OK what can I say

I lost my way, life got busy, I had a baby... Excuses I know. I am thinking about cracking open MusicBridge 3 again, is it even worth me doing so at this point?

MusicBridge 3.0 Progress

Don't get too excited but I have added a couple of features to MusicBridge 3.0

- The ability to sync an iTunes and WMP library that are in two physical locations. For this scenario they still must be pointed to by WMP and iTunes on the same machine, but they can be at two different paths.

- The ability to do as above but also for different file extensions. Let's say all your WMP files are .mp3 and all iTunes are .m4a, you can now sync them.

- Playcount merge. This one is a little tricky, so this is what I have done. I have added a funtion in both directions that will ADD the source track palycount to the destination track playcount and then RESET the source track playcount to zero.

Basically now I need to get the big feature that allows a disconnected (cross machine) sync to work and I think MusicBridge 3 may be done. Of course it has taken me a couple of years to do this, but I really am interested in getting version 3 out.

As ever I would like to hear of any other functionality you guys want.

Google Groups

As some of you know there is a MusicBridge Google group. Unfortunately I am currently unable to access it and it appears almost impossible to contact Google.

iTunes 8

A couple of people have noted problems with iTunes 8. In the little testing I have done I am yet to run into any problems. If you have any issues please add a comment here or email me

jrmwillis@hotmail.com

Sorry, been busy...

Bad news I'm afraid. I have made little progress on MusicBridge 3.0, mainly due to moving house, and work in general.

Just thought I'd give an update in case anyone is holding their breath...

MusicBridge 3.0

Today I started work on MusicBridge 3.0. The main planned features revolve around export/import functionality. Giving users the ability to take advantage of MusicBridge syncing across disconnected multiple computers. The functionality will offer the opportunity to export from either iTunes or WMP into a format ready to be imported into either iTunes or WMP. MusicBridge will be required to be installed on each machine. The export/import process will be disconnected and the data will be transferred by means of an XML file that the user will move from one machine to the other.

The process will require a 'similar' structure for the music folders on each machine. It will not require matching absolute paths, but will require filenames and 2 levels of containing folders to match.

e.g.

Computer A path:
C:\Users\James\Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\Bruce Springsteen\Magic\Last to Die.mp3

Computer B path:
D:\My Music\Bruce Springsteen\Magic\Last to Die.mp3

would match.

The level to which paths must match is "Bruce Springsteen\Magic\Last to Die.mp3"

My current plans are for an "All data" sync only, excluding artwork.

I would like feedback regarding this functionality and whether you would like to see more flexibility in the types of sync and whether you would like to see the inclusion of artwork.

I also welcome any other feature requests.

MusicBridge 2.0.1 now available from Download.com

Download.com have finally published MusicBridge 2.0.1

http://www.download.com/MusicBridge/3000-2141_4-10742870.html?tag=lst-1

MusicBridge is Paul Thurrott's Pick of the Week

Paul Thurrott chose MusicBridge as his software pick of the week on his Windows Weekly podcast (episode 35) on the TWiT network.

http://www.twit.tv/ww35

The MusicBridge section starts at about 48 minutes in.

Positive comments from Paul Thurrott

I am a big fan of Paul's and listen to his Twit Windows Weekly Podcast, so I am pretty excited that he has made some very positive comments about MusicBridge 2.0 on his blog:

http://www.internet-nexus.com/2007/09/sync-itunes-windows-media-player-and.htm

download.com fixed it a while back

Just a follow up note to say that cNet did fix the extension problem.

download.com extension problem

For some reason download.com have added a .bin extension to the MusicBridge download, it should in fact end at the .zip

I have asked them to fix this.

MusicBridge 2 now available

QUick post as I ma on a short vacation, but MusicBridge 2.0 is now available to download from download.com

7/25 is Estimated Availability

Download.com is giving me a date of 7/25 for MusicBridge 2.0 availability.
It seems a long time to me, so I wouldn't be surprised if it were a little earlier.

Going for Gold!

In the absence of further beta testing I am preparing to release MusicBridge 2.0 to the general public via download.com. It usually takes a few days to show up there, but keep your eyes open.

Chasing a bug

I am currently chasing a COM Threading issue that a couple of beta testers have found. I of course cannot recreate this...

Moving into testing and documentation phase

Hey,

I am done bar the testing and any last minute feature requests. I need to test on XP and Vista non-admin accounts. iTunes 7 will be required so I'm interested to see what kind of problems that might cause.

Other than Vista'ing MusicBridge there are only a couple of new features:

- PlayCount is now an optional sync item
- Uses the iTunes 7 AlbumArtist tag

If anyone else wants any features in let me know. Also I will need Beta testers soon, so let me know.

More playlists

You know sometimes I wonder why I do this. Many of you know I don't actually have a personal need for MusicBridge any more, and even when I did use it I didn't need the playlist sync. I have spent all day trying to make this work nicely, but WMP insists on being difficult especially around the "All Music" playlist. I do it because I enjoy it, and I will get MusicBridge 2.0 out one day.

So I had a choice with how to deal with multiple playlists of the same name which is allowed in WMP. The route I have now taken is that I am suggesting that you not have multiple playlists with the same name and MusicBridge will assume that the first one that it gets returned is the one you want to change, its either that or change them all. There basically is no 'good' way to handle it so I have chosen this route. We shall see if it causes problems in beta testing.

So now I think I have the core functionality pretty solid on Vista and .Net 2.0. I want to improve the error reporting and the logging and then I can move on to the couple of new features that have been requested.

Playlists are go!

So it looks like my playlist issues were based on a couple of problems.

1: I had my WMP 11 storing music and playlists etc. on a remote share. This appeared to make things a little strange and will need to be revisited.

2: The sync only playlists were being troublesome especially the All Music one. I now filter out the sync only playlists and ignore them and all seems well.

Playlist Fun

I am running into some really weird behavior with playlists in WMP, which is probably why they behave so strangely in the current version. It seems like a bug in WMP to me, but I am still looking into it...

Good Progress Today

Today I spent a few hours in MusicBridge. I upgraded some of the code to be thread safe as required by .NET 2.0

I then spent a little time modifying the installer and changing the location of the logfile to a more Vista friendly location.

I still have a few more threadsafe issues to resolve, then I need to go through the existing functionality and make sure it is all working as expected. Then I will look at the couple of feature requests that were made here or on the discussion group.

What do you guys think about the user interface? Do you think it needs an overhaul? Is it too confusing?

What about the command line options, are they working OK for you?

As part of the 2.0 release I will include real documentation that goes beyond the readme. The most common misconception that people have with MusicBridge is that it will physically move files between the two apps, I will address that and other questions in the documentation.

I will also need your help beta testing the application on both Vista and XP so that I can try and get it as stable as possible before the 2.0 release.

I plan to keep MusicBridge free, and I really appreciate those who have sent me donations through paypal. The donate button can be found on the MusicBridge web page at jrmwillis.googlepages.com