In early version of iTSfv, when you normalise capitalization of tags, for example a tag “a state of trance 2007”  will be “A State Of Trance 2007”. However as one member pointed out, the proper capitalization should be “A State of Trance 2007”. So the words in simple-words.txt are the words that will remain simple during capitalization. I will write extra on this in the Manual. Anyway so the newer versions attempted to handle this issue. 

5.12.5.0 Attempted some tweaks following http://aitech.ac.jp/~ckelly/midi/help/caps.html (http://aitech.ac.jp/~ckelly/midi/help/caps.html) for capitalizing Name tag


The m-dash and n-dash as they are called I think, when pasted to Text File both characters looked identical. So I thought the replace wouldn’t work. I will save a Text file in Unicode format and try pasting again. They both look very similar IS the problem. 


Yes Jojo, the comments like 00000388 0000038F 000019DC 00001A3C 00029855 00029855 00007083 00006F23 00013880 00013880 are in the Comments field in iTunes. I will post a screenshot when I get back home. I will double check MP3Tag extended tags also. When it wasn’t showing up in MP3Tag it bizarred me out.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-12-20 06:16:25
ok, I moved the settings folder.

Also, here is another feature request (I hope you are able to keep track of all of them  ).
There is an option that says "Add Unknown Album" to tracks with blank album tag. I think this is a good idea, however, on my iPod, it always display "Unknown Album" for songs with empty album tags. It hasn't always been that way, but now they changed it. Anyway, how about an option that sets the album name based on the song name with a suffix? I'm not sure what the suffix should be, since some people prefer CDM other Single or EP.

What do you think?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-20 06:34:39
Yeah great idea Jojo. I will have an editable drop down menu of CDS, CDM, Single etc. I was originally thinking of appending this only for true singles i.e. albums that only has one song. But this can get tricky and not work all the times because some CDS releases have two tracks etc. So I will just stick to if empty tag then append suffix and fille with album name, strategy? What do you think?

P.S:

Btw, fyi you can always post the feature request here http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=2...amp;atid=988854 (http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=204248&atid=988854) and carry out the discussion here so definitely we wont miss anything.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: christian_s on 2007-12-20 11:06:00
Jojo, MP3Tag don’t seem to read those comments like 00000388 0000038F 000019DC 00001A3C 00029855 00029855 00007083 00006F23 00013880 00013880. The new version of iTSfv attempts to detect these (could be risky?) and remove them.

christian_s, I doubt they are data of Ratings. I cleared them and still managed to retain the ratings information. To my knowledge, all non-id3-tag metadata are in the iTunes Music Library.xml. I believe those also get transferred to a database in iPod when you sync with the iPod.

Ok did some searching and found this thread:
http://forums.ilounge.com/archive/index.php/t-59334.html (http://forums.ilounge.com/archive/index.php/t-59334.html)
and
http://www.id3.org/iTunes_Normalization_settings (http://www.id3.org/iTunes_Normalization_settings)
so the values has something to do with volume leveling, ie normalization in iTunes. At least the comment examples above look close to what is described in the http links.
- Chr
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-20 12:35:56
Cool find Christian.

This post in that thread seems reproducable by me:

What are you using to read the digits and spaces, they are usually invisible with-in iTunes. If they are in the iTunes comments box then they shouldn't be there.

The only reason I knew they existed was because I happened to see them in foobars tag reader.

It shows up as this in the tags,

iTunNORM= 000011D6 000011EC 00004FC2 00008797 0002BA89 0002E986 000067C4 000066DA 00016EEC 00016D7C

but the iTunNORM is a seperate field from the Comments so regardless of whether Soundcheck is on or off you still shouldn't see them in the comments box.


Version History so far...

5.29.0.0 Added command to batch remove Lyrics from Selected Tracks [Jojo]
5.28.1.0 Export Lyrics to file without embedding to track [Jose Hidalgo]
5.28.0.0 Import Lyrics using file pattern from Album folder or custom folder [Jojo]
5.27.3.0 Restructed GUI in Options > Tracks to accommodate room for more options
5.27.2.0 Replace Words can be utilized during captilaziing Track Name, Artist, Album and AlbumArtist
5.27.1.0 Added Settings Menu to access the settings files
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2007-12-20 12:39:14
@McoreD : OK, no problem about the word replacing thing.

And yes, if you can detect automatically if the file is timestamped or not, then you can set up the according suffix (txt or lrc).
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-20 12:45:56
Jojo,

Here are those iTunes Comments:

(http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/9748/itunesjunkcommentsmc5.th.png) (http://img248.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itunesjunkcommentsmc5.png)

Jose/Jojo,

New Options > Tracks > Lyrics tab

(http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/2677/itsfvimportlyricsdv8.th.png) (http://img248.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itsfvimportlyricsdv8.png)



Thanks Jose, will try to find a good way to detect LRC files.


5.29.1.0 Tag Blank Album is improved to tag with Track Name with a desired suffix: CDS, CDM etc. in Options > Tracks > General [Jojo]
5.29.0.1 Fixed instability while checking for embedded tracks when artwork is deleted [Zoe]
5.29.0.0 Added command to batch remove Lyrics from Selected Tracks [Jojo]
5.28.1.0 Export Lyrics to file without embedding to track [Jose Hidalgo]
5.28.0.0 Import Lyrics using file pattern from Album folder or custom folder [Jojo]
5.27.3.0 Restructed GUI in Options > Tracks to accommodate room for more options
5.27.2.0 Replace Words can be utilized during captilaziing Track Name, Artist, Album and AlbumArtist
5.27.1.0 Added Settings Menu to access the settings files
5.27.0.0 Export Lyrics to Album folder or Custom folder as TXT or LRC files [Jose Hidalgo]
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-22 03:08:48
Hey Guys,

I was pretty happy with this build so I jumped the gun and released a stable release:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243713 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243713)

Version 5.29 - 20071222

5.29.1.0 Tag Blank Album is improved to tag with Track Name with a desired suffix: CDS, CDM etc. in Options > Tracks > General [Jojo]
5.29.0.1 Fixed instability while checking for embedded tracks when artwork is deleted [Zoe]
5.29.0.0 Added command to batch remove Lyrics from Selected Tracks [Jojo]
5.28.1.0 Export Lyrics to file without embedding to track [Jose Hidalgo]
5.28.0.0 Import Lyrics using file pattern from Album folder or custom folder [Jojo]
5.27.3.0 Restructed GUI in Options > Tracks to accommodate room for more options
5.27.2.0 Replace Words can be utilized during captilaziing Track Name, Artist, Album and AlbumArtist
5.27.1.0 Added Settings Menu to access the settings files
5.27.0.0 Export Lyrics to Album folder or Custom folder as TXT or LRC files [Jose Hidalgo]
5.26.6.0 Update Database from Tags in File is renamed to Update Database refreshing Tags in File and moved to Tracks tab
5.26.5.1 Index file name pattern was reset after pressing Apply button
5.26.5.0 Quirkly symbols in Imported lyrics text can be replaced using replace-words.txt in Settings folder [Jojo]
5.26.4.0 Support creating sub-directories for patterns e.g. %AlbumArtist%\(%Year%) %Album%\%TrackNumber% - %Name%
5.26.3.0 Words to skip during search opearations for Album tags are retrieved from Settings\skip-album-words.txt
5.26.2.0 Lyrics added tracks are logged to file: tracks-yyyyMM-lyrics-added.log [Jojo]
5.26.1.2 Modified Date did not retain after importing lyrics [Jojo]
5.26.1.1 Build 5.25.4.0 onwards crashed while validating tracks with no sources of artwork [James]
5.26.1.0 File Validator has the option to add missing Lyrics using LyricWiki 
5.26.0.0 Add missing Lyrics using LyricWiki via iLyrics as a DLL: http://code.google.com/p/ilyrics/ (http://code.google.com/p/ilyrics/) [Jojo]
5.25.4.1 Composer tag if present in the tag was over-written as Artist tag during updating database
5.25.4.0 Improved code for choosing Best Artwork for all instances
5.25.3.2 Adjusting rating did not work while in Schedule mode
5.25.3.1 Some fixes to prevent decapitalizing "Finale: Up" as "Final: up" etc.
5.25.3.0 Comparing Track Artwork will be up to 50% faster as the Track Artwork dimensions are retrieved from Cache for comparison
5.25.2.0 iTSfv will be able to open the last log file that was created
5.25.1.0 Synchroclean Options including a new Silent Mode are now in Options > Validate > Library
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-12-23 22:45:09
5.28.1.0 Export Lyrics to file without embedding to track [Jose Hidalgo]
5.28.0.0 Import Lyrics using file pattern from Album folder or custom folder [Jojo]
5.26.5.0 Quirkly symbols in Imported lyrics text can be replaced using replace-words.txt in Settings folder [Jojo]

just out of curiosity, during the export / import are the lyrics parsed through the replace-words.txt?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-24 00:24:58
Hi Jojo,

Yes! in both cases, the function accesses

fGetFixedString:

148 :    mcored    1.11     Public Function fGetFixedString(ByVal lyrics As String) As String
149 :    mcored    1.10    
150 :              Dim replaceWords As String() = fGetReplaceWords()
151 :              
152 :              For Each line In replaceWords
153 :              Dim word() As String = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Split(line, ",,,,")
154 :              If word.Length > 1 Then
155 :              lyrics = lyrics.Replace(word(0), word(1))
156 :              End If
157 :              Next
158 :              
159 :              Return lyrics
160 :              
161 :              End Function


where fGerReplaceWords is:

253 :    mcored    1.17     Public Function fGetReplaceWords() As String()
254 :              
255 :              If mReplaceWords Is Nothing Then
256 :              
257 :              Dim words As String() = fGetWordsList(mFilePathReplaceWords)
258 :              
259 :              If words IsNot Nothing Then
260 :              mReplaceWords = words
261 :              sWriteDebugLog(String.Format("Retrieved {0} words to replace from {1}", words.Length, mFilePathReplaceWords))
262 :              End If
263 :              
264 :              End If
265 :              
266 :              Return mReplaceWords
267 :              
268 :              End Function

where mFilePathReplaceWords = My.Settings.SettingsDir + "replace-words.txt"

http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/itsfv/its...b?view=annotate (http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/itsfv/itsfv5/iTSfv/mFileSystem.vb?view=annotate)

sWriteDebugLog: It should appear in the debug log also.

Cheers,
McoreD


P.S:

It is also used during normalization of capital letters as well

20071225T080833 Job Started: CAPITALIZE_FIRST_LETTER
20071225T080833 Retrieved 22 simple words from H:\Users\Manno\My Documents\iTSfv\Settings\simple-words.txt
20071225T080833 Retrieved 6 words to replace from H:\Users\Manno\My Documents\iTSfv\Settings\replace-words.txt

20071225T080833 "Aragon (Intro Mix)" is now "Aragon (Intro Mix)"
20071225T080833 "Killing Spider" is now "Killing Spider"
20071225T080833 "Insurrection" is now "Insurrection"
20071225T080833 "Signs" is now "Signs"
20071225T080833 "Keep Pushin" is now "Keep Pushin"
20071225T080833 "Tribal Shock (A13)" is now "Tribal Shock (A13)"
20071225T080833 "Out Of Our Lives" is now "Out of Our Lives"
20071225T080839 "Starbust" is now "Starbust"
20071225T080839 "Exit (Robert Nickson Remix)" is now "Exit (Robert Nickson Remix)"
20071225T080839 "Reaching" is now "Reaching"
20071225T080839 "Come With Us" is now "Come with Us"
20071225T080841 "Transparent (Original Mix)" is now "Transparent (Original Mix)"
20071225T080841 "Nothing Matters" is now "Nothing Matters"
20071225T080841 "The Search For Freedom" is now "The Search for Freedom"
20071225T080842 "I Scream" is now "I Scream"
20071225T080842 "Transparent (Benz & MD Remix)" is now "Transparent (Benz & Md Remix)"
20071225T080844 "From One To Another" is now "From One to Another"
20071225T080845 "Someday (Vocal Mix)" is now "Someday (Vocal Mix)"
20071225T080845 "Little Prince" is now "Little Prince"
20071225T080845 "Taurus" is now "Taurus"
20071225T080845 Duration: 0 Hours 0 Minutes 12.625 Seconds
20071225T080845 Job Finished: CAPITALIZE_FIRST_LETTER
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: urlwolf on 2007-12-27 10:49:52
Great work McoreD!
This is getting to be an indispensable tool for music geeks.

A few random questions...
1) Does itsfv write tags when I only chose the options to retrieve artwork and dump it as folder.jpg? I'd say no, but I'm not sure...
2) which ID3 format does itsfv write in? I'm trying to keep all my tags in ID3 v2.3 -Latin1 (aka ISO 8098).
3) What I do to collect album art from itunes (the only thing I need) is to create a list of recently added files in MusicIP, export it as an .m3u, drag that to itunes, and "validate selection" in itsfv.
Is there an easier way?
Thanks
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-27 21:21:21
Hi urlwolf,

Thanks!

1/ If you don't have any checkbox in Tracks tab checked, then iTSfv will not write any tags to tracks ( files ).

2/ That's right - it is writing in ID3 v2.3 Using TagLib Sharp, default version forced to 2.3. I am not sure the Latin bit though. I'd like to find out from TagLib Sharp Dev.

3/ The way I do it is, in iTunes I have "Automatically download missing artwork" checked, when I obtain a new album, I drag the folder to iTSfv and iTSfv copies it to the default music folder. While this is happening iTunes automatically downloads the Album Art ( most of the time ) and iTSfv picks it, exports to Folder.jpg, writes Track Count etc. Demo: http://wmwiki.com/downloads/itsfv/demo/itsfv-add-album (http://wmwiki.com/downloads/itsfv/demo/itsfv-add-album)


In the latest build internally testing, I have done some improvements to the Options > Explorer tab.

Enhancement #1

Now iTunes Users with "Keep iTunes Music folder organized" setting disabled, can use iTSfv to add new music to the library to a specified folder in the folder structure they like to have.

For example, if you have Default Music folder location set to be F:\Music in iTSfv Options > Explorer and you have music folder structure set to %Genre%\%AlbumArtist% - (%Year%) %Album% then when you add / drag new music (e.g. Artist: Infected Mushroom, Album;  Vicious Delicious) to iTSfv it will first copy the files to F:\Music\Psy-Trance\Infected Mushroom - (2007) Vicious Delicious  folder and start adding to iTunes
This way you can overcome the limitation of iTunes organizing music as %AlbumArtist%\%Album%.


Status Bar in the screenshots below demonstrates a similar instance:
(http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/9762/itsfvmusicadd1fo5.th.png) (http://img409.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itsfvmusicadd1fo5.png) |  (http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/2307/itsfvmusicadd2ev4.th.png) (http://img98.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itsfvmusicadd2ev4.png)

The options required to archive this are below:

(http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/1740/itsfvmusicaddoptionsat8.th.png) (http://img246.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itsfvmusicaddoptionsat8.png)

Enhancement #2

iTSfv can also automatically add newly found music to iTunes. For this option to work you will need to enable Folder Watch.

(http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/3842/itsfvmusicadd3ty3.th.png) (http://img247.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itsfvmusicadd3ty3.png)

The screenshot above shows a user letting iTSfv to add music with manual interaction. This means the user will be prompted for the Add New Files window. Otherwise, iTSfv will automatically add newly found files to iTunes periodically.

Cheers,
McoreD

Version History so far:

5.32.0.0 Music when added via iTSfv can be automatically organized in a customized folder strucutre
5.31.9.1 Lyrics with only Lf per line will be now properly saved with CrLf
5.31.9.0 Option to automatically or manually add newly found files via Folder Monitoring. Options > Explorer
5.31.8.0 Application's default button changed from "Validate iTunes Music Library" to "Validate Selected Tracks"
5.31.7.0 Swapped control locations of "Validate iTunes Music Library" and "Display iTunes Music Library Statistics"
5.31.6.4 iTSfv showed duplicated tracklists if the same album was added to iTunes multiple times
5.31.6.3 Was not possible to add new files to iTunes if the iTunes music library was empty
5.31.6.2 iTSfv did not look for Higher Resolution artwork in the Album folder while adding new files that already had embedded artwork
5.31.6.1 Pattern %Genre% was not supported and remained unchanged
5.31.6.0 Add New Files dialog was redesigned to include Genre and Year
5.31.5.1 Fixed stability for crashes during timeouts occured when downloading lyrics
5.31.5.0 iTSfv is compatible with multiple instances for a reasonable scope of simultaneous operations
5.31.4.2 Debug Writing is much more efficient and compatible with multiple instances of iTSfv
5.31.4.1 Load with Windows checkBox status was not accurate in Options > Advanced > Appearance
5.31.4.0 Explorer > Activity tab replacing Explorer > Options tab. Controls in Explorer > Options tab were moved to Explorer > Files tab
5.31.3.1 Options > Appearance : Minimize to System Tray was mistakenly said Minimize to System Tray on Close
5.31.3.0 Improved iTunes Watch Folders to include all the user configured music folder locations
5.31.2.1 TagLib could not fix tags in newly added files in Silent Mode while Synchronizing or Adding files
5.31.2.0 Enabling and Disabling Folder Monitor is performed without requiring to restart iTSfv
5.31.1.3 An internal caching logic in build 5.29.3.0 caused iTSfv to always import artwork in rare situations
5.31.1.2 During the saving validation results as iTunes Playlists the GUI was not responding
5.31.1.1 Illegal characters in path while getting pattern [Raphael]
5.31.1.0 Optional automated emailing bug report feature enabled by default in Options> Advanced > Internet
5.31.0.0 Application user.config file is now backed up to Settings directory by default with option to Restore
5.30.4.2 Double clicking Validate Selected Tracks button could have crashed iTSfv because BackgroundWorker is busy
5.30.4.1 Overwrite AlbumArtSmall.jpg for upcoming features to update Vista Media Center cache
5.30.4.0 Clean Temporary Files upon Exit. Enabled by default in Options > Advanced > Folders
5.30.3.2 Dropping any single file was copied to Temporary folder without first checking it is a valid artwork
5.30.3.1 Fixed iTSfv to delete another variant of temp files e.g. iT 1.tmp from iTunes folder
5.30.3.0 Start as iTSfv Lite mode in Options > Advanced > Appearance
5.30.2.0 Scheduled Tasks can be manually run using the "Run Scheduled Tasks Now" button
5.30.1.0 Validate Library can now run as a Scheduled Task
5.30.0.0 Option to Load with Windows to System Tray. Options > Advanced > Appearance
5.29.3.0 Artwork files from track are saved in iTSfv Artwork directory under AlbumArtist\Album
5.29.2.0 Files listBox will show the current file count it holds
5.29.1.1 Directory seperator charactor was not appeneded to the music folder browsed from Options > Explorer

Edit:

Also I had an old request to replace AlbumArt-{xxxx}_Large.jpg but this would require a reference to WMPLib DLL which I assume everybody would have? I also have plans to do a synchroclean for WMP so this DLL is a core requirement for that.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-12-28 08:07:25
backup / restore function doesn't work properly. Skip Count = Play Count and some tracks are not included in the xml file at all.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-28 10:42:51
Hi Jojo

Thanks! Pretty nasty bug there. Dangers of copying and pasting code. It is fixed now. When you say some tracks are not included at all, do you mean these tracks had a playedCount > 0 or rating > 0? By design tracks that do not have either playedCount or rating were automatically skipped. Do you think it is wise to backup all tracks disregarding playedCount = 0?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-28 12:23:59
I have uploaded a new beta that includes the previous version history and the following fixes.

5.32.0.3 Read-Only attribute was not properly cleared prior to restoring tags
5.32.0.2 The "Enabled" tag was backed up but was not restored
5.32.0.1 Fixed critical bug in Backup Tags: SkippedCount was PlayedCount and SkippedDate was PlayedDate [Jojo]


http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248)


I am really excited about the new Music folder structure support. I hope you find that useful.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-12-29 02:31:57
Do you think it is wise to backup all tracks disregarding playedCount = 0?

definitely, because other information such as EQ setting could still be present.

Anyway, in my case I had several songs not updated and I know for sure they had a playcount etc.
Some of it was due to that iTunes bug that doesn't get rid of the album tag even if removed and therefore iTSfv wasn't able to match it. Maybe we should have those tags updated before exporting the database?

In addition, there were other songs that weren't restored. It seemed totally random to me. I thought it had something to do with too long file names or special characters somewhere, but there were always exceptions to the rule...

Also, wasn't there a way to tell which songs have been updated using iTSfv tag refreshing option?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-29 08:44:17
Very good points Jojo.

5.34.3.0 Tracks that tags were refreshed are logged to file [Jojo]
5.34.2.0 Option to update database refreshing tags before backing up tags
5.34.1.3 iTSfv backed up tracks only if they were played at least once or rating greater than zero [Jojo]
5.34.1.2 Added stability for Access is denied while attempting to save track Artwork [Julie]
5.34.1.1 Did not attempt importing lyrics from local HDD if lyrics from LyricWiki was not found
5.34.1.0 Option to Import or Export Lyrics to the pattern same as track file name
5.34.0.0 Added support for adding new files with m4v, mp4, mov and mpg extensions [NTolerance]
5.33.0.1 Music Folder Structure did not make use of the overwritten Album Artist, Album etc Tags in Add New Files Window
5.33.0.0 Trim specified number of characters from left or right of a tag in Selected Tracks > Editor
5.32.1.0 Selected Tracks > General tab renamed to Editor and supports multiple operations at once. Press Edit Selected Tracks
5.32.0.4 iTSfv showed duplicated tracklists if the same album was added to iTunes multiple times


Some emphasis on the Trim function:

(http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/7115/itsfvtrimcharus0.th.png) (http://img295.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itsfvtrimcharus0.png)


Log seems healthy:

20071229T174141 Job Started: RATINGS_BACKUP
20071229T174154 Log saved in H:\Users\Manno\My Documents\iTSfv\Logs\tracks-20071229-tags-refreshed.log
20071229T174154 Duration: 0 Hours 00 Minutes 13.21875 Seconds
20071229T174154 Job Finished: RATINGS_BACKUP
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-12-29 09:09:38
thank you. looks good.

I don't seem to be able to figure out how to create an iTunes playlist that includes all songs that contain no artwork. Ok, got it. Maybe the default playlist could use a naming scheme that reflects the validation result. i.e. when validating songs without album art, the name of the generated play list could reflect that. Didn't see it, because the playlist name was too long.

Also, how does iTSfv check for "iTunes" artwork? Is that the same as iTunes embedded artwork?

Finally, is it correct that in order to save iTunes embedded artwork inside the ID3 tag, one has to check the "import artwork in c:\..." option (under tracks?). Maybe this could be clarified, because I remember iTSfv being able to do this, I just didn't know how.

Edit: I updated to the newest version and noticed that "Fill track Count..." was already checked, even though I never activated that option.
Edit2: Maybe I missed something, but what happened with the option to validate the entire library?
Edit3: Does the "Get iTunes artwork" option work?
Edit4: The application crashes after validating my entire library and saving results as playlist. Tried no lyrics and then no artwork.
Edit5: How do you check for no lyrics? Because songs that have very short lyrics, are still listed as "no lyrics". I write "no lyrics" in songs that have no lyrics. That way they get off my "search for lyrics" list
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-29 09:56:02
Jojo,

iTSfv checks for "iTunes Downloaded Artwork" by quering the "IsDownloadedArtwork" check in iTunes SDK. This is done before iTSfv any embedding of artwork. This is what "Check for iTunes downloaded Artwork" checkBox does.

If you have "Import Artwork from.... " checkBox in Tracks tab then you will give iTSfv the option to embed the iTunes Download Artwork into the file. I see the contradition, the checkBox implies it will import from HDD. However it will first check for iTunes Downloaded Artwork also.

I should rename the checkBox to say "Embed Artwork from ..... or iTunes Download Artwork if available"

Edit 1: Not sure how Jojo, sorry. The Settings version still says 5.9.0.2 meaning that no settings were defaulted since then. I hope the next time you load iTSfv, the uncheck setting will be remembered again?

Edit 2: Validate Entire Library button is moved to where Display iTunes Statistics which is Advanced tab. I thought it made sense to discourage frequent usage of this as for most of us successful validation of entire library is usually neede done once. After that we can validate Selected Tracks, or even if we need to validate the entire library it is still available from Jobs menu or Advanced tab.

Edit 3: By "Get iTunes Artwork" do you mean the setting in Options > Advanced > Internet? If that's so, that doesn't work as we remeber a few weeks ago Apple denied us access from their iTMS.

You will also notice the "Validate Selected Tracks" button will have a dual-mode. When you go to Selected Tracks tab you wlll see "Validate Selected Tracks" button changes to "Edit Selected Tracks" to let you perform the actions in the Selected Tracks tab.

Edit 4: I also have experienced random crashes due to iTunes being busy saving playlists.


Edit 5: Funny that small tweak hit you. You probably were surprised when iTSfv picked up "no lyrics" as really no lyrics?  For detection of no lyrics, I had it so that if the Lyrics character count was less than 100 it was still considered as no lyrics. I did this because I remember at the time people misused Lyrics tag to put other comments. I will sure make this an option to disable.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-12-29 10:16:18
thank you for your prompt responses.

Wasn't there some way to get the results as a HTML page? Even when I uncheck the box "save results as iTunes playlist", I don't get any HTML page. If I remember correctly, in previous version a HTML page always popped up, but I might be confusing something.

Also, I have a large amount of songs that were modified on the 27th within a 2 minute range. I don't think I did anything other than exporting / importing my library using version 5.29.1.0. The log file from that date doesn't say anything specific. It's weird, because I also have the "don't mess with date modified" activated

thanks
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-29 13:48:21
Jojo,

Any checkBox in the Tracks tab including "Update Database refreshing tags" modifies the track's modified date.

XHTML page is reserved for the "Validate iTunes Music Library" feature - You get the XHTML page only when you do a success validation of the whole library. For all other times ther LOG files are updated.

Having said that I will look closely into the issue where track can be modified. Yeah, the Backup/Restore should not modified the tracks at all. It doesn't have anything to do with it. Only the build 5.34.2.0 and after has the option to update tags before Backup.

Meanwhile I did a full backup of Tags to a file with the Playlist in iTunes checkBox checked.

20071229T174609 Job Started: RATINGS_BACKUP
20071229T204237 Playlist saved as tracks-20071229-tags-refreshed in iTunes
20071229T204237 Log saved in H:\Users\Manno\My Documents\iTSfv\Logs\tracks-20071229-tags-refreshed.log
20071229T204237 Duration: 2 Hours 56 Minutes 28.078125 Seconds
20071229T204237 Job Finished: RATINGS_BACKUP

That took a while but seemed to work okay as I didn't interfere with iTunes; in fact I had caught sleep so there was no way of interfering. 

I am trying an option to minimize iTunes or lock iTunes while iTSfv is busy. So far I know:

Context Menu popups in iTunes is fine - does not interrupt any iTunes add-on
Dialog Box / Windows popups in iTunes is BAD - crashes any iTunes add-on
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: martgadget on 2007-12-29 18:19:55
Hi, Truly powerful tool you have here - nicely done 8-) ., and one of the (very) few activley developed itunes utils as well.

Here's my feature request, which is actually a simplication(!) of a function already in this great tool, perhaps you'll consider a really easy way of solving this:

Problem:
Like many I have 3 PC's, 3 IPODs and one music library. This is fine until people rip tracks on one PC and they dont show up on the others (ITunes sucks on this as we all know)

Suggested Solution:

ITSFV already has the functionality to add new files to the library, but I have a couple of suggestions as to how this might be maximised for my particular issue ~(large 80GB network music lib)

- I rip tracks on any one PC, they show in the iTunes DB files (vista c:\users\me\music\itunes) but not on the others (because they have their own files, with their own ratings and playlists), but they *are* on the itunes library network share because the ripping PC's itunes ripped them to there. (e.g T:)
- Other users run ITSFV with their Itunes open (perhaps with a command line parameter on the shortcut - e.g. ITSFV /Add:5 - click it's icon once for example, that makes it do a quick scan, add and quit
- ITSFV scans the network lib for folders added to the shared library on the network in the last '5' days (speeds up the scan)
- Then it adds the files that it finds in the same way it does currently.

I can already do this manually by selecting scheduled tasks/find new tracks, run scheduled tasks now, but it's quite slow on a 16,000 track library, because it's scanning all folders - with an artist\album\track type structure in itunes's library, is a top-level artist folder is touched(?)  as soon as a new track is added?, so the util could spot this in seconds rather than traversing the entire library scanning (perhaps?) - I totally agree that it might be a requirement to scan the entire lib now and then - but a 'quick' mode like this, together with a parameter to force this at start up then quit the tool would be awesome?

I also realise that there was a feature to 'watch' the itunes library and add automatically (as this would also work - if filesystem watchers work nice on 80GB network shares with 15k tracks in and hundreds of folders!) - seems to be gone in v5.34b code

Finally, you could also add a primitive UDP messaging protocol to the app, so if it ran minimised on all Pc's they could 'tell' the other copies of ITSFV when a new track was added by one user - meaning almost instant updates to the other itunes library db's on the other PC's - and no searching. (e.g one says 'T:\smashing pumpkins\some-album\some-track.mp3') - and they automatcially buffer the list of tracks as they arrive, and add them. (assuming you can 'see' the file write done to the network drive on the PC that is ripping the track)

Great app, keep it up  - would love to code this up and submit it but I'm a bit .net rusty 8-(

Mart.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-30 02:07:33
Hi martgadget,

Thanks and really nice to hear from you with a dev background too.

I just want to make sure  I understand you correctly. You have Computers A, B, C and a common Music network folder share with Write access. So you rip using iTunes from each PC to the same Network folder share. Each PC has its own iTunes XML Library file in Documents\Music\iTunes

Let's say this network share with Write Access is \\MART-PC\Music


Now... if you add the folder location \\MART-PC\Music to iTSfv > Options > Explorer
and enabled Folder Watch and check Add Music (Manual/Automatic)

The Folder Watch will instantly monitor newly added files:



Traversing from Date Modified seems like an excellent suggestion. I am definitely going to look into this.

Thanks Mart.

In the mean time I hope you try the Folder Watch and Schedule it for a night time.

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2007-12-30 03:53:05
Having said that I will look closely into the issue where track can be modified.

thank you. I really don't know what else could have caused this.

Also, when I'm exporting lyrics to a file, iTSfv tries to fetch lyrics online for the songs that have no lyrics. This happens despite the "Import Lyrics from LyricWiki" being unchecked.

Also, how do I mass delete lyrics?

thank you
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-30 04:03:40
Also, when I'm exporting lyrics to a file, iTSfv tries to fetch lyrics online for the songs that have no lyrics. This happens despite the "Import Lyrics from LyricWiki" being unchecked.


Jojo, thanks and fixed. This should speed up exporting feature when there are a bunch of tracks that don't have Lyrics from the first time.

5.34.5.7 iTSfv tried to fetch lyrics online for the songs that have no lyrics despite the "Import Lyrics from LyricWiki" being unchecked. [Jojo]
5.34.5.6 iTSfv is minimized just after user presses the Close button to finish garbage collecting iTunes application
5.34.5.5 Retrieving Artwork dimensions sometimes overwrote the higher resolution artwork in Artwork Directory
5.34.5.4 Replace Tracks function in Advanced was not working for some time
5.34.5.3 Force releasing iTunes object before quitting iTSfv
5.34.5.2 Apply Capitalize settings in Selected Tracks during validation checkBox is now in Options > Validate > Tracks
5.34.5.1 Minimum number of characters in Lyrics tag before track is considered to have no lyrics is now optional in Options > Checks [Jojo]
5.34.5.0 Find and Replace textBoxes are now comboBoxes and the text are remembered for next session
5.34.4.0 Added support to Capitalize first word, replace and Trim for Genre tag
5.34.3.0 Tracks that tags were refreshed are logged to file [Jojo]


Also, how do I mass delete lyrics?


Selected Tracks tab



Check Remove Lyrics from Track
Press Edit Selected Tracks
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: martgadget on 2007-12-30 21:25:57
Hi there, I suspected that you'd already dealt with most of what I suggested, I just didnt find it 8-)

Perfect understanding of my predicament 8-)

Yes folder, or file date checking will probably speed you up hugely - I suspect the slowest bit is having to search ITunes to see if the track is there already- if you just search 'forward' in time from some known point this will zoom along, because you can ignore everything 'behind you' in time.

If you also save a flag file or something on the client the 'last' time you ran, then you can probably assume you dont need to search for files that were added 'before' then=- as most people, even if copying files from somewhere else will get updated access time stamps on their new copies.

Mart.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2007-12-30 22:24:45
Actually martgadget, scanning the XML file was the shortest time taking task. 

It is the scanning of a network folder that takes ages.

Jojo,

I realized that *Editing* Selected Tracks and Updating Database refreshing Tags *as part of* Backup/Restore do not follow the "Retain Modified Date" setting. The setting was originally made for Validation tasks only. I will be extending it to other jobs. Thanks.

5.34.6.3 Modified Date is retained for Editing Selected Tracks [Jojo]
5.34.6.2 Prevent crash due to track is not modifiable error while emptying lyrics
5.34.6.1 iTSfv will ask for SMTP Host to automatically send bug reports
5.34.6.0 Support for %FileName% syntax which retrieves the file name without extension of a track
5.34.5.8 Moved "Import Lyrics from LyricWiki" checkBox to Options > Advanced > Internet to better reflect its use
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: kevinherring on 2008-01-01 01:53:05
Hi
This program looks ace, but it doesnt quite do what I am after.  It has been touched on before, but I thought I would add my vote to it.  My situation is this:
I have a perfectly catalogued music collection in Windows Media Player, all my albums have a folder.jpg file in the relevant folder.

Unfortunately iTunes doesnt use these which is very annoying.  So I can automatically get the album artwork, which is then saved as an .itc file.  However this leads to incorrect/missing artwork and is unnecessary as I already have all the artwork.

So basically what I want is an automatic way to covert all my folder.jpg's into an .itc file which is then put into the correct location based on the Persistent ID etc.

What I certainly dont want to do is embed these graphics into the mp3.  Personally I think this is a horrendous implementation.

Any chance you could think about implementing this?

Many thanks

Kevin
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-01-01 15:12:52
kevinherring,

Thanks. People have attempted deciphering the ITC format to feed external artwork: http://www.usefulshortcuts.com/alt-codes/index.php (http://www.usefulshortcuts.com/alt-codes/index.php)  - the whole process is still under heavey R&D as far as I know. As soon as there is a working method I'd would eagerly implement it.

Cheers,
McoreD


5.34.11.0 Option to scan only folders modified in the last X number of days for Synchroclean / Find New files [martgadget]

5.34.10.1 Display Statistics did not work if there was no previous cache file availble [Corey]
5.34.10.0 Much faster Recovery of Tags using a previous iTunes Music Library.xml
5.34.09.0 Verbose output that is not currently logged to file are now shown in a Debug Window [Corey]
5.34.08.0 Recover Tags can recover Play Count, Rating etc. Settings are in Options [Corey]
5.34.07.1 Error handling for Recovering tags from previous iTunes Music Library.
5.34.07.0 Recover Tags and Backup/Restore tabs are located in Tags tab.
5.34.06.4 Advice user to use Recover Tags if they try to restore tags from iTunes Music Library.xml

P.S:

Mart,

Here is a code change to take account of folder scanning limited by last modified.

http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/itsfv/its...otate=1.29#l105 (http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/itsfv/itsfv5/iTSfv/mFileSystem.vb?annotate=1.29#l105)

20080102T001248 Job Started: FIND_NEW_TRACKS_FROM_HDD
20080102T001248 Finding new tracks in specified music locations...
20080102T001248 Looking in \\BETAONE-7B32227\Music\
20080102T002023 Finding new tracks in specified music locations... Done.
20080102T002041 924 of 1689 recently added music files were in iTunes Library.
20080102T002042 Duration: 0 Hours 07 Minutes 53.723586 Seconds
20080102T002042 Cleaning Temporary Files... in C:\Users\Dee\AppData\Roaming\iTSfv\
20080102T002042 Job Finished: FIND_NEW_TRACKS_FROM_HDD

Roughly 6 minutes was saved from previous 12 minutes of total time taken. So that’s about a 57% improvement. Not really matters much at night but I’d say would matter as the library gets larger though.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-01-02 13:09:53
Any chance you could think about implementing this?


Kevin,

I started up a R&D thread here:

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=60163 (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=60163)

Something for watch out for.. including myself. 

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2008-01-04 01:05:10
Export and Import lyrics from / to custom folders are broken. Export works, but shows "false" in path and import doesn't allow me to select a folder.

selected tracks doesn't save options and always defaults to capitalize words and write tags to 'name'

also, where can I select after how many characters lyrics are considered being present?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-01-04 22:24:35
Hi Jojo,

Thanks for the bug reports. 

Export Lyrics info in the Main form (true/false issue) fixed
Had forgotten all about the Import Lyrics from external folder browse button

None of the Selected Tracks settings were remembed - this was intentional - but now all are remembered except the Trim function (quite dangerous feature that one).

Minimum character length in Lyrics can be defined in Options > Checks tab. 

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)

5.34.13.1 Settings changed immediately prior to running as Scheduled Takss were not applied
5.34.13.0 Choice of when to create Report in Options > Advanced Reports & Logs
5.34.12.1 Openinng report after validating whole library sometimes caused a crash [Zoe]
5.34.12.0 Settings in Selected Tracks Editor excluding Trim function are now rememebered [Jojo]
5.34.11.7 Custom folder path for exporting lyrics was shown as true/false in the main window [Jojo]
5.34.11.6 Could not browse for a custom folder to import lyrics from [Jojo]
5.34.11.5 Export to custom folder setting showed a True/False value instead of the folder path in Validate > File System tab [Jojo]


Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2008-01-05 06:28:00
thank you for the quick fixes.

I noticed that the import lyric function first looks online for lyrics and then for a local match. Is this supposed to work this way? I guess it makes sense, because if one wanted it the other way around, he could just disable the internet option and then later run the empire library again having the internet option turned on. However, this would assume that iTSfv will skip lyrics that already contain lyrics. Is that the case?

Also, that option that allows one to specify the minimum character count for lyrics being considered present, does this also work when downloading / importing / exporting lyrics? Let's say, I have it set to 10 characters minimum and write "no lyrics" in some of my songs. And then magically, lyrics do appear, will iTSfv download these and overwrite the old ones? I think that would be a nice feature.

Speaking of lyrics, couldn't we capitalize the first letter after the line break? Sort of like the option that allows one to capitalize each word in the title?

Finally, once iTSfv starts indexing all the selected tracks before starting the operation, pushing the stop button won't do anything. Sometimes, in other operations, pressing stop will stop the process, however, only after confirming. As soon as someone presses stop, the operation should pause and only resume if the user decides that he indeed wants to continue. This is crucial when noticing that one has selected the wrong operation and in order to prevent further damage, everything should be stopped as soon as possible.

In addition, I noticed that it is a lot faster to export lyrics than creating a playlist that contains all songs without any lyrics.
Also, some lyrics contain some website. I exported all lyrics and then searched for ".com" to identify those.

The no lyric playlist creation doesn't seem to be working properly. I exported all lyrics and added the number of exported files I got to the number of songs in the "no lyric" playlist. They should add up to the total song count in my library, but the result was not even close...
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-01-07 01:56:42
Currently iTSfv will not only import lyrics to tracks that are missing lyrics. This means that if the tracks already have lyrics, yes, iTSfv will skip the track. To overcome this currently you will have to remove lyrics of the tracks (using Selected Tracks > Remove Lyrics for batch removing). I think it makes sense to have a checkbox to overwrite lyrics. So when you have “overwrite lyrics” checkbox checked, iTSfv will look for Lyrics and if lyrics were found, the new lyrics will be replaced by the found lyrics.

Sorry, it didn’t click me at the time, the minimum number of characters to be considered as no lyrics option can be used for importing lyrics also. So at the moment it is only used for checking if tracks has no lyrics, but the next build will globally use this feature. Then like you said, the tracks with “no lyrics” string in the lyrics tag, will be considered as tracks without lyrics, and new lyrics will be imported.

Surely a nice feature to have: to capitalize the first letter of a line. I will have that in the next release.

I exported all lyrics and added the number of exported files I got to the number of songs in the "no lyric" playlist. They should add up to the total song count in my library, but the result was not even close -- a possible reason would be that tracks with no lyrics playlist has tracks with “no lyrics” string in the lyrics tag. So when you add the number exported lyrics files and the number of tracks in the no-lyrics-playlist, the number should be larger than the number of tracks in the library?

Do you mean indexing to html? Or do you mean when you read the tracks from iTunes? I will look into suspending the worker thread as soon as the stop button is pressed. Also an option to disable the confirmation box should be a good addition.

Yes Jojo, creating a playlist within iTunes is slower than exporting to file. I think it is slow because while the playlist is being created, iTunes analyses each track in the playlist to retrieve played count etc. tags from the database.

I didn’t understand the .com issue. Did you say we should have an option to exclude lyrics that has website links? By the way, how did you manage to search for “.com” files? The file extensions of exported lyrics are, as far as I know, .txt and .lic. Did you search for file content?

Sorry for the delayed reply, my server drive’s file system got corrupted after reinstalling windows so the computer was pretty much offline without access to any software/drivers. Recovery is happening as we speak – R-studio is great.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2008-01-07 06:10:22
I exported all lyrics and added the number of exported files I got to the number of songs in the "no lyric" playlist. They should add up to the total song count in my library, but the result was not even close

-- a possible reason would be that tracks with no lyrics playlist has tracks with “no lyrics” string in the lyrics tag. So when you add the number exported lyrics files and the number of tracks in the no-lyrics-playlist, the number should be larger than the number of tracks in the library?

Actually, the number was smaller than the total songs in the library. So, either ITSfv didn't export all lyrics to files, or didn't add all songs without lyrics to the playlist.

Quote
Do you mean indexing to html? Or do you mean when you read the tracks from iTunes? I will look into suspending the worker thread as soon as the stop button is pressed. Also an option to disable the confirmation box should be a good addition.

whenever you start a process, the program first seems to read the entire library and then starts working. So if I press stop during the indexing process, nothing happens. The program still continues to read the library.

It's not that confirmation box that's the problem, but rather that the program continues it's operation even if the confirmation box is displayed. All operations should be paused immediately as soon as someone presses "stop". If the person then decides to abort the operation, the process should be determined. And if he decides to cancel the stop command, i.e. wants to continue, the process should be resumed.

Quote
I didn’t understand the .com issue. Did you say we should have an option to exclude lyrics that has website links? By the way, how did you manage to search for “.com” files? The file extensions of exported lyrics are, as far as I know, .txt and .lic. Did you search for file content?

Well, I'm not sure what to do. I guess you could pop up a box at the end to ask whether the lyrics that contain .com should be included and maybe provide them in a textbox so they can be edited.
I exported all lyrics received from lyricwiki and then searched in all files to determine which lyrics contain .com strings.

later
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Bluenote on 2008-01-09 18:09:54
Hi, sorry to have been out of the loop for so long.....
Good to see iTSfv is still going strong!

I just updated to 5.29. I was just wondering where the option to change the weightings for the ratings has moved to?? Can't seem to find it anywhere.

Thanks in advance McoreD!!

Bluenote
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-01-10 00:55:35
Hi Bluenote,

Nice to hear from you again. It was moved Options > Validate > Library
Because after all it is a setting that affects the iTunes Library. I hope you find your way around and don’t have to change the weightings much. Once you find your sweet spot of weightings it is most likely you are going to stick with it, am I wrong?

Off the record, I wanna tell you that the latest beta version out there is actually more stable than the 5.29. So please download that instead.

Jojo,

I have managed to pause the background worker thread as soon as the stop button is pressed – it certainly adds some safety and coolness to it. There is also an option to overwrite lyrics now. iTSfv will also consider tracks with less than x number of characters in lyrics as missing lyrics and queue that up for looking up lyrics from LyricWiki.

I am still looking into the mismatch in number of items in the no-lyrics playlist and number of text files exported as lyrics. Number of exported text files plus number of tracks in the no-lyrics playlist should equal to number of (file or CD) tracks in the library. There are couple more things you have mentioned still unlooked.

Bye for now..
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Bluenote on 2008-01-10 03:58:53
Hi Bluenote,

Nice to hear from you again. It was moved Options > Validate > Library
Because after all it is a setting that affects the iTunes Library. I hope you find your way around and don’t have to change the weightings much. Once you find your sweet spot of weightings it is most likely you are going to stick with it, am I wrong?


No, you're not wrong. Occasionally, I like to play with the weightings a bit to see how they affect things - it's a lovely little tool!
Anyway, thanks for letting me know the settings' new hiding place.

Off the record, I wanna tell you that the latest beta version out there is actually more stable than the 5.29. So please download that instead.


OK, done! I like the new splash logo.... tres chic.

Thanks,
Bluenote
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: martgadget on 2008-01-11 20:19:32
Hi,
  Me again 8-)

Working well analysing my library etc. Though 5.34.13.1 build - *I think* is ignoring the podcast genre tag...

I have a pile of podcasts in the podcasts folder in the library, that are not in Itunes (because I deleted them or Itunes truncated the episodes because they are very old -I'm not sure which) , but the files are still in the folder.

The 'Tools/Options/Advanced/Validation 'Include Podcasts' is *not* ticked, but they still get added to the list in the explorer window, and thus un-aided, get added to the library again.

Coupled with this...

I have a small feature request(!), which probably is just me not understanding how.. but I did a 'find new tracks' in the Explorer tab, and, after the scan I get a list of 1400 or so -good..

Now, to my mind I could then browse the explorer window, and 'remove' tracks from it that I wanted left alone (e.g not actioned) - Just wondered if you'd consider a new right-click menu on the files tab that would say 'remove selectde track(s) from list' , or just a plain multi-select on the window and accept the 'delete' key to remove multiple ones? (e.g just remove them from the list, not the files themselves) --- currently a single click opens (usefully) a windows explorer window on the folder -- which is great, I can see wanting that too, but perhaps on a right-click 'open folder' option or something?

Just some stuff for consideration.

My final point is this again, because I'm a simple developer, and this tool can do *way* more than my brain can cope with:

1) Have you considered some command-line options for the tool to make it 'do stuff, and then quit' (probably only selected functions that lots of people might use, rather than every single option) automatically (we discused this in a previous post I know and I agree that the 'taskbar-run-all-the-time' option is also valid) -  I'm thinking this....I guess I'm meaning 'true' unattended processing ... eg:

--The tool could be used in two ways.. currently 1) people use it 'interactivley' to fix stuff, and need to make desisions about options, album art, meta-data etc, but people could also use it for 2) 'just do this, and dont ask me anything , and I accept that the meta-data will be 'as it is' or automatcially processed without asking... (perhaps you see my point?).. it's a dumbed-down mode basically.

2) the second one is because I'm thick - could someone (perhaps a skilled user of your app, to save you the work!), make a 'how-to' document, the Manual is great-- a lot of O/S software often has none! , we could add a how-to section with simple stuff:

  -- Add new stuff to Itunes when you've copied it manually to your music folder, or have multiple Pc's with Itunes on
  -- Fix all your album art
  -- etc.

I think ultimatley where I'm going with this is , that currently most 'slightly technical people' use this tool a lot to do lots of advanced stuff, but with some dumbing-down (or put more accuratley 'a dumbed down mode', almost all ITunes users probably have a need for it because they have multiple PC's or sort of needs we all have with this., and therefore it would appeal much more widely maybe?  -- the other option is a 'wizard' mode .. this would 'guide' the user through in a 'what do you want to do' kind of way.... (I hate wizards btw)

Just my 0.02.

Thanks again, keep it up 8-)

Mart.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2008-01-13 22:28:45
ok, there is a huge bug in the way lyrics are handled.

I have many songs that contain HTML tags or all sorts of other tags that are not on the original lyricwiki site. Other samples include stuff like "<!-- PUT LYRICS HERE (and delete this entire line) -->", however, the original source contains the lyrics and I checked, no changes were made after I fetched the lyrics. Besides all sorts of HTML formating, such as <i> etc. there is also stuff like: <lyric> and {{Song||Artist}}, all of which is not part of the lyrics on lyricswiki.

There is also other stuff such as translations to foreign languages that shouldn't be part of the lyrics. I assume that you just fetched the entire lyrics page without applying any filters.

I wonder if that bug is related to the lyrics not adding bug I described earlier.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-01-14 00:38:47
Hi Mart,

Thanks for the feedback! 

About iTSfv adding the podcasts -- that's tricky one. Outside of iTunes, iTSfv Explorer has no knowledge whether a mp3/aac is a Podcast or not. Only within iTunes, current implementation of iTSfv could tell whether a track is a Podcast or not, or otherwise it is simply just another mp3/aac file that is not yet added to iTunes. This is the reason why "Include Podcasts" option is limited to Tools/Options/Advanced/Validation. I hope you understand the design issue here? It is certainly not possible to have a workground. iTSfv could analyse each mp3/aac file in Explorer before adding to iTunes to see if it is a podcast or not, using the TagLib. I will ask the developer of TagLib if he supports the Podcast tag in audio files. For the moment, I am afraid I have suggest keeping files you don't need in iTunes, outside of iTunes music folders.

That's a great suggestion for Explorer ListBox. Certainly makes it more useful. I have added the Context Menu for the next build with a Remove and Open Folder facilities.

I can see the advantage of Command Line support. That's a definite look-into as well. What commands would you like in the CLI? I have found a good source for a Command Line Parser so I will be implementing this in the next coming days.

A HOWTO is nice. So I understand the Manual does not really do its purpose. I will try to revise it including a HOWTO section.



Hi Jojo,

Interesting discovery! I have to say i only have interfaced an existing implementation of the LyricWiki API. The assembly I used is http://code.google.com/p/ilyrics/ (http://code.google.com/p/ilyrics/) Could you please install and use iLyrics for those songs which got the HTML tags and see if iLyrics is fetching lyrics with HTML tags just like iTSfv?

I think this is important because if LyricsWiki API gets unreliable fetching lyrics we will have to dig into the API source or contact the LyricsWiki dev.

Thanks,
McoreD



5.35.00.0 Support for command line interface as documented in the Manual [martgadget]
5.34.15.0 Context Menu in Explorer > Files lets you remove files from the list prior to manually adding them to iTunes [martgadget]

5.34.14.1 Pressing Stop button did not pause the currently active job [Jojo]
5.34.14.0 Option to overwrite existing lyics while importing in Options > Validate > Tracks > Lyrics [Jojo]
5.34.13.3 Importing lyrics did not make use of minimum number of characters that defines no lyrics [Jojo]
5.34.13.2 Words such as 80s, 3rd were capitalized incorrected as 80S, 3Rd during capitalization [Alex]
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-01-15 08:43:54
Hi All,

Uploaded 5.35

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)

5.35.00.0 Support for command line interface as documented in the Manual [martgadget]

Flags supported so far:

add_files
adjust_ratings
remove_dead
remove_foreign
remove_dead_foreign
validate_library

Usage:

itsfv.exe add_files adjust_ratings remove_dead_foreign


5.34.15.0 Context Menu in Explorer > Files lets you remove files from the list prior to manually adding them to iTunes [martgadget]
5.34.14.1 Pressing Stop button did not pause the currently active job [Jojo]
5.34.14.0 Option to overwrite existing lyics while importing in Options > Validate > Tracks > Lyrics [Jojo]
5.34.13.3 Importing lyrics did not make use of minimum number of characters that defines no lyrics [Jojo]
5.34.13.2 Words such as 80s, 3rd were capitalized incorrected as 80S, 3Rd during capitalization [Alex]
5.34.13.1 Settings changed immediately prior to running as Scheduled Tasks were not applied
5.34.13.0 Choice of when to create Report in Options > Advanced Reports & Logs

Please let me know if the CLI implementation require any modifications.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: trw on 2008-01-16 07:13:45
I'm using 5.35 beta and would like to disable the prompt "Do you want to edit Artwork for...". Is there a setting for this?  Thanks for the really helpful program!
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-01-16 10:07:12
Hi trw,

I replied to your previous Thread, but it has been deleted without moving to Recycle Bin.

In iTSfv > Options > Validate > Tracks > Artwork

disable "Import Artwork from any single image file" checkBox.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: trw on 2008-01-16 14:51:29
Thank you for responding!

My goal with your program is to ensure that each album folder has the highest rez album art of all choices.

Most albums probably have relatively low rez art to start with, so I load them into iTunes and let it find its own (higher res) art.  Then I want to have your app replace the existing low-res art with any art iTunes has found. I'd sure appreciate knowing how to configure iTSfv specifically for this task.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-01-16 23:58:30
Hi trw,

From a user point of view, the currently best way to achieve this task from iTSfv would be:

Step 1: Define the minimum resolution you can tolerate as high-resolution artwork.

By default, it is defined to be 600x600. This means any artwork with resolution less than 600x600 are regarded as low resolution artwork. You can customize this in Options > Validate > Checks 

Step 2: Ensure following checkboxes are checked in iTSfv Main Window:

Checks > Check for Low Resolution Artwork
Library > Save validation results as iTunes Playlist

Step 3: Press Validate Selected Tracks or Advanced > Validate whole Library

iTSfv will now check for low resolution artwork in your library and save an iTunes playlist.

Step 4: Select All tracks in the tracks-with-low-res-artwork playlist and do a Get Info in iTunes. Untick the Artwork checkbox which clears the existing artwork.

Step 5: Right Click and Get Album Artwork using iTunes. For this to work you need to have an iTunes Store account which I assume you already have. It doesn’t cost anything.

Step 6: Ensure following checkboxes are checked in iTSfv Main Window:

Tracks > Embed Artwork from......
File System > Export Artwork to ...... (Optional)

Step 7: Select All tracks in the tracks-with-low-res-artwork playlist using iTunes

Step 8: Press Validate Selected Tracks in iTSfv



I hope you get the idea from step-by-step how-to. Any doubt feel free to ask.

This also gave me the idea to have an option to
5.36.0.0 Remove low resolution artwork in Tracks

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2008-01-20 04:48:35
thanks for the heads up. There still seem to be some bugs:
some people don't wrap the songs inside the lyric tags. Therefore, what is being saved is as lyrics is:

Quote
<!-- PUT LYRICS HERE (and delete this entire line) -->


also, things like
Code: [Select]
<I>[Four minute pause] </i>

still show up. Essentially you want to get rid of all HTML code. I know PHP has a nifty function for that, but I'm not sure about NET.

it would be nice if extra line breaks / spaces at the beginning and end of the lyrics could get removed.

An easy way to test all of this on your own library is exporting all lyrics and then search for "<" and "{" and "=" and ".com". That should catch most of the clutter.

Any luck on that lyric count not matching up bug we've discussed earlier?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-01-20 08:57:05
thanks for the heads up. There still seem to be some bugs:
some people don't wrap the songs inside the lyric tags. Therefore, what is being saved is as lyrics is:


Thanks for the valuable feedback Jojo; I was wondering what the source of error is. To my (initial) mind I assumed LyricWiki's getLyrics method would parse all the tags and provide you a clear string of Lyrics. While LyricWiki is doing its best at parsing all the tags, it seems human errors like unwrapped tags cause the html tags yet to remain in the lyrics string. All the add-ons based on LyricWiki seem to affected by this issue. By the way PHP function was the first thing came to my mind too!

So the #1 priorirty for next beta is to get this issue completed sorted.

Any luck on that lyric count not matching up bug we've discussed earlier?


Purely assumptions still Jojo. The issue is hard to reproduce with a small number of tracks, so I am planning to do the following for the whole library. I hope you can double check this one for me:

- Export Lyrics to text file
- Check for missing Lyrics and save the result to iTunes Playlist

Count the number of text files
Count the number of tracks without Lyrics in the iTunes Playlist
Check: The number of text files plus the number of tracks without Lyrics should equal to Number of tracks in the library

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2008-01-20 14:03:11
@trw : that's funny : it all depends on what we call high-res. Personally I hate very high res images (2800x2800...  ) that take ages to load and that will still look the same as a mid-res image (600x600 or a bit more) on a computer screen, since a computer screen will generally have about 1000 horizontal lines (1024, 1050, 1200). Except if you want to zoom in order to look for a fine detail, but that is completely exceptional.

That's why I DOWNSCALE all the high-res album art I find to 900 horizontal lines. For me that's more than enough.

(fortunately iTMS art is generally less than 900 horizontal lines so I don't have to downscale them)
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: trw on 2008-01-21 04:57:42
Hi trw,

(snip)
I hope you get the idea from step-by-step how-to. Any doubt feel free to ask.

This also gave me the idea to have an option to
5.36.0.0 Remove low resolution artwork in Tracks

Cheers,
McoreD


Thank you very much for the detailed and helpful explanation.

Here is some feedback.

If by "remove low resolution artwork in Tracks" you mean to do this only if iTunes has a higher res version, great. But if you mean to remove it and leave nothing in its place, please make that a disabled-by-default option.  When iTunes can't find art, which it does quite regularly, I'll get the art from Amazon or other sources, usually using MediaMonkey, yet I want to be able to check again via iTunes and iTsfv so I don't want your app negating my efforts.

I have assumed that by default you replace low-res with iTunes art when the latter exists. Is this a configurable option and if so, which one is it?  Speaking of which, what is the significance of these options:

Check for tracks without artwork?
(does this mean your search is limited to tracks with no folder.jpg, or what?)
Check for tracks with iTunes downloaded artwork?
(does this mean you skip over replacing the art if the art was found by iTunes previously or what?)
Check for low resolution artwork?
(does this mean you will replace lo-res art if iTunes art is found or what?)


The "Missing artwork" feature appears to not be accurate. I looked through a sampling of the artist | album folders cited in the report and the "no art" playlist, and in many there is a folder.jpg file present --  sometimes a fairly large one (e.g., 550x550). Is your program not looking for folder.jpg in the album folder?

Embedding art in mp3's is a problem for anyone using Media Center 2005 because it causes a black box to appear in place of album art, so I am avoiding embedding for now.

As a Zune 2 owner I've concluded that to have it use my highest-rez album art its software needs to see a file named ZuneCustomAlbumArt.jpg in the folder. How about adding that copy to the AlbumArtSmall and Artwork that you also create?

Lastly, and this is more of an observation, I am perplexed at how unpredictable iTunes is about deciding whether to say art exists or not. I've gone so far as to set the "Info" for a tune to be exactly what is shown in the iTunes Store and yet iTunes persists in saying no album art found. It would be wonderful if one could access the art at the store without buying the tunes (having already bought the CD long ago).

Thank you again and keep up the great work!
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-01-22 00:42:36
Hi trw, I will be answering both your post and email in this reply. :-)

By “remove low resolution artwork in Tracks” what I meant was giving an option to the user to remove artwork embedded in tracks if the artwork dimension is less than the defined resolution e.g. 600x600. This way you can jump to step 4 in the How-to I replied to your post. Oh I see your point. I agree. iTSfv has no knowledge of iTunes having a larger high-res artwork until the we right click and do a Get Album Artwork. So yes, it is disabled by default. By the way, in case of an emergency it is advisable as a general practise to always have a backup in the album folder. Every embedded album art is also exported as a Folder.jpg and Artwork.jpg in the album folder in my case. I also hope most of you have a backup copy like that in the album folder? If you validate the second time with Embed Artwork option, it will automatically pick these files from the album folder so you don’t have to google them again.

iTSfv defaults to always look for higher resolution artwork and if found it will replace the lower resolution artwork by the higher resolution artwork. To disable this behaviour you can go to iTSfv Options > Advanced > Validation. Here you can disable situations where iTSfv always looks for higher resolution artwork while validating.

Check for tracks without artwork option provides a list of tracks without embedded artwork. It does not check the presence of a folder.jpg.

Check for tracks with iTunes downloaded artwork option provides a list of tracks that has non-embedded iTunes downloaded artwork. If you choose not to embed artwork into tracks, this check is useful to have an idea of what/how many tracks have iTunes downloaded artwork. For general use this is not a widely used option and only added as part of a past request.

Check for low resolution artwork provides a list of tracks that has artwork embedded which is less than high-res dimension. Once again this is not the folder.jpg files. The report contains the tracks with low resolution *embedded* artwork. If you see these in your report that means you still have some tracks with embedded artwork.

I can see confusion – expecting some track modifying behaviour from the Checks tab. The most important note is: none of the checkboxes in Checks tab modify the tracks. To modify tracks you need to specify them in Tracks tab.

Missing artwork means the embedded artwork in the track as part of ID3 v2 specification. The program checks for this artwork. Having an external file with some name in the album folder is not considered as a presence of artwork in the track. (I think this answers the 2nd para of your email).

trw, I have noticed the black box issue in WMP11 beta versions. I haven’t seen it in Vista Media Center but may be you are still experiencing it because you are using Media Center 2005?


If I were you, to match your requirements this is what I would do:

Step 1: (because you are not interested in embedding artwork into tracks, I have no fear doing this) select all tracks in iTunes, right click, press Get Info. Uncheck the artwork checkbox and press OK. This will clear any embedded artwork. This is what you desire right? You need this to happen for iTunes to download album artwork.
Step 2: Select All tracks, right click and press “Get Album Artwork”. This will download any available artwork to iTunes Artwork cache. It will not embed, don’t worry.

Step 3: Now you would prefer these artwork to be saved as Folder.jpg in each album folder. So now in iTSfv we uncheck Embed Artwork and check Export Artwork to album folder as Folder.jpg.

This will replace any low resolution Folder.jpg in album folder and you will end up with all the iTunes downloaded Artwork. If the Folder.jpg resolution is higher than the iTunes downloaded artwork, don’t worry, iTSfv will not replace it.


Trw, have ZuneCustomAlbumArt.jpg as a export file name in iTSfv Options > Validate > File System (the first radio button)
So in the iTSfv main window, you should “Export Artwork to album folder as ZuneCustomAlbumArt.jpg” in the File System tab. iTSfv will then export artwork with this name and also Folder.jpg and AlbumArtSmall.jpg.

Yeah I didn’t believe until it happened to me. I have been trying to grab the artwork for Radiohead’s latest album from iTunes but no matter how accurate the tags are, it will simply not download! Has anybody had luck with this?

Reading your email I see something. Would you like a list of folders that doesn’t have ZuneCustomAlbumArt.jpg/Folder.jpg or something similar? From your descriptions that’s what I think you are looking for me. Certainly that’s a great option to have.

Please let me know if I covered all the doubt, if not please feel free to point out.

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2008-01-22 13:31:55
Yeah I didn’t believe until it happened to me. I have been trying to grab the artwork for Radiohead’s latest album from iTunes but no matter how accurate the tags are, it will simply not download! Has anybody had luck with this?

Hey McoreD !  Try this :
Artist : "Radiohead " (with a space at the end)
Album : "In Rainbows"
Works perfectly. 

So that's an idea for iTSfv : automatically check for such errors from the iTS by adding spaces and stuff like that during the searches. Could that be implemented ? Or is it still impossible to use iTSfv to fetch artwork instead of iTunes ?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-01-22 14:12:28
Whoa..! That's pure genius work!

Jose, you are a CHAMP! 

It indeed worked out perfectly!

How many times I wished if Apple allowed us to programmetically allowed us to download Album Artwork ( function similar to we right clicking and pressing "Get Album Artwork" but nope! I asked this ages ago in Apple Discussions: http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?...5202553#5202553 (http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=5202553#5202553) but no reply.

Thanks for helping me grabbing the Radiohead artwork. Been trying for ages.

Cheers,
McoreD


Some users found trouble loading 5.35.

5.37.0.0 Ability to log folders without artwork to file [trw]
5.36.1.0 Low Resolution artwork files can now be avoided from being embedded in Options > Tracks > Artwork
5.36.0.0 Option in Tracks tab to remove low resolution artwork as part of validation
5.35.3.1 Fixed possible crash on Application startup when registry access was denied to see if iTSfv loads on startup [John]
5.35.3.0 Multi-select Tags XML files to restore tags
5.35.2.8 First disc of a box set did not follow the list by Grouping tag in Discs Browser
5.35.2.7 Workaround to detect iTunes in 64-bit editions of Windows [Anusha]
5.35.2.6 Add new Files window and Add new Artwork window were not the top most windows when shown
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: fernandotalski on 2008-01-23 20:02:55
i can't download artwork in high quality, all that i download is still 600x600, anyone can help me?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: trw on 2008-01-23 21:10:58
As usual, McoreD, your reply was comprehensive and very helpful. 

I installed 5.37beta and noticed that after running the validation process the reports I used to see automatically pop-up in IE no longer appear. (it listed missing art, low-res art, etc.) What happened to them?

I appreciate the feature where you add the Artist tag to the AlbumArtist tag, BUT, it overwrites AlbumArtist tags that were "Various Artists" (i.e., compilations).  What's your opinion about compilations? My impression is that programs like MediaMonkey use "Various Artist" AlbumArtist tags to limit showing a compilation album more than once when listing Albums, whereas if the AlbumArtist tag is the individual Artist, then the album will appear multiple times in the Album list.  How about adding logic to only replace the AlbumArtist tag with the Artist tag if AlbumArtist is empty?

Thank you! for adding the ability to see which album folders have no art. That is very useful. 

Lastly, I've decided to embed art after all. Besides allowing me to more fully use your program and its reporting capability, this eliminates the need to have a special art file for the Zune 2.  The fix for the black-box-in-place-of-album-art problem in MCE 2005 is to uninstall IE7, which I did, and now art shows fine at all times. Note that the black box appeared only when actually playing a tune; in all other listings and screens album art displayed fine.  What a silly bug for Msoft to allow to remain unfixed.

Thank you again for your excellent work!
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2008-01-23 22:07:28
i can't download artwork in high quality, all that i download is still 600x600, anyone can help me?

So 600x600 from the iTMS (while most people have 300x300 or 500x500 blurry art from Amazon) is still not high enough quality for you ? Come on... 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: fernandotalski on 2008-01-23 22:29:06
 itunes store don't use 1425x1425 resolutions now? 600x600 in full screen coverflow is crap, i want up to 900x900 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-01-23 23:50:12
As usual, McoreD, your reply was comprehensive and very helpful. 

I installed 5.37beta and noticed that after running the validation process the reports I used to see automatically pop-up in IE no longer appear. (it listed missing art, low-res art, etc.) What happened to them?

I appreciate the feature where you add the Artist tag to the AlbumArtist tag, BUT, it overwrites AlbumArtist tags that were "Various Artists" (i.e., compilations).  What's your opinion about compilations? My impression is that programs like MediaMonkey use "Various Artist" AlbumArtist tags to limit showing a compilation album more than once when listing Albums, whereas if the AlbumArtist tag is the individual Artist, then the album will appear multiple times in the Album list.  How about adding logic to only replace the AlbumArtist tag with the Artist tag if AlbumArtist is empty?

Thank you! for adding the ability to see which album folders have no art. That is very useful. 

Lastly, I've decided to embed art after all. Besides allowing me to more fully use your program and its reporting capability, this eliminates the need to have a special art file for the Zune 2.  The fix for the black-box-in-place-of-album-art problem in MCE 2005 is to uninstall IE7, which I did, and now art shows fine at all times. Note that the black box appeared only when actually playing a tune; in all other listings and screens album art displayed fine.  What a silly bug for Msoft to allow to remain unfixed.

Thank you again for your excellent work!


trw, honestly I am not sure. There was no code change from 5.35 to 5.37.0.3 (please install the 5.37.0.3 as the 5.37.0.0 has an accidental reverse logic when you prevent embedding artwork low-res artwork). I hope the next successful validation provides the HTML report for you. To change HTML report display settings you can go to Options > Advanced > Reports & Logs tab.

For filling the AlbumArtist tag behavior, after many code logic changes, this is what I was settled in:

Code: [Select]
  765     Private Sub sEditTrackAlbumArtist(ByVal track As iTunesLib.IITFileOrCDTrack)
  766
  767        Dim countMissingAlbumArtist As Integer = 0
  768        Dim trackLoc As String = "dead track"
  769
  770        ' can have The track is not modifiable. errors so need try/catch
  771        If track.Compilation = True Then
  772            ' dont need to overwrite all the time
  773            If track.AlbumArtist <> VARIOUS_ARTISTS Then
  774                Try
  775                    track.AlbumArtist = VARIOUS_ARTISTS
  776                    trackLoc = track.Location
  777                Catch ex As Exception
  778                    mWarnings.AppendLine(ex.Message & " while setting track as Compilation for " & trackLoc)
  779                    mWarnings.AppendLine(ex.StackTrace)
  780                End Try
  781            End If
  782        Else
  783            If track.AlbumArtist = "" Then
  784                Try
  785                    trackLoc = track.Location
  786                    If track.Compilation = True Then
  787                        track.AlbumArtist = VARIOUS_ARTISTS
  788                    Else
  789                        track.AlbumArtist = track.Artist
  790                    End If
  791                Catch ex As Exception
  792                    mWarnings.AppendLine(ex.Message & " while filling AlbumArtist for " & trackLoc)
  793                    mWarnings.AppendLine(ex.StackTrace)
  794                End Try
  795            End If
  796        End If
  797
  798    End Sub


Using iTunes, tracks have a tag called IsCompilation. The logic says, If track is compilation, and track's AlbumArtist tag is not "Various Artists" then force the AlbumArtist to be "Various Artists". Otherwise, like you said, if the track's AlbumArtist tag is empty then, if the track is marked as a Compilation then use "Various Artist" or guess the AlbumArtist from Artist tag. So AlbumArtist is retrieved from Artist tag *only* if AlbumArtist tag is empty. So if you have albums with different artists, I suggest you to check the Compilation tag in iTunes. That is the suggested usage in iTunes.

By the way, I just thought of a way to improve copying Artist tag to AlbumArtist feature. This is the idea: when iTSfv scans an album, if the track.AlbumArtist tag is empty, if the tracks in the album have different artist tag, then instead of using track.Artist, use "Various Artists" tag. If all the tracks have the same Artist, then use track.Artist as the AlbumArtist. Current design does not check if the Album's track Artist differs from track to track.

It's nice to see you have chosen the path for embedding artwork. Having embedding Artwork means you have another ID3 v2 tag complete, a completely portable mp3 file with the Cover Art with the file anywhere you go, and guarenteed display of Artwork in any modern player out there.

I am also really glad you are passionate about the music collection and helping each other to achieve a neat tag-complete library.

Cheers,
McoreD


i can't download artwork in high quality, all that i download is still 600x600, anyone can help me?

fernandotalski, I think Jose answered your question. Most of the iTunes artwork you download are 600x600. iTunes Store sporadically allows 3rd party programs to download higher resolution artwork. We all enjoyed it a few months ago, when iTunes Store did that. The functionality is already there in iTSfv but disabled by default so we can activate whenever iTMS lets us download free artwork.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: fernandotalski on 2008-01-24 00:29:01
Thank you McoreD for explanation, I think it was wanting too ^^
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: trw on 2008-01-24 00:56:06
Using iTunes, tracks have a tag called IsCompilation. The logic says, If track is compilation, and track's AlbumArtist tag is not "Various Artists" then force the AlbumArtist to be "Various Artists". Otherwise, like you said, if the track's AlbumArtist tag is empty then, if the track is marked as a Compilation then use "Various Artist" or guess the AlbumArtist from Artist tag. So AlbumArtist is retrieved from Artist tag *only* if AlbumArtist tag is empty. So if you have albums with different artists, I suggest you to check the Compilation tag in iTunes. That is the suggested usage in iTunes.

By the way, I just thought of a way to improve copying Artist tag to AlbumArtist feature. This is the idea: when iTSfv scans an album, if the track.AlbumArtist tag is empty, if the tracks in the album have different artist tag, then instead of using track.Artist, use "Various Artists" tag. If all the tracks have the same Artist, then use track.Artist as the AlbumArtist. Current design does not check if the Album's track Artist differs from track to track.


McoreD, the IsCompilation tag sounds like it's unique to iTunes, which implies to me that one's tracks would have to be tagged in iTunes. Not very attractive. Your new idea sounds more universally compatible.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-01-24 12:38:57
McoreD, the IsCompilation tag sounds like it's unique to iTunes, which implies to me that one's tracks would have to be tagged in iTunes. Not very attractive. Your new idea sounds more universally compatible.


Agree completely trw.

Having trouble converting the code into plain English but this is what build 5.7.1.1 and onwards would do:

5.37.1.1 If AlbumArtist tag was empty and the Disc had different track artists, AlbumArtist tag was filled with Track Artist instead of "Various Artists" [trw]
5.37.1.0 Added Advanced > Warning tab to turn on/off warnings with a warning for validating with remove low resolution artwork checkbox checked
5.37.0.4 Reporting Progress functions are wrapped in a Try/Catch block to prevent crashes when iTunes is busy [trw]

I will give it a couple of days for personal use and release it in SF.net 

Thanks for pointing out a valuable issue.

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: neonstorm on 2008-01-29 20:55:32
Hey ~*McoreD*~, I finally registered instead of pestering you via email. 

iTSfv is really awesome. I love the auto ratings feature, but I'm having trouble tweaking the weighting to get it just how I like it. I checked out your code over at SourceForge, and want to make sure I understand the 'algorithm':

Played Count = #times played / the highest #times played in the library
Skipped Count = #times played / #times played + #times skipped
Last Played = #times played - #days since last played / #times played
Date Added = #days since added - #days since last played / #days since added

Then of course the weighting is applied after these calculations... Is this correct?

Also, just one other question - I saw where you've mentioned that track length is figured into these calculations, and was just wondering why that is. I haven't put as much though and work into it as you have (obviously) but I don't really understand how a song's length affects its rating.

Thanks for all your hard work!!

Ryan
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-01-30 12:38:51
Hi neonstorm,

Thanks and glad you like the program. 

Yes, the weightings are calculated after these calculated ratios.

The question about Song Length is a good one. It is a very popular request in last.fm as well - haven't implemented yet.

Imaging two songs: 5 minute long and 11 minutes long. You have listened to both songs 10 times. You have actually spend more time  with the 11 minutes song. Also think about 30 second Skits.. If you play that 10 times, would it need to be rated as good as a 5 minute song you opened your ears to? I guess not. Also there are DJ Mixes that's 2 hours long. You really don't get much of a playedCount with those. So they are going to be disadvanted if the song Length wasn't considered. These are the points which lead factoring in the Song Length. I hope that clarfies any doubts?

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: neonstorm on 2008-01-30 21:19:25
I hope that clarfies any doubts?


Doubts? I have no such thing!!   

Just curious what the reasoning was behind it. If I read correctly, it isn't implemented yet? If not, I think I would prefer not to have it, so an option to disable having song length factored in would be nice... How big of a factor is it? Say if I have a 2 minute song and an 8 minute song, and all other factors (play count, last played etc.) are equal, how much favor does the longer song get? My songs range from 1:30 to 9:00 or so, so there isn't a huge variation.

Thanks again for your great work!!

Ryan
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-01-31 00:22:04
Hi, it is implemented in iTSfv. I meant it is not implemented in last.fm yet and it is a popular request over there. I made it an option to turn on/off scaling playedCount based on track duration. That was what really happening.

For example, if there were only 2 songs in the library, where one is 2 minutes and other is 8 minutes. The average song duration for the two songs is 5 minutes. Suppose you have played the 2 minute song 100 times and the 8 minute song 80 times. When iTSfv does the playedCount scaling, for the 2 minute song, scaled playedCount will be 100*(2/5) = 40. This scaled playedCount is now compared against the maximum playedCount to give a playedCount score. 40/100 = 0.4. For the 8 minute song, 80*(8/5) = 128; 128/100 = 1.28. The result may look terrible because for the sake of the example, there are only 2 songs in the library. However when you use this concept for a typical music library, the average track Duration follows very close to randomly picked track duration. The 8 minute song is 4 times longer than the 2 minute song and has achieved a 3.2 times larger playedCount score. Finally, weightings are taken into consideration. If you have 20% allocated for playedCount score, for the 2 minute song it will be 8 points and for the 8 minute song, it will be 25.6 points. Final rating score is not limited to 100. This ensures you identifying the best song quite easily. Counter example: if you have rated a few songs as 5 stars, how do you determine the best rated song from those songs?  The tracks-yyyyMMdd-ratings-adjusted.txt will have the rated songs in descending order letting you figure out the top song.

I have included an option in Options > Validate > Library to disable scaling playedCount based on track duration. I am curious to test it out myself as to how much influence that makes. Thank you for the great suggestion.



http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)

5.38.3.0 Option to disable scaling playedCount based on Track Duration for automatic ratings [neonstorm]
5.38.2.0 Improved Capitalize Word function to support capitalizing certain words such as EP, CDS etc. using Settings > capital-words.txt [Sean]
5.38.1.0 Ability to specify "selected tracks complete a single disc" to ease overwriting AlbumArtist of a multi-artist disc that is scattered in iTunes
5.38.0.0 When determining AlbumArtist option to choose most common Artist to be considered as the AlbumArtist. Options > Tracks > AlbumArtist
5.37.4.2 Remove accidental leftover white spaces by the user when Replace Text in Tags is used

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: neonstorm on 2008-01-31 16:31:13
Thanks for the quick response! I have to say, you are bar none the fastest responding developer I've ever seen! Excellent job!

Thanks for the description - it is very detailed, and now I understand the logic behind it a little better. I guess I'd just like it to work... illogically.

I've been looking for a way to thank you for your work, but don't see one. Do you have a way to send donations/postcards/whatever?

Thanks!

Ryan
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-02-01 00:03:08
Hi Ryan,

Thanks for those encouraging comments. 

I appreciate your thought to make a contribution. Donation process is new to me. SourceForge offers a method to be a supporter by donating. The SF url to donate is http://sourceforge.net/project/project_don...group_id=204248 (http://sourceforge.net/project/project_donations.php?group_id=204248)

I have a paypal account at mcored@gmail.com which is linked to my SourceForge account. If you have a paypal account you probably could use my paypal email address directly.

I am curious – does playedCount without scaling based on track duration, give you better results? I have a bunch of 120 minute long DJ remixes which were badly affected = under rated when unscaled. Since you don’t have such long tracks, you might not get affected by this. However I believe that long songs with less played count will get less credit. On the other hand, if you have a bunch of favourite songs below average track duration, their rating will not get scaled down, which can be a desirable result to you. I am interested to hear your result either way.

Thanks,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: neonstorm on 2008-02-01 21:19:30
... if you have a bunch of favourite songs below average track duration, their rating will not get scaled down, which can be a desirable result to you.


This is a very desirable result...  I ran two 'Adjust Ratings' back to back, one with the duration enabled and one disabled. Here's a snippet of the log with the variances (the formatting's not great but you get the point. )

Code: [Select]
*********************
* 2008-02-01 15:30:55
*********************

Score with Duration Included    (duration)     vs. Score without Duration Included

101 for The White Stripes - Ball and Biscuit  (7:16)     vs. 99
095 for Boston - Carry On My Wayward Son  (5:21)     vs.  87
095 for Billy Joel - Piano Man  (5:36)     vs.  86
091 for The White Stripes - Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground  (3:04)       vs.  99
091 for Carbon Leaf - Let Your Troubles Roll By  (5:26)        vs.  84
090 for Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Bang  (3:09)     vs.  97
090 for The White Stripes - The Air Near My Fingers  (3:39)      vs.  92
090 for Norman Greenbaum - Spirit In The Sky  (4:02)     vs.  90
088 for Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Gold Lion  (3:09)    vs. 94
088 for Remy Zero - Hollow  (6:20)       vs.  79
088 for Allman Brothers Band - Ramblin' Man  (4:42)       vs.  85
087 for The Crystal Method - Bad Stone  (5:09)     vs.  80
086 for The White Stripes - Icky Thump  (4:18)     vs.  84
086 for The All American Rejects - It Ends Tonight  (4:05)       vs.  85
085 for Kid Rock - Only God Knows Why  (5:27)        vs.  79
085 for Billy Joel - Oh What a Night  (3:36)       vs.  87
084 for Styx - Come Sail Away  (6:04)      vs.  77
083 for Whitesnake - Here I Go Again  (4:37)    vs.  80
083 for Under The Influence Of Giants - Mama's Room  (3:47)      vs.  84
082 for Van Halen - Panama  (3:32)     vs.  84
082 for Tom Petty - You Don't Know How It Feels  (4:50)       vs.  79
082 for The Jimi Hendrix Experience - All Along the Watchtower  (4:01)     vs.  82
081 for Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun  (5:17)     vs.  77
081 for Outkast - B.O.B.  (5:04)     vs.  77
081 for Four Tet - My Angel Rocks Back and Forth  (5:07)       vs.  77
080 for Ulrich Schnauss - Knuddelmaus  (7:01)     vs.  68
080 for The Killers - All These Things That I've Done  (5:02)        vs.  77
080 for Carbon Leaf - Life Less Ordinary  (3:34)     vs.  82
079 for Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Cold Light  (2:16)     vs.  89

...snip...

PlayedCount: 35%, SkippedCount: 0%, LastPlayed: 0%, DateAdded: 65%
Maximum Played Count: 14, Maximum Track Duration: 1196, Average Track Duration: 236.466846569005


Overall it seems like (as you suspected) the duration factor was causing my shorter 'favorite' songs to lose a bit of their rating, and bumping a few longer songs higher than I feel they should be. I think I prefer it without the duration being a factor... Thanks for implementing the option!!

Ryan
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-02-02 12:09:50
Hi Ryan, very interesting and thanks for the results.

I notice you have "Last Played" weighting factor is set to zero (35/0/0/65). That's quite a new approach to me.

Did you not have satisfied results using the default configuration 25/0/70/5 ? With the unscale playedCount you might want to have a look at the default configuration. 

In the mean time these stabilty fixes are done for the next build.

5.38.3.5 Renaming file as part of capitalization did not work always
5.38.3.4 Fixed possible instability when attempting to browse a disc in Discs Browser that is being deleted
5.38.3.3 Jobs > Remove dead or foreign Tracks operation will no longer depend on Resume Tracks checkBox in Advanced
5.38.3.2 Validation did not continue for discs without AlbumArtist from build 5.38.2.0 [Sean]
5.38.3.1 Track Progress Bar did not update while editing tracks in Selected Tracks > Editor
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: dsiebenh on 2008-02-05 18:38:12
Sorry if this has been covered in the previous 13 pages, but: Why does no one have a product that will allow me to import artwork into the ITunes artwork database, as opposed to embedding the art in the music file?

I have a bunch of concerts and I have a bunch of artwork, but I don't want to embed the art in the concert music file. From what I had read initially, it sounded like the ITunes artwork database just held .jpgs that had some additional proprietary tag attached. Why does no one provide a utility that allows you to add artwork to the ITunes art database?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-02-06 01:03:32
Sorry if this has been covered in the previous 13 pages, but: Why does no one have a product that will allow me to import artwork into the ITunes artwork database, as opposed to embedding the art in the music file?

I have a bunch of concerts and I have a bunch of artwork, but I don't want to embed the art in the concert music file. From what I had read initially, it sounded like the ITunes artwork database just held .jpgs that had some additional proprietary tag attached. Why does no one provide a utility that allows you to add artwork to the ITunes art database?



Hi dsiebenh,

It is because the attempts afaik are still under R&D stage. I have attempted this in following thread:

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=60163 (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=60163)

welcoming/requesting other developers to have a go with it.

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: urlwolf on 2008-02-06 17:06:44
Hi McoreD,

Here's an idea to improve itsfv even more (!).

Grab last.fm playcounts and put them into itunes.

This perl script will update your itunes db with last.fm counts.

http://bios.alterlinks.fr/index.php?option...1&Itemid=63 (http://bios.alterlinks.fr/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=101&Itemid=63)

SInce it's only handling CML, I'm sure you can translate  it into .NET.

What do you think?

I have over 50000 playcounts that I'd love to see locally (I can grab them from itunes and see them in my local player of choice).
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-02-07 00:53:31
Definitely an excellent idea urlwolf! I am also an avid fan last.fm and I’ve been looking for a .NET port of the last.fm web services. There is actually a current thread about Last.fm Services for .NET in last.fm forums. This pearl script should solve exactly what I’ve been looking for.

I have been also trying to implement an automatic genre tagger using last.fm web services.

By the way I remember you having an interest in the iTSfv source. I was wondering if you had time to play with the iTSfv 5.30 source.

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-02-09 08:42:56
urlwolf,

Would like to send you a copy of the latest iTSfv BETA for your testing. I have done it for 18277 tracks of mine and I managed to update playedCount on a bunch of tracks that I had played from computers other than mine.

5.40.0.0 Added support to update iTunes tracks playedCount using Last.fm user charts [urlwolf]
5.39.1.0 Reorganized Options > Tracks tab to facilitate adding upcoming options
5.39.0.0 Automatic genre tagger using Last.fm web services for validating tracks [Kaos713]


Code: [Select]
20080209T172743 Job Started: IMPORT_PLAYEDCOUNT_LASTFM
20080209T172924 PlayedCount for "My Chemical Romance - Teenagers" updated from 0 to 1
20080209T172925 PlayedCount for "My Chemical Romance - Famous Last Words" updated from 0 to 1
20080209T172928 PlayedCount for "The Killers - When You Were Young" updated from 0 to 1
20080209T172929 PlayedCount for "The Killers - Read My Mind" updated from 1 to 3
20080209T172930 PlayedCount for "The Killers - Exitlude" updated from 1 to 4
20080209T172933 PlayedCount for "Foo Fighters - Everlong" updated from 0 to 1
20080209T172951 PlayedCount for "Ciara - Make It Last Forever" updated from 0 to 1
20080209T173015 PlayedCount for "Silverchair - Young Modern Station" updated from 0 to 3
20080209T173017 PlayedCount for "Silverchair - If You Keep Losing Sleep" updated from 0 to 2
20080209T173021 PlayedCount for "Fall Out Boy - Thnks Fr Th Mmrs" updated from 0 to 1
20080209T173022 PlayedCount for "Fall Out Boy - The (After) Life Of The Party" updated from 0 to 1
20080209T173024 PlayedCount for "Fall Out Boy - Bang The Doldrums" updated from 0 to 2
20080209T173025 PlayedCount for "Fall Out Boy - You're Crashing, But You're No Wave" updated from 0 to 1
20080209T173028 PlayedCount for "Thirsty Merc - 20 Good Reasons" updated from 0 to 1
20080209T173040 PlayedCount for "Hilltop Hoods - The Hard Road" updated from 0 to 1
20080209T173048 PlayedCount for "Maroon 5 - Wake Up Call" updated from 1 to 3
20080209T173050 PlayedCount for "Maroon 5 - Can't Stop" updated from 2 to 5
20080209T173051 PlayedCount for "Maroon 5 - Goodnight Goodnight" updated from 1 to 3
20080209T173053 PlayedCount for "Maroon 5 - Not Falling Apart" updated from 1 to 3
20080209T173112 PlayedCount for "The Ataris - In This Diary" updated from 0 to 1
20080209T173114 PlayedCount for "The Ataris - My Reply" updated from 0 to 1
20080209T173116 PlayedCount for "The Ataris - The Saddest Song" updated from 0 to 1
20080209T173118 PlayedCount for "The Ataris - All You Can Ever Learn Is What You Already Know" updated from 0 to 1
20080209T173127 PlayedCount for "Ravi Shankar - Sitar Todi (Album Version)" updated from 0 to 1
20080209T173128 PlayedCount for "Ravi Shankar - Vandanaa Trayee" updated from 0 to 1
20080209T173129 PlayedCount for "Ravi Shankar - Raga Miniature" updated from 0 to 1
20080209T173222 PlayedCount for "Good Charlotte - Dance Floor Anthem" updated from 0 to 1
20080209T173223 PlayedCount for "Good Charlotte - Misery" updated from 0 to 1
20080209T173322 Duration: 0 Hours 05 Minutes 38.400216 Seconds
20080209T173322 Cleaning Temporary Files... in G:\Users\Manno\AppData\Roaming\iTSfv\
20080209T173322 Job Finished: IMPORT_PLAYEDCOUNT_LASTFM

Cheers,
McoreD


Updated Beta is released:

https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)

5.40.0.1 Fixed instability due to crashes while scanning access denied system folders for new files [Fowler]
5.40.0.0 ReverseScrobble® - Added support to update iTunes tracks playedCount using Last.fm user charts [urlwolf]
5.39.1.0 Controls in Options > Tracks are reorganized tab to facilitate adding upcoming options
5.39.0.0 Automatic genre tagger using Last.fm web services for validating tracks [Kaos713]
5.38.3.7 Debug Window will be dynamically updated when iTSfv is busy
5.38.3.6 iTSfv did not continue renaming files if an error occured
5.38.3.5 Renaming file as part of capitalization did not work always
5.38.3.4 Fixed possible instability when attempting to browse a disc in Discs Browser that is being deleted
5.38.3.3 Jobs > Remove dead or foreign Tracks operation will no longer depend on Resume Tracks checkBox in Advanced
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: urlwolf on 2008-02-10 16:11:35
Sorry McoreD, I cannot test it since I have already synched my Itunes with last.fm thanks to the perl script.

But I'm sure plenty of other people won't!
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-02-10 22:20:48
Sorry McoreD, I cannot test it since I have already synched my Itunes with last.fm thanks to the perl script.

But I'm sure plenty of other people won't!


urlwolf, no worries. I didn't think of that. But I realized after doing my testing, it is not a once-off thing: Whenever I play songs outside of my home iTunes player where I have last.fm configured, I will have songs to test.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: TwoToad on 2008-02-12 14:25:32
Hello McoreD,

Have you considered adding some sort of automated BPM detector?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-02-13 00:22:19
Hello McoreD, Have you considered adding some sort of automated BPM detector?



Hi TwoToad,

It had crossed my mind a few times. Audio file scanning is beyond my expertise for now.

I have been using this standalone app though:

http://www.mixmeister.com/bpmanalyzer/bpmanalyzer.asp (http://www.mixmeister.com/bpmanalyzer/bpmanalyzer.asp)

    * Calculate extremely accurate BPM counts for any song
    * Drag and drop music files from Windows Explorer
    * Display and sort files by Title, Artist, or BPM
    * Update ID3 tags in your music files with exact BPM information
    * Easily print BPM reports for your entire music collection
    * Export BPM counts for use in other programs
    * Free to use and distribute for non-commercial purposes

It's nice because it actually writes the BPM tag that is iTunes compatible.

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: TwoToad on 2008-02-13 07:04:49
It's nice because it actually writes the BPM tag that is iTunes compatible.


Aye, that is the same app I've been using. Unfortunately it doesn't support AAC files and I had been using the app on mp3 duplicates and then manually adding the bpm info to my aac files.

Anyway, good luck to you. I love your app!
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: NearlyGod on 2008-02-13 15:54:02
For the moment I have no useful suggestions to add, but I did dust off my HA account to come and express my appreciation for iTSfv - what a wonderful app!  I've been playing around with it this afternoon and it's been most useful so far.

Thank you for making it, McoreD, and I hope I'll be able to come up with some ideas

edit 1:
actually, I do have a question: I've been adding more and more songs to my itunes db, and I've found the option to ligt the downloaded coverart from itunes' own db very handy.  However, even though it worked before for many albums, I can't get iTSfv to export the art to the album directory as Folder.jpg, AlbumArtSmall.jpg and Artwork.jpg anymore.
I thought the option File System / Export Artwork to Album folder did that, but that only saves the Artwork.jpg in iTSfv's own picture folder, not where the music is.

I probably put a setting wrong (?) but have to idea where, and I can't find a 'back to defaults' button for idiots like me.

How do I get my original setting back, where iTSfv did all this in one go: extract the art from the iTunes DB, save it in its own iTSfv albumart folder, AND copy it to the album directory, with three names?

In the Options/Validate/Tracks/Artwork, I have checked "Import artwork in album folder from Artwork.jpg" and in
Options/Validate/Filesystem, "Export artwork to album folder as Folder.jpg", "Read only folder.jpg" and "Export a copy of the orignial artwork format". (although I deactivated that one and it didn't make a difference, I'm not sure what it does exactly to be honest).
The "Disable automatic creation of AlbumArtSmall, Folder.jpg, Artwork and Artwork600x600" are all UNchecked.

btw, I've never seen the artwork600x600.jpg made, only the other three.

Anyway, a long message for what hopefully can be a short answer, hehe.

Thanks for your time.

edit 2:
Hm. Something is completely wrong; when I ask iTSfv to embed artwork, it acts like it is doing so (even the music skips if you do it to the song that is playing), but nothing actually is being done.  No change in the files.  This is odd...

edit 3:
It seems to have something to do with whether I added the album by dragging it into iTunes directly or through iTSfv.  The albums handled like that latter don't respond well at all. 

edit 4:
I think I'm going crazy here.  Been tagging file in iTunes (with and without iTSfv) all day now but the tags aren't actually saved to the mp3 files?!?  I copied the artist name to the 'album artist' tag, I did all the 'disc 1 of 1' tagging, corrected spelling mistakes etc etc etc.  Now I started a new Library, imported all these -supposedly- perfectly tagged files, and they are just like this morning.    Now I know why I'd been using Foobar all these years...  This is very frustrating.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-02-14 01:18:44
TwoToad & NearlyGod, glad you like to program. 

NearlyGod,

Sorry about not having a "Reset Settings button". I will think about this. For now:

Go to Options > Advanced > Files & Folders > Browse original user.config file
Close iTSfv
Delete the user.config file or rename it
Load iTSfv

Now you should have a fresh copy of new user.config

Have a go at this please, and let me know.



Added the following to the manual, thanks to you:

4.1.4.1.2   Export a copy of the Original Artwork format

Embedded artwork files from external sources are sometimes in PNG or GIF format. If this checkbox is checked iTSfv will export the embedded artwork in the original PNG or GIF format. Otherwise it will export as JPG.


Artwork 600x600 will be only made if you choose to resize the Artwork before importing. I have two options to make this more usable. I could either disable this checkbox when the "resize the artwork before importing" checkbox is unchecked or I can make iTSfv export a resized Artwork disregarding other dependent settings (preferred / expected behavior)



NearlyGod, that's very bad experience with tagging using iTunes. Personally haven't happened to me yet but I have noticed these kind of posts in Apple Discussions. In rare situations it seems like iTunes will not update the file tags. I think before anything, this issue should be resolved.


Bye for now,
McoreD



5.41.1.0 Creation of %Artwork% (600x600).jpg is not dependent on the setting Tracks > Resize Artwork before importing
5.41.0.1 Resize Artwork was saved in Album folder disregarding the setting Disable Artwork (600x600).jpg in Options > File System

5.41.0.0 Check for tracks without BPM. Log file saved in Logs folder.
5.40.3.0 Switched to a timer controlled reporting progress method report status more descriptively
5.40.2.0 The most common Genre for the album is determined using the most common genre for each track of the album according to Last.fm
5.40.1.1 Synchroclean portion of a previous implementation unchecked all the checkboxes in Main Window and did not restore the settings [Fowler]
5.40.1.0 iTSfv will attempt to look for artwork saved using Album Art Downloader
5.40.0.2 Progress timers in ReverseScrobble affected the progress status in Validation
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: NearlyGod on 2008-02-14 14:59:24
TwoToad & NearlyGod, glad you like to program.


More and more! It is getting more powerful very quickly; I just grabbed the 5.42 beta version.

Thank you for your quick and expansive reply.

Quote
Delete the user.config file or rename it


Should have thought of this myself  - this fixed my confusion with the settings and things are back to normal now.  Thanks!

Quote
4.1.4.1.2   Export a copy of the Original Artwork format
Embedded artwork files from external sources are sometimes in PNG or GIF format. If this checkbox is checked iTSfv will export the embedded artwork in the original PNG or GIF format. Otherwise it will export as JPG.


Okay, this makes it clearer to me - Exporting means that previously embedded artwork is saved to the iTSfv artwork folder.  It is nice to have an option to keep the original, but even if converting to jpeg degrades the image a bit, I like having the uniformity of having all Coverart files with the same name 

Still, the artwork management as a whole is something I don't have much feeling with, yet.  Probably because of my limited experience with iTunes.  I was/am a Foobar aficionado.  But things are looking up now!

Quote
Artwork 600x600 will be only made if you choose to resize the Artwork before importing. I have two options to make this more usable. I could either disable this checkbox when the "resize the artwork before importing" checkbox is unchecked or I can make iTSfv export a resized Artwork disregarding other dependent settings (preferred / expected behavior)


I think that exporting it no matter what is not the way to go.  Since much of the original ITMS art is around 600x600 already, there is no need to convert a 598x601 jpeg, right?  As I see it now, disabling the checkbox when the user has already made it clear he does not want to resize artwork, seems more logical to me.

Quote
NearlyGod, that's very bad experience with tagging using iTunes. Personally haven't happened to me yet but I have noticed these kind of posts in Apple Discussions. In rare situations it seems like iTunes will not update the file tags. I think before anything, this issue should be resolved.


At first I thought my method of installing iTunes was to blame (I extracted only the iTunes setup from Apple's package, because I hate Quicktime and all that stuff), but after loading my very first Library, behaviour is back to normal.  No idea if iTunes has some memory (like a Normal.dot in MS Office) about Libraries, but anyways, it is good now!

This weekend I will be messing around some more.  First, work! 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2008-02-14 15:52:13
Hi McoreD,

I have been using this standalone app though:

http://www.mixmeister.com/bpmanalyzer/bpmanalyzer.asp (http://www.mixmeister.com/bpmanalyzer/bpmanalyzer.asp)

    * Calculate extremely accurate BPM counts for any song
    * Drag and drop music files from Windows Explorer
    * Display and sort files by Title, Artist, or BPM
    * Update ID3 tags in your music files with exact BPM information
    * Easily print BPM reports for your entire music collection
    * Export BPM counts for use in other programs
    * Free to use and distribute for non-commercial purposes

It's nice because it actually writes the BPM tag that is iTunes compatible.

I'm also looking for a BPM analyzer that writes some relevant tag. But does someone know it this nice little app is FLAC-compatible ? I'm not going to convert my 20.000+ FLAC to MP3 so... 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: NearlyGod on 2008-02-14 16:46:55
I'm also looking for a BPM analyzer that writes some relevant tag. But does someone know it this nice little app is FLAC-compatible ? I'm not going to convert my 20.000+ FLAC to MP3 so... 


Nope.  WAV, yes.  So in case you want to convert them all to WAV? 

BTW, I find that mixmeister's BPM analyzer is not very accurate - especially with Drum & Bass tracks; they are very very slow but are then tagged with a 150+ BPM tag.  Hehe
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2008-02-14 17:49:45
Well, I need a FLAC-compatible app then...
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: NearlyGod on 2008-02-14 22:35:02
I really hope I will have time to experiment with iTSfv this weekend, because I have now discoverd a rather serious problem:  one in twenty of my mp3 files has become corrupted (reporting a sync error by EncSpot) in the process of me adding them to the iTunes library.  I have them on DVD backed up, thankfully.

There can't of course be changes in the actual mp3 data, in the middle of a file, when I'm only messing around with the ID3 tags.

I don't have other signs of problems on my pc, but before I go on, I will have to fix this first.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-02-14 23:17:10
Jose,

I have a fair collection of FLAC as well so if I find a BPM Analyser for FLAC then I will definitely share the gossip.

NearlyGod,

Glad you got almost all things sorted.

Disable automatic creation of Artwork (600x600).jpg artwork is independent from Resize Artwork before importing option but now checked by default for new configurations. This means by default iTSfv will not create a resized Artwork in the music folder.

May be those corrupted MP3s caused both iTSfv and iTunes to skip writing tags to them? That's more likely the reason.

iTunes requires QuickTime for it to function properly! It seems to me that you decoupled QT from the iTunes setup?

Btw, this is the Version History of the update I pushed last night.

5.42.1.0 Duplicate Tracks are logged to tracks-yyyyMM-duplicate.txt in Logs folder
5.42.0.0 Ability to remove duplicate tracks from Library in Advanced > Library according to Options > Library > Cleaning
5.41.2.0 Reconfigure GUI in Advanced tab to accommodate room for upcoming features
5.41.1.0 Creation of Artwork (600x600).jpg is not dependent on the setting Tracks > Resize Artwork before importing
5.41.0.1 Resize Artwork was saved in Album folder disregarding the setting Disable Artwork (600x600).jpg in Options > File System
5.41.0.0 Check for tracks without BPM. Log file saved in Logs folder.

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: NearlyGod on 2008-02-15 09:40:50
May be those corrupted MP3s caused both iTSfv and iTunes to skip writing tags to them? That's more likely the reason.

iTunes requires QuickTime for it to function properly! It seems to me that you decoupled QT from the iTunes setup?


McoreD, it turns out my legacy (PATA) IDE interface is broken.  My FLACs, that I only copied but never touched, also had one or two bits wrong in them.  A new motherboard will fix this.  iTunes didn't mind the corrupt MP3s, iTunes doesn't check for loss of sync.

Also, I have QuickTime installed, just not the (in my opinion) very intrusive installation that comes from Apple, but rather 'QuickTime Lite' (previously 'QT Alternative').  I have some experience in making applications 'lighter' and especially Portable.  I am working on a Portable iTunes now.

I do have a small suggestion though, which came up: the method to fill the Genre using last.fm is very useful, however, I found that you check the genre for every track separately.  Often, this showed different genres within one album.  It also slowed down the tagging a lot, because after 3 or 4 tracks, last.fm would become much less responsive and you have to wait and wait.

For collections that are made up of random songs, this is the only way, but it seems to me that when you are tagging Genre for whole albums, picking the first tune of an album and using that Genre for the rest, will work much quicker.

Cheers!

NG

NB I will have more silly suggestions and problems for you, in the coming weeks, for sure 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-02-15 22:12:49
For collections that are made up of random songs, this is the only way, but it seems to me that when you are tagging Genre for whole albums, picking the first tune of an album and using that Genre for the rest, will work much quicker.


Hi NearlyGod,

Very important issue we are discussing there. I was not quite sure how to handle that well so I went ahead doing this (current implementation):

iTSfv scans for Genre using Last.fm for every track in the album.
Last.fm provides the best genre for *each* song.
iTSfv saves the Genre from each track is saved in a table and picks the most common Genre
It then assigns this Genre to the tracks without Genre

This is the reason why iTSfv scans for all the tracks.

I will surely make this an option to only scan the first track. 

Thanks for point out and I am happy to hear feedback like this.

Cheers,
McoreD

Edit:

5.42.2.0 Option to scan for Genre from Last.fm for the first track instead of scanning all tracks for the most common Genre [NearlyGod]
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-02-17 05:21:46
Hi All,

Pushed the 5.42 stable today.

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248)

Code: [Select]
5.42.3.2 Fixed some stablity issues due to timer controlled reporting progress method
5.42.3.1 Replace strings such as &amp;quot; and &amp;amp; in lyrics downloaded from LyricWiki
5.42.3.0 Automatically restore settings from Documents\iTSfv\Settings\user.config when orignal user.config is not found (new Windows installation)
[b]5.42.2.0 Option to scan for Genre from Last.fm for the first track instead of scanning all tracks for the most common Genre [NearlyGod]
[/b]5.42.1.0 Duplicate Tracks are logged to tracks-yyyyMM-duplicate.txt in Logs folder
5.42.0.0 Ability to remove duplicate tracks from Library in Advanced > Library according to Options > Library > Cleaning
5.41.2.0 Reconfigure GUI in Advanced tab to accommodate room for upcoming features
5.41.1.0 Creation of Artwork (600x600).jpg is not dependent on the setting Tracks > Resize Artwork before importing
5.41.0.1 Resize Artwork was saved in Album folder disregarding the setting Disable Artwork (600x600).jpg in Options > File System
5.41.0.0 Check for tracks without BPM. Log file saved in Logs folder.
5.40.3.0 Switched to a timer controlled reporting progress method report status more descriptively
5.40.2.0 The most common Genre for the album is determined using the most common genre for each track of the album according to Last.fm
5.40.1.1 Synchroclean portion of a previous implementation unchecked all the checkboxes in Main Window and did not restore the settings [Fowler]
5.40.1.0 iTSfv will attempt to look for artwork saved using Album Art Downloader
5.40.0.2 Progress timers in ReverseScrobble affected the progress status in Validation
5.40.0.1 Fixed instability due to crashes while scanning access denied system folders for new files [Fowler]
[b]5.40.0.0 ReverseScrobble� - Added support to update iTunes tracks playedCount using Last.fm user charts [urlwolf][/b]
5.39.1.0 Controls in Options > Tracks are reorganized tab to facilitate adding upcoming options
5.39.0.0 Automatic genre tagger using Last.fm web services for validating tracks [Kaos713]
5.38.3.7 Debug Window will be dynamically updated when iTSfv is busy
5.38.3.6 iTSfv did not continue renaming files if an error occured
5.38.3.5 Renaming file as part of capitalization did not work always
5.38.3.4 Fixed possible instability when attempting to browse a disc in Discs Browser that is being deleted
5.38.3.3 Jobs > Remove dead or foreign Tracks operation will no longer depend on Resume Tracks checkBox in Advanced
5.38.3.2 Validation did not continue for discs without AlbumArtist from build 5.38.2.0 [Sean]
5.38.3.1 Track Progress Bar did not update while editing tracks in Selected Tracks > Editor
5.38.3.0 Option to disable scaling playedCount based on Track Duration for automatic ratings [neonstorm]
5.38.2.0 Improved Capitalize Word function to support capitalizing certain words such as EP, CDS etc. using Settings > capital-words.txt [Sean]
5.38.1.0 Ability to specify "selected tracks complete a single disc" to ease overwriting AlbumArtist of a multi-artist disc that is scattered in iTunes
5.38.0.0 Option to choose most common Artist as the AlbumArtist for multi-Artist discs. Options > Tracks > AlbumArtist
5.37.4.3 Remove code that could overwrite Track Number when adding an album that is not properly sorted in Explorer according to Track Number
5.37.4.2 Remove accidental leftover white spaces by the user when Replace Text in Tags is used
5.37.4.1 AlbumArtist already set as "Various" or "VA" was not overwritten by "Various Artists" tag [trw]
5.37.4.0 Ability to turn on/off using Artwork Cache for validating jobs in Options > Advanced > Validate
5.37.3.2 Report was not generated when validating selected disc
5.37.3.1 Generate report after validating newly added files was missing
5.37.3.0 Saving the Artwork in the original file format is now optional in Options > File System > Artwork
5.37.2.1 Memory Leak in Warnings writer from in the build 5.37.2.0
5.37.2.0 Ability to overwrite AlbumArtist in Options > Tracks > General
5.37.1.4 AlbumArtist tag was set to Unknown Artist from build 5.37.1.1 [trw]
5.37.1.3 Fixed crash during reloading Discs Browser after tags are changed: Item has already been added.
5.37.1.2 Compilation tag was not read by XmlTrack implementation
5.37.1.1 If AlbumArtist tag was empty and the Disc had different track artists, AlbumArtist tag was filled with Track Artist instead of "Various Artists" [trw]
5.37.1.0 Added Advanced > Warning tab to turn on/off warnings with a warning for validating with remove low resolution artwork checkbox checked
5.37.0.4 Reporting Progress functions are wrapped in a Try/Catch block to prevent crashes when iTunes is busy [trw]
5.37.0.3 Strip HTML tags in Lyrics downloaded from LyricWiki [Jojo]
5.37.0.2 Accidental inverse logic in build 5.36.1.0 when determining if folder artwork is low resolution
5.37.0.1 Falsely displayed information in status bar as removing dead or foreign tracks
5.37.0.0 Ability to log folders without artwork to file [trw]
5.36.1.0 Low Resolution artwork files can now be avoided from being embedded in Options > Tracks > Artwork
5.36.0.0 Option in Tracks tab to remove low resolution artwork as part of validation
5.35.3.1 Fixed possible crash on Application startup when registry access was denied to see if iTSfv loads on startup [John]
5.35.3.0 Multi-select Tags XML files to restore tags
5.35.2.8 First disc of a box set did not follow the list by Grouping tag in Discs Browser
5.35.2.7 Workaround to detect iTunes in 64-bit editions of Windows [Anusha]
5.35.2.6 Add new Files window and Add new Artwork window were not the top most windows when shown

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: TwoToad on 2008-02-24 02:08:16
Hey McoreD,

Just another option to think about... Is it possible to add a checkbox to make Folder.jpg a hidden system file? Normally I go through manually at the command prompt and "attrib +h +s folder.jpg".

PS I think iTSfv is going to explode with all the options it has hehe
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-02-24 03:03:12
Another great suggestion, thanks TwoToad. 

The latest beta version from
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)
has this option.

5.43.3.0 Added options to set new folder.jpg file attributes as System or Hidden/System [TwoToad]
5.43.2.0 Open music folder of selected track or disc using Mp3tag
5.43.1.1 Removed possible chance where Track would be set to Read-Only for being Tag Complete while editing tracks
5.43.1.0 Enhanced Update Library refreshing Tags to fix uneditable tracks in iTunes [Chris Daniels]
5.43.0.1 Update Library refreshing Tags in file did not update numeric tags which are TrackNumber, TrackCount, DiscNumber, DiscCount and Year
5.43.0.0 Check for tracks metatag versions as part of validation and log results to track_yyyyMMdd_metatags.txt [Chris Daniels]
5.42.6.0 Application now has a new icon contributed by Chris Daniels and is compatible with Windows Vista 256x256 Extra Large Icon view
5.42.5.3 Strings such as "(Lp" were not properly captilized to "(LP" etc.
5.42.5.2 Google Search URL was not URL Encoded so characters such as & were not properly included in the search string
5.42.5.1 Artists with a directory seperator such as AC/DC were read as AC while adding files to library [ itsfv-Bugs-1895768 ]
5.42.5.0 Search for Artwork passing arguments to Album Art Downloader XUI from Selected Tracks > Search Artwork...
5.42.4.0 Added new "Selected Tracks" menu to group jobs related to Selected Tracks
5.42.3.9 Beta versions with the same major build number as the final version did not get downloaded as part of Checking Updates
5.42.3.8 Workaround for Artists with a directory seperator such as AC/DC being read as AC while Updating library refresh tags in file
5.42.3.7 Words in replace-words.txt when used as part of fixing case in track tags could cause iTunes not finding the track
5.42.3.6 Track Count update in the status bar while a Dialog Box is opened in iTunes, crashed application
5.42.3.5 Double urlencode Artist and Song to look up genre in Last.fm as the Artists such AC/DC did not work properly
5.42.3.4 Genre choosen from Last.fm did not undergo proper capitalization
5.42.3.3 Fixed bug if the first track looked up using Last.fm for Genre returned nothing then the choosen Genre was nothing


Thought I would mention, the http://itsfv.sourceforge.net (http://itsfv.sourceforge.net) is a very basic XHTML compatible page I made without any creativity. If anybody could volunteer to do a redesign of the page that would be much appreciated. 

Cheers and Thanks,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: NearlyGod on 2008-02-28 22:42:09
Hi, finally I again had some time to spend on my music collection.
Not yet enough to come up with big ideas or big problems, but I did see something strange in iTSfv happening when I was embedding artwork:

An album called "Cecilia Bartoli & Bryn Terfel - Duets (1999)" was being worked on and in the status-bar the '&'-sign was multiplied for each track    - iTSfv said it was working on Cecilia Bartoli &&&&&&&&& Bryn Terfel - Duets (1999) and then Cecilia Bartoli &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Bryn Terfel - Duets (1999) and so forth, you get the point.

Nothing bad actually happened to the tracks, it's probably just a cosmetic thing, but I thought I should mention it.

Cheers
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-02-29 01:30:13
NearlyGod,

It was funny reading: Cecilia Bartoli &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Bryn Terfel - Duets (1999)

Yes, it was purely cosmetic. Album names with Ampersand did not display properly in the Status Bar. I was trying to fix this: http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=497882 (http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=497882)

However, does seem to have it quite right.

5.45.1.2 Fixed ampersand character getting multiplied in Status Bar text when validating albums names with ampersand [NearlyGod]

I am ready for releasing another stable update 1st of March so that's very cool timing you spotted this.

5.45.1.2 Fixed ampersand character getting multiplied in Status Bar text when validating albums names with ampersand [NearlyGod]
5.45.1.1 Tab ordering in Add New Files window was not in expected order
5.45.1.0 Keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2, Ctrl+3 and Ctrl+4 for Checks, Validating Tracks, Library and File System
5.45.0.0 Ability to Check for iTunes Store standards or Validate Tracks, Library or File System independently via Buttons in each tab and Selected Tracks > Validate menu
5.44.2.0 Support for %Composer% syntax for tasks such as copying tags to Clipboard and File Names

Thanks,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: NearlyGod on 2008-02-29 15:02:34
Cool, another fix!    But I've only just started 

This is something I'd noticed for a while, but forgot to mention;
When filling the Track and Disc count, occasionally it will happen that a track is not fully tagged, like this:
(http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/1197/itsfvnumberinglq7.png)

I tried to see what those files had in common, but can't find anything.  I think a few times re-validating the album fixed it, but mostly only a manual change will do it.  I'll try to keep looking for a pattern here.

Keep up the good work.  I've submitted iTSfv to the programs-watchlist (where interesting programs are featured when they have been updated) of a high-volume Dutch IT-website, Tweakers.Net (http://www.tweakers.net) , it hasn't been accepted yet though.

NG
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-02 00:29:04
Hi NG,

I'd like to know what they had in common, if you find. Thanks.

I pushed a a bug fix stability update 5.45 last night:

5.45.4.5 Port Number in Options - Advanced - Internet - Email Settings did not show values over 100
5.45.4.4 Modification Date was not retained if enabled for Update Library refreshing Tags after build 5.43.1.0
5.45.4.3 Update Library refreshing Tags did not work for Read-Only files after build 5.43.1.0
5.45.4.2 Library was not updated after removing Null Characters from tags
5.45.4.1 Removing foreign tracks method also removed dead tracks
5.45.4.0 Support for sending bug reports using GMail accounts. Other webmail accounts are not supported yet.
5.45.3.1 Fixed possible crash while sending bug reports if the error log does not exist yet for a new month
5.45.3.0 Ability to send a bug report manually from Help - Submit Bug Report
5.45.2.1 Attempt to prevent all known possibilities where TagLib# could save ID3v1 tags as ID3v2 revision 2.4 instead of ID3v2 revision 2.3 [Fowler]
5.45.2.0 Option to automatically capitalize tags as part of validation if iTSfv finds all tags are lower case in Options.Tracks.Rules
5.45.1.2 Fixed ampersand character getting multiplied in Status Bar text when validating albums names with ampersand [NearlyGod]
5.45.1.1 Tab ordering in Add New Files window was not in expected order
5.45.1.0 Keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2, Ctrl+3 and Ctrl+4 for Checks, Validating Tracks, Library and File System
5.45.0.0 Ability to Check for iTunes Store standards or Validate Tracks, Library or File System independently via Buttons in each tab and Selected Tracks > Validate menu
5.44.2.0 Support for %Composer% syntax for tasks such as copying tags to Clipboard and File Names
5.44.1.0 Updated Application Startup Mode for Beta versions of iTSfv to include a Preview version of Windows Media Player file validator that supports updating UrlCoverArt.dat with higher resolution artwork
5.44.0.0 Added new rule in Options > Tracks > Rules to remove double spaces from tags as part of validation
5.43.4.0 Enhanced About window with the inclusion of new Application Icon
5.43.3.1 Did not capitalize tags properly if the tags contained double or more spaces after build 5.42.5.3
5.43.3.0 Added options to set new folder.jpg file attributes as System or Hidden/System [TwoToad]
5.43.2.0 Open music folder of selected track or disc using Mp3tag using Selected Tracks menu
5.43.1.1 Removed possible chance where Track would be set to Read-Only for being Tag Complete while editing tracks
5.43.1.0 Enhanced Update Library refreshing Tags to fix uneditable tracks in iTunes [Chris Daniels]
5.43.0.1 Update Library refreshing Tags in file did not update numeric tags which are TrackNumber, TrackCount, DiscNumber, DiscCount and Year
5.43.0.0 Check for tracks metatag versions as part of validation and log results to track_yyyyMMdd_metatags.txt [Chris Daniels]
5.42.6.0 Application now has a new icon contributed by Chris Daniels and is compatible with Windows Vista 256x256 Extra Large Icon view
5.42.5.3 Strings such as "(Lp" were not properly captilized to "(LP" etc.
5.42.5.2 Google Search URL was not URL Encoded so characters such as & were not properly included in the search string
5.42.5.1 Artists with a directory seperator such as "AC/DC" were read as "AC" while adding files to library [ itsfv-Bugs-1895768 ]
5.42.5.0 Search for Artwork passing arguments to Album Art Downloader XUI from Selected Tracks > Search Artwork...
5.42.4.0 Added new "Selected Tracks" menu to group jobs related to Selected Tracks
5.42.3.9 Beta versions with the same major build number as the final version did not get downloaded as part of Checking Updates
5.42.3.8 Workaround for Artists with a directory seperator such as AC/DC being read as AC while Updating library refresh tags in file
5.42.3.7 Words in replace-words.txt when used as part of fixing case in track tags could cause iTunes not finding the track
5.42.3.6 Track Count update in the status bar while a Dialog Box is opened in iTunes, crashed application
5.42.3.5 Double urlencode Artist and Song to look up genre in Last.fm as the Artists such "AC/DC" did not work properly
5.42.3.4 Genre choosen from Last.fm did not undergo proper capitalization
5.42.3.3 Fixed bug if the first track looked up using Last.fm for Genre returned nothing then the choosen Genre was nothing
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: NearlyGod on 2008-03-02 20:32:01
Well, I've come across another very strange issue.
I've just started to use the capitalization function and very quickly had to abandon it, because this was happening:
(http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/8766/capitalizinggonewrongak1.png)

For almost every album, it causes the last track to be orphaned.
I can't fix it, because the Artist, Album, and Albumartist are all tagged the same.

The 'Group selected tracks as a single disc' doesn't do anything.

I am using no other functions, just the Capitalize first letter, and do this for Artist, Album,Name and AlbumArtist.

EDIT: if I do it separately for each tag, it seems that AlbumArtist is the culprit.
EDIT2: yep, when i just capitalize Albumartist, this always happens - and i can then fix it by subsequently capitalizing the Artist.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: NearlyGod on 2008-03-02 22:31:28
I'm adding this in a new message, because it's a different item:

It's partly a personal preference, but when tracks are being validated/changed, the status bar is often not long enough to display which album is being worked on.  The line is truncated at 'Importing Artwork to "The ', when it's working on a The Cure album, for example.

Apart from that, one little statusline doesn't really do the whole magnitude of this program justice, in my opinion.  There are all these powerful options, but when you put them into action, the visualization of this action is performed in this little line at the bottom of the window - almost as an afterthought!  I realize it's not technically important for the end results, but I think that spending a few extra screenlines on a more detailed status indicator is worth it. 
For fitting the complete lines of info on what is happening, but maybe also a count(down) of the number tracks or albums that are being worked on.
Yes, there is a graphical display for that, but for humans it's not really posibble to tell exactly which album # is being worked, now is it

Just my thoughts!
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-03 05:08:52
Hi NG,

Your description reminds me of a specific iTunes bug. 

To prove the point, try doing this in iTunes, without iTSfv.

1. Select the Tracks in an album.. e.g. Japanese Whispers by The Cure.
2. Right Click - Get Info then change the T in The to t and C in Cure to c, so you have "the cure"
3. Press OK

Notice how the first track will be detached from the album list.

The way to fix it is,

1. Select the Tracks in an album.. e.g. Japanese Whispers by The Cure.
2. Right Click - Get Info then change "the cure" to "The Cure1"
3. Press OK
4. Right Click - Get Info then change "The Cure1" to "The Cure"
5. Press OK.

The bug seems to be inherited to iTSfv. I just did a quick check and the first track detaches. I can will see if the above manual fix can be automated. Thanks for pointing this out.


About the Status Bar Text, it truncates the text however if you mouse hover, it will show the full text.
Nice idea about the Status Bar.. I will play around having two status bars 1/ one for per disc operations 2/ one for per track operations.

For example:

Validating disc: The Cure - Japanese Whispers                                                            [progress here]
Validating track: Writing Track Count, Disc Number, Disc Count to "01 Let's Go to Bed"  [progress here]


Appreciate your thoughts!


Edit:


NG, I have managed to fix this problem iTunes/iTSfv has.

5.46.04.1 Fixed iTunes bug where Capitalization of AlbumArtist tag would detach the first track or the last track from the album [NearlyGod]

If I could email you an updated build, for you to have a look, it would be nice.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: John Lockwood on 2008-03-03 12:18:11
Phew, I have finished ploughing through this thread, so I now feel safe asking my question.

I currently share my entire iTunes music library between iTunes and Windows Media Player 10 and hence also to Media Center 2005. All my music is in Apple Lossless format (and yes it plays fine in WMP10 and Media Center thanks to a directshow filter I and Milenko Mitrovic came up with). While all the tracks also have embedded artwork (nearly all from the iTunes Store), the two available plugins for WMP that let it read MPEG4 meta tags, do not support letting WMP read embedded artwork from MPEG4 (AAC or Apple Lossless) files. As a result I have also had to save copies of the artwork to jpg files.

Now in theory, just a Folder.jpg file is supposed to be sufficient for WMP and Media Center to display artwork. However while this seems to work most of the time in WMP, it does not seem to work in Media Center 2005. I have therefore laboriously also had to do the following each time I add an album.

1. Rip the album in iTunes
2. iTunes auto downloads the artwork
3. Fill in the Album Artist tag in iTunes
4. Add the album folder to WMP
5. Tell WMP to find album info (this causes WMP to register the album in its own database and to generate the following files

Folder.jpg
AlbumArtSmall.jpg
AlbumArt_{36EB21EB-0F44-4648-8683-CF4AD5C4C2E9}_Small.jpg
AlbumArt_{36EB21EB-0F44-4648-8683-CF4AD5C4C2E9}_Large.jpg

Note: WMP uses 200x200 pixels for Folder.jpg and AlbumArt_{36EB21EB-0F44-4648-8683-CF4AD5C4C2E9}_Large.jpg and 72x72 pixels for the small files.

6. Extract the artwork from the itc file to a standard jpg (which I save later as Folder.jpg)
7. Force iTunes to embed the artwork (copy to clipboard, clear downloaded artwork, paste artwork back in)
8. Replace Folder.jpg with extracted copy, replace AlbumArt_{36EB21EB-0F44-4648-8683-CF4AD5C4C2E9}_Large.jpg with extracted copy, this gives me 600x600 artwork from the iTunes Store that will work in WMP and Media Center 2005.

The above does result in the artwork working 100% reliably in WMP and Media Center 2005 for every track of every album. (Using the high quality iTunes sourced 600x600 artwork.)

Note: the long number shown in this example is a unique ID to each Album registered in WMP.

My request is two parts.

1. Ideally that iTSfv be able to generate the two files with the long numbers in their name (or to cause WMP to do so), I believe iTSfv can already generate the two other files (i.e. the Folder.jpg and AlbumArtSmall.jpg).
2. Offer an option to lock (make read only) all the artwork files. This is because WMP11 will apparently downgrade any higher resolution files back down to a pathetic 200x200 pixels. If the files are read only it will not be able to do this. iTSfv could also have an option to automatically unlock (make writeable) any artwork files it needs to update, before relocking them so WMP cannot mess them up again.

Note: I have not yet upgraded to Vista (Media Center) because it adds zero new features for European Media Center users, and I have not upgraded to WMP11 because as described above it screws up artwork, likewise I have not upgraded to IE7. (Can Microsoft get anything right?)

[Edit]
Another approach would be if you are willing, to modify the WMPTSE plugin which lets WMP 9, 10, or 11 read MPEG4 meta tags so that it can read embedded artwork from these files. The sourcecode is available at its site see http://wmptagext.sourceforge.net/ (http://wmptagext.sourceforge.net/)
[end Edit]

I am sure you have probably seen the following links before about the iTunes .itc file format. Just incase I list them here.

http://www.falsecognate.org/2007/01/deciph...nes_itc_fil.php (http://www.falsecognate.org/2007/01/deciphering_the_itunes_itc_fil.php)
http://www.waldoland.com/dev/Articles/ITCFileFormat.aspx (http://www.waldoland.com/dev/Articles/ITCFileFormat.aspx)
http://www.waldoland.com/blog/2007/07/appl...at-revised.aspx (http://www.waldoland.com/blog/2007/07/apple-itc-file-format-revised.aspx)


For anyone interested in using Apple Lossless (aka. ALAC) in WMP and/or Media Center see the following links

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=46551 (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=46551)
and the January 8th 2007 entry on http://www.dsp-worx.de/ (http://www.dsp-worx.de/)
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: adda on 2008-03-03 13:41:14
Hello McoreD.

I just found out about your tool, it looks just plain great! It has many things I wanted to do to my songs.
OK, I haven't tried it yet (will, at home tonight), and here I have a little request for you please ?

Since there is the possibility to capitalize the 1st letter of each word of the title songs, would it be possible to do so, EXCEPT FOR some words (like "or", "and", "the" if it is NOT the 1st word of the song) ? Perhaps a textBox which every user would fill up to his desires ? The special management of "the" might be a bit tricky perhaps.

Anyway, kudos to your tool!
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2008-03-03 15:18:43
Perhaps a textBox which every user would fill up to his desires ?

I second that !  (a BIG text box, because there will be a lot of words, in french for instance  )
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: NearlyGod on 2008-03-03 19:19:39
Since there is the possibility to capitalize the 1st letter of each word of the title songs, would it be possible to do so, EXCEPT FOR some words (like "or", "and", "the" if it is NOT the 1st word of the song) ? Perhaps a textBox which every user would fill up to his desires ? The special management of "the" might be a bit tricky perhaps.


This is already fully configurable.  There are a few simple .txt files that contain your preferences in this matter.

These are some of the standard settings:
Keep capitalized: EP DJ CDS OST CDM

Don't capitalize: at by for from in into ...etc...

Change: `,,,,'  Feat.,,,,feat.  Dj,,,,DJ  Rnb,,,,R&B  Hip Hop,,,,Hip-Hop

Changing capitalization works great for me, especially with the exclusive build McoreD made me... MWUHUHUAHAHA!!! 

EDIT: and don't worry about 'the' becoming lowercase when it's the first letter: capitalizing the fist character supercedes the 'don't capitalize' preferences.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-04 11:05:59
Hi John,

From time to time I did research on ways on automatically generating the AlbumArt_{“WM/WMCollectionID”}_Large.jpg and the AlbumArt_{“WM/WMCollectionID”}_Small.jpg.
Using WMP SDK you can query for the WM/WMCollectionID attribute of a track in WMP and you can determine the GUID of its artwork file name. What I found out was, “WM/WMCollectionID” query would give a null value for tracks that did not already have such artwork. So in other words, you would be able to generate the file name only if you already have such artwork file in your music folder, generated by WMP. This restriction, in my knowledge, makes it impossible to generate a file name without artwork (AlbumArt_{“WM/WMCollectionID”}_Large.jpg) already being there.

Like you said, “Find Info” in WMP does generate the AlbumArt_{“WM/WMCollectionID”}_Large.jpg in the music folder after a few manual prompts such as selecting the proper album etc. Programmatically triggering the “Find Info” is the next step to look at.

Speaking of Artwork in Media Center, iTSfv already has a hidden WMPfv mode for Vista Media Center that can be activated in Beta versions. This was purely done for personal testing.  In Window Vista, Media Center refers to a UrlToCoverArt.dat which contains file references to a artwork file in LocalMS folder.
A quote from a VMC user who was suggesting such implementation in iTSfv:

Quote
In general Media Center and WMP11 will overwrite folder.jpg with reduced versions of the artwork like 200x200pixel. I'm having my music library on the VMC PC and the folder is added to WMP11 via a read-only share like \\music\ which is then added to WMP11 to avoid the folder.jpg overwrites.

The library should auto-opdate. But it doesn't. So what I do is to go to WMP11 > Library and pretend to add a new folder. This will force WMP11 to scan for new files. I'm not sure of missing auto-update is due to my library size, I have 1.400 album and around 25.000 files.

Media Center copies found artwork to a cache and uses that for the UI. There are several artwork per album:
* the Full Album art shown when an album is playing in the center of the screen, but it could change per song I guess. 
* Then you have a small Album art if you are looking at the playing queue, angain this could change per song.
* And finally you have a small Album art used when browsing your music collection, I guess this is always one picture per Album - default picture if you will.
[i Note: I'm not 100% sure about this, but this is what I believe[/i]

The caching is tricky as the files get a id number assigned like this: {0A1FBC31-2EDB-44B5-BE3A-565AB02059A6}.jpg. 

On my HomePC i'm using WinXP and the cache is found at
C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player\Art Cache\LocalMLS

and on the Vista PC I have it at
C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Media Player\Cover-cache\LocalMLS


The WMPfv has the ability to update this UrlToCoverArt.dat dictionary file with file references to higher quality artwork in the music folder.
However since you are using Windows XP Media Center edition this will not interest you.

I had a read through your steps 1 - 8 and it seems you are doing some steps the long way.
With iTSfv it is not necessary to

6. Extract the artwork from the itc file to a standard jpg (which I save later as Folder.jpg)
7. Force iTunes to embed the artwork (copy to clipboard, clear downloaded artwork, paste artwork back

If you selected at least one track of an album in iTunes that has iTunes Downloaded Artwork, and you pressed Validate Selected Tracks in iTSfv, it will save a Folder.jpg straight in your music folder. This is the very reason why iTSfv was designed for, and I am quite surprised how you missed this out.

iTSfv already has the function to make a folder.jpg created, Read-Only, System and/or Hidden. If you require all Folder.jpg to be read-only, I believe it will be much efficient to run a batch file that does all folder.jpg +h +r +s.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-04 11:23:12
I second that !  (a BIG text box, because there will be a lot of words, in french for instance  )


adda/Jose,

Glad to hear from you again. Like NearlyGod explained, this is already configurable from the settings text files in the Documents\iTunes\Settings folder.


Jose,

You might be interested in the little Album Art Downlader XUI integration in the latest iTSfv builds. For an album you cannot find album artwork from iTunes store,

1. select a track or the whole album in iTunes
2. in iTSfv, from Selected Tracks menu, click "Search Artwork..."
3. Album Art Downloader XUI will load and the search for artwork from the internet, and sort them in resolution descending order.
4. Double click on an artwork you prefer (and you will see the Save icon on the picture)
5. In iTSfv, press Validate Selected Tracks and iTSfv will detect this artwork Album Art Downloader XUI downloaded

Changing capitalization works great for me, especially with the exclusive build McoreD made me...


NearlyGod,

I am glad it worked out for you. Were you able to reproduce the iTunes bug I mentioned in an earlier post?

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2008-03-04 13:17:26
Glad to hear from you again.

You know, I've never left the topic. I'm still pretty amazed at what you are accomplishing here.

You might be interested in the little Album Art Downlader XUI integration in the latest iTSfv builds

Pretty amazing !  I was using a separate software for that, but now... 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: NearlyGod on 2008-03-04 15:04:06
NearlyGod,
I am glad it worked out for you. Were you able to reproduce the iTunes bug I mentioned in an earlier post?


Hi McoreD, sorry about not adding the text of my email here earlier, I did intend to;

I gave it (your beta-version) a quick try on my break from work and it works exactly as advertised

I could of course fully repeat the procedure in iTunes for detaching one album track, as you posted.  What a strange bug to have in a program version 7...  Unlike iTunes, the new version of iTSfv works completely accurately on this, and even fixes albums that iTunes can't (or you would have to do it manually as you suggest, renaming to something like 'The Cure1' and then back to 'The Cure').

/NG
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: NearlyGod on 2008-03-04 15:48:52
On another note,

I have an album here where the Disc Number has been previously entered, but the Disc Count has not.  When validating, iTSfv doesn't add that count (it did fine with the track count). 

It seems to be the first album I come across that was tagged in this way, so I don't know if it's expected behaviour for iTSfv (at this time  ) or if it is a file-specific issue.
EDIT2: Found another album that had been tagged with only Disc Number, and iTSfv had no problems adding the Disc Count for this one.

If you need one of the files to test, let me know.

EDIT: Strange, now I was just tagging an album that had no Disc Number and no Disc Count, but iTSfv added only the Disc Number (or it could be the Disc Count, you can't really tell  ).
Unfortunately, I don't have the originals anymore as I am working 'live' on my collection.

I have to say that I expect this to be an iTunes problem, but can't actually prove that...
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jou on 2008-03-05 21:52:22
Hello,
thank you for your great tool, the capitalization of 1st words is great!

Just played with the integration with Album Art Downloader XUI, and it did something bad for me:
on an album, there 17 tracks. Their track numbers were "1", "2", ... "17". When I pressed "Validate Selected Tracks", the track numbers changed to:
- "1 of 1" <-- !!
- "2 of 16"
...
- "16 of 16".
- "17" <-- !!

Besides, I have now 2 albums in Coverflow.

I have to add I am an iTunes noob.

Arg

Edit: OK I found out in your great help file how to regroup the files. Cool.

Now a question: let's say I have some files of an album, with names: "<track number> - <track title>". Is there a way to tag the track numbers and track titles automatically ?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jou on 2008-03-06 00:34:46
A crash when I tried to search for covers:

Album Art Downloader has encountered a fatal error, and has had to close.
If you wish to report this error, please include this information, which
has been written to the file: C:\WINDOWS\#ToolsM\AlbumArtDownloaderXUI\errorlog.txt

App version: 0.14.1.0, running on Microsoft Windows NT 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2

System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException: startIndex cannot be larger than length of string.
Parameter name: startIndex
  at System.String.InternalSubStringWithChecks(Int32 startIndex, Int32 length, Boolean fAlwaysCopy)
  at AlbumArtDownloader.App.<Main>b__0(String arg)
  at System.Array.FindIndex[T](T[] array, Int32 startIndex, Int32 count, Predicate`1 match)
  at System.Array.FindIndex[T](T[] array, Predicate`1 match)
  at AlbumArtDownloader.App.Main(String[] args)
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-06 00:56:59
NearlyGod,

When iTSfv does not have enough information to tag Disc Count and Disc Number it will not tag them. If an album is a single disc then iTSfv will tag Disc Count and Disc Number to 1 of 1. If the album is multi disc and you don’t have disc number it will not proceed because it doesn’t have enough data to determine which disc is number 1. It will however tag the disc count (I think – I should double check). Basically for multi-disc albums you need to at least have disc number tagged.

Having said all that, there can still be abnormalities unforseen. I haven’t had a problem with writing TrackCount, DiscNumber and DiscCount for a while (code seems to be stable for last 12 months). But even then as I see any unexpected behaviour I try fixing them. I will keep an eye on this thanks.

Edit: I also found out iTSfv will not update DiscCount if the Album is not complete i.e. tracks are missing. This restriction was added a while ago to prevent unexpected behavior.

Jou,

Thanks for the feedback.

To play with Album Art Downloader XUI integration, you are supposed to select a track in iTunes and in iTSfv go to Selected Tracks menu, click “Search Artwork”. It appears to me that you selected a track in iTunes and pressed “Validate Selected Tracks”. Your track number is not modified. However some of your tracks in the album must have had different album or album artist tags. I hope you got this fixed with the regrouping.

Using Mp3Tag you can easily tag your files according to a file name pattern. If you have files for example <track number> - <track title>.mp3 then in Mp3tag, Filename – Tag you can set %track% - %title% and tag your files.


Do you get that same error from Album Art Downloader XUI for every song you have tried? I have encountered this once and when it happened I realized the Artist or Album names were too long or missing. I was going to immediately fix it but I couldn't reproduce that scenario again. I will definitely look into this.

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jou on 2008-03-06 09:57:35
Quote
Using Mp3Tag you can easily tag your files according to a file name pattern. If you have files for example <track number> - <track title>.mp3 then in Mp3tag, Filename – Tag you can set %track% - %title% and tag your files.


Thank you. I usually Tag n Rename, another great tool to add tags to do that. But I never modified MP3 files tags AFTER they were imported (and thus, treated internally) by iTunes. Will iTunes see the modifications if I modify their tags ?


Quote
Do you get that same error from Album Art Downloader XUI for every song you have tried? I have encountered this once and when it happened I realized the Artist or Album names were too long or missing. I was going to immediately fix it but I couldn't reproduce that scenario again. I will definitely look into this.

Your Album Art Downloader plugin works _great_ ! I did this yesterday night for like 20 albums, there was just this one album which caused the crash. I tried stopping and restarting iTunes and iTSfv, no luck. I'll have a look at the files this WE to try and find a pattern on why they cause the crash.

Anyway, I'm just using like 5% of the possibilities of your tool, and I LOVE it. Thank you again! (I'm reading the doc as of now to try and learn new possibilties  ).
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jou on 2008-03-06 13:41:26
(I've read the whole manual)
2 questions to you

1) Chapter 1, you say: "Automatic genre tagging using Last.fm web services".
This is great, where is the option please ?

2) "Fill AlbumArtist from Artist tag".
Is this automatically done via Validating the tracks ?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-06 14:02:10
Hi Jou,

Yes - iTunes will update the track information if you

- select all the tracks in the album you edited using Mp3tag
- right click and "Get Info"
- press OK

Thanks and glad you like the AAD XUI integration.

I haven't updated the manual with how-to use AAD within iTSfv.

For anybody else interested:

1. select a track or the whole album in iTunes
2. in iTSfv, from Selected Tracks menu, click "Search Artwork..."
3. Album Art Downloader XUI will load and the search for artwork from the internet, and sort them in resolution descending order.
4. Double click on an artwork you prefer (and you will see the Save icon on the picture)
5. In iTSfv, press Validate Selected Tracks and iTSfv will detect this artwork Album Art Downloader XUI downloaded

I will be very keen to know to what album that failed.

Cheers,
McoreD

(I've read the whole manual)
2 questions to you

1) Chapter 1, you say: "Automatic genre tagging using Last.fm web services".
This is great, where is the option please ?

2) "Fill AlbumArtist from Artist tag".
Is this automatically done via Validating the tracks ?


Jou,

Checkbox for "Automatic genre tagging using Last.fm web services" is in Tracks tab.

Fill AlbumArtist from Artist tag is done as part of Validation.

In fact, all the checkBoxes in the Validate tab (checks, tracks, library and file system) are done as part of Validate. You also have individual buttons for each category starting from v5.45.

To access Options of any of these checks, tracks, library and file system categories, simply press F2 and you will be taken to its relevant Options tab.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-07 12:41:23
iTSfv 5.47 and above will support grabbing Artwork from iTunes Store provided that you have "Automatically download Album Art" checkBox checked in iTunes > Options > General.

5.47.2.0 Status Bar messages and Progress are handled by a seperate background worker
5.47.1.0 Manually search iTunes Music Store to save Artwork, using Tools > iTunes Artwork Grabber
5.47.0.0 Save iTunes Artwork from selected track in iTunes Music Store

This is just so that you are not limited to grab artwork for tracks only in your music collection.

There are two ways to do this

1. Browsing the iTunes Store, selecting a track of an album in the Store, and in iTSfv > Selected Tracks > Save iTunes Store track artwork
2. Manually inputting Album and Artist name to search using Tools > iTunes Artwork Grabber...
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: NearlyGod on 2008-03-07 15:38:18
5.47.1.0 Manually search iTunes Music Store to save Artwork, using Tools > iTunes Artwork Grabber
5.47.0.0 Save iTunes Artwork from selected track in iTunes Music Store


Are you serious!?  I wouldn't have dreamt about suggesting this feature, but I can't wait to get home and play with this! 

I'm coming across so many albums (without any embedded or other art!) that I've tagged correctly and are in the ITMS, (clicking the little arrow takes me directly to the album) but for some reason the art refuses to download or it only grabs an empty 4-byte "jpeg".  Now I can get it anyways, woohoo!

Now, if you could make it so it grabs the 1425x1425 artwork... 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-07 23:05:51
I'm coming across so many albums (without any embedded or other art!) that I've tagged correctly and are in the ITMS, (clicking the little arrow takes me directly to the album) but for some reason the art refuses to download or it only grabs an empty 4-byte "jpeg".


NearlyGod, you have tagged your albums correctly and iTunes Music Store downloads a 4-byte artwork? Wow.. that's not nice. The thing is, iTSfv uses the same mechanism to download iTunes Music Store artwork so I am afraid it will not work for you.

A demo is shown in this page: http://www.wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsf...rtwork-grabber/ (http://www.wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsfv/itunes-artwork-grabber/)
(Size: 10.1 MiB)

iTSfv has the ability to grab the 1425x1425 artwork but only when Apple's encryption is broken.

Edit:

The latest beta: iTunes Store file validator 5.47 and above does the following:

Requirements

iTunes for Windows - http://www.itunes.com/ (http://www.itunes.com/)
iTunes Store Account  - you can easily register for an account using your CC for free. You only need your CC for authentication. Otherwise, you can use http://www.tunecore.com/freealbum (http://www.tunecore.com/freealbum) for a free gift which will create your an iTunes Store Account
iTSfv - http://itsfv.sourceforge.net/ (http://itsfv.sourceforge.net/)

Install iTunes and iTSfv
Load iTSfv

Automatic method

Browse an album in iTunes Store
Click on the first track in the album

In iTSfv, using Selected Track menu, click Export iTunes Store track Artwork



Enjoy,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: NearlyGod on 2008-03-08 16:05:07
NearlyGod, you have tagged your albums correctly and iTunes Music Store downloads a 4-byte artwork? Wow.. that's not nice. The thing is, iTSfv uses the same mechanism to download iTunes Music Store artwork so I am afraid it will not work for you.
A demo is shown in this page: http://www.wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsf...rtwork-grabber/ (http://www.wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsfv/itunes-artwork-grabber/)
(Size: 10.1 MiB)


This is a lovely new feature, but the ITMS is really frustrating me.  The search function is a piece of useless engineering if I even saw one.  For example, I have a correctly tagged cd that I ripped myself.  Everything is labeled *exactly* as in the ITMS, I even copy/pasted from there, to be completely sure.

I have a whole lot of these, but for example, this cd: "Ali Farka Touré & Ry Cooder - Talking Timbuktu"

Try and do an artist search: not going to work *at all*, unless you split Ali FT and Ry Cooder.  So for me (and I hope this is universal), I can only get to this cd in the ITMS by searching for Ali Farka Touré, and then clicking on the Timbuktu album.

Like you said, iTunes itself can't download the album art, and neither unfortunately can iTSfv, either manually or (more) automatically.  I tried the iTSfv artwork grabbing with some random albums from the store, and it worked for a couple, but also got a fair amount of that annoying iTunes message, where the artwork (which I am looking at, Mr Steve Jobs!  ) cannot be found.

Now, I fear it's no good, since the art-searching and actual store are kind of separated, but would it help the art-downloading if you used the full album URL? This is the address for the above mentioned Ali Farka album;
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore...34&s=143441 (http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=162581834&s=143441)
Feeding this to Firefox opens the exact album page for me in iTunes.

It's just so silly to see the correct album page, often getting there by simply clicking in my playlist - and not being able to get any of the art, because it "Cannot be found".  Yes, it can! You're just not looking hard enough 

Ehm, okay, well, you're catching my drift.

I'm off to play some more with finding album covers. 

NB just to end on a happier note: when it's automatically getting artwork, iTunes also finds art for albums that are /not/ in the ITMS... weird.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Rocket Man on 2008-03-09 22:40:19
hi all, 1st post
long time listener, 1st time caller 
i've been following the forums on and off for years, ever since r3mix.net died and i had to look for alternatives
thx for all the valuable info

and

hi ~*McoreD*~
i've been following this thread (again, on and off) since it started
all i have to 'say' is: 
great app, great attitude towards the users, great job!


now, for the annoying part eheh
i was excited to 'hear' that the new beta supported grabbing artwork for albums that aren't in the library,
but, bad luck, i can't get it to work here, an error shows up.

i'm using vista + itunes 7.6.1.9 + itsfv 5.47.2.1

error:
(http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/1495/errorzv9.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)


details:
Code: [Select]
See the end of this message for details on invoking 
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.MissingMethodException: Method not found: 'System.Windows.Forms.FileDialogCustomPlacesCollection System.Windows.Forms.FileDialog.get_CustomPlaces()'.
   at iTSfv.mBwJobsIT.mfExportArtworkIT(IITOperationStatus job)
   at iTSfv.frmMain.bwApp_RunWorkerCompleted(Object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
   at System.ComponentModel.BackgroundWorker.OnRunWorkerCompleted(RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
   at System.ComponentModel.BackgroundWorker.AsyncOperationCompleted(Object arg)


************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
iTSfv
    Assembly Version: 5.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 5.47.2.1
    CodeBase: file:///C:/***/iTSfv/iTSfv.exe
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.VisualBasic
    Assembly Version: 8.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 8.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Microsoft.VisualBasic/8.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Runtime.Remoting
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Runtime.Remoting/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Runtime.Remoting.dll
----------------------------------------
McoreIndexer
    Assembly Version: 2.9.7.0
    Win32 Version: 2.9.7.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/***/iTSfv/McoreIndexer.DLL
----------------------------------------
System.Configuration
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Configuration/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Configuration.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Xml
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll
----------------------------------------
6yfslyj1
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
McoreSystem
    Assembly Version: 1.12.1.1
    Win32 Version: 1.12.1.1
    CodeBase: file:///C:/***/iTSfv/McoreSystem.DLL
----------------------------------------
Interop.ITDETECTORLib
    Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/***/iTSfv/Interop.ITDETECTORLib.DLL
----------------------------------------
Interop.iTunesLib
    Assembly Version: 1.10.0.0
    Win32 Version: 1.10.0.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/***/iTSfv/Interop.iTunesLib.DLL
----------------------------------------
Accessibility
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Accessibility/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Accessibility.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Web
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.833 (QFE.050727-8300)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_32/System.Web/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Web.dll
----------------------------------------
taglib-sharp
    Assembly Version: 2.0.3.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.3.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/***/iTSfv/taglib-sharp.DLL
----------------------------------------

************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this
application or computer (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.

For example:

<configuration>
    <system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer
rather than be handled by this dialog box.


any thoughts?

p.s.
i'm assuming i meet the 'Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or higher' requirement since i'm using vista and the app itself loads and works just fine
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-10 08:05:25
Hi Rocket Man,

Thanks for the feedback. 

The good news is that I can see that it works for you. The Save File Dialog box has tried to pop but bad news is that CustomPlaces (quite necessary) made it crash. It is strange. I was trying to be fancy there I guess. I remove the CustomPlaces code.

I have PMed you a build that hopefully should work.

Please let me know how it goes.

Thanks,
McoreD

NB just to end on a happier note: when it's automatically getting artwork, iTunes also finds art for albums that are /not/ in the ITMS... weird.


NearlyGod, I agree with all the points of your points. It does suck as it doesn't offer us much flexibility in searching artwork. I guess they are trying to save their server bandwidth.

Indeed it is strange how iTMS finds artwork for albums not in there. That's why I also put up a Manual mode Artwork grabber to see if the album artwork is retrievable.

Cheers.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Bluenote on 2008-03-10 13:54:28
Hi McoreD,

Haven't been around for a while, sorry, but yesterday I got round to downloading v5.45 - wow, your utility has become a veritable Swiss Army Knife for anything to do with iTunes - respect!
As always, you are fast, efficient and eager to help. Just like every programmer.

What put an even bigger grin on my face was finding myself in the credits - thanks!

Keep up the great work, I'll be back soon....

Best wishes, Bluenote
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Rocket Man on 2008-03-10 17:19:11
thx for the updated build

here's the updated error 

(http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/460/error2qw5.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)

Code: [Select]
See the end of this message for details on invoking 
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.ArgumentException: The path is not of a legal form.
   at System.IO.Path.NormalizePathFast(String path, Boolean fullCheck)
   at System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(String path)
   at iTSfv.mAdapter.mfGetFileNameFromPattern(String pattern, IITFileOrCDTrack track)
   at iTSfv.mBwJobsIT.mfExportArtworkIT(IITOperationStatus job)
   at iTSfv.frmMain.bwApp_RunWorkerCompleted(Object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
   at System.ComponentModel.BackgroundWorker.OnRunWorkerCompleted(RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
   at System.ComponentModel.BackgroundWorker.AsyncOperationCompleted(Object arg)


************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
iTSfv
    Assembly Version: 5.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 5.47.3.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/***/iTSfv/iTSfv.exe
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.VisualBasic
    Assembly Version: 8.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 8.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Microsoft.VisualBasic/8.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Runtime.Remoting
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Runtime.Remoting/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Runtime.Remoting.dll
----------------------------------------
McoreIndexer
    Assembly Version: 2.9.7.0
    Win32 Version: 2.9.7.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/***/iTSfv/McoreIndexer.DLL
----------------------------------------
System.Configuration
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Configuration/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Configuration.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Xml
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll
----------------------------------------
v6yi3xzw
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
McoreSystem
    Assembly Version: 1.12.1.1
    Win32 Version: 1.12.1.1
    CodeBase: file:///C:/***/iTSfv/McoreSystem.DLL
----------------------------------------
Interop.ITDETECTORLib
    Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/***/iTSfv/Interop.ITDETECTORLib.DLL
----------------------------------------
Interop.iTunesLib
    Assembly Version: 1.10.0.0
    Win32 Version: 1.10.0.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/***/iTSfv/Interop.iTunesLib.DLL
----------------------------------------
Accessibility
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Accessibility/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Accessibility.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Web
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.833 (QFE.050727-8300)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_32/System.Web/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Web.dll
----------------------------------------
taglib-sharp
    Assembly Version: 2.0.3.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.3.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/***/iTSfv/taglib-sharp.DLL
----------------------------------------

************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this
application or computer (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.

For example:

<configuration>
    <system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer
rather than be handled by this dialog box.


itsfv finds the artwork, but it errors out when popping the save dialog
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-10 21:51:48
Hi Rocket Man,

Very sorry about this - I managed to reproduce the error on a newly installed system, it didn't happen for old users because the settings file was already there. Until this gets fixed

Could you please:

Press F2
Press OK

Retry?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Rocket Man on 2008-03-10 23:14:21
Hi Rocket Man,

Very sorry about this - I managed to reproduce the error on a newly installed system, it didn't happen for old users because the settings file was already there. Until this gets fixed

Could you please:

Press F2
Press OK

Retry?


you got it, thank you so much

in fact, i installed vista recently, hence the lack of a settings file for itsfv.
i had use the app before on the old setup.

btw, this dummy mp3 technique idea was pure genius (love the trance tune eheh)
i remember one poster used to do this 'by hand' (i guess that's how the idea came to life),
but now that you auto-implemented it it's much better 

am i the only one that's loving this new feature? (on top of countless others already there)
show some appreciation people  (yeah, i know, ironic. it took myself a whole year to reply and say thx)
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-11 01:36:02
Hi Rocket Man,

Glad you got it working! Appreciate responding fast with results. Yeah it crossed my mind a couple of times and thought of implementing one so we wouldn’t have to actually have the real MP3s to grab the artwork. I also figured this would be useful for people who don’t use iTunes as their primary media player, so they don’t have to add their existing mp3 to iTunes just to grab artwork.

Lucky that the errors you faced were caught in beta so the final version for sure will be bug fixed.
That’s my ringtone – Dark Eyes by Luminary. I first heard of it in Armin van Buuren’s A State of Trance Yearmix 2006. Great song, are you into trance as well?

Hi Bluenote,

Nice to hear from you!  You will probably notice in the next beta version, the Auto rating settings were moved back to OneTouch (used to be called Advanced) tab.

Thanks for all the replies; as a user I am also thrilled as much as you.

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2008-03-11 08:33:30
As always, you are fast, efficient and eager to help. Just like every programmer.

 

btw, this dummy mp3 technique idea was pure genius (love the trance tune eheh)
i remember one poster used to do this 'by hand' (i guess that's how the idea came to life),
but now that you auto-implemented it it's much better 

A dummy mp3 technique ?  Weooow, I missed this one ! 
I believe I might be the "poster who used to do this by hand".  I have created some 1500 dummy MP3 so far, simply because 99% of my music files are FLAC, so of course iTunes is not my main player (foobar is).
McoreD, I'm... speechless. You did it again ! 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: NearlyGod on 2008-03-11 16:51:13
Hey McoreD,

There's a little cosmetic thing (sorry, don't have anything better at the moment, haha, will keep looking) that's been present in all the versions I've seen so far:

When Validating multiple albums, the progress-% that is in the titlebar is accurate for the number of albums being worked on, until the very last album of the bunch is being tagged, when it changes to display the progress-% of only that album.

So you get a progress of 10%-30%-70%-95%-last album-20%-40-95%-done.

EDIT:
Another thing I noticed, but I'm quite sure can't be helped: when I use the "Export iTunes Store track Artwork", my entire iTunes playylist is being checked for Gapless Playback Information.  This is due to the dummy file being added to the playlist, I expect.  I stopped iTunes from performing that check earlier, because I'm still 'cleaning up' my albums in batches.

Jose Hildalgo,
Now with this great new function in iTSfv it might no longer be needed, but you can very quickly convert every first FLAC track of each album to crappy 32kbps MP3s, to be able to stick it into iTunes for whatever purpose.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-11 23:10:56
Hi NearlyGod,

That cosmetic thing was actually done on purpose. Another user also brought this issue up so I think I should change this behavior (?). The percentage changes from Per Album to Per Track for the last album - that's what happening. I will look into making it more sense.

Converting FLAC to 32 Kibit/s MP3 - I remember that's how Jose was doing it.

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Rocket Man on 2008-03-12 00:02:23
Hi Rocket Man,

Glad you got it working! Appreciate responding fast with results. Yeah it crossed my mind a couple of times and thought of implementing one so we wouldn’t have to actually have the real MP3s to grab the artwork. I also figured this would be useful for people who don’t use iTunes as their primary media player, so they don’t have to add their existing mp3 to iTunes just to grab artwork.

Lucky that the errors you faced were caught in beta so the final version for sure will be bug fixed.
That’s my ringtone – Dark Eyes by Luminary. I first heard of it in Armin van Buuren’s A State of Trance Yearmix 2006. Great song, are you into trance as well?

Cheers,
McoreD


hi McoreD

about the trance tune, it sure makes a nice ringtone
i can't say that i'm a trance aficionado, but i do like the genre (not lame purely commercial artists), specifically psy-trance

still about the the artwork feature
let's say i search for 'Muse' / 'Revelations' (instead of inputting the whole album name 'Black Holes & Revelations')
this comes up with the correct artwork (as expected), but the save box has 'Muse - Revelations.jpg' as the default filename
could itsfv bypass my input and 'guess' the whole album name?
of course by guess i mean obtain the info from itunes?
i'm guessing that's not possible since itunes probably just 'sends' the jpg to itsfv (which uses my input for the filename) without further info

but anyway.
armin's 2006 yearmix makes a great posting soundtrack eheh

all for now, stay cool.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-12 22:00:41
could itsfv bypass my input and 'guess' the whole album name?
of course by guess i mean obtain the info from itunes?
i'm guessing that's not possible since itunes probably just 'sends' the jpg to itsfv (which uses my input for the filename) without further info


That's exactly right and what's happening, Rocket Man. However if you chose the 'Automatic Way' as in browse the iTunes Music store and in Selected Tracks, clicked "Export iTunes Store track Artwork" it can use the iTunes Store track information for saving Artwork, because you are referring to the iTunes Store track directly.

NearlyGod,

Progress Bar % going well for Validating albums, I am still fixing other functions to be compatible with it.

After I figure out TagLib# reading FLAC tags, I could also support batch saving iTunes Store artwork after you browse a FLAC root folder.

Bye for now.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2008-03-13 00:58:52
Hi McoreD, sorry for asking this (I'm looking like a n00b now, but iTSfv has evolved soooOOO much ! Very impressive !  ). I've read the manual but without success.

How does this "dummy mp3" thing work ?

e.g. I have an album folder with all songs in FLAC format, and I want to find the iTS artwork for it.

So if I have understood well, iTSfv is now able to create a "dummy mp3" file with the album tags, add  it to iTunes, then search for iTS artwork. So I don't have to create the mp3 file myself.

Well, I haven't found how to do it, so... thanks in advance for your help ! 

Oh, and just for the record :

Converting FLAC to 32 Kibit/s MP3 - I remember that's how Jose was doing it.

I did even better : 8Kbps !  Can you imagine ? You certainly wouldn't listen to such crappy files ! 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-13 09:15:13
Jose,

http://www.wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsf...rtwork-grabber/ (http://www.wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsfv/itunes-artwork-grabber/)

You can bring up the manual mode by Selected Tracks menu > Export iTunes Store track Artwork...

The manual has not got the latest beta version additions yet - sorry about that.

All,

I meant to mention this earlier, about things happening in the background: I'd like to thank HydrogenAudio forums for hosting this thread. It is much appreciated. 

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2008-03-13 11:26:31
Of course ! I should have thought about it (I had already seen the video).

If I have understood well, this methods works with only one album at a time. What if I have a folder containing 100 different FLAC albums ? I'll have to search for them 100 times in the iTS.

I see ways of improving it, but I'm afraid they're complicated... they would require you to read tags in FLAC format (and maybe other formats) before creating the dummy mp3. Sequentially of course, in order to be able to do more than 1 album at a time.

What do you think ? Feasible ?

Oh-oh ! I've run into this :

Code: [Select]
System.InvalidCastException: Impossible d'effectuer un cast d'un objet COM de type 'System.__ComObject' en type d'interface 'iTunesLib.IITFileOrCDTrack'. Cette opération a échoué, car l'appel QueryInterface sur le composant COM pour l'interface avec l'IID '{00D7FE99-7868-4CC7-AD9E-ACFD70D09566}' a échoué en raison de l'erreur suivante : Cette interface n'est pas prise en charge (Exception de HRESULT : 0x80004002 (E_NOINTERFACE)).
   à iTSfv.frmMain.SearchArtworkToolStripMenuItem_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)
   à System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.RaiseEvent(Object key, EventArgs e)
   à System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem.OnClick(EventArgs e)
   à System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.HandleClick(EventArgs e)
   à System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.HandleMouseUp(MouseEventArgs e)
   à System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.FireEventInteractive(EventArgs e, ToolStripItemEventType met)
   à System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.FireEvent(EventArgs e, ToolStripItemEventType met)
   à System.Windows.Forms.ToolStrip.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mea)
   à System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripDropDown.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mea)
   à System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
   à System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   à System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl.WndProc(Message& m)
   à System.Windows.Forms.ToolStrip.WndProc(Message& m)
   à System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripDropDown.WndProc(Message& m)
   à System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
   à System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   à System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)


************** Assemblys chargés **************
mscorlib
    Version de l'assembly : 2.0.0.0
    Version Win32 : 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase : file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
iTSfv
    Version de l'assembly : 5.0.0.0
    Version Win32 : 5.45.4.5
    CodeBase : file:///C:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/iTSfv.exe
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.VisualBasic
    Version de l'assembly : 8.0.0.0
    Version Win32 : 8.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase : file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Microsoft.VisualBasic/8.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll
----------------------------------------
System
    Version de l'assembly : 2.0.0.0
    Version Win32 : 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase : file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
    Version de l'assembly : 2.0.0.0
    Version Win32 : 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase : file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
    Version de l'assembly : 2.0.0.0
    Version Win32 : 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase : file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Runtime.Remoting
    Version de l'assembly : 2.0.0.0
    Version Win32 : 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase : file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Runtime.Remoting/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Runtime.Remoting.dll
----------------------------------------
McoreSystem
    Version de l'assembly : 1.12.0.3
    Version Win32 : 1.12.0.3
    CodeBase : file:///C:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/McoreSystem.DLL
----------------------------------------
McoreIndexer
    Version de l'assembly : 2.9.7.0
    Version Win32 : 2.9.7.0
    CodeBase : file:///C:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/McoreIndexer.DLL
----------------------------------------
System.Configuration
    Version de l'assembly : 2.0.0.0
    Version Win32 : 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase : file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Configuration/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Configuration.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Xml
    Version de l'assembly : 2.0.0.0
    Version Win32 : 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase : file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll
----------------------------------------
so9sg_pw
    Version de l'assembly : 2.0.0.0
    Version Win32 : 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase : file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
Interop.ITDETECTORLib
    Version de l'assembly : 1.0.0.0
    Version Win32 : 1.0.0.0
    CodeBase : file:///C:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/Interop.ITDETECTORLib.DLL
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms.resources
    Version de l'assembly : 2.0.0.0
    Version Win32 : 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase : file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms.resources/2.0.0.0_fr_b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.resources.dll
----------------------------------------
Accessibility
    Version de l'assembly : 2.0.0.0
    Version Win32 : 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase : file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Accessibility/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Accessibility.dll
----------------------------------------
mscorlib.resources
    Version de l'assembly : 2.0.0.0
    Version Win32 : 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase : file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
Interop.iTunesLib
    Version de l'assembly : 1.10.0.0
    Version Win32 : 1.10.0.0
    CodeBase : file:///C:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/Interop.iTunesLib.DLL
----------------------------------------
System.Web
    Version de l'assembly : 2.0.0.0
    Version Win32 : 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase : file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_32/System.Web/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Web.dll
----------------------------------------

************** Débogage JIT **************
Pour activer le débogage juste-à-temps (JIT), le fichier de configuration pour cette
application ou cet ordinateur (machine.config) doit avoir la valeur
jitDebugging définie dans la section system.windows.forms.
L'application doit également être compilée avec le débogage
activé.

Par exemple :

<configuration>
    <system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>

Besides, I don't have the "Selected tracks > Save iTunes Store track artwork" option !  The exception ocurred when I clicked on the wrong option ("Selected tracks > Search artwork...")
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: xanadu1979 on 2008-03-13 16:24:43
This looks like a great program, I can't wait to try it out.

I have one suggestion. It might not even be possible to do, but if so it would be great. I would like to be able to take a mp3 file of recorded streaming radio and have iTunes and my iPod treat it as a podcast. That way it would keep it seperate from my music and it would automatically delete the files once I listen to them. I've looked all over Google and can't find a way to do it. If there is a way to do it and this program automated it, I would definitely consider donating some money for your efforts.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-13 22:06:59
Besides, I don't have the "Selected tracks > Save iTunes Store track artwork" option !  The exception ocurred when I clicked on the wrong option ("Selected tracks > Search artwork...")


Jose, the feature is in the latest beta: 5.47.3.2. Search Artwork menu item is to search artwork using Album Art Downloader XUI. Try that after clicking a file in your iTunes Library.

I have plans/hopes to extend this to read FLAC tags and do a batch search.

xanadu1979,

Thanks for your feedback.

If I understood you correctly, it sounds to me you are looking for a feature that does the following operation.


Code: [Select]
    If track.Kind = ITTrackKind.ITTrackKindURL Then
            track.Kind = ITTrackKind.ITTrackKindFile
            CType(track, IITFileOrCDTrack).Podcast = True
    End If

   
   
Unfortunately both Kind property or Podcast property are Read-Only and Apple does not allow changing such properties.

Cheers,
McoreD


Jose, fixed that bug. Thanks!

Version History so far:

5.47.4.1 Attempts to search artwork using Album Art Download XUI by clicking iTunes Store tracks, crashed iTSfv [Jose Hidalgo]
5.47.4.0 Minor tweaks for more sensible Progress Bars and Job completion progress in Applicate Title [NearlyGod]
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2008-03-13 23:20:35
Hi McoreD,

I quickly grabbed v5.47.3.2 to test it, and it doesn't work yet for me. The message is : "Idle. Last Action : Could not find Artwork from iTunes Store..."

I don't understand : I went to the iTMS, searched for an album, clicked on it to show its tracks, then selected its first track, then back to iTSfv, "Selected tracks > Export iTS track Artwork"... Am I still doing something wrong ?

I've also tried the "Tools > iTunes Artwork Grabber", entered the artist and album... with no more success. How bizarre ! 

It's really weird, because if I create the dummy mp3 myself with the artist and album, add it to iTunes library then try to get the iTS artwork with iTunes, it simply... works !

Could it be that iTSfv itself doesn't connect well to my iTS or something like that ? I'm puzzled.

My iTunes version is 7.5.0.20. Does it matter ? Is the latest iTunes version mandatory ?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-13 23:39:46
Jose,

iTSfv 5.47 and above will support grabbing Artwork from iTunes Store provided that you have "Automatically download Album Art" checkBox checked in iTunes > Options > General.

Do you have that option checked?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2008-03-14 03:31:09
Sorry Sir !
I hadn't even thought about checking that box Sir ! 
Everything is under control now Sir !
Up and running !





Seriously, this is really a GREAT feature indeed ! Any chances that we could get a keyboard shortcut for this one ? 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2008-03-14 05:35:12
would it be possible to somehow implement a feature that will take an iTunes store URL and grab the album art? http://www.thejosher.net/iTunes/methodtwo.php (http://www.thejosher.net/iTunes/methodtwo.php) was able to do that.

Here is how it could work: I supply the URL. iTSfv parses the contents' URL and copies the artist and album name. It then creates a dummy file within the iTunes database and changes its artist and album name accordingly. It then uses iTunes to download the art and exports it.


finally, my wishes have been heart
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-14 09:45:16
Seriously, this is really a GREAT feature indeed ! Any chances that we could get a keyboard shortcut for this one ? 


LoL. Thanks Jose, glad you got it working! and your post crack me up.

Could you suggest a Keyboard Shortcut? I thought of Ctrl+DownArrow (iTunes Artwork coming down your way). If you prefer otherwise, let me know.

finally, my wishes have been heart


Jojo,

Wow... I wished I gave your post a bit more thought that day. You had the idea (almost) for a long time. As soon as I saw "I supply the URL. iTSfv parses the contents' URL and copies the artist and album name..." my mind automatically turned off knowing it was tricky or not possible at the time to decode the iTunes Album URL. Current method does not retrieve an iTunes Album URL, but it has the ability to read the iTunes Store file directly and read its tags.

Nice side effect: You can actually copy a Track List of the iTunes Store Album if you went to Selected Tracks tab. You can then save that info to a Notepad and use Mp3tag to write tags to a badly tagged album. I did that once. Mp3tag has its own freedb info, so it is not major.


All,

If you would like others to know about this add-on then please Digg it from
http://digg.com/software/iTSfv_Hands_down_..._could_ever_ask (http://digg.com/software/iTSfv_Hands_down_the_best_iTunes_addon_you_could_ever_ask)

Note: The title of the digg article - It is not my interpretation of the software but one of the users': http://wakoopa.com/software/itunes-store-file-validator (http://wakoopa.com/software/itunes-store-file-validator). I thought it sounded nice and grabs attention which is really essentially in digg.

Thanks,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2008-03-14 13:19:09
Could you suggest a Keyboard Shortcut? I thought of Ctrl+DownArrow (iTunes Artwork coming down your way). If you prefer otherwise, let me know.

I think it's a great idea (Ctrl+DOWNload). Simply make sure that iTSfv doesn't include a more important download function that would deserve this great shortcut. Otherwise, that's OK with me. 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-14 13:39:34
Splendid. Glad we both agree. Ctrl+Down it is for the shortcut.

20080314T223314 Job Started: EXPORT_ARTWORK_BATCH
20080314T223410 Saved Track Artwork as D:\FLAC\Air - Pocket Symphony\Folder.jpg
20080314T223443 Saved Track Artwork as D:\FLAC\Clannad - Macalla\Folder.jpg
20080314T223518 Saved Track Artwork as D:\FLAC\Humble Pie - Performance  Rockin' The Fillmore\Folder.jpg
20080314T223537 Saved Track Artwork as D:\FLAC\Linkin Park - Minutes To Midnight\Folder.jpg
20080314T223556 Saved Track Artwork as D:\FLAC\UB40 - Rat In The Kitchen\Folder.jpg

Mean while I was testing Batch Exporting Artwork to FLAC directories...

Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: xanadu1979 on 2008-03-14 13:42:40
xanadu1979,

Thanks for your feedback.

If I understood you correctly, it sounds to me you are looking for a feature that does the following operation.


Code: [Select]
    If track.Kind = ITTrackKind.ITTrackKindURL Then
            track.Kind = ITTrackKind.ITTrackKindFile
            CType(track, IITFileOrCDTrack).Podcast = True
    End If

   
   
Unfortunately both Kind property or Podcast property are Read-Only and Apple does not allow changing such properties.

Cheers,
McoreD


That sucks. I figured this was the case since nobody on any of the sites I found through Google searches has figured out how to do it either.

I came to the iPod from a Zune and the iPod is better in every way except one. In the Zune software you can change the genre of an mp3 to 'Podcast' and the software treats it as a podcast in every way. It puts it in the Podcast section and deletes it after you listen to it.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2008-03-14 13:59:13
20080314T223314 Job Started: EXPORT_ARTWORK_BATCH
20080314T223410 Saved Track Artwork as D:\FLAC\Air - Pocket Symphony\Folder.jpg
20080314T223443 Saved Track Artwork as D:\FLAC\Clannad - Macalla\Folder.jpg
20080314T223518 Saved Track Artwork as D:\FLAC\Humble Pie - Performance  Rockin' The Fillmore\Folder.jpg
20080314T223537 Saved Track Artwork as D:\FLAC\Linkin Park - Minutes To Midnight\Folder.jpg
20080314T223556 Saved Track Artwork as D:\FLAC\UB40 - Rat In The Kitchen\Folder.jpg

Mean while I was testing Batch Exporting Artwork to FLAC directories...

Looks to be okay, will upload after a few more tests.

How does he manage to do all that so easily ?!? 

(how many McoreD are simultaneously working on this project ? You think of something cool... bang ! He does it !)

I'm going to take some rest. Man, you really killed me with this one. 

(it took me days to do that by hand some months ago - if only I had known I would have waited !!    )
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2008-03-14 18:35:14
Oh, maybe one suggestion :

The "dummy mp3" iTMS artwork download thing doesn't seem to work when in the iTMS the first track belongs to an artist but the album itself belongs to another artist (e.g. "Various Artists" albums).

Maybe there's room for some improvement here ? (a second test on "Various Artist" if the first test fails, etc.).
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-14 21:44:04


Jose, great catch. Indeed "Various Artists" was the trick. You might have also noticed the iTunes Store files has the Compilation tag filled for such albums so the hack was much easier.

5.48.0.2 iTunes Store artwork was not retrievable for Compilation Albums [Jose Hidalgo]
5.48.0.1 Prevent crash while reading track metatags as part of Validating Library [hbokh]
5.48.0.0 Support for batch exporting iTunes Artwork from an alternate Music folder e.g. FLAC
5.47.5.0 File formats handled by iTSfv are now customizable using Advanced - Formats tab
5.47.4.1 Attempts to search artwork using Album Art Download XUI by clicking iTunes Store tracks, crashed iTSfv [Jose Hidalgo]
5.47.4.0 Minor tweaks for more sensible Progress Bars and Job completion progress in Applicate Title [NearlyGod]


I am going to jump the gun and release this version.

The Export Artwork Batch function inherits the same Artwork export settings in Options > Validate > File System > Artwork - to keep things simple.

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)

Enjoy,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-15 07:19:15
Oh, maybe one suggestion :

The "dummy mp3" iTMS artwork download thing doesn't seem to work when in the iTMS the first track belongs to an artist but the album itself belongs to another artist (e.g. "Various Artists" albums).

Maybe there's room for some improvement here ? (a second test on "Various Artist" if the first test fails, etc.).


5.48.1.0 Retry downloading iTunes Store artwork with "Various Artists" as the artist tag if iTunes Store artwork was not retrievable with default tags [Jose Hidalgo]

Jose,

In iTunes I noticed there were Compilation albums
- with IsCompilation tag checked
- without IsCompilation tag checked

iTSfv will not have to retry downloading Artwork for those Compilations albums with properly tagged IsCompilation tag. However for those Compilation albums without the IsCompilation tag checked, iTSfv will internally retry adding the same dummy mp3 with "Various Artists" and retry.

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2008-03-15 18:51:21
I totally agree with your analysis. Let's try it out !

FYI, there is a cover I haven't been able to download yet, because I believe it contains asian characters or something like that : even in the iTS they are displayed as unknown chars (you know, little white boxes  ).

It's the cover for the Final Fantasy X sountrack, by three artists : one woman, Nobuo Uematsu (of course), and a third person. It's this person's name that was unreadable.

I've tried almost everything I could think of for that cover, without success. Has anyone succeeded ?

EDIT - it doesn't work either with iTS names which have unusual characters (like the french character " œ " for instance). Example in the iTS : Artist = Dionysos / Album = La mécanique du cœur
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-16 00:34:59
Hi Jose,

In these cases, does iTSfv crash or simply does not find the artwork? I will include more debugging information to get this issue sorted (hopefully).

By the way, the batch export artwork feature is available in OneTouch > File System tab in this new build.

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2008-03-16 12:34:37
Hi McoreD, it simply doesn't find the artwork. No crash at all. You're welcome to include more debugging info and I'll do the testing. 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: NearlyGod on 2008-03-16 17:47:18
Compilation album art ...lovely.

In the mean time, my submission of iTSfv to the Tweakers.net website was recently accepted.
You can see it here, but it's all in Dutch: http://core.tweakers.net/meuktracker/17340...54732-beta.html (http://core.tweakers.net/meuktracker/17340/itunes-store-file-validator-54732-beta.html)

I can assure you it's nice to be recognized by this well-visited website (over 250,000 registered users, currently 7000 people online with 2100 pageviews per minute) , but I have no idea if it will lead to extra users of iTSfv, though

Cheers
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2008-03-16 19:08:37
You should know : aren't you Nearly God after all ? 

Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-17 05:51:13
Jose,

One more question to verify something: Are these albums covers which aren’t downloadable using iTSfv, downloadable if you manually create a dummy mp3 and let iTunes to download artwork?

If the answer is yes, then iTSfv has a Unicode support issue that I will need to look into. If the answer is no, then I am afraid it is an iTunes issue because the artwork downloading part is done fully via iTunes.

I am unable to test this so far in Australian Store because there is no album/artist with œ character. I will keep trying.

Nearly God,

That’s one helluva busy web site – thanks for spreading the word about iTSfv.

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2008-03-17 11:35:23
McoreD,

The answer is : both !

For "La mécanique du cœur", I've been able to DL it without problems using a manually created dummy mp3.

For "Final Fantasy X", it remains impossible no matter what I do. At least in the french iTS, but maybe in other iTS you will have more luck. Would someone care to try this one ?

Cheers,

Jose
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: xanadu1979 on 2008-03-17 14:47:11
Hey, I'm loving the program so far. It makes iTunes the program it should be.

I'm having trouble with one thing and think it might be a bug. When I validate my entire library, the report that is produced at the end is blank. My library is pretty clean so the only thing that should show up on the report is low-res artwork. The low-res txt file is written properly. I've gotten the report to produce correctly a few times but I can't think of what setting I could have changed that caused it to stop working. The last two times I tried it was blank.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: NearlyGod on 2008-03-17 17:06:42
Hey McoreD,

Using the latest beta, 5.48.1, I am seeing some strange values in the titlebar:
Time remaining, which I have not set to ETA, but to a countdown, is showing a negative value, which keeps counting down (getting lower).
A process that is now almost finished, is said to have -277 seconds remaining

Also in the titlebar, when I validate tracks with the options to Fill Missing AlbumArtist and Fill Track Count (etc), the %-progress jumps back in-between those two actions. 
It is very honest, because for the second action the program is indeed going back to track 1 of an album of which it just tagged track 18, but it is slightly surprising to see!

EDIT:

Also for the first time, although not limited to 5.48.1, I noticed that several albums are not getting their AlbumArtSmall, Artwork and Folder.jpg created when I ask to Export Artwork.
About three out of 250 albums I worked on tonight showed this behaviour - no clue what they have in common, unfortunately. Will try and find out.
EDIT2: The three jpegs *are* created when I first embed the artwork in every track of an album, instead of just in the first one... Hmmm.

Cheers

PS Do you think there is a somewhat reliable way to auto-fill the Year tag?  From either the ITMS info, or another source?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-18 10:03:14
xanadu1979,

Thanks - indeed that was a bug.

5.48.1.2 Tracks with low resolution artwork list was not sometimes written to XHTML report depending on the settings chosen [xanadu1979]

Please replace iTSfv.exe with the updated exe in this zip file.
http://wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsfv/Ne...8.1.2-patch.zip (http://wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsfv/NearlyGod/iTSfv-5.48.1.2-patch.zip)

NearlyGod,

Ouch. That had gone untested by me when the changes were made to Progress Bar behavior to make it more accurate. It is fixed in the updated build.

5.48.1.1 Option to display number of seconds remaining count down was showing negative values [NearlyGod]

About progress resetting for writing TrackCount etc - it is possible to carry over progress from last session to the next session. However the time required to write TrackCount, DiscCount etc. is very small compared to other tasks under Validating Disc. So you would see slow progression to 50% and sudden jump to 100%.

5.48.1.3 Progress for writing TrackCount, DiscCount etc. is integrated into the progress of Validating Disc [NearlyGod]

You can test this behaviour using this build:

Please replace iTSfv.exe with the updated exe in this zip file.
http://wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsfv/Ne...8.1.3-patch.zip (http://wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsfv/NearlyGod/iTSfv-5.48.1.3-patch.zip)

I have looked at Last.fm data for year tag but the database is not sometimes complete for Year tag. Hopefully, I get to understand the MusicBrainz API during the free times in the future and integrate functionality to fill Year tag. If anybody else know a good alternative to do the job, I would like to hear too.

Jose,

For "La mécanique du cœur" could you please test this in iTSfv.

When you click the track in iTunes Store, and ask iTSfv to download the Artwork, iTSfv will have a state where "Waiting for iTunes Store artwork download to complete...". Now quickly close iTSfv and go to Recently Added playlist in iTunes. I wonder if the tags are wrongly written.

FYI: Dummy mp3's tags are read back via iTSfv 5.48.1.2 just after it is added to iTunes, so we could know if the tags were properly copied over for sure.

20080318T190402 Job Started: EXPORT_ARTWORK_MANUAL
20080318T190408 Duration: 0 Hours 00 Minutes 5.5108016 Seconds
20080318T190408 Cleaning Temporary Files... in G:\Users\McoreD\AppData\Roaming\iTSfv\
20080318T190408 Successfully added dummy file with Artist: "Belinda Carlisle", Album: "Runaway Horses"
20080318T190412 Saved Track Artwork as G:\Users\McoreD\Desktop\Belinda Carlisle - (2003) Runaway Horses.jpg
20080318T190412 Job Finished: EXPORT_ARTWORK_MANUAL

Thanks,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2008-03-18 22:36:52
Hi McoreD, here's the requested information about the dummy mp3 :
Title : Le jour le plus froid du monde (Oh Madeleine)
Artist : Dionysos & Emily Loizeau
Album : La mécanique du cœur
Year : 2007

The tags look properly written, and indeed they are. But I've found what's wrong with them !

The artist for the first track of the album is "Dionysos & Emily Loizeau", while the album artist is Dionysos alone. So if you simply erase the "& Emily Loizeau" part, it works.

I've often noticed that iTS sometimes has trouble finding artwork when tere are several artists involved, with "&" as separator.

The solution in that case would be to truncate the artist field before the "&" sign. You could probably implement that easily within iTSfv : if the first attempt fails, look for "&" in the artist (or in the title) field, truncate the corresponding fields before the first "&", and try again.

What do you think ?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-19 09:17:37
What do you think ?


Hi Jose,

Cool - I guess those tags you read off from the dummy mp3 file. So the AlbumArtist tag "Dionysos" was filled in the tag? That's surprising! For every iTunes Store track I checked, the AlbumArtist tag was empty. It is nice to hear at least some are not empty. If the AlbumArtist tags wasn't empty, iTSfv should have used that instead of the Artist tag. I will see what exactly happened.

I should also point out that "Dionysos & Emily Loizeau" being the Artist tag while the album artist was just "Dionysos" without the rest after "&" could be for this specific album only. For another album, the AlbumArtist could have been a completely different artist. So like I said before, if the track has AlbumArtist tag filled, then iTSfv should use that tag instead of Artist tag. Otherwise it should check for the bit after "&" truncated for those Artist tags that contains "&".

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2008-03-19 11:59:48
Hi McoreD,

No, that's not it at all, so I guess I haven't been clear enough.

The Album Artist tag "Dionysos" doesn't exist in the iTS tracks, so it's empty also in the dummy mp3. That's the reason why iTSfv couldn't get the track :
- iTSfv was looking for "Dionysos & Emily Loizeau"
- And indeed it's the right artist for the track : "Dionysos & Emily Loizeau"
- But NOT the right artist for the album : it should have been "Dionysos"
- And of course we would need only "Dionysos" to get the artwork

In other words, the iTS tracks are not properly tagged (which is not a scoop), they lack the album artist information, while the iTS artwork needs that.

So your conclusion is right anyway : if the track has AlbumArtist tag filled (which is not the case here), then iTSfv should use that tag instead of Artist tag. Otherwise it should check for the bit after "&" truncated for those Artist tags that contains "&".

But I should point that I've already had problems with albums with several artists but without an album artist : e.g. "Herbert Von Karajan & Berlin Philharmoniker" as artist for ALL album tracks. For some of those albums, if you try with the full artist name it doesn't work. But if you truncate it before the "&", it works.

So I guess the "truncating the part after the "&"" method should be performed anyway when all other methods fail.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-19 12:37:00
Hi Jose,

Thanks for the clarification, that cleared things up. In the mean while I was also testing if iTS was having AlbumArtist, and you are right, it doesn't.

I also tested if truncating artist info after "&" still worked for tracks that successfully downloaded artwork with the "&" character.

For example,

20080319T211140 Successfully added dummy file with Artist: "Simon & Garfunkel", Album: "Bridge Over Troubled Water"

I removed " & Garfunkel" and checked if iTunes still managed to grab the artwork for the song but it didn't. It did grab the artwork with "Simon & Garfunkel". I guess truncation method works for tracks that weren't successful downloading artwork with "&" sign.

Please replace iTSfv.exe with the updated exe in this zip file.
http://wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsfv/Jo...8.2.0-patch.zip (http://wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsfv/JoseHidalgo/iTSfv-5.48.2.0-patch.zip)

This build will check if Artwork downloads with default tags.
If that fails, then it will change Artist to "Various Artists" and retry.
If that fails, if the "&" sign is present, then it will truncate the bit after "&" and retry.

I haven't been able to test in my local iTS yet because I couldn't find an Artist with "&" that didn't download the Artwork properly. Could you please try this and tell us the results.

Thanks,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2008-03-20 13:05:59
McoreD, could you please add one more check ?

- Check if Artwork downloads with default tags.
- If that fails, then it will change Artist to "Various Artists" and retry.
- If that fails, then it will change Artist to "Compilation" and retry.
- If that fails, if the "&" sign is present, then it will truncate the bit after "&" and retry.

"Compilation" is often used here in Europe as a replacement for "Various Artists"... I've checked and it exists in the iTS.

Some months ago, I had found about a dozen albums where the Artist contained "&" and where the artwork wouldn't download properly unless I truncated the Artist name before the "&". Unfortunately I can't remember which ones...
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-21 01:09:27
Jose,

Sure, done in this build:

5.48.3.0 Retry downloading iTunes Store artwork with "Compilation" as the artist tag if iTunes Store artwork was not retrievable with default tags [Jose Hidalgo]

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)

20080321T091556 Successfully added dummy file with Artist: "Laliya", Album: "Just Like River"
20080321T091602 Successfully added dummy file with Artist: "Various Artists", Album: "Just Like River"
20080321T091608 Successfully added dummy file with Artist: "Compilation", Album: "Just Like River"


Edit - For next release:

5.49.0.1 Possibility of crashing iTSfv while capitalizing AlbumArtist tag in tracks in a Smart Playlist. This function is now limited only in playlists safe to perform the task.
5.49.0.0 Convert embedded non-JPG Artwork (PNG or GIF) to JPG Format as part of validation. Results are logged to file. [Chris Daniels]
5.48.3.1 Created blank iTunes metatags playlist if Check for metatags option and Save results as iTunes Playlists checkBoxes were checked
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: NearlyGod on 2008-03-21 22:58:24
Hey McoreD, only have time to leave a quick note - looks like some great improvements again!  Convertion png/gif to jpg should prove useful for me.

Looks like a bug: 5.48.3.0 always give the message "Last Action: Could not find Artwork from iTunes Store..." - even if I have only added Disc Numbers or filled the AlbumArtist tag.

Hopefully some more play-time with iTSfv during the Easter weekend!

Cheers
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-21 23:06:44
Looks like a bug: 5.48.3.0 always give the message "Last Action: Could not find Artwork from iTunes Store..." - even if I have only added Disc Numbers or filled the AlbumArtist tag.


Hi NearlyGod, Indeed.  I noticed this just after releasing the version to SF.net. Bummer. It's nothing major functionality wise other than a cosmetic bug.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-22 12:05:05
I managed to test the Download iTunes Store Artwork method using a Beethoven album. The 4th retry was broken in 5.48.3.0 build - sorry Jose.

Here is an updated build which tested working:

20080322T204843 Job Started: EXPORT_ARTWORK_MANUAL
20080322T204850 Successfully added dummy file with Artist: "Günter Wand & NDR-Sinfonieorchester", Album: "Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 (Remastered)"
20080322T204856 Successfully added dummy file with Artist: "Various Artists", Album: "Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 (Remastered)"
20080322T204902 Successfully added dummy file with Artist: "Compilation", Album: "Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 (Remastered)"
20080322T204916 Successfully added dummy file with Artist: "Günter Wand", Album: "Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 (Remastered)"
20080322T204920 Duration: 0 Hours 00 Minutes 36.4021448 Seconds
20080322T204920 Cleaning Temporary Files... in G:\Users\McoreD\AppData\Roaming\iTSfv\

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)

5.50.0.0 Support for appending for prepending strings to Name, Album, Artist, AlbumArtist or Genre using Selected Tracks - Editor
5.49.3.1 Fixed bug where %DiscCount% in patterns were returning %DiscNumber% values!
5.49.3.0 Support for %Grouping% syntax for dealing with Box Sets
5.49.2.0 Clipboard preview is now multiline compatible and supports preview of all the selected tracks
5.49.1.0 Support for new line character "\n" to be used when copying Tag Information to clipboard. Do not use it for file names.
5.49.0.1 Possibility of crashing iTSfv while capitalizing AlbumArtist tag in tracks in a Smart Playlist. This function is now limited only in playlists safe to perform the task.
5.49.0.0 Convert embedded non-JPG Artwork (PNG or GIF) to JPG Format as part of validation. Results are logged to file. [Chris Daniels]
5.48.3.1 Created blank iTunes metatags playlist if Check for metatags option and Save results as iTunes Playlists checkBoxes were checked

Cheers,
McoreD

Edit:

McoreD, could you please add one more check ?

- Check if Artwork downloads with default tags.
- If that fails, then it will change Artist to "Various Artists" and retry.
- If that fails, then it will change Artist to "Compilation" and retry.
- If that fails, if the "&" sign is present, then it will truncate the bit after "&" and retry.

"Compilation" is often used here in Europe as a replacement for "Various Artists"... I've checked and it exists in the iTS.


To increase performance, I have swapped these steps around for the next build:

- Check if Artwork downloads with default tags.
- If that fails, if the "&" sign is present, then it will truncate the bit after "&" and retry, else go to next retry.
- If that fails, then it will change Artist to "Various Artists" and retry.
- If that fails, then it will change Artist to "Compilation" and retry.

Edit 2:

Discovered something even bizarre.

20080323T013243 Successfully added dummy file with Artist: "Josef Krips & London Symphony Orchestra", Album: "The Nine Symphonies"
20080323T013249 Successfully added dummy file with Artist: "Josef Krips", Album: "The Nine Symphonies"
20080323T013255 Successfully added dummy file with Artist: "London Symphony Orchestra", Album: "The Nine Symphonies"

20080323T013255 Duration: 0 Hours 00 Minutes 18.2040016 Seconds
20080323T013255 Cleaning Temporary Files... in G:\Users\McoreD\AppData\Roaming\iTSfv\
20080323T013305 Saved Track Artwork as G:\Users\McoreD\Desktop\London Symphony Orchestra - (2006) The Nine Symphonies.jpg

It is not always the first artist before &!!


Edit 3:

5.51.2.0 Increased accuracy for downloading iTunes Artwork from Albums such as "Mozart: The Symphonies" by "Academy of Ancient Music, Christopher Hogwood & Jaap Schröder"

20080324T144305 Job Started: EXPORT_ARTWORK_MANUAL
20080324T144311 Temporarily added dummy file with Artist: "Academy of Ancient Music, Christopher Hogwood & Jaap Schröder", Album: "Mozart: The Symphonies"
20080324T144319 Temporarily added dummy file with Artist: "Academy of Ancient Music", Album: "Mozart: The Symphonies"
20080324T144319 Duration: 0 Hours 00 Minutes 14.445838 Seconds
20080324T144319 Cleaning Temporary Files... in G:\Users\Manno\AppData\Roaming\iTSfv\
20080324T144323 Saved Track Artwork as G:\Users\McoreD\Desktop\Academy of Ancient Music - (1997) Mozart_ The Symphonies.jpg
20080324T144323 Job Finished: EXPORT_ARTWORK_MANUAL
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2008-03-25 01:14:43
To increase performance, I have swapped these steps around for the next build:

- Check if Artwork downloads with default tags.
- If that fails, if the "&" sign is present, then it will truncate the bit after "&" and retry, else go to next retry.
- If that fails, then it will change Artist to "Various Artists" and retry.
- If that fails, then it will change Artist to "Compilation" and retry.

I totally agree ! 

Discovered something even bizarre.
[...]
It is not always the first artist before &!!

Yes, I have been noticing this quite often in fact. I have to say that the iTS is quite full of small errors, typos, etc., and in case of several artists (e.g. %artist% = "ARTIST1 & ARTIST2"), it may happen that the iTS displays ARTIST1 & ARTIST2 but uses ARTIST2 & ARTIST1... 


5.51.2.0 Increased accuracy for downloading iTunes Artwork from Albums such as "Mozart: The Symphonies" by "Academy of Ancient Music, Christopher Hogwood & Jaap Schröder"

Looks great to me ! So you've taken commas into consideration, right ? 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-25 11:34:32
Jose,

That's correct - commas are now take care of and the overall multi artist scenario is re-coded from scratch.

I have uploaded the build here:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)

5.51.3.0 Artwork Sources are now configurable using Options - Advanced - Validation [Jeff]
5.51.2.0 Increased accuracy for downloading iTunes Artwork from Albums such as "Mozart: The Symphonies" by "Academy of Ancient Music, Christopher Hogwood & Jaap Schröder"
5.51.1.0 Added Options - File System - Rule to Always Fix Artist Folder Icon during Validation of Selected Tracks
5.51.0.0 Support for changing Picture type from Other to Cover (front) [williamsardar]
5.50.1.0 Retry downloading iTunes Store artwork for tracks with the second Artist that is seperated by "&" character
5.50.0.0 Support for appending for prepending strings to Name, Album, Artist, AlbumArtist or Genre using Selected Tracks - Editor
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2008-03-25 16:06:58
[workaround found - see the end of the post]


All right, now on for a new challenge (but is it really one ?  ). Let's talk a bit about large box collections.

I have bought and ripped myself the enormous Brilliant Classics' Mozart Complete Works (170 CDs, no more no less  ).

I have also designed nine custom covers for each of the nine CD categories (Symphonies, Concertos, etc.).

What I'd like to do is to :
- Select one of my designed covers at a time (e.g. "cover 1.jpg")
- Select in iTunes all the relevant albums (e.g. from "01-01 - Symphonies KV 16-19-19A-22-43-45" to "01-11 - Symphonies KV 550, 551 'Jupiter'"
- Press a button   
- Then iTSfv would automatically :
1/ Duplicate the cover as many times as needed (11 times here)
2/ Name each duplicated cover the way I want (e.g. "%album artist% - (%year%) - %album%.jpg")

This would save me a LOT of time duplicating / renaming 170 covers by hand !
(besides, I've got Chopin and Schubert's Complete Works on the way (80 more CDs currently being ripped), and I'm thinking about buying Bach (155 CDs) and Beethoven (100 CDs), so... well... I could REALLY use such function !!  )

What do you think McoreD ? 
(maybe there's already another tool that could do the work, I don't know)


EDIT - I've found a workaround, although more complicated :
- Create 170 dummy mp3 for iTunes with dbPowerAMP (yeah, that's me, the dummy mp3 guy  )
- Embed each of the nine custom artwork in one mp3 of each category (01-01, 02-01, 03-01, and so on)
- Copy / paste them for all other mp3 (01-01 goes to 01-02 ... 01-11, and so on)
- Then use iTSfv to extract all 170 artwork the way I want.

It takes a bit of time, but in the end it WORKS.

This tool is incredible !! 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-25 23:10:10
Jose, excellent challenge- I like it

To my understanding

Cover1.jpg is common to 11 discs: Disc 01 to Disc 11
Cover2.jpg is common to 18 discs: Disc 12 to Disc 29
Cover3.jpg is common to 23 discs: Disc 30 to Disc 52
Cover4.jpg is common to 16 discs: Disc 53 to Disc 68
Cover5.jpg is common to 13 discs: Disc 69 to Disc 81
Cover6.jpg is common to 15 discs: Disc 82 to Disc 96
Cover7.jpg is common to 21 discs: Disc 97 to Disc 117
Cover8.jpg is common to 9 discs: Disc 118 to Disc 126
Cover9.jpg is common to 44 discs: Disc 127 to Disc 170

(I would have actually have 170 different Artwork from the CD Cover but that's besides point )


Am I right to assume, creating 170 dummy mp3 files is a must for both automatic or workaround method?
To create 11 different files using 11 discs means that you will need at least 11 files (one file from each disc)  - that's just Volume 1. There are 8 volumes to go. So for each other volume, you will have to create dummy mp3 files to create Artwork file name, wouldn't you? So I guess it is a must.

OK so let's assume you have 170 mp3 files that represent each disc, in iTunes.
Each dummy mp3 file is in the proper FLAC album folder location.

You select disc 01 to 11 in iTunes.
Right click in iTunes, Get Info and browse for your Cover1.jpg
You select disc 12 to disc 29.
Right click in iTunes, Get Info and browse for your Cover2.jpg
repeat for 9 categories (Volumes).

Now select all 170 mp3 files in iTunes
Using iTunes, create Artwork in the Album folder with the pattern %album artist% - (%year%) - %album%.jpg

Is this another workaround or a solution - I am not sure but I didn't
- Copy / paste them for all other mp3 (01-01 goes to 01-02 ... 01-11, and so on)

Jose, what you think?




I have also dealt with box sets in the past and I realized songs needed a %BoxSet% tag – where in this case %BOXSET% tag will be “Brilliant Classics' Mozart Complete Works”. iTunes would then ideally organize the songs like:

Music\%AlbumArtist%\%Boxset%\%DiscNumber%-%DiscCount% %Album%\ opposed to the usual way:

Music\%AlbumArtist%\%Album%\

For example:

D:\Music\The Beatles\The Beatles Black Box\1-16 Please Please Me
(this is the first of the 16 albums of the Beatles’ box set)

D:\Music\ABBA\ The Complete Studio Recordings\9-09 Rarities\
(this is the last of the 9 albums of the ABBA’s box set)

Let’s stop dreaming - my workaround for grouping all the albums of the box set was by actually using the %Grouping% tag by iTunes. It is a dirty way. The %Grouping% tag is read in WMP11 as Subgenre.
Here is the result:

(http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/2619/itunesboxsetsyn0.th.jpg) (http://img214.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itunesboxsetsyn0.jpg)

The other workaround (popular) I have seen is to actually use the Box set name as the %Album% tag.
The drawbacks are:

You will lose the album name of each disc.
You will be only limited to one album art (but I guess it will be the box set cover art)

It is interesting to know your workaround?

I have asked this question in public here: http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....st&p=554131 (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=62056&view=findpost&p=554131)
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jose Hidalgo on 2008-03-26 11:22:20
Jose, excellent challenge- I like it
I knew you would. 

Cover1.jpg is common to 11 discs: Disc 01 to Disc 11
[...] Cover9.jpg is common to 44 discs: Disc 127 to Disc 170
Exactly.

(I would have actually have 170 different Artwork from the CD Cover but that's besides point )
Um, sure but... well, if somehow you find the time to scan all 170 similar CD covers, give me a sign. That's too much for me ! 

Am I right to assume, creating 170 dummy mp3 files is a must for both automatic or workaround method?
Yes, that's exactly what I have done.

You select disc 01 to 11 in iTunes.
Right click in iTunes, Get Info and browse for your Cover1.jpg
Yes... or copy Cover1.jpg with Windows, then back to iTunes, right-click on the cover part, and paste.

repeat for 9 categories (Volumes).
Right.

Now select all 170 mp3 files in iTunes
Using iTunesiTSfv, create Artwork in the Album folder with the pattern %album artist% - (%year%) - %album%.jpg
YES ! That's exactly what I have done !!  (with iTSfv, not with iTunes of course)

Is this another workaround or a solution - I am not sure but I didn't
- Copy / paste them for all other mp3 (01-01 goes to 01-02 ... 01-11, and so on)
It's the solution I have used yesterday, and it works. 

See the other thread for my thoughts on tagging.   
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-27 02:13:41
Quote
Hey McoreD,

I've been getting .NET Framework errors with the new 5.51 build.
This happens when i'm getting artwork from the iTunes store that didn't download with my own tags.

.NET give this error: Unhandled exception, Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
I added the whole thing at the end here.

I suspect it might have something to do with the fact that iTunes is busy 'determining gapless playback information' when I have iTSfv add a dummy mp3 to grab the artwork.  Not sure, but that seems to be a pattern.

Didn't seem like a good idea to dump the dump in the thread, hence the pm.  Feel free to copypaste whatever you deem interesting back in the thread.

Cheers

Code: [Select]
See the end of this message for details on invoking 
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
  at iTSfv.mBwJobsIT.mfExportArtworkIT(IITOperationStatus job, String dirPath)
  at iTSfv.frmMain.bwApp_RunWorkerCompleted(Object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
  at System.ComponentModel.BackgroundWorker.OnRunWorkerCompleted(RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
  at System.ComponentModel.BackgroundWorker.AsyncOperationCompleted(Object arg)


************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
iTSfv
    Assembly Version: 5.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 5.51.3.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/iTSfv.exe
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.VisualBasic
    Assembly Version: 8.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 8.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Microsoft.VisualBasic/8.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll
----------------------------------------
System
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Runtime.Remoting
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Runtime.Remoting/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Runtime.Remoting.dll
----------------------------------------
McoreIndexer
    Assembly Version: 2.9.7.0
    Win32 Version: 2.9.7.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/McoreIndexer.DLL
----------------------------------------
System.Configuration
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Configuration/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Configuration.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Xml
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll
----------------------------------------
yqlli7rt
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
McoreSystem
    Assembly Version: 1.12.1.1
    Win32 Version: 1.12.1.1
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/McoreSystem.DLL
----------------------------------------
Interop.ITDETECTORLib
    Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/Interop.ITDETECTORLib.DLL
----------------------------------------
Interop.iTunesLib
    Assembly Version: 1.10.0.0
    Win32 Version: 1.10.0.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/Interop.iTunesLib.DLL
----------------------------------------
Accessibility
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Accessibility/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Accessibility.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Web
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_32/System.Web/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Web.dll
----------------------------------------
CustomMarshalers
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_32/CustomMarshalers/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/CustomMarshalers.dll
----------------------------------------
taglib-sharp
    Assembly Version: 2.0.3.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.3.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/taglib-sharp.DLL
----------------------------------------

************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this
application or computer (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.

For example:

<configuration>
    <system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer
rather than be handled by this dialog box.


Hi NearlyGod,

Thanks for the concern and I wrapped the error in codebox tag.

Could you please temporarily turn off volume levelling and let me know if it works? I have Volume levelling on and also I guess the gapless playback determination is happening for all the tracks that are added. I will try to catch the error in the upcoming builds.

Jose,

Great to know it works out for you that way. I will check the other thread for the Box set tagging practises.

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: NearlyGod on 2008-03-27 15:13:03
> I suspect it might have something to do with the fact that iTunes is busy 'determining gapless playback information' when I have
> iTSfv add a dummy mp3 to grab the artwork.  Not sure, but that seems to be a pattern.

Could you please temporarily turn off volume levelling and let me know if it works? I have Volume levelling on and also I guess the gapless playback determination is happening for all the tracks that are added. I will try to catch the error in the upcoming builds.


Assuming that levelling is what iTunes calls 'Sound Check', I've never had it switched on 

I don't have a 100% score for reproducing this, but it does seem that it only occurs when I have Photoshop CS3 open at the same time (which I have set to use .NET for some dialogues), never when it's not running.

I wouldn't spend too much time tracking this down, I'll try and get better crashes 

EDIT: Hm.  Might want to scratch that last comment  Not running Photoshop this time, and my first attempt at grabbing albumart today:

System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x80010001): Call was rejected by callee. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80010001 (RPC_E_CALL_REJECTED))
  at iTunesLib.IITOperationStatus.get_Tracks()
  at iTSfv.mBwJobsIT.mfExportArtworkIT(IITOperationStatus job, String dirPath)
  at iTSfv.frmMain.bwApp_RunWorkerCompleted(Object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
  at System.ComponentModel.BackgroundWorker.OnRunWorkerCompleted(RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
  at System.ComponentModel.BackgroundWorker.AsyncOperationCompleted(Object arg)

Very reproducable, because so far, it's happened every time I wanted to download art!

NG
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-28 04:52:39
NearlyGod,

That's strange. Errors such as "Rejected by Callee (iTunes)" means there was some window open in iTunes  or iTunes was too busy processing information. Has anybody else experienced this issue?

I have handled the error preventing crash however this doesn't mean iTunes Store artwork will be successfully retrieved.

How does your debug file look NG?

20080328T135119 Job Started: EXPORT_ARTWORK_MANUAL
20080328T135125 Temporarily added dummy file with Artist: "Various Artists", Album: "100 Best Relaxing Classics"
20080328T135125 Duration: 0 Hours 00 Minutes 6.5936292 Seconds
20080328T135125 Cleaning Temporary Files... in G:\Users\McoreD\AppData\Roaming\iTSfv\
20080328T135130 Saved Track Artwork as G:\Users\McoreD\Desktop\Various Artists - (2007) 100 Best Relaxing Classics.jpg
20080328T135130 Job Finished: EXPORT_ARTWORK_MANUAL




Meanwhile I was adding so many songs to iTunes and played with running two instances of iTSfv:

(http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/253/itsfvduo2ys5.th.png) (http://img182.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itsfvduo2ys5.png)
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: NearlyGod on 2008-03-28 17:11:12
How does your debug file look NG?


Not like much 

(SCRATCH THIS - I copied a few lines here, but they were from a succesful art-download.  Deleted because there is no info added to the log at all when a crash has happened)

When this occurs, I can still choose between 'continue' or 'quit'.  iTSfv remains usable.  The dummy file however is not removed from my playlist, if that helps you to 'time' what's happening.

EDIT It just started getting crashes again, but only now (not very quick of me) I noticed that it only happens when artwork is NOT found...  Also, the debug log file isn't updated so I can only hope that the bit I copied above was from an actual crash.

EDIT2 Crap, not reproducable: Where 5 minutes ago, it crashed on 'Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger', after restarting iTSfv: no crash.  Even though it can still not download the art.  (Different issue, but very strange, this album should be an easy one, no?  iTunes itself doesn't grab the art either, despise proper tagging).
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-28 20:28:54
NearlyGod,

That's very strange. Here is the Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger Artwork from iTunes Store.

(http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/8020/ryanadams2006easytigersx6.th.jpg) (http://img144.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ryanadams2006easytigersx6.jpg)

I figured the debug data were not written to the file, however if you had Logs > Debug... clicked, a Debug window would open and you could see the current debug data there.

Dummy file not getting deleted means it crashed inside this function:

Code: [Select]
    Public Function mfExportArtworkIT(ByVal job As IITOperationStatus, ByVal dirPath As String) As Boolean

        Dim succ As Boolean = True
        Dim songLoc As String = "Unknown Track Location"

        Try
            If job IsNot Nothing Then
                If job.Tracks.Count > 0 Then

                    Dim song As IITFileOrCDTrack = CType(job.Tracks(1), IITFileOrCDTrack)

                    songLoc = song.Location
                    Dim songArtist As String = song.Artist

                    succ = song.Artwork.Count > 0

                    If succ Then
                        sExportArtwork(song, dirPath)
                    End If

                    If IO.File.Exists(songLoc) Then
                        My.Computer.FileSystem.DeleteFile(songLoc)
                    End If

                    song.Delete()

                    If succ = False Then
                        mfUpdateStatusBarText("Could not find Artwork from iTunes Store...", True)
                    End If

                End If
            End If

            ' - type artist, album, first track title and press search
            '- search copies a dummy mp3 from program dir to temp, adds the tags to file, adds teh file to itunes
            '- if job.tracks.count > 0 then if  track.artwork.count > 0 then prompt where to save the artwork or auto save to Artwork folder
            '- delete the track from itunes, delete track from temp
        Catch ex As Exception
            msAppendWarnings(ex.Message + " while exporting iTunes Store Artwork for " + songLoc)
        End Try

        Return succ


    End Function

Would you be interested in a remote session? If so, we could work some common time out.

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: NearlyGod on 2008-03-29 11:49:11
That's very strange. Here is the Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger Artwork from iTunes Store.


Hehe, thanks

Quote
I figured the debug data were not written to the file, however if you had Logs > Debug... clicked, a Debug window would open and you could see the current debug data there.


I did this time, when I tried to download 'Morrissey - Ringleader of the Tormentors' , the result is as follows:
20080329T123835 Job Started: EXPORT_ARTWORK_MANUAL
20080329T123856 Duration: 0 Hours 00 Minutes 21,21875 Seconds
20080329T123856 Cleaning Temporary Files... in C:\Documents and Settings\Me\Application Data\iTSfv\

Not exactly illuminating; it did however ask me to send a report via email, I hope these end up actually arriving?  'Zwit0045' would be me.

I should note that before that, I had some succesful albumart downloads, as well as one unproblematic 'art not found' instance.

Quote
Would you be interested in a remote session? If so, we could work some common time out.


I'd like to help as much as I can, but I don't want to disappoint you by not showing up or having to leave very quickly.  My schedule at this moment just doesn't allow it.  In the meantime, I hope I do have some time to test and to keep reporting back to the forum.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-29 13:09:42
Hi NearlyGod,

Appreciate your feedback. The new build:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)

has error handling and debug writing fixed for downloading iTunes Store Artwork.

The bug reports will be sent successfully provided that you have set SMTP settings in Options > Advanced > Internet. It should prompt you for the first time. You can also manually trigger this using Help > Submit Bug Report...

Thanks,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: NearlyGod on 2008-03-29 15:38:19
Thank you, will try and play with the new build this weekend.

There's something else that I encountered and have no explanation for:
When dealing with multiple-cd albums, spread over per-cd folders, occasionally only the first cd is handled correctly when Embedding Artwork and when Exporting Folder, AlbumartSmall and Artwork.jpg.

The second cd's and up are ignored.  This seems to happen with albums where I have manually added the coverart (which I always drop on the first track of an album).  When iTunes itself has been able to download the art, it is embedded in the tracks of all the cds, and the three JPGs are created in all folders.

Cheers

(NB the download counter on sourceforge isn't accurate or at least not realtime  Okay, sorry for this useless info)
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-03-30 22:55:01
There's something else that I encountered and have no explanation for:
When dealing with multiple-cd albums, spread over per-cd folders, occasionally only the first cd is handled correctly when Embedding Artwork and when Exporting Folder, AlbumartSmall and Artwork.jpg.

The second cd's and up are ignored.  This seems to happen with albums where I have manually added the coverart (which I always drop on the first track of an album).  When iTunes itself has been able to download the art, it is embedded in the tracks of all the cds, and the three JPGs are created in all folders.


Hi NearlyGod,

I can kind of see how this could happen by design. When you say multiple-disc albums spread over per-disc folders, I assume as opposed what I have here:

Name: Haunted
Artist: Paul van Dyk feat. Lo-Fi Sugar
AlbumArtist: Paul van Dyk
Album: In Between
Location: D:\Music\Paul van Dyk\In Between\1-01 Haunted.mp3
Disc: 1 of 2
Genre: Trance

Name: White Lies Berlin (Vocal Mix)
Artist: Paul van Dyk & Alex M.O.R.P.H.
AlbumArtist: Paul van Dyk
Album: In Between
Location: D:\Music\Paul van Dyk\In Between\2-01 White Lies Berlin (Vocal Mix).mp3
Disc: 2 of 2
Genre: Trance

you will have it as

Location: D:\Music\Paul van Dyk\In Between (Disk 01)\01 Haunted.mp3

Location: D:\Music\Paul van Dyk\In Between (Disk 02)\01 White Lies Berlin (Vocal Mix).mp3

but the tag for Album will be both the same?

Album: In Between

or will it be

Album: In Between (Disk 01)

Album: In Between (Disk 02)

I could see something could happen when iTunes is not organizing the music. I will experiment with different variations and see what I find.

Thanks for pointing this out.

Edit:

It was very straightforward to reproduce. What you mentioned would happen if you have Album: In Between for both discs but have them in separate folders. It was the logical outcome by current design. You will see in the Debug logs:

20080331T060125 Found 1 sources of Artwork  - for Paul van Dyk (Disk 01) because I embedded artwork to the first track of the disc
20080331T061406 Found 0 sources of Artwork  - for Paul van Dyk (Disk 02) because I did not embed artwork to the first track of the disc

So in other words, there were no artwork in the source folder, or track, or in iTunes Store cache for the disc 2.

The workaround is to embed the artwork in the first track in every disc.

In iTunes you see both discs together because the Album tag was same, but in the File System they are two different beasts with 2nd disc having no artwork.

When iTunes downloads the Artwork automatically it assigns the artwork to every track in the album (disc 01 and disc 02). So each track has artwork reference to iTunes Artwork cache. iTSfv is able to pick this and export the artwork to Disc 02 folder. That's why: When iTunes itself has been able to download the art, it is embedded in the tracks of all the cds, and the three JPGs are created in all folders.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: NearlyGod on 2008-04-03 16:15:17
Hey McoreD, thank you for taking a look at this.  You've hit all the nails on their heads!

It's no biggie.

Haven't really had time to spend on my music, but I did find out that iTSfv doesn't like it when I capitalize the AlbumArtist tag, when there is none present. 

EDIT: While editing and (re-)compiling my collection, I've come up with a feature-request that I think might be useful: 'send to google' and/or wikipedia, but I think Google is the most useful.  This would simply do a google search for the current iTunes "Artist - Album", which would give all kinds of useful info.

Cheers
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-04-04 01:29:26
NearlyGod,

Indeeed. Thanks for spotting that bug. 

5.52.1.0 Search selected track in Google via Selected Tracks menu [NearlyGod]
5.52.0.1 Regrouping tracks / Capitalizing AlbumArtist would crash iTSfv if AlbumArtist tag was Empty [NearlyGod]


5.52.0.0 Option to manually choose best artwork for importing via Options - Advanced - Validation - Artwork
(http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/9344/itsfvartworkmanualoj2.png)

5.51.8.0 Support for %Folder% and %Location% syntax for use with Selected Tracks - Clipboard
5.51.7.0 Option to manually select artist for downloading iTunes Store track artwork from multiple artists are found
5.51.6.0 Tabs now have icons from Silk icon set 1.3 by Mark James [Sadie]

Nice idea about Googling the track for more info. When you said "current iTunes Artist - Album" I assume you mean the current selected track, not the playing track?

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: NearlyGod on 2008-04-04 10:09:04
Nice idea about Googling the track for more info. When you said "current iTunes Artist - Album" I assume you mean the current selected track, not the playing track?


It seems that would be most in line with how iTSfv operates, no?  If you should want info about the track that is playing, it's easy enough to focus the cursor on it.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-04-04 10:55:17
That's Correct NearlyGod. 

The latest Beta version with the above version history is downloadable.

5.52.1.1 Downloading iTunes Store artwork did not work in build 5.51.7.0 and above

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)
http://itsfv.sourceforge.net/ (http://itsfv.sourceforge.net/)

Cheers,
McoreD

P.S:

I just found an early screenshot of iTSfv:

[a href="http://img354.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itsfv08demoru4.jpg" target="_blank"]
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2008-04-04 20:51:53
5.52.0.0 Option to manually choose best artwork for importing via Options - Advanced - Validation - Artwork
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-04-05 01:53:01
does that mean that I will be able to go through my music collection and compare the album art that is currently embedded in the file, to the album art I could get from iTunes?


Hi Jojo,

This manual mode is the result of the one very early ideas that didn't get to implement:

"Always look for higher resolution artwork while validating groupBox? What do you think of that?"
--> Good, but maybe not perfect. In fact it should depend on whether the optional "preview" mode is activated or not.
--> "preview" mode activated => look for all possible artwork
--> "preview" mode deactivated => always look for higher resolution artwork

What do you think ?

"Personally I would like less user interaction as possible. I normally start validating the whole library and go get a cup of coffee or to bed. biggrin.gif
So the *optional* preview mode is a great idea to fix that issue. "
--> Yes of course, it has to be optional. This way we will be able to validate 90% of the library with no user interaction, then handle the remaining 10% on an album-per-album basis using the preview mode.


Your idea is very nice and I can certainly incorporate the current resources into implementing that feature.

iTSfv so far has been automatically choosing the highest resolution cover as the best artwork for embedding artwork. Highest resolution may not be always most suitable one.

Quote
When you have "Embed Artwork from XXX" checkBox checked in the Tracks tab, iTSfv looks Artwork from the following locations: 

1. iTunes Store (disabled by default because currently these Artwork are encrypted) 
2. iTunes Store Artwork in iTunes Artwork Cache
3. Artwork from the Music Folder of the track
4. Artwork embedded in Track 
5. Artwork downloaded using Album Art Downloader XUI 

iTSfv then chooses the highest resolution Artwork from the 5 sources (usually 3 sources or less on a typical environment).


This manual mode is currently useful when:

1/ You add a new album to iTunes via iTSfv. iTunes detects the album and automatically downloads the iTunes Store Artwork to the album. This iTunes Artwork can be wrong but has 600x600. You already have the proper artwork 600x593 in your album folder. iTSfv now begins to validate the albums. When you validate, iTSfv automatically would choose the 600x600 which iTunes downloaded as the best artwork but it is wrong. The manual mode will list the current artwork sources and let you embed them.

2/ An album could have various artwork embedded in its tracks and you don't notice this in iTunes. iTSfv will display all the Artwork from each track and let you choose the best one out of it to embed to all tracks in that album.

Edit:

For next release:

5.53.0.0 Manually choose best Artwork to save during batch exporting iTunes Store Artwork to user defined music folder [Jojo]

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: christian_s on 2008-04-05 18:59:28
Hi McoreD,
Is it possible to get iTSfv to generate a playlist in iTunes that would list all albums without artwork?
- Chr
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2008-04-05 21:48:28
For next release:

5.53.0.0 Manually choose best Artwork to save during batch exporting iTunes Store Artwork to user defined music folder [Jojo]

wow, that was quick. Thank You.
I noticed there is a second developer, Toby Simmons, involved now. How long has he been working with you?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-04-05 23:21:18
Hi McoreD,
Is it possible to get iTSfv to generate a playlist in iTunes that would list all albums without artwork?
- Chr


Hi christian,

Yes!  The required checkBoxes are in:

Checks tab > "Check for tracks without Artwork"
Library tab > "Save validation results as Playlists in iTunes"


wow, that was quick. Thank You.
I noticed there is a second developer, Toby Simmons, involved now. How long has he been working with you?


Hi Jojo,

Thanks - this was easy to implement as the previous Artwork Choosing dialog box was already done.

Toby Simmons was one of the iTSfv users who expressed keen interest on the source code of the project. Back then iTSfv was not open source. I made him a developer but I have not seen ever since regarding the project. 

To get MP3 working with this feature, Jojo, please add mp3 to the supported file formats in

Options > Advanced > Formats > Other Audio formats

so it will read flac,mpc,ogg,mp3

Hi Jose Hidalgo,

As I quoted your in my previous post, this feature is actually one of your oldest ideas and I would like your feedback on this. If you can test this feature working fine that would be nice.

Both Jojo/Jose Hidalgo, any feedback on this feature would be much appreciated. 

Thanks,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2008-04-07 01:03:42
To get MP3 working with this feature, Jojo, please add mp3 to the supported file formats in

is there any reason why this isn't enabled by default?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-04-07 03:25:45
Jojo,

There is no reason now. It is enabled by default after the new feature but you may not see it if you had a build installer earlier than this.  Earlier, the file formats in that Options tab were not targetted for MP3. So it only had flac,mpc,ogg.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: NearlyGod on 2008-04-07 19:16:26
McoreD, I hope this is relevant to the thread, as I don't mean to hijack it.
I'm curious how you propose handling Box Sets.  Specifically box sets that have complete, previously released, cd's in them.

A wholly new box set would tag just fine as: 'artist - nameofboxset', using disc 1/3,2/3,3/3.

A box set with (a number of) pre-existing cd's, is more tricky to handle.  Say, the 9cd Eagles box set can simply be tagged as one disc, or as 9 discs belonging to album 'Eagles box set'.  However, 8 of the nine discs have normal, proper, names.

So far I've been tagging items like this using their original names, but with the set name in the Grouping tag.  This kind of works, but I'm not really happy with it.  Especially because now I have for example disc 5 showing up as Eagles - Hotel California disc 5/9 , which is a bit so-so.  Not to speak of discs 7/9 and 8/9 which are, respectively, Eagles Live CD1 and CD2.

Do you recommend staying this course, or is there a better way to handle this?

Cheers
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-04-08 03:24:16
Hi NearlyGod,

No hijack at all, I had this covered in another thread though.

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....st&p=554131 (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=62056&view=findpost&p=554131)

I too use the Grouping tag to set the Boxset name. I don't like it because it is an abuse of the MP3 ID3v2 spec. Grouping tag according to ID3v2 spec is Sub-genre.

When you say:

A wholly new box set would tag just fine as: 'artist - nameofboxset', using disc 1/3,2/3,3/3.

Do you mean you tag Artist field with  'artist - nameofboxset' ?

The other alternative is to use the Boxset name as the Album name. Then comes the question where the title of Disc 1, 2.. goes. I would propose using OriginalAlbum frame for that. The downside of this method is that you are limited to one Artwork that represents the whole box set. You can still have different artwork for each disc however iTunes will only show one Artwork (disc 1) in the Album list view.

I expected this question to come up one day. It is a really serious topic that hasn't given much attention. IMO just like there is AlbumArtist tag that represents a collection of TrackArtists, there should be a BoxSet tag that represent a collection of Albums.

However, like I said before, if you attempt to stricly use already existing ID3v2 tags, then

Album (TALB) would be the BoxSet name.
OriginalAlbum (TOAL) would be the Disc name.

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: xanadu1979 on 2008-04-09 15:46:31
I might have found a bug.

I regularly add files to my library using the Explorer tab. I have it search for new files and I add them. If iTunes has downloaded any Podcasts during the instance I currently have running, iTSfv brings them up when I search for new files. iTSfv is configured to ignore Podcasts.

Everything works fine if I close iTunes and open it back up. Again, it only does this if iTunes downloaded the Podcast within the same instance.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-04-10 11:06:45
Hi xanadu,

Thanks for the feedback. I did not have Exclude Folders implement.

About iTSfv adding the podcasts -- that's tricky one. Outside of iTunes, iTSfv Explorer has no knowledge whether a mp3/aac is a Podcast or not. Only within iTunes, current implementation of iTSfv could tell whether a track is a Podcast or not, or otherwise it is simply just another mp3/aac file that is not yet added to iTunes. This is the reason why "Include Podcasts" option is limited to Tools/Options/Advanced/Validation. I hope you understand the design issue here? It is certainly not possible to have a workground. iTSfv could analyse each mp3/aac file in Explorer before adding to iTunes to see if it is a podcast or not, using the TagLib. I will ask the developer of TagLib if he supports the Podcast tag in audio files. For the moment, I am afraid I have suggest keeping files you don't need in iTunes, outside of iTunes music folders.


Do you have Podcasts in a separate directory? If so, in the upcoming build you will be able to add an exclude folder (Podcasts) so it will not scan for files from that folder:

(http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/3852/itsfvexcludefolderslw4.th.png) (http://img518.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itsfvexcludefolderslw4.png)

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-04-11 11:50:08
xanadu1979,

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)

5.54.1.0 Extended support to add an external folder to iTunes via Command Line e.g. add_folder "E:\Completed\Björk-Medúlla-2004"
5.54.0.1 Fixed possibility where Locations with illegal paths could crash the current operation
5.54.0.0 Added support for searching album of selected track using customized search engines via Selected Tracks menu
5.53.2.0 Ability to exclude folders from scanning for new music via Options > Explorer > Music [xanadu1979]
5.53.1.1 Fixed possible crash while creating temporary directory while searching for unencrypted Artwork in iTunes Store [Samuel]
5.53.1.0 Update AAC tags unreable in other players to be readable as part of Update Databse refreshing Tags
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: NearlyGod on 2008-04-13 16:29:47
When you say:
A wholly new box set would tag just fine as: 'artist - nameofboxset', using disc 1/3,2/3,3/3.
Do you mean you tag Artist field with  'artist - nameofboxset' ?


No, I like to keep the Artist tag as clean as possible.  If it's an 'original' boxset, with albums unique to that release, the name of the boxset is perfectly usable as Album name.  Unless someone decides to give different names to each disc, like cd1:diamonds, cd2:pearls, etc.  I tend to ignore those, but when those names are usefully descriptive, it's a shame to lose them.  Like we discussed earlier: Grouping is a way to get around this, pretty or not.

The only time when I monkey with a tag, is to put something else then 'Various' in the AlbumArtist field.  I was getting too many of those, and changed a few really large sets of collections (e.g. Rough Guides and Alternative Times) into AlbumArtist: 'Various RG' and 'Various AT'.  It's like Grouping, but a bit less polished. Otherwise, I'm quite conformist 

Your points about the issues that come up when handling boxset-albumart are exactly what I'm currently dealing with.  Do I remember correctly a screenshot you posted with a 50CD Elvis set?  I've got that one coming up, so if you have any better ideas than to use Grouping, let me know, hehe.

My goal is to have my files to be as independent from any specific application as possible.  As you can tell, I'm currently working on multi-cd albums and boxsets --- and it's a pain 

One of the things that is surprisingly time-consuming is properly filling the disccount and discnumber tags when they're completely empty to begin with.  I work in batches (mostly to be able to keep overview for myself but also to limit the damage if I really mess up) and am now using Foobar to fill those disccount/number tags.

For example, first I load all 2CD sets of the current batch in Foobar and tag the disccount '2', load the 3CD sets and tag them '3'.  Then I load every 1st cd, to tag the discnumber '1'. And then on to 2 and 3.

Because there is no single system of organization on file-level (some are in subdirs cd1, cd2, disc1, A, B, others are in one dir but have filenames '201track..212track' instead of 'cd2/01track..cd2/12track' , etc etc), I don't see how this can be automated, but if you have a brilliant idea 

Lastly, a little thing I noticed: on the tab Selected Tracks/Editor, the status for the checkbox 'Also rename the file to match the case' isn't remembered between sessions, whereas all others are.

Cheers, ...until next weekend, probably!

PS something quite different - one of the reasons I've been making my library (also) available in iTunes, is that most people are familiar with the program.  Unlike Total Commander, WinAmp, Foobar or even MediaMonkey, about which I got complaints from visitors who wanted to browse and play.  (I'm not going to mention WMP, I hate hate hate that).  Trouble is, iTunes doesn't have a Read-Only mode, aka Party Mode.  So my idea of preventing problems by offering a well-known program for drunken revelers is backfiring a bit.  Yes, they can actually control it, but the problem is, they can actually control it...  Since I don't want to have a Killing (tag-)Fields, I would jump for joy if you found a way for iTSfv to put iTunes in some kind of read-only mode.  I don't care about the library (easily backupped or rebuilt), only about the actual music files.
Locking the entire PC, except for iTunes, would be just fine.  We're not talking hack-proof, but just a way to protect people who think they're being hilariously funny, from my wrath.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-04-21 09:45:51
Hi NearlyGod,

Thanks for the tip about the US iTunes Store account. It was indeed possible that way! I didn't try it because I already had a AUS iTunes Store account. Now all is good.

You were right about seeing the Elvis' 50 CD Boxset organized that way in iTunes:


(http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/7414/itunesboxsetsui5.th.jpg) (http://img216.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itunesboxsetsui5.jpg)

I also have Beatles the same way.

(http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/3274/beatlesboxsetyt8.th.jpg) (http://img216.imageshack.us/my.php?image=beatlesboxsetyt8.jpg)

Like you said, this method becomes iTunes-only and I don't prefer that.

About adding multi-disc albums with no DiscNumber before them is a painful task, yes. An automated implementation becomes quite tricky too, with different file naming conventions. This is a reason why the Add New Files dialog box in iTSfv has a warning to add only one disc at a time. This however does not mean we cannot try, does it? I will experiment with this for the next major build.

I wished there was a Party Mode like Plus! DME in iTunes. Microsoft killed it eventually. I had a look in the iTunes SDK but unfortunately there is no method of locking iTunes is any sort. We will see what Apple is upto in iTunes 8!

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: xanadu1979 on 2008-05-02 03:54:20
I think I've got a few bugs to report. I am including screenshots of each of them.

I am using XP SP3 (this behavior also happened on SP2) and I have my display set to 120dpi. You can set this in your display properties. Since a few releases ago, the controls on the form are too big for the form itself and you don't allow the user to resize the form.

Screenshot:
(http://xanadu.freeshell.org/iTSfv/iTSfv_120dpi.png)

Also, when using the Track Replace Assistant, any mp3 files that I drag to the top form are displayed in the list twice.

Screenshot:
(http://xanadu.freeshell.org/iTSfv/iTSfv_Track_Replace_Duplicating.png)

Again, thanks for the great program. It has become an invaluable resource for me.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-05-02 12:21:34
Hi xanadu1979,

Thanks for the appreciation and feedback.

I am ashamed at that ugly 120 DPI Screenshot. The good news is that you are saying this started happening after a few releases ago. So that means the Larger Font size support is already built in but I haven't thought about the Form Size. This will be immediately tested and fixed for next beta release.

For the duplicate addition of files in Track Replace Assistant, I know the reason why:

Options > Advanced > Formats > Other Audio formats

will read

Code: [Select]
flac,mpc,ogg,mp3


for you.

Please remove mp3 so you will read

Code: [Select]
flac,mpc,ogg


I will be fixing this for the next release.

I am glad you find Track Replace Assistant useful, you are the first person I seen using it. 

Cheers,
McoreD

Edit: Is TagLib# File Validator (Tools menu) and Options window fine for you with 120 DPI?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: xanadu1979 on 2008-05-02 13:02:58
Edit: Is TagLib# File Validator (Tools menu) and Options window fine for you with 120 DPI?


Off the top of my head, I think they look fine. I'll try to remember to double-check when I am on my home computer.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-05-03 01:16:40
xanadu1979,

I have them addressed for the next release:

Here is a screenshot with 120 DPI:
(http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/9532/itsfvxanaduhp7.th.png) (http://img246.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itsfvxanaduhp7.png)

5.59.2.0 Main Window is now resizable and maximizable [xanadu1979]
5.59.1.0 Track Replace Assistant Window is now resizable and maximizable
5.59.0.2 Fixed glitch where Track Replace Assistant would display a file multiple times [xanadu1979]
5.59.0.1 Main Window was not displaying controls properly for 120 DPI settings from build 5.52.2.0 [xanadu1979]

5.59.0.0 Import Rating from PCNT or POPM Frame as part of validation via Library tab
5.58.0.0 Write PlayedCount information to PCNT frame as part of validation via Options : Tracks : Ratings|PlayedCount tab
5.57.0.0 Write PlayedCount|Rating information to POPM frame as part of validation via Options : Tracks : Ratings|PlayedCount tab
5.56.0.5 Fixed crash due to Object reference not set to an instance of an object error while saving validation results to M3U playlist [Chris Daniels]
5.56.0.4 Fixed crash due to possible Object reference not set to an instance of an object errors while grabbing Artwork using iTunes Artwork Grabber [ChipT]
5.56.0.3 Fixed Object reference not set to an instance of an object error introduced after build 5.55.0.1 while getting Artwork [Bill]
5.56.0.2 Fixed instability due to possible unauthorized copy file operations [drewaf63]

Thanks for reporting this issue quite clearly.

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2008-05-03 06:16:17
I like the new icons 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-05-04 23:57:59
Hi All, I have released build 5.59.4.1 beta before I break something. 

(http://wmwiki.com/mike/screenshots/iTSfv_5.59_ALPHA-20080504100100.png)

5.59.4.1 Fixed possible application crashes when initiating TabLib# Editor
5.59.4.0 Import PlayedCount and Rating information from POPM and/or PCNT Frames as an OneTouch action via OneTouch : Library tab
5.59.3.0 Write PlayedCount and Rating information to POPM and PCNT frames as an OneTouch action via OneTouch : Tracks tab

https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...group_id=204248 (https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248)
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: DrKnowLittle on 2008-05-06 22:25:50
Hi All, I have released build 5.59.4.1 beta before I break something. 


Hi , I just had to register  to say thanks !

This made playing music on my ipod so much  better 

Only on pice of the puzzle missing for me ,it might be me no  doin it right but I can't get the rename folder option to work w/o making a copy to iTunes folder, I keep my music sorted in alfabetic in folders from a-z so I don't want them all to end up in one single folder.

for example : X:\Muisc\A\Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill (1995)

I guess my question is , would it be possible to use the rename feature "Music Folder Structure" found under (Options -> Explorer -> Rules) without the "Copy files to..." ?

Br
DrKnowLittle
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-05-07 01:54:09
Hi DrKnowLittle,

Thanks for the feedback.

I can see the current Music Folder strucutures:

%AlbumArtist%\%Album%
%AlbumArtist%\(%Year%) %Album%
%AlbumArtist%\%Year% %Album%
%Genre%\%AlbumArtist% - %Album%
%Genre%\%AlbumArtist% - (%Year%) %Album%

do not support the structure you are after.

I will add that for the next beta build.

My personal opinion on this: iTunes default music folder structure is the recommended structure with "Organize Music Folder" setting turned on. I have over 22000 music files, organized in AlbumArtist\Album this way. How you have your music files organized in custom manner does not matter when it comes to music browsing within the player. It is going to extract the Metatags from the files and display them to you anyway.

Cheers,
McoreD

Edit:

DrKnowLittle, what a coincidence. I was just listening to her

Alanis Morissette - The Collection

01 Thank You [229 Kibit/s] [7,686 KiB]
02 Head Over Feet [256 Kibit/s] [8,712 KiB]
03 8 Easy Steps [253 Kibit/s] [5,793 KiB]
04 Everything [252 Kibit/s] [8,882 KiB]
05 Crazy [241 Kibit/s] [6,902 KiB]
06 Ironic [257 Kibit/s] [7,626 KiB]
07 Princess Familiar (MTV unplugged) [256 Kibit/s] [9,025 KiB]
08 You Learn [270 Kibit/s] [8,339 KiB]
09 Simple Together [243 Kibit/s] [9,003 KiB]
10 You Oughta Know [254 Kibit/s] [8,138 KiB]
11 That I Would Be Good [230 Kibit/s] [7,672 KiB]
12 Sister Blister [255 Kibit/s] [8,319 KiB]
13 Hands Clean [258 Kibit/s] [9,070 KiB]
14 Mercy (from the 'Prayer Cycle') [247 Kibit/s] [7,207 KiB]
15 Still (from the 'Dogma' soundtrack) [258 Kibit/s] [12,358 KiB]
16 Uninvited (from the 'City of Angels' soundtrack) [244 Kibit/s] [8,664 KiB]
17 Let's Do It (Let's Fall In Love) (from the 'De-Lovely' soundtrack) [240 Kibit/s] [6,405 KiB]
18 Hand In My Pocket [227 Kibit/s] [6,542 KiB]
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: DrKnowLittle on 2008-05-07 09:46:55
I can see the current Music Folder strucutures:

%AlbumArtist%\%Album%
%AlbumArtist%\(%Year%) %Album%
%AlbumArtist%\%Year% %Album%
%Genre%\%AlbumArtist% - %Album%
%Genre%\%AlbumArtist% - (%Year%) %Album%

do not support the structure you are after.

I will add that for the next beta build.

My personal opinion on this: iTunes default music folder structure is the recommended structure with "Organize Music Folder" setting turned on. I have over 22000 music files, organized in AlbumArtist\Album this way. How you have your music files organized in custom manner does not matter when it comes to music browsing within the player. It is going to extract the Metatags from the files and display them to you anyway.


Nothing wrong with a little Alanis

Main reason I want to keep my structure is that I use Tversity as upnp server and it has a nice browse by folder that is much faster on my philips streamium than scrolling down a endless list of albums

Looking forward to the next build , it would make my tagging spree a 2 step business using AAD and iTSfv.

Br
DrKnowLittle
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-05-08 14:57:11
Hi DrKnowLittle,

I will be starting to gradually support all possible foobar2000 functions
http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?ti...tring_functions (http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=Foobar2000:Titleformat_Reference#String_functions)

Initially, with the next release it will only support

$cut(tag, number)

Usage:

(http://wmwiki.com/mike/screenshots/iTSfv_5.60_BETA_Options-20080508215303.png)


Debug:

2008-05-08T21:05:14 Initialized Adding Music via Drag&Drop
2008-05-08T21:05:14 Found one or more JPG files in source Album Folder...
2008-05-08T21:05:14 Job Started: ADD_NEW_TRACKS
2008-05-08T21:05:30 Added E:\Completed\Alanis Morisette - Crazy (2005)\01_02 - Crazy (Claude La Gache Mix).mp3 to G:\Users\Mike\Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\A\Alanis Morissette\Crazy\01_02 - Crazy (Claude La Gache Mix).mp3
2008-05-08T21:05:30 Found single album. Starting to copy log/nfo files...
2008-05-08T21:05:30 Copied E:\Completed\Alanis Morisette - Crazy (2005)\folder.jpg to G:\Users\Mike\Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\A\Alanis Morissette\Crazy\folder.jpg
2008-05-08T21:06:13 Added E:\Completed\Alanis Morisette - Crazy (2005)\01_01 - Crazy (James Michael Mix).mp3 to G:\Users\Mike\Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\A\Alanis Morissette\Crazy\01_01 - Crazy (James Michael Mix).mp3
2008-05-08T21:06:13 Duration: 0 Hours 00 Minutes 59.2538104 Seconds
2008-05-08T21:06:13 Cleaning Temporary Files... in G:\Users\Mike\AppData\Roaming\iTSfv\
2008-05-08T21:06:17 Job Finished: ADD_NEW_TRACKS
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: DrKnowLittle on 2008-05-08 21:16:22
Hi DrKnowLittle,

I will be starting to gradually support all possible foobar2000 functions
http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?ti...tring_functions (http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=Foobar2000:Titleformat_Reference#String_functions)

Initially, with the next release it will only support

$cut(tag, number)

Usage:

(http://wmwiki.com/mike/screenshots/iTSfv_5.60_BETA_Options-20080508215303.png)


Hi sounds good , but Im a bit confused.

Do I still nedd to tick the " Copy files.."  for the rename to happen ?

Br
DrKnowLittle
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-05-09 00:58:25
Hi sounds good , but Im a bit confused.

Do I still nedd to tick the " Copy files.."  for the rename to happen ?

Br
DrKnowLittle


Hi, the Music folder structure is used for copying music from other directories to Music folder.

For example, when the mp3 files are in the folder such as

E:\Completed\Alanis Morisette - Crazy (2005)\01_01 - Crazy (James Michael Mix).mp3

and you want to add them to iTunes, you would copy them with any music folder structure you prefer. So $cut(%AlbumArtist%, 1)\%AlbumArtist%\%Album%  structure would copy the songs as

G:\Users\Mike\Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\A\Alanis Morissette\Crazy\01_01 - Crazy (James Michael Mix).mp3



If you prefer not to copy files and use the music folder structure to wherever you have that music, that is going to arise some ambiguity and I will need to sort some doubts out. In this example, the original folder is:
E:\Completed\Alanis Morisette - Crazy (2005). So where would the mp3 files in this folder be moved to, according to the music folder structure?

E:\Completed\Alanis Morisette - Crazy (2005)\A\Alanis Morissette\ ?
E:\Completed\A\Alanis Morissette\ ?

Commonsense tells me the sensible location is E:\Completed\A\Alanis Morissette\

Is this what you prefer?


Edit:

I have made the adjustments so it will do what I described earlier:

(http://wmwiki.com/mike/screenshots/20.0_iTSfv_5.60_BETA_EToC_is_084446_-_Adding_New_Music-20080509084416.png)

Cheers.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-05-09 10:29:20
DrKnowLittle

5.60.1.0 Abililty to organize music files according to a folder structure without having to Copy files [DrKnowLittle]
5.60.0.0 Added title formatting support initially supporting $cut(tag,number) that can be used as $cut(%AlbumArtist%,1) in Options [DrKnowLittle]
5.59.4.2 Customized Music Folder structure patterns were not added to Music Folder structure list for next launch

https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)

If you disable the Copy files check but enable the Music folder structure then iTSfv will attempt to relocate the files before adding it to iTunes. Some useful info: if AlbumArtist is blank, then iTSfv will fall back to Artist tag. If Artist tag is empty it will fall back to "Various Artists". So the worst case scenario for badly tagged files would be it being moved to V\Various Artists\Unknown Album. I hope it doesn't get there.

Cheers
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-05-10 05:24:00
I wished iTunes GUI was customizable via SDK like foobar2000.

However, I had my go at having a LyricViewer for iTunes mainly because,

iTunes LyricViewer is too hideous
I needed LyricWiki to automatically download Lyrics into tracks that didn't have lyrics

[a href="http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/2256/itunes20080510121638aa6.jpg" target="_blank"]
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: NearlyGod on 2008-05-11 18:01:27
McoreD, I haven't had the time to check in or experiment much, and will not for the next few weeks.  The new build is looking even more impressive than the last.  Foobar function support should prove very useful.

I like the status window, it provides some extra clarity that might have been lacking.  Is it possible to make it auto-scroll, or to fill it top-to-bottom, so the latest actions are always (the most) visible?

iTunes LyricViewer is too hideous


 

Cheers,

NG
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: DrKnowLittle on 2008-05-12 12:55:52
DrKnowLittle

5.60.1.0 Abililty to organize music files according to a folder structure without having to Copy files [DrKnowLittle]
5.60.0.0 Added title formatting support initially supporting $cut(tag,number) that can be used as $cut(%AlbumArtist%,1) in Options [DrKnowLittle]
5.59.4.2 Customized Music Folder structure patterns were not added to Music Folder structure list for next launch

https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)

If you disable the Copy files check but enable the Music folder structure then iTSfv will attempt to relocate the files before adding it to iTunes. Some useful info: if AlbumArtist is blank, then iTSfv will fall back to Artist tag. If Artist tag is empty it will fall back to "Various Artists". So the worst case scenario for badly tagged files would be it being moved to V\Various Artists\Unknown Album. I hope it doesn't get there.

Cheers
McoreD


Hi , took me a while to test but here is the result ...


Using latest build 5.60.1.0

I have set the organize music files option to "$cut(%AlbumArtist%, 1)\%Artist%-%Album%(%Year%)" , I tried with the "copy files" checked and unchecked but results are the same.


for example take the dir D:\Musik\F\Foo_Fighters-Echoes_Silence_Patience_And_Grace-(RETAIL)-2007 ( and yes D:\Musik is in the folder list)

When I add the dir I end up with 2 things.


a dir named "D:\Musik\F\$cut(Foo Fighters, 1)\Foo Fighters-Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace(2007)" with my mp3 files  and covers.

and a dir still called "D:\Musik\F\Foo_Fighters-Echoes_Silence_Patience_And_Grace-(RETAIL)-2007" with some files still left.



So It's not quite what I wanted but it's getting there 


Br
DrKnowLittle
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-05-12 13:59:10
DrKnowLittle,

Could you please try

Code: [Select]
$cut(%AlbumArtist%,1)\%Artist%-%Album%(%Year%)


without a space between %AlbumArtist% and 1?

This is fixed for the next build.

NearlyGod,

That was a nice useful tweak and added:

5.60.2.0 Verbose mode will auto scroll to latest status message [NearlyGod]
5.60.1.2 Fixed instability due to possible Value cannot be null error while getting file name path [zirconiumzephyr]
5.60.1.1 Fixed instability due possible Index was outside the bounds of the array exception while retrieving fixed case [kevinnsmithh]

Cheers,
McoreD


Edit: DrKnowLittle, there will be some non-mp3 files still left. I will also address this issue in the next build.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: DrKnowLittle on 2008-05-12 14:38:28
DrKnowLittle,

Could you please try

Code: [Select]
$cut(%AlbumArtist%,1)\%Artist%-%Album%(%Year%)


without a space between %AlbumArtist% and 1?

This is fixed for the next build.

NearlyGod,

That was a nice useful tweak and added:

5.60.2.0 Verbose mode will auto scroll to latest status message [NearlyGod]
5.60.1.2 Fixed instability due to possible Value cannot be null error while getting file name path [zirconiumzephyr]
5.60.1.1 Fixed instability due possible Index was outside the bounds of the array exception while retrieving fixed case [kevinnsmithh]

Cheers,
McoreD


Edit: DrKnowLittle, there will be some non-mp3 files still left. I will also address this issue in the next build.


It helped , but it not quite right yet

Now I got D:\Musik\G\G\Gabrielle-Always(2007) instead of D:\Musik\G\Gabrielle-Always(2007)

 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-05-12 15:22:36
What was your original folder location of the mp3 files belongs to Gabrielle-Always(2007), DrKnowLittle?

For example, If the mp3 files were in

D:\Musik\F\Foo_Fighters-Echoes_Silence_Patience_And_Grace-(RETAIL)-2007

then it will indeed get moved to

D:\Musik\F\F\Foo Fighters-Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace(2007)

This is because you already had Foo Fighters-Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace(2007) inside a folder called "F".

Is this the case with Gabrielle?

Edit:

I see what you were trying to achieve. You wanted them to move them to music folder. If I am right, you wanted Move to Music folder instead of Copy. I think I misunderstood you as being needed organize source mp3 folder according to a structure.

Edit 2:

I have modified the explorer options to support this feature as follows:

(http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/4646/ss20080512232512un3.th.png) (http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/4646/ss20080512232512un3.png)
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: DrKnowLittle on 2008-05-12 18:34:52
What was your original folder location of the mp3 files belongs to Gabrielle-Always(2007), DrKnowLittle?

For example, If the mp3 files were in

D:\Musik\F\Foo_Fighters-Echoes_Silence_Patience_And_Grace-(RETAIL)-2007

then it will indeed get moved to

D:\Musik\F\F\Foo Fighters-Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace(2007)

This is because you already had Foo Fighters-Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace(2007) inside a folder called "F".

Is this the case with Gabrielle?


yes that was the case,  I was under the impression that the rename option  was working with Music Folder as root dir.

for example I have my music sorted and unsorted under various directorys in D:\Musik, so I tought that the naming option would add to that  root dir and not like now , but both ways work fine for now that I know

Br
DrKnowLittle

Ps!
Don't spend to much time trying to sort out my stuff , Im sure you must have someting more important
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-05-13 14:43:14
DrKnowLittle

I have uploaded the latest version here. Hope this works as we discussed.

https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)

5.60.3.1 Fixed instability due to possible invalid charactors while getting file name from pattern [JoseHidalgo]
5.60.3.0 Ability to move files from the source folder to Music folder before adding files to iTunes [DrKnowLittle]
5.60.2.2 Function paramaters with a space e.g. $cut(tag, number) was not handled the same way as $cut(tag,number) [DrKnowLittle]
5.60.2.1 Did not move all non-audio files when organizing music files before adding to iTunes without copying [DrKnowLittle]
5.60.2.0 Verbose mode will auto scroll to latest status message [NearlyGod]
5.60.1.2 Fixed instability due to possible Value cannot be null error while getting file name path [zirconiumzephyr]
5.60.1.1 Fixed instability due possible Index was outside the bounds of the array exception while retrieving fixed case [kevinnsmithh]

Cheers
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: alexcel on 2008-05-16 23:38:14
Hi:

I am having trouble running 5.60.3.1 + latest iTunes on Vista SP1 

1º)
If have removed old comments in my mp3 files using mp3tag v2.41. They were ID3v2.3 comments

I am using iTSFV to sync my iTunes database to my tags, using the option "Update database refreshing tags in file" option and then validating my library

The old comments still appear in the iTunes database, but mp3tag confirms there are no comments as I deleted them.

2º problem)
I am trying to import new tracks to database using "Synchroclean" but it won't import any new tracks.

3ª)
When I try to validate folders without folder.jpg itsfv shows no one. I have several folders without folder.jpg, although the music files inside are protected m4p

Maybe I am doing anything wrong in the three cases.

Please help. And thanks for the great job! 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-05-17 05:49:31
Hi alexcel,

1/ I see something weird going on with iTunes and comments being rewritten back.

2/ For Synchrocleaning M4P files, please add the extension m4p here:

(http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/3503/itsfv560betaoptions2008zt9.th.png) (http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/3503/itsfv560betaoptions2008zt9.png)

3/ iTSfv was looking for all possible artwork in the album folder so if you were checking for existence of Folder.jpg and if iTSfv found Artwork.jpg there instead, it would still report as there is Artwork. This is fixed for the next build.


5.60.4.2 Checking for missing Artwork checked the presence of all possible artwork files in the album directory [alexcel]
5.60.4.1 Checking for missing Artwork did not run for Check Standard in Selected Tracks button
5.60.4.0 Artwork thumbnail in the Artwork Chooser dialog box is double clickable
5.60.3.3 Fixed instability during editing tracks if the track locations were longer than 260 characters
5.60.3.2 Fixed instability during validation of discs if the track locations were longer than 260 characters [MJC]

Cheers.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: alexcel on 2008-05-17 14:44:58
Hi MCoreD

Thanks for the reply.


On the comments topic, any ideas on how to remove those old comments ans solve the issue?

And lastly, I have a digital booklet on pdf format that is giving me a lot of errors. could you fix it?

Thanks!!
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-05-17 18:10:39
Alex,

Were the comments you removed similar to

000005D1 0000069B 000012D6 000015BE 0002B584 0002DD24 000063B0

I managed to track this issue

5.60.5.1 Albums without consecutive tracks log file was not updated for validating selected tracks [Pythago]
5.60.5.0 Remove Lyrics from Track feature in Selected Tracks : Editor is now extended to remove Comments
5.60.4.3 Update Database refreshing tags in file settings did not sometimes remove junk comments such as 000005D1 0000069B 000012D6 000015BE 0002B584 0002DD24 000063B0 [alexcel]
5.60.4.2 Checking for missing Artwork checked the presence of all possible artwork files in the album directory [alexcel]

I am afraid fixing PDF is beyond the scope of iTunes Store file validator despite it being a valid iTunes Store file.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: alexcel on 2008-05-17 22:04:10
I am afraid fixing PDF is beyond the scope of iTunes Store file validator despite it being a valid iTunes Store file.


No, no, no, I just want to skip pdf files and avoid the errors itsfv shows...cause it can't write to pdf, of course

The comments I removed were comments written by me plus some others that were string of numbers as you showed (000005D1 0000069B 000012D6 000015BE 0002B584 0002DD24 000063B0)

I'll give a try to the new beta as soon as you publish it.

Thanks!!
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-05-18 01:23:21
Hi alexcel,

I wasn't aware that PDF files were included in the validation process and see no reason how. What errors does iTSfv show? Could you please send your error/warning logs? You can do so by Help menu : Submit bug report...

Cheers.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: xanadu1979 on 2008-05-18 16:45:42
Adding new tracks via the explorer tab has stopped working for me. It looks like it's trying to add the files using a path that is different than the actual file paths. The lines below show up in my warning log. I have replaced some of the personal text, but it shouldn't make a difference.

The files aren't really in D:\User's Music\Artist, they are in D:\User's Music\Radio Shows\Artist.

D:\User's Music is my iTunes library location and it is set as my music folder location in iTSFv.

Ok, I've done some more testing. If I change the option "When adding files not under any music folder locations" from "Copy to music folders" to "let iTunes determine", then the program successfully adds the files to the library, but when it does so it tries to re-organize them in the filesystem based on the "Organize music files as" setting.

When the files are already in a music folder defined in iTSFv, I don't think the program should be worrying about copying them anywhere or reorganizing them. When I place the files in my music folder, I have them organized the way I want them. The program never did this before the last few releases.

Code: [Select]
2008-05-18T10:15:05 Could not find a part of the path 'D:\User's Music\Artist\Album\01. Title 1.mp3'. for D:\User's Music\Artist\Album\01. Title 1.mp3
2008-05-18T10:15:07 Could not find a part of the path 'D:\User's Music\Artist\Album\04. Title 4.mp3'. for D:\User's Music\Artist\Album\04. Title 4.mp3
2008-05-18T10:15:07 Could not find a part of the path 'D:\User's Music\Artist\Album\03. Title 3.mp3'. for D:\User's Music\Artist\Album\03. Title 3.mp3
2008-05-18T10:15:07 Could not find a part of the path 'D:\User's Music\Artist\Album\02. Title 2.mp3'. for D:\User's Music\Artist\Album\02. Title 2.mp3
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-05-18 23:42:14
Hi xanadu1979,

Some work was done in the Adding files section according to a few posts below.

Untick Organize Music files as

and could you please retry for now?

Thanks,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-05-19 10:31:25
Ok, I've done some more testing. If I change the option "When adding files not under any music folder locations" from "Copy to music folders" to "let iTunes determine", then the program successfully adds the files to the library, but when it does so it tries to re-organize them in the filesystem based on the "Organize music files as" setting.


xanadu,

I have figured out the cause of this.

Here is a ClickOnce package of iTSfv that has the above fix

http://wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsfv/setup.exe (http://wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsfv/setup.exe)

5.60.5.2 Adding music files from Music folder did not work properly if Organize files checkBox was turned on after build 5.60.3.0 [xanadu1979]

(http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/9121/itsfv560betaoptions2008hx3.png)

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: xanadu1979 on 2008-05-19 12:41:07
Yes, that seems to have fixed it.

But, the ClickOnce package didn't cleanly install over my existing iTSFv. It didn't bring over my settings or anything. Is that because it was just a build for testing?

I uninstalled the ClickOnce version and the existing version still works fine. So I'll wait for the installer to show up on sourceforge.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-05-19 15:01:40
xanadu,

When you say existing version still working fine - do you mean after unchecking Organize files as checkBox?

ClickOnce installs are independent from InnoSetup installed versions. My future plan was to eventually completely move to ClickOnce installs. You can restore settings into ClickOnce iTSfv using Options > Advanced > Paths.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: alexcel on 2008-05-19 15:24:08
Hi:

I've given a try to latest beta build.

I do not know if I am understanding the option wrong, but this is what is happening to me with option "Update database refreshing tags in files" enabled:
1.- I remove all comments using mp3tag2.41. I double check comments are effectively removed
2.- The comments are still present in ITunes db.
3.- I run ITSFV with option "Update database refreshing..."
4.- I open ITunes and comments are still present
5.- I check with mp3tag and comments are rewritten back to my files

So it seems that instead of updating my ITunes db from tags in my files iTSFV is updating my tags from my database content. It is the opposite as I supposed iTSFV would do.

Maybe I have understood the option wrong, all the way around.

Please let me know.

On the other issue, pdf files, they are not errors properly said (ITSFV does not crash or hang at all), but appear as ITSFV non-compliant tags, ITSFV tries to find artwork with google, etc, and the process slows down. There appear several warnings in the logs. SO, I can't send a bug. Sorry for misleading you. My english is not so good.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: xanadu1979 on 2008-05-19 15:33:43
xanadu,

When you say existing version still working fine - do you mean after unchecking Organize files as checkBox?


No, I just meant that uninstalling the ClickOnce version didn't screw up the InnoSetup version.


On the other issue, pdf files, they are not errors properly said (ITSFV does not crash or hang at all), but appear as ITSFV non-compliant tags, ITSFV tries to find artwork with google, etc, and the process slows down. There appear several warnings in the logs. SO, I can't send a bug. Sorry for misleading you. My english is not so good.


I also noticed that the program was trying to process a pdf file when I validated my library with the latest version of iTSFv. It didn't seem to cause any problems but I can see how it would slow down the process if you had a lot of pdf's in your music folder.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: xanadu1979 on 2008-05-19 16:18:26
Are you going to an InnoSetup version of 5.60.5.2? If not, are you going to keep pushing builds of the ClickOnce version? I'm fine with migrating my settings over to the ClickOnce install as long as you keep making builds with it. I don't want to switch back and forth between ClickOnce and InnoSetup.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-05-19 17:17:30
Are you going to do an InnoSetup version of 5.60.5.2? If not, are you going to keep pushing builds of the ClickOnce version? I'm fine with migrating my settings over to the ClickOnce install as long as you keep making builds with it. I don't want to switch back and forth between ClickOnce and InnoSetup.


Hi xanadu1979,

I have uploaded the latest build to SF.net

5.60.5.3 Removed possibility where iTunes database comments could sometimes be written back to ID3v2 comments tag [alexcel]
5.60.5.2 Adding music files from Music folder did not work properly if Organize files checkBox was turned on after build
5.60.3.0 [xanadu1979]
5.60.5.1 Albums without consecutive tracks log file was not updated for validating selected tracks [Pythago]
5.60.5.0 Remove Lyrics from Track feature in Selected Tracks : Editor is now extended to remove Comments

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)


I was afraid that would be case: having two install methods in public, causing confusion. I scratched idea of rolling out ClickOnce installs in public, so it will not be the official method of deployment. I will continue to use SourceForge for releasing beta and stable builds as before.

I would suggest you continue using SourceForge for future builds.

Cheers,
McoreD

Off the record: yes, I will be rolling out ClickOnce installs as well, for private beta testing. (There is a few contacts via email/IM who deploy iTSfv using ClickOnce)
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-05-19 17:29:14
Hi:

I've given a try to latest beta build.

I do not know if I am understanding the option wrong, but this is what is happening to me with option "Update database refreshing tags in files" enabled:
1.- I remove all comments using mp3tag2.41. I double check comments are effectively removed
2.- The comments are still present in ITunes db.
3.- I run ITSFV with option "Update database refreshing..."
4.- I open ITunes and comments are still present
5.- I check with mp3tag and comments are rewritten back to my files

So it seems that instead of updating my ITunes db from tags in my files iTSFV is updating my tags from my database content. It is the opposite as I supposed iTSFV would do.

Maybe I have understood the option wrong, all the way around.

Please let me know.

On the other issue, pdf files, they are not errors properly said (ITSFV does not crash or hang at all), but appear as ITSFV non-compliant tags, ITSFV tries to find artwork with google, etc, and the process slows down. There appear several warnings in the logs. SO, I can't send a bug. Sorry for misleading you. My english is not so good.


alexcel,

You haven't misunderstood anything. It was just syncing between ID3v2 tags and iTunes XML Database being a bit tricky. I hope I got it right with the latest beta. iTunes was doing strange things with the Comments tag.

If removing Comments was your intention, there is a way in iTSfv too that I'd like to mention:

(http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/813/itsfv560beta20080520002vw6.png)

About the PDF issue:

When you have External files to be moved according to folder structure, iTSfv will attempt to move files from the old location to the new location. PDF files can be included in these non-audio files. This only happens if you changed the default behavior: Copy files to Default music folder in Options > Explorer.

alexcel, Could you still send me the warning log file to mcored@gmail.com?

You can disable iTSfv looking for Album Art etc, in Options > Advanced > Sources > Artwork.

Cheers.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-05-21 15:59:50
Hi All,

Version 5.60.6.0 Beta released.

5.60.6.0 Optionally update POPM and PCNT frames while automatically adjusting ratings via Options : OneTouch : Library
5.60.5.6 Overwriting tags would not have worked if adding files belongs to a music folder after build 5.60.3.0
5.60.5.5 Fixed possible instabities while restoring rating tags from file [msg_id=4973339]
5.60.5.4 PDF files in iTunes Library were processed by iTSfv to add artwork and import lyrics causing warnings [alexcel]
5.60.5.3 Removed possibility where iTunes database comments could sometimes be written back to ID3v2 comments tag [alexcel]

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248)
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: jgcrews on 2008-05-28 03:24:45
Mike:

OK, I think I'm getting the hang of things but I've had some issues that I can't quite figure out.  iTSfv seems to do everything but wipe my ass so the learning curve is a little steep but I hope to tackle a few issues.  You suggested that I post my questions so here goes - and excuse me if I seem to be missing the obvious...

1)   If I wanted to have the MP3 tags mirror the iTunes databse info, is the "Refresh tags..." supposed to accomplish that?
2)   When exporting with the custom mask setting, it appears to be working, for the most part.  However, I've seen something strange happen (even after I got the 5.60.6.4 beta) - in iTunes, the tracks shows up like this:

Track Name: Tiësto Master Mix II (Mixed By DJ Vader)
Artist: Tiësto
Album Artist: Tiësto
Album: Tiësto Master Mix II

The export mask I am using is:
%AlbumArtist% - %Album% (%Year%) - %Track% - %Name% - %Artist%

The named file that exports is:
Tiësto - Tiësto Master Mix II (2007) - 01 - Tiësto Master Mix II - Tiësto.mp3

You'll notice that the %Name% field is different from the data within iTunes.

If I check the tags in the exported file, they are:

Track Name: Tiësto Master Mix II (Mixed By DJ Vader)
Artist: Tiësto
Album Artist: Tiësto
Album: Tiësto Master Mix II

Why is part of the track name being removed during the export?  It appears to only affect the track name and it appears to truncate the name as soon as it sees a paranthesis or bracket, for example.  Also, is there a paramter that can be used in the mask for the bitrate?

3)   If I'm using the export feature to export all tracks from an album to an external folder, is there a way to have the album's cover art get copied over to the destination folder as well, preferably in the same step?

4)   I saw from a previous post how to eliminate all comments from the files.  Is there a way within iTSfv to have it change all comment tags to the same thing - say a pre-defined string of text?  When I select tracks and have the "Remove Comment..." option checked, it appears that the original comment is removed but you end up with something like "00001109 0000112C 0000693D 0000560D 00037D25 00037D25 00008000 00008000 000048AF 00013787"

5)   I've gotten iTSfv to Capitalize the first letter of each word when validating but I notice that there are files for Capital words, Simple words & Replace words.  Should iTSfv be using these files when the capitalization is performed?

Thanks in advance for any info you (or any one else) can provide and for an excellent addition to iTunes.

Jeff
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-05-28 16:04:50
Hi jgcrews,

I LOLed for your second sentence. 

1) Yes - that is correct. It will work both ways depending on unfilled tags. For example, if iTunes database is missing the TrackNumber for some reason but the actual meta tag has the TrackNumber then iTunes databse will be updated; if the iTunes database shows the TrackNumber is filled but actually it is not written in the file (surprised me - sometimes it happens) then the file will be updated with the TrackNumber. This behavior is intentional. If we require to wipe out the metatags then we can use Mp3tag etc.

2) A classic feature conflict you pointed out there! I have addressed this issue for the next build.

5.60.8.3 Getting string from Pattern truncated strings in brackets for Name tag [jgcrews]

It was done so that when you retrieve %Name% for searching Lyrics, it will maximize search results.

5.60.9.0 Added %BitRate% syntax for getting string from pattern [jgcrews]

3) Very nice FR - feature request. I will add this in the next few builds.

4) Those junk comments turn out to be information for Sound Check that iTunes requires. Sometimes they do get mis-written by other taggers to the normal Comments field so iTSfv's job is to remove those comments. I think you will still see those comments in Mp3tag etc. This whole issue is still a mystery to me. I attempt to address this issue from time to time when I notice unexpected things.

5) That's right. Those files are read by iTSfv to override default behavior. For example, when you capitalize the Artist tag, if it sees "Paul Van Dyk" it will capitalize as "Paul van Dyk" since you have that info in the replace-words.txt. Similar logic applies for other text files there.

Cheers.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: jgcrews on 2008-05-28 17:39:37
1) Yes - that is correct. It will work both ways depending on unfilled tags. For example, if iTunes database is missing the TrackNumber for some reason but the actual meta tag has the TrackNumber then iTunes databse will be updated; if the iTunes database shows the TrackNumber is filled but actually it is not written in the file (surprised me - sometimes it happens) then the file will be updated with the TrackNumber. This behavior is intentional. If we require to wipe out the metatags then we can use Mp3tag etc.


Is there a way to force the iTunes data to be written as the MP3 tags?  I've come across some instances where the tag data in the actual files differ from the data in the iTunes library - most noticed when exporting files.

5) That's right. Those files are read by iTSfv to override default behavior. For example, when you capitalize the Artist tag, if it sees "Paul Van Dyk" it will capitalize as "Paul van Dyk" since you have that info in the replace-words.txt. Similar logic applies for other text files there.


Are there any rules I should be aware of when adding to the file?  I've pretty much gathered the format appears to be <search string>",,,,"<replacement string> and that is how I've made my additions, but a few don't seem to be getting applied.  One of the things I had done was to try to add all of the variants for "Featuring" (Featuring, featuring, fturing, FT, Ft, Ft., feat., etc) and ensure that they all get replaced with "ft" but somehow I've ended up with several that get replaced with "Ft" or "Ft." and I'm not quite sure why.  Also, is there an order of execution/heirarchy amongst the files as to how the rules are applied - Capital, Simple, Replace?

As always, thanks bunches for your patience and hand holding.  When I get my disability check next month, I'll be making a donation to ensure your efforts continue!  Thanks again.

Jeff
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-05-29 12:20:40
jgcrews,

Thanks you. I greatly appreciate any affordable donation.

Whenever iTunes data is present and file tags are not, iTunes data will be given higher priority. Similarly, if file tags were present and iTuens data is not, then file tags are given priority. If both file tags and iTunes data are present and has different then file tags are given higher priority. It is currently not possible to force the other way around. This is because the ability to access iTunes data that is not in the tags is very unpredictable. As soon as the file is accessed in iTunes, and the file tags and iTunes db tags differ, iTunes will attempt to refresh the db tags to keep in sync. Then we lose old iTunes db tags. I will see what I can do about this in next beta rounds.

Here is the current hierarchy of the standardizing Capital letters in iTSfv:

(http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/170/itsfvcapitalizewordsba4.th.png) (http://img155.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itsfvcapitalizewordsba4.png)

It is good you asked; it gave myself a clearer picture of how it worked.

Example:

For An Angel (Featuring  Paul Van Dyk) - EP

For An Angel (Featuring Paul Van Dyk) - EP -- fixed double spacing, EP is preserved (capital-words.txt)
For an Angel (Featuring Paul Van Dyk) - EP -- "An" is now "an" (simple-words.txt)
For an Angel (feat. Paul van Dyk) - EP -- "Featuring" is now "feat." and "Paul Van Dyk" is now "Paul van Dyk" (replace-words.txt)

Cheers,
McoreD.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-05-29 12:51:26
If you don't mind running Beta versions that is completely independent from the installer downloaded from SourceForge, I have published a ClickOnce version of iTSfv here:

http://wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsfv (http://wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsfv)

The advantages are:

The application can automatically update itself so you don't have to download the zip file and install it everytime a new build is posted to SourceForge
ClickOnce versions are published more frequently than betas in SourceForge

5.60.10.0 Extended Export Selected Tracks to optionally also export Artwork if present [jgcrews]
5.60.09.0 Added %BitRate% syntax for getting string from pattern [jgcrews]
5.60.08.3 Getting string from Pattern truncated strings in brackets for Name tag [jgcrews]
5.60.08.2 Fixed possibility where Update Database refreshing tags in file setting could execute if enabled as part of Check Standard in Selected Tracks
5.60.08.1 Prevented possibility where Album Artist, DiscNumber and DiscCount tags were not updated when iTunes erraneously showed these tags were populated
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: jgcrews on 2008-05-29 16:57:47
The heirarchy you provided, as well as some playing around, has helped out.  I thought I had a strange behavior when looking for several variations of "Featuring" and substituting "ft" but it all boiled down to the specific order that I had the variations in the replaced-words file making sure that it wasn't processing the same phrase more than once.

For example: "Featuring" needs to be replaced in the song title and the replace-list was:
"Fturing" --> "ft"
"Feat" --> "ft"
"Featuring" --> "ft"

I kept ending up with the replacement being "Fturing" because of the order in the list.  Moving things around (the list has several more variations) ultimately solved the problem.  The list (for this particular substitution) ended up being:
Featuring,,,,ft
featuring,,,,ft
Fturing,,,,ft
fturing,,,,ft
FEAT,,,,ft
Feat.,,,,ft
feat.,,,,ft
Feat,,,,ft
FT,,,,ft

Then, it took a few tries to realize that "ft" needed to be added as a simple word to keep it from always being changed to "Ft".  The more I learn, the more I respect the effort you have put into iTSfv.

Also regarding the replace-words file, I've realized that I can't simply insert the exact replacement text when it contains foreign characters.  "Annbjorg,,,,Annbjørg" & "Beyonce,,,,Beyoncé" don't work and I have no idea how you arrived at "Tiesto,,,,Tiësto" so is there some tip you can provide me so that this type of substitution I've added works?  As I come across Artist names (similar to this), I want to add the proper substitutions to the replace-words file.

Once again, thanks for your efforts and willingness to address so many issues.  Slap me when you get tired of me! 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-05-29 17:23:34
jgcrews,

I am glad things turn out well.

Here is a screenshot of my replace-words.txt

(http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/1559/replacewordstxtnotepad2sb9.png)

Looks to me your Notepad is not displaying Tiësto properly. Does the replacement for Tiësto work for you within iTSfv?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: jgcrews on 2008-05-29 23:15:48
Looks to me your Notepad is not displaying Tiësto properly. Does the replacement for Tiësto work for you within iTSfv?


Actually, the original substitution for Tiesto (which came with iTSfv) works as it should.  However, my substitutions don't work.

I put "Tiesto; Bjork; Beyonce" into the artist field of a sample track.  iTSfv replaced it and the results were "Tiësto; BjRk; Beyonc"

My replace-words file is as follows:

`,,,,'
”,,,,"
“,,,,"
–,,,,-
Armin Van Buuren,,,,Armin van Buuren
Ian Van Dahl,,,,Ian van Dahl
Tiesto,,,,Tiësto
Rnb,,,,R&B
Hip Hop,,,,Hip-Hop
Featuring,,,,ft
featuring,,,,ft
Fturing,,,,ft
fturing,,,,ft
FEAT,,,,ft
Feat.,,,,ft
feat.,,,,ft
Feat,,,,ft
FT,,,,ft
Paul Van Dyk,,,,Paul van Dyk
Gigi,,,,GiGi
D´Agostino,,,,d´Agostino
A HA,,,,A-Ha
Ab Logic,,,,AB Logic
Hi Fi,,,,Hi-Fi
Mckee,,,,McKee
Annbjorg,,,,Annbjørg
Audio Slave,,,,Audioslave
B*witched,,,,B*Witched
Bbmak,,,,BBMak
Beyonce,,,,Beyoncé
Bjork,,,,Björk
Bjorn,,,,Björn
Black-Eyed Peas,,,,Black Eyed Peas
Blink 182,,,,Blink-182
Mcferrin,,,,McFerrin
J-kwon,,,,J-Kwon
Jkwon,,,,J-Kwon
Boys Town Gang,,,,Boystown Gang
C-mos,,,,C-Mos
C&C,,,,C & C
C+C,,,,C & C
Cafe Del Mar,,,,Cafe del Mar
Relocate,,,,Re:Locate
Super 8,,,,Super8
D.J.,,,,DJ
_,,,,
FIX8-SED8,,,,fix8:sed8
fix8-sed8,,,,fix8:sed8

As you can see, the substitutions I have added (with special characters) don't work but yours does (as in the case of Tiesto).  I opened the replace-words file using both Metapad and Notepad and the list displays the same in both.


Before:
(http://members.cox.net/jgcrews/iTSfv%20Before.jpg)

After:
(http://members.cox.net/jgcrews/iTSfv%20After.jpg)

Any suggestions?

-- Jeff
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-05-30 00:53:54
Jeff, seems like an encoding error while saving the file.

You shouldn't see Tiësto at any time. You should see Tiësto instead.

Could you check the encoding when you try to perform a Save As in Notepad?

(http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/3205/saveas20080530075209yy0.png)

Cheers.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: jgcrews on 2008-05-30 01:05:36
Could you check the encoding when you try to perform a Save As in Notepad?


Notepad shows UTF-8 as the encoding method when saving the file.  I think typically, by default, it is usually ANSI but when I open it and/or save it, it shows as UTF-8.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-05-30 01:28:07
Oh wow... I am running out of ideas jgcrews. Could you please email me the file to have a look?

Thanks.


Edit:

I was also experiencing some weird behavior with string replacement today morning. I quit reopened iTunes and iTSfv, and now it seems to work fine.

One thing I noticed was your attempt to replace _ by a whitespace. This would not work as expected because for accuracy reasons, each line is trimmed before usage. So whitespace becomes an empty string. I have modified this in the latest build to support whitespaces by the following way:

,,,,_,,,,, ,,,,

If you need a whitespace anywhere, that would be the correct usage.

I have published the latest build here
http://wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsfv (http://wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsfv)

5.60.11.0 Extended ability to replace characters with whitespaces e.g. ,,,,_,,,, ,,,, via replace-words.txt
5.60.10.1 Fixing folder thumbnail will retain the folder modification date
5.60.10.0 Extended Export Selected Tracks to optionally also export Artwork if present [jgcrews]
5.60.09.0 Added %BitRate% syntax for getting string from pattern [jgcrews]
5.60.08.3 Getting string from Pattern truncated strings in brackets for Name tag [jgcrews]
5.60.08.2 Fixed possibility where Update Database refreshing tags in file setting could execute if enabled as part of Check Standard in Selected Tracks
5.60.08.1 Prevented possibility where Album Artist, DiscNumber and DiscCount tags were not updated when iTunes erraneously showed these tags were populated
5.60.08.0 Overwrite tags checkBox is now disabled for Add New Files prompt when multiple albums are found in order to prevent accidental overwriting of wrong album tags into another album
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: SliderJeff on 2008-05-30 21:39:52
Reposting this quick question from over on the Sourceforge Forum:

McoreD,

Thanks again for creating this great tool! I last used this a couple months ago, right before my pc crashed and took everything with it. I just recently re-installed the latest version of the app and wanted to make sure I recalled how to use it correctly. My basic question is whether or not ALL of the checked box operations are performed regardless of which tab they appear on, or if I need to individually run the validation for each tab within the app? Does that make sense? 

Thanks,
Jeff
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: jgcrews on 2008-05-30 23:08:54
One thing I noticed was your attempt to replace _ by a whitespace. This would not work as expected because for accuracy reasons, each line is trimmed before usage. So whitespace becomes an empty string. I have modified this in the latest build to support whitespaces by the following way:

,,,,_,,,,, ,,,,

If you need a whitespace anywhere, that would be the correct usage.

Thanks for looking into this more.

The substitution of a white space for the underscore was added to the file by iTSfv, not by me.  I had used the SELECTED TRACKS | EDITOR | REPLACE function to change the underscore into a space in a bunch of songs I imported.  And it worked.  But the next time I opened the replace words file, I noticed that “_,,,, “ had been added to the bottom of the list.  I thought that was iTSfv’s way of saving search/replace strings which had been entered & performed manually through the Editor tab – so I just left it there.

Can you give me a little info on how to install using the link you provided below – when I clicked the “Install” button, I got this:

(http://members.cox.net/jgcrews/Click%20Once.jpg)

I must be missing something.

Jeff
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-05-31 00:41:28
Reposting this quick question from over on the Sourceforge Forum:

McoreD,

Thanks again for creating this great tool! I last used this a couple months ago, right before my pc crashed and took everything with it. I just recently re-installed the latest version of the app and wanted to make sure I recalled how to use it correctly. My basic question is whether or not ALL of the checked box operations are performed regardless of which tab they appear on, or if I need to individually run the validation for each tab within the app? Does that make sense? 

Thanks,
Jeff


Hi Jeff,

Thanks for your feedback! If you press "Validate Selected Tracks" button that is outside of the tabsControl it is going to take into account all the checked states of the checkBoxes. However if you press the buttons that are inside each tabPage then it only considers the checked states inside that tabPage.


jgcrews,

Sorry about that. I realized IE does not handle the Install button properly. It is supposed to execute

http://wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsfv/setup.exe (http://wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsfv/setup.exe)

Please click the above link to start installation.

Thanks,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: jgcrews on 2008-05-31 05:19:18
If you don't mind running Beta versions that is completely independent from the installer downloaded from SourceForge, I have published a ClickOnce version of iTSfv here:

http://wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsfv (http://wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsfv)

The advantages are:

The application can automatically update itself so you don't have to download the zip file and install it everytime a new build is posted to SourceForge
ClickOnce versions are published more frequently than betas in SourceForge

I like the idea of the automatic updates.  How do you go about using the ClickOnce version?  As I had mentioned, I didn't have success earlier today and as you replied, yes, I was running IE, but I also run Firefox.  What do I need to do to utilize the ClickOnce version?

Jeff
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-05-31 11:56:29
Hi jgcrews,

GREAT idea about the ignore-words.txt

ft can go there for example so iTSfv will not process it

I will incorporate it into the next build.


From your email, I figure you got the ClickOnce version sorted out. Are you getting same or different results?

To my knowledge the Replace function in Edit : Selected Tracks : Replace does not add the current values to the replace-words.txt. That is a bizarre behaviour if that's the case.

I was also wondering what words that do not properly get capitalized by the current usage of replace-words + capital-words + simple-words combination.

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: jgcrews on 2008-06-02 02:14:19
Hi jgcrews,

GREAT idea about the ignore-words.txt

I will incorporate it into the next build.

Thanks for adding the ignore-words file.  I got the ClickOnce installed and its working - just updated to v5.60.12.0.

I was also wondering what words that do not properly get capitalized by the current usage of replace-words + capital-words + simple-words combination.


Using lots of strange phrases in my test file, this is it before running it through iTSfv:
(http://members.cox.net/jgcrews/Data%20Before.jpg)


and this is it after completion of iTSfv processing of the data:
(http://members.cox.net/jgcrews/Data%20After.jpg)


All seems to be OK except the handling of the group name "fix8:sed8" (which is the proper way for it to appear) and only in the Artist field - it ends up getting changed to "Fix8:Sed8".  That means that it is at least processing the values from replace-words file because the hyphen is getting changed to a colon but then the replacement string (fix8:sed8) is getting the regular capitalization routine afterwards instead of skipping to the next word.  I've got a bunch of entries in the replace-words file to handle this.  They are:

FIX8-SED8,,,,fix8:sed8
fix8-sed8,,,,fix8:sed8
Fix8-Sed8,,,,fix8:sed8

Other than that, since going to 5.60.12.0, other little odds & ends have gone away.

One other item - since iTSfv seems to remember your settings from the last use, it would be nice to remember the drop-down choice for "Remove the following tag from Track..." choice - it automatically defaults to "Lyrics" each time you start iTSfv.

Keep up the good work - and thanks for listening!

Jeff
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-06-02 09:17:14
Jeff

I really like your in-depth testing.

I was able to reproduce Fix8-Sed8 getting changed to fix8:sed8 on the 2nd or later attempts of normal capitalizing routines.

Please add

fix8:sed8

to ignore-words.txt and retry.

I was able to avoid this behavior afterwards.

Cheers.
McoreD

Edit:

This happens because once the

FIX8-SED8,,,,fix8:sed8
fix8-sed8,,,,fix8:sed8
Fix8-Sed8,,,,fix8:sed8

are properly replaced to fix8:sed8, fix8:sed8 will no longer be replaced so it will be stop at usual capitalization routine. Either you can have another replace argument in replace-words.txt ( Fix8:Sed8,,,,fix8:sed8 ) or simply have the fix8:sed8 in ignore-words.txt - I can already see how useful ignore-words.txt is
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: SliderJeff on 2008-06-03 02:09:00
McoreD,

Thanks for the tip.  I have a new question.  I have currently checked the box to "delete tracks that do not exist". 

Using windows explorer, I deleted a folder that contained some crappy tracks.  I assumed that itsfv would delete the entries for the songs within the deleted folder, but instead, they are just showing up in itunes with the exclamation point next to them.  Is their a way to get itsfv to remove those suckers from my library/itunes as a whole?

Thanks,
Jeff
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: jgcrews on 2008-06-03 04:11:47
I really like your in-depth testing.

Wow.  I was expecting your reply to be something like "Boy, you sure are a pain in the ass..."   

As best as I can tell, all seems to be working as expected with all of the word files.  Unless I come across some other strange group name or something, I think you got it all nailed down.

I'm really impressed with all of the features and your responsiveness to adressing the few "issues" (they aren't really bugs, now, are they?) that had popped up over the last week or so.

And thanks again, Mike, for adding the "Include Artwork" checkbox to the Export Tracks feature - it saves an extra step and is working like a charm.

Jeff
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-06-03 07:12:24
Using windows explorer, I deleted a folder that contained some crappy tracks.  I assumed that itsfv would delete the entries for the songs within the deleted folder, but instead, they are just showing up in itunes with the exclamation point next to them.  Is their a way to get itsfv to remove those suckers from my library/itunes as a whole?


SliderJeff,

In iTSfv Menu click Jobs : Delete dead or foreign tracks function should be what you are after. 

jgcrews,

My pleasure and thanks back at you for the nice tweaks we worked on.

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: SliderJeff on 2008-06-03 12:02:59

Using windows explorer, I deleted a folder that contained some crappy tracks.  I assumed that itsfv would delete the entries for the songs within the deleted folder, but instead, they are just showing up in itunes with the exclamation point next to them.  Is their a way to get itsfv to remove those suckers from my library/itunes as a whole?


SliderJeff,

In iTSfv Menu click Jobs : Delete dead or foreign tracks function should be what you are after. 
Cheers,
McoreD


Awesome!  Many thanks!

Regs,
Jeff
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jou on 2008-06-05 13:50:01
Hello,
does iTSfv have something like the OP requested here ?
http://forums.ilounge.com/showthread.php?t=229102 (http://forums.ilounge.com/showthread.php?t=229102)

That'd be cool
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: SliderJeff on 2008-06-05 13:54:58
McoreD,

Got another one for you that I can't seem to find.  I know that there is the checkbox to embed artwork from either itunes or Artwork.jpg.  Is there a way I can tell itsfv to prioritize Folder.jpg over downloading the art from itunes?  I added my own artwork to a few files and it seems that it got overwritten with itunes art (which is the wrong art, anyway) when I ran itsfv with that checkbox checked.  I could have sworn this was addressed in an earlier release of the app, but I might just be still a little tipsy from celebrating the Wing's Stanley Cup win last night. 

Regs,
Jeff
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-06-05 14:07:21
Jou,

iTunes Store file validator has some basic tag retrieval abilities:

Genre from Last.fm
Lyrics from LyricWiki
Artwork via Album Art Downloaded XUI CLI .

These are what I call final touches to songs.

Unless I am mistaken, primary tags such as Artist, Album and Name should be taken care of, prior to using iTSfv. I let the applications are which are already specialized in such operations e.g. Mp3tag to handle these.


-------------------------------

Current beta build:

5.60.12.1 Bug Report Wizard did not successfully report bugs for POP email addresses that sometimes require password [jgcrews]
5.60.12.0 Capitalizing words can now utilize a file called ignore-words.txt to avoid being processed [jgcrews]
5.60.11.0 Extended ability to replace characters with whitespaces e.g. ,,,,_,,,, ,,,, via replace-words.txt
5.60.10.1 Fixing folder thumbnail will retain the folder modification date
5.60.10.0 Extended Export Selected Tracks to optionally also export Artwork if present [jgcrews]
5.60.09.0 Added %BitRate% syntax for getting string from pattern [jgcrews]
5.60.08.3 Getting string from Pattern truncated strings in brackets for Name tag [jgcrews]
5.60.08.2 Fixed possibility where Update Database refreshing tags in file setting could execute if enabled as part of Check Standard in Selected Tracks
5.60.08.1 Prevented possibility where Album Artist, DiscNumber and DiscCount tags were not updated when iTunes erraneously showed these tags were populated
5.60.08.0 Overwrite tags checkBox is now disabled for Add New Files prompt when multiple albums are found in order to prevent accidental overwriting of wrong album tags into another album

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989)

McoreD,

Got another one for you that I can't seem to find.  I know that there is the checkbox to embed artwork from either itunes or Artwork.jpg.  Is there a way I can tell itsfv to prioritize Folder.jpg over downloading the art from itunes?  I added my own artwork to a few files and it seems that it got overwritten with itunes art (which is the wrong art, anyway) when I ran itsfv with that checkbox checked.  I could have sworn this was addressed in an earlier release of the app, but I might just be still a little tipsy from celebrating the Wing's Stanley Cup win last night. 

Regs,
Jeff


SliderJeff

Try Options : Advanced : Validation : Artwork

Manually choose best Artwork.

By default, iTSfv automatically chooses highest resolution Artwork.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: SliderJeff on 2008-06-05 14:33:26

McoreD,

Got another one for you that I can't seem to find.  I know that there is the checkbox to embed artwork from either itunes or Artwork.jpg.  Is there a way I can tell itsfv to prioritize Folder.jpg over downloading the art from itunes?  I added my own artwork to a few files and it seems that it got overwritten with itunes art (which is the wrong art, anyway) when I ran itsfv with that checkbox checked.  I could have sworn this was addressed in an earlier release of the app, but I might just be still a little tipsy from celebrating the Wing's Stanley Cup win last night. 

Regs,
Jeff


SliderJeff

Try Options : Advanced : Validation : Artwork

Manually choose best Artwork.

By default, iTSfv automatically chooses highest resolution Artwork.


Gotcha.  Will do when I get home.  Any idea what happens if the resolutions are identical?  Alot of the itunes stuff is 600x600 and that's what I resize my own personally scanned covers to, as well.  So who wins in a "tie"?

thanks,
Jeff
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-06-06 02:16:43
SliderJeff,

If the resolutions are identical, then iTSfv will choose the first highest resolution in this order.

iTMS
iTunes Artwork Cache
Album folder
Embedded Track Artwork
Album Art Downloader XUI
Album Art Downloader XUI CLI

Ref: http://itsfv.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/it...amp;sortby=date (http://itsfv.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/itsfv/itsfv5/trunk/iTSfv/Artwork/cArtworkSources.vb?revision=65&view=markup&sortby=date)

Currently there is no way to re-order this, but certainly in an upcoming build.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: SliderJeff on 2008-06-06 03:40:05
SliderJeff,

If the resolutions are identical, then iTSfv will choose the first highest resolution in this order.

iTMS
iTunes Artwork Cache
Album folder
Embedded Track Artwork
Album Art Downloader XUI
Album Art Downloader XUI CLI

Ref: http://itsfv.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/it...amp;sortby=date (http://itsfv.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/itsfv/itsfv5/trunk/iTSfv/Artwork/cArtworkSources.vb?revision=65&view=markup&sortby=date)

Currently there is no way to re-order this, but certainly in an upcoming build.



Coolness!  Thank you, sir!

Regs,
Jeff
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-06-06 10:08:43
All/Bluenote,

The next build has

5.60.13.0 Extended Automatic Rating system to reduce PlayedCount scaling of long tracks from 1% to 100%

which will allow you to Scale PlayedCount based on TrackDuration to a certain degree you specify.

(http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/860/itsfv560betaoptions2008cr7.th.png) (http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/860/itsfv560betaoptions2008cr7.png)

Earlier behaviour only allowed you to either enable or disable this feature.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: amnioticentity on 2008-06-09 01:29:34
this application is exactly what i need to organize my extensive library. i have 10k+ songs and plan on adding another 5k or so when i have the time. the problem is that i just can't get this program to work. i tried using the "Start > Run > "iTunes / regserver"" command but that didn't seem to help. anyway...here is a screenie of what i am trying to do and the result.
(just to be clear, the button i clicked on was the "check standard in selected tracks" button)

(http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/2680/errorscreenieap2.th.jpg) (http://img61.imageshack.us/my.php?image=errorscreenieap2.jpg)

thanks in advance.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-06-09 11:43:17
Hi amnioticentity

Do you have any debug/warning/error log files in your Documents\iTSfv\Logs folder? If not, could you go to iTSfv Options > Advanced > Paths and make sure you have a settings folder set?

How does this window look in yours:

(http://img76.imageshack.us/img76/4319/itsfv560options20080609ut1.th.png) (http://img76.imageshack.us/img76/4319/itsfv560options20080609ut1.png)

Cheers.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: amnioticentity on 2008-06-09 14:00:54
checked the log file dir and the single file was named "81D3CC2AF66C73C9-stats.cache"

for some reason i didn't think to check  for an options menu - there were already so many in the main interface, lol! your program just got twice as big with this discovery

well, it seems to be working, but i still get the null error box whenever i finish any operation, so i can live with that for now. either way, u just saved me roughly 12 hours of working on my itunes library (manually) - wish i knew about this 6 monthes ago when i was (manually) tagging 7000 files... THANK YOU!

Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-06-09 14:57:55
amnioticentity

Wow I am glad it is doing at least what you expect. Next time you get the crash could you please copy the text inside that crash window and paste it to http://pastebin.com/ (http://pastebin.com/) and post a link here?

When you press Continue, all back to normal?

I will definitely look into the issue. This is a weird one.

Thanks.

Edit:

In case you haven't noticed, there is a slightly updated build released as stable:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243713 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243713)
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: amnioticentity on 2008-06-09 15:40:55
The error happens after any operation, even when just trying to exit the program. I have to use 'Quit' to exit the application and start a new batch/op.

I uploaded a bug tracker request on sourceforges itsfv page as anonymous, it's the most recent post.

here are the 2 most recent error message from my system. The first popped up when the operation 'Check for tracks without Track Number' seemed to complete (Entire library selected). The second after Capitalizing did complete (1 album selected).

Details (http://pastebin.com/d3281cb69)
Details 2 (http://pastebin.com/d65f1aeb9)

Thank you again.

EDIT: When I attempt to install Microsoft .Net 3.5 it fails. I have .Net 2.0 SP1 installed.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-06-09 16:19:49
amnioticentity

Thanks for the logs. Very strange. That can only mean the file path for warning logs is null so that means it hasn't configured Files and Directories properly.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/n7hxbz (http://www.sendspace.com/file/n7hxbz)

Could you try that build and let me know if you get a different error?

Thanks.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: amnioticentity on 2008-06-09 17:07:09
Operations complete successfully! Sweet...now i can complete multiple operations but...

When i try to exit i get this (http://pastebin.com/d3bce496b)

This program is frickin sweet...did i mention that?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-06-10 01:29:52
amnioticentity

That's good news! Thanks for your feedback. 

The crash after exit happens for the same reason - your folders are not being configured correctly for some strange reasons.

Here is an update:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/zjduq0 (http://www.sendspace.com/file/zjduq0)

Hope this fixes the previous crash.

Cheers.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: jgcrews on 2008-06-10 21:41:50
Mike:

Today, I tried to use the "Trim" feature in the SELECTED TRACKS | EDITOR tab.

What I was trying to accomplish was to remove "-RhR" from the end of each track name.

I selected "Trim" and specified 4 characters from the RIGHT.  There's no option to specify which field you want to trim/append so I assumed that maybe the Track Name field was the one that would be affected.

Well, it removed those 4 characters from each of the track names.  However, it also took 4 characters from all of the tags.

Is there a way to specify which tag/field you want to work with?

So, I'm not quite sure if I used it wrong, had something set wrong or what.

I had iTSfv set like this:

(http://members.cox.net/jgcrews/iTSfv%20Settings.jpg)

Jeff


So, I'm not quite sure if I used it wrong, had something set wrong or what.


Never mind.  It didn't dawn on me to alter the "Write Tags To:" checkboxes.  Once I went and looked at that tab again, I realized what I had done wrong!

-- Jeff
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: amnioticentity on 2008-06-11 13:43:37
ok two quick questions...

is it N.E.R.D or N.E.R.D. ?

and, i was attempting a couple operations at once, "Validate > Tracks > Embed Art+Fill Genre+Convert JPG" while listening to one of the 12 tracks selected in iTunes. i got the null error again when the operation seemed to finish. though, it did not in fact finish. it seems iTSfv wasn't able to update the track that was playing at the time and this caused the error?

other than that, the .1 update u gave me fixed my error issues, until it comes time to quit the app and the aforementioned anomaly.

thank you so much
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-06-11 17:00:48
amnioticentity,

It is N*E*R*D from Artist's home page.

An error log would be very handy to resolve the issue as earlier.

Did u try http://www.sendspace.com/file/zjduq0 (http://www.sendspace.com/file/zjduq0) where I tried to fix the crash on exit?


jgcrews,

OUCH! Sorry for your tag loss. Another alternative/safer method is to use the Replace feature where you can go -Rhr can be replaced by Empty string.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: amnioticentity on 2008-06-11 22:08:24
thanks for the nerd info.

only a .cache file exists in the log directory

zjdug0 fixes crashing, but not on exit.

this is new (http://pastebin.com/d3ffe0f66) and it happens when i go to Logs > iTSfv Report.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-06-12 01:44:06
amnioticentity

Thanks - the root of the problem as discovered a couple of posts earlier is that for some strange reason the user folders are not configured properly.

Do you have My Documents\iTSfv\Logs\ folder? If so do you have a debug file? Could you paste the initialization part of it?

Something like this:

2008-06-12T08:42:57 Job Started: INITIALIZE_PLAYER
2008-06-12T08:42:57 iTSfv Version: 5.60.13.1
2008-06-12T08:42:57 Logs Directory: H:\Users\Mike\Documents\iTSfv\Logs\
2008-06-12T08:42:57 iTMS Artwork Directory: H:\Users\Mike\Documents\My Pictures\iTSfv\
2008-06-12T08:42:57 Temporary Directory: C:\Users\Mike\Application Data\iTSfv\
2008-06-12T08:42:57 iTunes Version: 7.6.2.9
2008-06-12T08:42:57 Total tracks in iTunes: 22027
2008-06-12T08:42:57 iTunes Library XML Path: H:\Users\Mike\Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music Library.xml
2008-06-12T08:43:03 iTunes Music folder: F:\Music\
2008-06-12T08:43:03 Mike's Music Folder 1: F:\Music\
2008-06-12T08:43:03 Mike's Music Folder 2: C:\ASOT\
2008-06-12T08:43:04 Job Finished: INITIALIZE_PLAYER


If you cannot access the debug file, please open iTSfv then Logs > Debug... should show you a Debug window or open any file.

Thanks,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: amnioticentity on 2008-06-13 04:49:17
debug output (http://pastebin.com/d1976ac25) from a job that seems to have completed fine. yet, when i try to open a tracks report i get this (http://pastebin.com/d66e885e5) and here (http://pastebin.com/db8678f6) is an output from a warnings log file...the only file that actually exists, the rest never save (probobly b/c the program crashes on exit?)
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-06-13 17:04:46
amnioticentity,

Noticing null paths:

# 2008-06-12T23:39:52 Retrieved 0 simple words from
# 2008-06-12T23:39:52 Retrieved 0 capital words from

which is not a good sign. 

It should be having fullpaths:

2008-06-13T23:51:52 Job Started: EDIT_SELECTED_TRACKS
2008-06-13T23:51:52 Retrieved 22 simple words from H:\Users\Mike\Documents\iTSfv\Settings\simple-words.txt
2008-06-13T23:51:52 Retrieved 8 capital words from H:\Users\Mike\Documents\iTSfv\Settings\capital-words.txt
2008-06-13T23:51:52 Retrieved 7 words to ignore from H:\Users\Mike\Documents\iTSfv\Settings\ignore-words.txt
2008-06-13T23:51:52 Retrieved 51 words to replace from H:\Users\Mike\Documents\iTSfv\Settings\replace-words.txt

Could you please try this build which will throw a MessageBox during file/folder configuration error?

http://www.sendspace.com/file/y1zmva (http://www.sendspace.com/file/y1zmva)

Thanks,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: jgcrews on 2008-06-14 22:26:08
Mike:

I'm running 5.60.12.1/

Today, when I started iTSfv, I received a message to check the error log and the following was in the log:

2008-06-14T17:22:26 000001
2008-06-14T17:22:26 Retrieving the COM class factory for component with CLSID {DC0C2640-1415-4644-875C-6F4D769839BA} failed due to the following error: 80080005.
2008-06-14T17:22:27    at iTSfv.frmMain.sBwAppLoadPlayer()

Ideas?

Jeff
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-06-15 01:15:45
jgcrews,

An error such as

(http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/5010/itsfv560beta20080615081ri9.th.png) (http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/5010/itsfv560beta20080615081ri9.png)

could happen if you had Get Info window opened in iTunes while loading iTSfv.


Related: errors such as

Unable to cast COM object of type 'iTunesLib.iTunesAppClass' to interface type 'iTunesLib.IiTunes'.

means that

a known problem with some iTunes installations.

Close iTSfv
Close iTunes
Try the following: Click start, run, and type "iTunes /regserver" and click ok. 

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: amnioticentity on 2008-06-20 18:23:55
Could you please try this build which will throw a MessageBox during file/folder configuration error?

http://www.sendspace.com/file/y1zmva (http://www.sendspace.com/file/y1zmva)

Thanks,
McoreD


hehe, a personalized version just for me? thank you much

EVERYTHING works perfectly. i'm not sure if this is matters, but, i have unchecked everything under the Validate>Checks tab and with your latest build i get zero errors.

love the version histroy btw.

hey do you have a paypal or...?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-06-25 13:03:25
amnioticentity,

Glad it works out all well with you  and yes I use Paypal.

Just letting all know that I will be going overseas for one month so I won't be able reply within my usual time.

Bye for now,
McoreD


5.60.14.0 Extended Automatic Rating system to include influence of previous rating adjustable from 0% to 99%
5.60.13.2 Fixed rare possibility where TrackCount could be not written for some mp3 files
5.60.13.1 Fix for crash while writing warnings log and exiting iTSfv in some rare situations [amnioticentity]
5.60.13.0 Extended Automatic Rating system to reduce PlayedCount scaling of long tracks from 1% to 100%
5.60.12.2 Fixed possibility where TrackNumber could be cleared while writing DiscCount etc. during some rare cases after build 5.60.08.1
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2008-06-29 03:17:59
just updated to the newest version. It's getting better and better

1)
I get some weird cahracters when importing certain lyrics (happens quite frequently):

Quote
Her suspicions, well they’re rising high.


From "The Killers" - "Where The White Boys Dance"

2)
Also, is there a minimum character count before lyrics are imported. I've spotted stuff like "/* Empty */"

3)
In addition, how do I turn on that feature that creates a dummy file and then searches for artwork in the iTunes store?

4)
Finally, what does "Forcing thumbnail in [path]" do? I says that in the log tacker, even though I just checked for lyrics.

Edit: Program freezes when changing lyric folder / format (import & export)
Edit2: Lyrics imported from files, still show those weird MS word apostrophes
Edit3: Exporting artwork to custom set folder and format  doesn't work
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: rme on 2008-07-02 15:52:00
Is there a way to have itsfv monitor an itunes media library and db from one pc where the db and library and files are on another networked pc?

I'll explain a little more.  I rip cd's using eac and react into flac and mp3 on a main server pc.  I then plan on batch copying those mp3's to a notebook pc where my family typically sync's their ipods.  I would like to update react to call itsfv to command line process itsfv add_folder "folder_path" to update the notebooks library to recognize the new files on the notebook, however execute this command from the main server pc as a part of the react rip commands.

Do I need to set the music folder in itunes and itsfv on the main server to the remote notebooks music folder?  Will itsfv update the remote notebooks version of the media library that will also be read on the notebooks version of itunes?

Any thoughts on how I can set this up?

Thanks for your help.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Vasto on 2008-07-09 03:25:42
I'm making the switch from Windows to Linux. So therefore I must give up iTunes, but I don't want to lose my ratings and playcounts (I'm pretty sure Select All>Right Click>Convert ID3 Tags>2.3 should save all my metadata to ID3 tags minus playcount and ratings).
I was wondering if there was an option in this program that I can select that will do exactly what I'm asking, and if not then I would like to request that it be added.

EDIT: What exactly does writing to frame mean? "Write PlayedCount to PCNT frame as part of validation"
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: jgcrews on 2008-08-03 05:46:40
Mike - It's been a while since we last communicated and all has been well with iTSFfv.  However, I have a suggestion (as usual) for a small change in the next build:

Under the export tracks function, when clicking the "Browse Destination Folder To Copy Selected Tracks..." button, can we have the "Browse For Folder" dialog default to the last folder location, instead of always defaulting back to the top level?  This would prevent the user from having to drill down through so many levels each time you go to export tracks.  Not a biggie but it would make it quicker and easier.

Also, I'm running v5.60.12.1 which says it is up-to-date but I noticed there have been several beta builds since then.  What's the right link to use to get the latest beta?

Jeff
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: neonstorm on 2008-08-04 15:47:18
Hey ~*McoreD*~,

Still loving this app! Everything is working great with it, and it seems to do everything I need! I did notice one small thing:

I set up a scheduled task to tweak my library nightly, but when I run 'itsfv adjust_ratings' it doesn't seem to use the settings I set up... If I run it via command line I get one set of ratings, then if I run it manually they all change the way I want them.

Did you not have satisfied results using the default configuration 25/0/70/5 ? With the unscale playedCount you might want to have a look at the default configuration.

I switched back to your recommended config, and it works well.

Keep up the good work man!!

Ryan
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ankohler on 2008-08-08 17:57:41
Any news on the topic of inserting artwork in the library (like it does with "Get Album Artwork") without embedding in the id3tag? The problem is, that i don't want to embed large pictures in every single id3tag. I know it is possible: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?sto...006100111071871 (http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2006100111071871)

This Python-Script acts like it is the Itunesserver. It would be a great feature to implement in iTSfv!!!

What do you think?


The only way you can have iTunes to store Artwork without embedding artwork, as of now, is by "Get Album Artwork" feature in iTunes.

Yes, I know... However, more than half of my albums are not found in iTunes, or the downloaded artwork is wrong - e.g. My album is "The Judds: Greatest Hits", which if you click on accessing iTunes store, it's there, but when you try to download the album artwork, you get the artwork for "The Judds: Greatest Hits Vol 2" instead!!! Or, the album is listed in the iTunes store, you check that artist, title, album and track number is the same as what is shown in iTunes, and yet iTunes cannot download the artwork... So, what do you do in those situations? Why can't iTunes allow import of artwork without embedding it in the tracks?!?!?! Sigh...
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2008-08-28 04:21:52
what happened to ~*McoreD*~?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-08-29 05:54:49
Hi All/Jojo,

Sorry for the quite delayed reply. After coming back from overseas beginning of this month, I was overwhelmed with work and all sorts of other catching up.

jgcrews,

Definitely should be possible to do. I was under the impression this was happening already. As for the different beta builds that popped out later, I think there was an internal change in the update_check URL. I hope this will be gone after the latest final build.

neonstorm,

In response to: I set up a scheduled task to tweak my library nightly, but when I run 'itsfv adjust_ratings' it doesn't seem to use the settings I set up... If I run it via command line I get one set of ratings, then if I run it manually they all change the way I want them -- I am afraid this is due to iTSfv running under SYSTEM account? Could you run the task as a specified user?

Vasto,

Sorry, you post was up while I was overseas so I have completed missed it. iTSfv already supports writing and reading PlayedCount|Rating info to file. You can do this in two ways. The first way is the preferred way: go to Tags tab in the main window and you have the options to backup tags, and restore them. If you press F2 while you are in this tab, you will be presented options related to this task. By default, PlayedCount and Rating tags are already selected to be backed up. Once you are in linux, you will have to use some other script to process the XML files generated by iTSfv.

----

Bad news for me is that I will be busy again for an Earthquakes Engineering project for a year, so free time in the computer doesn't as sound as good. That said I will be checking this monitoring this thread at least once a week for discussing feedback. I am not stepping down from the project at all, I am a user of iTSfv myself with iTunes so that won't ever happen. It is just the time allocation problem.

I can't wait to see iTunes 8 coming in 2-3 weeks. Once I get to look into each issue in detail, all should be back to normal.

Thanks all for the great feedback and suggestions.

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-08-29 07:26:52
just updated to the newest version. It's getting better and better :)

1)I get some weird cahracters when importing certain lyrics (happens quite frequently):
Her suspicions, well they�re rising high.
From "The Killers" - "Where The White Boys Dance"[/i]

2)Also, is there a minimum character count before lyrics are imported. I've spotted stuff like "/* Empty */"

3)In addition, how do I turn on that feature that creates a dummy file and then searches for artwork in the iTunes store?

4)
Finally, what does "Forcing thumbnail in [path]" do? I says that in the log tacker, even though I just checked for lyrics.

Edit: Program freezes when changing lyric folder / format (import & export)
Edit2: Lyrics imported from files, still show those weird MS word apostrophes :(
Edit3: Exporting artwork to custom set folder and format  doesn't work


1/ I will check this out. Thanks. I think it is to do with ? character.

2/ There is no minimum character length to import lyrics. I am sure iTSfv doesn't write the lyrics tag as "/* Empty */" anywhere. That is strange, Jojo.

3/ I guess you have got this figured out by now. If you to Tools menu and click iTunes Artwork Grabber... a separate window will show up, which lists the steps you need to setup so iTunes will automatically download the artwork when a new song is added. You need an iTunes Store account for this and you can create one for free with a CC using the URL in that window.


Is there a way to have itsfv monitor an itunes media library and db from one pc where the db and library and files are on another networked pc?

I'll explain a little more.  I rip cd's using eac and react into flac and mp3 on a main server pc.  I then plan on batch copying those mp3's to a notebook pc where my family typically sync's their ipods.  I would like to update react to call itsfv to command line process itsfv add_folder "folder_path" to update the notebooks library to recognize the new files on the notebook, however execute this command from the main server pc as a part of the react rip commands.

Do I need to set the music folder in itunes and itsfv on the main server to the remote notebooks music folder?  Will itsfv update the remote notebooks version of the media library that will also be read on the notebooks version of itunes?

Any thoughts on how I can set this up?

Thanks for your help.


rme, I see you are having batch files to copy the newly ripped music files to the laptops. Are you replicating your whole music library or just parts of it? My best advice for synchronizing music files would be using Allway Sync. It is a freeware application for personal use and has unlimited number of customizations. How are you going to remotely execute a program/iTSfv in the laptops? I have no clue on that. The closest I can get to is schedule iTSfv locally in each laptop to find new files (add_folder) from the music folder.

If you set the iTunes library on the main server to be the library.xml in the remote notebook, then iTSfv will be able to update the library that resides in the notebook, yes, but this is not a preferred way to do it because you are then limited to one notebook.

Easiest way to do all this is to share the Music folder in the main server. Add/manage music in the main server. For all other iTunes in notebooks, set the library path to be the shared Music folder in the main server.  Use iTSfv locally in each laptop to do a synchronize.

If you plan copy music files to the target laptops then, it is still easy for the whole music folder with Allway Sync because it is able to monitor file changes and copy new files to the destination.

EDIT: What exactly does writing to frame mean? "Write PlayedCount to PCNT frame as part of validation"


This means that PlayedCount in iTunes will be written to the ID3v2 frame called PCNT in MP3 files whenever you validate tracks.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: neonstorm on 2008-08-30 04:08:11
neonstorm,

In response to: I set up a scheduled task to tweak my library nightly, but when I run 'itsfv adjust_ratings' it doesn't seem to use the settings I set up... If I run it via command line I get one set of ratings, then if I run it manually they all change the way I want them -- I am afraid this is due to iTSfv running under SYSTEM account? Could you run the task as a specified user?



Hi, hope all went well during your trip!

I played around a little, and let me clarify:

If I run 'itsfv.exe adjust_ratings' via command prompt, I get the wrong result. If I open ITSfv and run ratings manually, it rates the songs properly.

I'm not aware of any way to run it via command prompt as a specified user. Can you please expound?

I also tried ITSfv's built in schedule setup, but the hour setting doesn't seem to differentiate between am/pm, and I can't seem to get the auto ratings to run this way either....

Thanks for the great work! Hope your new project goes smoothly.

Ryan
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-08-31 02:00:23
neonstorm,

Thanks - I was able to reproduce the bug where you execute itsfv.exe adjust_ratings and you get all 0 ratings. However, Manual rating works fine like you said and the built-in scheduler works fine too. The times are in 24-hour format so if you have it like this:

(http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/1473/itsfv560betaoptions2008sw9.th.png) (http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/1473/itsfv560betaoptions2008sw9.png)

That will schedule it for 9 PM.

You have to also enable which task to be scheduled:

(http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/226/itsfv560beta20080831085tw9.th.png) (http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/226/itsfv560beta20080831085tw9.png)

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: neonstorm on 2008-08-31 16:23:23
... the built-in scheduler works fine too ...
Cheers,
McoreD


Hey ~*McoreD*~,

Sorry to keep bugging you - I know you're a busy guy - but I'm feeling kinda dense. I still can't get the scheduler to work. I selected 'auto adjust ratings' and set a time 1 minute in the future, but it never activates. Am I missing a step? I tried with ITSfv running and closed, with no difference. If I click 'run scheduled tasks' it works OK.

Thanks,

Ryan
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-09-02 16:54:23
Hi Ryan, sorry that it doesn't work for you. Did you remember to select the day? That's all the settings. Select day/time in Options. Select what task to be run in Scheduled Tasks (main window). I will review the command line section and get a build up and running soon.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: neonstorm on 2008-09-02 17:57:17
Hi Ryan, sorry that it doesn't work for you. Did you remember to select the day? That's all the settings. Select day/time in Options. Select what task to be run in Scheduled Tasks (main window). I will review the command line section and get a build up and running soon.



Hey, HEY HEY! DO NOT APOLOGIZE!!   

I'll go over everything again but I couldn't get it to work. Should I leave ITSfv open when I'm waiting for it to kick in?

I've checked 'auto adjust ratings' under the scheduled tasks tab, opened the options and checked every day, set the time for 1 minute in the future, hit OK, then manually changed a few ratings to verify it changes them back. I don't see anything happening...

No rush, take care of your important tasks first. Deal with this when you have time. No rush!!

Ryan
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-09-02 23:12:41
I'll go over everything again but I couldn't get it to work. Should I leave ITSfv open when I'm waiting for it to kick in?


Oh yeah!  I assumed you had it open. You need iTSfv running in the background for its Scheduler to work. Press F12 to let it minimize to tray.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: MetalMessiah78 on 2008-09-02 23:51:05
McoreD, I love your product, but I also have the same problem as Jojo. I get those weird characters mainly on lyrics with accents, like lyrics for Spanish songs that have the á é í ó ú

Thank you for creating a great program.

[quote name='~*McoreD*~' date='Aug 29 2008, 00:26' post='585231']
[quote name='Jojo' post='574030' date='Jun 29 2008, 10:17']
just updated to the newest version. It's getting better and better

1)I get some weird cahracters when importing certain lyrics (happens quite frequently):
Her suspicions, well they’re rising high.
From "The Killers" - "Where The White Boys Dance"[/i][/quote]
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-09-04 00:40:20
MetalMessiah78

Thanks for the feedback! Could you please link me to some Spanish songs in LyricWiki that shows weird characters?

I managed to track down the cause of this. It happens because LyricWiki uses unicode characters and when you retrieve them as plain text you lose those unicode characters. Temporary workaround is to manually replace those characters with the plain text version of the same characters.

5.60.14.2 Temporary fixes for characters such as ’ in Lyrics from LyricWiki [Jojo]
5.60.14.1 Command line argument adjust_ratings did not sometimes read user settings [neonstorm]
5.60.14.0 Extended Automatic Rating system to include influence of previous rating adjustable from 0% to 99%
5.60.13.2 Fixed rare possibility where TrackCount could be not written for some mp3 files


Jojo,

Could you please try this build for
5.60.14.2 Temporary fixes for characters such as ’ in Lyrics from LyricWiki [Jojo]

http://www.sendspace.com/file/jd1njy (http://www.sendspace.com/file/jd1njy)
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2008-09-04 19:28:01
Jojo,

Could you please try this build for
5.60.14.2 Temporary fixes for characters such as ’ in Lyrics from LyricWiki [Jojo]

http://www.sendspace.com/file/jd1njy (http://www.sendspace.com/file/jd1njy)

will try, but I can't really use the program right now because of the following (at least the first one):

- Program freezes when changing lyric folder / format (import & export)
- Lyrics imported from files, still show those ’ weird MS word apostrophes
- Exporting artwork to custom set folder and format doesn't work

also, what does
"Forcing thumbnail in [path]" do? It says that in the log tacker, even though I just checked for lyrics.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-09-05 12:11:34
Jojo,

Forcing thumbnail in [path] refreshes the Thumbnail in the music album folder so the folders can display Artwork properly in Thumbnail view.

Unfortunately I can't reproduce two of the three issues:

Exporting Artwork to a custom Artwork folder:

(http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/3621/ss20080905190332jk6.th.jpg) (http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/3621/ss20080905190332jk6.jpg)


I also able to change the custom Lyrics folder:

(http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/1588/itsfv560betaoptions2008vw0.th.png) (http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/1588/itsfv560betaoptions2008vw0.png)

When exactly does the crashing occur? Is it when as soon as you press the Browse button or after you press OK once you finish browsing?

Had the following tweak:

5.60.15.0 Importing and Export Lyrics will now make use of replace-words.txt

So now any replacements can be done externally. I already added them for the default configuration of replace-words.txt  - http://www.sendspace.com/file/qipwr1 (http://www.sendspace.com/file/qipwr1)
This way the Lyrics shouldn't have the weird apostrophe and if there are other unknown characters, we have the total control to replace them.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: MetalMessiah78 on 2008-09-05 20:27:39
McoreD

I'm not sure what exactly you would like for me to link, but I copied these from the lyrics tab in iTunes. This is for the song Ángel De La Muerte from Avalanch.

Code: [Select]
Alma perdida
que vagas matando
al arbol de la vida
con su raíz sin tierra.

Me robaste el corazón
me robaste la razón
de mi vida.

Hoy he visto pasar
la muerte ante mi
con su manto negro
y su mirada perdida.

Me miró, me acarició
me besó y después se fue
de mi lado.

Hoy vuelvo a recordar
como temblaba mi alma
la muerte ha vuelto a hablar
¡su voz está cerca.

He tenido que bajar al infierno
para encontrar un ángel.
He tenido que caer desde el cielo
¡para encontrarte!

Alma en pena soy
desde entonces vago perdido
esperando a morir
y volver a ti.

Me miró, me acarició
me besó y después se fue
de mi lado.

Hoy vuelvo a recordar
como temblaba mi alma
la muerte ha vuelto a hablar
su voz está cerca.

He tenido que bajar al infierno
para encontrar un ángel.
He tenido que caer desde el cielo
¡para encontrarte!

(Solo)

He tenido que bajar al infierno
para encontrar un ángel.
He tenido que caer desde el cielo
¡para encontrarte!(x2)


As a clarification, I have included the original lyrics from LyricWiki that don't include those odd characters:

Code: [Select]
Alma perdida
que vagas matando
al arbol de la vida
con su raíz sin tierra.

Me robaste el corazón
me robaste la razón
de mi vida.

Hoy he visto pasar
la muerte ante mi
con su manto negro
y su mirada perdida.

Me miró, me acarició
me besó y después se fue
de mi lado.

Hoy vuelvo a recordar
como temblaba mi alma
la muerte ha vuelto a hablar
¡su voz está cerca.

He tenido que bajar al infierno
para encontrar un ángel.
He tenido que caer desde el cielo
¡para encontrarte!

Alma en pena soy
desde entonces vago perdido
esperando a morir
y volver a ti.

Me miró, me acarició
me besó y después se fue
de mi lado.

Hoy vuelvo a recordar
como temblaba mi alma
la muerte ha vuelto a hablar
su voz está cerca.

He tenido que bajar al infierno
para encontrar un ángel.
He tenido que caer desde el cielo
¡para encontrarte!

(Solo)

He tenido que bajar al infierno
para encontrar un ángel.
He tenido que caer desde el cielo
¡para encontrarte!(x2)


Let me know if you need more information from me. This program would be awesome if it would work with accented vowels often found in Spanish, as a lot of my music is Spanish Heavy Metal. Thank you.


MetalMessiah78

Thanks for the feedback! Could you please link me to some Spanish songs in LyricWiki that shows weird characters?

I managed to track down the cause of this. It happens because LyricWiki uses unicode characters and when you retrieve them as plain text you lose those unicode characters. Temporary workaround is to manually replace those characters with the plain text version of the same characters.

5.60.14.2 Temporary fixes for characters such as ’ in Lyrics from LyricWiki [Jojo]
5.60.14.1 Command line argument adjust_ratings did not sometimes read user settings [neonstorm]
5.60.14.0 Extended Automatic Rating system to include influence of previous rating adjustable from 0% to 99%
5.60.13.2 Fixed rare possibility where TrackCount could be not written for some mp3 files


Jojo,

Could you please try this build for
5.60.14.2 Temporary fixes for characters such as ’ in Lyrics from LyricWiki [Jojo]

http://www.sendspace.com/file/jd1njy (http://www.sendspace.com/file/jd1njy)
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-09-06 16:24:40
MetalMessiah78

A link to http://lyricwiki.org/Avalanch:%C3%81ngel_De_La_Muerte (http://lyricwiki.org/Avalanch:%C3%81ngel_De_La_Muerte) is what I was after! 

The music was nice.

Could you try the following build:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/j3yh55 (http://www.sendspace.com/file/j3yh55)

This build includes support for replacing any strange characters externally using the replace-words.txt which is in Documents\iTSfv\Logs\Settings folder.

(http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/3774/ngeldelamuerte2007muertap4.th.png) (http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/3774/ngeldelamuerte2007muertap4.png)

I have included my current replace-words.txt here:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/fi7nbl (http://www.sendspace.com/file/fi7nbl)
If you don't already have a customized replace-words.txt please replace the current file using this one.



Cheers!
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: neonstorm on 2008-09-06 16:38:56
Oh yeah!  I assumed you had it open. You need iTSfv running in the background for its Scheduler to work. Press F12 to let it minimize to tray.


I tried that too, but still no dice...? Again, if i click 'run scheduled tasks now' it runs fine - it just never fires automatically. But that's small potatoes. I can still run it manually!

Thanks!

Ryan
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-09-07 15:46:50
neonstorm

I tried Scheduled Tasks today and it seemed to read the customized settings fine:

************************************
Job Type: COMMAND_LINE
Date and Time: * 2008-09-07 22:08:43
************************************

061 for Helena Paparizou - Αν Ειχες Ερθει Πιο Νωρις
060 for Helena Paparizou - Gigolo (Hellenic Version)
059 for Helena Paparizou - Υπαρχει Λογος
059 for Helena Paparizou - The Game of Love
058 for Helena Paparizou - Μη Φευγεις
057 for Helena Paparizou - Που Πηγε Τοση Αγαπη
055 for Helena Paparizou - Μαζι Σου
055 for Helena Paparizou - Why (Greek Version)
055 for Helena Paparizou - Le Temps Des Fleurs
054 for Helena Paparizou - Matia Mou (Greek Version)
053 for Helena Paparizou - Με Θελουν Κι Αλλοι (Hellenic Version of 'Heart of Mine')
051 for Helena Paparizou - Moro Mou (Greek Version)
041 for Helena Paparizou - Pes Mou
036 for Helena Paparizou - Welcome to My World
003 for Helena Paparizou - Φως (Shine)
003 for Helena Paparizou - Τυψεις
003 for Helena Paparizou - Ποτε Σ'ενα Αντιο
003 for Helena Paparizou - Παραδειγματος Χαρη
003 for Helena Paparizou - Αν Εσυ Μ' Αγαπας (Pour Que Tu M' Aimes Encore)
003 for Helena Paparizou - Mambo
001 for Helena Paparizou - Zise (Vive La Vida Loca)
001 for Helena Paparizou - Why (Live)
001 for Helena Paparizou - Ti Na Tin Kano Tin Signomi
001 for Helena Paparizou - Taxidi Gia to Agnwsto
001 for Helena Paparizou - Stin Kardia Mou Mono Thlipsi
001 for Helena Paparizou - I Zoi Sou Zari
001 for Helena Paparizou - Galana
001 for Helena Paparizou - Anamniseis
001 for Helena Paparizou - (Exeis Kairo Na Mou Fereis) Louloudia

PlayedCount: 30%, SkippedCount: 0%, LastPlayed: 65%, DateAdded: 5%
Maximum Played Count: 351, Maximum Track Duration: 6000, Average Track Duration: 267.902980399177

By default they were set to 20%, 0%, 70% and 5%.


I hope you had it set up this way:

(http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/1665/itsfvadjustratings20080fb6.th.png) (http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/1665/itsfvadjustratings20080fb6.png)

Please find the latest build here in SF for you to try at your next opportunity:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...kage_id=243989# (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248&package_id=243989#)

Thanks,
Mcore
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2008-09-09 04:40:46
If you to Tools menu and click iTunes Artwork Grabber... a separate window will show up, which lists the steps you need to setup so iTunes will automatically download the artwork when a new song is added. You need an iTunes Store account for this and you can create one for free with a CC using the URL in that window.

Could this be automated? I know that iTunes can download albumart, but iTSfv has the advantage to run filters on the filename to omit stuff like [CDM] and would therefore would find more album art itunes otherwise skips.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: MetalMessiah78 on 2008-09-09 16:10:44
Thank you so much ~*McoreD*~'. I'll try it as soon as I get home from work. I'm glad that you liked the music. They are one of my favorite bands. Have a great day and thanks again!
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: lixe on 2008-09-09 19:13:12
first of all thanks for this great program!
but i have one question =) if i let itsfv adjust my ratings none of my songs get 5 stars. the highest rating is 4 stars, but i dont understand why...
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-09-10 02:08:37
Jojo

The best that could be done was if you browse the iTunes Store:

Have iTSfv open
Select a track in the iTunes Store
In iTSfv, press Ctrl+Down (or in Selected Tracks > Download iTunes Store Artwork...)

Now iTSfv will read the iTunes Store track tags and download the artwork.

It is not yet possible to automatically retrieve the iTunes Store artwork otherwise.


lixe

Thanks for the feedback! That means the default settings determined your play count, recently played factor etc. were not sufficient enough for a 5 star rating. The more you play songs with time, it will start picking up 5 stars. You can alternatively adjust the settings using iTSfv > Options (by pressing F2) > OneTouch > Library



If you guys find errors with iTSfv after iTunes 8 installed....

Try closing iTunes and iTSfv
Start > Run > type

itunes /regserver


Press OK
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: MetalMessiah78 on 2008-09-10 02:33:21
~*McoreD*~', you are awesome. That replace text feature works great. You got most of them in the text file you sent me, but I was able to figure out how it works, and now it works flawless. Thank you so much again.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-09-10 03:15:49
MetalMessiah78

I am really glad it worked out for you!

Jojo 

I forgot to mention iTSfv also has a iterative feature that scans your  music library and auto imports iTunes Store artwork... May be this is close to what you meant by automation?

To access this feature go to iTSfv > OneTouch > File System : Export iTunes Store Artwork using external music folder.

You can actually choose your music folder there, even though it says browse for the lossless folder.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Broncodan on 2008-09-10 23:53:30
Hi,

A friend gave me an ipod touch and I am trying to set up itunes. I have a very large library 400 GB+ of music and I have it set up in the following manner:  C:\Music Collection\Artist\Album  or for some parts I have it set up as C:\Music Collection\Various Artist\mixed pop\album

I know that Itunes - checks your library against theirs and then adds the artwork in a separate directory.  In reading and in use - itunes isn't able to get a lot of covers for albums that I have or the ones they have are wrong.

So all I want to do is utilize (at least to start - to see if I can learn to like Itunes) your add in to add the album art I have in my folders to the itunes database.  C:\Music Collection\Artist\Album\folder.jpg

I don't consider myself technically challenged but for the life of me I can not figure out how to configure this add in so that it doesn't change any of my current tags or embed anything in my tags.  If you could please tell me the best way to set your program up in order to add my folder.jpgs to itunes that would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks in advance.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-09-11 01:30:45
Broncodan

There are two ways to import artwork into the iTunes artwork database:

1. Having embedded artwork in the music files
2. Retrieving artwork from iTunes Store

Artwork is a standard tag in both MP3/AAC files. If you are not willing to use that tag and embed the Artwork into the music file, currently there is no way to externally inject artwork into the iTunes Artwork database.

I wish being wrong as this is one of the most asked questions, but still I don't understand why.


P.S:

You could try this http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?sto...006100111071871 (http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2006100111071871) as suggested by one of our members here.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Broncodan on 2008-09-11 04:12:41
Thanks for the reply - i have been doing more searches and found this:

Anyone who has tried using their music collection on both iTunes/their iPod and with Windows Media Center they will know that the way iTunes embeds the Album Art into the files separately may allow the iPod to display the Album Art, but does not allow Media Center to show it.

Do not fear, I have the solution.

I went to the full extent of doing a re-tagging my entire music collection, not a small task and also unnecessary, the only thing you truly need to do is the following:

Make sure that each mp3 file has not got any embedded Album Art. You can use many applications to do this (iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc); I used Tag&Rename.

Have your music sorted into a folder per album structure, personally I have the following structure:
[Music Library Folder]/[Artist]/[Album](/[Disc #])

Make the music 'Read-only'. To do so, select the music, right-click and tick the 'Read-only' checkbox.
This is probably the most important step!

Make sure your iTunes library is empty, then drop all the Read-only music into iTunes.

Go through each Album in iTunes and use the 'Get Album Artwork' feature.
Must be iTunes 7 or later.

Once you have got all the Album Artwork download a program called 'iTunes Store file validator (iTSfv)', either from here or search for it.

Run iTSfv using only the 'Copy Folder.jpg to Album Folders' setting.
iTunes must be running for this step.

Your music should now have working Album Art in iTunes, your iPod and Windows Media Center now.
If you have albums that can't get the Album Art from iTunes, you can just download the artwork elsewhere and save it as Folder.jpg in the relative folder.

Hopefully this information helps someone out there as when I first came accross this issue I spent a few weeks looking for information, posting on forums, etc, and I was offered no solution at all.

If this works or does not work for you, let me know, I kind of rushed this post and could have possibly missed something.



The guy said it worked for him - I am just not sure where the Copy folder.jpg to Album folders option is loctated in  ITSFV
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-09-11 13:59:21
The guy said it worked for him - I am just not sure where the Copy folder.jpg to Album folders option is loctated in  ITSFV


Broncodan

The "Copy folder.jpg to Album folders" feature he is referring to, is now called:

"Export Artwork to Album folder as Artwork.jpg" in the iTSfv > File System tab. You can press F2 for Options and change the file name from Artwork.jpg to something else like Folder.jpg. Then the feature would say

"Export Artwork to Album folder as Folder.jpg"

Hope that works!
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2008-09-11 19:26:33
Jojo 

I forgot to mention iTSfv also has a iterative feature that scans your  music library and auto imports iTunes Store artwork... May be this is close to what you meant by automation?

To access this feature go to iTSfv > OneTouch > File System : Export iTunes Store Artwork using external music folder.

You can actually choose your music folder there, even though it says browse for the lossless folder.

I've tried that and it started to export stuff, but I couldn't figure out where the album art went.
It also scanned songs that already have album art attached to them, so I'm not sure if that's the right way to do it.

I was primarily looking for a function that would look at a bunch of songs I select and try to download album artwork from iTunes using my iTunes account.

I'm not sure why this can't be automated. iTSfv is already able to download album art manually when entering artist and album, by creating a dummy file. Instead of me having to enter artist and album name manually, why couldn't the program fetch these variables from the selected files and fill this information in automatically - one after one?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-09-12 00:59:13
I'm not sure why this can't be automated. iTSfv is already able to download album art manually when entering artist and album, by creating a dummy file. Instead of me having to enter artist and album name manually, why couldn't the program fetch these variables from the selected files and fill this information in automatically - one after one?


Jojo

Sorry! I was in the impression that this behavior was already there using Selected Tracks : Export iTunes Store Artwork... but it was locked to the firstly selected track.

Thanks to you I extended it today to support more than one file:

5.60.15.2 Selected Tracks : Export iTunes Store Artwork... always exported artwork of the firstly selected track [Jojo]

Could you please

Download http://www.sendspace.com/file/ji9uic (http://www.sendspace.com/file/ji9uic) and install

Select a few random tracks in iTunes
Press Ctrl+Down in iTSfv

Let me know if that was the expected behavior?

You might like to uncheck this prompt:

(http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/1930/itsfv560betaoptions2008yr6.th.png) (http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/1930/itsfv560betaoptions2008yr6.png)
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2008-09-12 04:12:58
5.60.15.2 Selected Tracks : Export iTunes Store Artwork... always exported artwork of the firstly selected track [Jojo]

I still don't understand this function.
It says that it downloaded covers, but it is not embedded in the file nor can I find it anywhere on my hard drive.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-09-12 14:03:31
Jojo

The files should've been saved in the folder path where it says "Export Artwork to following folder as"

(http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/8099/itsfv560betaoptions2008wy7.th.png) (http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/8099/itsfv560betaoptions2008wy7.png)

By default it is in

H:\Users\Mike\Music\iTunes\Album Artwork\iTSfv

It does not embed iTunes Store artwork into the track but implementing that is not hard. I can finally picture the whole process now:

Select the track/tracks in iTunes
Press "Import iTunes Store Artwork" in iTSfv
iTSfv attempts to the iTunes Store artwork via a dummy file
If there is an artwork, iTSfv embeds that into the selected track/tracks



I think the reason why this wasn't implemented is that iTunes has the "Get Album Artwork" feature which downloads the artwork from iTunes Store. When you validate the tracks using iTSfv, it will then embed/export the artwork anyway.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2008-09-12 19:20:12
The files should've been saved in the folder path where it says "Export Artwork to following folder as"

(http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/8099/itsfv560betaoptions2008wy7.th.png) (http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/8099/itsfv560betaoptions2008wy7.png)

the folder is there, but there is nothing inside. I'm using a user defined folder.
I have all the automatic creation of album art disabled (bottom of config page)


Quote
I think the reason why this wasn't implemented is that iTunes has the "Get Album Artwork" feature which downloads the artwork from iTunes Store. When you validate the tracks using iTSfv, it will then embed/export the artwork anyway.

right. The only reason for such a function would be to take advantage of iTSfv string filters that makes the tags more compatible iTunes way of matching tags with album art.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Steffen M. on 2008-09-13 09:45:53
Hy,

I'm a new user to iTSfv from Germany and I tasting tha different great functions.


I get a problem when using Synchroclean. My iTunes music folder is on a NAS \\01nas\UNTERHALTUNG\Musik and the library files are here \\01nas\UNTERHALTUNG\iTunes.

After starting it shows me that:

Please rewie the following information ...

Music folder Paths:
\\Smcbs01nas\UNTERHALTUNG\Musik\

iTunes Music Library.xml Path:
U:\iTunes\iTunes Library.xml

After continue I get the warning:

iTSfv has found that some or all of your tracks are not in any of the iTunes Music folder locations so iTSfv will not remove tracks out side of music folders.

Most of your music are in:
\\smcbs01nas\
Your iTunes Music folder location is:
U:\iTuines\iTunes Music\

fter pressing OK iTSfv starting delete my tracks out of iTunes. But my music is at the \\Smcbs01nas\UNTERHALTUNG\Musik\ folder? I don not know how to make the settings that it works? At iTunes I have not set 'iTunes manage my music folder'.


Version:
iTunes 8.0.0.35
iTSfv 5.60.15.1


Thanks, Steffen
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-09-13 11:51:53
Steffen

iTSfv takes precautions before deleting music that is outside of the default music folder paths. If iTSfv detects that most of your music are located in a folder path which is different to the folder path that is set in iTunes Preferences then iTSfv will not remove tracks outside of the music folder path. iTSfv will however proceed to remove dead files - i.e. paths are invalid.

If your music files are located in

\\01nas\UNTERHALTUNG\Musik

then your iTunes Music folder path should be also set to

\\01nas\UNTERHALTUNG\Musik

You can verify this setting by going to iTunes Preference and then iTunes Music folder location.

iTunes has a bug in Windows where you cannot select a Network folder as a music folder. You have to map it as a Network Drive.

I assume you have mapped \\01nas\UNTERHALTUNG as U:

1. You should then set the music folder location in iTunes as U:

(http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/7208/itunes20080913190216rw5.th.png) (http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/7208/itunes20080913190216rw5.png)

2. Right click a song in  iTunes and click Get Info. What does the location of the music file say?  \\01nas\UNTERHALTUNG\some artist\some album\some song.mp3 or U:\some artist\some album\some song.mp3?

If it says \\01nas\UNTERHALTUNG\some artist\some album\some song.mp3 then you are going to have problems because you cannot set the iTunes music folder path as \\01nas\UNTERHALTUNG

3. Before trying Synchroclean, make sure the file path links are active. Otherwise iTSfv will think the file is a dead file and proceed to remove it from the library.

4. Backup your ratings / played counts etc. using the Tags tab in iTSfv.

(http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/7158/itsfv560beta20080913190pk0.th.png) (http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/7158/itsfv560beta20080913190pk0.png)

5. Make sure in iTSfv > Options > Explorer > Music folders tab you have U: as the default music folder.

(http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/222/itsfv560betaoptions2008dv1.th.png) (http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/222/itsfv560betaoptions2008dv1.png)

6. Perform a full synchroclean after you have set the iTunes music folder location as U:

iTSfv will remove all the invalid tracks and re-add all the music from U:\

After this is done, you will not get the problem again.

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: cubanresourceful on 2008-09-13 16:45:34
I get an error with your program. I am running 5.60.15.1, and if I change ANY option within the OPTIONS menu, and try to apply or save, it says this:

Unhandled exception has occurred in your application. If you click Continue, the application will ignore this error and attempt to continue. If you click Quit, the application will close immediately.

Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

I can click continue, and the application will not close, but I won't be able to save the preferences either. Is it an error on my side? Also, running iTunes 8.  Thanks you very much, I really love your autorating.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-09-14 00:38:47
cubanresourceful,

Could you please do the following?

Hopefully this won't crash until you do it all:

Open iTSfv

Press F2 to access options

Go to Advanced > Paths > Program

(http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/8751/itsfv560betaoptions2008zg3.th.png) (http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/8751/itsfv560betaoptions2008zg3.png)

Browse Orginal user.config

Send me the xml file to mcored@gmail.com for analysis.

Thanks,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: cubanresourceful on 2008-09-14 03:26:10
I've sent the email, I hope you can find the bug (if there is any), and also thanks for the lightning fast response! Such a great software I have found here!
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-09-14 03:56:41
cubanresourceful

Thanks for the config file, unfortunately just like you said the config file did not have any abnormalities to figure out where the problem is. When you load iTSfv and it says "Unhandled exception has occurred in your application. If you click Continue, the application will ignore this error and attempt to continue. If you click Quit, the application will close immediately" is there a Details button to copy more information? By that I mean something similar to:

System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at iTSfv.frmMain.bwApp_DoWork(Object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
at System.ComponentModel.BackgroundWorker.OnDoWork(DoWorkEventArgs e)
at System.ComponentModel.BackgroundWorker.WorkerThreadStart(Object argument)


************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll

etc.

Could you please post this information here?



Steffen M.

Could you please install

http://www.sendspace.com/file/glruwp (http://www.sendspace.com/file/glruwp)

which is an updated build where I suspect a possible error is:

5.60.15.3 Could not determine the music folder path where most of the music files are in the library when music files were in the root drive


Hvala,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: cubanresourceful on 2008-09-14 04:29:58
Okay, I'm going to install it and see, also here the error code:

Code: [Select]
See the end of this message for details on invoking 
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
   at iTSfv.frmOptions.sSettingsSaveAdvanced()
   at iTSfv.frmOptions.sSettingsSave()
   at iTSfv.frmOptions.sSettingsReload()
   at iTSfv.frmOptions.btnApply_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnClick(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnClick(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mevent)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)


************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///I:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
iTSfv
    Assembly Version: 5.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 5.60.15.1
    CodeBase: file:///I:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/iTSfv.exe
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.VisualBasic
    Assembly Version: 8.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 8.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///I:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Microsoft.VisualBasic/8.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll
----------------------------------------
System
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///I:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///I:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///I:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Runtime.Remoting
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///I:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Runtime.Remoting/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Runtime.Remoting.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Configuration
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///I:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Configuration/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Configuration.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Xml
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///I:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll
----------------------------------------
Interop.iTunesLib
    Assembly Version: 1.11.0.0
    Win32 Version: 1.11.0.0
    CodeBase: file:///I:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/Interop.iTunesLib.DLL
----------------------------------------
McoreIndexer
    Assembly Version: 2.9.7.0
    Win32 Version: 2.9.7.0
    CodeBase: file:///I:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/McoreIndexer.DLL
----------------------------------------
McoreSystem
    Assembly Version: 1.13.1.0
    Win32 Version: 1.13.1.0
    CodeBase: file:///I:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/McoreSystem.DLL
----------------------------------------
Accessibility
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///I:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Accessibility/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Accessibility.dll
----------------------------------------
m-7js8-u
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///I:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
Interop.ITDETECTORLib
    Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0
    CodeBase: file:///I:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/Interop.ITDETECTORLib.DLL
----------------------------------------
System.Web
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///I:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_32/System.Web/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Web.dll
----------------------------------------

************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this
application or computer (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.

For example:

<configuration>
    <system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer
rather than be handled by this dialog box.


Would you like me to enable JIT debugging for further details?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-09-14 05:12:06
Jojo

Good news about Lyrics. Finally there is a cure for supporting UTF8 characters. If you replace this dll

http://www.sendspace.com/file/nw20f1 (http://www.sendspace.com/file/nw20f1)

you will no longer have strange characters and don't have to use the replace-words.txt for that purpose.



cubanresourceful

Thanks for the output! I will look  at iTSfv.frmOptions.sSettingsSaveAdvanced() and see what's going wrong. JIT isn't necessary.

Okay, I'm going to install it and see


cubanresourceful,

Last build was for Steffan 

I went through the sSettingsSaveAdvanced function and the closest I could think of was an error related to Start with Windows.

Could you please install this build over?

http://www.sendspace.com/file/6mpe2s (http://www.sendspace.com/file/6mpe2s)
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: cubanresourceful on 2008-09-14 05:20:42
Jojo

Good news about Lyrics. Finally there is a cure for supporting UTF8 characters. If you replace this dll

http://www.sendspace.com/file/nw20f1 (http://www.sendspace.com/file/nw20f1)

you will no longer have strange characters and don't have to use the replace-words.txt for that purpose.



cubanresourceful

Thanks for the output! I will look  at iTSfv.frmOptions.sSettingsSaveAdvanced() and see what's going wrong. JIT isn't necessary.


Okay, I'm going to install it and see


cubanresourceful,

Last build was for Steffan 

I went through the sSettingsSaveAdvanced function and the closest I could think of was an error related to Start with Windows.

Could you please install this build over?

http://www.sendspace.com/file/6mpe2s (http://www.sendspace.com/file/6mpe2s)

You are a genius! It now saves without an error, though it seems like its a prior version to what I installed? I guess that helps narrow down the code you are going to wade through?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-09-14 05:47:01
cubanresourceful

That's splendid! May I ask what version are you running now?

This is the change I did:

http://code.google.com/p/itsfv/source/diff...2FfrmOptions.vb (http://code.google.com/p/itsfv/source/diff?spec=svn22&old=12&r=22&format=unidiff&path=%2Ftrunk%2FiTSfv%2FForms%2FfrmOptions.vb)
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: waysid on 2008-09-14 08:39:06
Hi,

I recently made the decision to go back to itunes from mediamonkey and was looking for a way to copy my ratings and playcounts from mediamonkey into my itunes library.

I stumbled accross this app and I think its exactly what I need :-).  All of my mediamonkey ratings are stored in POPM tags as so I figured I could use the option under "validate" and "library" to do so.  I must be doing something wrong though because I am not seeing any results.

Here is what I am doing:

- opening latest version of itunes ( 8.0 )
- opening latest version of itsfv
- highlighting the song or songs in itunes that I want to process
- checking off "Import Rating from POPM... "
- clicking on "Validate Library for Selected Tracks"

Here's what I found in the log file: ( I used an Oasis song as an example )
2008-09-14T00:25:02 Job Started: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED
2008-09-14T00:25:03 Validating Disc: Standing On The Shoulder Of Gi - Oasis in D:\Music\Oasis\Standing On The Shoulder Of Gi
2008-09-14T00:25:03 Checks? False, Tracks? False, Library? True, File System? False
2008-09-14T00:25:03 Chosen Most Common Artist: "Oasis" with 100.00% confidence
2008-09-14T00:25:03 .
2008-09-14T00:25:03 Duration: 0 Hours 00 Minutes 0.375 Seconds
2008-09-14T00:25:03 Cleaning Temporary Files... in C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\iTSfv\
2008-09-14T00:25:03 Job Finished: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED

So it seems like it should have worked.  I don't see any rating appear though in iTunes?

Am I missing something here?

Thanks for any help.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-09-14 09:13:06
waysid,

Yes it should have worked.

Drag one of the music files to Mp3tag and see if you actually have the POPM frame filled.

(http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/6532/tagsid3v23id3v1id3v2320lq4.th.png) (http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/6532/tagsid3v23id3v1id3v2320lq4.png)

You should see the POPULARIMETER there when you right click the song in Mp3tag and click Extended Tags...

I wonder if MM3 has saved it in a different frame? Mp3tag will be able to tell us.

Cheers.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Steffen M. on 2008-09-14 09:25:09
@~*McoreD*~: Thanks for your help.


I let iTSfv delete all my tracks from iTunes because tha path where \\01nas\ ... and then it starts to add my songs again. But there are some new problems:

iTSfv change some tags but I don't want that. For example my two digit track number now is without the 0 in front of 01. In some dirs I have only single titles without album informations. Here they get track numbers and some songs are not synchronised.


Thanks again, Steffen
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: cubanresourceful on 2008-09-14 14:08:11
I was using 5.60.15.1 before, if I remember correctly, and now you gave me 5.60.16.0, which saves perfectly. Again, thanks you very much.  Does this mean you have cornered the nasty bug and fixed him?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-09-14 16:33:54
@~*McoreD*~: Thanks for your help.

I let iTSfv delete all my tracks from iTunes because tha path where \\01nas\ ... and then it starts to add my songs again. But there are some new problems:

iTSfv change some tags but I don't want that. For example my two digit track number now is without the 0 in front of 01. In some dirs I have only single titles without album informations. Here they get track numbers and some songs are not synchronised.


Thanks again, Steffen


Steffen, before adding files to the iTunes library, iTSfv was refreshing tags including TrackNumber. So padding information could get lost during this. This behaviour is now optional in the next upcoming build.

5.60.19.0 Forcing tags to be refreshed while adding new files to library is now an option in Options : Explorer [Steffen M.]

It was cool how you noticed that; in iTunes you wouldn't see the difference: whether TrackNumber is padded or not.

I am not sure why some songs are not synchronized. It could be an once-off error. Hopefully it gets added the next time.

By the way you can use Windows Scheduled Tasks to automate this with iTSfv command line:

itsfv.exe add_files

I was using 5.60.15.1 before, if I remember correctly, and now you gave me 5.60.16.0, which saves perfectly. Again, thanks you very much.  Does this mean you have cornered the nasty bug and fixed him?


I would like to think so cubanresourceful!

All,

Latest version of iTSfv beta can be found in

http://code.google.com/p/itsfv/ (http://code.google.com/p/itsfv/)

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: waysid on 2008-09-14 17:19:12
Yes, I did use MP3Tag and confirmed that the POPM tag was filled.  Could it be because I am not using the default itunes library?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-09-15 00:15:55
waysid,

I didn't understand what you meant by not using the default itunes library. The library that is accessed by iTSfv should be updated by iTSfv anyhow.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: waysid on 2008-09-15 00:56:42
Itunes allows you to create different libraries ( resulting in different .itl files ).

I experimented further and was able to get some of the other features working ( eg I used the app to capitalize every word in the Name ).

I just can't seem to get any of the validate options to work. (eg I tried the "save vaildation result in itunes playlists." It didn't create any playlists for me )

Anyway thanks for your help, I'll keep playing around a bit more.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: cubanresourceful on 2008-09-15 02:41:54
I was using 5.60.15.1 before, if I remember correctly, and now you gave me 5.60.16.0, which saves perfectly. Again, thanks you very much.  Does this mean you have cornered the nasty bug and fixed him?

Quote
I would like to think so cubanresourceful!

All,

Latest version of iTSfv beta can be found in

http://code.google.com/p/itsfv/ (http://code.google.com/p/itsfv/)

Cheers,
McoreD

Good, glad to hear, especially the latest verion. I love bleeding edge releases.

EDIT: I don't know if this program has this feature, but I went through every setting and didn't see it. Is it possible that, during validation, it renames tracks to however style you want ie "%AlbumArtist\(%Year%) %Album%"? I didn't see it, only an option for importing songs. That way, the iTunes library is updated, without losing playcounts, ratings, etc. (I could do this a longer way, ie using the playcounts/ratings in tags to restore them, but this would be a useful and welcome addition for validation, if its not already there.)

Just a thought maybe.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-09-16 08:34:40
EDIT: I don't know if this program has this feature, but I went through every setting and didn't see it. Is it possible that, during validation, it renames tracks to however style you want ie "%AlbumArtist\(%Year%) %Album%"? I didn't see it, only an option for importing songs. That way, the iTunes library is updated, without losing playcounts, ratings, etc. (I could do this a longer way, ie using the playcounts/ratings in tags to restore them, but this would be a useful and welcome addition for validation, if its not already there.)



cubanresourceful,

I appreciate the thought. It is quite possible to do the long way programmatically. With iTunes it is not possible to rename the files without changing the meta data. The option is to backup the ratings/played count and then remove the old files; rename the files; add the new files; restore ratings/played count. This will work if you don't have Keep my music folder organized option disabled. Personally I really encourage to let iTunes organize music. The purpose of iTSfv in the first place was to bridge this gap where people including myself finding it hard to do so. If you have all your music properly tagged, then you can let iTunes do all the work for you and forget about the file structure.

iTunes is designed so that file names or folder structure are transparent to the user. All your music is accessed using their meta tags within the iTunes Library. iTunes offers a standard file/folder structure which is the most compatible

If %DiscNumber% > 1 :

%AlbumArtist%\%Album%\%DiscNumber%-%TrackNumber% %Name%.mp3

Otherwise :

%AlbumArtist%\%Album%\%TrackNumber% %Name%.mp3

Just my 2 cents..
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: cubanresourceful on 2008-09-16 21:33:14
Your right, I just wish that iTunes would allow custom library placement configurations, or at least place the date in the album folder names.  Again, thanks for a wonderful program.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-09-18 02:06:11
Jojo / MetalMessiah78,

http://code.google.com/p/itsfv/ (http://code.google.com/p/itsfv/)

5.60.20.1 Removed dependence from iLyics and ensured lyrics are imported in UTF-8 [pt_ha]
5.60.20.0 Added new command line flag "synchroclean" which is the same as "add_folder remove_dead"
5.60.19.0 Forcing tags to be refreshed while adding new files to library is now an option in Options : Explorer [Steffen M.]
5.60.18.0 ReverseScrobble is now possible using command line interface using flag reverse_scrobble
5.60.17.0 Import PlayedCount from POPM or PCNT Frame for MP3 files using Library tab
5.60.16.0 Lyrics from LyricWiki will support all UTF-8 characters

I have permanently fixed the issue with LyricWiki and the setup is also 200 KiB smaller now because it directly accesses the LyricWiki servers without the need of a 3rd party DLL.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2008-09-18 06:43:27
Jojo / MetalMessiah78,

http://code.google.com/p/itsfv/ (http://code.google.com/p/itsfv/)

5.60.20.1 Removed dependence from iLyics and ensured lyrics are imported in UTF-8 [pt_ha]
5.60.20.0 Added new command line flag "synchroclean" which is the same as "add_folder remove_dead"
5.60.19.0 Forcing tags to be refreshed while adding new files to library is now an option in Options : Explorer [Steffen M.]
5.60.18.0 ReverseScrobble is now possible using command line interface using flag reverse_scrobble
5.60.17.0 Import PlayedCount from POPM or PCNT Frame for MP3 files using Library tab
5.60.16.0 Lyrics from LyricWiki will support all UTF-8 characters

I have permanently fixed the issue with LyricWiki and the setup is also 200 KiB smaller now because it directly accesses the LyricWiki servers without the need of a 3rd party DLL.


great. I'll give this a try
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Steffen M. on 2008-09-19 11:38:20
Works now very good for me!

Thanks, Steffen
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Mercurial on 2008-09-21 00:51:18
Is anyone else having with this program and iTunes 8? It won't grab the artwork anymore and I'm wondering if there's maybe some setting that I need to tweak within it to get it to work again. I am due for an upgrade to a beta version of the app, but I don't know if that's the problem.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-09-21 01:17:40
If you are having this error then please try the following:

Close both iTunes and iTSfv
Start > Run > type: 

itunes /regserver

Press Enter

Start iTSfv

Let me know how that works out.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Mercurial on 2008-09-21 02:17:32
If you are having this error then please try the following:

Close both iTunes and iTSfv
Start > Run > type: 

itunes /regserver

Press Enter

Start iTSfv

Let me know how that works out.


It actually appears that it may have been a problem with the installation of both programs. I just reinstalled iTunes and ISfv and everything appears to be fine now. Thanks alot for the swift reply though. I just happened to check it again before even getting a chance to try your troubleshooting technique and it appears to be working.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-09-21 03:14:47
Glad to hear it worked. It happens usually when you upgrade iTunes to a new version and the iTunes installer does not properly register the iTunes DLLs to the system. I will try to keep an up-to-date FAQ here http://code.google.com/p/itsfv/wiki/FAQ (http://code.google.com/p/itsfv/wiki/FAQ) for easier access.

As I got to realize this thread is starting to get huge, I have opened up a Google Group here: http://groups.google.com/group/itsfv (http://groups.google.com/group/itsfv) which I encourage to use primarily. 

Thanks,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: eminn3m on 2008-09-29 06:49:31
This program seems absolutely amazing I can't wait to see how it performs (my files are being processed as I type). 

One question that I think was already (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=62466) asked but I don't think it was answered.
I'm using foo_rating which stores my ratings in the id3 file of the track as %rating%. Is there any way for me to import these ratings into Itunes from the id3 tags so that ratings can be displayed on the ipod and in smart playlists?

Thanks a ton for all of your continued effort on this program 
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jou on 2008-10-25 22:40:38
Hello McoreD,
1st THANKS again for this tool, I just *love* the capitalization of the 1st letters of the names/artists.

Would it be possible to have the following feature ?
- Under iTunes, select a playlist/smart playlist
- click a button in iTSfv ("find duplicates")
- iTSfv selects (as if the user CTRL+LeftClick) all the duplicates (except one of each of course) which have:
    - same artist name
    - same album name
    - same title
    - same BPM
    - same length
- Do nothing more, let the user decide what to do next (Shift-Delete comes to mind of course, after visual confirmation).

Another feature (hard to do ?) would be to select the ones with lower BPM.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jou on 2008-10-25 23:02:37
OK, I found on page#14 of this thread this:
5.42.0.0 Ability to remove duplicate tracks from Library in Advanced > Library according to Options > Library > Cleaning

Playing with it as of now
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-10-26 01:28:19
Jou,

Thanks for the feedback.

If I understood correctly, you can create a Smart Playlist in iTunes with tracks  less than a specified BPM.

(http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/6503/smartplaylist2008102609xr7.th.png) (http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/6503/smartplaylist2008102609xr7.png)


For more options on duplicate tracks, press F2.

(http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/6968/itsfv560betaoptions2008bh6.th.png) (http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/6968/itsfv560betaoptions2008bh6.png)

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: gummbah on 2008-11-05 08:44:57
I am trying to figure out how to update my Itunes ratings. I am using J River Media Center, which writes the ratings into the popm tag. I have checked this in mp3tag.
But whatever I do, when I run the Import ratings and playedcount data from popm and pcnt frames in iTSFv it does not add any ratings.
Any ideas?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2008-11-08 07:28:01
this might a long shot, but have you considered making itsfv work with Songbird (http://getsongbird.com/)? Version 1.0 is just around the corner, and I'm getting more and more frustrated with iTunes sluggishness and forced quick time install etc.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2008-11-21 00:25:46
Hi,

I noticed that there are still some " ’ " showing up in the lyrics.
For example: http://lyricwiki.org/Jack_Johnson:Losing_Keys (http://lyricwiki.org/Jack_Johnson:Losing_Keys)

now, the weird thing is that if you click on that link the " ' " show up correctly, but when I do the import, they show up all weird. Also notice the strange "..."

Edit: Damn, I carefully put the following text into songs with no lyrics "there are no lyrics in this song"...no all this information is gone when checking for new lyrics
Edit2: How come songs with no Album are ignored when importing / exporting lyrics?
Edit3: I tried to get rid of the "Not found" lyrics by exporting them, then mass removing them from the files and then importing the lyrics (essentially importing an empty lyrics file). It didn't work. And I did check the overwrite checkbox. So, lyrics that are locally imported should always be imported. Maybe get rid of the length check in that case (but still run it through the replace string parser).
Edit4: When exporting album art and there is no album name, the program used to use the song name instead. I think this has been fixed before but is broken again

Even when I explicitly say that it should export "artist" - "name", it doesn't do it (it doesn't do anything at all). That's obviously a bug.
And again, even when the export mask is set to "artist" - "album" and there is no album, it should automatically switch to "artist" - "name".

Quote
I can finally picture the whole process now:

Select the track/tracks in iTunes
Press "Import iTunes Store Artwork" in iTSfv
iTSfv attempts to the iTunes Store artwork via a dummy file
If there is an artwork, iTSfv embeds that into the selected track/tracks

are there any updates on this?

Thank You
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-11-22 00:07:07
Jojo,

Actually the apostrophe in that song was different to what we took care of  earlier. I have listed both cases  here:

`,,,,'
’,,,,'

You will need to add the second line to replace-words.txt

Tracks without Album tag are ignored by default (globally). You need to allow this in 

Options > Advanced > Validation > Sources : Track Sources for Validation

The easiest approach for removing lyrics would be by going to

Selected Tracks > Remove the following tag from Track : Lyrics

The latest build here

http://code.google.com/p/itsfv/ (http://code.google.com/p/itsfv/) will ignore LyricWiki's new behavior of sending "No Lyrics" string

Are you sure about exporting album art and there is no album name, the  program used to use the song name instead. I think this has been fixed before but is broken again I just exported an artwork with the file name Jack Johnson - (2008) Losing Keys.jpg after removing the album tag.



Select the track/tracks in iTunes
Press "Import iTunes Store Artwork" in iTSfv
iTSfv attempts to the iTunes Store artwork via a dummy file
If there is an artwork, iTSfv embeds that into the selected track/tracks

I can't remember the purpose of adding this function - probably why it wasn't added earlier. The function already exists, if I am not mistaken, in iTunes. To retrieve Artwork via iTunes, we remove the artwork. Right click the tracks and click "Get iTunes Album Artwork". iTunes Artwork if exists download now. Using iTSfv these tracks can be validated to embed the artwork in the usual way.

However, I have added this feature to work automatically as part of the Artwork Sources.

5.60.23.0 Ability to import Artwork from iTunes Store for selected tracks already in the library

[a href="http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/91/itsfv560betaoptions2008sb2.png" target="_blank"]

SongBird and iTunes are entirely different platforms and need to make an addon from scratch. SongBird doesn't offer grouping by AlbumArtist either. But I am keeping an eye on it.

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2008-11-22 00:54:32
Thanks for your reply.

1) Most of my issues were resolved by checking that box  "Options > Advanced > Validation > Sources : Track Sources for Validation"

2) The only issue I've left is with the minimum characters for the lyrics import.

We implemented a minimum character count in order to prevent lyrics from being imported that were bogus (such as /*empty/* and stuff like that). However, it would make more sense to eliminate the minimum character count when determining whether lyrics are already embedded in the file (and hence deciding whether to replace them).

In other words, the program should only verify the minimum character count when importing lyrics online. The reason behind that is that the internet is an unknown source, so we don't know what we are getting. However, once we have embedded the lyrics, we can assume that there is no garbage. Since we are doing the minimum character check when downloading lyrics, the only way "garbage" can be added would be by the user. In that case, it is probably intended and therefore we shouldn't touch it. Just like in my case where I add stuff like "There are no lyrics in this song".

Therefore, I think the lyric embedding function should work as follows:
A) Are there any lyrics currently embedded? If yes, don't touch them (unless the overwrite function is activated in the options)
The criteria for deciding whether any lyric is embedded should be whether there is a character count greater than 0. You could make it even more fancy by ignoring any white spaces (just in case someone accidentally put a bunch white space in there at the beginning)
B) If there are indeed no lyrics, check for a local file. If there is a match, import the lyrics regardless of the length of the lyric that is stored inside the file.
If there is no local file, check online and this time (and this time only), we'll do the minimum character count in determining whether lyrics are imported.

What do you think? Simple idea, lots of writing

3) I've added the three dots ( …  ) to my replace file as "...", maybe that's something to include by default.

4)
Quote
5.60.23.0 Ability to import Artwork from iTunes Store for selected tracks already in the library

the idea behind this was to take advantage of iTSfv filters. For example, iTunes native album art function does not like stuff like "Album Name [OST]", but iTSfv strips out the brackets (at least that's what it used to do) and therefore it will most likely find album art.

5) There should be some sort of tooltip activation button right next to the option that allows you to use variables. The cover import paths or lyrics for instance. Currently, the tooltip that displays the variables that can be used only shows once and disappears after a while. The only way to bring it back is to leave the options menu and go back. With a button on the side of the input, it would be easier to figure out what variables can be used.

What do you think?

6) What is "Album Art DOwnloader XUI CLI"? it is currently unchecked, but if I check it it asks for a .exe
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-11-22 06:15:59
Jojo,

Actually there was no minimum character requirement when importing lyrics from online: LyricWiki, for the same reason: we don't know what we are getting. I have encountered some songs with just a few letters (less than 100 characters) and they were valid for that particular song. So to this date, there was no minimum character check for importing lyrics. The only time this was checked was when a user manually checks for Tag Completeness in Checks tab, pretty much like caution to identify the tracks with very short lyrics.

I went through the issue about importing lyrics form local files and I discovered that the problem you are experiencing is because the following wasn't happening:  import the lyrics regardless of the length of the lyric that is stored inside the file.

If iTSfv found out that the lyrics in file was empty then it ignored it. This was done for a good reason because the file could have been unreadable, or the lyrics server could have been unreachable (more likely). Now if you had "Overwrite Lyrics" during this situation, then you would have lost the lyrics - because now iTSfv would overwrite the Lyrics regardless the length of the lyrics it found.

I also added
Code: [Select]
’,,,,'
to the replace-words.txt.

Album Artwork Downloader XUI CLI is the commandline interface of the fabulous AAD: http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=57392 (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=57392)

Thanks for reminding me of the purpose of the feature. It is being tested and added to the next build.


Did you mean these:

Album ---------------- %Album%
Album Artist --------- %AlbumArtist%
Track Artist --------- %Artist%
Composer ------------- %Composer%
Disc Count ----------- %DiscCount%
Disc Number ---------- %DiscNumber%
File Name ------------ %FileName%
Genre ---------------- %Genre%
Track Name ----------- %Name%
Played Count --------- %PlayedCount%
Rating --------------- %Rating%
Track Count ---------- %TrackCount%
Track Number --------- %TrackNumber%
Year ----------------- %Year%

Great idea. I will see what is the best way to do this.

Cheers,
McoreD


P.S: Could you please explain the difficulty you are having in regards to Lyrics?

iTSfv currently does not accept local files with empty text. This will be ignored. Providing an empty file is not the way to remove lyrics.
To remove lyrics, go to Selected Tracks > Remove the following tag from Track : Lyrics
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2008-11-22 08:22:08
If iTSfv found out that the lyrics in file was empty then it ignored it. This was done for a good reason because the file could have been unreadable, or the lyrics server could have been unreachable (more likely). Now if you had "Overwrite Lyrics" during this situation, then you would have lost the lyrics - because now iTSfv would overwrite the Lyrics regardless the length of the lyrics it found.

right, however, I was talking about lyric files stored locally in txt files (not online). You know, when you import lyrics, itsfv first checks locally and then goes online. So I was suggesting ignoring the file length there. But apparently, there is no minimum character check.

However, if there is no minimum character check, then explain to me why my lyrics are overwritten when it says "There are no lyrics in this file" inside the iTunes lyrics tag. I have the overwrite feature turned off, but itsf still goes online and fetches lyrics for those songs. Songs that have longer lyrics are not overwritten.
I also added
Code: [Select]
’,,,,'
to the replace-words.txt.

what about
Quote
…,,,,...




Quote
Did you mean these:

Album ---------------- %Album%
Album Artist --------- %AlbumArtist%
Track Artist --------- %Artist%
Composer ------------- %Composer%
Disc Count ----------- %DiscCount%
Disc Number ---------- %DiscNumber%
File Name ------------ %FileName%
Genre ---------------- %Genre%
Track Name ----------- %Name%
Played Count --------- %PlayedCount%
Rating --------------- %Rating%
Track Count ---------- %TrackCount%
Track Number --------- %TrackNumber%
Year ----------------- %Year%


yea
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-11-22 13:48:05
Jojo,

May be this wasn't the intended behavior do you think? iTSfv currently doesn't check for lyrics locally first. For  tracks without* lyrics, it checks LyricWiki first and then checks a matching lyric file. This was done assuming that the online source has the most recent lyrics for the song.

*without lyrics = that doesn't pass the minimum character length check (apologies for previous contradiction)

So you are right about track lyrics of "There are no lyrics in this file" are treated as tracks without lyrics and they get queried online.

After the online check, if iTSfv still doesn't find lyrics, it checks for local file. If iTSfv reads any lyrics from text files, it will embed this.
If iTSfv does find lyrics from LyricWiki, then it would skip the local file check and embed the lyrics from LyricWiki.

Is there anything that you would like me to change?

I think the problem here is that your tracks with "There are no lyrics in this file" as lyrics are currently being treated as tracks without lyrics and iTSfv continues to check lyrics online, and you don't prefer that. It is almost like you don't want those tracks to be checked online for lyrics, may be to increase performance and avoid wasting time checking for lyrics when you know they are not there.

Suggestion solution if this is the case, is to reduce the character length to 32.

"There are no lyrics in this file" is 33 characters.

So from now on iTSfv will treat them as having lyrics and wouldn't go online.



Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2008-11-22 20:31:03
Is there anything that you would like me to change?

I changed the minimum character length.
However, if I remember correctly, the reason why we implemented that feature a while back was to ensure that we don't get any garbage from online lyrics. At this time, the minimum character count would only apply to lyrics we are getting from the internet, but would not be used as a criteria of whether a file contains lyrics or not. As of right now, I still get stuff like "/*empty*/" and similar useless strings.

I guess you don't mind getting useless strings embedded into your files, since you will check for new lyrics frequently and therefore will eventually end up with useful lyrics.
However, from a logical point of view, it doesn't make any sense.

Here is why: If you believe that lyricswiki will get better over time, that is, have more accurate lyrics, why would you only want to update lyrics that have less than 100 characters? In that case, you should be updating all of your lyrics, which can be accomplished by setting the overwrite function.

Therefore, I think iTSfv should handle lyrics the way it used to in previous versions: If a song contains any lyrics, don't update them unless the overwrite function is activated. (so, no minimum character check)

Therefore, use the minimum character check only when fetching lyrics online. People can adjust the character length to their needs. That's how we initially came up with the 100 character count, because it strips out the garbage and real lyrics are longer than 100 characters. But again, someone can reduce it to 50 or maybe even 30.

What do you think?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-11-23 00:35:59
Jojo,

Thanks - I think I just solved the missing piece of the puzzle.

5.60.24.0 Import Lyrics from LyricWiki if the character count is at least a user configurable number [Jojo]

(http://img370.imageshack.us/img370/7349/ss20081123093320lk0.th.jpg) (http://img370.imageshack.us/img370/7349/ss20081123093320lk0.jpg)

I think this build solves it.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/4lzngc (http://www.sendspace.com/file/4lzngc)

What you will see new is the minimum character length requirement for LyricWiki to have so that iTSfv will accept this as valid lyrics. I have set the default to be 15. So this should ignore words like /*Empty*/ by default.

Please let me know how this goes.

As per your suggestion, If a song contains any lyrics, iTSfv doesn't update them unless the overwrite function is activated. (so, no minimum character check).

Thanks.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2008-11-23 06:49:28
thanks a lot. I appreciate it.

Also, we need a fix for stuff like that:
http://lyricwiki.org/Electric_President:Insomnia (http://lyricwiki.org/Electric_President:Insomnia)
http://lyricwiki.org/Morning_Runner:Burning_Benches (http://lyricwiki.org/Morning_Runner:Burning_Benches)

Is there a way to only fetch the original lyrics and no translations:
http://lyricwiki.org/Linkin_Park:One_Step_Closer (http://lyricwiki.org/Linkin_Park:One_Step_Closer)



and here are some more additions for the replace words file:
Quote
’,,,,'
…,,,,...
‘,,,,'

how many more are there...

Also, I found a bug.
When exporting cover art, using the "Artist - Name" scheme, only one cover of the album is exported. Since we are exporting Song - Name however, there should be album art for each individual song, regardless of whether it comes from the same album.

In addition, for some odd reason, lyrics imported contain lots of line breaks at the end. Those weren't present before exporting and also aren't in the exported txt lyric. Weird.
I just checked again, there is a huge issue here. There are even line spaces in between.

Something like;
Quote
Princess cards she sends me with her regards,
Oh, bar-room eyes shine vacancy
To see her you gotta look hard


has turned into
Quote
Princess cards she sends me with her regards,


Oh, bar-room eyes shine vacancy


To see her you gotta look hard

not funny
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-11-23 11:51:14
Doesn't look like LyricWiki API allows choosing between translations. We are only left with  iTSfv.org.lyricwiki.LyricsResult.lyricsField which is string representation the song page.

That could be partially my fault for having line breaks. There are some lyrics without any line returns and only carriage returns so I had to replace carriage returns with carriage return + line return. The difference was only notable in Lyrics within iTunes or in Notepad sometimes. Notepad++ seemed to show any case fine. I have removed this behavior and now iTSfv will deliver Lyrics as it is - after processing the replace-words.txt of course.


Please find the carriage return fixed build here:

http://code.google.com/p/itsfv/ (http://code.google.com/p/itsfv/)

5.60.24.1 Removed possibility where carriage return would be replaced in Lyrics with carriage return and a line return [Jojo]
5.60.24.0 Import Lyrics from LyricWiki if the character count is at least a user configurable number [Jojo]

5.60.23.1 Delete Dead or Foreign Track checkBoxes in Library tab did not work while validating selected tracks
5.60.23.0 Ability to import Artwork from iTunes Store for selected tracks already in the library [Jojo]
5.60.22.1 When LyricWiki "Not Found" was erraneously treated as lyrics were found [pt_ha]
5.60.22.0 Option to fill "Sort Album Artist" tag from "Sort Artist" tag as part of filling Album Artist tag from Artist tag [pt_ha]
5.60.21.1 Removal of missing tracks will be skipped if iTSfv finds out one or more music folder locations are inaccessble at the time of operation
5.60.21.0 Add New Files window will show recommended Album Artist tag with an Autofill button to ease the decision of overwriting tags before adding tracks to library
5.60.20.3 Did not find lyrics for songs with brackets such as Sufjan Stevens: Flint (For The Unemployed And Underpaid) from LyricWiki [pt_ha]
5.60.20.2 When searching for lyrics, iTSfv will consider Artist tag as well as the AlbumArtist tag [pt_ha]
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2008-11-23 19:52:16
Doesn't look like LyricWiki API allows choosing between translations. We are only left with  iTSfv.org.lyricwiki.LyricsResult.lyricsField which is string representation the song page.

couldn't we just strip out the stuff that matches this pattern:
Quote
===xxxxxxx===
'''''Note:''' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/xxxxx xxxx xxxx xxxxx] is used in this translation.''

I think you found a way how to get rid of that stuff a while ago.

Quote
That could be partially my fault for having line breaks. There are some lyrics without any line returns and only carriage returns so I had to replace carriage returns with carriage return + line return. The difference was only notable in Lyrics within iTunes or in Notepad sometimes. Notepad++ seemed to show any case fine. I have removed this behavior and now iTSfv will deliver Lyrics as it is - after processing the replace-words.txt of course.

I see. Glad to see it fixed. However, I was wondering if there could be anything done about lyrics with no line breaks. I was still using yesterdays build with the bug in it, but still got  no line breaks here:
http://lyricwiki.org/The_Format:Even_Better_Yet (http://lyricwiki.org/The_Format:Even_Better_Yet)

A new feature would be to try to guess the line breaks.
I was thinking about something like breaking the line after each comma, but with a minimum character threshold. And then after 4 lines or so, do a double line break (for the verses)
This feature should only kick in if there are no line breaks of course, since we don't want to mess with the properly formatted lyrics.

Also, is there a way to get rid of the extra line break(s) at the very end of the lyrics? Both when importing locally and online?

Quote
Please find the carriage return fixed build here:

ok, but let me point out that this problem with the extra line breaks only occurred when importing lyrics locally. Lyrics there were fetched online didn't have this problem.

Quote
5.60.23.0 Ability to import Artwork from iTunes Store for selected tracks already in the library

how do I use this feature? I turned it on in the options and tried it on a test track. It said that it was downloading artwork and it took a while, but there was no artwork. I then used iTunes to download the artwork and that worked (so there was definitely artwork available on the itunes server).

Thank You
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-11-29 09:23:28
Hi Jojo,

1/ I have added some experimental code for splitting lyrics without CrLf into lines. As discussed it will only kick in if the Lyrics doesn't already have CrLf to avoid undesirable results.

So the song above comes as follows.

Code: [Select]
its just the nicotine thats coming over me
or is it anything more then a smoke screen
cause i feel like you've been living a lie
you're looking better than
than you ever did, nothings better than
than you once said, i've been waiting but i've been losing my
losing my mind, i've gotta take the car for a long drive
i'm gonna get out and i'll commit myself
i dont know how you do what you do (do do do.) i gotta take the plan for a long ride
i'm gonna get out and i'll commit myself
i wont believe a thing that you say
and all the cigarettes are getting better yet
i just can't forget all the other shit
i know you're in bed and to me thats just fine
but you can't sleep you're laying next to me
saying everything,  saying everything, that you would do if you could just open your eyes
well open your eyes, ive gotta take the car for a long drive
i'm gonna get out and i'll commit myself
i dont know how you do what you do (do do do.) i gotta take the plan for a long ride
im gonna get out and i'll commit myself
i wont believe a thing that you say
oh you look so, so skin and thin and bones
and oh, oh you look so, so so so so, i know it doesn't end
it just gets better yet
i dont want to wait cause i cant think about what you never did
what you never did, would you, well i wouldnt,  wait, would you go? would you stay? i've gotta take the car for a long drive
i'm gonna get out and i'll commit myself
i don't know how you do what you do (do do do.) i gotta take the plan for a long ride
im gonna get out and i'll commit myself
i won't believe a thing that you say


It's best not to guess the number of lines to perform a double line break.
As you can see there are inconsistencies when using this method: (do do do.) i gotta
The rest imo should be finalized by the user.

2/ It's not going to be easy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle) stripping languages using string manipulation because it is a blind process resulting a dirty job. One would also then need the ability to select which language to save lyrics in.

3/ Next builds of iTSfv will attempt to trim unnecessary line breaks at the end of the lyrics.

4/ Looks like you have everything setup. If you have automatically import Album Artwork enabled in iTunes, it should be working like this:

http://www.wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsf...work-itunes.wmv (http://www.wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsfv/itsfv-artwork-itunes.wmv)


Cr = Carriage Return
Lf = Line Feed
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2008-11-29 19:03:48
4/ Looks like you have everything setup. If you have automatically import Album Artwork enabled in iTunes, it should be working like this:

http://www.wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsf...work-itunes.wmv (http://www.wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsfv/itsfv-artwork-itunes.wmv)

Thank You for your help. I don't seem to be able to get it to work.
I followed the video and have activated the checkboxes in the options.
The only setting that's different is in the Validate > Tracks setting. I only have the "Embed Artwork in C:\covers from iTunes or %Artist% - %Name%.jpg" setting checked. It says that it created a dummy file and that it is waiting for the artwork to finish downloading, but there is no album art in the song?

Any idea?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-12-06 23:02:58
Jojo,

Do you have iTunes configured to automatically download Artwork? This is vital.

Temporarily activate "Manually choose Artwork" as in this screenshot and see if the artwork comes up.

(http://img75.imageshack.us/img75/8483/itsfv560betaoptions2008po7.th.png) (http://img75.imageshack.us/img75/8483/itsfv560betaoptions2008po7.png)


I tried forcing a wrong artwork into a track and attempting the same procedure. This time I had only Embed Artwork in C:\covers from iTunes or %Artist% - %Name%.jpg" checked.

http://wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsfv/itunes-artwork2.wmv (http://wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsfv/itunes-artwork2.wmv)

You will notice at the 27th second, as soon as the dummy file is added to iTunes, the proper artwork is added to the dummy file by iTunes. Afterwards, the dummy file gets deleted.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2008-12-07 05:09:36
Do you have iTunes configured to automatically download Artwork? This is vital.

Vital indeed. Thanks a lot, it is working now. Also, just to double check, stuff in [] and () is being omitted when doing the iTunes query, right?
So,

Album: "Be my guest [CDM]"
Song: "Suprnature (Super Remix)"

would be queried as

Album: "Be my guest"
Song: "Suprnature"

right?

Also, I noticed that the program asks which artist it should look for when something like "Artist B & Artist C" is written in the album tag. Couldn't the program just try to use the tag as is and then each of Artist B and Artist C individually? Sometimes that's just what the name of the artist is, but iTunes may or may not have at listed as one of the individual artist names.
It should also do this distinction when there is a + between the two artists. So, "Artist B + Artist C". 

Thank You
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-12-07 07:21:18
Jojo,

Great to hear it is working! 

I am certain that the answer is Yes for both questions. I will double check. It is shown in the Log Viewer if you have it opened during activity.

You can let iTSfv to query all the possible combinations of artists automatically, by unticking this checkbox here:

(http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/5589/itsfv560betaoptions2008sl1.th.png) (http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/5589/itsfv560betaoptions2008sl1.png)

Cheers.

I couldn't find the automatically download iTunes Artwork checkbox in the latest version of iTunes, where is it?

Thanks,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: neonstorm on 2008-12-07 15:39:03
I couldn't find the automatically download iTunes Artwork checkbox in the latest version of iTunes, where is it?


They just can't leave their options alone, can they? 

Look in edit -> preferences -> store tab


I'm still fiddling around with my auto-ratings, and I need help. I want a very simple rating based on plays per month (PPM), week, whatever. Basically an average plays per time period.

Here's what I've done. I've backed up and cleared my library, then tweaked my calendar to add a song to my library on 12/1/07, a duplicate on 3/1/08, and again on 6/1/08. This effectively gives me the exact same song added 12 months, 9 months, and 6 months ago. I then 'cheated' and incremented their play counts to 12, 9, and 6 respectively.

My goal is to set auto-ratings up to make them all equal in this respect. (Basically they've all been played once per month.) I tried the default settings for date added and number of plays, and it came out perfect: all 5 stars. So far so good.

Then I tried changing the 12 month song to only 6 plays, which equals 1 play every 2 months. I wanted this to rate at 2.5 stars since it's had half the average plays the other two had: .5 PPM vs. 1 PPM.

But no matter what I do, they all keep rating 5 stars. The only change I get is if i set plays to zero, I get zero stars. Is there a combination of settings I can use to accomplish this? Or any suggestions?

Thanks man!
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2008-12-08 12:50:06
Hi neonstorm,

Very interesting research.

I was checking the internal rating for two the cases:

play counts to 12, 9, and 6 respectively.

************************************
Job Type: ADJUST_RATINGS
Date and Time: * 2008-12-08 21:19:28
************************************

523 for The Format - Wait, Wait, Wait 200712
396 for The Format - Wait, Wait, Wait 200803
269 for The Format - Wait, Wait, Wait 200806

PlayedCount: 50%, SkippedCount: 0%, LastPlayed: 0%, DateAdded: 50%
Maximum Played Count: 0, Maximum Track Duration: 285, Average Track Duration: 285

play counts to 6, 9, and 6 respectively.

************************************
Job Type: ADJUST_RATINGS
Date and Time: * 2008-12-08 21:20:09
************************************

396 for The Format - Wait, Wait, Wait 200803
269 for The Format - Wait, Wait, Wait 200806
269 for The Format - Wait, Wait, Wait 200712

PlayedCount: 50%, SkippedCount: 0%, LastPlayed: 0%, DateAdded: 50%
Maximum Played Count: 0, Maximum Track Duration: 285, Average Track Duration: 285


As you can see: The Format - Wait, Wait, Wait 200803 went down from 523 to 396.

All these ratings are greater than 100 and hence why they all show up as 5 Stars. I will try refining the influence by DateAdded and come up with a solution.

Thanks for the tip in iTunes! 

Cheers,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: dkordik on 2008-12-11 10:18:12
Hi McoreD-

iTSfv is amazing!

Have you ever considered releasing the iTunes Store Artwork Grabber separately? Possibly even with command line support, ala david_dl's iTunesArt?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2008-12-18 07:35:44
2/ It's not going to be easy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle) stripping languages using string manipulation because it is a blind process resulting a dirty job. One would also then need the ability to select which language to save lyrics in.

I understand that you can't guess whether a foreign language is used. However, there is a specific tag that lyricswiki uses for translations. That tag is always the same and follows the pattern:
Code: [Select]
===Portuguese===
'''''Note:''' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian portuguese Brazilian Portuguese] is used in this translation.''
<lyric>
blablabla
</lyric>


another example:

Code: [Select]
===Bulgarian===
'''''Note:''' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian Bulgarian] is used in this translation.''
<lyric>
blablabla
</lyric>


so that seems like an easy thing to match with regular expressions.
What do you think?

Quote
3/ Next builds of iTSfv will attempt to trim unnecessary line breaks at the end of the lyrics.

thanks a lot
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: zxsix on 2008-12-29 16:52:31
I use a different program for tagging my mp3 files, but need to use itunes to sync to my ipod touch.
I have been using this awesome utility's synchroclean feature to keep the itunes database in sync with the physical mp3 files in my music library folder.
For this, it's working flawlessly.
However, as itunes doesn't use the standard rating tag stored in the files, all of my songs end up in itunes with a blank rating field.  This prevents me from using some of the ratings-based playlists I use in my music player on the pc.
I did try the button 'Import rating and playedcount data from POPM and PCNT frames' but after it processed, all songs showin in itunes still have no ratings shown.
If it is possible to get the ratings from the mp3 file tags and put them in itunes, please point me towards the appropriate steps I need to take to make this happen.
Thanks for all your work on this project.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: neonstorm on 2009-01-22 15:48:07
...I want a very simple rating based on plays per month (PPM), week, whatever. Basically an average plays per time period...


Good God, I really respect your work on ITSFV more now. Being open source, I tried to look at the code to see if I could figure out how to make this work. I've done some basic scripting and batch files, but apart from being able to figure out the logic in your code I got lost. 

IIRC, the calculations are:

Played Count = #times played / the highest #times played in the library
Skipped Count = #times played / #times played + #times skipped
Last Played = #times played - #days since last played / #times played
Date Added = #days since added - #days since last played / #days since added

I guess what I'm trying to accomplish would be more along the lines of:

Basic Score = (Played Count/Days Since Added) - deductions for Days Since Last Played - deductions for Times Skipped

It's obvious you put a lot of thought and work into your formulas, so mine are probably overly simple. But that is the general effect I'm looking for, I just can't seem to tweak the settings to get it...

I'm a tad OCD about this now.   

I realize this may be specific just to me, so I would really appreciate any help in this respect. I made a small PayPal donation, and I hope it's not in bad form, but if you can help me out I'd gladly make an additional PayPal donation to you.

Hope all is well!
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2009-01-23 01:24:34
Hi neonstorm, so it was you! Thanks again.

As I told Jojo over PM:

Quote
I see. That makes sense. I'll talk to you in a couple on months then. Good luck
Quote
Quote
Hi,

I was wondering whether you are still checking the forums here or if you are moved on / are busy with other stuff.

Later


Hi Jojo,

Still there!  Sorry I have been extremely busy with thesis work. Can't put mind to anything else that feels guilty doing.

I am hoping we could get back to all of this in 5 months.

Best,
McoreD



unfortunately I am really busy in this coming months because it is nearly the few final months of my Earthquake engineering project I mentioned a few posts earlier. I can do any help to get your up and running iTSfv form source so you can tinker it. I will get back to action better than ever after this June.

McoreD.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: neonstorm on 2009-02-04 23:12:14
unfortunately I am really busy in this coming months because it is nearly the few final months of my Earthquake engineering project I mentioned a few posts earlier. I can do any help to get your up and running iTSfv form source so you can tinker it. I will get back to action better than ever after this June.
McoreD.


Hmmm, that sounds a tad more important than ITSfv. 

I've looked around trying to figure how to fiddle with the source, and Googled around a bit as well... but have no idea where to start. Know of any good tutorials you can point me to?

Ryan
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2009-02-05 01:44:31
Ryan,

I made a Wiki for this purpose: http://code.google.com/p/itsfv/wiki/RunningFromSource (http://code.google.com/p/itsfv/wiki/RunningFromSource)

If you need any more information, please let me know.

Thanks,
McoreD
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: adrianlag on 2009-02-09 23:50:26
Hi, I've just installed iTSfv (5.60.25.1) on Vista for the first time but I just cannot get it to run. This program looks so useful but I keep getting the following errors:

1. Could not find a part of the path 'T:\iTSfv\Logs\'
    (where T: happens to be my 'Documents' folder on a network drive.)

2. Unhandled exception error.... The property 'ExportTrackPatterns' could not be created from it's default value. Error message: Access to the temp directory is denied. Identity <my username> under which XmlSerializer is running does not have sufficient permission to access the temp directory....

If I then press Continue the application opens so I try to change the folder locations in Options, but this fails and I continue to get permission errors.

My account has Admin rights so I should have permission; I've also tried running the program "As Administrator" but it still does not work.

Also, I recently upgraded to Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1; could that be a problem?

I hope you can help me please.
regards,
Adrian
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: TwoToad on 2009-03-30 21:04:04
I've noticed a new bug with iTunes 8.1.0.51.

When running iTSfv, iTunes will lock up or even crash. I've narrowed down the bug a bit. When iTSfv is importing artwork from the iTunes database, it will lock up or crash, but when importing artwork from a local file such as folder.jpg it works perfectly. I've used iTSfv version 5.60 and 5.61 and it happens with both.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: FunkMonkey on 2009-04-09 16:46:20
Great frickin' app! Main reason I tried it was to get my Ratings from J. River Media Jukebox into iTunes. But I can't seem to get that to work. I have it set to pull the ratings from the POPM frame and I've verified using MP3Tag that there is a rating in there (a 5 is set to 255) but I don't get anything when I validate. Any ideas?

I'm using iTunes 8.02 and iTSfv 5.61 Beta.

Do you take donations or anything?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2009-04-18 21:16:56
Hi ~*McoreD*~,

I noticed some activity over on the google project page.
Does that mean you are back?

Regards
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: amnioticentity on 2009-05-02 14:54:20
just wanted to stop by and say howdy, see how things are goin' with this project of yours, McoreD.
i had a bad crash and 2000 tags were scrambled (300+ folders) and so i'm goin' to use your program again.
so again, thank you much sir, good luck with all your endeavors & as soon as i get a job (read: i'm unemployed) i will make sure to send a donation that way lol.

Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: floepie on 2009-05-02 18:44:32
Each of my album folders has nice high res folder.jpg.  Is the only way to have both iTunes and iPod display this folder.jpg by embedding the folder.jpgs into each of the tracks?  Is there not a way to have iTunes cache all these folder.jpgs into its own file system the way it does for downloaded artwork?    Thanks...

EDIT:  There is no way for that to happen without embedding the files or have iTunes cache its own artwork.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: floepie on 2009-05-03 20:24:01
Things are coming along nicely with this app.  Thanks for your efforts!

Here's something I've been trying to make work.  Thanks to your app, I've been able to embed all folder.jpgs I've collected with Album Art Downloader into the tracks.  Now, I'm quite sure for some albums at least, iTunes has better artwork than some of the jpgs I've found.    So, in order to compare what iTunes has, I select 3 items as possible sources for artwork - the folder jpg, iTunes artwork cache, and the iTMS itself.  Then, I select 'manually choose' (also in the advanced settings).    When I validate the library, I will be given a choice between what iTunes has to offer and the folder.jpg as to which gets embedded into the tracks.  Two problems with this method: 1.  It requires a very long time to sit in front of your computer as you must respond to the prompts.  2.  Because the thumbnails presented are so tiny, there's no way to determine actual quality aside from the resolution.  As we all know, there is often no relation between resolution and quality.  [EDIT: Found out I can double-click on the thumbnail to enlarge.]

I think there should be better way to do this, but I'm trying to determine how.  Is there any straightforward way to simply take either the cached iTMS artwork or the artwork downloaded straight from iTMS and export directly to the album's folder *without* embedding to the tracks and have them be named artwork.jpg in one fell swoop?  That way, I can examine with good ol' Windows Explorer and determine which artwork I keep by comparing the existing folder.jpg (from Album Art Downloader) with the newly downloaded artwork.jpg (iTMS).  Then, I can simply delete one of them.  Next, I could go ahead and validate the entire library while embedding with the one JPG left in the album folder.  This way, one would not have to choose artwork throughout the entire library's validation process.

Thanks...

EDIT:  I think the one-click "Export iTunes Store Artwork" is what I would need to accomplish the above, but nothing seems to happen if I hit it.  I've selected a folder for export in the options.  Additionally, I see the option to export iTMS artwork for selected tracks.  This seems to be doing more, as it takes about 20 seconds for any selected track, but nothing is downloaded with this method either.  ??  I've searched the manual, and there's nothing to suggest that it shouldn't work.  Anything I'm overlooking?

EDIT2:  Could it be that because almost 99% of my tracks have embedded art, this whole "exporting iTMS artwork" does not work?  I found that if I select one of the few albums that do not have artwork embedded, I can get the app to prompt me for a DL location after hitting the "export artwork from selected tracks", but this does not work on any of the albums I've tried *with* artwork embedded.  Also, the one-click "Export iTMS Store Artwork" doesn't appear to be doing anything at all, i.e. the specified download directory is empty.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: floepie on 2009-05-10 18:54:28
How is it best to handle podcasts with this app?  If I add the podcast folder to the list of music folders, iTMSfv tries to validate them.  If I remove the podcast folder from the list of music folders, iTMSfv removes the podcasts from the iTunes database!   
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2009-05-23 02:34:18
I just downloaded the new version and the following bug is still there:
In addition, for some odd reason, lyrics imported from get extra line spaces in between.

Something like;
Quote
Princess cards she sends me with her regards,
Oh, bar-room eyes shine vacancy
To see her you gotta look hard


has turned into
Quote
Princess cards she sends me with her regards,


Oh, bar-room eyes shine vacancy


To see her you gotta look hard

not funny

Could this issue be iTunes related? Maybe the changed something in their API. I tried at least 10 different ITSFV versions, some all the way back from early 2008 and all of them added the extra spaces when importing lyrics locally.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2009-05-23 03:37:47
nevermind. The problem was that my lyric files used a non-dos line break (caused by an earlier bug of the program). As soon as I manually convert them, they import fine. The new build exports (and hence imports) the files fine.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: skaorsk8 on 2009-05-29 14:12:40
So I'm using the latest version of ITSFV, which works great, and is the best tagging/fixing software I've ever used, by far.

However, I'm running into some issues with the "year" tag. Specifically, it's not being filled in for me. I'm using the "validate selected tags" button, which seems to get the lyrics, artwork, etc - but not the year. That's important because once my music is correctly cataloged, I wanted to make smart playlists based on favorite songs in a certain year, (ie, all 5 star songs from 1998). Am I doing something wrong? Perhaps missing a check box?

So, ITSFV has forced me to fix so much of my tags, including many where the artists were spelled wrong, or might have had a space at the end of their name (and were listed separately). My question is - I had some folders called "Wycleff Jean", "Wyclef Jeane", etc. - now they're empty, save for artwork. How can I tell ITSFV to delete all those folders (once it's confirmed that there is no music in them)?

Next - how can ITSFV find a track and all it's information if the album name isn't present in the existing ID3 tag? I seem to have gotten many mp3s from friends over the years, and since ITSFV doesn't have the album info in in the tag, it really can't do anything. I'd love if it found the first album it was available on (not the Greatest Hits) and filled everything else in.

Also - and this is just a suggestion - on a "Greatest Hits" type album, could the software fill in the year a track was popular as opposed to the year the Greatest Hits album was released? Perhaps you could query the database for "first year song was available" or "year the first album with this song was available". Just an idea, because that would help with my 5-star playlist featuring songs from 1998.

Thanks.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: AWD_Guy on 2009-06-02 02:37:39
I feel stupid. I am trying to do what I think is one of the simpleist bullet items from the 1st post and failing...

Copy Folder.jpg to album folders

I am making the assumption this will copy all my wonderful folder.jpg cover art into something iTunes will like without embedding it in the MP3s, right?

All my music is in self managed folders that I use Media Monkey as my PC based manager/player. (Please do not suggest I just use that to manage my iPod.)

So, I have enabled automatic artwork download (which creates another issue I'll deal with later.)
Music Folders added.

Options, tracks, artwork:
...Import Artwork in album folder from selected and set to Folder.jpg
...Import Artwork from any single image file in album folder checked and unchecked tried
...Do Nots all unchecked

When I validate tracks, it correctly recognizes the artwork as missing, but does nothing about it!

Help!

Other questions:

Some of the artwork iTunes automatically downloaded is wrong, or from a different release of an album, etc. Would like those to use my Folder.jpg art as well. Hopefully when I get the first part working, then the Prompt settings in OneTouch options will come into play.

I have a bunch of collections and soundtracks with [album artist] set to "Various", but iTunes insists on listing every track as a different albums in grid and cover flow.  Any ideas how to resolve this?

Thanks
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2009-06-30 04:41:36
So I'm using the latest version of ITSFV, which works great, and is the best tagging/fixing software I've ever used, by far.

However, I'm running into some issues with the "year" tag. Specifically, it's not being filled in for me. I'm using the "validate selected tags" button, which seems to get the lyrics, artwork, etc - but not the year. That's important because once my music is correctly cataloged, I wanted to make smart playlists based on favorite songs in a certain year, (ie, all 5 star songs from 1998). Am I doing something wrong? Perhaps missing a check box?

So, ITSFV has forced me to fix so much of my tags, including many where the artists were spelled wrong, or might have had a space at the end of their name (and were listed separately). My question is - I had some folders called "Wycleff Jean", "Wyclef Jeane", etc. - now they're empty, save for artwork. How can I tell ITSFV to delete all those folders (once it's confirmed that there is no music in them)?

Next - how can ITSFV find a track and all it's information if the album name isn't present in the existing ID3 tag? I seem to have gotten many mp3s from friends over the years, and since ITSFV doesn't have the album info in in the tag, it really can't do anything. I'd love if it found the first album it was available on (not the Greatest Hits) and filled everything else in.

Also - and this is just a suggestion - on a "Greatest Hits" type album, could the software fill in the year a track was popular as opposed to the year the Greatest Hits album was released? Perhaps you could query the database for "first year song was available" or "year the first album with this song was available". Just an idea, because that would help with my 5-star playlist featuring songs from 1998.

Thanks.


Hi All,

I am slowly starting to reply all of your posts after a massive break due to other reasons.

I am brainstorming ideas for iTSfv 6 which will be a rewrite from ground up.

My initial plans for iTSfv 6 are:

  1. Complete support for Multi-disc albums when adding new music to iTunes: automatic guessing of Disc Count and Disc Number from file system
  2. Ability to add a folder of tracks at once
  3. Prevent scanning iTunes Library.xml on startup to improve load time
  4. Zero errors while iTSfv is operating
  5. Making use of editable Location property
  6. Ability to prevent storing artwork in Artwork folder

skaorsk8,

iTSfv does not automatically find Year tag from online sources. It is definitely a preferable option to have.

(http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/5858/ss20090630112557.th.png) (http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/5858/ss20090630112557.png) should list all the tracks without Album tag etc.
(http://i41.tinypic.com/2j30keg_th.png) (http://i41.tinypic.com/2j30keg.png) will take care of deleting empty folders without audio files.


I feel stupid. I am trying to do what I think is one of the simpleist bullet items from the 1st post and failing...

Copy Folder.jpg to album folders

I am making the assumption this will copy all my wonderful folder.jpg cover art into something iTunes will like without embedding it in the MP3s, right?

All my music is in self managed folders that I use Media Monkey as my PC based manager/player. (Please do not suggest I just use that to manage my iPod.)

So, I have enabled automatic artwork download (which creates another issue I'll deal with later.)
Music Folders added.

Options, tracks, artwork:
...Import Artwork in album folder from selected and set to Folder.jpg
...Import Artwork from any single image file in album folder checked and unchecked tried
...Do Nots all unchecked

When I validate tracks, it correctly recognizes the artwork as missing, but does nothing about it!

Help!

Other questions:

Some of the artwork iTunes automatically downloaded is wrong, or from a different release of an album, etc. Would like those to use my Folder.jpg art as well. Hopefully when I get the first part working, then the Prompt settings in OneTouch options will come into play.

I have a bunch of collections and soundtracks with [album artist] set to "Various", but iTunes insists on listing every track as a different albums in grid and cover flow.  Any ideas how to resolve this?

Thanks


AWD_Guy,

iTunes imports artwork from file by embedding the artwork. So this won't do what you expect (without embedding).

If iTSfv recognizes the artwork is missing but does nothing about it then most probably the music files are not writable by iTunes. Possible cause is Read-Only attributes set in files. iTSfv will log errors in to warnings-200906.txt that is in Documents\iTSfv\Logs folder.

You might like to experiment with Manual Artwork choosing dialog here: (http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/4492/ss20090630113552.th.png) (http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/4492/ss20090630113552.png)

My "Various Artists" folder in Grid View: (http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/1044/itunes20090630114021.th.jpg) (http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/1044/itunes20090630114021.jpg)

I would really like to find out the exact reason why it is doing that for you. Have you tried Mp3tag or foobar2000 and making sure %BAND% (TPE2) is filled?

Bye for now,
McoreD


Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2009-06-30 04:45:35
How is it best to handle podcasts with this app?  If I add the podcast folder to the list of music folders, iTMSfv tries to validate them.  If I remove the podcast folder from the list of music folders, iTMSfv removes the podcasts from the iTunes database!   


You could have it in the ignore folders here: [a href="http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/79/itsfv561betaoptions2009.png" target="_blank"]
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: vulc44n on 2009-07-22 20:00:46
Has anyone been having issues with reverse scrobbling?  It used to work for me but I don't get anything now.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2009-08-15 00:59:42
vulc44n, ReverseScrobbling requires implementation of the Last.fm API 2.0 - this is still in the works for iTSfv 6.

All,

Due to the recent issue with LyricWiki:

Code: [Select]
Unfortunately, due to licensing restrictions from some of the major music publishers we can no longer return lyrics through the LyricWiki API (where this application gets some or all of its lyrics).

The lyrics for this song can be found at the following URL:
http://lyricwiki.org/Gossip:Heavy Cross

Gossip:Heavy Cross


(Please note: this is not the fault of the developer who created this application, but is a restriction imposed by the music publishers themselves.)


I have made changed to iTSfv Lyric Viewer:

(http://i27.tinypic.com/29zrdr9_th.png) (http://i27.tinypic.com/29zrdr9.png)

An update to iTSfv 5.60 will release shortly.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: kingdom zero on 2009-08-30 13:31:52
hey McoreD, is there a chance that we'll be able to get the lyrics added to the id3 tags of the songs so they show up on ipods/iphones again? perhaps by using a different source? here are some lyrics databases with APIs:

lyricsfly - http://lyricsfly.com/api/ (http://lyricsfly.com/api/)
25 music api's - http://blog.programmableweb.com/2008/02/21/25-music-apis/ (http://blog.programmableweb.com/2008/02/21/25-music-apis/)
how to program for leos lyrics - http://www.linux.com/archive/feature/114259 (http://www.linux.com/archive/feature/114259)
leos lyrics - http://www.leoslyrics.com/posts/list/15869.page (http://www.leoslyrics.com/posts/list/15869.page)

from: http://code.google.com/p/ilyrics/issues/detail?id=46#c1 (http://code.google.com/p/ilyrics/issues/detail?id=46#c1)

great program btw.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Oje on 2009-09-03 17:50:22
Hello,
I just found out about your tool. It seems quite nice, I'll have a try at it.
My question: is there a way to easily export/create a .txt/excel file of ALL my iTunes songs, with these infos: artist / album name / song name / track number / encoding quality.
My final goal is to try and remove all true duplicates, with priorities lossless > MP3.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: yortdog on 2009-09-03 23:44:53
Hello,
I just found out about your tool. It seems quite nice, I'll have a try at it.
My question: is there a way to easily export/create a .txt/excel file of ALL my iTunes songs, with these infos: artist / album name / song name / track number / encoding quality.
My final goal is to try and remove all true duplicates, with priorities lossless > MP3.


Hey -- Yeah, you can do that out of iTunes itself.  I do that once a year for kicks.

File --> Export Song List --> Library.txt.
Then open via Excel, using Delimited, Tab.

Has pretty much all tag info, then you can re-arrange as necessary.

Troy
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: yortdog on 2009-09-04 06:33:05
Actually, that last note was for an older version of iTunes.  On iTunes 8.2.1.6, Highlight all tracks in Library, then Click File --> Library --> Export Playlist

Troy
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Oje on 2009-09-04 09:11:40
Actually, that last note was for an older version of iTunes.  On iTunes 8.2.1.6, Highlight all tracks in Library, then Click File --> Library --> Export Playlist

Troy


Thank you Troy! It was so obvious I did not even think about looking after that in iTunes...
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: gimmick on 2009-09-10 11:51:08
An update to iTSfv 5.60 will release shortly.


Do you have any idea when? I known its not nice to ask but i really miss my lyrics and many of my songs now have the disclaimer text from lyrics wiki as lyric
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: BPM on 2009-09-14 21:02:04
Would it be possible to use this tool to export playcounts for songs or possibly change the audio file's path but keep playcounts/last played date the same? I dont want to have to delete the old music files and tell itunes where to find the new files just so I can keep the playcounts and last played dates. Even better, if I could export my playcount, last played date, added date to foobar
Can this tool do this? I see an export tags option but is that what I need to use? Will it backup last played date and date added stats?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: liquidfoo on 2009-09-26 20:42:53
Is there a way to prevent iTSfv (5.61.2.1) from touching my mp3 files while importing?

I disabled "Refersh tags when adding new files to Library" which helped to stop iTSfv remove the leading zero in my track numbers. And I enabled "Retain Track's Date Modified after validation".
The files are not changed in any way when importing, but the file date is still modified.

Any way to fix this?

Thanks.

Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: tmchow on 2009-11-07 07:51:55
I use both iTunes and Windows Media Player since I have a Windows 7 media center in my living room.

I am looking for a way to sync ratings from iTunes into the POPM field of each song on an ongoing basis so the ratings will just "work" with Media Center (since it supports POPM field).

I installed the latest (v5.61) of iTSfv but didn't see a way to do what I"m looking for, and instead it does the opposite -- it will "import ratings from POPM frame" instead of "Export ratings from iTunes to POPM frame". 

Am I mistaken or is this functionality missing?  If it is missing, does anyone have a way to do this easily?

(I also don't want a solution that will blindly write out ratings again, without detecting if the rating is already present. In other words, I don't want to alter the file unless it truly has changed. Otherwise my file backup will needless keep backing up every song since it's technically changed/been updated)
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: henfri on 2010-01-23 11:25:54
Hello,

I would like to use iTSfv to download artwork.
I have followed the tutorial to configure Album Art downloader.

Now I select Tracks in Itunes and hit 'Validate Selected Tracks'
The only result I get is 'Ready 17 of 17 Tracks checked do not confirm to iTunes Store Standard.

Now, I would like to make them conform. How do I do that?

Regards,
Hendrik
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: iOsiris on 2010-03-16 06:09:59
Hey great app! I was wondering if you were planning on implementing importing the %rating% used in FB2K into the iTunes Library
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: wolfsong on 2010-04-29 07:59:13
Hey great app! I was wondering if you were planning on implementing importing the %rating% used in FB2K into the iTunes Library

Yes I'm looking for this too since F2K developers do not use the POPM frame is there some way to specify by field name instead?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Jojo on 2010-10-22 22:07:16
I'm getting an error with iTunes 9.2.1.5, 64 bit Windows 7:

Code: [Select]
2010-10-22T16:04:52 000001
2010-10-22T16:04:52 Unable to cast COM object of type 'iTunesLib.iTunesAppClass' to interface type 'iTunesLib.IiTunes'. This operation failed because the QueryInterface call on the COM component for the interface with IID '{9DD6680B-3EDC-40DB-A771-E6FE4832E34A}' failed due to the following error: No such interface supported (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80004002 (E_NOINTERFACE)).
2010-10-22T16:04:52    at iTunesLib.iTunesAppClass.get_LibraryPlaylist()
   at iTSfv.frmMain.sBwAppLoadPlayer()


I'm using itsfv version 5.61.2.1
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ehcelino on 2011-03-11 03:37:19
Same error here since updated to iTunes 10.2.1.1. Using itsfv 5.61.2.1 win7 64b.
By the way, is itsfv development stalled?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: odyssey on 2011-04-21 00:58:57
If not iTSfv development has stopped, I would like to request a feature:

I have all my album artwork stored in each album-folder. Would it be possible to make iTunes pickup this file and use it internally, without embedding it to files?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: Gui Boratto on 2011-04-21 23:20:04
Quote
Culture: hr-HR


Date and Time:    2011-04-21T18:21:38
iTunes version: 10.2.2.12
iTSfv version:    5.61.2.1
Error caused by:
Job: ADJUST_RATINGS

Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

Error path:
  at iTSfv.cStatsMaker..ctor(BackgroundWorker bwApp, cLibraryParser xmlParser)
  at iTSfv.frmMain.fGetStatsMaker()
  at iTSfv.frmMain.ssAdjustTrackRating(IITFileOrCDTrack track)
  at iTSfv.frmMain.sBwAppAdjustRatings()
  at iTSfv.frmMain.sExecuteJob(MethodInvoker mySub, Boolean cli)


What's that?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: mrinferno on 2012-02-20 20:20:07
@~*McoreD*~

Hi,

Based on your Google Code page (http://code.google.com/p/itsfv/) it looks like development of this application has started back up again this month.

It looks like the app has a lot of promise.  I'm an avid foobar2000 user who just recently got an iPhone and have been using [fighting with] iTunes for the last couple weeks.

I was wondering if you are planning on compiling any of the recent changes into an executable installer.
I don't have a compiler setup currently to use the svn trunks, but would love to check out recent code changes.

Anyways, have a good one.  Hopefully you will continue to update your app.
Thanks.

Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: merrickweb on 2012-08-21 14:46:18
Quote
Culture: hr-HR

Object reference not set to an instance of an object.




To Gui Boratto and anyone else who has the iTSfv error listed above
It does not appear to be a problem with Windows 7 64 bit
or a problem with the latest version of iTSfv

For me it was a problem with iTSfv-5.62.1.0 trying to read the database of iTunes 10.6

So basically you need to install an older version of iTunes for to be able to use iTSfv

I fixed it by doing the following:

I found an official old copy of iTunes, version 9.2.1
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1056 (http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1056)

After uninstalling the old copy of  iTunes I installed this one.
It wouldn't open due to the common problem of:
"The file itunes library.itl cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of itunes"

To solve this I did this:

Go to C:\Users\(your username)\Music\iTunes and rename the file iTunes Library.itl to iTunes Library.OLD 

Upon adding music to my library a new Library.itl file was created.

I was then able to restore my tags.
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: audioscavenger on 2013-01-21 18:43:42
hi

thanks for the idea, that's exactly what i was searching for

i'm not sure but ... it doesn't work under Windows XP 64 :

Code: [Select]
See the end of this message for details on invoking 
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
  at iTSfv.frmMain.bwApp_DoWork(Object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
  at System.ComponentModel.BackgroundWorker.WorkerThreadStart(Object argument)


************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3643 (GDR.050727-3600)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.NET/Framework64/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
iTSfv
Assembly Version: 5.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 5.62.1.0
CodeBase: file:///S:/APPS/iTSfv/iTSfv.exe
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.VisualBasic
Assembly Version: 8.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 8.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Microsoft.VisualBasic/8.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll
----------------------------------------
System
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3644 (GDR.050727-3600)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3644 (GDR.050727-3600)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3644 (GDR.050727-3600)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Runtime.Remoting
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Runtime.Remoting/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Runtime.Remoting.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Configuration
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Configuration/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Configuration.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Xml
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3082 (QFE.050727-3000)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll
----------------------------------------
Interop.iTunesLib
Assembly Version: 1.10.0.0
Win32 Version: 1.10.0.0
CodeBase: file:///S:/APPS/iTSfv/Interop.iTunesLib.DLL
----------------------------------------
UploadersLib
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.17787
Win32 Version: 4.0
CodeBase: file:///S:/APPS/iTSfv/UploadersLib.DLL
----------------------------------------
McoreSystem
Assembly Version: 1.14.0.0
Win32 Version: 1.14.0.0
CodeBase: file:///S:/APPS/iTSfv/McoreSystem.DLL
----------------------------------------
McoreIndexer
Assembly Version: 2.9.7.0
Win32 Version: 2.9.7.0
CodeBase: file:///S:/APPS/iTSfv/McoreIndexer.DLL
----------------------------------------
Accessibility
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Accessibility/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Accessibility.dll
----------------------------------------
ov3ik7st
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3644 (GDR.050727-3600)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
Interop.ITDETECTORLib
Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0
CodeBase: file:///S:/APPS/iTSfv/Interop.ITDETECTORLib.DLL
----------------------------------------

************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this
application or computer (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.

For example:

<configuration>
<system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer
rather than be handled by this dialog box.
I would understand it's no use to make work under this OS version so if it's your decision, i'll migrate to seven
thanks
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: audioscavenger on 2013-02-18 16:42:59
no idea ?
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: ~*McoreD*~ on 2013-04-16 02:29:14
no idea ?


Hi audioscavenger, iTSfv 6 foundation is now complete and it does not rely on iTunes anymore. You are welcome to follow updates here:
https://plus.google.com/b/11088154850111773...513240108387523 (https://plus.google.com/b/110881548501117731287/communities/112790513240108387523)

(http://i.imgur.com/uu5Zy4Vl.png) (http://i.imgur.com/uu5Zy4V.png)
Title: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator
Post by: NearlyGod on 2013-11-16 15:34:50
Wow, it's been quite a while since I've last visited here, but I'm still an avid user of iTSfv.

5.62 works great for me, but I will certainly check out the new incarnation of the application.

Good to see you're still working on keeping our music collections beautifully tagged, McoreD!