id3lib-ruby

id3lib-ruby provides a Ruby interface to the id3lib C++ library for easily editing ID3 tags (v1 and v2) of MP3 audio files.

Note that id3lib has to be installed in order to use id3lib-ruby, unless you are on Windows and use the provided binary gem.

Features

• Read and write ID3v1 and ID3v2 tags
• Simple interface for adding, changing and removing frames
• Quick access to common text frames like title and performer
• Custom data frames like attached picture (APIC)
• Pretty complete coverage of id3lib's features
• UTF-16 support (warning: id3lib writes broken UTF-16 frames)
• Windows binary gem available

Have a look at the to-do list for planned features.

Installing

How to install id3lib-ruby and its prerequisites can be read about in the installation instructions.

Usage

See the documentation for further explanation.

require 'rubygems'
require 'id3lib'

# Load a tag from a file
tag = ID3Lib::Tag.new('talk.mp3')

# Get and set text frames with convenience methods
tag.title  #=> "Talk"
tag.album = 'X&Y'
tag.track = '5/13'

# Tag is a subclass of Array and each frame is a Hash
tag[0]
#=> { :id => :TPE1, :textenc => 0, :text => "Coldplay" }

# Get the number of frames
tag.length  #=> 7

# Remove all comment frames
tag.delete_if{ |frame| frame[:id] == :COMM }

# Get info about APIC frame to see which fields are allowed
ID3Lib::Info.frame(:APIC)
#=> [ 2, :APIC, "Attached picture",
#=>   [:textenc, :mimetype, :picturetype, :description, :data] ]

# Add an attached picture frame
cover = {
  :id          => :APIC,
  :mimetype    => 'image/jpeg',
  :picturetype => 3,
  :description => 'A pretty picture',
  :textenc     => 0,
  :data        => File.read('cover.jpg')
}
tag << cover

# Last but not least, apply changes
tag.update!

Contact

For bug reports, support requests and feature requests, please use the appropriate tracker on RubyForge.

For comments or other things, don't hesitate to contact me:

• robinstocker at rubyforge.org