Play specific title in iTunes via ScriptingBridge

Question

I'm trying to write an application that interacts with iTunes via ScriptingBridge. I works well so far, but the options of this method seem to be very limited.

I want to play song with a given name, but it looks like there's no way to do this. I haven't found anything similar in iTunes.h…

In AppleScript it's just three lines of code:

tell application "iTunes"
    play (some file track whose name is "Yesterday")
end tell

And then iTunes starts to play a classic Beatles song. Is there any was I can do this with ScriptingBridge or do I have to run this AppleScript from my app?

Gabriel Roth Gabriel Roth · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-22T01:55:39

It's not as simple as the AppleScript version, but it's certainly possible.

Method one

Get a pointer to the iTunes library:

iTunesApplication *iTunesApp = [SBApplication applicationWithBundleIdentifier:@"com.apple.iTunes"];
SBElementArray *iTunesSources = [iTunesApp sources];
iTunesSource *library;
for (iTunesSource *thisSource in iTunesSources) {
    if ([thisSource kind] == iTunesESrcLibrary) {
        library = thisSource;
        break;
    }
}

Get an array containing all the audio file tracks in the library:

SBElementArray *libraryPlaylists = [library libraryPlaylists];
iTunesLibraryPlaylist *libraryPlaylist = [libraryPlaylists objectAtIndex:0];
SBElementArray *musicTracks = [self.libraryPlaylist fileTracks];

Then filter the array to find tracks with the title you're looking for.

NSArray *tracksWithOurTitle = [musicTracks filteredArrayUsingPredicate:[NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"%K == %@", @"name", @"Yesterday"]];   
// Remember, there might be several tracks with that title; you need to figure out how to find the one you want. 
iTunesTrack *rightTrack = [tracksWithOurTitle objectAtIndex:0];
[rightTrack playOnce:YES];

Method two

Get a pointer to the iTunes library as above. Then use the Scripting Bridge searchFor: only: method:

SBElementArray *tracksWithOurTitle = [library searchFor:@"Yesterday" only:kSrS];
// This returns every song whose title *contains* "Yesterday" ...
// You'll need a better way to than this to pick the one you want.
iTunesTrack *rightTrack = [tracksWithOurTitle objectAtIndex:0];
[rightTrack playOnce:YES];

Caveat to method two: The iTunes.h file incorrectly claims that the searchFor: only: method returns an iTunesTrack*, when in fact (for obvious reasons) it returns an SBElementArray*. You can edit the header file to get rid of the resulting compiler warning.

Play specific title in iTunes via ScriptingBridge

1 Answers