beets-scribe

A plugin for beets to improve the quality of information related to western classical music.

The plugin works in two different ways:

• by work (default):
  • collects items from a query passed by user
  • identifies all distinct pairs (composer, work)
  • for each pair makes a google search query on site IMSLP, searching for the page containing details about that work
  • scrapes the first search result in order to collect the required information
  • applies collected information to all items matching the pair (composer, work)
• by search: using the parameter -s / --search
  • collect items from a query passed by user
  • execute the google search with a query string passed as parameter, the query is meant to identify the IMSLP page containing details about a specific work (of a specific composer)
  • scrapes the first search result in order to collect the required information
  • apply the collected information to all items identified in the first step

The information collected from IMSLP page is put in the following fields:

• sc_work_style: contains the music period as per Classical Music, i.e. Baroque, Classical, ...
• sc_first_publication: contains informations about first publication of the work
• sc_genre_categories: contains a list of detailed music genres such as Symphonies, Opera, Sonatas, ....
• genre: this standard field is overwritten as a two element list composed by sc_work_style value and first element from sc_genre_categories list, i.e. Romantic; Symphonies

The default behaviour is to skip all items having field sc_work_style already filled. The -f / --force option extends the beets search to all items and eventually overwrites already present values.

The option -i / --interactive substitutes the automated execution of google search queries with a manual step for each pair (composer, work), expecting to receive the correct url for the IMSLP page to be scraped. This mode permits the execution of a refined query in case the standard search fails to find a correct result, and can be used as a workaround to avoid getting stuck with the google service free tier limit of 100 queries/day.

The option -l / --list produce the list of the distinct pairs (composer, work) identified from the collected items.

Installation

Install the plugin using pip:

pip install git+https://github.com/sermore/beets-scribe.git

Then, configure the plugin in your config.yaml file.

Google Custom Search API service setup

The automated google search queries are executed using google service Custom Search JSON API. In order to use it it's therefore required to setup at least one of these services, using Google Cloud Console. At the end of the process, the service is identified by 2 keys, api-key and cse-id, to be put in the plugin`s configuration.

Quick procedure for google custom search api service creation:

• from Google Cloud Console
  • create a project
  • add API library: Custom Search API
  • enable the service
  • enable Custom Search API key (credentials), to be used as api_key inside config
• from Programmable Search Engine Dashboard add an engine
  • in section "Sites to search" add imslp.org/*
  • once created, collect the Search engine ID from detail page, to be used as cse_id inside config

If you are interested in using free resources, check that the project you have just created is not linked to a billing account otherwise you may encounter unpleasant surprises.

Here an example of a REST call to verify that the service is working:

curl -v --get --data-urlencode 'q=mozart wolfgang turk' --data-urlencode 'key=<GOOGLE API KEY>' --data-urlencode 'cx=<SEARCH ENGINE ID>'  'https://customsearch.googleapis.com/customsearch/v1'

Configuration

Add scribe to your list of enabled plugins.

plugins: scribe

Next, you can apply plugin configuration inside scribe config item. A configuration item exists for nearly each options available in the command line.

scribe:
    interactive: no
    custom_search:
      - name: custom-search-1
        api_key: <GOOGLE API KEY 1>
        cse_id: <SEARCH ENGINE ID 1>
      - name: custom-search-2
        api_key: <GOOGLE API KEY 2>
        cse_id: <SEARCH ENGINE ID 2>
    fields:
       genre: true
       sc_first_publication: true
       sc_genre_categories: false

Plugin development

• details available here

Setup local environment

• create a virtual environment python -m venv /path/to/new/virtual/environment see
• activate venv source <venv path>/bin/activate
• install all needed dependacies in order to run beet commands
• Make sure package is not in pip list output. I.e. uninstall if necessary.
• Set PYTHONPATH to include the path to the local src directory containing source code