[Weekly Report] Rhythmbox iPod/MTP Sync

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

This last week I have been laying out and designing how the syncing 
mechanism will work.  Thus far, I've done most of my design work on the 
iPod plugin.  I started with a top-down design procedure, laying out the 
necessary functions.  Any input on this planned process is greatly 
appreciated.  The plan for syncing, so far, is thus:
 - The Playlists and Podcasts selected for syncing are added to a 
PC-side file (Saved to file, so we can associate it with the iPod by UUID)
 - This file is then used as an "itinerary" of what the Device *should* 
look like.
 - The itinerary is compared with the Device's current state (by 
hashing it for comparison, see: 
http://cgit.freedesktop.org/~teuf/libgpod/commit/?id=21d6be328508918a7623609e676b7ed9ad53659a)
 - Two GLists of files are built up (one needing removal, one needing 
addition)
 - The size of the GLists are compared with the free-space on the 
device.  sizeof(files_to_add) - sizeof(files_to_remove) < 
sizeof(device).  If it fails this check then we abort the Sync, and 
throw up an error dialog.
 - The files needing to be removed from the Device are removed (Done 
first to free up space, if necessary)
 - The files needing to be added to the Device are added.

This last week, I also created a mostly empty new GObject called 
RBMediaPlayerSource, located between RBRemovableMediaSource and 
RBiPodSource/RBMtpSource.  This Object will hopefully have the Sync 
functions and other shared code moved up from the iPod and MTP plugins 
(where possible).  It was a big learning experience for me creating my 
first GObject, and Christophe was a great help, pointing out resources 
for me to refer to.  It took several tries to get the GObject built 
successfully (and for it not to break everything), but I finally feel 
like I have a better understanding of GObjects (though, admittedly, I 
have a lot to learn about them).

The next few days ahead are college finals for me, so I will be putting 
my project on hold until Thursday, when I will begin implementing the 
Syncing functions.

Paul Bellamy