JeFCo - The Jesterware freedb Collector

Edit Database Server Preferences

HTTP Server

CDDBP Server

Directory Server

Windows Directory Server

Zipfile Server

Windows Zipfile Server

Description

Some words to describe this server. This is mainly used to find this server in the server list of the preferences dialog.

Select this box if you need no internet connection to request this server. This is usually the case for servers connected with the protocol 'File' what means for a data repository available through a local directory. If you have access to a database server in your local network or another JeFCo instance running in your local network this should also be marked as 'permanent available'.
If a new request arrives which can not be fulfilled out of the available stored disc information, the servers marked as 'permanent available' are connected immediately.

Server Type

There are 10 possible types of database server:

Please inform me if your servers protocol is not available in JeFCo. The rest of the configuration parameter depends on the type of this database server.

HTTP Server

URL

The complete internet address (URL) of the servers request script including the port if necessary. For example for the freedb server this is 'http://freedb.freedb.org:80/~cddb/cddb.cgi'.

Protocol Level

The protocol level for the freedb request protocol to access this server. The highest available protocol level in JeFCo is 5. If you do not know what level a server supports leave this to 5.

Supports CD Submit

Check this if the server supports submitting of cd information. If you have a cd that is not in the servers database you can help by entering the missing information and submit this cd.

Submit URL

The complete internet address of the servers submit script. For example for the freedb server this is 'http://freedb.freedb.org:80/~cddb/submit.cgi'.

Submit with Testflag set

There is a special testflag in the submittion protocol. This can be used to test submitting information to a server. With this flag set the information sended to this server is parsed, checked and computed but not inserted in the database. A confirmation (or problem report) is mailed to you. You have to set up your email address correctly to receive this mail. With this feature the databases are kept free of 'Test CDs'.

Latitude

The latitude of the location of the server site. Usually this is specified in the format "CDDD.MM". This is an informational parameter which may be used to find the server that is nearest to you. This field is not used by JeFCo. You may leave it blank.

Longitude

The longitude of the location of the server site. Usually this is specified in the format "CDDD.MM". This is an infomational parameter which may be used to find the server that is nearest to you. This field is not used by JeFCo. You may leave it blank.

CDDBP Server

Site

The Internet Address of the server. For example for the freedb server this is 'freedb.freedb.org'.
Please note that the meanwhile commercial site CDDB refused to cooperate with us! Andrew Stress from CDDB wrote to me: "We can't authorize a proxy and don't allow proxying of our data. We request you don't distribute an application that proxys our data the way you describe." So please pay attention not to use the CDDB server cddb.cddb.com:888 with JeFCo! The access to CDDB may be blocked by them and you may bring me in trouble!

Port

The Port on the server to send the requests to. The freedb server listens on port 8880 for cddbp requests.

Protocol Level

The protocol level for the freedb request protocol to access this server. The highest available protocol level in JeFCo is 5. If you do not know what level a server supports leave this to 5.

Supports CD Submit

Check this if the server supports submitting of cd information. If you have a cd that is not in the servers database you can help by entering the missing information and submit this cd. You need to set up you email address correctly to be able to submit to CDDBP server.

Submit to e-mail

The cd information is sended via e-mail to cddbp server. For the freedb server this is 'freedb-submit@freedb.org'. You should set up your smtp server correctly to enable JeFCo to send e-mails. If you do not set up a smtp server JeFCo tries to send the mail directly to the database servers smtp server. This may work or it may not work.
There is no special 'Testflag' like for HTTP-Server. But most CDDBP-Server provide a special test e-mail address. For freedb this is 'test-submit@freedb.org`. Submittions send to this address are handled like described under 'Testflag'.

Latitude

Longitude

Directory Server

Database Directory

The complete database is available for download at

. This server type is for the archive in UNIX format. All you have to do is to download and unpack this archive in one directory. This directory has to be entered here. You may also enter a directory on another computer as long as it is accessible via NFS. The input format for this directory is usually '//remote_computer/remote_dir' - e.g. '//freedbsrv/datadir'.
Directories are usually accessible directly. For this the 'Permanent available' parameter should be checked.

Windows Directory Server

Windows Database Directory

This server type is for the archive in Windows format also available at

. You should not use the UNIX archive on computers running windows. The problem is that there are too many files in a single directory for the Microsoft FAT filesystem. It is possible to extract the archive to one of the newer Microsoft filesystems but the access times for these files are such huge that it is nearly impossible to use the archive. See the freedb FAQ for a more detailed description of the problem.
The contens of the Windows archive is identical to the UNIX archive but several files are packed in one. All you have to do is to download and unpack this archive in one directory. This directory has to be entered here. You may also enter a directory on another computer as long as you have a drive mapped to it.
Directories are usually accessible directly. For this the 'Permanent available' parameter should be checked.

Please read this note carefully before using the 'compressed file' type servers:

The following server types all use a single archive file containing the cd information files. Using single archive files instead of a huge amount of unpacked files has a lot of advantages. First of all you need much less disk space. For some file systems like FAT the highly reduced amount of files in the file system itself improves performance notably. But there are also disadvantages. Think of the time that is needed to unpack und untar the huge file from freedb using the best utilites for your system. JeFCo is not any faster than this when searching through this archive. It is very likely that you will end up with a couple of minutes at 100% CPU usage before the searched cd is found. That is definitely to long for any online search and will time out every player application. For this the option 'permanent available' should not be used with big archives! If you use an archive that includes only parts of the freedb distribution, like only the files for the genre 'jazz', it might be possible to use the 'permanent available' feature. This depends highly on the power of the computer used. Please give it a try to find out the possibilities for your system. It is not possible to submit cd information to archive files.

Zipfile Server

Database File

You can also zip (gzip) the freedb format data files and use this single zip-file instead. The files have to be packed including the original directory structure like for the Directory Server. This file has to be specified here. The advantage of zipping the files is that it uses much less diskspace.
You can reach much faster access times by not packing the whole directory structure. If e.g. 90% of your requests are for the genre 'Rock' you could create one zipfile with only the 'Rock' titels and another one with the remain. Now create one server with the 'Rock' zipfile as first database server and another one with the 'remain'. JeFCo will first search the smaller zipfile and proceed only to the larger one if a cd is not found there.

Windows Zipfile Server

Windows Database File

Same as Zipfile Server but for a zipfile with files in the Windows format as described for the Windows Database Directory. Please note that it is possible to use a zip-file in UNIX-format on a Windows computer without any problems. This is because the the huge amount of files is packet to one single zipfile. It is also possible to use a zip-file including the Windows-format on a UNIX computer without any problems. Cause of the smaller amount of single files this zip-file itself should be a little bit smaller.

BZIP2 tar File Server

freedb Database File

The complete database is available for download at

. The files named 'freedb-complete-????????.tar.bz2' can be used directly here without unpacking. Please read the note before using this server type. Please note that it is possible to use this UNIX-format file on UNIX and on Windows computer without any problems as long as they are not unpacked.

Windows BZIP2 tar File Server

freedb Database File

The complete database is available for download at

. The files named 'freedb-win-????????.tar.bz2' can be used directly here without unpacking. Please read the note before using this server type. Please note that it is possible to use this Windows-format file on UNIX and on Windows computer without any problems as long as they are not unpacked. Cause of the smaller amount of files in this archive you may achive smaller searchtimes and less used disc space that with the UNIX-format archive.

Tar File Server

tar Database File

The complete database is available for download at

. You have to unpack (but not to untar) these files to use it with this server type. Please read the note before using this server type. Please note that it is possible to use this UNIX-format file on UNIX and on Windows computer without any problems as long as they are not unpacked. This server is much faster than the bzip2 server but the file uses much more disc space.

Windows Tar File Server

Windows tar Database File

The complete database is available for download at

. You have to unpack (but not to untar) these files to use it with this server type. Please read the note before using this server type. Please note that it is possible to use this Windows-format file on UNIX and on Windows computer without any problems as long as they are not unpacked. This server is much faster than the bzip2 server but the file uses much more disc space.