musictrak

Current Use

The musictrak website is developed to give users a relatively easy way to post their own digital music library to the web so they can search and share their music collections on a web interface and have capability to access their collection when away from their computer. Currently it only works with iTunes Music Library.xml files, however with more time to develop the project I hope to also include ability to upload other music library formats. I also have yet to link user accounts for sharing since I want to have password protected accounts but I am looking into ways to link the password protected accounts so friends can link to each other's accounts. Beyond it's initial purpose I have other ideas for future development to the project to provide users with other interesting ways to use their music data, see below Future Development Ideas.

When a user first visits the site they will have to register for an account to be able to upload their music library. The user fills out a simple registration form to create their account. They are required to assign a username (which must be unique) and password as well as provide their email address. Their information is then entered into a users table in the database and a new table for their music library is created. The user is then immediately redirected to the index page and welcomed. They will find a file upload form with instructions where to locate their iTunes Music Library.xml file on their computer. Only an iTunes Music Library.xml file will be accepted and they will receive an error message if they attempt to upload any other invalid file.

If the uploaded file passes checks and is accepted upon submission the user will receive a successful upload message and their data will be entered into their library table in the database which was created in the registration process. The user is then able to search by genre of their collection using a drop-down menu and upon selection results of their search will be displayed as artist name within each genre and number of albums by artist in collection along with names and dates of each album of selected artists.

Returning users login to their accounts from the main page and can use the file upload form to upload a new library file if there have been any updates to their iTunes library. The database simply overwrites their old data with the new.

Future Development Ideas

With further time for development I would like to include more features, such as:

• upload other library file formats beyond iTunes
• link to friends' accounts
• Google map / iTunes mashup - know when your favorite artists are playing in your area
• post iTunes Playlists
• post iTunes Store wishlist
• streaming tracks/playlists (limited and per licensing agreements)
• display album artwork