Announce: Album Catalog Creator v3

[SilverRS8]

This works really well - thanks! I'm having a minor problem getting it to sort by Artist though. It worked OK at first, and then I changed and sorted by Album instead and that worked fine too. Then I went back to sort by Artist again, and now it keeps sorting by Album, even though I have selected the 'sort by artist' radio button. It runs through the sort, and when it is done, the program window has the 'sort by Album' radio button selected - it seems to select it by itself in the course of operation. I have deleted the folder and downloaded the 3.02 version, and this still happens. Any way to get my Artist sort back? [running on Windows 7]
Thanks
Anna

Hi Anna,

Thx for the report ! I've fixed it in version v3.0.3 which is available for download.

Regards,

Frank

[andrek]

Hi Frank,
I'm currently still using version 2, and considering moving to v3, but now I read in the first post:
"REMOVED: Alternative cover art name (obsolete as it has been replaced by Squeezebox Server)"

I have all my cover files named to Frontmini.jpg (~400x400) and fully keep them outside of Squeezebox Server.
I'm running the Server on a NAS (>1200 albums) and the only reason to have cover art is your ACC.
This way I keep the server data as simple & small as possible, and I hoped it helps the performance of the Server.
(I have no experience using cover art in Squeezebox Server.)

- Can I still hack the .hta file to add "Frontmini.jpg" as a hardcoded alternative name (line 211) ?
- Will ACC then find the correct file in the correct folder ?
- Or is it required that I also add the cover art to Squeezebox Server ?
- (and how to do that keeping Squeezebox server lean and mean ?

[SilverRS8]

Hi Frank,
I'm currently still using version 2, and considering moving to v3, but now I read in the first post:
"REMOVED: Alternative cover art name (obsolete as it has been replaced by Squeezebox Server)"

I have all my cover files named to Frontmini.jpg (~400x400) and fully keep them outside of Squeezebox Server.
I'm running the Server on a NAS (>1200 albums) and the only reason to have cover art is your ACC.
This way I keep the server data as simple & small as possible, and I hoped it helps the performance of the Server.
(I have no experience using cover art in Squeezebox Server.)

- Can I still hack the .hta file to add "Frontmini.jpg" as a hardcoded alternative name (line 211) ?
- Will ACC then find the correct file in the correct folder ?
- Or is it required that I also add the cover art to Squeezebox Server ?
- (and how to do that keeping Squeezebox server lean and mean ?

Hi Andre,

Am I correct that you want your cover art not to appear in SBS but do want it in ACC?

I do not know actually if SBS becomes slow if cover art has been added (never heard of this behavior but of course you may be right). With the Duet Controller and Touch coming up I expect that one would have the cover art in SBS.

I'll have to look into the code if it can easily enabled but I expect this code to be removed in the future though. I'll get back on it.

Frank

That it should do the trick

[andrek]

Am I correct that you want your cover art not to appear in SBS but do want it in ACC?

Yes, this is exactly how I have been using it since ACC version 1.5, 2.0 and 2.1.
I have never had cover art in my Squeezebox server, always relied on ACC to find the right file in the correct folder.
So if all you have done is to change the UI, then I think ACC will still allow me to do what I want it to do.

I will give version 3.0 a try tomorrow, probably the quickest way to find out.

[SilverRS8]

Yes, this is exactly how I have been using it since ACC version 1.5, 2.0 and 2.1.
I have never had cover art in my Squeezebox server, always relied on ACC to find the right file in the correct folder.
So if all you have done is to change the UI, then I think ACC will still allow me to do what I want it to do.

I will give version 3.0 a try tomorrow, probably the quickest way to find out.

The code is still there.

1. Change 'bUseSCImageRef = True' to 'bUseSCImageRef = False'
2. Add your image file to 'sCoverFilename = "cover.jpg,folder.jpg"'

I've not tested it but I expect it to work. However a future code cleanup/optimization may result in removal of the code as it is obsolete currently.

Frank

[andrek]

Frank,
I decided to go with the flow and add coverart to the Squeezebox Server.
I have it working now (after fixing some ID3 embedded art issues and change port to 9002).

Only change I now still need to make to your release code is to swap
'Various Artist' to 'Diverse artiesten' since I'm running Squeezebox server in Dutch.

EDIT : I found an option in Squeezebox Server to have compilations listed under any term, so I now also use 'Various Artists'
and still have Dutch as main language. Now I use your releases without any modification.

[SilverRS8]

Frank,
I decided to go with the flow and add coverart to the Squeezebox Server.
I have it working now (after fixing some ID3 embedded art issues and change port to 9002).

Only change I now still need to make to your release code is to swap
'Various Artist' to 'Diverse artiesten' since I'm running Squeezebox server in Dutch.

EDIT : I found an option in Squeezebox Server to have compilations listed under any term, so I now also use 'Various Artists'
and still have Dutch as main language. Now I use your releases without any modification.

Good to hear everything is working for the new version also. Just curious, has SBS become less responsive now that you have included album art in SBS?

Frank

[SilverRS8]

I've been working on v3.1 which currently has the following change list:
ADDED 'From Date' filter added
FIXED Alternative output folder did not function reliable
FIXED Rating not displayed correctly when an alternative output folder was selected
FIXED Bitrate was not displayed when selected

I need some users to test the new 'from date' filter. This will allow you to generate a catalog with only tracks/albums included that were added after the 'From Date'.

Please reply if you are willing to test it for me as I want to make sure there are no 'localization' issues due to different date formats. I'll send you a PM with a download link.

Frank

[Gilles2]

Hi Frank,
I love the promise of this ACC.
I gave it a try and can't get it work. I am running SqeezeCenter on a WHS.
I installed the ODBC driver and configured the access on the Server, editing the my.tt file as explained.
I mapped a drive to the Music Share on the Server.
My Server access options look now like :
- Drive mapped to remote Server music share : Z:
- IP address of remote SC server : 192.168.1.22, which is the address of the server on my network
- Port number used by Squeezebox Server: 9000
- Full remote physical path to music share : D:\Musique (my server in in French)
When trying the "Test" button, it runs for a while and then I get the following error message :
Error connecting to 192.168.1.22
Possible reasons:
- The required mySQL ODBC driver is not installed.
- If you are accessing mySQL on a remote server please make sure remote access is allowed by remote server (default = disbled). ...
Error description: [MySQL][ODBC 5.1 Driver] Can't connect to MySQL server on '192.168.1.22' (10060).

One thing I noticed which differs from your help screen is that my SQL share on my Server sits in C:\Program Files\SqueezeBox\server\MySQL\
and not C:\Program Files\SqueezeCenter\server\MySQL\ could that be source of the problem ?

Thanks in advance

[SilverRS8]

Hi Frank,
I love the promise of this ACC.
I gave it a try and can't get it work. I am running SqeezeCenter on a WHS.
I installed the ODBC driver and configured the access on the Server, editing the my.tt file as explained.
I mapped a drive to the Music Share on the Server.
My Server access options look now like :
- Drive mapped to remote Server music share : Z:
- IP address of remote SC server : 192.168.1.22, which is the address of the server on my network
- Port number used by Squeezebox Server: 9000
- Full remote physical path to music share : D:\Musique (my server in in French)
When trying the "Test" button, it runs for a while and then I get the following error message :
Error connecting to 192.168.1.22
Possible reasons:
- The required mySQL ODBC driver is not installed.
- If you are accessing mySQL on a remote server please make sure remote access is allowed by remote server (default = disbled). ...
Error description: [MySQL][ODBC 5.1 Driver] Can't connect to MySQL server on '192.168.1.22' (10060).

One thing I noticed which differs from your help screen is that my SQL share on my Server sits in C:\Program Files\SqueezeBox\server\MySQL\
and not C:\Program Files\SqueezeCenter\server\MySQL\ could that be source of the problem ?

Thanks in advance

The difference in path is of no concern. I'll update the reference in ACC as SqueezeCenter has been replaced by Squeezebox Server.

Sounds like you've done everything quiet right actually.

Some questions:
1. Do you run ACC from the server or from a remote computer? If you run it directly from the server do not configure any remote server settings. In this scenario you don't even have to edit the my.tt file as the server is not being accessed remotely.

If you already did made configuration settings while running ACC from the server, remove all ACC settings which are stored in the registry and than try again by removing HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ACC (run regedit.exe to edit the registry)

2. Did you install version 5.1 of the ODBC driver? (EDIT: I saw you did in your posting. Skip this one ;-)

3. The ODBC driver must be installed on the machine you run ACC from. So if you run ACC from a remote computer, install it on that computer. No need to install it on the server here.

4. Did you restart SBS or the server after you modified the my.tt file? It will become active only after restart of MySql and hence a SBS or server restart is required.

5. Do you have a firewall configured on the server that my be blocking traffic. Try disabling it. If it resolves the issue add port 9092 to be allowed

Let me know if this is of any help....

Frank