Table of Contents
After you install CDnavigator, the database is empty and you need to fill it in first - to collect the data about your CDs into the computer. All this information, the metadata, can be entered, edited and deleted manually. But to do this for all your CDs would be time-consuming. So to make this part easier and faster, CDnavigator offers CD "scanning".
You can use CD scanning, if you have configured correctly the path to the directory for CD mounting (e.g. /mnt/cd) and if you have the right CD-ROM drive, (e.g. /dev/hdd) and the aplications for working with CDs (mount, umount, isoinfo).
In the window CD on the tab CD data management there are two buttons: Fast scan CD and Deep scan CD. The first button goes through the directory structure on the CD and guesses the music and photo albums. The results are displayed in a list. The list contains the album name and a list of files that you can view after selecting the album and its popup option Show scaned record. If the data found is not correct, you can delete the album by selecting its popup option Delete scaned record.
But this is not all that CD scanning can do. Each mp3 file contains metadata - information about the song name, author, album name, release date etc. Similarly, each jpeg file downloaded from a camera contains information about time and data when picture was taken, about its rotation, parameters set during photographing. Reading this data takes longer, so scanning is divided into two phases. In the first phase, after the first quick check, you can remove the wrongly found files and speed up the detailed search in the second phase. The detailed scanning can be started by clicking on the button Deep scan CD.
Scanning also provides each scanned CD with a unique hashcode. With the help of this code you can find out which CD you have inserted into your CD-ROM drive.
Scanning reads the CD title too. After the metadata is scanned, you need to fill in two fields at least: Number and Box. These fields are just for your information and make finding the right CD much easier, based on the concept that CDs are put into numbered boxes. Additionally, you can enter CD description and image of the front cover.
All the data that you have found this way need to be stored in the database. On the left part of the window there is the item add new CD data selected and under it the button Process Insert that puts the collected data into the database. Now you can modify the information about music and photos, add your comments and evaluation, perform searches, play songs and view photos.
CDnavigator is determined primarily for data administration (photos, music, ... on CD/DVD discs. New data CD can be prepared in tab Roasting. Files for burning can be added, erased, renamed, moved, viewed, etc. To download and administrate photos from camera there is specific tab Photos->Camera.
Photos downloading is conducted via external program gphoto2. Photos are downloaded into roasting temp folder and subfolder called by new album of photos.
Aggregate of all photos in the book is listed on the right. Photos can be added from another folders, erased, etc. Order of photos is crucially important and the order can be changed using buttons with arrows. It can also be reviewed when choosing item Show photos from list context menu. Most important functions for work with photos are situated in the three buttons bellow the list of photos.
The first button rotate - adjust goes through all the list of photos searching photos that were taken with camera at different angle. There photos are adujsted so that they don't have to be rotated while being observed. The wireless rotation changes even EXIF orientation data.
The second button sort out by date sorts out all photos of the list according too time and date of being taken. The function is appreciated when having photos from various cameras.
The third button rename - enumerate rename files according to specified name and order in list. The files and order are made clearer and are determined by the filename itself.
In the right bottom corner there is preview of selected photo. Buttons left and right rotate selected photo without changing EXIF orientation data. The data is displayed and can be changed too. It enables to repair photos with wrong EXIF data.
CDnavigator can be also used for creating web photos presentation. Photos we want to create presentation from are to be selected from tab Photos->Search. If we need to use photos that are not in CDnavigator database, we will copy them into temp - roast directory and we will display them using context menu.
We can set name, maximum size of thumbnails, maximum size of detailly displayed photos, XSLT style which is used for generating of HTML pages and output directory where the presentation is to be saved.
There is XSLT style simple.xslt available creating one main page with thumbnails in four columns and every photo can be displayed in new page by clicking on it. There are also buttons for showing previous photo, next photo and main page. The advantage of XSLT styles is possibility of adjusting it or adding new XSLT style to change final look of web presentation this way. XSLT styles are stored in directory CDnavigator/web/photos.