␡
- Using the Software Developers Kit
- Building a Windows iPod Tool
- Moving Forward
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Building a Windows iPod Tool
SharePod's application is built with VB code, so you have to make some modification going to C# or any of the other Visual Studio-supported languages.
SharePod is a tool that runs directly from your iPod. The SharePod.exe files sits in the root directory of your iPod and allows you to search through the iPod playlists.
You begin by laying out the forms that will search through your files. (The sources for the application are included in a link at the end of this article.)
Next, the fun bit: adding the Visual Basic code. There are two main sections of code: the main form code and the extraction code that copies files from your iPod to your hard drive. There are more than two thousand lines of code between these two files. For this article, we'll look only at the code that reads the music database on your IPod and allows you to play back the tracks.
The main form code is called frmMain. There are nearly eleven hundred lines of code, so here are some highlights. The code opens with you declaring your defaults:
VERSION 5.00
Object = "{5E9E78A0-531B-11CF-91F6-C2863C385E30}#1.0#0"; "MSFLXGRD.OCX"
Object = "{F9043C88-F6F2-101A-A3C9-08002B2F49FB}#1.2#0"; "comdlg32.ocx"
Object = "{831FDD16-0C5C-11D2-A9FC-0000F8754DA1}#2.0#0"; "mscomctl.ocx"
Begin VB.Form frmMain
Caption = "SharePod 1.5"
ClientHeight = 6000
ClientLeft = 375
ClientTop = 765
ClientWidth = 9945
Icon = "frmMain.frx":0000
LinkTopic = "Form1"
ScaleHeight = 6000
ScaleWidth = 9945
StartUpPosition = 2 'CenterScreen
Begin VB.Timer tmrMenu
Enabled = 0 'False
Interval = 40
Left = 1920
Top = 120
End
Begin VB.Frame FilterFrame
Caption = "Filter"
BeginProperty Font
Name = "Tahoma"
Size = 8.25
Charset = 0
Weight = 700
Underline = 0 'False
Italic = 0 'False
Strikethrough = 0 'False
EndProperty
ForeColor = &H00800000&
Height = 855
Left = 2760
TabIndex = 3
Top = 120
Width = 7095
Begin VB.TextBox txtTitle
BeginProperty Font
Name = "Tahoma"
Size = 8.25
Charset = 0
Weight = 400
Underline = 0 'False
Italic = 0 'False
Strikethrough = 0 'False
EndProperty
Height = 285
Left = 120
TabIndex = 7
Top = 480
Width = 1035
End
Begin VB.TextBox txtArtist
BeginProperty Font
Name = "Tahoma"
Size = 8.25
Charset = 0
Weight = 400
Underline = 0 'False
Italic = 0 'False
Strikethrough = 0 'False
EndProperty
Height = 285
Left = 1200
TabIndex = 6
Top = 480
Width = 1035
End
Begin VB.TextBox txtAlbum
BeginProperty Font
Name = "Tahoma"
Size = 8.25
Charset = 0
Weight = 400
Underline = 0 'False
Italic = 0 'False
Strikethrough = 0 'False
EndProperty
Height = 285
Left = 2280
TabIndex = 5
Top = 480
Width = 1035
End
Begin VB.TextBox txtGenre
BeginProperty Font
Name = "Tahoma"
Size = 8.25
Charset = 0
Weight = 400
Underline = 0 'False
Italic = 0 'False
Strikethrough = 0 'False
EndProperty
Height = 285
Left = 3360
TabIndex = 4
Top = 480
Width = 1035
End
Begin VB.Label lblSongs
Caption = "Nbr songs"
BeginProperty Font
Name = "Tahoma"
Size = 8.25
Charset = 0
Weight = 700
Underline = 0 'False
Italic = 0 'False
Strikethrough = 0 'False
EndProperty
ForeColor = &H00800000&
Height = 255
Left = 6000
TabIndex = 12
Top = 480
Width = 975
End
Begin VB.Label lblGenre
Caption = "Genre"
BeginProperty Font
Name = "Tahoma"
Size = 8.25
Charset = 0
Weight = 700
Underline = 0 'False
Italic = 0 'False
Strikethrough = 0 'False
EndProperty
Height = 255
Left = 3360
TabIndex = 11
Top = 240
Width = 735
End
Begin VB.Label lblAlbum
Caption = "Album"
BeginProperty Font
Name = "Tahoma"
Size = 8.25
Charset = 0
Weight = 700
Underline = 0 'False
Italic = 0 'False
Strikethrough = 0 'False
EndProperty
Height = 255
Left = 2280
TabIndex = 10
Top = 240
Width = 735
End
Begin VB.Label lblArtist
Caption = "Artist"
BeginProperty Font
Name = "Tahoma"
Size = 8.25
Charset = 0
Weight = 700
Underline = 0 'False
Italic = 0 'False
Strikethrough = 0 'False
EndProperty
Height = 255
Left = 1200
TabIndex = 9
Top = 240
Width = 735
End
Begin VB.Label lblTitle
Caption = "Title"
BeginProperty Font
Name = "Tahoma"
Size = 8.25
Charset = 0
Weight = 700
Underline = 0 'False
Italic = 0 'False
Strikethrough = 0 'False
EndProperty
Height = 255
Left = 120
TabIndex = 8
Top = 240
Width = 735
End
End
Begin MSComctlLib.ListView lstMusic
Height = 5295
Left = 120
TabIndex = 1
Top = 480
Width = 2595
_ExtentX = 4577
_ExtentY = 9340
View = 1
Arrange = 2
LabelEdit = 1
LabelWrap = -1 'True
HideSelection = 0 'False
FullRowSelect = -1 'True
_Version = 393217
Icons = "ImageList"
SmallIcons = "ImageList"
ForeColor = -2147483640
BackColor = -2147483643
BorderStyle = 1
Appearance = 1
BeginProperty Font {0BE35203-8F91-11CE-9DE3-00AA004BB851}
Name = "Tahoma"
Size = 8.25
Charset = 0
Weight = 400
Underline = 0 'False
Italic = 0 'False
Strikethrough = 0 'False
EndProperty
NumItems = 0
End
Begin MSComDlg.CommonDialog dlg
Left = 1920
Top = 1800
_ExtentX = 847
_ExtentY = 847
_Version = 393216
End
Begin MSFlexGridLib.MSFlexGrid grdMusic
Height = 4695
Left = 2760
TabIndex = 0
Top = 1080
Width = 7215
_ExtentX = 12726
_ExtentY = 8281
_Version = 393216
Rows = 50
Cols = 7
FixedCols = 0
BackColorBkg = -2147483633
AllowBigSelection= 0 'False
ScrollTrack = -1 'True
FocusRect = 0
SelectionMode = 1
AllowUserResizing= 1
BeginProperty Font {0BE35203-8F91-11CE-9DE3-00AA004BB851}
Name = "Tahoma"
Size = 8.25
Charset = 0
Weight = 400
Underline = 0 'False
Italic = 0 'False
Strikethrough = 0 'False
EndProperty
End
Begin MSComctlLib.ImageList ImageList
Left = 1920
Top = 720
_ExtentX = 1005
_ExtentY = 1005
BackColor = -2147483643
ImageWidth = 16
ImageHeight = 16
MaskColor = 12632256
_Version = 393216
BeginProperty Images {2C247F25-8591-11D1-B16A-00C0F0283628}
NumListImages = 1
BeginProperty ListImage1 {2C247F27-8591-11D1-B16A-00C0F0283628}
Picture = "frmMain.frx":0ECA
Key = ""
EndProperty
EndProperty
End
Begin VB.Label Label2
Caption = "Playlists:"
BeginProperty Font
Name = "Tahoma"
Size = 8.25
Charset = 0
Weight = 700
Underline = 0 'False
Italic = 0 'False
Strikethrough = 0 'False
EndProperty
ForeColor = &H00800000&
Height = 255
Left = 120
TabIndex = 2
Top = 120
Width = 735
End
Begin VB.Menu mnuExtractMenu
Caption = "ExtractMenu"
Visible = 0 'False
Begin VB.Menu mnuExtract
Caption = "Extract file(s)..."
End
Begin VB.Menu mnuExtractPlaylist
Caption = "Export to playlist..."
End
Begin VB.Menu mnuGoto
Caption = "Go to location..."
End
Begin VB.Menu mnuPlayFile
Caption = "Play file(s)..."
End
End
End
After the defaults are set, you can begin to examine the iTunes database installed on your iPod. The following function begins this process:
Public Sub loadiTunesDatabase()
On Error GoTo loaderr
Dim srcDrive As String, appPath As String
srcDrive = getSourceDrive(True)
Open srcDrive & "ipod_control\itunes\itunesdb" For Binary As #1
Dim offset As Long
Get #1, 209, nbrIPodSongs
ReDim iPodSongs(nbrIPodSongs)
offset = 293
Dim row As Long
row = 1
Dim x As Long
For x = 1 To nbrIPodSongs
If readSong(1, offset, row) = False Then 'finished reading song list
readPlaylists 1, offset
Exit For
End If
row = row + 1
Next
Close #1
loadOnTheGoPlayList
lstMusic.ListItems.Add , , "(All Songs)", , 1
For x = 0 To nbrIPodPlaylists - 1
lstMusic.ListItems.Add , , iPodPlaylists(x).title, , 1
Next
displayAllSongs
Me.MousePointer = vbNormal
Exit Sub
loaderr:
MsgBox "There was an error loading your iTunesDB file! Please make sure you are running SharePod from your iPod drive!" & vbCr & vbCr & "The error was: " & Err.Number & ", " & Err.Description, vbExclamation
End
End Sub
After you know where your files are, you can read them. The following code allows you to do this:
Private Function readSong(handle As Long, offset As Long, row As Long) As Boolean
Dim readWholeEntry As Boolean
Dim readWholeDB As Boolean
Dim entry As MHOD_ENTRY
Dim song As SONG_TYPE
Dim mhit As MHIT_ENTRY
readWholeEntry = False
readWholeDB = False
mhit = readMHitEntry(handle, offset)
While readWholeEntry = False And readWholeDB = False
entry = readMHodEntry(handle, offset)
If entry.Data = "-1" Then readWholeEntry = True
If entry.Data = "-2" Then
readWholeDB = True
End If
If entry.type = TYPE_SONG Then
song.title = entry.Data
ElseIf entry.type = TYPE_ARTIST Then
song.artist = entry.Data
ElseIf entry.type = TYPE_album Then
song.album = entry.Data
ElseIf entry.type = TYPE_GENRE Then
song.genre = entry.Data
ElseIf entry.type = TYPE_FILETYPE Then
song.fileType = entry.Data
ElseIf entry.type = TYPE_FILEPATH Then
song.filename = entry.Data
song.filename = Replace(song.filename, ":", "\")
ElseIf entry.type = TYPE_COMMENT Then
song.comment = entry.Data
End If
Wend
song.id = Trim(mhit.id)
iPodSongs(row - 1) = song
song.title = ""
song.artist = ""
song.album = ""
song.comment = ""
song.filename = ""
song.fileType = ""
song.genre = ""
readSong = Not readWholeDB
End Function
The data is sorted into ordered lists, such as album and title, so you can sort through your music more easily.
You can now select any song and right-click the mouse to select Play to hear the song in iTunes. This is the code that allows you to do this:
Private Sub mnuPlayFile_Click()
If grdMusic.row <> grdMusic.RowSel Then
writePlayList Environ("TEMP") & "\sharepod_temp.m3u"
ShellExecute hwnd, "open", Environ("TEMP") & "\sharepod_temp.m3u", vbNullString, "C:\", 1
Else
Dim filename As String
Dim srcDrive As String
srcDrive = getSourceDrive(False)
filename = srcDrive & grdMusic.TextMatrix(grdMusic.row, enmSongFileName)
ShellExecute hwnd, "open", filename, vbNullString, "C:\", 1
End If
End Sub