dougscripts.com

January 2024

February 27 2008 - 8:47 am

NEW: Make Video Tags

I just needed a quick and easy way to add global tags to some of my Handbrake'd DVD rips, so a few months ago I slapped together a simple GUI for some AppleScript routines to do the job. Notably, I used the routines from my Set Video Kind of Selected script. There are some great video tag editors available already (I frequently use and highly recommend Lostify), but I wanted something no-frills so I could just get a batch of stuff onto my iPod without a lot of keyboard pecking.

Well, I've cleaned it up and added some features and I'm making Make Video Tags available.

Click for larger image in new window

It grabs the track info from the selected video tracks in iTunes so you can edit it, then dumps it back to the appropriate tracks; global info on the left, individual track info on the right. Besides the tags pictured, you can also provide Comments, Description, Long Description, and Lyrics for each individual track. It's an AppleScript Studio application and requires OS 10.4 or better. Let me know how it runs at your house.

February 21 2008 - 6:18 pm

iTunes 7.6.1 Released -- Delete Bug SMASHED

Hurrah! iTunes 7.6.1 (available at this writing via Software Update) fixes the AppleScript delete bug.

February 21 2008 - 1:02 pm

Dupin v1.3 Released

Dupin v1.3 is now available. Dupin allows you to quickly find all sets of duplicate tracks in iTunes based on the criteria you choose. It can then automatically select the "Keeper" tracks from among a number of duplicates using your choice of a variety of versatile filter options. Tracks you decide not to keep can be purged from iTunes and their files optionally moved to the Trash. Dupin is flexible, fast, and easy to use.

Updated in version 1.3:

  • Adds Newest/Oldest Date Modified options to Filter Controls
  • Adds Largest/Smallest File Size options to Filter Controls
  • Displays Bit Rate Rounding status in Filter Controls window
  • Bit Rate Rounding is applicable to bit rate options in Filter Controls
  • Provides workaround for iTunes 7.6 AppleScript "delete bug" (whereby files chosen to be preserved during Purge are errantly moved to Trash)
  • Fixed a problem with bit rate filtering
  • Updated Help pages
  • Minor performance enhancements
February 20 2008 - 1:09 pm

UPDATED: CDDB Safari Kit v2.4.1

Gracenote has recently updated its page format thus obliging me to update CDDB Safari Kit to version 2.4.1. If you are interested, they are using more CSS and have stopped using list tags for track names and numbers.

February 12 2008 - 2:26 pm

iTunes AppleScript Delete Bug Moreso

A lister on the AppleScript mailing list writes:

The Scripting Interface Guidelines agree with you: make and delete should be used to create/destroy objects completely, while add and remove should be used to add/remove existing objects to sub-groups. e.g. Compare Address Book, which uses add and remove to add/remove existing person objects to group objects. iTunes predates the SIG, however, and while its scripting interface is fairly extensive it does suffer a number of longstanding design quirks.

Yep. I'd be happy if they just made it like it used to be.

February 12 2008 - 9:12 am

iTunes 7.6 AppleScript Delete Bug

The more I think about the delete issue, mentioned below, the more I think this is a bug and not a feature. I have filed a bug report in any case. Although, I do like that you can trash a file from within iTunes, I do not like that you cannot preserve a track's file. A dandy way for delete to work would be as follows:

1) delete a track from a playlist to just remove it from the playlist.

2) delete a track from its Master Playlist to remove it from iTunes entirely but preserve the file (I tried this hoping it would work, but it does not).

2) delete a track from library playlist 1 to remove it from iTunes entirely AND trash its file.

(I don't know why there isn't a remove command in iTunes, which would make more syntactic sense. The Finder's AppleScript delete command will send a file to the Trash.)

Needless to say, this bug affects several scripts which use delete to remove a track from iTunes without actually trashing the file. For instance, Make Bookmarkable will delete a track from iTunes and then re-add it. Under iTunes 7.6, the track's file is moved to the Trash; when it is re-added, unless the user has "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library" checked in Preferences, iTunes will presume the track's location is the Trash. Empty the Trash and bye-bye file. This is exactly what is happening to some users.

I can only hope that Apple will see this as a serious bug--it being part of the AppleScript component of iTunes, I am sorry to say that I think it is doubtful--and fix it soon.

February 11 2008 - 10:57 pm

Delete Bug or Feature?

I just noticed this today using iTunes 7.6, but I do not know how long this "situation" has existed.

As far as I've always known, when you delete a track from a playlist using AppleScript, the track is removed from the playlist; when you delete a track from library playlist 1 (the Main library), the track is removed entirely from iTunes. In both cases, the track's file remained in its location in the Music folder. Today I noticed that when doing a delete from library playlist 1, the track was not only removed from iTunes but its file was moved to the Trash! I could not figure out a way to keep the file from doing so. I tried deleting it from its Master Library--in this case the "Music" playlist--but it still went to the Trash. Deleting from a simple playlist worked as expected: the track was removed from the playlist but remained in the Master Library.

Recently, some users of Make Bookmarkable wondered where their tracks went and it turns out they were moved to the Trash. Not so bad, since the bookmarkable copy was re-added (I believe). Still, this is not the behavior I expect when using delete. And until recently this wasn't the behavior anyway.

If this is how delete works now, then there is no way to remove a track from iTunes via AppleScript and subsequently keep its file, which is an option when you manually delete a track using the Delete key.

So, what's up with that?

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