Test Layout for Online Music Manager: iStream

[dharrison9]

I'm not really all that experienced with any web 2.0 stuff, but since I'm going to be a Comp Sci major I figured I'd get my feet wet a little. I'm working on an iPhone app that will allow you to share your library over the internet to your iPhone while maintaining the look of the iPhone's iPod and adding some extra functions like lyrics and maybe a bookmarking feature.

http://homepage.mac.com/dharrison9/

That's what I hope it will look like. Right now it's simply coded in HTML and the only like that works is the second Keane Album (Under the Iron Sea). It seems like it may be a bigger project than I think it will because I'll have to use some kind of directory listing structure, because who wants to hand code a few hundred albums and all their songs? I don't know where to begin with that, so maybe if someone would like to help out in a collaborative effort while teaching me too?

Hopefully I'll also add a way to bookmark other people's iStreams that you can go directly too. Your iStream homepage will have links to all your bookmarks with your own library in first position. That's still to be worked out.

Like I said, it'll probably be a big project, especially since I really don't know what I'm doing, but it will be a learning experience for me and maybe a decent iPhone application (though that seeq thing looks pretty good to me). The benefits of this will be a more thoroughly organized version, album art, multiple ways of browsing (By Artist, Album...), and also includes lyrics and album art and hopefully this bookmarking feature.

Anyone wanna comment or help?

 

[bdj21ya]

Wow, as a fellow cs major, I'd say this is pretty ambitious. I'd say one good place to start would be by looking through the itunes library xml file and learning to read the format it is written in.

 

[dharrison9]

I was thinking about how the lists would be made, and I didn't think of using the iTunes xml file. I was considering having a script that just goes through the directories where you files are stored and have it parse it into artist, album then song, you'd have to place album art in to the directory yourself. But that detracts from this being a simple to use webapp. I was going for a whole drag and drop to your server, then open your iPhone Safari and go.

 

[michelle21]

I'm not really all that experienced with any web 2.0 stuff, but since I'm going to be a Comp Sci major I figured I'd get my feet wet a little. I'm working on an iPhone app that will allow you to share your library over the internet to your iPhone while maintaining the look of the iPhone's iPod and adding some extra functions like lyrics and maybe a bookmarking feature.

http://homepage.mac.com/dharrison9/

That's what I hope it will look like. Right now it's simply coded in HTML and the only like that works is the second Keane Album (Under the Iron Sea). It seems like it may be a bigger project than I think it will because I'll have to use some kind of directory listing structure, because who wants to hand code a few hundred albums and all their songs? I don't know where to begin with that, so maybe if someone would like to help out in a collaborative effort while teaching me too?

Hopefully I'll also add a way to bookmark other people's iStreams that you can go directly too. Your iStream homepage will have links to all your bookmarks with your own library in first position. That's still to be worked out.

Like I said, it'll probably be a big project, especially since I really don't know what I'm doing, but it will be a learning experience for me and maybe a decent iPhone application (though that seeq thing looks pretty good to me). The benefits of this will be a more thoroughly organized version, album art, multiple ways of browsing (By Artist, Album...), and also includes lyrics and album art and hopefully this bookmarking feature.

Anyone wanna comment or help?

There's perhaps half a dozen of us in this forum that are trying to develop video/music apps for the iphone.

yes its challenging , but you will find it very rewarding.

First think you want to do is learn Ajax, thats what web 2.0 is about, there two books on ajax that are really worth the money.
Adding Ajax
Ajax hacks

Both can be found on the oriely bookstore site.

There is also an excellent 3 part video ajax tutorial (7.00 each) at www.sitepoint.com

Next get yourself a nice ide, aptana has one specfically for ajax and has an iphone plugin. A lot of the apps you see have been using this, hence the similar look and feel (not a bad thing..) . Using an ide like this really simplifies the process.

Next you need to decide what the backend will be , php running on apache, java on tomcat or apache...

Will you want a database, mysql would be the best choice.


Scanning the directory and building a list is fine, but the itunes xml is very rich and you can pool alot of info, especially if you want to support gapless playback, something some of us are struggling with right now.

I for one would be willing to offer any advice I can, I'm sure other developers would be equally willing.

Lastly just set some time aside and do it.

Take care.