We are happy to release two useful open source projects we have been developing for some time. One is a Ruby based iTunes API search script. The other is also in Ruby and performs reliable script conversions in Japanese between katakana, hiragana and romaji.
RiTunes
RiTunes stands for “Ruby iTunes”. Cool huh? Maybe not but it is very useful. You can perform searches via the public iTunes API directly from a Ruby Rake task. The results are then added to a mySQL database where you can analyse them later.
Long Weekend uses this tool to keep track of our app rankings on the Apple App Store. We just cron the script with a bunch of relevant search terms, and get rankings of our app against other apps within a particular search term vector.
One of the hidden gems in this project is the Ruby mySQL Bulk Importer and mySQL & SQLite helper modules. We will get around to releasing these separately one day, but for now you might find it useful for writing custom migrations between mySQL and SQLite.
Kana2Rom
Ever wanted a reliable way to convert between Japanese phonetic scripts? “What’s Japanese” I hear you ask? No matter, we did but found the open source options lacking. Here is an all singing all dancing script that does gaijin friendly Romaji conversions too. If you’re not sure what I just said, then this probably isn’t for you. 
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December 23rd, 2010