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Topic: Album Art Downloader XUI (Read 2066680 times) previous topic - next topic
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Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #950 –
Hi, Alex,
is it possible to develop a "CDBaby" (http://www.cdbaby.com/) Scraper Script in the same manner that you did with Amazon?

Thanks! I'm loving the new version. Some very good improvements!

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #951 –
Quote from: audio20 on
is it possible to develop a "CDBaby" (http://www.cdbaby.com/) Scraper Script in the same manner that you did with Amazon?
Hi audio20, thanks for your comments. Yes, it wouldn't be hard to write a CDBaby script, but I've been looking at the site (and wow, it's a slow one), and there doesn't seem to be any way to search for both artist and album together. For example, try searching for Steve Dawson: Telescope. I can search for Telescope, or I can search for Steve Dawson, but not Telescope by Steve Dawson. If you can figure out any way to do a search for an album by an artist, then let me know.

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #952 –
Quote from: AlexVallat on
Now that's interesting - Nomad.NET isn't a WPF application, which suggests the problem might be with .net in general, rather than WPF (or as well as WPF, I suppose).

Might be, never checked its source code... but why does .net act like that?
audiophile // flac & wavpack, mostly // using too many audio players

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #953 –
Quote from: tuxman on
Might be, never checked its source code... but why does .net act like that?
I'm sorry, I have no idea. I've never seen that issue on any of the PC's I've used .net applications on, and I haven't got any clues to go on either!

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #954 –
OK, thank you anyway..
audiophile // flac & wavpack, mostly // using too many audio players

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #955 –
[font= \"Verdana\"]
Quote from: AlexVallat on
...it wouldn't be hard to write a CDBaby script...doesn't seem to be any way to search for both artist and album together...If you can figure out any way to do a search for an album by an artist, then let me know.
Hi, Alex,
can't thank you enough for you very quick response. You're absolutely right about CDBaby search capabilities, indeed.

What made me want to have them in the search capabilities in the program is the fact that they are indeed one of the biggest distributors of indie music (if not the biggest). There are a whole lot of artists that only have their CD for sale at CDBaby, so for some artists the only place you'll probably get a cover (and not a great one, only 200px in size) is there, unfortunately.

Exactly because the site is normally so slow (as you correctly stated), searching for a good number of these indie artists albums with your program would probably save me (and other indie music lovers like me) a whole lot of time! I though of an alternative for the search problem, but please tell me if it is too complicated or difficult to implement and I'll just forget about it.

I was thinking something in these lines:

[A] Launch two simultaneous searches, 1 for the album, 1 for the artist and then concatenate the results (album first, artist second), presenting the first n results.
If the above is not possible then just search for the artist, as it will probably get all the artist's albums right in the first results (indie artists normally don't have that many albums).

It seams to me the image results presented by the search pages are the same as the "bigger" ones, with just the "_small.jpg" suffix. e.g.
tripleavemusic_small.jpg   -->  tripleavemusic.jpg

Maybe you could put out here in the forum a "beta" script as you did with the Amazon Scraper at first. I would be very grateful!

In advance, thank you so much for your time!
[/font]

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #956 –
Quote from: audio20 on
Maybe you could put out here in the forum a "beta" script as you did with the Amazon Scraper at first. I would be very grateful!

Yeah, I appreciate that CDBaby has covers no other site will have, otherwise they wouldn't be worth the hassle. The problem with combining the searches like you suggest is that you would end up with not only every album of that name by any artist, but every album the named artist had produced! The one you wanted would probably be buried in there somewhere, but there'd be a whole lot of junk too.

The best I've come up with so far is to search by album title, then look through the results and discard those whose artist is not the one requested. This does mean that for a very common album title you might not be able to find any results, in which case I'd suggest searching by just Artist or just Album (whichever one looks more uncommon), then manually looking at the results for the one you want.

Let me know how you get on with it: cdbaby.boo

Alex

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #957 –
Quote from: AlexVallat on
...CDBaby has covers no other site will have, otherwise they wouldn't be worth the hassle...
Indeed!

Quote
The problem...end up with not only every album of that name by any artist, but every album the named artist had produced...a whole lot of junk too.
I had not thought of that... 

Quote
...search by album title, then look through the results and discard those whose artist is not the one requested.
Good method.

Quote
...a very common album title you might not be able to find any results, in which case I'd suggest searching by just Artist or just Album (whichever one looks more uncommon), then manually looking at the results for the one you want.
I suppose we'd have to use Artificial Inteligence to be able to get this right without intervention  , but still I am positive that this script will save me some valuable time. Just considering the time alone it would take me to manually search the folders that don't have a cover yet, copying the album and artist title, opening the CDBaby page, inputing the data, waiting for results, etc, and multiply this by thirty or something in this area and you can see how great this is for me (and probably for someone else too). I have no words to express my gratitude! 

Quote
Let me know how you get on with it: cdbaby.boo
I'll put the script to the test and I'll let you know the results as soon as possible.

Again, thank you so much! 

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #958 –
  hmmm...
It does not seam to be working here...

I took the liberty to open the script in a text editor and saw (what I could interpret as) the program using something like "http://www.cdbaby.com/Search/"+ album + "/0/cmVzdWx0VHlwZTo6QWxidW0%3d", e.g. http://www.cdbaby.com/Search/beauregard/0/...wZTo6QWxidW0%3d .

I suspect that "cmVzdWx0VHlwZTo6QWxidW0%3d" part of the code isn't static, that's why I'm getting nothing in the results, no matter what I try. I went on to the browser and tried different strings to that search page formation. Every single one of them returned a page with the message "We're sorry. An error has occured processing your request. Go back to CD Baby home page." .

So I thought of another sideways solution, I don't know if it is at all possible, but it kind of works for me:

Instead of using CDBaby's own search capabilities (since we're not really interested in the page itself or the information inside it), we could use google image's search capabilities, but limited to CDBaby's site. e.g.:

"http://images.google.com/images?as_st=y&safe=off&sa=1&q=%22" + artist + "%22+%22" + album + "%22+site%3Acdbaby.com&btnG=Search+images&aq=f"

Like this --> http://images.google.com/images?as_st=y&am...by.com&aq=f , which get perfect results for "laura jansen" "trauma" CD.

or just:

"http://images.google.com/images?as_st=y&safe=off&sa=1&q=" + album + "+site%3Acdbaby.com&aq=f"

Like  this --> http://images.google.com/images?as_st=y&am...by.com&aq=f , which still get good results for "laura jansen" "trauma" CD, which is the 3rd result in the page.

The beauty of it also is that we could get much faster results! 

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #959 –
Quote from: audio20 on
It does not seam to be working here...

Could you let me know what artist and album name you searched for? I'll test it here and see if I can figure out why you aren't getting results. The one I usually use for testing is Telescope by Steve Dawson, which works fine when I try it here.

The "cmVzdWx0VHlwZTo6QWxidW0%3d" part is "resultType::Album" in url-encoded base64. If you look in the script, it isn't "+ album +" it is "+ EncodeUrl(Base64(album)) +", so if you are just substituting the album name in clear text into the url, it won't work.

If you want to use GoogleImage search instead, that's fine. There's already a google image search. If the album is only available from CDBaby, and google has it indexed there, it should be returned by it without needing to restrict it to just CDBaby. I'm not going to do a CDBaby script that uses google image - that's what the google image script is for.

Alex

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #960 –
Oh, I get it now. I'm very sorry for the confusion. 

I was searching, as an example, "Laura Jansen" album "trauma" (or "Beauregard" EP) for instance.

The problem with google image search with this, for example, is that it will return completely random results, as both "Laura Jansen" and "trauma" are very common, so I end up with a lot of lady's pictures and injuries pictures. When the search was restricted, I got exactly what I wanted.

The first couple of tries I was so excited about the new script that I couldn't wait for it to work. I got no results and came here to report right after.

Turns out, as I've just discovered, that my internet connection was having problems (and probably that's why I couldn't get any results at all earlier). Now the script is working mighty fine, and with very good results, I must say. The point of using it is only to get those hard-to-find covers. Thank you so much for the script!



Quote from: AlexVallat on
Quote from: audio20 on
It does not seam to be working here...

Could you let me know what artist and album name you searched for? I'll test it here and see if I can figure out why you aren't getting results. The one I usually use for testing is Telescope by Steve Dawson, which works fine when I try it here.

The "cmVzdWx0VHlwZTo6QWxidW0%3d" part is "resultType::Album" in url-encoded base64. If you look in the script, it isn't "+ album +" it is "+ EncodeUrl(Base64(album)) +", so if you are just substituting the album name in clear text into the url, it won't work.

If you want to use GoogleImage search instead, that's fine. There's already a google image search. If the album is only available from CDBaby, and google has it indexed there, it should be returned by it without needing to restrict it to just CDBaby. I'm not going to do a CDBaby script that uses google image - that's what the google image script is for.

Alex

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #961 –
Quote from: AlexVallat on
I don't want to make Local Files always search first

Why not? It would make perfect sense if the local source is enabled. Why a user would enable this source? Because he/she has images locally which could match searches. If the local source is enabled (by user) and the "search first" automatically enabled (by AAD) for that source (be it hidden or greyed out), I can see 2 scenarios when searching:

1) local search yields results, if not what the user wanted, click search again to search the other sources not set as "search first".
2) local source doesn't have results (and other, if enabled, "search first" sources doesn't return any results too), AAD would automatically search other sources ("search first" disabled).

Is there a problem I'm not seeing? Wouldn't this be only advantageous to the end-users? The local source has different use cases than the rest of the sources, that's why I'm suggesting this change. I really don't see a situation where a user would like to enable the local source but not enable "search first". Maybe I'm short-sighted.

Quote from: AlexVallat on
command line parameter of /sourcesFirst or /sF to go with the existing /sources parameter would be a good idea. You could then do something like /sourcesFirst "Local Files" /sources "GoogleImage".

Would there be a switch to turn it off for e.g. local source?

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #962 –
Just because your usage would be to do a local search first doesn't mean it would be everyone else's too. There's absolutely no reason to force local search to be Search First, when there's a perfectly good checkbox available to set it like that if that's the way you want it. In any case, I always try to follow the principle of least surprise, and if you don't know about the Search First functionality, then you would be very surprised when none of your searches returned any results when you added the local files source to your search set. It would be unlikely to occur to you to hit the search button again, and if you did by accident, you'd probably assume it was a bug that they didn't show up until you hit the button again.

I don't envisage the need for a command line switch to disable search first for a source - is there any reason you want this?

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #963 –
Quote from: AlexVallat on
Just because your usage would be to do a local search first doesn't mean it would be everyone else's too.

And I thought that I expressed my views so that I've thought about it generally, not just from my use case. The whole reason I posted about this was because I was thinking about REACT (I'm planning to pack AAD to my mod rel.) and its users. Personally I don't use the local source at all.

Quote from: AlexVallat on
then you would be very surprised when none of your searches returned any results when you added the local files source to your search set.

But this is not what would happen!! If none of the "search first" sources return any results, AAD would continue to search the rest of the enabled sources, right? At least this is how you presented this new feature in this thread.

This is partly the reason I suggested to automatically use "search first" for the local source IF that source is turned on in the first place. Again, I honestly can't think of a situation where a user would like to enable the local source but not enable "search first". I don't see how this would harm searches. I can list my reasons to do automatic search first for local source if you like. But you do what you think is the best.

Quote from: AlexVallat on
It would be unlikely to occur to you to hit the search button again, and if you did by accident, you'd probably assume it was a bug that they didn't show up until you hit the button again.

And may I ask how this case is any different from the fact that the functionality of this "search first" feature is not presented to the user in GUI when: a) user checks any source "search first" checkboxes, or b) doing an initial search when 1-n "search first"s are enabled? It was my intention to write about this in my previous post but forgot. The GUI currently doesn't give any hints of the "click the search button for the 2nd time to search more/other sources" feature. I.e. AAD doesn't tell/show that only a specific set of enabled sources were used in the search AND a subsequent search button click would search other enabled sources.

And I tried to suggest that you'd only "grey out" the ticked "search first" checkbox for the local source.. that way the user would know how the source works.

Quote from: AlexVallat on
I don't envisage the need for a command line switch to disable search first for a source - is there any reason you want this?

Well, "just because your usage..." applies here too.  Long story short: I'm trying to avoid messing up users source settings anymore than I have to. And I was curious because my initial question included both on/off from the cmd switch and your reply didn't quite answer to that. I guess there's no must reason.. at least I can't think of any right now.. doesn't that show that there's no need to turn off that "search first" for the local source.

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #964 –
Quote from: Akkurat on
But this is not what would happen!! If none of the "search first" sources return any results, AAD would continue to search the rest of the enabled sources, right?
Yes, that's right. But if it does find a local image, then none of the other sources would be searched until they hit the Search button again, and the user wouldn't know why.

Having a local image file does not automatically mean that they don't want to search online too. Maybe it's the wrong one, or poor quality, or maybe they're using local image search in some other strange way neither of us have thought of. Certainly it should be possible to set local source to be Search First, and I can see good reasons for setting it that way, but as the behaviour can be confusing if you're not expecting it, it shouldn't be the default, and it certainly shouldn't be forced (greying out the Search First checkbox for local source).

Quote from: Akkurat on
And may I ask how this case is any different from...
The idea is, the user has to specifically choose to use the search first functionality, so they would start off by expecting those searches to be treated specially. I don't know whether they'll guess that clicking the button a second time will search the rest of them, but I haven't been able to think of a better way to indicate it. I'm hoping the Search First terminology implies that your Second search will search the rest of the sources, but without observing some actual users trying it, I don't know if that works.

I can see where this might be an issue for you, if you use the command line to automatically set search first options then that behaviour could be presented to the user without them knowing about it, leading to the same confusion about why some checked sources hadn't been searched. Perhaps it would be better not to have a command line switch for it, after all.

So, open to suggestions, can anyone think of a good way to indicate to the user that, for reasons they may not immediately appreciate, further results from other sources may be available to them if they press the Search button again?


Quote from: Akkurat on
Quote from: AlexVallat on
I don't envisage the need for a command line switch to disable search first for a source - is there any reason you want this?

Well, "just because your usage..." applies here too.
That's true, but to design a sensible command line, I need to know the usage I'm aiming for. I'd assumed the usage was for a command line user to specify a source or two that should be searched first, and some more sources that should be searched second. It wouldn't affect the users settings at all. With all the command line usage, the intention has been to avoid parameters specifically for changing user settings, but rather to use parameters to control how the particular search being executed is performed.

If the requirement is that sources which the user has marked as Search First but that are not included in the /sourcesFirst parameter are not searched first, then I would suggest that when the /sourcesFirst parameter is present, all user Search First settings are ignored (just for the search being performed by that command line, of course).

Alex

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #965 –
I'm terribly sorry to get in the middle of this discussion, but pardon my ignorance: Is there any option to make the program continue the search on the other selected sites, after all the "search first" are done?
(is this a stupid question?... - 'cause I'm thinking that maybe the program doesn't "know" when all the searches are done?)

P.S.: I must also say that the CDBaby script is working wonderfully! From the 37 covers I was looking for, I quickly got 31 of them! Thanks again!

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #966 –
Quote from: audio20 on
Is there any option to make the program continue the search on the other selected sites, after all the "search first" are done?
It will search the other selected sites automatically if the Search First ones return no results that match your filters. There is no option to make it search the other sources automatically if the Search First ones did return results, though, no. That would be the equivalent of just turning off Search First on all sources - all selected sources are searched. I suppose the difference would be that if you saw results you liked already, you could hit the Stop All button and cancel the remaining sources, but I think it's better to choose by explicitly searching further, rather than by 'not cancelling' a further search.

I'm glad the CDBaby script is working out, I'll push it out through the Automatic Updates / Get More Scripts link for everyone shortly.

Alex

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #967 –
Hi, Alex,
thank you so much for your reply. I get it now. I thought that even if it had found nothing on the "search first" you still had to push the search button one more time. I usually do search for multiple covers on a queue and let the program take the necessary time to do it in the background, so I wasn't completely sure if the "search first" was the best option for me, although it saved me some good bandwidth.

I guess I was making the right use for the function, but I had not very well comprehended just how it was working. Because I have a slow connection to the internet, I loved the idea of giving priority search to some sources. I hadn't noticed I also had an option to stop all the searches after a good source was found, and that will be great for me. Thank you once more!

Since you've been so generous with your time, let me ask you another question, and feel free to not respond if you don't feel like:

I love the "Group by" option on the Search Window, and I normally use the "Group by: Source" option. Is it possible to have an option to "Group by: Size", e.g., like:
- Above 1000px (or Full-Res)
- Above 700px (or High-Res) (700-999px)
- Around 600px (or iTunes-Res) (540-699px)
- Around 500px (or Amazon-Res) (400-539px)
- Below 400px (or Low-Res)

I know there is already an option to filter out the high and low resolutions, but there is a lot of trouble involved in constantly changing that, especially to allow and see lower/higher resolutions when no image in the desired resolution is found.

I thought that since you already have the filter capabilities by the resolution in the program, making it work also as a grouping capability might not be such a hassle (maybe). And I really believe a lot of people would like and benefit from it.

Quote from: AlexVallat on
It will search the other selected sites automatically if the Search First ones return no results that match your filters. There is no option to make it search the other sources automatically if the Search First ones did return results, though, no. That would be the equivalent of just turning off Search First on all sources - all selected sources are searched. I suppose the difference would be that if you saw results you liked already, you could hit the Stop All button and cancel the remaining sources, but I think it's better to choose by explicitly searching further, rather than by 'not cancelling' a further search.

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #968 –
I use this tool to replace poor quality images that I already have.
I wouldn't want to see local be a default that requires me to do something to get additional results.

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #969 –
Quote from: audio20 on
Is it possible to have an option to "Group by: Size"
This could probably be done, sure, but doesn't sorting by Size do the same job? There doesn't seem to be any good reason to group arbitrary size ranges together rather than have the smooth gradient that sorting would provide, unless I'm missing something...

Alex

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #970 –
Quote from: AlexVallat on
This could probably be done, sure, but doesn't sorting by Size do the same job? There doesn't seem to be any good reason to group arbitrary size ranges together rather than have the smooth gradient that sorting would provide, unless I'm missing something...

Well... Not really (I think). [it's not actually the very same job]
To achieve a similar effect, we would have to choose "Group by: none" and "Sort by: Size". And this way you have a single group that won't help you very much in selecting your desired one.

The major difference would be that by grouping the images in those descripted size ranges would give us an extra option, of "Sort by: Source" or some other sort option that we desire.

Another big difference is that we wouldn't have to keep changing the "options..." -> "filter image by size" settings all the time to see if there are any results below the minimum that we had established before.

As an example, all the Amazons (.com, .uk, etc) very similar or identical results would be grouped very cohesively and it would be easy to spot if there is a difference between any one of those images. Besides that, if you're aiming for those kind of images in the first place they all will probably be near each other, easy to compare and select. The same is valid for a iTunes-like images (around 600px) and other categories.

I might advocate that I can't see any use at all for the "Group by: Local" option, that maybe it could be replaced, but that's not the point at all (and probably a lot of people actually use it). The point I'm trying to make is that I really think the "resolution banding" would make things a little clearer in the results and make it so much easier to select from the results with an additional sort option.

I hope you can see my point of view. I mean it in the most respectful way. I believe you have good control of the program's options and directions (as you should) and you might have some insight about it that most of us don't. Still, I would be happy if you decide to accommodate that extra option in the future.

Thanks again!

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #971 –
Fair enough. There wouldn't be any down-side to it that I can think of, either.

Feature Request added. I don't think it should be too tricky, so it will probably go in to the next version.

Alex

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #972 –
Thank you, thank you, thank you!     
Whenever it is possible, there is no hurry, that will be so  !!!
Quote from: AlexVallat on
Fair enough. There wouldn't be any down-side to it that I can think of, either.
Feature Request added. I don't think it should be too tricky, so it will probably go in to the next version.

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #973 –
Quote from: AlexVallat on
I can see where this might be an issue for you, if you use the command line to automatically set search first options then that behaviour could be presented to the user without them knowing about it, leading to the same confusion about why some checked sources hadn't been searched. Perhaps it would be better not to have a command line switch for it, after all.

But this would wreck my control of AAD from REACT point of view. Remember when I asked you to provide /include switch? The reason was that I didn't want to mess other user settings in order to make sure that the local source is enabled if I use the /localImagesPath switch. Now, if the user has 1-n sources as "search first" (not local source) & I use the localImagesPath and include the local source, what will happen? AAD would ignore the local source completely until either, a) initial search fails, or b) user clicks the search button. Not good.

With the /include switch, it is not absolutely required for me to /exclude the local source when launching AAD without /localImagesPath switch. The search works and I don't want to turn local source off, the user might have turned it on by himself..

BUT, with this "search first" I'm in deep shite so to speak, I really would need at least the enable "source first" switch.. maybe the off switch too.

Quote from: AlexVallat on
So, open to suggestions, can anyone think of a good way to indicate to the user that, for reasons they may not immediately appreciate, further results from other sources may be available to them if they press the Search button again?

IMHO you really should inform the user some way.. as audio20 showed, it's not so easy to understand that feature.

I've a suggestion.. would you believe.

Since the feature is connected to the search result list (user searches something and looks at the window control which lists the images), the best option would be to have an info in the top part of that control.

Look at the yellow popup infobar under the address field. Put something like that at the top part of the result list control and instruct them to click the search button again.. should be enough space for a short message. Of course only when user has search first sources and other sources.. and the first search gives results.


OR something like this. Dunno if you can make that stay (and that's what you should do).. doesn't those usually have some maximum "visible" value?! I like the 1st idea better.. at least that could be made to stick until closed.


Quote from: AlexVallat on
I'd assumed the usage was for a command line user to specify a source or two that should be searched first, and some more sources that should be searched second. It wouldn't affect the users settings at all. With all the command line usage, the intention has been to avoid parameters specifically for changing user settings, but rather to use parameters to control how the particular search being executed is performed.

Wouldn't affect the users settings at all? Avoid all command line usage to permanently change user settings? I'm sorry but what? Almost every command line switch I've used so far HAS permanently changed my AAD settings. Did I understand right what you were saying?

I've used the below switches and ALL of them change the settings permanently (tested by running AAD with the switches first (and I made sure that those changed previous settings) and then without switches in the end).

localImagesPath, include, path, sort, minSize

Interestingly /autoclose is not remembered. Didn't test others than these. Maybe the command line reference should list what switches are remembered and what not? Or make them consistent, I guess it would be the easiest. Make all change or not.

Actually, I think I could manage with "do not change user settings" "search first" command line switch. Dunno about others though, somebody could like it to change settings permanently.
 

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #974 –
Quote from: Akkurat on
OK, I do see where you're coming from. The info-bar thing is not a bad idea, but I'm thinking it might be better to put it inside the results list, at the bottom, rather than floating above it. That way, if you scroll through all your results and still haven't found what you're looking for, a link with "Continue search with other selected sources..." (or similar, not dead set on the wording yet) would be there. Feature Request

For command line usage, I mis-worded it, sorry. I think it would be best if command line parameters did not change user settings. They currently do, with the exception of /autoclose, which is a special case.

If I've understood your concerns for REACT correctly, you need to ensure that the local source is searched, and would ideally like it to be searched first, ahead of all other sources. You would, however, like other sources the user has selected to remain selected for that search.

So, if I make a /sourcesFirst parameter which, when specified, means that just the sources listed for it are searched first, and all other sources searched second (regardless of existing user settings), but without affecting the users settings (so if they then start another search, it would use their normal settings), would that meet your needs for REACT?

Alex