"SimpleFeatures" - iTunes Server Plugin [SUPPORT]

[optiman]

This is going to be a great plugin, can't wait to try it out, once the new version is posted.

[Ambrotos]

I know what you mean. I'm eagerly awaiting its release. I know he writes this stuff in his spare time, but I hope he hasn't lost interest It's been a while since he said "final testing".

 

-A

[speeding_ant]

New update!

 

Please see the main SimpleFeatures post for future updates.

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=12698.msg120524#msg120524

 

 

[PsiCzar]

Champion! 

[timell]

Thanks speeding_ant for the update. 

 

I successfully upgraded my unraid server to  rc11 and then installed the latest simplefeatures release with the iTunes server.

After an initial misconfiguration of the music source and database location, I was able to get the iTunes server running.

 

A quick look at the log lists quite a few ffmpeg errors about missing headers, file lengths, etc.  I'm assuming that some of the files

in my music paths were not music.  Since I'm under the assumption that for the most part, this is just serving data and not transcoding, I don't think these warnings are a problem.

 

Anyways, I start iTunes (v.11.0.1) and it searchs and sees my unraid iTunes server.  But when I try to connect to the shared library, iTunes just sits and spins on the access, it never connects.

 

My question is, what versions of iTunes should I expect to work with the latest unraid plugin?  and if v.11 is expected to work, do you have any ideas on how to debug the connection?  I guess I could always change the "logging" level and dig into that.  But it's my understanding that the log is only for music database scanning and not operation of the server.

 

Thanks,

Tim

[speeding_ant]

Hmmm, how much music do you have?

 

ffmpeg header errors are pretty normal. It should actually transcode, I've met all the dependencies and it has done this for me on my tests.

[timell]

Hmmm, how much music do you have?

 

ffmpeg header errors are pretty normal. It should actually transcode, I've met all the dependencies and it has done this for me on my tests.

 

I've probably got about 120 GB of music.  I guess what I could do as an experiment is to point the SF iTunes server at one artist with 3-4 albums and see what comes from that, instead of trying to injest my whole music collection at once.

 

So from your reply, I'm assuming that the server should work with iTunes 11.0.1.

 

My next question is your comment about transcoding, I don't understand why the music needs transcoded if all I have is music that's already read by iTunes?  Unless transcoding is only for music formats not recognized by iTunes.  In my case no transcoding would be needed.

 

my setup:  Mac Pro with iTunes music collection backed-up weekly to unraid server that will stream music to any iTunes client while my Mac Pro sleeps.

 

thanks again for your support,

Tim

[speeding_ant]

Hmmm, how much music do you have?

 

ffmpeg header errors are pretty normal. It should actually transcode, I've met all the dependencies and it has done this for me on my tests.

 

I've probably got about 120 GB of music.  I guess what I could do as an experiment is to point the SF iTunes server at one artist with 3-4 albums and see what comes from that, instead of trying to injest my whole music collection at once.

 

So from your reply, I'm assuming that the server should work with iTunes 11.0.1.

 

My next question is your comment about transcoding, I don't understand why the music needs transcoded if all I have is music that's already read by iTunes?  Unless transcoding is only for music formats not recognized by iTunes.  In my case no transcoding would be needed.

 

my setup:  Mac Pro with iTunes music collection backed-up weekly to unraid server that will stream music to any iTunes client while my Mac Pro sleeps.

 

thanks again for your support,

Tim

 

Yes, will work with latest iTunes (several fixes in there for making it work with the latest iPhone remote app too).

 

Transcoding, you're spot on. It will only transcode if the client requires it, or if you set it to.

[Kryspy]

Is there a trick to getting this to work with videos as well?  I would need a Movies and TV Series option as well. Adding multiple shares separated by a comma doesn't work.

 

Kryspy

[speeding_ant]

Is there a trick to getting this to work with videos as well?  I would need a Movies and TV Series option as well. Adding multiple shares separated by a comma doesn't work.

 

Kryspy

 

Can you send me the configuration file after you've added multiple shares? /boot/config/simpleFeatures/simpleFeatures.itunes.server.cnf

[Kryspy]

I attached both the forked-daap and ituneserver config files.

 

Kryspy

 

forked-daapd.conf

simpleFeatures.itunes.server.cfg

[timell]

 

I've probably got about 120 GB of music.  I guess what I could do as an experiment is to point the SF iTunes server at one artist with 3-4 albums and see what comes from that, instead of trying to injest my whole music collection at once.

 

So from your reply, I'm assuming that the server should work with iTunes 11.0.1.

 

My next question is your comment about transcoding, I don't understand why the music needs transcoded if all I have is music that's already read by iTunes?  Unless transcoding is only for music formats not recognized by iTunes.  In my case no transcoding would be needed.

 

my setup:  Mac Pro with iTunes music collection backed-up weekly to unraid server that will stream music to any iTunes client while my Mac Pro sleeps.

 

Yes, will work with latest iTunes (several fixes in there for making it work with the latest iPhone remote app too).

 

Transcoding, you're spot on. It will only transcode if the client requires it, or if you set it to.

 

Ok, I think I'm making progress.  By using smaller libraries, I was able to read the files and iTunes connected properly.  I then proceeded onto the whole 120GB of data and after waiting some time, I was able to partially get it to work.  Upon reviewing the log file, it appears that I had problems reading the whole library.  The log said to the effect "skipping folder <xx> could not allocate memory".  So I've got about 1/3 of my library read and it appears to be working correctly. 

 

The other interesting tidbit that I found is that I've got 3-4 listings of each playlist.  It's almost as if I've got duplicate entries for playlists.  Interesting.

 

My next job is to see if I can create a stand-alone scanner for the music folder that won't run out of memory and then I'll see if I can edit the database and preserve some fields from my iTunes library.  (date added, play counts, etc.)

 

Maybe what I should look at is a iTunes to sql library converter that will retain play counts, ratings, etc.  Does anyone have any experience going through this process so I don't have to reinvent the wheel?

 

Thanks again for the help,

Tim

[trurl]

Maybe what I should look at is a iTunes to sql library converter that will retain play counts, ratings, etc.  Does anyone have any experience going through this process so I don't have to reinvent the wheel?

iTunes keeps a plain-text copy of its library in XML format "iTunes Music Library.XML" (in "My Music\iTunes" in Windows 7)

[timell]

Maybe what I should look at is a iTunes to sql library converter that will retain play counts, ratings, etc.  Does anyone have any experience going through this process so I don't have to reinvent the wheel?

iTunes keeps a plain-text copy of its library in XML format "iTunes Music Library.XML" (in "My Music\iTunes" in Windows 7)

 

This is essentially what I want, iTunes2SQL that has table entries in the format that can be read by the DAAP server.

[speeding_ant]

Hmm, sounds like a bug...  I'll have a look at the source, see where there might be an alloc init issue.

 

Such a tool wouldn't be  too hard (to convert XML to SQL fields), but the syncing part of forked-daapd is quite fundamental.

[timell]

Hmm, sounds like a bug...  I'll have a look at the source, see where there might be an alloc init issue.

 

Such a tool wouldn't be  too hard (to convert XML to SQL fields), but the syncing part of forked-daapd is quite fundamental.

 

Here's a snippet from the forked-daapd log

 

No comments allowed on the Music.

 

[2013-02-19 21:54:29] db: Could not open database: out of memory

[2013-02-19 21:54:29] db: Could not open a new database connection; no free connections available

[2013-02-19 21:54:29] scan: Could not acquire database connection; skipping /mnt/user/Music/Cranberries, The

[2013-02-19 21:54:30] db: Could not open database: out of memory

[2013-02-19 21:54:30] db: Could not open a new database connection; no free connections available

[2013-02-19 21:54:30] scan: Could not acquire database connection; skipping /mnt/user/Music/Grace Potter & The Nocturnals

[2013-02-19 21:54:30] db: Out of memory for database connection pool

[2013-02-19 21:54:30] db: Could not open a new database connection; no free connections available

[2013-02-19 21:54:30] scan: Could not acquire database connection; skipping /mnt/user/Music/APM Karaoke

[2013-02-19 21:54:30] db: Out of memory for query string

[Raidersan]

Hi,

 

Firstly thanks a lot for this update, much appreciated!

I am struggling a bit getting my iTunes library to work properly. I moved it to the unraid box, it contains songs with embedded artwork and some with separate artwork files (jpg), but none of them show in iTunes.

I am missing something?

A lesser troubling issue is that I cannot move forward/backward within the song, it just restarts from the beginning.

 

Thanks for your help

[gtroyp]

I just installed the new (SF 1.0.11, running on u5rc11) plugin (well, I turned it on) and I am working through getting set up and I have a couple of questions.

 

It appears from reading this thread that there was an issue with artwork that might have been fixed? I have spent too many hours getting artwork attached to my ridiculously large music collection (thanks Napster, oh how we miss you) to let it all go.

 

I figured out how to make my iPhone run the library via my laptop (assuming it's on) and that's pretty cool. I couldn't tell from the thread if it ever got worked out to be able to use the remote to access the shared library without the mac running?

 

Ok, and then, there's actual use questions. What I really want to do is combine my girlfriend's and my music collections into one unit. Once done, store that on the server, and maintain two separate itunes libraries for us to use to sync with iTunesMatch to our phones (there's more than enough storage space in the house to double or even triple up the files). But since we have quite a bit of music (way past the match limit) I want to put new music on the server (properly metadata'ed—is that a verb? it is now, I digress) and move it to the individual libraries as needed. And I want this complicated process to work elegantly. 

 

Edit: So, I tried copying from the shared library to the music library, that's a no go (Not surprising when I think about it). BUT, I am going to try this setup instead. Create a third user, whose iTunes Media Folder is the music folder for iTunesServerPlugin. That user can have the whole library at it's disposal, and the other users can add from the hdd's once the files are properly tagged and art'ed up. The server becomes the main library and the individual libraries will act like branch libraries, borrowing from the main one when necessary. We'll see how it goes.

 

Anyone doing anything similar that can provide some tips, pointers and/or pitfalls to avoid?

 

Thanks to anyone that responds. And seriously thanks to speeding_ant for his work.

[piotrasd]

there is any possibility make compatible ffmpeg package from serviio with this one from iTunes :(

[dsmitty166]

Hey guys, I can't figure this out yet. How do I create playlists on the server? Or isn't it possible?

[chongololo]

Can't get iOS devices to see this as a shared library, is this a known issue or am I missing something? iTunes on Win7 and OSX works fine.

[zarfx4]

HEllo all,

 

Im really at a loss here as I really seem to not be able to find specific help on how this is to be configured.

 

I installed the plg, and configured it to look at my music in my music share and the database location on my cache drive.

 

When i set to ENABLE and click apply, i see that the database is created, but when looking at the log file, I see that its finding the music files in the share, but every line reads

 

CANNOT OPEN DIRECTORY, <list path> CANNOT ALLOCATE MEMORY

 

Then eventually, i start to see this in the log file:

013-03-16 22:55:50] db: Out of memory for database connection pool

[2013-03-16 22:55:50] db: Could not open a new database connection; no free connections available

[2013-03-16 22:55:50] db: Out of memory for database connection pool

[2013-03-16 22:55:50] db: Could not open a new database connection; no free connections available

 

 

 

im sort of at a loss as to what is wrong.

 

 

Any thoughts?

[zarfx4]

HEllo all,

 

Im really at a loss here as I really seem to not be able to find specific help on how this is to be configured.

 

I installed the plg, and configured it to look at my music in my music share and the database location on my cache drive.

 

When i set to ENABLE and click apply, i see that the database is created, but when looking at the log file, I see that its finding the music files in the share, but every line reads

 

CANNOT OPEN DIRECTORY, <list path> CANNOT ALLOCATE MEMORY

 

Then eventually, i start to see this in the log file:

013-03-16 22:55:50] db: Out of memory for database connection pool

[2013-03-16 22:55:50] db: Could not open a new database connection; no free connections available

[2013-03-16 22:55:50] db: Out of memory for database connection pool

[2013-03-16 22:55:50] db: Could not open a new database connection; no free connections available

 

 

 

im sort of at a loss as to what is wrong.

 

 

Any thoughts?

 

bump...

[wolfer14]

Just got all of the SimpleFeatures installed and am playing with the Itunes server.

Do you have to have a PC or MAC running Itunes in order to see the media files via an AppleTV or is there a workaround 

[scumball]

Can't get iOS devices to see this as a shared library, is this a known issue or am I missing something? iTunes on Win7 and OSX works fine.

 

Just got all of the SimpleFeatures installed and am playing with the Itunes server.

Do you have to have a PC or MAC running Itunes in order to see the media files via an AppleTV or is there a workaround 

 

Known issue with IOS devices and iTunes servers - you need a PC with iTunes running to serve out to IOS:

 

Home sharing allows you to play songs from your iTunes library on your computer on other iOS or iTunes clients.

 

iTunes servers are sometimes found in NAS devices which allow you to offer up the iTunes library as a shared library on your network.

 

The difference is very slight, but it means that iOS devices can't see shared iTunes libraries, so they can only play tracks which are part of home sharing.