Directory MP3 Search

Hi guys, i've got myself in a bit of a jam. I'm in an 'intro to C++' class. My professor is a first time teacher. He's a great programmer, but frankly, he sucks at teaching. He's already trying to teach us windows programming and not even one person in the class has an idea of what's going on (half of the class doesn't even know what a function is!!).

We have a project due wednesday. The project is to develop an application that can search a windows directory (and subdirectories) for mp3s and display the paths of the mp3 files that are found.

I'm not exactly sure how to go about doing this. The obvious solution would be to read read read, but I can't learn windows programming by wednesday.

So my question is would anyone be willing to kind of walk me through designing an application like this? I'd imagine i'd need to write some type of recursive function to do the actual searching..

How do I have windows go to a certain directory?
How could I write a function that searches the current directory for an mp3 file?


Thanks for any help, i'm really stuck on this.

Mmm, have you ever considered reading the FAQ?

I was asking for some one-to-one help, not a reference to an FAQ. Windows programming is far beyond my skill level so I wouldn't make good use of an FAQ. I'd need help from someone to explain it a little to me, or at least a detailed tutorial.

You don't need to use windows programming to find the file. As for the GUI, have you looked at the link at the top of the board?

Reading files from the file system isn't a GUI problem.

Displaying the filenames might be a GUI problem, depending on how you do it.

You seemed to be lost on step 1, nevermind step 2.

So post some actual code of what you can and cannot achieve if you want better answers in future.

this is what i've got so far. I'm currently only interested in programming option 1 of the menu.

Code:

---

#include "stdafx.h"
#include <iostream>
using std::cout;
using std::endl;
using std::cin;
#include <string>
using std::string;

//prototypes
void mainMenu();
void inputDirectory();
void undefined();


//global data
int menuSelection = 0;
string directoryToSearch;

int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
{

        mainMenu();
        return 0;
}

void mainMenu()
{
system("cls");

        cout << "\t\t\tWelcome to Kyle's MP3 Tool." << endl
                << "\t\tSelect a menu option  ( 1 - 4)" << endl
                << "\n\n\n(1) ~~> Scan a directory to build a playlist of MP3s" << endl
                << "(2) ~~> Filter playlist" << endl
                << "(3) ~~> Save a playlist of MP3s" << endl
                << "(4) ~~> Load a playlist of MP3s" << endl
                << "(5) ~~> Play a playlist of MP3s\n\n\n" << endl;

        int x = 1;
        while (x == 1)
        {
                cin >> menuSelection;

                if (menuSelection >= 1 &&
                        menuSelection <= 5)
                        x = 0;
                else
                        cout << "Invalid menu selection. Try again." << endl;
        } //end while loop

        switch(menuSelection)
        {
        case 1:
                inputDirectory();
                break;
        case 2:
                undefined();
                break;
        case 3:
                undefined();
                break;
        case 4:
                undefined();
                break;
        case 5:
                undefined();
                break;
        } //end switch statement

} //end mainMenu


void inputDirectory()
{
        cout << "Enter a directory to search. All subdirectories will also be searched." << endl
                << "Example:  C:\\Music\n" << endl;
        cin >> directoryToSearch;
        cout << "\nDirectory Entered: " << directoryToSearch << endl;
}

void undefined()
{
cout << "This function is under construction.\n" << endl;
for(long stall = 0; stall < 350000000; stall++); //stalls the computer so the user can see the message

mainMenu();
}

---

Can you deal with this code from the FAQ?

Code:

---

HANDLE          h;
WIN32_FIND_DATA info;

h = FindFirstFile("*.*", &info);
if (h != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
{
    do
    {
        if (!(strcmp(info.cFileName, ".") == 0 || strcmp(info.cFileName, "..") == 0))
        {
            // do additional processing to see if file extension is .mp3 or something
        }
    } while (FindNextFile(h, &info));
    FindClose(h);
}

---

I didn't see you mention it, but manutd mentioned something about a GUI. Do you need one for this project?

I assumed by windows programming he meant he had to use a GUI :o Obviously not, but other than that, what "windows programming" would he have to do for this assignment?

ok i did some reading and i learned a bit about the WIN32_DATA_FIND.

So what I'm guessing is that i'll have to declare an object of the WIN32_DATA_FIND structure, then call functions from it.

What header files will I need to include?
Where can I learn more about HANDLES?

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him think.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kwikness

What header files will I need to include?
Where can I learn more about HANDLES?

---

msdn.microsoft.com

Quote:

---

Where can I learn more about HANDLES?

---

HANDLE, like any other windows data type (HWND, HINSTANCE, HBRUSH) is an int, but has been given such name, so you could easily recognize it in some piece of code.

Quote:

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has been given such name, so you could easily recognize it in some piece of code.

---

Actually it gives a microsoft a possibility to change the int to some other type in the future, and no need to make changes in the code using windows API

That too, but if that would be the only reason, the would've just made one APIINT or something.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by maxorator

HANDLE, like any other windows data type (HWND, HINSTANCE, HBRUSH) is an int, but has been given such name, so you could easily recognize it in some piece of code.

---

Is that a int, int32 or int64?

sizeof(HANDLE ) is (so far always) the same as sizeof(void *), so a HANDLE in a 64 bit program is 64 bits not 32.

This is something I had saved in my hardrive cpp reference code directory, I forgot where it came from. No windows code even needed.

Code:

---

#include <iostream>
#include <dirent.h>


int main()
{

    std::string path = "./";

    DIR *d = opendir(path.c_str());
    struct dirent *dir;


    if(d)
    {
        while ((dir = readdir(d)) != NULL)
        {
            std::cout << dir->d_name << std::endl;
        }
        closedir(d);
    }
   
    std::cin.get();
    return 0;
}

---

I guess you can save all the names of files as variables and if the file does not have an extension then it is a directory and just use recursion and the loop again untill it has gone through all the subdirectories.

Quote:

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int, int32

---

What's the difference between int and int32? They're both 32 bits (4 bytes).

size of int depends of the compiler (and may - on target system)
size of int32 - always 32 bit

I will probably never use a 16bit compiler, so... there's no real difference to most of us. Unless int is defined as 64bit.

64bit compilers are available

Quote:

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Originally Posted by maxorator

I will probably never use a 16bit compiler, so... there's no real difference to most of us. Unless int is defined as 64bit.

---

Or you might run a quick VB app to test some C++ COM code, (both written using the same IDE) and expect an int to hold the same magnitude in both......oops


Point is, the size of an int is not a constant.