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1. Download and unpack the application folder. Copy the folder to your Applications folder or some other convenient location.
2. Run the browserTunes server.
3. Click the Prefs button to set preferences, as shown below.
4. Click the Save button to save your preferences.
5. Click the Start button on the main screen to start the server.
6. If appropriate, click the Load DB button to load your music library into browserTunes' SQL database.

Figure 1a: General Preferences Panel

Figure 1b: Output Preferences Panel

Figure 1c: Runtime Preferences Panel

Figure 1d: Database Preferences Panel

Figure 1e: Other Preferences Panel

Preferences Explained

General

• Listening IP Address: the IP address of your computer (the one running browserTunes. You must use an address that is accessible over your network. You cannot use 127.0.0.1 if you want to access browserTunes from another computer.
• Listening Port: The port for the server to listen on. Usually 8080 is OK but some people have other servers using that port. Note: you must use a port over 1024.
• Password: If the password is not blank, the user of the web browser will have to supply the password to access browserTunes. Please note currently this only supports one user!
• iTunes Library File: Use the button to browse to the location of your iTunes Music Library XML data file. Normally this is in your home folder, under Music, iTunes. This file is imported into the SQL database.

Output

• Web Interface: Determines the type of interface the web browser will see. Examples of Plain mode and Fancy mode are shown below. Fancy mode has trouble on some machines and with some browsers. Plain mode is cleaner and faster and more compatible. PDA is optimized for Palm Pilot, Pocket PC, etc., being very lightweight and with a 240 pixel width.
• Text Display: If you would like to hook up browserTunes to a confabulator widget or connect to it from a web application, you may find on of the three text modes useful.
• Display Album Art: If selected, browserTunes will attempt to display album art fotr the currently playing song.

Runtime

• Startup Options:
  • Auto-Start iTunes Player: If selected, iTunes will be started up (if not already running) when browserTunes starts up.
  • Hide iTunes: If selected, iTunes will be hidden when it is started up by browserTunes.
  • Auto-Start Server on Run: If selected, the browserTunes server will start listening when the program is run.
  • Hide browserTunes: If selected, browserTunes will be hidden when it starts up.
• Recovery Options:
  • Server self-polling/restart: If selected, the browserTunes server will poll itself every 60 seconds and restart the listener process if it has died for some reason.

Database

• Use SQL database: If selected, browserTunes will create and use an SQL database instead of searching the iTunes library directly. This allows for much better performance, especially on libraries with over a thousand tracks. You must use the "Load DB" button on the server screen to initialize and periodically update your database, because it will get out of synch with your iTunes music library.
• Reload database on Run: If selected, your SQL database will be reloaded/refreshed each time the program starts up, so that it stays in synch with your iTunes music library. Please note: loading a 12000 track library takes about 30 seconds on a G5 1.8GHz with 1GB RAM. A 1000 song library takes about 3 seconds. Your mileage may vary.
• Reload playlists on Run: Occasionally the SQL database playlists will get out of synch with iTunes. This allows you to reload playlists and not have to reload the entire database.
• Page query results: If selected, when you are in SQL mode, search, browse and listing results will be "paged", that is you will see 20 records at a time, 50 records, etc. and will be able to go to the next and previous set of results.
• Results per page: When paging, the number of results to display per page.
• Don't create "browserTunes Search Results" playlist: Normally after you perform a database search, browserTunes creates a new playlist in iTunes called "browserTunes Search Results" which allows you to play all your search results. However, this can cause problems at times. If you don't need this capability, you can benefit by disabling it.

Other

• Browse mode: When you click browse, you will start off with either a list of genres or a list of artists, depending on your selection here.

Figure 2: Main Server Screen

Using browserTunes

1. Using your web browser (Safari recommended), open the browserTunes server by typing http://yourmac:8080, where "yourmac" is the name of your Mac and 8080 is the same as the port you selected in Preferences.
2. Use the links on the page, as shown below, to control iTunes.
3. The options you see on the screen will vary depending on which display mode and database mode you have selected.

Figure 3: Plain Mode

You can also set preferences from the web using the Preferences button.

Figure 3a. Web preferences

Figure 4: Fancy Mode