Sharing a DVDpedia database over a network Drive

davidm75 · Post by **davidm75** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 5:20 am

Hi,

I recently bought DVDpedia and I'd like to know if there's any way to share the DVDpedia database over a network drive (even if it means an additionnal licence, no sweat).

Me and my girlfriend will both be adding DVDs into the database, and exporting / importing won't cut it.

Currently it's stored in User/davidm/Library/Caches/Metadata/DVDpedia

If this possible to specify another path, pointing to a shared network drive ?

Thanks !

danco · Post by **danco** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 6:40 am

I doubt if that is where the database is. I think it is a cached version, not the main version.

The Help pages say that the default location is in ~/Library/Application Support/DVDpedia.

You can put the database anywhere you choose on your own drive, and I would guess that it is possible to put it on a network drive, though you will have to try (Conor or Nora will be along at some point with a definitive answer).

Copy (not move, so that you can easily go back if you want) the database from its default location to where you want it. Then start DVDPedia with the Option button held down. Keep holding this button until you see a dialog box which will offer the choices: Create New Database, Use Default, Choose Database. Click on Choose Database, and select the database in the new location.

Assuming your girlfriend lives with you, I think the license covers both of you on different computers.

davidm75 · Post by **davidm75** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 6:50 am

Yeah we live together, the networked drive is share thanks to an Airport Extreme Base Station.

Thanks for the quick response, it clarifies things and I'll try what you suggest !

Post by **Conor** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 11:51 am

~/Library/Caches/Metadata/DVDpedia are the spotlight files, so that your DVDs will show up in Spotlight. The database is in Application Support as mentioned above. After copying your data folder you can also launch the programs and point it to the new location by clicking the Database.pediadata file inside the data folder. You can share the collection over the network. Depending on your network and the OS X installed on the computers only one person might be able to edit the file and the other DVDpedia will freeze until the other computer is done. (The filesystems need to be the same and have access to the same type of thread locking mechanism in order for DVDpedia to be able to do concurrent access).

davidm75 · Post by **davidm75** » Thu Oct 11, 2007 12:53 pm

Thanks a lot for the quick and detailed answer

I've tried it out and it works, except it keeps defaulting to the Database.pediadata file in ~/Library/Application Support/DVDpedia

Do I have to hold the option key each time at launch and select, or is it possile to edit one of the config files to modify the path to the default file ?

Thanks !

Post by **Conor** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 11:57 am

Once you switch data folder it will remember the current folder path in the preferences. You only need to hold down option to switch data folders. If this is not the case please let me know more details, step by step so I can reproduce the bug.

davidm75 · Post by **davidm75** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 4:11 am

Unfortunately it's not the case, so let me help detail things a bit more :

1) I have copied the Database.pediadata file originally located in ~/Library/Application Support/DVDpedia on the network drive (the network drive is connected via a USB hub to an Airport Extreme Base Station and shared with Airport Disk. The file protocol is afp:// )

2) I have opened DVDpedia holding the option button to specifiy the new location of the file : everything opened OK, from both computers.

3) I have re-lauched DVDpedia not holding option key. To check that it was writing to the proper file, I added a movie. Closed DVDpedia. Check last modified date for the Database.pediadata file on the network drive. Didn't fit the modification I did a few seconds ago but the date of first copy.

4) When I saw that, I checked permisions for the file. Owner is "system", group is "wheel", and it's read and write even for "others" but that's no different than any file on the drive. That's not it.

5) I check the ~/Library/Application Support/DVDpedia folder and found something different. Along with the Database.pediadata file are a bunch of new files apparently created each time I make modifications :
DatabaseReplaced-1.pediadata
DatabaseReplaced-2.pediadata
DatabaseReplaced-3.pediadata
DatabaseReplaced-4.pediadata
...etc

Any idea what is (or what I did) wrong ?

Thanks

Post by **Nora** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 9:08 am

Those DatabaseReplace files are only created whenever you double-click a file that's not Database.pediadata or you start up the program with option and select a file that's not Database.pediadata. Then the program creates those replacement files (moves the current Database.pediadata to replaced and makes the file you want to open Database.pediadata).
You should always use the Database.pediadata file, whether you double-click the file to open it in DVDpedia or use the option key during start up (both of which need only be used when changing databases.)

I'll send you our FTP data so you can send us your database file and we can look at it here, see if we can figure something out from the modification dates, etc.

JoshFink · Post by **JoshFink** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 12:21 pm

I'm having a little trouble getting this to work. Hopefully someone has a suggestion.

I have 2 Mac

HTPC
iMac

On HTPC I have the Master DVDPedia Application. I've shared out my ~/Library/Application Support/

On iMac I've connected to HTPC as the correct user. I then opened up DVDPedia with the option key pressed and selected the DVDPedia database.

I can successfully see the database from the "Master".

The problem I'm having is that if I'm on HTPC and I go to add a movie the whole application locks up if I have DVDPedia opened up on iMac. If I have it closed it works fine.

Conversely if I'm on iMac I can add movies with no problem but they do not refresh on the HTPC unless I close the app and then re-open it.

Any ideas? I'm not as much concerned with the refreshing of the database but I am concerned with it locking up.

Thanks

Josh

Post by **Conor** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 1:37 pm

Hi Josh,

What you are seeing is that you have two distinct file systems that don't have the same thread locking technology. Because of this one DVDpedia is locked out of the file while the other DVDpedia is using it (concurrent access is not possible across different file systems).

In your case it most likely that your using the default AFP mount and one computer is Intel and the other is PowerPC. To fix this change the way you mount the HTPC from the iMac. Samba for example should have Posix threads and you should not have the same problem. Turn "Windows Sharing" on on the HTPC on under the sharing panel in system preferences. There you will get a message on how to enable a user as well as the connection address that looks something like this: \\10.0.1.1\user. To connect from the iMac use Connect to Server (command-k) and enter "smb://10.0.1.1/user".

I myself am not very knowledgeable about filesystems, locks and mounts so I am not sure if there are other workarounds; possibly with NFS mounts.

JoshFink · Post by **JoshFink** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 2:08 pm

Thanks.. That seems to be working... Though, just to let you know. They were both intel machines but I did change from AFP to Samba shares.

Now to work on the refresh.. Like I said, not a huge deal but I always like to try things out.

Josh

Post by **Conor** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 3:18 pm

The information is updated for an entry when the other DVDpedia goes to save an entry (it merges any changes together). For performance it does not go to disk if the data is already in memory. We did think about this and have it as feature request to add some kind of advance setting to set a time out limit for the data in memory so that changes by another computer are seen in a running version.