iTunes, a network share, and Applescript
I've been slowly getting into Applescript lately since I've moved back to Mac for the majority of my work. I recently went through the process of moving the iTunes library file from my PC desktop to my Mac. After all, you can't have a Mac and use iTunes on your PC!
Anyway, I keep all the actual media files on a network share to ease with backup chores and to allow accessing the files with other players etc... This hasn't posed any problems in the past, but now that I use a Macbook Pro to interact with iTunes, the network share is not always present. I wrote a small Applescript to check for the existence of the share and then mount it if it's not there before opening iTunes. Since it seems that catching an error from a failed SMB mounting operation is difficult to do in Applescript, I attempt to grab the computer's IP address and only attempt the mount if it contains a value indicating I'm connected to my home network.
Yes, there is probably a better way to do this, and if anyone knows of one, feel free to drop me a line.
The code:
--Avoid undefined errors probably a better way
set check_network to ""
set check_wireless to ""
try
set check_network to do shell script ¬
"ipconfig getifaddr en0"
on error
set check_wireless to do shell script ¬
"ipconfig getifaddr en1"
end try
if check_network contains "192.168" or ¬
check_wireless contains "192.168" then
tell application "Finder"
if not (exists disk "music") then
open location ¬
"smb://user:pass@server/music"
end if
repeat until (list disks) contains "music"
end repeat
launch application "iTunes"
tell application "iTunes"
activate
end tell
end tell
end if
