Actually, no one has asked anything yet, but here's what I guess might be asked...
(if you do have questions, contact me)
- What's the point?
- Basically, I wanted more control of how I make smart playlists in iTunes - Genre's and playcounts weren't enough for me, and I'm forever making playlists like "Summer" which I forget to add new tunes to. Automation by tagging is easier!
- How does Shtaggle actually tag stuff?
- Well, it just puts tags in the comment field of your music files:
{tag} is a genre/mood/vibe/whatever you like
[tag] is an instrumental tag
(tag) is a record label
So it just builds up the comment field with combinations of those. - What do I need for this to work?
- See downloads, but basically you will need:
Mac OS X 10.5 (it may work on 10.4 but you will need to sort out appscript yourself... actually, I don't think it will work... try it and let me know)
Python Appscript (a library that allows Shtaggle to talk to iTunes and others) (google it or see the downloads section)
Thats it! - What is last.fm and how do you use it?
- Last.fm is an awesome website that logs your listening habits, and makes personal radios, suggestions, gives you info, track previews, free tracks... a whole load.
Basically they kindly allowed access to their data, and Shtaggle makes use of the user-added track tags, to make your tagging a lot quicker.
If you have an account with last.fm then Shtaggle can also send your taggings back to the site, meaning you contribute to the tags so the next person to tag that track has got an even easier job! - What is LyricWiki.org and how do you use it?
- lyricwiki.org is a site that contains a shedload of lyrics. They are also kind enough to open up access to their data, and Shtaggle will lookup lyrics for the track from here.
NB; if you aren't interested in lyrics, close the lyric window in Shtaggle as this will speed everything else up (cos it won't look up lyrics then) - Can I change the moods/instruments/record labels?
- Yes! Just go to /Library/Application Support/Shtaggle in Finder and you will see 3 directories called mood, instruments and labels. Just add images to those folders and name the images with the tag you would want to be used. Check the ones in there by default for examples.
- Why don't instruments and record labels appear in the track tags cloud?
- Well, they light up when you click them... and also they aren't really tags as such... I dunno... I might make them appear in a later version but I wanted a distinction between the tag, label and instrument - until I modify the tag cloud to incorporate this distinction, they will remain out of it.
- Its broken... can you fix it?
- Sure, probably. Send me a bug report (see bugs). I will need the error message (click 'Report' if it crashes) and the output from Console. (Run Console.app, click All Messages and copy and paste the last 100 odd lines... )
- Can you add...?
- Request it the same way as you would report a
- Can you change...?
- Again, request it the same way you would report a
- I've got some cool mood/instrument icons, can you include them?
- For sure! I'm not a great artist, and the ones I included were from Jokosher and TangoDesktop, I modified them a little. I'd be more than happy to add your artwork.
- Can I have the source code?
- Yep, email me: steve@shtaggle.co.uk
- Where on earth did you get that awesome tag cloud thing from?!
- The tag cloud is written by Robert Pointon, and you can find it here
- Do you want some money?
-
Shyuh!
I will answer all of these questions... shortly.
