DigitalDJ
DigitalDJ is an SQL-based mp3-player frontend. It is designed to work with Grip. When Grip encodes mp3 files, it will place all of the song information into an SQL database. DigitalDJ can then use this information to create playlists based on any number of criteria.
Requirements
To use DigitalDJ, you must have:
- Grip (see http://www.nostatic.org/grip)
- GTK+ (see http://www.gtk.org)
- POSIX thread support (http://pauillac.inria.fr/~xleroy/linuxthreads)
- mysql (both the server and the development package --
see http://www.tcx.se)
- an mp3 player (such as mpg123)
Installation
If you obtained DigitalDJ from an RPM distribution then it is already installed. If you have the source distribution, you need to compile it.
To install DigitalDJ, simply go through the following steps:
- after unpacking the source tarball, cd to the extracted directory
- './configure'
- 'make'
- become root if you are installing in a non-user directory
- 'make install'
For information on options to the configure process, run:
./configure --help
DigitalDJ adds the following options that can be specified to configure:
--disable-shared-lirc -- This will for DigitalDJ to link statically with
the lirc client library
--disable-lirc -- This disables linking with lirc entirely
Running DigitalDJ
Digital DJ's usage is:
ddj [options]
where the available options are:
-s Launch in "small" (cd-only) mode
-p Start playing immediately
-t TV mode
-c Console mode (no gui)
-v Verbose (debug) mode
Configuring DigitalDJ
Before you can use DigitalDJ (or have Grip add song information to the database) you need to create an SQL user account and initialize the database. DigitalDJ will attempt to do this automatically for you. If this fails, you will need to do it manually.
First, configure the options in the "Client" section of the "Config" tab (see below for more details). Then go to the "Server" tab, enter your mysql root password (blank if you have not changed it) and click "Log in". Enter the Username/Host/Password information you entered in the "Client" section, and click "Add user account". Make sure you click on "Save Configuration" to save your settings to disck. You are now ready to use DigitalDJ!
Here is a more detailed description of the options under the "Config" tab:
The "Options" tab:
- Player executable: This is the program that will be used to play MP3
files. The switch '%f' will be replaced by the MP3 filename, and the switch '%r' will be replace by the disc gain adjustment in dB.
- Use X10 serial remote: Select this if you have an X10 remote connected to your serial port.
- X10 serial device: The serial device the X10 remote is connected to.
- Status output file: DigitDJ will write out information about the song
currently play to this file.
- Album cover directory: If you put album cover art in this directory,
named "<album_id>.jpg", DigitalDJ will dislay the album cover in TV mode.
- Song list query limit: The maximum number of songs to be pulled from a
database query.
The "Client" tab:
- SQL host: The machine the mysql server is running on. This will generally
be "localhost".
- SQL database: The name of the database that song information will be
stored in.
- SQL username: The username to be used to access the song database.
- SQL passowrd: The password to be used to access the song database.
The "Server" tab:
- Root Password: You need to enter the SQL root password here before you
can acess the server options. On a default mysql configuration, the root password is blank.
- Log in: Click here after you have entered your root password.
- Initialize SQL database: Clicking this button will create the database
tables that DigitalDJ needs. This should only be done once.
- User/Host display: This shows the current users for the DigitalDJ
database.
- Username: The name of the SQL user account.
- Host: The host that the user is allowed to access the database from. Use
'localhost' if the server is running on the same machine as the client.
- Password: The password for the account.
- Add user account: Clicking this button will add the current user to the
access list.
- Delete user account: Clicking this button will remove the current user
from the access list.
Using TV Mode
In TV mode, DigitalDJ will create a 640x480 display to show what is currently playing. Control currently requires an X10 remote control. The X10 key mapping is as follows:
Play: Start playback or pause
Stop: Stop playback
FF: Skip to the next song
REW: Skip to the previous song
Pause: Pause or resume playback
Vol Up: Increase the volume using the mixer device
Vol Down: Decrease the volume
Mute: Mute the volume
Title: Speak the current song artist/title (requires Festival)
Return: Exits DigitalDJ
Display: Toggle extended track info display
Recall: Return to previous songlist
AB: Randomize current songlist
- Begin randomized playback of all songs
- Play songs by the current artist
- Play songs on the current disc
- Play songs from the current genre
- Play songs with the current title
- Play songs from the current year
- Play songs within two years
- Play songs from the current decade 0: Play songs added within the last 30 days
Getting More Help
If you need more help with DigitalDJ, your best resource is the mailing list. You will find it at:
http://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/ddj-users
Be sure to check the mailing list archives for answers to any questions you may have.
To report a bug with DigitalDJ, or to submit a patch. Please do so at the DigitalDJ section on sourceforge.net:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ddj
License and Disclaimer
DigitalDJ is Copyright (c) 1998-2002 by Mike Oliphant. It may be used and distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License. All other brand and product names are trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of their respective holders.
These programs are distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this distribution; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111, USA.
Acknowledgments
Thanks go to:
- Everyone involved in GTK development for a wonderful GUI
- Michael Hipp and everyone else involved in creating mpg123
- Robert Leslie for madplay
- Everyone else who has given me feedback and helped test DigitalDJ
---
Mike Oliphant (grip@nostatic.org)