How to read ID3v1.1 tags in PowerBuilder

Reading an ID3 tag from an MP3 file is quite simple in PowerBuild, due to the nature of the tag. It is a very structured format, always 128 bytes long at the end of the file. Here is a simple break-down of the tagging:

Item = Length - Byte(s)
------------------------------------
"TAG" = 3 characters = 1-3
Song Title = 30 characters = 4-33
Artist = 30 characters = 34-63
Album = 30 characters = 64-93
Year = 4 characters = 94-97
*Comment = 28 characters = 98-125
*Track = 2 characters = 126-127
Genre = 1 character = 128

* -- The difference between an ID3v1 and ID3v1.1 tag is in the comment/track fields. A v1 will have a 30-character comment, and no track, whereas a v1.1 will have a 28-character field and a 2-character track allocation.

To conquer the simple tag, I simply made a custom user object with the following instance variables:

[color green]PUBLIC PRIVATEWRITE Boolean HasTag
PUBLIC String Title, Artist, Album, Genre, Year, Comment, Track[/color]

And then the lone function for now:

[color green]/*USER-OBJECT FUNCTION: LoadFile( as_path ) */
/*as_path = the full path to the selected mp3 file */
/*returns a boolean stating whether there is a tag */
/*written by Lee Rudisill 06/05/08 */
String ls_tag
Long ll_file
Blob b_mid, b_tag

//open the file (encodingANSI! by default)
ll_file = FileOpen( as_path, StreamMode!, Read!, LockReadWrite! )
//set the file pointer to the 128th byte from the end
FileSeek( ll_file, -128, FromEnd! )
//read the last 128 bytes of the file
FileReadEx( ll_file, b_tag )
//close the file
FileClose( ll_file )

//get the first three characters
ls_tag = Upper( String( BlobMid( b_tag, 1, 3 ), EncodingANSI! ) )

//ensure the first three bytes state "TAG"
IF ls_tag = 'TAG' THEN
HasTag = TRUE
//title
b_mid = BlobMid( b_tag, 4, 30 )
Title = String( b_mid, EncodingANSI! )
//artist
b_mid = BlobMid( b_tag, 34, 30 )
Artist = String( b_mid, EncodingANSI! )
//album
b_mid = BlobMid( b_tag, 64, 30 )
Album = String( b_mid, EncodingANSI! )
//year
b_mid = BlobMid( b_tag, 94, 4 )
Year = String( b_mid, EncodingANSI! )
//comment
b_mid = BlobMid( b_tag, 98, 28 )
Comment = String( b_mid, EncodingANSI! )
//track
b_mid = BlobMid( b_tag, 126, 2 )
Track = String( b_mid, EncodingANSI! )
//genre
b_mid = BlobMid( b_tag, 128, 1 )
Genre = String( b_mid, EncodingANSI! )
ELSE
//no tag
HasTag = FALSE
END IF

//MessageBox( '', 'Title: -' + Title + '-~rArtist: -' + Artist + '-~rAlbum: -' + Album + '-~rYear: -' + Year + '-~rComment: -' + Comment + '-~rTrack: -' + Track + '-' )

RETURN HasTag[/color]

Once the user-object is created elsewhere in script, you can simply call uo_my_mp3.LoadFile( ls_some_file ), and you will have all available tagged information available in dot-notation.