usb_device_amaroKscript 1.3.0.1

usb_device_amaroKscript script brings generic USB media player support to amaroK because the 1.3.1 release provided with the Mandriva 2006.0 Free distribution only supports iPOD media players. The script was developed to support various hot-pluggable USB mass-storage devices that can be mounted as a file system and is only designed to supports simple media players that do not require external applications to maintain special database files on the device, but simply allow playlists and media files to be copied directly to it.

The script provides the following functions:

1) USB Device | Copy music to player

Copy selected amaroK playlist tracks to the USB device. This is a simple file copy operation.

2) USB Device | Copy to player & playlist

Copy selected amaroK playlist tracks to the USB device. The script allows the user to create an m3u playlist of the copied tracks on the target. The created playlist entries can be written in a new .m3u file, or they can be appended to an existing .m3u file. This allows the user to create custom playlists without having to depend on auto-generated playlists and without having to use the player interface for playlist creation.

3) USB Device | Create a new playlist

Select media files from the USB device and create an .m3u format playlist directly on the player.

4) USB Device | Delete music & playlists

Delete media files from the USB device. This delete function masks files that it does not consider to be audio or playlist content, though the user is afforded the opportunity to identify file extensions that are allowed to be deleted.

5) USB Device | Delete music in a playlist

Delete all media files that appear in a given .m3u playlist file that is on the USB device. This function allows a user to pull logical groups of media files off of the player without requiring files to be individually selected.

6) USB Device | Purge all music & playlists

Delete all media files or playlist files from the USB device to restart loading media on an uncluttered player. This delete function masks files that it does not consider to be audio or playlist content, though the user is afforded the opportunity to identify file extensions that are allowed to be deleted.

7) USB Device | Help

Displays a dialog that explains the function of each menu option in greater detail.

Options 1 and 2 above operate on the amaroK playlist files that are selected at the time the function is invoked. All other USB Device functions operate through prompts that allow the user to operate on files that are already on the media player. This can feel somewhat odd for other functions since one must place and select files in the amaroK playlist even if the operation involves only files that are already on the player. This is a consequence of the fact that script functions can only be invoked with the context menu for files in the amaroK playlist.

USB_Device automatically handles mounting an unmounting of the media player when the user has specified the mount point. The script generally expects the mount point to be created by a hotplug event that occurs when the media player is connected to the system. It is the users responsibility to be sure to set up any /etc/fstab entries that might be required in order to make simple mount and umount commands possible.

Even though USB_Device is capable of mounting and unmounting the player, it is also smart enough to leave the player mount alone if the user mounted it explicitly.

To use this script, install it into amaroK with the Tools | Script Manager. The "Install Script" button will properly install the tarball that contains these files.

Once the script is installed, use the "Run" button to start the script so that the context-click menus are installed and operational. All script functions are grouped under the "USB Device" context menu. This context menu appears when you right-click selected files in the amaroK playlist.

Configuration settings are stored in ~/.amarok_usb_device.

The user-configurable options are the media player mount point, whether or not to use mount/umount commands, and a selection of music file extensions that may be deleted when "Purging" the media player.