.jpg numbering of covers

[teacher24_70]

I'm a little curious about how DVDpedia assigns file names/numbers to new items as cover art is added.

The Application Support>DVDpedia>Covers folder shows all of the covers. However, it's numbering system seems to jump around. They start at 548.jpg and continue to 861.jpg, then it skips to 1359.jpg and goes on to 1503.jpg.

This isn't a huge deal because obviously those are just support files tucked away in the system, but when uploading to MobileMe, it shows which file it's on and it's a little confusing to see the bizarre numbering.

Does it not just incrementally add 1 digit when I add a new DVD? Why does it start at such a large number and then make a big jump in the middle?

[Conor]

It is just an internal unique ID that is incremented by one every single time an item is added. However it's always increasing and unused previous numbers are never reclaimed, so the gaps come from testing out the program. For example doing a large import from a text file and then deciding that you want to redo the import and deleting the items and starting over. Another example is testing out a .dvdpedia export and import and then removing the new excluded collection that is created when importing a .dvdpedia. This is where large gaps would come from and the small gaps of one or two number are items that where added and then deleted because you found a better version or no longer have the DVD. Although the numbering system is meant to be internal and not for the user you can still jump to a cover in the Finder from any movie by using the contextual menu on the main cover image on the bottom left. The numbers can go all the way up to the billions so there should be no running out of unique numbers.

[teacher24_70]

Thanks for the explanation Conor.