After much cursing from me that you have chosen not to support MDB/JET databases, I went through the major pain of downloading and installing mySQL 5 so that I could then use eldoDB.
I downloaded eldoDB but I have no idea what to do next (because I cannot read German!), so the time I wasted on the mySQL install is now even more wasted! Can anyone here advise me how to get eldoDB working?
(If only I could persuade you to support MDB/JET databases, this would all be solved. MDB/JET can be programmed using SQL, you know! You may hate Microsoft, but I hate having to waste >3 hours trying to set up a “weirdo” SQL server on my PC because you do not support MDB/JET! Most of your users probably have MS Office–or at least Word–installed on their PC, from which it is very easy to query and change MDB databases. Connecting to and using “external” servers like mySQL from within any MS Office app. is more difficult and usually error-prone.)
Supplementary question: will the new “built-in” mAirList database still require me to install mySQL? I do hope not after my miserable experience of installing mySQL so far (four attempts including one reboot and two uninstalls!). Even a full Microsoft SQL Server install on a server computer is MUCH easier (and apparently more reliable?) compared to a mySQL install on my home PC here. It’s enough to put me off open source databases for life!!!
A future SQL-based mAirList database will use PostgreSQL as the database backend, instead of MySQL. This is mainly for legal reasons, as the newer MySQL versions (i.e., the client DLL) may not be used with closed-source software unless you pay MySQL AB some 1000 Euros. And they don’t care if you charge for your program or not …
From my experience, PostgreSQL is much easier to install on a Windows machine than MySQL. It comes with a simple installer.
By the way, someone from the forum, cevou, is developing an eldoDB replacement called “radioDB”, also based on PostgreSQL. See http://www.radiodb.de. It’s still in beta, but already more powerful than the old discontinued eldoDB, and it’s fully supported by mAirList.
Concerning MS Office, I do not think that people should access a radio database with any other client than provided. radioDB has a Java client.
I hear what you’re saying, but sometimes it’s necessary to query the ‘playout program’ database directly to (for example) generate reports straight into Word or Excel or whatever.
I can’t imagine a Java-based client being able to do things like run a query and return and ADO recordset, or am I wrong? Regardless, it would be very useful to be able to access the database via (for example) SQL queries passed through an ODBC driver. You could then auto-generate reports of tracks played, etc. etc.; find and fix data errors in the database… all the usual support stuff.
If a database that is a ‘black box’ gets corrupted or has data errors in it, the only thing usually is to restore from backup and/or rebuild it. If there is a proper developer’s interface to it, at least one has a chance of repairing it.
Just my personal opinion!
I will probably (at least for now) use mAirList in conjunction with the MediaMonkey ‘organiser’ application/database. M3U playlists created and saved in MediaMonkey work AOK with mAirList. When things have settled down, I’ll think about installing PostgreSQL and radioDB, though TBH my unpleasant experience with mySQL has rather put me off that idea for a week or five.
Well, of course you can connect to the SQL database manually or with a custom client. The database schema is public, so you can do whatever you want with your self-written software or clients.
However, to ensure data integrity, ordinary users should never access the database directly but only trough dedicated client software. Adding music with INSERT INTO isn’t very convenient anyway, is it?
I would be very nice if you can tell me where radioDB is still in German. I tried to translate RadioDB completely but my English is not that good. So if you have any suggestions how to imjprove radioDB please tell me!
thanks for the hints. The German cancel button is in the “select database playlist” dialog, and the “Alle” is in the Load Playlist dialog. I’ll fix that.
