Apple KB article on the two iTunes 4 library files
Posted by Pierre Igot in: iTunesMarch 8th, 2004 • 8:44 am
I’ve always wondered why the “iTunes” folder inside my home “Music” folder contained two files, one called “iTunes 4 Music Library” and one called “iTunes Music Library.xml.”
Well, now Apple’s Knowledge Base has an article that explains the function of the two files.
Basically, the first one is the main one that iTunes uses to manage your library of music files. The “.xml” one is updated at the same time as the other one, but is used by other iApps such as iMovie and iDVD to access your music when you are adding music to your projects.
Good to know. I always back up both files.
March 8th, 2004 at Mar 08, 04 | 10:32 am
Gee, it’s really as bad as I feared: There is no decent API that allows iLife applications to communicate but they just dumbly read that file.
That sounds very old fashioned an like accidents waiting to happen.
March 8th, 2004 at Mar 08, 04 | 6:37 pm
This is actually good news for developers. If the info is available in a XML file, other applications can easily access iTunes info. Heck you could even make a RSS feeder for iTunes.
Seems like an excellent example of KISS (Keep it simple s*****). Worse that could happen is file corruption, I wonder how often the XML file is updated.