Perhaps a weird question;

- I am able to connect my itunes to connect to my firefly server as a shared device, this has several limitations from an itunes perspective (no coverflow, not able to drag them on playlists for an iphone etc)

- in itunes one is able to select a location for the library (the actual xml file) - this library could also be on a remote server.

Would it be possible to have an itunes compatible xml file generated from firefly each time the library is being scanned ?

Firelfy doesn't create the XML, iTunes does. You want to have the iTunes "Library" and Firefly looking at the XML file. You can choose the library or create a new one by holding down the <shift> key when launching iTunes.

You don't want iTunes using Firefly as a "shared" library because as you note, that will limit functionality.

ok maybe I am missing something ?

I can only see the firefly server as a shared device in itunes.

You don't want to use Firefly in iTunes. Setup iTunes as if Firefly weren't there. It creates its Library XML file and you get full functionality.

You also point Firefly to that same XML file to support the Soundbridge.

The XML file, the music itself and Firefly can run almost anywhere.

I've got iTunes running on my PC using a library file that is on a "server" (my old PC) and the music is also on that machine. iTunes is setup using the network share names (e.g. the default music folder is \\Fileserver\Music , the library file is in [i]\\Fileserver\iTunes[\i].

Firelfly also runs on that server and gets its database info from the iTunes XML created by the iTunes which runs on my PC.

In iTunes I've got sharing turned off so I don't even see the Firefly server there.