Artwork Assistance

Have a look at the section on artwork on this page ( http://www.malcolmadams.com/itunes/itinfo/itunes4info.shtml).

Does it need to be Amazon ? there are a few search scripts on Dougs site and one for adding pdfs to tracks.. a quick bit of cut and paste and you're sorted :D

http://www.dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/scripts11.php?page=1#musicoutfittersearch

http://www.dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/scripts11.php?page=1#findalbumartwork

http://www.dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/scripts11.php?page=1#searchslothradio

and

http://www.dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/scripts07.php?page=2#pdfadder

well what do you know... spent last night coding something up.. got as far as retrieving the image urls via Amazon Web services and started hunting for an xml parser.. anyway, while surfing i came across a link for XMLTools.. which inturn linked to "Get Amazon Pix" available here...

http://www.dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/scripts11.php?page=1#getamazonpix

does the entire net end up back at Doug's site ? :confused:

have not tried Greg's script but it appears to do what you want and more so..

I just get all of my artwork by right clicking and saving picture as from play.com and if i cant find it there i use google image. Simple enough for me.

I am continuing with my coding, I'm using a curl'd REST query rather than a SOAP call that Greg uses.. don't know enough about either method to say which one is faster but REST looked easier :) Also trying to avoid the osax requirement if possible. I'll post back with an example for you to play with.. If this is ending up being used in Salling would you prefer the small image being retrieved rather than the larger ones if they exist ? the small ones are 75x75, medium are 160x160, large 300x300 ?

i think you can use your dev id in your app.. i did not read the legalise either but i have not had to get a dev id for other apps i have tried such as "iTunes catalog".

heres something to play with... not finished yet, itunes is throwing a -116 error when i try to add the artwork to it...note it currently creates an image file on the desktop for each retrieved image.. am looking into keeping it all internal to the script or if not you can change the default path to the Application Helper file in ~/library or some such.. you'll need to add your aws subscription id where specified...yet to add the store location selector for various regional amazon stores..

global theCurrentTrack

tell application "iTunes"
set theCurrentTrack to current track
tell theCurrentTrack to copy {artist, album} to {theArtist, theTitle}
end tell
my amazon_Search(theArtist, theTitle)

-- do a rest requet via curl to Amazon Web services for artist and Album of playing track
on amazon_Search(theiTunesArtist, theiTunesTitle)
-- construct theArtist
set theArtist to my encode_text(theiTunesArtist, true, true)

--construct the title
set theTitle to my encode_text(theiTunesTitle, true, true)

-- Define parts of the REST request.
set theSubscriptionID to "INSERT YOUR SUBSCRIPTION ID HERE" -- (note: add an '&' to end of id)

-- Assemble the REST request URL.

set theRequest to "http://webservices.amazon.com/onca/xml?Service=AWSECommerceService&SubscriptionId=" & theSubscriptionID &
"Operation=ItemSearch" & "&Artist=" & theArtist & "&Title=" & theTitle & "&SearchIndex=Music&ResponseGroup=Images" as string

-- do the REST request via curl

set theResults to (do shell script "curl \"" & theRequest & "\" ") as Unicode text

-- Check the results

my process_the_Results(theResults, theiTunesArtist, theiTunesTitle)

end amazon_Search

-- subroutine for the results of the REST request it returns the FIRST small image, Medium Image, Large image URLS

on process_the_Results(theResults, theiTunesArtist, theiTunesTitle)
if theResults contains "We did not find any matches for your request" then
beep
else
set ourURLs to my xml_strip(theResults)
if item 1 of ourURLs is not "" then
set theSMallImage to my Download_the_image(item 1 of ourURLs, "SmallImage")
end if
if item 2 of ourURLs is not "" then
set theMediumImage to my Download_the_image(item 2 of ourURLs, "MediumImage")
end if
if item 3 of ourURLs is not "" then
set theLargeImage to my Download_the_image(item 3 of ourURLs, "largeImage")
set theImage to read theLargeImage as picture
tell application "iTunes"
if (count of artwork of theCurrentTrack) is 0 then
delay 5
tell theCurrentTrack
set data of artwork 1 to theImage
end tell
end if
end tell
end if
end if
end process_the_Results

-- subroutine to download the image to a holder...

on Download_the_image(theURL, theImageType)
set theFile to ((path to desktop) & theImageType & ".jpg") as string
tell application "Finder"
if file theFile exists then
set oldFile to true
else
set oldFile to false
end if
end tell
tell application "URL Access Scripting"
activate
set dlURL to theURL
try
if oldFile = true then
set x to download dlURL to file theFile replacing yes with progress
else
set x to download dlURL to file theFile with progress
end if
on error
set theFile to ""
end try
try
quit
end try
end tell

return theFile as alias
end Download_the_image

-- subroutine to process returns xml.. looking for SMALL,MEDIUM,LARGE image would be
--nice to use System Events but that appear to work on files only not variables...
--or i could not get it to work on a variable.. dont want to use an oasx either...

on xml_strip(the_xml)
set the_xml to the_xml as string
set theSmallURL to ""
set theMediumURL to ""
set theLargeURL to ""
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to return
repeat with b from 1 to count of text items of the_xml
set thisLine to text item b of the_xml
if thisLine contains "<SmallImage>" then
set theResult to my get_URL(thisLine, "<SmallImage><URL>", "</URL><Height>75")
if theResult is not "" then
set theSmallURL to theResult
set theResult to ""
end if
end if
if thisLine contains "<MediumImage>" then
set theResult to my get_URL(thisLine, "<MediumImage><URL>", "</URL><Height>160")
if theResult is not "" then
set theMediumURL to theResult
set theResult to ""
end if
end if
if thisLine contains "<LargeImage>" then
set theResult to my get_URL(thisLine, "<LargeImage><URL>", "</URL><Height>300")
if theResult is not "" then
set theLargeURL to theResult
set theResult to ""
end if
end if
end repeat
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {""}
return {theSmallURL, theMediumURL, theLargeURL}
end xml_strip

-- Subroutine to strip data from a string

on get_URL(the_string, start_delim, end_delim)
set offset_start to (offset of start_delim in the_string) + (count of characters of start_delim)
set offset_end to (offset of end_delim in the_string) - 1
return text offset_start thru offset_end of the_string
end get_URL

-- this sub-routine is used to encode a character and is available at http://www.apple.com/applescript/guidebook/sbrt/pgs/sbrt.10.htm
on encode_char(this_char)
set the ASCII_num to (the ASCII number this_char)
set the hex_list to
{"0", "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8",
"9", "A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "F"}
set x to item ((ASCII_num div 16) + 1) of the hex_list
set y to item ((ASCII_num mod 16) + 1) of the hex_list
return ("%" & x & y) as string
end encode_char

-- this sub-routine is used to encode a text string and is available at http://www.apple.com/applescript/guidebook/sbrt/pgs/sbrt.10.htm

on encode_text(this_text, encode_URL_A, encode_URL_B)
set the standard_characters to
"abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789"
set the URL_A_chars to "$+!'/?;&@=#%><{}[]\"~`^\\|*"
set the URL_B_chars to ".-_:"
set the acceptable_characters to the standard_characters
if encode_URL_A is false then
set the acceptable_characters to
the acceptable_characters & the URL_A_chars
if encode_URL_B is false then
set the acceptable_characters to
the acceptable_characters & the URL_B_chars
set the encoded_text to ""
repeat with this_char in this_text
if this_char is in the acceptable_characters then
set the encoded_text to
(the encoded_text & this_char)
else
set the encoded_text to
(the encoded_text & encode_char(this_char)) as string
end if
end repeat
return the encoded_text
end encode_text

check this thread... looks like you have to save it as a pict first and then read from 513... but there should be a way to avoid having to resave the .jpg file as pict first, I think.

http://forums.ipodlounge.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=96368&highlight=artwork

here's #4.

I noticed in the source code for a sloth radio search there are direct URLs to amazon. I wonder if there is a good way to parse any of this? that way the whole AWS problem could be avoided.

<!-- RESULT LIST START -->

<!-- RESULT ITEM START -->
<table class="albumbox2"><tr><td width="305" valign="top">No image found. <a href="http://images.google.com/images?q=Fermin+Muguruza+Brigdistak+Sound+System">Google for "Brigdistak Sound System".</a><img src="" width="1" height="1" /></td><td valign="top"><table><tr><td align="right"><b>Artist:</b></td><td>Fermin Muguruza</td></tr><tr><td align="right"><b>Album:</b></td><td>Brigdistak Sound System</td></tr><tr><td align="right"><b>Year: </b></td><td>2002</td></tr><tr><td align="right"><b>Used: </b></td><td>$9.99</td></tr></table><br /><center><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005O84Y/ivorytower-20?dev-t=D2AAJ98P9F66IB%26camp=2025%26link_code=xm2"><img src="buy5.gif" width="120" height="28" border="0" /></a></center></td></tr></table>
<!-- RESULT ITEM END -->

<!-- RESULT ITEM START -->
<table class="albumbox2"><tr><td width="305" valign="top"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000063695.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg" width="300" height="294" /></td><td valign="top"><table><tr><td align="right"><b>Artist:</b></td><td>Ferm

no worries about the number of posts..

the edit/post buttons got pushed to the right due to my comments in the code, have altered the long one to three lines to bring the forum buttons back on screen..

thanks for the link to the fix for -116 error.. noticed in your code that you appear to add the image twice.. is that intended or an error..

interesting about the sloth radio thing... what's the benefit of going to them and searching compared to AWS itself ? is it to avoid the AWS subscription ? i think you can just include your own subscription id in the App.. it would be pointless of Amazon to require every end user of any web service to get their own personal subscription.
if you do go the slot radio way could you not just read the whole source in, the same way Doug does in his http://www.dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/scripts11.php?page=1#cddbsafarikit ?

also since we have the pict image on the Mac already, the delay 5 can be removed from the section that add's the artwork to the track..from running it a few times, most of the delay appears to be iTunes adding the artwork rather than Image events converting the file so i think you would have the delay regardless of the format you obtain/download the file in..Do you also get stuttering playback in itunes when adding the image ?

sorry, it was not setting the image but reading it in..

this will get the image url from sloths results, the search URL is constructed as per doug's
http://www.dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/scripts11.php?page=1#searchslothradio

to open_location(theURL)
set theResults to (do shell script "curl \"" & theURL & "\" ") as Unicode text
my parse_the_results(theResults)
end open_location

on parse_the_results(theResults)
set theResults to theResults as string
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to return
repeat with b from 1 to count of text items of theResults
set thisLine to text item b of theResults
if thisLine contains "//images.amazon.com" then
set theResult to my get_URL(thisLine, "width=\"305\" valign=\"top\"><img src=\"", " width=\"300\" height=\"300\" />")
end if
end repeat
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {""}
log (theResult)

end parse_the_results

-- Subroutine to strip data from a string

on get_URL(the_string, start_delim, end_delim)
set offset_start to (offset of start_delim in the_string) + (count of characters of start_delim)
set offset_end to (offset of end_delim in the_string) - 2
return text offset_start thru offset_end of the_string
end get_URL

probably but not if you factor in the time it would take me to learn Perl :) i look and i look and i look again at Perl code and it still looks like

qwert!!{}} {@*} yuizxcvb4356789vbnmi9@@@@

to me..

(thats probably the required code for all i know :) )

if you have a bit of code i could "learn from".. feel free to amend the code ;)

will pm my address...

re the variable image size.. thats easy to fix.. instead of considering the whole xml file, you can take a substring of it starting at either <smallimage>,<mediumimage> or <largeimage> and then the rest of the xml.. you can then search for </url> and get its offset in the substring of xml rather than the whole text...

on xml_strip(the_xml)
set the_xml to the_xml as string
set theSmallURL to ""
set theMediumURL to ""
set theLargeURL to ""
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to return
repeat with b from 1 to count of text items of the_xml
set thisLine to text item b of the_xml
if thisLine contains "<SmallImage>" then
set theResult to my get_URL(thisLine, "<SmallImage><URL>", "</URL>")
if theResult is not "" then
set theSmallURL to theResult
set theResult to ""
end if
end if
if thisLine contains "<MediumImage>" then
set theResult to my get_URL(thisLine, "<MediumImage><URL>", "</URL>")
if theResult is not "" then
set theMediumURL to theResult
set theResult to ""
end if
end if
if thisLine contains "<LargeImage>" then
set theResult to my get_URL(thisLine, "<LargeImage><URL>", "</URL>")
if theResult is not "" then
set theLargeURL to theResult
set theResult to ""
end if
end if
end repeat
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {""}
return {theSmallURL, theMediumURL, theLargeURL}
end xml_strip

-- Subroutine to strip data from a string

on get_URL(the_string, start_delim, end_delim)
set offset_start to (offset of start_delim in the_string) + (count of characters of start_delim)
set intertext to text offset_start thru (count of characters of the_string) of the_string
set offset_end to (offset of end_delim in intertext) - 1
return text 1 thru offset_end of intertext
end get_URL

ps.. i have reformatted your post with a few 'returns' in the xml.. its forcing the window size off my 15" screen..