Print-Out Music-collection

[Jon]

I'm developing a small SlimServer access library for programs written in Java ...

... If someone is interested in the tool I would happily make it available.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! I have been searching for something to generate a decent catalog, and while I've found some tools that can sort of do it, they all build their own little database to do so ... what I really have been looking for is something that goes directly against the SlimServer database, which your example apparently does, in pretty much exactly the format I was looking for!

[Kyle]

The Ethos Cataloger appears to be on the right track: http://ethos.no-ip.com/. You might want to check it out. The developer has promised improvements, but they have been slow coming.

[Jon]

The Ethos Cataloger appears to be on the right track: http://ethos.no-ip.com/. You might want to check it out. The developer has promised improvements, but they have been slow coming.

Thanks for the tip. I just tried it out ... it is similar to other programs I've seen ... the problem is that they all want to go out and independently scan all your folders and tags, and create their own database, when all of the necessary information is already in the Slimserver DB.

Emissary's approach seems much more straightforward.

Also, I am looking for something that is designed with the idea of producing a paper catalog ... which Ethos does not appear to be (though admittedly, I've only messed around with it for 10 minutes or so).

[jth]

Shameless plug:

DirectPlayBookODF:

http://ultratrendy.com:31888/slim/

It will read your Slim Server database and create a OpenDocument file with cover art. It requires a few perl modules to work. It works with 6.2 and 6.3, I'm updating it for 6.5 at the moment.

[Emissary]

Hi,

I will try to get something downloadable together today. I'll be back.

Emissary

@Robin Bowes
The taste of the tool is completely user-configurable

@jeffluckett
In its current state it is quite static with regards to its output. But I'm open for ideas

Hint: If someone is capable of a little bit of Java it should be no problem to modify the code to get whatever you want.

[jeffluckett]

Hi,

I will try to get something downloadable together today. I'll be back.

Emissary

@Robin Bowes
The taste of the tool is completely user-configurable

@jeffluckett
In its current state it is quite static with regards to its output. But I'm open for ideas

Hint: If someone is capable of a little bit of Java it should be no problem to modify the code to get whatever you want.

I'm not a Java programmer ... but I am a coder, so if your code is well commented I may be able to hack it.

BUT... if you're looking for suggestions, here's what I'd like to see.

First, a little background. I have a large music library compiled from many sources since the world first heard of a .mp3. As a result, I've got a lot of partial albums, crapped up tags, varying quality and such. So, I've recently undertaken a campaign to improve the quality of my library ... filling out incomplete albums, , replacing low bitrate tracks, fixing tags, etc...

So, this tool could help me greatly if options for the following output were available:

1. Start with what you've got, it really looks great.
2. Provide the track listing for each album.
3. Provide the format for each track
4. Provide the bitrate for each track
5. Provide the file path for each track

Thanks!

I know it seems like a lot of extra data, but it's all in the database and could probably be prepresented in 2 lines per track if all options were selected.
Line 1 of each track would be the track name, format and bitrate.
Line 2 would be the file path.

[Emissary]

Hi,

before going to sleep I've put together a (more or less, hopefully more) working version of the export tool.

I've rewritten the part, which layouts the pdf so that it is customizable through a XSLT stylesheet. But more of that later, when I'm back at my normal neural capacity

You can download the tool here:

http://dsnine.com/jsq-export.jar

To run it you need Java (at least version 1.5). To check, which version of java you have, type "java -version" on your command line.

The tool itself must then be started on a command line this way:

java -jar jsq-export.jar (where jsq-export.jar is the file you've downloaded)

If you start it that way it should greet you with an error telling you that required parameters are missing. You need to specify at least the hostname or ip address of an slimserver (6.5 would be best) and a filename to which the pdf should be written.

For example:

java -jar jsq-export.jar -s 192.168.0.1 c:\output.pdf

You can play around with the other options if you wish.

-o can be set to pdf (default), xml or fo. These are the data files which are generated in the process. maybe some of them are interesting for you.

with --style (short (default), medium, long) you can specify how verbose the pdf is.

short equals to the sample I've uploaded before. long is something along the way jefffluckett wanted and medium...guess for yourself

So, please try it. And don't be frustated if it crashes with a horrible error or if you don't get it to run. I'll be back tomorrow. This is only a first working thing.

Have fun

Emissary

[Wasaia]

I tried what you described, but it doesn't work. I've never done something like this before, so please help. I copy/pasted the jar-file to every java-folder where I saw jar-files to be sure that there is one in the right folder but in which folder does it have to be? And is there anything else I need to do before going to the command-line?

Thanks,

Giorgo

[JTemple]

Hi,

I'm developing a small SlimServer access library for programs written in Java. For testing its functionality I've written a small program to generate a Song List directly from the SlimServer.

You can view a sample at the following URL. If someone is interested in the tool I would happily make it available.

http://dsnine.com/export.pdf

Emissary

I would also like to have a copy that would work with 6.31 for although I will be moving to 6.5.1 with the month. Thanks so much.

[Emissary]

I tried what you described, but it doesn't work. I've never done something like this before, so please help. I copy/pasted the jar-file to every java-folder where I saw jar-files to be sure that there is one in the right folder but in which folder does it have to be? And is there anything else I need to do before going to the command-line?

Thanks,

Giorgo

Hi,

ok, I assume you are running Windows as your operating system?

Then these would be the steps needed to run the application:

1. Get Java installed, if it is not currently installed. To check this, please open the "Command prompt" and type "java -version". If it says "Command not found" or tells you a version smaller than 1.5.0 you have to download and install Java (java.com, follow "Download now!")

2. After that the step above ("java -version") should tell you that you have a 1.5.0_x (where x should be a 9 or 8 at the moment, but any number is ok for the X)

3. Change into the directory where you have downloaded the jar into. This can be ANY directory. The file does not need to be in any specific directory.

4. Type "java -jar <jar-filename>" in the directory where the jar file is stored.

5. You should now be at a point where my post above should help. If you're still stuck and willing to test it, please contact me via PM.

I'm sorry that it is a little cumbersome to get it to work at the moment. But before developing a descent user interface I want to get the basics right.

@JTemple
The version I've uploaded was not tested with 6.3.1 but should work nonetheless. If you encounter any problems please send me the output of the tool with the "-d" or "--debug" option set.

Thanks.