Trainspotter

Overview

Trainspotter is a music and home entertainment database application still in development, designed by an obsessive music fan and collector for all the "trainspotters" out there.

It's features are expected to include:

• Solid relational database design, an extensive fields set with the facility for the user to add custom fields, and very powerful queries.

• The ability to read audio CDs, MP3s (including ID3v2 tagged MP3s) and other multimedia files and add them to the database with minimal human interraction. Plus CDDB (online CD DataBase) support.

• Comprehensive user-configurable statistical queries, with graphs and HTML (web format) output.

• Support for the creation of WinAmp playlists, both from standard recording entries (a CD, an MP3 album, etc.) or the user's own compilations [Example]. Also allows creation of a HTML info file per album, for MP3 trading [Example 1] [Example 2].

• Full native HTML output. Includes profiles, template support, and customisable queries, to output the information you want the way you want it.

• Targetted support for all leading and emerging formats and areas of interest, including CD, MP3, CDR, DVD Video, VHS, CDROM, and bootlegs.

• Multimedia - embed or link album covers, documents, audio, anything you like!

• WinAmp support and built-in media player.

Project Status

Trainspotter was in daily use here, and contained around 30MB of data about my own collection. Programatically created HTML, with support for profiles and templates; CD Table of Contents reading; playlists; MP3 info files; a wide range of statistical queries; and other features were in place. However, in November my data hard disc failed and, as my CDR drive had failed earlier in the year, I didn't have an up to date backup. Please learn from my mistake! My drive is said to be recoverable but I can't really afford the price at the moment. Hopefully Trainspotter will be recovered and, with the addition of AudioBrowser's MP3 support it may yet be something of a killer app. Hopefully.