do you mean something like this?

Applescript:

tell application "iTunes"
   if player state is playing then
       set theAlbum to album of current track
       set AlbumName to "Album " & theAlbum
       make new playlist with properties {name:AlbumName}
       duplicate (every track of playlist "Library" whose album is theAlbum) to playlist AlbumName
       play playlist AlbumName
   end if
end tell

second hiccup is resolvable with this line, which won’t add unchecked tracks to the new playlist.

Applescript:

duplicate (every track of playlist "Library" whose album is theAlbum and enabled is true) to playlist AlbumName

I’m wondering about the tracks are not in the right order.
Normally albums are imported in consecutive order and then
the tracks appear correctly in the created playlist

selecting the album via the drilldown (Genre > Artist > Album) browser

I don’t understand exactly what this means.
It’s not possible to set the selection property in iTunes via AppleScript
You can only select the tracks manually.

Here is a modified script which uses a fixed playlist named "Album to play"
If this playlist already exists, all tracks of it will be deleted before copying the new tracks,
otherwise the playlist will be created.

Applescript:

tell application "iTunes"
   if player state is playing then
       set theAlbum to album of current track
       set AlbumName to "Album to play"
       if playlist AlbumName exists then
           delete every track of playlist AlbumName
       else
           make new playlist with properties {name:AlbumName}
       end if
       duplicate (every track of playlist "Library" whose album is theAlbum and enabled is true) to playlist AlbumName
       play playlist AlbumName
   end if
end tell

The order of the tracks should be displayed correctly, when the tags (track number and album) of the tracks are set properly

you’re welcome.
It took just a few minutes to develop this amazing piece of art

[Edit] I’ve tried to click the current cover with this GUI script (to select the first track) but it failed

Applescript:

tell application "iTunes" to activate
tell application "System Events"
   tell process "iTunes"
       tell window 1
           tell UI element 1 of UI element 7 of UI element 1 of UI element 1
               set {x, y} to position
               set {xSize, ySize} to size
               click at {x + xSize / 2, y + ySize / 2}
           end tell
       end tell
   end tell
end tell

Last edited by StefanK (2006-11-07 01:31:52 pm)

Are you sure, that your mp3-tags of these files are set properly?
You can figure this out either in the library window with view option "track number"
or in the information window of the tracks.

If you import a CD and there is no entry in the CDDB, the tracks will be imported
with no tags at all, then you should add them manually.

very strange. Normally if you have both fields tracks [x] of [y] filled out and also
the album name of the tracks is the same, the order is displayed correctly in the "sort by album" view

In Pre-iTunes-7 I mean the sort by album view when you click in the album headline

Mike,

this is an extended version of the script above.
If there are track numbers in unsorted order
then a sorting routine will be called

Applescript:

tell application "iTunes"
   if player state is playing then
       set {theAlbum, discNumber} to {album, disc number} of current track
       set theTracks to every track of playlist "Library" whose album is theAlbum and disc number is discNumber and enabled is true
       
       set TrackNum to {}
       set flag to true
       repeat with i from 1 to count theTracks
           if track number of item i of theTracks = 0 then exit repeat
           if track number of item i of theTracks is not equal to i then set flag to false
           set end of TrackNum to track number of item i of theTracks
       end repeat
       
       if (count TrackNum) = (count theTracks) and flag = false then
           my sort_items(TrackNum, theTracks)
       end if
       set AlbumName to "Album to play"
       
       if playlist AlbumName exists then
           delete every track of playlist AlbumName
       else
           make new playlist with properties {name:AlbumName}
       end if
       repeat with i in theTracks
           duplicate i to playlist AlbumName
       end repeat
       play playlist AlbumName
   end if
end tell

to sort_items(sortList, SecondList)
   script L
       property srt : sortList
       property sec : SecondList
   end script
   tell (count L's srt) to repeat with i from (it - 1) to 1 by -1
       set s to (L's srt)'s item i
       set r to (L's sec)'s item i
       repeat with i from (i + 1) to it
           tell (L's srt)'s item i to if s > it then
               set (L's srt)'s item (i - 1) to it
               set (L's sec)'s item (i - 1) to (L's sec)'s item i
           else
               set (L's srt)'s item (i - 1) to s
               set (L's sec)'s item (i - 1) to r
               exit repeat
           end if
       end repeat
       if it is i and s > (L's srt)'s end then
           set (L's srt)'s item it to s
           set (L's sec)'s item it to r
       end if
   end repeat
end sort_items

What I do sometimes is set up a playlist or smart playlist to do something. In this case, you could create a playlist "Current Album" and set the view options to show track numbers. Select the sort order by track numbers (the column header). Now, when you add tracks to the playlist, it doesn't matter what order they are added when you play the playlist it will play by track number.

gl,

Yeah, when you set things up it works faster. Something like this:

Edited: forgot to use the applescript tags

Applescript:

tell application "iTunes"
   activate
   try
       current track
   on error -- no track targeted
       return
   end try
   if not (exists playlist "Current Album") then
       display dialog "You must create a playlist named \"Current Album\" and sort by track number."
       return
   end if
   tell current track
       set {cur_artist, cur_album} to {artist, album}
   end tell
   delete every track of playlist "Current Album"
   duplicate (every track of first library playlist whose ¬
       artist is cur_artist and album is cur_album) to playlist "Current Album"
   set bw to first browser window
   set view of bw to playlist "Current Album"
   play playlist "Current Album"
end tell

gl,

Last edited by kel (2006-11-09 12:31:09 am)

Hi Mike,

That's right. It's your choice what to do. I was just suggesting a different way for speed. When I tried sorting earlier, it was very slow. I didn't make timing tests, but it seems to me that iTunes could sort it faster. After all, it sorts the whole library  very quickly.

gl,

Last edited by kel (2006-11-09 07:19:59 am)