[Weekly Report] Week 9: Rhythmbox iPod/MTP Syncing

[Paul A Bellamy <paul a bellamy gmail com>]

Hi all,
   This last week I was beginning work on the MTP plugin.  I had 
previously done the prototyping in the iPod plugin, so was moving the 
code from there.  Earlier in the project I had created two classes 
(RBMediaPlayerSource and RBMediaPlayerPrefs).  RBMediaPlayerSource is 
the superclass of RBiPodSource and RBMtpSource.  So the class chain now 
goes ...->RBRemovableMediaSource->RBMediaPlayerSource->RBiPodSource (or 
RBMtpSource).  This RBMediaPlayerSource is non-instantiable, but 
provides the syncing capabilities for the devices.  RBMediaPlayerPrefs 
tracks the preferences for the device.  It handles saving them to 
"media-player-prefs.conf", and loading them from there.  It is used to 
show the Properties dialog, and when syncing.  Additionally it 
calculates the lists of what needs syncing, and what needs removal.  
Now, the RBiPodSource and RBMtpSource will be mostly just implementing 
the player-specific virtual methods that RBMediaPlayerSource needs 
(get_capacity, add_track, etc).  This limits duplicate code.  It took me 
basically the entire week to get the prototype iPod code moved into 
RBMediaPlayerSource, tested, and running smoothly again.

   When writing my project proposal, I factored in for unforseen 
problems by allowing myself two weeks at the end of the project (now), 
to 'catch up'.  So this next week I will be continuing on the MTP 
Plugin, implementing it as a child of RBMediaPlayerSource, so that it 
will inherit 'sync-ability'.  The week after that I will, hopefully, be 
adding the capability to sync playlists.  Syncing playlists is a bit 
tricky, because it is a many-to-many relationship between playlists and 
tracks, so I had left it to the end to revisit.

   By the end of this week (or shortly thereafter) I am hoping to have 
the MTP plugin syncing.


Paul