Desktop Metadata Access

One of the main purposes for this blog is for me to find a way to catalog some of my work. I tend to forget about projects pretty quickly after they're done, so the popular question, "What have you been working on recently?" is usually met with entirely too much vacant staring.

This was a quick project to address a minor (but long-running) nuisance for me. I've been pushing it out here and there in case other people were also annoyed.

I've mentioned before that we're a PBS Member Station. As such, we've got a TERRIFYING BOUNTY of video assets, the bulk of which are full-length programs. Those programs are stored as files, and those files all have numeric names the likes of P123456-001 and L-00001234.

Seeing a folder with several thousand of those can be a drag, so I made this:

When you find what something to identify, right-click the file and select Lookup Program

And an info window will open with more information

Easy-peasy. The backend is straightforward--there's a lightweight web server running PHP and MySQL. The context action (a registry entry and a batch file) stuffs the file name into this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --chrome-frame "--app=http://ceres/OPS/getprog.php?FL=%~n1"

It can work with anything, but Chrome has the ability to display a page without any address or navigation bars (app-mode). Otherwise, we could just pass the name to this:

start http://ceres/OPS/getprog.php?FL=%~n1

and the default browser would display everything.

This system is a good bit faster than trying to play everything. (Of course I love our content! Just not all at once.)