Fuzzy search and play Apple MusiciTunes tracks from VIM. You have no idea what gems are hidden in your Music Library

After 7 years I have updated pluging to reflect new reality. iTunes is long gone and I am using Apple Music now.

Install and try for yourself:

• Search tracks in Library on your Mac :Tunes

• Search only through single playlist :Tunes Women who know how to sing

• Use only part of playlist name :Tunes Women who

• Fuzzy search through tracks and playlists.

• Press Enter to play a playlist starting from selected track. Esc to quit.

• You will need fzf installed and activated in VIM. ⁶

• Read through fzf.vim and fzf and configure fzf options to your taste. It helps a lot.

I am using Vim-Plug and don't know much about other plugin managers. In Vim-Plug just add [in right place] to your .vimrc Plug 'chew-z/itunes.vim'

and run :PlugInstall

This plugin includes compiled Javascript scripts - JXA (Javascript for Automation) - that glue to iTunes. Trust me, there is no malicious code inside.

Because you should generally not trust people on the internet you can review the code (in .js files) and compile for yourself.

osacompile -l JavaScript -o iTunes_Search2_fzf.scpt iTunes_Search2_fzf.js

osacompile -l JavaScript -o iTunes_Play_Tracks.scpt iTunes_Play_Tracks.js

See for yourself. There are three stages.

1. Enter :Tunes command in VIM to search for playlist(s)

Without any parameters Tunes searches your entire Music Library (or however it is called in your locale) but only retrieves tracks that are downloaded to your computer (file tracks as Apple calls them).¹

Everything is now online and this logic has been removed. If you insists on getting also on-line tracks every time just add to your .vimrc. let g:itunes_online = 1

In large collection gathering all tracks takes a minute or two. It is done in the background with async script. You should see a message 'iTunes Library refreshed' when it's done. It will only happen first time you start the plugin.

Your tracks and playlists are cached and during subsequent runs you should see results in an instant. Cache is persistent and stays between VIM restarts. All subsequent queries are against a cache hence they are quick.

If you add new tracks and playlists you may want to refresh cache of iTunes Library. :TunesRefresh does just that. Again refreshing takes a minute and you may not see results right away.

Toggling Online/Offline with TunesOnline also refreshes cache.³

You can narrow down initial results providing name of playlist or at least partial name.

  :Tunes My Favourite Songs

  :Tunes my songs

  :Tunes favourite

2. Fuzzy search through songs

fzf is searching through

• playlist tittle
• track tittle
• track album
• track artist

Try, this is cool, fzf is great tool.

You can toggle preview window with '?'. Or clear your search phrase with Ctrl-U (like in terminal).

If more then one playlist matches your :Tunes search you could have doubled/multiplied results (if the track belongs to more then one playlist) ². It is cool feature as I can finally locate where my tracks got lost.

3. Press Enter to select and play track

Plugin plays selected track in a context of chosen playlist. Play queue is filled with playlist and we start playing from selected tracks. It clears what has been in iTunes queue before.

4. Repeat 2) and 3) as long as you wish

5. Press Escape to exit fzf window and do something productive in VIM.

• :Tunes [playlist] - starts the jukebox

• :TunesOnline - toggles Online/Offline mode

• :TunesRefresh - synchronizes local cache with iTunes Library

• :TunesList [playlist] - fills buffer with search results

and one global variable

• let g:itunes_online = 0 [default] - set to 1 for Online mode as default.

• Play music without leaving VIM. Choose playlist that enhances your focus

• Fuzzy searching through iTunes Library with fzf is cool

• Collecting iTunes Library async (not blocking your work in VIM)

• iTunes Library is cached persistent so you are getting instant results also after restarting VIM

• Using JavaScript (JXA) as glue to iTunes instead of walking disaster cum enigma that AppleScript is

Fair enough.

Just add to your .vimrc

  let s:jxa_folder = 'WHERE DID YOU PUT JXA FILES?'

  function! s:itunes_handler(line)
      let l:track = split(a:line, ' | ')
      " call append(line('$'), a:line)
      " normal! ^zz
      let l:title = l:track[len(l:track)-1]
      let l:playlist = substitute(l:track[0], ' $', '', '')
      " echom l:playlist
      " echom join(l:track, ' ')
      " This is never called unless we re-bind Enter in fzf
      let cmd = 'osascript -l JavaScript ' . s:jxa_folder . '/iTunes_Play_Playlist_Track.scpt ' . shellescape(l:playlist) . ' ' . shellescape(l:title)
      echom cmd
      let l:resp = system(cmd)
      echom l:resp
  endfunction

  command! -nargs=* Tunes call fzf#run({
      \ 'source':  'osascript -l JavaScript ' . s:jxa_folder . '/iTunes_Search_fzf.scpt ' .  <q-args>,
      \ 'sink':   function('<sid>itunes_handler'),
      \ 'options': '--header "Enter to play track. Esc to exit."' .
      \ ' --preview="echo -e {} | tr ''|'' ''\n'' | gsed -e ''s/^ //g'' | tail -r " ' .
      \ ' --preview-window down:4:wrap' .
      \ ' --bind "?:toggle-preview"' .
      \ ' --bind "enter:execute-silent(echo -n {} | gsed -e ''s/^\(.*\) | \(.*\) | \(.*\) | \(.*$\)/\"\1\" \"\4\"/'' | xargs osascript -l JavaScript ' . s:jxa_folder . '/iTunes_Play_Playlist_Track.scpt ' .  ')" '
      \ }

But mind that there is no async loading and catching of iTunes Library here.

You are right. Just add following function to your .zshrc or whatever shell you use [zsh tested].

  tunes() {
  # usage: tunes [Online] [Partial name of playlist] or just tunes. Enter to play, Esc to exit.
      local jxa_dir=''WHERE DID YOU PUT JXA FILES?'
      osascript -l JavaScript $jxa_dir/iTunes_Search_fzf.scpt $@ |\
      fzf \
          --header "Enter to play. Esc to exit. ? toggles preview window." \
          --bind "enter:execute-silent(echo -n {} | sed -e 's/^\(.*\) | \(.*\) | \(.*\) | \(.*$\)/\"\1\" \"\4\"/' | xargs osascript -l JavaScript $jxa_dir/iTunes_Play_Playlist_Track.scpt )" \
          --bind '?:toggle-preview' \
          --preview "echo -e {} | tr '|' '\n' | sed -e 's/^ //g' | tail -r " \
          --preview-window down:4:wrap |\
          sed -e 's/^.*| //g' |\
  # This is never used unless we re-bind Enter. Esc simply quits fzf without any action.
      xargs osascript -l JavaScript $jxa_dir/iTunes_Play_Playlist_Track.scpt
  }

Restart your Terminal/iTerm and type tunes

Or try from commandline vim -c 'Tunes'

You can add an alias alias tunes="vim -c 'Tunes'"

[0]: How do you create proper footnotes in this weird markdown flavour?

1: This is not First World problem but I am developing this plugin on an island off Sumatra and Internet could be spotty and my mobile package is limited.

Just right now internet slowed down to EDGE (check in Wikipedia if you are too young to know what it is) - cause of rain and heavy wind during the night probably.

Even pushing commits is hard. Hence the Offline option is default.

I am irritated every time when I click on a track and nothing happens because online track cannot be downloaded.

But on the other hand I can get excellent 4G if I drive 5 km to other beach. And generous package (like 20GB 4G and 20 GB at night) for a few $.

2: Many-to-many relationship. This is why refreshing cache takes a while.

3: There is only one additional command :TunesList which fills VIM buffer with your Library (or it's subset if you pass a search query just like in :Tunes.

6: Did I mention it works only on Mac?