MP3 Finder

Purpose

It appeared from the necessity of finding out if I already have a certain .MP3, and/or quickly locate it. The particularity of this program is that does not perform an exact string search (which would have few chances of success) but an approximate search, and the resulting list is ordered by best match.

Use

CREATE LIST

1. Select "Create a MP3 File List" tab, enter a short description (e.g. CD7 or temporary) naming the location where the music is to be found,
2. Then click "Make a file list" and select the location where the MP3s are, then you should give a name to the file that will store the list (e.g. CD1.mp3i or allHDcontent.mp3i)
3. In case the MP3s have funny names you will be prompted to confirm or correct the author and title (the program will expect MP3s to be in the format "AUTHOR NAME - Title Of Melody.mp3" see MP3corrector)

The purpose of the "Group multiple mp3i files" is to combine multiple .mp3i files (e.g. to create all_my_CDs.mp3i).

PERFORM SEARCH

1. Click "Open", select where the .mp3i files are located (all from the selected directory will be filled to the list below;
2. Select only those in witch you want to search;
• If you select "Auto Open on start" step 1 and 2 will be performed automatically when the program opens.
• If you have to many files in that list, try grouping them with Group multiple mp3i files";
3. Select (check) "Title" and/or "Artist" and write the names you search for; a thread will begin searching in background as you type.
• Un-checking "Auto find" will not start searching unless you press "Find Now";
• Warning! Do not forget to write something in the Title or Artist field if you checked it.
4. Adjust the number of results using the left slider to select only those results that are in the X% match from what you typed;
• "All" means list all entries found in .mp3i files; the difference is that it will be ordered by best match;
• "show only first ten" will list only first 10 best matches;
5. When clicking on a match you will find this Mp3's location, size and date (and also some debug info described below in "Inside info").

Feature: Drag&Drop and Traffic lights;
I use those like that:
When I want to see if some new MP3s I have on my hdd are already on one of my cds ... I open my Mp3Finder in the lower right corner of the screen, and my file manager in front of it, so that I can still see the traffic light. Then I drag&drop MP3s from the file manager to the MP3Finder, and I look only at the traffic lights:

red	it does not exists
yellow	in doubt
green	almost certain that it exists
all green	EXACT match

Inside info

The MP3 names are written in the .mp3i file using the following format:

1	84
author  /  title	file_size  /  date  /  source

If you try to modify it manually you must not break the column alignment and not to delete the first two lines.

The numbers on the lower right represent the way it was calculated the percentage of matching. On the left is the result (between 0 and 1); on the right:
ArtistMatch * AmountForArtist + TitleMatch * AmountForTitle + somethingIfWordsFromXAreInY

Bugs: If "Auto open on start" is activated, and the drive containing .mp3i files disappear then the program will not work. Fix: manually modify (or delete) the registry value "PathF1" from: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\KiKu\Mp3Finder

Program no longer under development - source code lost.