EXPLANATION OF THIS SECTION

This section describes the jSongMiner configuration file, which specifies various processing settings. Explanations of each of the configuration settings are included.

OVERVIEW OF THE CONFIGURATION SETTINGS FILE

jSongMiner stores a number of processing settings in a configuration file named "jSongMinerConfigs.xml" that is stored in the same directory as the jSongMiner.jar file. The configuration file must have this name, and it must be in this directory, otherwise it will not be detected by jSongMiner. If jSongMiner cannot detect such a configuration file when it is run, it will auto-generate one with default settings. If jSongMiner in not operating as expected, it is generally a good idea to check the configuration file in order to verify that the settings are appropriate for the type of operation desired.

The configuration file follows a simple XML schema (specified in the file's DTD) where each setting has a single corresponding XML element, and the text contained in each element indicates the setting for that element. There are no nested settings and no attributes used.

Users are encouraged to edit the text contained in the XML elements using a text editor or other appropriate application in order to change the settings. Users who wish to use all of the fingerprinting and web services accessible by jSongMiner will need to enter associated data into the appropriate configuration fields as part of the installation process.

The first set of configuration settings may only be set to values of "true" or "false". The remaining configuration settings contain varying types of information, such as file paths or application keys.

In practice, it can be useful to keep several different configuration files, and swap them in as needed (by placing them in the jSongMiner run directory and naming them "jSongMinerConfigs.xml").

It is possible to temporarily override some of the configuration settings using certain command line flags. For example, using the -saveacexmlfile flag will override the package_song_artist_album, save_output_as_ace_xml, songs_save_directory, artists_save_directory and albums_save_directory configuration settings. However, such command line overrides only affect the processing for the single task for which they are run, and do not permanently change any of the settings in the configuration file. More details are provided in the descriptions of the individual configuration settings below, as well as in the section of the manual on command line arguments.

THE TRUE/FALSE CONFIGURATION SETTINGS

The following is an explanation of the first set of configuration settings, each of which may only have a value of "true" or "false". Any value other than "true", ignoring case, will be interpreted as meaning "false":

• identify_only: If this is set to true, then the only metadata that is saved for each song is the song title, artist name, album title, unique identifier (e.g. from the Echo Nest or from Last.FM) and, if it is a file being identified, the path of the file. This overrides other configuration settings. If this setting is set to false, then all metadata that can be accessed (in this case under the constraints of the other configuration settings) is saved.
• package_song_artist_album: Whether or not to package extracted song, artist and album metadata into a single file. If this is true, then a single ACE XML and/or text file will be output for each song, and it will contain all extracted metadata associated with the song, the artist and the album. If this is set to false, then a separate ACE XML and/or text file will be output each for the song, artist and album metadata corresponding to the song under consideration. Note, however, that artist and album metadata may not be extracted for any given song, depending on the reextract_known_artist_metadata and reextract_known_album_metadata configuration settings and on the extraction history. If artist and/or album metadata is not extracted for a song, then a corresponding file will not be generated if this package_song_artist_album setting is false, and the single generated file will not contain the corresponding metadata if this package_song_artist_album setting is true. Note that this setting may be overridden by certain command line settings.
• reextract_known_artist_metadata: Whether or not to reextract metadata for the artist associated with the song being processed even if metadata has already been extracted for this artist during the processing of a previous song. If this configuration setting is set to false, then the artists already accessed log file is checked before extracting artist metadata for the song currently being processed, and metadata for the artist is only extracted if it has not already been extracted during the processing of a previous song. If this configuration setting is set to true, then any existing artist log file is deleted and metadata for the artist associated with the given song is extracted, regardless of whether it has already been extracted previously.
• reextract_known_album_metadata: Whether or not to reextract metadata for the album associated with the song being processed even if metadata has already been extracted for this album during the processing of a previous song. If this configuration setting is set to false, then the albums already accessed log file is checked before extracting album metadata for the song currently being processed, and metadata for the album is only extracted if it has not already been extracted during the processing of a previous song. If this configuration setting is set to true, then any existing album log file is deleted and metadata for the album associated with the given song is extracted, regardless of whether it has already been extracted previously.
• include_unqualified_dublin_core: Whether or not to produce metadata labeled with unqualified Dublin Core tags by interpreting extracted metadata. Note that this will cause metadata to be stored redundantly if qualified Dublin Core or other metadata are saved as well. If the package_song_artist_album configuration setting is set to true, then unqualified Dublin Core tags will only be generated for the song metadata, and not for the artist or album metadata. If the package_song_artist_album configuration setting is set to false, then unqualified Dublin Core fields will be added to each of the song, artist and album files, as appropriate. Note that, as is often the case when dealing with the unqualified Dublin Core standard, the precise meaning of each unqualified Dublin Core tag will vary based on the metadata that is available for each given resource.
• include_qualified_dublin_core: Whether or not to produce metadata labeled with qualified Dublin Core tags by interpreting extracted metadata. Note that this will cause metadata to be stored redundantly if unqualified Dublin Core or other metadata are saved as well.
• include_other_metadata_with_dublin_core: Whether or not to include all extracted metadata in the saved metadata when Dublin Core tags are being saved. If either the include_unqualified_dublin_core or include_qualified_dublin_core configuration settings are set to true, then all metadata that is not stored in a Dublin Core tag is not saved unless this include_other_metadata_with_dublin_core setting is set to true. If it is set to true, then all of the available metadata will be saved in its original form, in addition to in the Dublin Core tagged data, which will result in some redundancy. This setting has no effect if both the include_unqualified_dublin_core and include_qualified_dublin_core settings are set to false.
• enable_echo_nest_fingerprinting: Whether or not Echo Nest fingerprinting is to be performed in order to derive the Echo Nest identifier for an unknown song. Note that, based on the save_echo_nest_metadata configuration setting, other Echo Nest web services may still be used even if fingerprinting is deactivated here.
• save_echo_nest_metadata: Whether or not to extract and save metadata from Echo Nest web services. Note that this setting does not affect whether or not Echo Nest web services are used for the purpose of identifying a track, it only affects whether or not other metadata is extracted from the Echo Nest once a track has been identified.
• enable_last_fm_fingerprinting: Whether or not Last.FM fingerprinting is to be performed in order to derive the Last.FM identifier for an unknown song. Note that, based on the save_last_fm_metadata configuration setting, other Last.FM web services may still be used even if fingerprinting is deactivated here. IMPORTANT: Note that Last.FM fingerprinting is not included in this software yet, so this setting is only a placeholder for the moment.
• save_last_fm_metadata: Whether or not to extract and save metadata from Last.FM web services. Note that this setting does not affect whether or not Last.FM web services are used for the purpose of identifying a track, it only affects whether or not other metadata is extracted from Last.FM once a track has been identified.
• save_music_brainz_metadata: Whether or not to extract and save metadata from Music Brainz web services.
• enable_embedded_metadata_track_identification: Whether or not metadata embedded in an audio file is extracted in order to help identify it. Note that embedded metadata will not be used if better sources of identifying information are available, such as fingerprinting results or model metadata specified by the user at the command line. Note also that this setting does not affect whether or not embedded metadata in general is saved and/or output to standard out.
• save_embedded_metadata: Whether or not to extract and save metadata embedded in audio files. Note that this does not affect whether or not embedded metadata is extracted for the purpose of identifying a song, it only affects whether metadata extracted from audio files is saved and/or output to standard out.
• store_fails: Whether or not to keep a record in the extracted metadata of those metadata fields for which values could not be successfully extracted. If this setting is set to true, then the output metadata will include a record for each field that could not be extracted indicating that it could not be extracted. If this setting is set to false, then fields that could not be extracted for each song are simply omitted from the the metadata that is output for that song.
• url_encode_output: Whether or not to URL-encode all saved metadata using UTF-8. It is strongly suggested that this be set to true, as this avoids problems due to non-ASCII characters returned by the APIs accessed, as well as potentially invalid XML output. This setting applies to both the text files and ACE XML files saved by jSongMiner, but does not apply to output sent to standard out or standard error, which are never URL encoded by the software.
• save_output_as_ace_xml: Whether or not to save extracted metadata in the form of ACE XML 1.1 Classification files. This has no effect on whether text output files are also generated. This setting may be overridden by certain command line flags.
• save_output_as_txt: Whether or not to save extracted metadata as new line delimitted text files. Lines with odd line numbers will contain metadata field labels, and lines with even line numbers will contain the metadata values for the fields on the preceding lines. This setting has no effect on whether ACE XML output files are also generated. This setting may be overridden by certain command line flags.
• print_extracted_metadata_to_terminal: Whether or not to print extracted metadata to standard out after extraction has completed. This setting has no effect on the output files generated.
• print_current_status_to_terminal: Whether or not to print status updates indicating the principal processing operations of jSongMiner as they are performed. These updates are printed to standard out.
• print_errors_to_terminal: Whether or not to print status updates indicating non-terminal errors or failures that occur during jSongMiner processing. Such updates are printed to standard error. Note that terminal errors are printed to standard error regardless of this setting.

THE REMAINING CONFIGURATION SETTINGS

The following is an explanation of the remaining configuration settings, each of which are to set to values other than just "true" or "false":

• songs_save_directory: The directory to save files holding extracted song metadata to, if this is not explicitly specified at runtime. This applies to output files in both ACE XML and text formats. If the package_song_artist_album setting is set to true, then all of the metadata for each song will be saved in a single ACE XML and/or text file in this directory, including artist and/or album metadata, if available. This setting may be overridden by certain command line settings.
• artists_save_directory: The directory to save files holding extracted artist metadata to, if this information is not explicitly specified at runtime. This applies to output files in both ACE XML and text formats. This directory is not used if the package_song_artist_album setting is set to true. This setting may be overridden by certain command line settings.
• albums_save_directory: The directory to save files holding extracted album metadata to, if this information is not explicitly specified at runtime. This applies to output files in both ACE XML and text formats. This directory is not used if the package_song_artist_album setting is set to true. This setting may be overridden by certain command line settings.
• echo_nest_api_key: The key needed by jSongMiner in order to access the Echo Nest web services. An application for an API key may be made to the Echo Nest at http://developer.echonest.com/account/register. This setting must be set to a valid value if any of the Echo Nest web services are to be used.
• echo_nest_fingerprinting_codegen_run_path: The local path of the Echo Nest fingerprinting codegen binary (or shell that runs it). This must be set to a valid path if local Echo Nest fingerprinting is to be used.
• echo_nest_codegen_directory: The directory holding the Echo Nest fingerprinting codegen binary. This may be needed if the codegen is being run via a script, but otherwise it is ignored.
• last_fm_api_key: The key needed by jSongMiner in order to access the Last.FM web services. An application for a key may be made to Last.FM at http://www.last.fm/api/account. In theory this must be set to a valid value if any of the Last.FM web services are to be used, although in practice service is still sometimes provided even if a valid Last.FM API key is lacking.
• artists_already_accessed_file_path: The save path of the log file that is used to keep track of artists for whom metadata has already been extracted. This can be helpful in avoiding the wasteful process of repetetively reextracting the same artist metadata for different songs by the same artist. This setting may be overridden by certain command line settings.
• albums_already_accessed_file_path: The save path of the log file that is used to keep track of albums for which metadata has already been extracted. This is helpful in avoiding the wasteful process of repetetively reextracting the same album metadata for different songs on the same album. This setting may be overridden by certain command line settings.

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