OurTunes Update!
a copy of ourTunes (version c) is available at http://www.webpages.ttu.edu/mroth/tunes/ourTunes1-7c.jar (links directly to the file, not a webpage!)
Notes on version c:
1. I reworked a few of the networking aspects to increase compatibility among all the Operating Systems. Unfortunately, I had the most trouble with Mac OSX.
2. Thanks to abandonedhero for creating the program icon! It’s a tad blurry for 32×32 resolutions, but I had the icon drawn elsewhere in the container so it could be clearly seen.
3. Thanks to secret_squirrel for providing MP3 tag-reading support. I also incorporated the jaudiotagger project for aac metadata and consequently, the format ouput filename pane is now functional (albeit, click enter after changing the text-field!)
4. Certain people mentioned that the program just crashed without reason. This was due to the fact that the Operating System could not resolve link-local addressing. ourTunes resolves the link-local address to IP addresses.
5. Speed Downloading! Many others could not download a single song because iTunes would break the socket connection. OurTunes will now continue the download when the socket connection breaks. Furthermore, ourTunes will speed the download up considerably when this happens. (iTunes will break a socket connection if the user pauses the song while listening to it).
6. ourTunes will now say if you’re downloading an mp3 or an m4a file.
Tips to getting ourTunes working better:
a. Start iTunes before starting ourTunes.
b. It helps to fully listen to the first song; “speed downloading” often causes iTunes to disconnect from the share which is an inconvenience.
c. I’m having huge headaches with ourTunes on Mac. I am to connect and select a song for downloading, but iTunes disconnects the share shortly after selecting a song to download. This causes the speed downloading (thus I ultimately get the song I want), but on a few occasions, the file was corrupt after download. I think it has something to do with the Apple VM, but I have no idea why iTunes on Mac is so fickle.
Significant challenges left in the program:
a. Unicast mDNS queries. I’m caught in a rut on this issue, because I can’t use apple’s library (it’s OS-dependent last I checked), and without mDNS, iTunes will never see the duplicate share.
b. Smoothing out the pass-through service, especially for mac osx. If anyone cares to try, I’d like to know if ourTunes is more successful when registering a ._dacp._tcp.local. service on the network.
c. Sometimes java doesn’t close out ourTunes correctly which prevents future versions from operating correctly (In windows, one would need to terminate the javaw.exe process).
d. The list doesn’t always populate with shares. If this happens just close out of ourTunes and try again in a few seconds).
Please leave comments, ideas, suggestions, etc. in the thread.
December 1st, 2007 09:03
Great stuff here!
I’m stoked to see that someone didn’t give up on this project. One question: is there any way to do a mass download without manually playing each song? Even playing the song for a few seconds and pausing it is tedious.
I know I’m picky, but I’m just asking.
January 11th, 2008 12:33
Dude, how about a Linux version? Do I really have to continue using version 1.3.3?
January 11th, 2008 15:38
I only get my own Shared list to appear in the list of iTunes clients. What gives?
January 11th, 2008 16:14
[…] There is a good tutorial that explains all the steps to get this Java program to work at the save ourtunes forum. You have to download the newest ourTunes version, start iTunes first then ourTunes afterwards. […]
January 11th, 2008 19:52
[…] There is a good tutorial that explains all the steps to get this Java program to work at the save ourtunes forum. You have to download the newest ourTunes version, start iTunes first then ourTunes afterwards. […]
January 11th, 2008 20:32
[…] There is a good tutorial that explains all the steps to get this Java program to work at the save ourtunes forum. You have to download the newest ourTunes version, start iTunes first then ourTunes afterwards. […]
January 11th, 2008 20:34
[…] Download songs with ourTunes I guess ourTunes is a very popular application in Universities and IT departments. It basically lets you download songs from other peoples iTunes if they are in the same network and share their itunes library. I’m not in a network and don’t use iTunes at all so I can’t test how effective this method is compared to using ftp, network browsing or local copies but I guess some will like it because it is easy to use. There is a good tutorial that explains all the steps to get this Java program to work at the save ourtunes forum. You have to download the newest ourTunes version, start iTunes first then ourTunes afterwards. A list of shared libraries should become visible. Selecting a library in ourTunes loads that library in the iTunes sidebar and you can start listening to songs. Listening will actually download the songs which you have selected and you can speed up the process by pausing the stream. It takes a while to get the feeling for this but downloads should not take that long at all. This is probably not a perfect way to trade large amounts of songs but it’s nice for music discovery. Oh and well, it’s Java so it should work on many operating systems. Download songs with ourTunes - www.Tech-Dump.com __________________ “Let me tell YOU something about YOU that YOU don’t know” http://CrossHairBucks.com […]