KCatalog - Multimedia Catalog Utility

1.What is KCatalog

KCatalog is an Multimedia catalog utility which allows you to organize huge collection of MP3/Movie files in your hard disks,CD's,DVD's or any other media . You can explore your multimedia collection easily and find the file you wish in just a few seconds. KCatalog provides extensive support to organize MP3 collection. A very useful application for serious music lovers...

The main features are

  • View MP3 information grouping it by albums, artists, genres, file location or your comments

  • View movie information by file location or your comments

  • Keep track of your Mp3/Movie CD's or DVD's by saving information like who borrowed it from you, notes regarding the CD/DVD etc

  • Create and Manage M3U Playlists

  • Sort your files by many different categories like artist, album, genre, title, file Location and your own comments.

  • Facility to handle changes in drive letter or changes in Mount Location which is especially useful in linux platforms where the removable storage
        mount location may change or when you plug your harddisk in some other machine causing your drive letters to change

  • Use your favourite application to play music or movie

  • Catalog your MP3/Movie CD's, DVD's and other removable storage mediums based on the comments you give

  • Efficient pattern matching to search for MP3 Files using file names, file location, ID3 tags (artist, album, genre, title) or your own comments.

  • Search facility with advanced pattern matching options

  • Database Backup/Recover Mechanism which ensures that your database will not be lost

  • Supports both Linux and Windows platforms

  • Pluggable Look & Feel

  • And more over its Open source and FREE !!!!

  • KCatalog

    KCatalog Simple Search

    2.Technical Requirements

  • JRE 1.4 or higher versions
  • Linux/Windows Operating System
  • 3.Installation

    Extract the contents of the KCatalogSetup.zip file to a folder (eg: c:\KCatalogSetup).Run the kcatalogsetup.bat.bat/kcatalogsetup.sh script in the extracted folder.
    depending up on you OS. This will configure KCatalog with default set of options. You can later modify this options in Tools -> Settings menu.
    Run the kcatalog.bat/kcatalog.sh in the installation folder script depending up on your OS to start the application.
    Note: You will have to edit setup.bat/setup.sh and kcatalog.bat/kcatalog.sh scripts if java executalbe file(e.g. C:\j2sdk1.4.1_01\bin\java.exe) is not in the path

    4.Usage

    Once the KCatalog application is up and running you can add multimedia files ( mp3,mpg,mpeg,avi,wmv,vob ) to the KCatalog library using File -> Add Files & Folder to Library Menu. Refer to the remaining section of this document to get help on how to use other menu options

    5.Menu Options

    1. File -> Add Files & Folder to Library
    Use this menu option to import multimedia file to the database. You can select multiple folders/files for importing to the database at a time. You can either choose to scan the selected directory only or to recursively scan the selected directory. You will be prompted to enter a comment which will help you to identify files later.

    Important : KCatalog identifies CD's/DVD's etc based on the comments you give.
    For e.g while scanning a CD-ROM (e.g. H:\) drive you can enter a comment "MP3-CD1". KCatalog would display the contents of MP3-CD1 as a group if you have added the CD-ROM drive (e.g. H:\) as a removable storage medium in Tools -> Settings menu.
    Importing files to Database

    2. File -> Create New Playlist
    Use this menu option to create new playlist. You can add files/folder to the playlist by right clicking a file/folder displayed in KCatalog.
    3. File -> Save Mapping
    This menu would disabled at first. You can change the files added to one location say D:\ to point to another location say E:\ using Folder -> Map to New Location menu. Once this is done File -> Save Mapping would be enabled and you can select this menu to commit the change to the database.
    4. View -> Browse Mode
    View the files grouped in different ways
    Browse By Album

    Browse By Artist

    Browse By Genre

    Browse By Location

    Browse By Playlist

    Browse By Comment

    5. View -> Look and Feel
    Selects a look and feel. You need to restart the application to make the changes in effect.
    Look And Feel

    6. Folder -> Play
    Plays the contents of the selected folder using the application you have given in Tools -> Settings.
    7. Folder -> Open Folder
    Opens the folder in the file manager you have given in Tools -> Settings
    8. Folder -> Add To Playlist
    Adds the contents of selected folder to a playlist
    9. Folder -> Map to new Location
    Maps a location in database to point to another location.
    10. Folder -> Edit Comment
    To change the comment you given for files in the selected folder
    11. Folder -> Synchronize
    To synchronize contents of the selected folder with actual files in the disk. This can be done to reflect any changes that have been made to the files after they have been added to the database.
    12. Folder -> Delete From DB
    Deletes the folder from database
    13. Folder -> Additional Information
    Shows any additional information that can be obtained if the folder is present in disk.
    14. Music
    The submenus of music menu are similar to that of Folder menu.
    15. Music -> PlayList Information
    Shows information about the playlist if the selected file has been added to any playlist
    16. Tools -> Manage Disks
    Brings up the KCatalog Notes Manager. Here you can select disks based on the comments you have given and save notes regarding the same. You can use this feature to keep track of your CD's/DVD's etc.
    Disk Manager

    17. Tools -> Backup Database
    Backs up the existing database
    18. Tools -> Recover From Backup
    Replaces the exisitng database from a previou back up version.
    Backup Recovery

    19. Tools -> Advanced Search
    Brings up the Advanced Search dialog box.
    Advanced Search

    20. Tools -> Settings
    Brings up the settings dialog box. Most often you would be happy with the default settings. You may have to add your removable storage medium like CD-ROM/ DVD-ROM's etc to Removable storage list if you need KCatalog to treat them a CD's/DVD's based on your comments.
    Also you can decrease the Application speed factor if you are feeling that KCatalog is bit slow while importing/deleting files and vice versa.
    Settings

    6.Key Bindings

    Short cut key bindings are specified next to the menu items.

    7.Bug reports,Suggestions

    Please mail in the Bug Reports, Suggestions or Questions at krishnakumar.kr@gmail.com. Also
    please let me know if you are feeling this application is useful/good/crap.

    8.Comments

    This can be considered only as a Beta version of the release. Support for movie files are less compared to MP3 Files. I didnt get enough time to time to write an API for the movie files. Also to modify the application to make it more user friendly and improving the performance of the application would be the next stage
    (if there is any depending up on how useful/crap you are finding this)

    9.Future Release

    Please keep me posted if you feel that this application is useful for you or could be useful for you with some more modification. Please mail me at krishnakumar.kr@gmail.com for the source code of the application if you want to enhance application your self or for learning purpose or anything else adhering to the licence of the application given below.

    10.Librarys Used

    Libraries and support files for
  • Mp3 API - http://www.vdheide.de/java_mp3/
  • Skin Look And Feel - http://skinlf.l2fprod.com/download/index.php
  • Plastic Look And Feel - http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/looks/
  • DOM API
  • 13.Licence

    GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
    Version 2, June 1991

    Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
    59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
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    Copyright (C)

    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
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    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
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    Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.

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    Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program
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