Author Topic: DONE: Scan music collection for missing covers/artwork (Read 101613 times)

worstje · « **on:** May 11, 2009, 05:21 PM »

Topic says it all. I know it is somewhat possible with iTunes by going coverflow happy and looking for the grays, but I hate that program.

Ideally, I'd want a big list, sorted by album title. An album could be determined by the directory, as I use one directory per album. Please please PLEASE do not make different artists turn it into different albums, since that's what's making most programs I found throw up with 15 similar covers for different artists - directory criterium alone is all I need. It should look for the cover in a cover.jpg, folder.jpg, front.jpg as well as tags in the files if files doesn't work. Albums that end up without any cover art should light up red in the list. It would also be nice if it was possible to see how the program found the cover (from a file (filename), from tags, etc) and whether it is consistent. A way to get the directory the album is in (Copy to clipboard) would also be awesome.

Reason I'm looking for this is that I lost a crapload of my album art when iTunes messed up my computer, and I'm not letting it back on lest it destroy stuff again.. but I do want to go through my 500+ albums to restore covers where they might be missing.

P.S.: Used the Dina font for years, always been a lurker without account till now. Great website! ^^

skwire · « **Reply #1 on:** May 11, 2009, 05:28 PM »

I can do this one. Some more thoughts to come a bit later...

Edit: Added screenshots and download link.

Download: CovArt Ops

DONE: Scan music collection for missing covers/artwork

mouser · « **Reply #2 on:** May 11, 2009, 05:43 PM »

skwire please slow down or your boss will call us and inform us he is doing an intervention and blocking your access to donationcoder.

worstje · « **Reply #3 on:** May 11, 2009, 06:07 PM »

Such a quick reply. Awesome, I can't wait.

Thanks for putting your job on the line for me, skwire!

skwire · « **Reply #4 on:** May 11, 2009, 06:18 PM »

skwire please slow down or your boss will call us and inform us he is doing an intervention and blocking your access to donationcoder.
-mouser (May 11, 2009, 05:43 PM)

GUI-based apps like these are my favourites to create so these requests are pretty hard to resist.

Such a quick reply. Awesome, I can't wait.
Thanks for putting your job on the line for me, skwire!
-worstje (May 11, 2009, 06:07 PM)

Sure thing...my boss will be elated. =] I try to leave it up to the OP for the app's name, so, try to come up with one, please.

worstje · « **Reply #5 on:** May 11, 2009, 07:21 PM »

How about... AlbumCoverArtOverviewSuperApplication ? Or just Album Cover Art Overview... or Album Cover Art Completion Checker.... hrm... maybe (Lack of) Cover Art Listing ?

I think I like that last one. What is your preference?

skwire · « **Reply #6 on:** May 11, 2009, 10:41 PM »

I was thinking, maybe, "Cover Art Verifier."

worstje · « **Reply #7 on:** May 11, 2009, 11:15 PM »

Sounds just peachy to me. Approved!

skwire · « **Reply #8 on:** May 11, 2009, 11:28 PM »

Some thoughts...

Ideally, I'd want a big list, sorted by album title. An album could be determined by the directory, as I use one directory per
album.
-worstje (May 11, 2009, 05:21 PM)

How would you like empty directories to be handled? I can list them or simply skip them.

Please please PLEASE do not make different artists turn it into different albums, since that's what's making most programs I found throw up with 15 similar covers for different artists - directory criterium alone is all I need.
-worstje (May 11, 2009, 05:21 PM)

How would you like the main information displayed? Would you like me to use an Artist & Album column? A path column? Both? I was thinking something like this:

Artist | Album | Cover type | Path

Or, we could base it strictly on paths alone:

Cover type | Path

It should look for the cover in a cover.jpg, folder.jpg, front.jpg as well as tags in the files if files doesn't work. Albums that end up without any cover art should light up red in the list.
-worstje (May 11, 2009, 05:21 PM)

I plan to use appropriately coloured icons in the list. Acceptable? Also, when scanning for a cover, I'll stop at the first good match in the order you provide above. Again, acceptable?

It would also be nice if it was possible to see how the program found the cover (from a file (filename), from tags, etc) and whether it is consistent.
-worstje (May 11, 2009, 05:21 PM)

Easily doable. Would you like me to check for other image formats as well? PNG, GIF, etc.?

A way to get the directory the album is in (Copy to clipboard) would also be awesome.
-worstje (May 11, 2009, 05:21 PM)

Piece of cake. Any other thoughts?

skwire · « **Reply #9 on:** May 12, 2009, 06:32 AM »

Preliminary release...not everything has been implemented. I'd just like to see if this is along the lines of what you had in mind. Drag-n-drop a folder to the listview or use the toolbar button. It seems to be pretty quick; I scanned 13374 folders in about five and half minutes.

Download: CovArt Ops

Let me know what you think.

skwire · « **Reply #10 on:** May 12, 2009, 08:24 AM »

cranioscopical came up with "Covart Operations" as the name. Clever...I'm really liking it.

worstje · « **Reply #11 on:** May 12, 2009, 09:31 AM »

Sorry, short post since I'm in a hurry and at work but I felt I should post ASAP. =)

1. It looks awesome. I personally had small cover thumbnails in mind originally, but given the purpose of the tool it doesn't seem all that necessary.
2. Oh right, other image formats is a must. I've got a few PNGs and GIFs scattered throughout my collection as well. The order in which I mentioned them is totally fine.
3. Does it scan the tags of files for cover art yet? I only see folder.jpg entries in your list, hence my question.
4. Seeing your screenshots I figure it might be useful to be able to sort the list on different criteria too, such as the Cover type column. Does the stand headerclick functionality work?

I'll get around to testing it for myself in ~3 hours, but till then..

Thanks!

Edit: Oh, I just remembered... one program I have used for a while, I think it was WMP? supplied plenty of album art but in a different file format. {GUID}.jpg things I think they were.... ah no, AlbumArt_{5AC5A5E9-9CBD-4D75-B52B-F47B7E452D0A}_Small.jpg and _Large versions respectively. Can you check for those too?

skwire · « **Reply #12 on:** May 12, 2009, 10:22 AM »

1. It looks awesome. I personally had small cover thumbnails in mind originally, but given the purpose of the tool it doesn't seem all that necessary.
2. Oh right, other image formats is a must. I've got a few PNGs and GIFs scattered throughout my collection as well. The order in which I mentioned them is totally fine.
3. Does it scan the tags of files for cover art yet? I only see folder.jpg entries in your list, hence my question.
4. Seeing your screenshots I figure it might be useful to be able to sort the list on different criteria too, such as the Cover type column. Does the stand headerclick functionality work?
Edit: Oh, I just remembered... one program I have used for a while, I think it was WMP? supplied plenty of album art but in a different file format. {GUID}.jpg things I think they were.... ah no, AlbumArt_{5AC5A5E9-9CBD-4D75-B52B-F47B7E452D0A}_Small.jpg and _Large versions respectively. Can you check for those too?
-worstje (May 12, 2009, 09:31 AM)

@1) small cover thumbnails? As in, you wanted to view the image file within Covart? That can be done. I've already added a resolution column that will show something like "500x500", etc.
@2) Added.
@3) Not yet. Do you have a lot of files with art in the tags?
@4) Yes, column sorting works as standard. Regarding the GUID-named files, is the GUID static? If not, that's okay, too.

skwire · « **Reply #13 on:** May 12, 2009, 10:38 AM »

I think I've settled on "CovArt Ops" for the final name.

worstje · « **Reply #14 on:** May 12, 2009, 11:02 AM »

The Guid differs for each image, it serves as some kind of identification code for the album in some database I think. And about 1/3rd to 1/2 of my collection has tags in the files I reckon - and I am not sure how much of that also has the files. But just listing the first thing encountered is allright by me =)

skwire · « **Reply #15 on:** May 12, 2009, 11:21 AM »

The Guid differs for each image, it serves as some kind of identification code for the album in some database I think. And about 1/3rd to 1/2 of my collection has tags in the files I reckon - and I am not sure how much of that also has the files. But just listing the first thing encountered is allright by me =)
-worstje (May 12, 2009, 11:02 AM)

Would you like the whole filename displayed? Or something shorter like "AlbumArt_{*}_Large.jpg"?

worstje · « **Reply #16 on:** May 12, 2009, 11:32 AM »

The shorter variety is peachy. I really don't care much about the precise filename =)

worstje · « **Reply #17 on:** May 12, 2009, 12:50 PM »

Just gave the download a shot. Some things I think could still use improving:

1) Copying the name does not work.
2) Opening the directory doesn't work either and gives an error. I think you are reading the wrong column for the data (Resolution rather than the Path column) seeing how it complained about not finding 500x500.
3) It is listing some directories I'd rather not have it list. Some subdirectories have images only in them, or other extra information not part of the songs. For example, a fair part of my collection has Artist\Album directory structure, and the Artist has some extra stuff like playlists (m3u) or other stuff like it, causing it to be included in the listing while I'd consider it empty for the purpose of this little tool.

And after toying with it a bit, I think having some toggle to display the found covers in the listing would be nice after all. Consider it ego-stroking to get an impression on how far along I am to getting my collection properly 'covered' again. Aah, lame puns, how I love thee.

Thanks for your hard work on this.

Deozaan · « **Reply #18 on:** May 12, 2009, 02:16 PM »

Doesn't Windows Media Player scan your library and download album art, etc. for your music automatically?

worstje · « **Reply #19 on:** May 12, 2009, 02:21 PM »

Maybe it does. But I used it ages ago for about 3 weeks, then I decided I hated it because it doesn't live up to my level of OCD. Which admittedly is the case with a fair fair amount of programs which have all found the virtual dumpster since. Half of the programs store the album art they find anywhere but with your music too, which is partially to blame for my current lack of covers. :/

Of course, my dumping iTunes means I need to find a better program to manage my ipod with, which are also far and inbetween. Maybe that's going to be the next coding snack I request. *cackle*

Deozaan · « **Reply #20 on:** May 12, 2009, 02:24 PM »

Half of the programs store the album art they find anywhere but with your music too, which is partially to blame for my current lack of covers. :/
-worstje (May 12, 2009, 02:21 PM)

Windows Media Player stores the art with the music, but as hidden files.

skwire · « **Reply #21 on:** May 12, 2009, 05:45 PM »

1) Copying the name does not work.
2) Opening the directory doesn't work either and gives an error. I think you are reading the wrong column for the data (Resolution rather than the Path column) seeing how it complained about not finding 500x500.
3) It is listing some directories I'd rather not have it list. Some subdirectories have images only in them, or other extra information not part of the songs. For example, a fair part of my collection has Artist\Album directory structure, and the Artist has some extra stuff like playlists (m3u) or other stuff like it, causing it to be included in the listing while I'd consider it empty for the purpose of this little tool.
-worstje (May 12, 2009, 12:50 PM)

1 & 2) Gah...completely my fault. I added the resolution column and forgot to update those other functions. Re-download...apologies.
3) Yes, I was assuming that any directory with a file in it as an album directory. I can improve this.

CovArt Ops

skwire · « **Reply #22 on:** May 12, 2009, 06:59 PM »

Here's a screenshot with the thumbnail integration. I'm not sure I like it because of the wasted space beneath it, though. Maybe a second, separate GUI window would look more elegant. Your thoughts?

DONE: Scan music collection for missing covers/artwork

skwire · « **Reply #23 on:** May 13, 2009, 06:10 AM »

I tried to improve the criteria by which it determines that a given folder is an "album folder." Basically, a folder is only considered if it contains at least one of the following file types:

mp3, ogg, flac, wv, wav, mpc, ape, wma, mp4, m4a, tta, tak, shn

Art in tags is not implemented yet. Please re-download and let me know if this version works better for you.

CovArt Ops

worstje · « **Reply #24 on:** May 13, 2009, 10:29 AM »

It works very nicely minus the lacking embedded-covers feature. The icon at the side does not really bother me since I have two 24" screens, but you are the king of the hill - and I assume a toggle to hide it with wouldn't be too hard to add if it annoyed you.

I'll be awaiting the version with the embedded covers with all the lack of patience I can muster. ^^