Where would you store this information

[DeanMc]

Hi Guys,

I am working on a media player just to try out different things. Something like iTunes or Media Player using WPF.

The only issue I have is where to store the song objects. I intend to pull out the mp3 information and then set a file watcher on the library to sniff out changes but what I would like some feedback on is how you would store these objects.

As they have to be fast loading I was thinking in a database something like SS express. I had thought about serialisation but that would require a complete rewrite of the binary file for even one change to a song.

Any ideas on this?

[chris128]

Why make a copy of the songs at all? Why not just do exactly what iTunes and Media Player do and just have your program 'link' to the MP3 files? If someone has 30 GB of music that they import into your program, if your program then copies all of these songs into a database then they have now got 60 GB missing from their hard disk for 30 GB of music.

[DeanMc]

That is what I intend to do but you have to have some place to store the link and tag information, I very much doubt that any media player stores only the link and just reads the tags as this would be very slow!

[chris128]

Ah I see, sorry I thought you meant the entire file. Yeah I would just use a local SQL Express to store the meta data myself, whether that is the best way or not I dont know

[DeanMc]

I know the others use a flat file of some sorts but I think a DB is better suited and since it is only going to run on windows I may a well use a DB unless someone else objects!

[chris128]

Well I was curious so I just did a bit of investigating and it looks like media player stores its database in C:\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player\CurrentDatabase_360.wmdb

[DeanMc]

I noticed that but is it a flat file or an actual database?

[chris128]

Dunnoooo, this thread might have some useful info in: http://www.forensicfocus.com/index.p...r=asc&start=10