Amarok MTP (Android) GSoC: week 4; hello from Bilbao!

Matěj Laitl · July 16, 2013 · 1 min read

Kaixo, this is my fourth weekly report covering my Google Summer of Code project to rewrite MTP (Android) support in Amarok from scratch. Code-wise, I have done only a couple of small commits the last week, but this is fine because I've already done the work scheduled for week 4 during week 3. :-)

Photo from the GSoC, GCI, SOK & OPfW students & mentors BoF (which actually well exceeded my expectations). Can you spot me? :-)

I think you've already guessed why I've done a bit less than usual and published the weekly report late: I'm enjoying the great atmosphere of Akademy 2013 here in Bilbao, Spain.

The event rocks so hard (with all the talks, BoFs, chats, parties, concerts, trips and hacking going on) that it is impossible to describe in a blog post. More importantly for my GSoC project, I've met up with Philipp Schmidt, the kio-mtp author (Àlex Fiestas wants to tell you he did just the screencast), who knows all the quirks of using MTP devices in KDE and is happy to share them. We've also sat down and tweaked the proposed MTP Daemon D-Bus interface, with even more daring suggestions from me being in preparation.

Sunset over ocean near Bilbao taken during coast walk. Thanks go to Dani for organizing it!

What I've done last week:
  • Improved Solid <-> libmtp device matching by shamelessly copying a bit of Philipp's kio-mtp code. (okay, he actually pro-actively showed me the code, so it was not that shameless)
  • Removed extra device check that actually prevented Amarok from detecting a Sansa Clip device that Matija generously lent me to test it. Thanks, Matija! [note to self: need to discuss this with Phillip]
  • Had a serious look at the proposed MTP Daemon interface together with Philipp, sent out first 2 patches for it for review.
Problems I've faced:
  • Partying too hard, getting to bed past 4 AM, oversleeping and missing the morning BoFs.
What's next:
  • Implementing playability of the tracks. Should be easy with all the MTP knowledge right next to me in form of Philipp.
You can view and test my code by checking out gsoc branch of my personal Amarok clone repository.

Let's repeat it,
I'm here till Friday, ping strohel on #amarok or #akademy if you want to talk about anything Amarok-related with me in person.