I want Fetch Art for Windows iTunes
I want the equivalent of Fetch Art for iTunes for Windows.
I'm not sure how easy it would be to write my own. Apple seems to provide a iTunes Visual Plug-ins SDK for Windows but it's not clear if there is a generic plug-in architecture for things other than visualizations (i.e. audio formats or generic hooks).
Good question. I honestly can't say for Windows. I know there "kind of" is for the Mac, but its not application specific. All the new Mac OS X iApps use the Apple web core and accept AppleScripts. The webcore, on Mac OS X, basically means you can bring all types of web services directly to your desktop, but it also means that its very easy to retrieve and exchange data between applications that use webcore, because they store and produce data in XML format.
For example, Fetch Art uses a combination of AppleScript and perl to get the art. iTunes, on the Mac OS, allows you to add any number of extra AppleScripts to a menu for use. Most of the Mac users, either use AppleScript or pull information from the backend XML using webcore components—perl, php, javascript, etc. You'll find far more "widgets", preference panes, and applescripts for iTunes on the Mac, than you will small applications and plug-ins. I'd assume just because of ease to develop. See Synergy http://synergy.wincent.com/ or search on iTunes at the Konfabulator widget gallery http://www.widgetgallery.com as prime examples.
That said, iTunes does allows plug-ins (I believe this is a cross-platform function). Apple provides you help with the Visual Plug-In SDK, but the same foundation should allow you to add other types of plug-ins.
Posted by allgood2 at December 12, 2003 07:24 AMJust found a web-based service. There's still a lot of drag and drop, but check out http://www.art4iTunes.com/.
Posted by Paul at March 3, 2004 12:29 PM