iCDc is an Audio CD catalogue tool. With iCDc you can view and edit the contents of the CD Remote Programs file and the CD Remote Programs Plus file. iCDc lets you export the listing to several different formats, including HTML and XML. The export is fully customizable.
For contact and licensing information, see bottom of document
Main Window
Overview
On start-up, iCDc main window will be displayed. The list shows all the CDs in the selected database. In the status bar on the bottom of the window, the number of CDs is shown. The following columns are shown in the main list:
Album – The name of the album
Artist – The name of the artist
Genre – The genre for the Audio CD
Length – Total Play length for the Audio CD (minutes: seconds)
Tracks – Number of tracks on the Audio CD (not including CD extra tracks)
Year – The release year of the CD.
All columns are resizable. To resize a column, point with the mouse over the right edge of the column. When the cursor changes shape to the resize cursor, click and drag to resize the column. You can sort the list by clicking on any of the headers.
In the left hand column, next to the CD image, a disclosure triangle is shown. When clicking on it, the tracks for the CD are shown. You can also browse the CDs from the keyboard with up and down keys. Right arrow key will expand the track view for a selected CD, and left arrow key will collapse the tracks view.
Searching
To quickly jump to a certain CD, click in the CD list and start typing a search string. iCDc will highlight the first CD matching the query string. If the list is sorted by Album, the first album matching the search string will be selected. If the list is sorted by Artist, the first album matching the search string will be selected etc. The search string will be displayed in the bottom left corner of the main window.
A more extensive search can be performed. By selecting Edit-Find (F), or clicking on the disclosure triangle at the top right of the main window, will show a search field. Type in the words you are looking for, and iCDc will display a list of CDs matching the search words.
To display all CDs again, click on the disclosure triangle again to hide the search field, or click on the Clear button.
Drag and Drop
iCDc supports drag and drop. When dragging selected CDs from the list, a text clipping will be created based on the export options set in the Preferences. The text clipping can be dropped on any other application supporting text drop, such as BBEdit, Simple Text etc. If the checkbox Use Export Options When Dragging is checked in the Preferences window, iCDc will format the clipping as specified by the default export format. If it is not checked, the clipping will contain the artist and album name followed by the track names. See Preferences and Exporting for more information about drag and drop format.
Edit Audio CD Information
To edit the information about a CD, highlight it in the list and select File – Edit (D) or double click the entry. The Edit window will be shown for the selected CD. At the top, the artist name, album name, year of release and genre will be shown. Below is a list with all tracks on the CD with track specific details such as artist, genre, etc.
To change the name of the artist, album, release year or genre, place the cursor in the text field, and enter the text (maximum 255 characters). To apply the same artist, album name or genre for all tracks, press the command key () and hit enter ( ) in the corresponding text box.
To edit track information, double click on the desired row and column. A text box will be shown with the current value. Enter the new text (maximum 255 characters). Pressing the TAB button will move on to the next column (or the next row) for continuous editing. iCDc will automatically complete the name of the artist, album or genre for each track as you type in the first few letters of the name.
In the top right corner of the Edit window is a small iCDc logotype. This is where you can view the cover picture of the CD. To store a cover picture (or any other picture related to the CD), control-click on the logo, and select “Select Image…”. A file browser will be displayed asking you to locate the desired picture. If you have QuickTime 4.0 or later installed, you can select files of type Pict, jpg, gif or any other format supported by QuickTime. You can also drag the picture file over the logo and drop it there, and iCDc will store the picture with this CD. Note that you do not need to keep the image file if you do not want to. iCDc stores a copy of the image together with all other information. The picture will be scaled to 100x100 pixels.
If you want to look at the next CD in the list, press the Command button and Down arrow (). The next CD in the list will be shown in an Edit window. You can also view the previous entry by pressing the Up arrow instead (). If you hold down the Option key () at the same time, the current window will be closed first
Preferences
To show the Preferences window, select Edit-Preferences (Y).
General
CD Remote Programs file: This is the main database file. Usually this is stored on your start-up disk in the System Folder: Preferences folder. You can select a file elsewhere, but if you do, the changes you make will not be visible in Audio CD players such as iTunes, Audion, SoundJam etc since they all use the System Folder: Preferences: CD Remote Programs file.
CD Remote Programs Plus file: This is the file in which iCDc and Audio CD players stores extra information about Audio CDs such as track specific artists, genre etc. This file is usually located in the System Folder: Preferences folder on your start-up disk. The same options applies for this file as for the CD Remote Programs file.
Rename ‘The Artist’ to ‘Artist, the’ will force iCDc to rename artist whose name starts with “The …” so that they show up in alphabetic order when sorting the list by artist.
Use Export Options When Dragging: If this checkbox is checked, iCDc will use the default Export options when dragging selected CDs from the main list. If not checked, iCDc will create text clipping with the Artist name / Album name followed by the tracks. Click the Set… button to set the Export options (see Export for more information on formatting rules).
NOTE! When dragging, you cannot create individual files for each CD. Use the Search function, or check the Export Selected CDs, to export only some CDs. The CDs will be exported in the order they are sorted in the main list.
CD Options
Here you specify what actions should be performed when inserting an Audio CD in the CD drive.
Get Track Names automatically downloads the track names for an unknown Audio CD.
Add CD to Lookup Queue adds unknown Audio CDs to the Multiple Download queue for downloading at a later moment.
Show Edit Window brings up the Edit window for the Audio CD.
Do Nothing just adds an unknown CD to the database.
Eject CD Immediately will eject the CD once iCDc has got the information it needs.
Preferred CD Drive If you have several CD drives, you can specify which CD drive iCDc should use.
CD Lookup
Here you specify settings for freedb CD Lookup. An Internet connection is required for freedb CD lookup.
E-mail Enter your e-mail address. The e-mail address must be specified for downloading and uploading Audio CD information. When submitting an entry you will receive confirmation e-mail to this address accepting or denying the information you have submitted.
freedb Server This is the address to the freedb server. Default will be freedb.freedb.org, which points at a random freedb server. To find a freedb mirror closer to you, click the Get… button and iCDc will download a list of active servers. Select the one nearest to you. The default server will always work if you have problems with other servers. Please select a server nearest to you.
Use Proxy Server Check this option if you are behind a proxy server. You must specify the address and port of your proxy server (e.g. myproxy.myhost.com:8080)
View Options
From the View Options window (Edit – View Options…), you can specify what columns should be shown in the list, what font face and size for the list.
Exporting
iCDc can export to different formats: HTML, XML, plain text and delimited text (or any other text format you can specify). You have complete control of the format.
To set the format, open the Preferences window (Y) and click on the Set… button. The Export Options window will be shown.
You can specify four different formats (HTML, XML, text and tab). Select the format you wish to edit from the Export format popup list.
All properties of the CD list is represented by a three-character string, e.g. %ar. The document is divided into three subunits: the header, the body and the footer. The following properties are supported in the export format:
Tag – Description – Document location – Comment
%headerstart – Header start – N/a – Optional
%headerend – Header end – N/a – Optional
%numberofcds – Number of CDs in list – Any –
%username – Name of user – Any –
%tab – Tab – Any –
%bodystart – Body start – N/a – Required for exporting CD information
%bodyend – Body end – N/a – Required for exporting CD information
%filename – File name – Body – Use this for multiple file exporting.
%imagename – Image – Body – The cover image will be saved in the export folder or subfolder if so desired.
%cdindex1 – CD count (01, 02, …) – Body –
%cdindex2 – CD count (1, 2, 3, …) – Body –
%artist – Artist name – Body –
%album – Album title – Body –
%discgenre – CD genre (category) – Body –
%year – Release year – Body –
%playtime – Play length (41:20) – Body –
%numtracks1 – Number of tracks (1, 2, 3, … ) – Body –
%numtracks2 –Number of tracks (01, 02, 03, …) – Body –
%trackstart – Start track loop – Body – Required for exporting track information
%trackend – End track loop – Body – Required for exporting track information
The header can be contained within a (%headerstart – %headerend) pair for better overview of the document structure but not required anymore. Everything before the %bodystart will be regarded as the document header. The Body part must be contained within a (%bodystart – %bodyend) pair. The track properties (%trackindex1, %trackname, %trackgenre, etc.) must be specified within a (%trackstart – %trackend) set. The footer can be specified within a (%footerstart – %footerend) set. If omitted, the footer will be regarded as the text after %bodyend. Look at the default export formats to get a better idea.
To export each CD to a new file, check the Multi file export checkbox. The format for each CD is specified under the Entry tab. Only the properties that are listed as Body or Track loop can be specified here.
If the checkbox Create in sub folder is checked, all CD entries and images will be exported to this folder. You specify the name of the folder in the textbox next to it. The filename will be the Artist name without any spaces followed by an ID.
Specify the file extension the each file should append to the filename in the File extension textbox.
Check the Export selected CDs checkbox if you only want to export the selected CDs.
You can also specify what creator the files should have. Select creator from the File creator popup list, or enter the four-character creator code of the application you want to handle the file if you know it.
If you want to export the cover image to a file, iCDc will save it as a Jpeg file. Please note that Quicktime 4.0 or later is required for this.
Downloading and Submitting Audio CD Information
iCDc supports Internet download of Audio CD titles and track names from a database called freedb (http://www.freedb.org). There are two different ways to download the information from freedb. In the preferences window, you can specify how iCDc should act when a new CD is inserted. You can download information about the CD when you insert a new CD. You can also add the CD to a download queue. If you have many CDs you wish to index, add them all to the download queue and download them all at once.
In the Preferences, you must specify your e-mail address, a freedb server and select the default CD drive (if multiple drives). You can also specify a Proxy server if you are behind a strict firewall. All communication with the freedb database is done via the HTTP protocol (the standard www protocol).
Download for Single CD
To download information for a single CD, insert it in your CD-drive (if you have more than one CD-drive, specify in the Preferences which one iCDc should use as default). Select freedb-Download Disc Information. A small status window will be displayed indicating status of the download. Once the information for the Audio CD is received, the window will be closed. The main list will be updated with the new information received from freedb. If multiple matches for a certain Audio CD are found, iCDc will present a list with the closest matches. Select the information that matches your Audio CD and iCDc will download the information for that Audio CD.
Multiple Download
To download information for several CDs at once, insert them in the CD drive one at a time, and select freedb-Queue Download. The required information for the CD will be stored, and the Audio CD will be added to a queue list. To view the list, select Windows-Download. You can edit the title for the queued Audio CD so you can remember which one it was if you get a multiple match. If you want to remove an Audio CD from the list, highlight it and press the backspace key on the keyboard.
Once you have added all CD’s to the list, click the Get button. iCDc will start downloading the information for all Audio CDs in the list. If there are multiple CDs matching one of the CDs in the list, iCDc will present the list of matches starting with the most probable one at the top. Select the correct CD and click the Get button.
If you do not want to download the CDs, iCDc will store the lookup when you quit iCDc so that you can continue another time.
Submitting Audio CD Information
If you get a message saying “No match found” when downloading the information for an Audio CD, you can select to submit the information yourself to the freedb database. Insert the Audio CD in the drive, and select freedb – Submit CD Information (S). The Edit window for the current Audio CD will be displayed.Enter all information for the Audio CD (or at least the name of the Artist, Album and tracks) and select a genre. To submit the information, select freedb – Submit CD Information (S). A progress window will be displayed indicating status of theupload. You will receive an email telling you if the submission has been approved or not to the email address specified in the preferences.
Naming Rules for Submitting Audio CD Information to the freedb
1. Never submit info completely in capitals or completely lower case, if there is no special reason for that.
2. For bands that have a leading "the", simply leave out the "the" (e.g. use "Rolling Stones" instead of "The Rolling Stones") (this rule does not apply to "The The" ;-)
3. Names of people should be written "first name last name" - NOT "last name, first name".
4. Use the name of the artist repeated on the "title" field if there is no title (usually seen on an artist's first major label release, such as with the B-52's).
5. When submitting a compilation CD, you should specify all tracks artists in the tracks list and set the CD-artist to "Various".
By using the software you agree with the LICENSE AGREEMENT shipped with this application. If you do not agree with the license agreement, do not use the software.
For registration information, go to http://order.kagi.com/?5YZ.
Secure registration, go to http://order.kagi.com/?5YZ&s.
Registration fee is $10.
Distribution Info
Permission is hereby granted for non-commercial on-line distribution of complete, unmodified copies of the iCDc software package. For permission about including this software on compilation disks or CD-ROM, please contact software author.
Contact Information
For latest version, look up http://www.waehlby.com.
Mail comments and bug reports to anders@waehlby.com.
Version History
2.0b3 - Fixed a bug when ejecting the CD and when getting the CD name.
Fixed a problem where an enhanced CD wouldn't be recognized as an Audio CD.
Changed export properties to more understandable properties.
Changed the filenames when exporting to individual files. The filename will now include
the artists name.
Multiple CD Lookup: When adding a new CD to the lookup queue, it is saved to the
preferences file at once. All queried discs will be removed from the queue after finishing
