Java HypeMachine Batch Downloader

Published 2011-05-19 on Farid Zakaria's Blog

UPDATE - May 24 2011: I had fixed a few issues with the batch downloader such as having it download to the proper directory and made it a bit more easier to use.

It's Been A While

For starters, I've officially graduated from the University of Waterloo's Software Engineering program. Yay! However what has seem an eternity ago (~2 months) I haven't touched my computer in any way resembling programming. Just recently, the evil geniuses wonderful guys at HypeMachine decided to break my sweet Chrome Extension. Before tackling the task of trying to now fix it, I thought I'd start off small and re-acquaint myself with some easy programming. For some reason, I chose Java....

I'm not sure why I chose Java

In all honesty, I haven't programmed in Java since first/second year at UW. However, I figured what the hell and tried to write a GUI for my Python Batch Downloader Script which I get e-mails regarding constantly. I always seem to get stuck on the design aspect of any programming which is frustrating. Whereas the means to download and scrape the information is quick and easy, I am finding the ability to make a flawless User Interface and perhaps have it run super smooth with ThreadPools a bit more aggravating.
Anyways, I think I've toyed enough with it to release a 0.1Alpha. Here it is if people want to play around with it and let me know how I've mucked up.

CLICK BELOW!

Things I already Know I'd Like To Fix

  1. When a song is downloaded, the item in the list doesn't cause an invalidate (so that it shows as green)
  2. Persistance, so that when you relaunch the application it will show songs previously downloaded
  3. A nicer way to navigate to Popular, latest, users etc.. (perhaps even with a login?)
  4. When multiple downloads are started, have a new window appear with a bunch of progress bars
  5. The ability to play/stream the music directly through the application so you can test which songs you'd like to download
  6. The ability to <3 songs

Let me know if anyone would like it on GitHub as well.

Anyone up for the challenge?

Forgotten README

I didn’t really include a manual so here is a quick one.

~Welcome to my slapped together HypeMachine Batch Downloader Application~

1. Choosing the location to download from:
You can change the URL in the top right text field. Simply change ‘popular’ to things such as ‘latest’ or even any username!

2. Choosing where to save the MP3 files.
The button to the top right lets you chose the save location. By default it’s where the application has launched from.

3. The 'More' button scrapes additional songs! (Thinking of just having it notice when you scroll to the end instead)

4. The 'Refresh' button restarts the page number 1 and refreshes the song listing.

5. The 'Download' button downloads. Simple!