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Topic: Album Art Downloader XUI (Read 2055441 times) previous topic - next topic
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Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #1200 –
Alex, Scott, would it be possible to make an exclusive deal between AAD & AAX?

Mock up example:



If AAX source selected, AND it returns results, display advert from AAX. The above works nicely if "group by" is set as "source". If that setting is something else, FORCE AAX source to display like in "group by: source", others like the setting dictates. This way the AD would always be above AAX results. What do you say? Disclaimer: I've very poor knowledge of how online adverts work (is it load count, click count, etc.?).

And add text link ("vote here"?) per cover if that is really required.

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #1201 –
Quote from: Akkurat on
display advert from AAX.
Sorry, that's not going to happen.

On principle, I don't write adware. Even apart from the more general principle of not writing software that acts against the interests of the owner of the PC it's running on, I block ads in my browser, and it would be a touch hypocritical to then try to foist them on others.

In practical terms, it wouldn't work anyway as scripts are user-editable, so they could just edit out the ad-serving part of it.

In business terms, it wouldn't work as online ad providers are pretty fussy about where and how their adverts appear. There are ad providers specifically for client side applications (not websites), but those are generally even worse.

Alex
 

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #1202 –
Hello Alex,

My original statement was "I don't understand why AAD and similar programs are necessary to access the site[/u]." I understand the purpose of the program itself    I am with you on the front covers only, until a month ago, this has been our primary focus. As an experiment we have been adding select back covers (sans track lists) and sleeves because some are quite beautiful.

If there were some way to only call up the browser page while not allowing direct access, I would be alright with that. I would of course want it to call a detail or gallery page with the result(s) and not the page with the image itself . For example:

http://www.albumartexchange.com/covers.php?id=74171
or
http://www.albumartexchange.com/covers.php...;bgc=&page= 

and never this: http://www.albumartexchange.com/gallery/im...wn-tasty_02.jpg

Cheers,
Scott

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #1203 –
Quote from: Akkurat on
Alex, Scott, would it be possible to make an exclusive deal between AAD & AAX?

Mock up example:



If AAX source selected, AND it returns results, display advert from AAX. The above works nicely if "group by" is set as "source". If that setting is something else, FORCE AAX source to display like in "group by: source", others like the setting dictates. This way the AD would always be above AAX results. What do you say? Disclaimer: I've very poor knowledge of how online adverts work (is it load count, click count, etc.?).

And add text link ("vote here"?) per cover if that is really required.


A resourceful approach and I like that idea however, most of what little funds come in are from Amazon. These are the ads that are on the LH side of the image on the detail pages and specific to each image. Sadly, my banners don't make me much at all. I have a new banner campaign which started a few days ago, we'll have to see about its performance.

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #1204 –
Quote from: AlbumArtExchange.com on
My original statement was "I don't understand why AAD and similar programs are necessary to access the site[/u]."
I'm not sure I see the distinction... there's not much point to the program if it can't access the site. The points I listed were what the program offers that using the site on its own does not.

As far as browser page access goes, the script already provided access to cover pages (from the <gallery-page> node in the xml file) through the (i) link. Personally, I wouldn't bother using the source if it meant I had to open the web page to save the image manually - but if people here would find it useful, and Scott would find it acceptable, I can provide a version of the script that gets thumbnails only from Album Art Exchange, and continues to provide the (i) link to open the gallery page.

Alex

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #1205 –
Scott, I just have a few comments to make and please don't take them personally; they're not directed against you, your site, or anything of the sort. They're just observations I have made:

The Internet is trending towards remote polling and aggregating of content. Information and content that were previously solely available on websites, FTP directories, Usenet articles, etc, are becoming more widely spread through aggregation with technologies like XML/RDF and RSS. Take podcasts for example: Originally, these were downloaded directly from the sites that provided them; now RSS feeds can be used by software to dowload various podcasts from various sources. iTunes is another meta-example: It can download podcasts, purchased music, and album art for use in a single device.

Users are going to want to start using these third-party programs to get this kind of information even more as time goes on. And as long as there are multiple sources for this information -- particularly when the quality between these sources varies so much -- programs like Album Art Downloader will be in the public demand.

That being said, I appreciate your position. I just wanted to give you some perspective from the other side of the line.

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #1206 –
New script: lala.com
I had a request for a script for lala.com, which looks like a pretty good source for mid-sized covers. I've knocked up a quick script for it here: lala.boo, if anyone would like to take it for a quick spin and let me know if there are any problems with it before I push it out through the Online Updates service.

Alex

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #1207 –
Seems to work ok. Fast source. Pretty good quality covers. Though it only really searches "artist" covers (like couple of other sources do), and it seems to report some wrong image sizes initially (again like couple of other sources do), previewing will reveal the true smaller sizes. Just try searching e.g. Muse / Showbiz.

EDIT:

Try Muse / Origin search, returns 3 covers, one proper with correct size, 1 other artist album (mark taylor - spectre) and 1 proper cover but wrong size (shows first 550x550px, then when clicked to preview: 170x170px). Just an example.

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #1208 –
Quote from: Akkurat on

Thanks for that. Some of the results it includes in searches are frankly baffling, I agree - but I can't find any sort of Advanced Search option or anything like that on the site.

For the size thing, the size is unreported, but from the site it appears that all the full size covers are supposed to be 550x550 - on those examples you mentioned it appears as a small cover in a large white space. I could just have it always report the size as unknown, but I think there's probably enough of them at that size for it to be a useful first guess?

Alex

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #1209 –
Personally I'd like to have it set to unknown if you can't glean any proper info from them. E.g. search Muse / Showbiz returns 8 covers, 4 of those are smaller 170x170px sized (+3 wrong album covers).. too much for my taste.  Anyways, the "download unknown size images" setting is there and works very beautifully.. and in this example, gets rid of 3 wrong covers.

Another example: search Muse / black holes and revelations = 2 results, 1 odd 80x80px "blank" image of an "eighth note".

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #1210 –
Quote from: Akkurat on
Personally I'd like to have it set to unknown if you can't glean any proper info from them.
Yeah, I guess you're right. This source seems quick enough with the full size images that it isn't a big hardship to have them download to find the size of them.

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #1211 –
Adding LaLa is great, but do keep in mind that Apple just bought them & it's up in the air what's going to happen to the site. Rumors are rampant that LaLa will be rolled into iTunes.

Oh well, it'll be a good source for covers while it lasts, I guess.

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #1212 –
Album Art Downloader XUI v0.34 Released

This is primarily a bug fixing release. I've also made the existing image pattern matching stricter in the file and foobar browsers, so if you have an image path of %type%.%extension% it will now match Front.jpg, but not Track1.mp3. %name%, %source% and %preset% still count as * for matching, but other placeholders are more strict. %size% must be in the "number x number" form. If you need looser matching, add it as an alternate. For example, if you want images saved as Cover(%size%).%extension%, but want to also match against existing covers named Cover(small).jpg, use a pattern of "Cover(%size%).%extension%|Cover(*).%extension%". That way, Album Art Downloader will save with the size placeholder, but will still find existing files matching the less restrictive pattern.

Other changes:
  • Added Lala script
  • Fixed CoverIsland, Encyclopaedia Metallum and Archambault scripts
  • Fixed bug with Various Artists detection for multi-folder albums (hopefully for good, this time)


Edit: A nasty bug was pointed out to me with the automatic downloader, so I've rolled a fix for that into this release as 0.34.1

Download:
AlbumArtDownloaderXUI.exe (Installer. Recommended)
AlbumArtDownloaderXUI.zip (zip archive for those who don't like installers)
.NET Framework 3.5 SP1 (required, except for Windows 7)

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #1214 –
Not a biggie, can you show the whole AAD version in the "check for updates" dialog? Edit: Have I asked this before? Was it sourceforce that prevented this? Just had a short WTF moment with the 0.34.1 update.

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #1215 –
One strange thing. Recently I've noticed that sometimes when I remove a cover, the whole AAD GUI seems to "freeze", can't select/push/etc. any fields/buttons/etc., I even can't scroll the source list anymore, and the mouse icon doesn't change on hover. After I move the mouse icon over window title bar (window maximized), the "freeze" seems to be gone. Any ideas? .NET fu.. fudging up, can I say, again?

P.S. Would a "remove whole source results" feature (right-clicking over the source name when group by source selected) be of any use to somebody else than me? (I've longed for a feature like that couple of times recently.. after the current remove feature appeared)

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #1216 –
Does the program support ID3v2.4 fully? When I try to search for albums based on ID3 tags often only the artist or the album name is listed, even though both are filled out when I view the files in Foobar.

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #1217 –
Quote from: Akkurat on
sometimes when I remove a cover, the whole AAD GUI seems to "freeze"
[snip]
"remove whole source results" feature
That's a strange bug. I'll see if I can reproduce it, but it looks suspiciously like one I won't be able to do anything about.

To remove all the results from a source, simply uncheck it and hit the Search button again. Hitting Search the second time will add results from any newly selected sources, and remove results from unselected sources.

Quote from: helstegt on
Does the program support ID3v2.4 fully? When I try to search for albums based on ID3 tags often only the artist or the album name is listed, even though both are filled out when I view the files in Foobar.
Should do. It uses TagLib#. If you can isolate a specific file that you think is being misread, and you can send it to me, then I can take a look at that file and see what's going on. Otherwise, you can get the tag information directly from Foobar by using the Foobar browser instead of the File browser.

Alex

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #1218 –
Quote from: AlexVallat on
Should do. It uses TagLib#. If you can isolate a specific file that you think is being misread, and you can send it to me, then I can take a look at that file and see what's going on. Otherwise, you can get the tag information directly from Foobar by using the Foobar browser instead of the File browser.

Sent you a PM.

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #1219 –
Quote from: helstegt on
Sent you a PM.
Thanks for that. I've taken a look at the file. The problem isn't ID3v2.4, the problem is that the tag is slightly corrupt. Fortunately Foobar seems capable of ignoring the error, but TagLib# is not. If you use Foobar to re-write the tag information, it should clear up the problem. What software did you use to tag the file in the first place?

Alex



Technical details:The file sent has the first ID3 frame, TPE1, with a text encoding flag of $01 (UTF-16). That text encoding flag specifies that the string must terminate with $00 00 (ref), however it does not, it simply ends with no termination, and is immediately followed by the next frame (TIT2).

Code: [Select]
000000  49 44 33 04 00 80 00 00 11 1f 54 52 43 4b 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 30 33 00 54 50  ID3.......TRCK.......03.TP
00001a  45 31 00 00 00 20 00 03 00 00 00 1b 01 ff 00 fe 45 00 6c 00 6c 00 65 00 6e 00  E1... .......ÿ.þE.l.l.e.n.
000034  20 00 41 00 6c 00 6c 00 69 00 65 00 6e 00 54 49 54 32 00 00 00 28 00 03 00 00   .A.l.l.i.e.n.TIT2...(....

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #1220 –
Quote from: AlexVallat on
Quote from: helstegt on
Sent you a PM.
Thanks for that. I've taken a look at the file. The problem isn't ID3v2.4, the problem is that the tag is slightly corrupt. Fortunately Foobar seems capable of ignoring the error, but TagLib# is not. If you use Foobar to re-write the tag information, it should clear up the problem. What software did you use to tag the file in the first place?


I am trying to isolate the problem which I have identified as coming from somewhere in my tagging procedure. I use Tag&Rename and Foobar for tagging.

Also, as this problem exists with a ton of my files, do you, (or anyone else), know of an easy way to let Foobar go through all of my files in order to fix this problem? Tagging > Re-write file tags does not seem to solve the problem, as Album Art Downloader is still not able to read all the info.

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #1221 –
Quote from: helstegt on
I've checked out Tag&Rename, and that isn't the cause of the problem. It should be able to solve it, though. Select all your files, and use the Multi-File tag editor. Uncheck all the fields (so it won't make any changes), then click the Save Tags button. It will then re-write them.

Alex

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #1222 –
Quote from: AlexVallat on
Quote from: helstegt on
I've checked out Tag&Rename, and that isn't the cause of the problem. It should be able to solve it, though. Select all your files, and use the Multi-File tag editor. Uncheck all the fields (so it won't make any changes), then click the Save Tags button. It will then re-write them.

It does indeed solve the problem, thanks a lot.

I am unable to reproduce the bug at the moment, but I am completely sure that the bug is introduced either in Foobar or Tag&Rename, as I have been able to compare the file I sent you with my original download of the file, which, prior to my tagging operations, does not exhibit the bug when viewed with Album Art Downloader. I have been using Foobar 0.9.6.9 and Tag&Rename 3.5.3 to tag the files.

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #1223 –
I am disappointed to see Album Art Exchanged removed. It is, by far, the best resource for album art that I have discovered thus far. And to be frank, I would not have discovered it were it not for Album Art Downloader.

Anyway, for those that use the Firefox browser, there are three search engine plugins for albumartexchange.com allowing users to search directly from their Firefox search bar by Artist, Date, or Title.

Click the link below for more information:
http://www.albumartexchange.com/forums/vie...x+plugins#p2832

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #1224 –
Quote from: AlexVallat on
To remove all the results from a source, simply uncheck it and hit the Search button again. Hitting Search the second time will add results from any newly selected sources, and remove results from unselected sources.

That's a different feature altogether. And after the search I'd have to remember to check all them back? Not very logical nor user friendly.

Let me try to show where I'd use it and how:

1) ~6 "search first" sources produce some results, sometimes a lot
2) not 100% happy with any of the covers
3) if lots of wrong/totally not suitable even for comparison covers, I'd like to remove most of them, if not all before extended search
4) extended search usually shows lots of new covers I'd like to compare to the covers shown with the "search first"
5) here too possibly removing some covers/sources for easier comparison

Additionally, when I've "group by source" and "sort size", the extended search many times "shuffles" the sources so that the source order is changed and if there's lots of wrong/totally not suitable even for comparison covers, it gets messy when the other sources pour lots of new covers. Maybe I can't properly explain this but, anyways, the remove covers feature made me realize that if I could remove source results completely, it would sometimes make the cover choosing procedure easier for me. Maybe not for everyone. I don't make feature reqs just for fun.  Thanks for reading.