Rhythmbox: Improved Last.fm Plugin - Weekly Report 1

[Jamie Nicol <jamie thenicols net>]

This week I have been working on updating the scrobbling (submitting the
names of songs you play to last.fm) code to use the most recent API. The
only difference between the old API and the new one is the
authentication procedure. Previously you logged in using your username
and password, but now you are instead taken to the last.fm website to
authorise rhythmbox from there. To do this the user interface had to be
changed. I replaced the existing username and password text entries with
a button which takes you to the website. This is located in the plugin's
configuration dialog, and I'm not entirely happy with that. The good
news though, is that the code does work. Check it out from
http://gitorious.org/rb-lastfm and give it a shot!

For next week I plan to:
1. Sort the user interface out. I think the best option seems to be to
move the login widgets away from the configuration dialog and to the
Last.fm section of the main window. We can even embed a webkitgtk view
there so the user wont have to leave Rhythmbox at all. I also plan to
move the "statistics" view here, as I think this would be a better
location than the preferences dialog.

2. Add support for Libre.fm. Although this will be complicated somewhat
by the fact Libre.fm doesn't yet support the newest scrobbling API. You
know, the one I just spent last week working on! But oh well. It'll keep
me busy.

The biggest problem I'm seeing myself having is using git. I understand
the commands and the concept, it's more knowing when to use it. Despite
doing a reasonable amount of programming I've never used version control
on a project before. I find myself missing commiting unrelated parts of
code together, or contradicting my previous commit with my newest one.
My git log must be an absolute mess. It's surely something I'll get
better at as I get used to it. One of my goals for this next week is to
think before I commit, and plan more in advance. Hopefully this'll
improve the situation. :)

So all in all the week has been a success: Rhythmbox can now scrobble
using the newest API.

Questions, comments, etc, just ask.

Cheers,

Jamie