Re: [Banshee-List] Question about iTunes importer plugin

["Scott Peterson" <lunchtimemama gmail com>]

Re: XML File
The plugin was designed to work with music in-place on another partition. Here's the issue: suppose you have the following song in Windows:
C:/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Beatles/Abbey Road/Come Together.mp3

And suppose that you've configured your mounts in Ubuntu such that the file is referenced as:
/mnt/windows/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Beatles/Abbey Road/Come Together.mp3

The iTunes XML file will reference the first URI. The plugin works like this: First it scans the Banshee library for a song with a URI ending in "Come 
Together.mp3." If it finds more than one result, it scans for "Abbey Road/Come Together.mp3," and so on up the directory structure until it finds just one result, if it exists.

If you import your music from the iPod and run the plugin on your XML file, it should work fine for every song with a unique filename. However, if you have two files named, for example, "
Track01.mp3," the ambiguity might not be resolvable. Now, if you import your music from an iPod, I don't know if it will preserve the directory structure that it had on your computer, but I doubt it.

One possible solution. If your music was organized on your previous install (OSX or Win) into logical directories (
e.g., /Artist/Album/Song.mp3), then you could try to set up the same system of logic in Banshee (in the Preferences) and then import the music from the iPod. It may properly reconstruct the directory structure, allowing the plugin to correctly identify all tracks.

I think you should take the above approach. Once you've imported the music, get a hold of the XML file and "import" it into Banshee (with the plugin installed, of course). Any songs which the plugin can't locate will be left untouched and won't be added to any playlists. Let me know how it goes.

Re: Syncing
My library is bigger than my iPod, so I only ever sync manual changes. When I do, rating data does carry over. Since I don't sync the whole library, I don't know if (smart)playlists are synced. Try it and let me know.

P.S.
Another plugin ought be written to import metadata and playlists from iPods since that is a different but relevant problem. I doubt smart playlist could be imported because I imagine iPods only carry the list of constituent songs, not the logical criteria by which they were chosen. Heuristic reconstruction might be possible, but only in _extremely_ specific cases.

On 12/25/06, Cody Zimmer <cody psyber com> wrote:

I don't have a windows partition on my computer, but I imported all my
songs from my ipod to banshee on my new ubuntu install.  If I grab the
.XML file from my itunes library (identical to the contents of the ipod)
that I have backed up, will this plugin be able to transfer the ratings
and playlists?  How would I go about doing that?  Also, after using the
plugin to import the ratings and playlists will I be able to safely sync
my ipod with banshee, and have the ratings and playlists on my ipod?

thanks!
_______________________________________________
Banshee-list mailing list
Banshee-list gnome org
http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/banshee-list

-- 
Scottie P.