The Celebrity Databases in AutoSort
AutoSort's power resides in it's enormous celebrity database. The reality is that AutoSort couldn't possibly identify anything without it. The more entries in the database, the more powerfull AutoSort gets.
Maintaining such huge database and keeping it up to date represents a monumental task. That's why it was decided to implement a database update scheme that would allow any user to make contributions to the database.
To support the user contribution mechanism, the celebrity database is stored in two different files:
Both of these files can be found in the folder where you installed AutoSort. The distributed database is the one that comes with AutoSort, or the updated versions you get at the home site.
When you start AutoSort, it reads in the "CelebDatabase.cdb" and then patches it with the entries found in the "User.cdb". This allows it to run identification sessions with the information from both databases.
All users are encouraged to contribute to the celebrity database upkeep. This greatly reduces the amount of time the author has to spend doing database maintenance and updates. But more importantly, this allowes AutoSort to identify celebrities the author has never encountered !
Making a contribution is simple, select [Database] » [Send in my "User.cdb"...] from the database menu . Alternately, you may email the author with your "User.cdb" file attatched. This file can be found in the folder where you installed AutoSort.
Upon reception, the author will read in your "User.cdb" and selectively make it's entries permanent in the distributed database.
As a bonus, you will be credited for your contributions at the home site. When you send in your "User.cdb", specify the name and/or alias you want it credited to. You may also specify the address of your home page if you want a link to be added beside your name in the credits page.
Sending in your user database is also a good way to make a backup since the author always keeps the latest "User.cdb" you've sent it.
Database updates are made available at the home site's download page. Installing an update is a simple process, extract the files from the zip archive directly into your AutoSort installation folder and overwrite any existing files in the process.
Installing an update does not overwrite your "User.cdb" file so all your changes remain untouched.
The next time you run AutoSort, it will merge in your "User.cdb" as usual but will perform a cleanup operation in the process. If your user database contains entries that are now included with the new distributed database, they will be removed from your "User.cdb" as appropriate.
Before removing an entry from your user database, AutoSort compares the new distributed celebrity against the one found in your database. If the entries are identical, your user database entry is automatically removed, this should be the case 95% of the time when you're installing an update after sending in your "User.cdb".
It the entries are not identical, you will be presented a special window that allows you to compare the two conflicting celebrities and decide to either keep your entry, or discard it from your "User.cdb".
A lot of special cases can occur in that process but they're all handled internally. For example, if you decide to keep your own version of a celebrity that is now part of the distributed database, AutoSort will convert your 'user new' celebrity to a 'user modified' celebrity.
In any case, none of the cleanup modifications are made permanent until *YOU* save the database. If you have doubts about the changes made during the cleanup operation, you can always quit AutoSort without saving and your "User.cdb" will remain unchanged.
If you've saved the changes by mistake and want to restore your "User.cdb", email the author, he always keeps the latest version of the "User.cdb" you've sent in.