# CDDB Retrieval

Mike
McBride

    &Mike.McBride.mail;

Jonathan
Singer

    &Jonathan.Singer.mail;

David
White

    a9403784@unet.univie.ac.at

Bernd
Johannes
Wuebben

    &Bernd.Johannes.Wuebben.mail;

Developer
Dirk
Forsterling

    milliByte@gmx.net

Developer
Dirk
Foersterling

    milliByte@gmx.net

Developer
Lauri
Watts

    &Lauri.Watts.mail;

Reviewer
2000
2004
J Singer
2005-2006
&Mike.McBride;
2010-02-19
&kde; 4.4

## CDDB Retrieval

The module CDDB Retrieval is divided in the Lookup tab and the Submit tab.

### The Lookup Tab

The Lookup tab
The Lookup tab

The Lookup tab sets up the CDDB functions of &kde;.

You can select the options Enable MusicBrainz lookup or Enable freedb lookup.

The Freedb server section determines which CDDB mirror site is used by &kde; to get album information. You can enter a server name, port number and protocol using the text boxes and drop down boxes or you can click the Show Mirror List button. Clicking this button will open a new window with a list of CDDB mirrors and their locations. Simply select the server you want from the list and click OK.

The section labeled Cache Locations lets you determine where the CDDB information is saved on your computer. To add a folder, enter the folder location in the text box at the top of the section and click Add. You can also select a folder by clicking on the blue file folder to the right of the text box. To delete a folder, click on the folder name once with the &LMB; and click Remove. You can change the order the folders are searched by clicking on the folder name and clicking on the Move Up and Move Down buttons.

The Help button opens the this help contents page. The Defaults button restores the default values of all entries in this dialog; OK saves the current settings and exits; Apply saves the current settings without exiting.

### The Submit Tab

The Submit tab

The Submit tab sets up connection to a mail server or a web server to submit new CDDB entries. This is useful if you do not have your own system configured as a server.

If you plan to submit a CDDB entry, enter your email address into the first textbox, then you must decide between submitting between &HTTP; and submitting the entry as an email (via &SMTP;).

It is simpler to submit new entries using &HTTP;. Some firewalls block this traffic. If your firewall prevents you from sending new entries using &HTTP;, you can use &SMTP;.

First select either &HTTP; or SMTP (Email) to determine which protocol to use.

#### Using &HTTP; to send CDDB information

You can enter a server name or port number in the text boxes provided. If you want to send this information to the international servers, you do not need to change anything.

#### Using &SMTP; (Email) to send CDDB information

To prepare to submit information using email, enter your email address in the text box labeled Reply-To:, your email server in the text box labeled SMTP server: and select the port number in the spinbox labeled Port:.

If you need to use a password to send email using the email server, place a mark in the check box labeled Server needs authentication and enter your username in the text box labeled Username.

## The CD Database Editor

The &CD; Database Editor
The &CD; Database Editor

The &CD; Database Editor allows you to modify, download, save, annotate, and upload CDDB (Compact Disc Data Base) entries.

If there is an entry in your local CDDB tree (see the CDDB subsection in the Configuration chapter) for the &CD; in your &CD-ROM; drive, or if the disc could be found in the freedb, you will see the name of the artist and the title of the &CD; in the Artist: and Title fields and a list of tracks with song titles in the Tracks selection box. Otherwise, you will see a list of tracks and play times without titles.

You can make an annotation for the entire disc with the Comment field under the Title field, or for a selected track in the Tracks selection box with the adjacent Comment button. If you select a track in the Tracks selection box, the title, if present, will appear in the Title field below. You can type a title for the track in the box, or edit the entry to suit your needs. Press the Return key on your keyboard, and the text will appear in the proper line in the selection box.

Once all tracks have been given titles and the Artist: and Title fields have been filled out, you can press the Upload button to send your submission by email to freedb.

You will be prompted to select a category for the submission. The Disc ID section displays the 32 bit ID code used by freedb to identify a compact disc. Above the ID code is the category of the freedb entry. These categories correspond to the subfolders tree of the folder chosen in the freedb Base Folder: in the CDDB page of the configuration window.

The Length: display shows the total play time of the &CD;.

Press the Fetch Info button to download CDDB data. Press the OK button to save your changes locally. The Cancel button closes the &CD; Database Editor without saving.

## CDDB Support

freedb is a distributed network database accessible over the Internet that contains information about most audio &CD;s in circulation. If you have Internet access, you will likely never have to manually enter track information for your &CD;s if you have this set up properly. See The CDDB Page section for detailed instructions on how to configure this service, and the &CD; Database Editor section for instructions on how to edit CDDB entries.

Use of the CDDB is free. Submissions from users are encouraged.

When preparing entries for the CDDB, please keep the following points in mind:

- Use standard latin characters in the entries. Some special characters are supported, but Cyrillic or Greek alphabet submissions, for example, cannot be accepted.

- Use only one / character in the Disc Artist / Title field in the &CD; Database Editor.

  For classical &CD;s, it is standard practice to put the composer's name in the Artist section (before the slash) and the performer's name in the Title section (after the slash).

- If you send an entry that already exists in the database, any additional information you provide may be added to the existing entry.

By default, the standard CDDB categories are installed in `$HOME/.cddb`. You can create as many category subfolders as you like. However, when uploading, only the official CDDB categories are displayed. The default upload address is freedb-submit@freedb.org. For more information about freedb visit the freedb homepage.

The local CDDB entry for a particular &CD; is stored in the file `category name/disc ID` under the CDDB Base Folder. These files can be edited with any text editor.