The last post I made was about intuition and user interfaces; so, to balance this out, here is one on functionality…
Life always starts simply and then people get involved and things get complicated. Fresh install, one PC and a single library – everything runs swimmingly; in fact we don’t even notice how or where the library exists; it just works and the end results are the neatly arranged tagged files.
Then my experiment with MC progressed to a dedicated machine with its own library – files all in APE <<1st library>>. For portable use, APE is too heavy and MP3 is a good alternative. Syncing with an iPod and APE requires a decode ( to WAV) then a re-encode to MP3. This takes ages so instead I keep another set of MP3 files ( a copy of all the APE files ) with which I can synchronise <<2nd library>>. Then I have a laptop which travels with me on business and I take some MP3 files on that <<3rd library>>.
Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity –Whilst my library set-up is uncommon, I am sure that there are others that use multiple libraries for other reasons. How could this scenario work with just one library?
Well, to start with, the library must be shareable.
This means an “owner” i.e the main MC machine ( where the main licence resides? ), then clients or others can connect to this read-only or read write as needed. Multiple access at the same time. I doubt record locking or complex commit / roll back scenarios are going to be a problem.
Next the library must have on-line / off-line access. In other words, you should be able to queue changes to the files such as tagging, cover-art etc that get written when you re-connect. So, in my case, the main database is synchronised to my laptop and I can go on editing until I re-connect at which stage the changes are synchronised.
Then the library manager should be able to do the APE <-> MP3 automatic replication process.
Now all the “other stuff” that cannot sometimes be embedded in the music file ( cover-art, lyrics etc ) needs to be manageable independently. There have been a number of posting about backing up the library and what this covers. In this case the library is the database, the cover-art, lyrics and indeed anything else that doesn’t get embedded in the files.
Is that so much to ask?
Not sure – but I would expect it anyway…
nick
Author
Topic: Most Wanted Library Features (Read 804 times)