Need to store names, data about recordings??? PDA?

madmax

I've been collecting a lot of music lately, especially with the addition of vinyl. My problem is I can never remember which titles I already own and what condition they are in when shopping for new ones. I'm thinking a PDA would be a great solution to this problem. Obviously a lot of data input is required so I would want to download from the PC to the PDA. I would also like for it to be able to run Excel or a database of some kind. It should be mid-priced probably. The only other use for the thing might be to keep addresses and phone numbers in. I want to be able to store about 10K titles or so with notes. WHAT DO I WANT???

madmax

faster100

Since i bought my wife marks palm 100, months back, she is utterly addicted to it, since then ive bought a palm tungsten E, and her new one is a zire 72 which she has had for some time now.. what's cool is it has a camera, does excel or word and can do short video/sound clips. and is blue tooth compatible and a wi-fi card can be purchased to get online. it holds a ton of address's and has a spot for a add on card (sd card) it was like 299 - a ton of rebates.. 100 - 50 - 30 i think, palms are the cheaper of the pocket pc type devices.. the tungsten E is like 199 and it does everything the zire 72 does except camera and a bit slower.. you can input everything with the palm program on the PC and sync it to your palm. you can also store all your info on sd cards so you can seperate them and mark them accordingly..

nadams

I would look into the replacement for the Tungsten E, the Tungsten E2. I personally have the old E and I use it for tons of stuff. It's very nice to have around.

madmax

The E2 looks very interesting. I may go with it.
madmax

Fallen Kell

hmmm... database, cheap... One word comes to mind "MySQL" which is free and is an awesome database.

So, what you need to do, download and install the windows version of MySQL and run the setup. This will now let you craete the database.

So in the mysql window "create database music-db;".
Then "use music-db;"
Then "create table songs { int songid not null auto_increment, int bandid, int publisherid, int albumid, varchar(128) songname not null, timestamp songlength, primary key songid};"
Then "create table bands { int bandid not null auto_increment, varchar(128) bandname not null, primary key bandid };"
Then "create table artists { int artistid not null auto_increment, int bandid, varchar(30) firstname, varchar(30) lastname, primary key artistid};"
Then "create table publishers { int publisherid not null auto_increment, varchar(128) publishername, primary key publisherid};"
Then "create table mediatype { int mediatypeid not null auto_increment, varchar(30) mediatypename, primary key mediatypeid};"
Then "create table album { int albumid not null auto_increment, int bandid, int publisherid, int mediaid, varchar(128) albumname, date publishdate not null, primary key albumid};"

So now you have you database setup. Now you need to inport the data into here. You want to first start out by adding the info for the different media types.

Insert into mediatype set mediatypename="CD";
Insert into mediatype set mediatypename="SACD";
Insert into mediatype set mediatypename="LaserDisc";
Insert into mediatype set mediatypename="DVD-A";
Insert into mediatype set mediatypename="LP45";

etc., etc...

Now, this will create the mediaid's for each type of media. Now go add the publisher:

Insert into publishers set publishername="UMP"; (or whoever)....

Now add the band:

Insert into bands set bandname="Metallica"; (or whoever)...

Now add the album:
Set @myband:=(select bandid from bands where bandname="Metallica");
Set @mypublisher:=(select publisherid from publishers where publishername="UMP");
Set @mymedia:=(select mediatypeid from mediatype where mediatypename="CD");
Insert into albums set bandid=@mybandid, publisherid=@mypublisher, mediatypeid=@mymedia, albumname="Reload", publishdate="1997-11-18";

The above set commands were to get the proper data from the other tables to link into the album table. Same will happen on the songs table.

Set @myalbum:=(select albumid from albums where albumname="Reload");
Insert into songs set albumid=@myalbum, publisherid=@mypublisher, bandid=@myband, mediatypeid=@mymedia, songname="Fuel", songlength="3:46";



Now why go thru all this trouble, well it is a true database (some of my syntax is probably incorrect, but it is close...).

Now you can get a list of all the songs by x band (select songname from songs, bands where songs.bandid=bands.bandid and bands.bandname="Metallica";)

Or how about all the songs that you have on CD? (select songname from songs, mediatype where songs.mediatypeid=mediatype.mediatypeid and mediatype.medianame="CD";)

How about all albums that you have on SACD or CD by Metallica that are older then 5 years old? (select songname from songs, bands, albums, mediatype where songs.mediaid=mediatype.mediatypeid, and songs.bandid=bands.bandid, and songs.albumid=albums.albumid, and (mediatypename="CD" or mediatypename="SACD") and bandname="Metallica" and publishdate lessthan (NOW()-5year);)

Basically it gives you a LOT of flexiblity in looking things up. Inputing them is the hard part, but what you should do is create an interface to make that easier (something like a html/PHP frontend website which has input forms for inputing into the each of the tables which already links to the other tables to keep the data correct. I.e. has pull down menus for with the value of the albumid with the albumname/publisher in text so you don't screw up with all the stupid numbers that link to the other tables, and do this for each of the tables).

You can output data from the database in comma seperated fields (or tabs or whatever) for use in inputin/export to excel spreadsheets. You can even use an excel spreadsheet to input into the database itself, (save as a tab delimited file and use a perl program to input to the database with the proper fields being sent to the proper tables).

madmax

Is there a pda version of this? I guess I would just dump to an excel file and use that, right?
madmax

Fallen Kell

No unfortunatly at this time it does not run on any PDA. Well, let me re-phrase that, there is no binary for PalmOS or PocketPC. However, if you were running a linux based PDA, you might be able to run this as well, but I have not heard of this (but I have also not looked either). Basically you could simply output to a comma delimited file and inport that to excel...

Something like:

select songname, songlength, mediatypename, albumname, bandname, publishername, publishdate from songs, albums, bands, publishers, mediatype where songs.mediatypeid=mediatype.mediatypeid and songs.bandid=bands.bandid and songs.publisherid=publishers.publishid and sonds.albumid=albums.albumid;

That should get you all the basic info. You can just run that after you make additions to the real database and update your pda with it when you make the changes. You can also sort the data with the selects (order by songname... or "order by albumname", etc.)

madmax

I wonder if there is a data base program for a PDA? I've looked a little and have not found any programs for a PDA. I'm probably searching with the wrong terms or something.
madmax

madmax

After looking around I finally pulled the trigger on a new Tungsten T5 for $225 shipped. This included two money back offers I need to remember to cancel during the first month ($20 & $25) and $30 for signing up for a credit card and free shipping. It all adds up! Thanks for the help!
madmax

faster100

I was gonna say, Lets not make it difficult just buy a palm you will love it.. Cool, i havent looked at the t5 specs but they are all about the same.. seems like a great price, msrp 349.00 and it has a 160 mb drive... I just looked it up

madmax

I was sold on the E2 but the 32M seemed a little low considering the amount of data I want to put on it. Of course I'm only guessing. I liked the size and weight of the E2 and hope the T5 feels similar.

ezc

I use a Tungsten T3 & I use it to track my DVD & CD's. It could be used for Lp's also. I use Smart List (which was previously Think DB). You can easly create data bases or find one & download it & sync it. Smart List is installed on the computer & Palm & any changes made to either the palm on on the computer will sync with the next hotsync. I have over 800 dvd & just under 100 cd's. I do have different data bases for dvd & music keeping it simple to find a movie or cd

madmax

Great info ezc! I will look for Smart List and give it a try. Does it allow you to enter comments or notes?
madmax

ezc

Max, It depends on the datas base you use. For movies I use DVD db 4.2, which has 7 pages for each movie & for music I created my own db, which I created a note section.
Try searching for the DVD db if you cant find it let me know & Ill try to e-mail you a copy.