Console Lookup Tool
- The console application provides a simple command line interface for:
- Looking up albums one at a time, given an artist and album title
- Importing data from CSV files
- Exporting data to CSV files or Excel workbooks
- The album lookup facility uses the algorithm described under "Album Lookup", below
- Consequently, searching for an album that's not currently in the catalogue will add it to the local database
- The console application doesn't use the web service (see below) and can be used standalone
- The console application uses an "appsettings.json" file to hold configuration settings
- It's described in the "Application Configuration File" section, below
- The following command line arguments are supported:
| Option | Short Name | Required Values | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| --lookup | -l | Artist name, album title, target | Performs an album lookup |
| --import | -i | CSV file path | Import data from the specified CSV file |
| --export | -e | source, file path | Export data to the specified file |
- For album lookups
- It is recommended that the artist name and album title are both double-quoted
- This is mandatory if either contains spaces
- The "target" determines whether the album is tagged as being in the wish list or the main catalogue:
| Value | Target |
|---|---|
| wishlist | Store new albums in the wish list |
| catalogue | Store new albums in the main catalogue |
- For data exports, the "source" determines what data is exported:
| Value | Exports |
|---|---|
| music | The music catalogue (main catalogue and wish list) |
| equipment | The equipment register (main register and wish list) |
- Also for data exports, the exported format is based on the file extension for the supplied file path:
| Extension | Exported format |
|---|---|
| xlsx | Excel workbook |
| csv | CSV file |
- The first row in the CSV file is expected to contain headers and is ignored
- Durations should be specified in MM:SS format, e.g. "03:10" for 3 minutes and 10 seconds
- The following is an example, illustrating the format for the headers and for the rows containing data:
Artist,Album,Genre,Released,Cover Url,Track Number,Track,Duration,Wish List,Purchase Date,Price,Retailer
George Harrison,All Things Must Pass,Rock & Roll,1970,https://www.theaudiodb.com/images/media/album/thumb/all-things-must-pass-4f09954aa6370.jpg,1,I'd Have You Anytime,02:56,False,12/11/2023,59.07,Amazon
- Exports include all albums in both the main catalogue and the wish list
- The following command will look-up the album "Blue Train" by John Coltrane
- In this example, if the album isn't stored locally and is looked up using the external APIs (see below) the results will be stored in the main cataloge
MusicCatalogue.LookupTool --lookup "John Coltrane" "Blue Train" catalogue- The output lists the album details and the number, title and duration of each track:
