When Tiger's iChat has added a feature to display the current iTunes track in your status message, it was pretty cool.
But hey, the default format of the string is pretty boring!
Here's how you can change the currently playing track status in Tiger's iChat in four easy steps:
1. Quit iChat.
2. In Terminal:
defaults write com.apple.iChatAgent iTunesMessageFormat -string 'iTunes: %Track'
3. In Terminal again:
killall iChatAgent
4. Launch iChat and re-choose "Current iTunes Track" menu item. Bingo!
Now for the format of the iTunes string you may want to use. In the example above, replace the format string with anything you like. Words preceeded with the % sign will be treated as meta-variables that will be expanded. Currently, the following ones are known:
Album
Genre
Year
Artist
Track
URL
There's also DisplayString and PlayerState, but they are not too meaningful. ;)
So, let me give you some examples. Let's say you play a track by Spice Girls (hello Cabel! ;), called "Mama". Here's what different format strings will give you:
iTunes: %Track - "iTunes: Mama"
%Track (%Year) - "Mama (1997)"
Argh, %Artist is playing %Track!!! - "Argh, Spice Girls is playing Mama!!!"
Well, you get the idea, right? =)
Posted by slava at 07:52 AM
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Why oh why don't they make these things GUI accessable to change? Thank you, slava, thank you!
Posted by: Bakuryuuha on May 31, 2005 10:01 PMIt works only when set via the Buddy List window from within iChat. It wont work if you set it via the menu extra item.
Posted by: James Huston on June 1, 2005 8:59 AMI used to install iChatStatus. It listed track and artist of current song and separated by some musical symbols like "♬" and "♪".
I have tried to add them to the status by
defaults write com.apple.iChatAgent iTunesMessageFormat -string '♪%Track♬%Artist♫'
However, it doesn't work. Is there some limitation on the characters supported by it?
(Of course those characters in the displayed line on the Terminal are escaped but I don't think it is the cause of the failure.)
Btw, could somebody tell me how to make Terminal in Tiger show characters besides ASCII? Mine used to work in Panthr but it always escapes non-ASCII characters in Tiger now.
Posted by: Phreak on June 1, 2005 11:53 PMPhreak, try just opening the plist file in plist editor (comes with the developer tools) and then you should be able to enter any special character.
??
Posted by: Rosyna on June 2, 2005 12:02 AMThanks Rosyna's quick reply.
Unfortunately, I have tried that as well but it has the same result as doing it in the comment line.
I see those symbols in the Property List Editor; however, the iChat shows "%Track - %Artist" in my status which means it does not translate the variables at all! :(
Posted by: Phreak on June 2, 2005 1:52 AMsimple copy/paste from Character Palette into Terminal did the work - I was able to add "note" symbol into the status menu
Posted by: alexmak on June 2, 2005 2:13 AMI finally got it working by openning the plist file and change both iTunesMessageFormat and FZPersonalStatusMessage strings entries.
If I have changed the iTunesMessageFormat value alone. It falls back to the value in FZPeronalStatusMessage without converting the variables.
Weird. Am I the only personal have to do it in both places?
Btw, I have problem witht the avatar as well. I see it locally in my iChat Buddy List window. However, my contacts see the AIM default avatar on my row. I have tried to default every iChat related plist files. Unfortunately it didn't help. :(
Posted by: Phreak on June 2, 2005 8:17 PMOh. I have forgotten to say thanks to you guys!
Thanks a ton!
Your comments encouraged me to dig it further! ^_^
Posted by: Phreak on June 2, 2005 8:20 PMI have finally sorted the avatar problem out.
iChat 3.0 (v388) does not support PNG file as avatar! At least not supporting PNG files with alpha channel. That's the primary reason I chose PNG.
I have switched to GIF now and it works fine.
Posted by: Phreak on June 2, 2005 9:44 PMyeah i screwed it up and i cant get it back to normal? how do i undo what ive done?!
Posted by: thesupermarket on June 30, 2005 5:04 PMHmm, a slight problem: I've set both iTunesMessageFormat and FZPersonalStatusMessage to "np: %Artist - %Track", but if I set the status from menu to current iTunes Track, I get the same as Phreak did, %Track - %Artist (no np: ), thus I need to launch the buddy list and set it from there...
Posted by: DMC on August 16, 2005 6:08 AMHow do i configure ichat, so AIM users can see the song that i am listening too?
Posted by: mani on October 3, 2005 1:23 AMThanx a lot. You improved my day :o)
To: Phreak:
Did you tryed tiff with alpha instead of PNG? Or PSD?
Both works well. Give it a try.
Posted by: kodlcan on December 15, 2006 5:39 AMKeep comments on topic. If a comment is unrelated to this post, it may be removed or moderated.