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Is there a way to access CDDB-type music databases with PHP?

Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2004 3:57 pm
by wbar
I am designing a website for a radio station. The site currently allows users to search through a database of the station's record library. I am trying to install a barcode reader for DJ's to scan records and have a playlist updated for them automatically by cross referencing the database we have with a CDDB style database to retrieve track titles (our database only has artist name, album name, and record label name).

Freedb.org only allows you to query by DiscId (a function of the physical CD) and Gracenote's CDDB service seems to not be PHP friendly (though maybe I am wrong).

Does anyone know how to access such a service or complete such a task through PHP?

if you want to see what the site is already, it is at http://www.wbar.org
specifically the catalog relevant page is http://wbaroffice.cjb.net/searchcatalog.php
(i'm new to PHP, so I imagine a lot of the code is sloppy).

thanks in advance for any help,

dan

Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2004 4:38 pm
by Illusionist
You might be able to find more information at freedb.org

Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2004 5:19 pm
by wbar
i've tried freedb.org, you can't search through by anything except discid (a number computed from the number tracks length of tracks and total length of cd). it's intended for searching for information on a cd that has been placed in your cd drive. i'm looking for searchability by artist/album. thanks for the suggestion though.

Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2004 10:07 pm
by Illusionist
Hmm... I'll keep looking around.

Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2004 10:09 pm
by Illusionist
Maybe this can help?

Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2004 10:14 pm
by Illusionist
And did you read the CDDB protocol documentation on freedb.org? If read through that, i think it tells you the commands it accepts to retrieve information. But you may need a bit more PHP knowledge before trying to tackle something like that ony our own. Maybe that cddb classs on PHPBuilder will help out!