How to list all artists in a rhythmbox plugin

I'm trying to list all artists in the rhythmbox database from within a rhythmbox python plugin. The only solution I have found is to make the UI select all artists and all songs, loop through every song and add that song's artist name to a set.

The problem with this is (beside from the fact it's painfully inefficient) that I don't want to change the selected artist just because I want a list of all the artists in the database. I tried earlier to save the selected artist so that I could restore it when I'm done but that causes some problems due to the fact that the UI takes some time to be updated with the new information and the more information (i.e. more songs in the database), the more time it takes.

The code can be fetched with git clone git@github.com:sameltvom/dblister.git

Here is the code:

import rb
import rhythmdb
import gtk

class DblisterPlugin (rb.Plugin):
    def __init__(self):
        rb.Plugin.__init__(self)
    def activate(self, shell):
        self开发者_运维问答.shell = shell
        print '##### dblister #####'

        # choose all artists, this will choose all albums and songs as well

        # get the lock for rhythmbox ui
        gtk.gdk.threads_enter()
        for p in self.shell.props.library_source.get_property_views():
            if p.props.prop == rhythmdb.PROP_ARTIST:
                p.set_selection([""])
                break
        gtk.gdk.threads_leave()

        ##################### Print all artists in database ######################

        # loop through all songs currently selected (i.e. all songs since we did p.set_selection([""]) above
        # for each song, try to add the artist name to the 'artists' set
        artists = set() # unique keys, no duplicates
        for row in self.shell.props.selected_source.props.query_model:
             entry = row[0]
             artist = self.shell.props.db.entry_get(entry, rhythmdb.PROP_ARTIST)
            artists.add(artist)

        print '--- artists ---'
        for artist in artists:
            print artist


        ##################### Print all songs in database ######################

        print '--- songs ---'
        # loop through all songs currently selected (i.e. all songs since we did p.set_selection([""]) above
        # for each song, print artist name and title
        for row in self.shell.props.selected_source.props.query_model:
             entry = row[0]
             artist = self.shell.props.db.entry_get(entry, rhythmdb.PROP_ARTIST)
             song = self.shell.props.db.entry_get(entry, rhythmdb.PROP_TITLE)
            print artist + ' - ' + song

    def deactivate(self, shell):
        del self.shell
        print 'Bye world'

The reason I want to do this is because I'm developing a telnet interface to rhythmbox, https://github.com/sameltvom/rhythmcurse.

Happy for input!

Kind regards, Samuel

I found it! It was the property base_query_model I should use if I want to list all entries regardless of what is selected in the UI.

The code now looks like:

import rb
import rhythmdb
import gtk

class DblisterPlugin (rb.Plugin):
    def __init__(self):
        rb.Plugin.__init__(self)
    def activate(self, shell):
        self.shell = shell
        print '##### dblister #####'


        #################### Print all artists in the library ####################
        artists = set() # unique keys, no duplicates
        for row in self.shell.props.library_source.props.base_query_model:
             entry = row[0]
             artist = self.shell.props.db.entry_get(entry, rhythmdb.PROP_ARTIST)
            artists.add(artist)

        print '--- artists using library_source---'
        for artist in artists:
            print artist

        del artists


        ##################### Print all artists in database ######################

        artists = set() # unique keys, no duplicates
        for row in self.shell.props.selected_source.props.base_query_model:
             entry = row[0]
             artist = self.shell.props.db.entry_get(entry, rhythmdb.PROP_ARTIST)
            artists.add(artist)

        print '--- artists ---'
        for artist in artists:
            print artist


        ##################### Print all songs in database ######################

        print '--- songs ---'
        for row in self.shell.props.selected_source.props.base_query_model:
             entry = row[0]
             artist = self.shell.props.db.entry_get(entry, rhythmdb.PROP_ARTIST)
             song = self.shell.props.db.entry_get(entry, rhythmdb.PROP_TITLE)
            print artist + ' - ' + song

    def deactivate(self, shell):
        del self.shell
        print 'Bye world'

I also found another nice thing as well. If I use elf.shell.props.library_source.props.base_query_model instead of self.shell.props.selected_source.props.base_query_model I will still get output even though I might have changed view to e.g. Last.FM or Radio in the left side pane.

However, I still must loop through all songs to find all artists. But the main problem is gone.