topic Re: Alfresco for audio / video file management? in Alfresco Archive

Alfresco for audio / video file management?

christophd — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 06:35:15 GMT

Hi all,just a quick question:How well does Alfresco (running community edition 3.2 at the moment) support content management of audio and video files?I just tried uploading a random sound sample to Alfresco and the upload seems to work fine yet I can't find the file when using the search functionali

Re: Alfresco for audio / video file management?

mikeh — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:43:31 GMT

Although we should be able to support upload and download of audio and video content (not sure about that IE8 error you're seeing), there won't be any useful transformations or metadata extractions out-of-the-box.

You can add your own (or hope somebody else has done so for you). I know someone here has put together an experimental video transformer using ffmpeg, so you might be able to find something similar for audio.

Please refer to: http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Metadata_Extraction

Thanks,
Mike

Re: Alfresco for audio / video file management?

christophd — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 06:38:09 GMT

Thanks again for the information Mike!

Where would I look whether anyone has done something wrt audio / video metadata extraction as I haven't found any specific solutions here in the forums so far.

Also would it be possible to extract audio metadata such as ID3 tags via a regular command-line tool and then putting it into an ACP file with an accompanying XML file?

Cheers,
Christoph

Re: Alfresco for audio / video file management?

min — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:40:05 GMT

The documentation I found shows that it should be able to extract MP3 metadata.

http://dev.alfresco.com/resource/docs/java/repository/org/alfresco/repo/content/metadata/MP3MetadataExtracter.html

public class MP3MetadataExtracter
extends AbstractMappingMetadataExtracter

Extracts the following values from MP3 files:

   songTitle:              –   {music}songTitle, cm:title
   albumTitle:             – {music}albumTitle
   artist:                 –      {music}artist, cm:author
   description:            –   cm:description
   comment:                – {music}comment
   yearReleased:           – {music}yearReleased
   trackNumber:            – {music}trackNumber
   genre:                  –      {music}genre
   composer:               –   {music}composer
   lyrics:                 –        {music}lyrics

I just tried to load a MP3 that had ID3 tags using the default community installation and the file loads, but without the metadata (as expected). I then ran the Extract Common Metadata action on the file, still no metadata is visible on the properties screen. Perhaps the metadata was extracted, but is not visible on the property screen because they haven't been exposed. Will check into this.

On another note, when I tried to run the Extract Common Metadata action on an MP3 file that is not ID3 tagged. I receive an error message saying "null" encountered and the process does not complete.

Re: Alfresco for audio / video file management?

christophd — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 08:34:53 GMT

Thanks a lot for the information, much appreciated:-)

Re: Alfresco for audio / video file management?

min — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 20:36:30 GMT

I got to the bottom of why the ID3 data was not appearing. The default MP3 extractor only pulls Song Title, Artist and Description ( a concatonation of artist + album + trackname). To pull additional fields you must have added the additional fields to your model and webclient interface and then configured custom-metadata-extractors-context.xml in the extensions directory.

A few notes:

1. I could never get the lyrics field to extract
2. Genre is stored in the MP3 ID3 tag as a code which represents the genre name. Example, Rock = 17, Jazz = 8. So don't expect to see the genre name after you extract.
3. Many ID3 fields are not available to be pulled using the currently included extractor (e.g., track length)

4. Whenever I set "inheritDefaultMapping" to false I would receive a runtime error ("Null") when executing the metadata extraction action and the extraction would not complete. Bug?

5. Whenever I set "overwritePolicy" to EAGER I would receive a runtime error ("Null") when executing the metadata extraction action and the extraction would not complete. Bug? I ended up not specifying this parameter at all.

Re: Alfresco for audio / video file management?

jsauer — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 21:21:48 GMT

Happy New Year fist off all,
I just wonder why ID3 tag extraction does not work on my system?

Alfresco Community 3.2.r.2 on Windows full installation bundle.
I configured a custom model. Configured the extractor mappings but nothing happens.

Tried to set a breakpoint in MP3MetadataExtracter.extractRaw() but the method never fires 😞

I checked the other extractors. There the extractRaw() method is being called.

The mp3 files I uploaded definitely have id3 tags set. The mime type is being detected as MPEG Audio and a custom document type with the mp3 metadata aspect was selected.

Any clues? Do I need to setup / install an additional component / jar to make this work?

Thanks
Jörg

Re: Alfresco for audio / video file management?

min — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 14:45:45 GMT

Using community v3.2, no additional components were needed to be installed.

When you say it doesn't work, are there any errors generated in the log?
You didn't mention it, but are you running the common extraction action on the MP3?

A few things to double check:

1. custom extractors config file is being found in the extensions directory
2. Set inheritDefaultmapping = true in the extraction config file and
3. do not include the overwrite policy parameter

Re: Alfresco for audio / video file management?

jsauer — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 04:51:55 GMT

Hi,
sorry for the delay. Was kind of busy…

No errors in log. No clues at all so far…

spring context:


    <bean id="extracter.mp3"
          class="org.alfresco.repo.content.metadata.MP3MetadataExtracter"
          parent="baseMetadataExtracter" >
        <property name="mappingProperties">
            <bean class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertiesFactoryBean">
               <property name="location">
                  <value>classpath:alfresco/extension/mp3Model-extractor-mappings.properties</value>
               </property>
            </bean>
        </property>
    </bean>
‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

mapping properties:


namespace.prefix.mp3=mp3.model
songTitle=mp3:songTitle
albumTitle=mp3:albumTitle
artist=mp3:artist
description=mp3:description
comment=mp3:comment
yearReleased=mp3:yearReleased
trackNumber=mp3:trackNumber
genre=mp3:genre
composer=mp3:composer
lyrics=mp3:lyrics
‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

Model:


   <namespaces>
      <!– Define a Namespace for my new definitions–>
      <namespace uri="mp3.model" prefix="mp3"/>
   </namespaces>

   <!– Type and Aspect definitions go here –>
   <types>
      <type name="mp3:audioFile">
         <title>Audio File</title>
         <parent>cm:content</parent>
         <mandatory-aspects>
           <aspect>mp3:MP3Metadata</aspect>
         </mandatory-aspects>
      </type>
   </types>
   <aspects>
      <aspect name="mp3:MP3Metadata">
         <title>MP3 Metadata</title>
         <properties>
            <property name="mp3:songTitle">
               <type>d:text</type>
            </property>
            <property name="mp3:albumTitle">
               <type>d:text</type>
            </property>
            <property name="mp3:artist">
               <type>d:text</type>
            </property>
            <property name="mp3:description">
               <type>d:text</type>
            </property>
            <property name="mp3:comment">
               <type>d:text</type>
            </property>
            <property name="mp3:yearReleased">
               <type>d:text</type>
            </property>
            <property name="mp3:trackNumber">
               <type>d:text</type>
            </property>
            <property name="mp3:genre">
               <type>d:text</type>
            </property>
            <property name="mp3:composer">
               <type>d:text</type>
            </property>
            <property name="mp3:lyrics">
               <type>d:text</type>
            </property>
         </properties>
      </aspect>
   </aspects>
</model>
‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

Web UI configured to display the aspects properties. No problems with this, can also edit the ID3 tags manually.

Any clues?

will test on my linux box later today. Will post an update on this then…

Thanks
Jörg

Re: Alfresco for audio / video file management?

min — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:02:06 GMT

I have two additional properties specified, not sure if that will help:

   <property name="inheritDefaultMapping">
            <value>true</value>
        </property>
      <property name="failOnTypeConversion">
            <value>false</value>
        </property>

I also specified my mp3 properties inline, not through a properties file.

Re: Alfresco for audio / video file management?

jsauer — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 11:14:04 GMT

Hi,
thanks for your response. I made some progress. So just an update and further questions…

First of all the debugger fires now. No idea what made this change. During MP3MetadataExtracter.extractRaw call in at the line

MP3File mp3File = new MP3File(tempFile);‍

I get an exception. As I do not have the sources of org.farng.mp3.MP3File.MP3File(File file) at hand I can not debug into it right now.

But this and a hint of a colleague drove me to the conclusion that there might is a problem with the mp3 file. And it is! I tried another one just downloaded from the web and it works! The files I have on my harddisk - mainly ripped from my original CDs by iTunes SW do all not work.

On my windows machine get no response or information at all if extraction fails. The same files on my Linux server create an error message if I do Extract common metadata fields from content .
Error Message:

Please correct the errors below then click Finish. 
Failed to run Actions due to error: null‍‍

In case someone likes to analize the mp3 files I could send them to you.

Anyway I tried some files from different sources now and it seems that most of them do not work! This leads me to the conclusion that MP3MetadataExtracter is not quite suitable for production use, is it? 😞

I also added the two properties mentioned in min's response. The correct code snippet is:


<property name="mp3:inheritDefaultMapping">
   <type>d:boolean</type>
   <default>true</default>
</property>
<property name="mp3:failOnTypeConversion">
   <type>d:boolean</type>
   <default>false</default>
</property>    
‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

One other thing what makes me wonder is how come MP3MetadataExtracter.extractRaw is being called on file upload already (upload through Web-Explorer) but Metadata just shows up when I do another Extract common metadata fields from content ?

Any ideas and thanks for your replies.
Jörg

Re: Alfresco for audio / video file management?

min — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:59:59 GMT

Perhaps there is one mp3 metadata field in particular which is causing the problem. Using one of the MP3s which won't load, why don't you strip out, one field at a time from your properties file until it works. Then put the other fields back into the properties file. At least then you'll which one is causing the problem. Worst case you could preprocess the MP3s to correct the data in the field that is giving you the problem (e.g., put spaces instead of nulls in the field).

Re: Alfresco for audio / video file management?

jsauer — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:22:31 GMT

Hi,
I don't think it will work by stripping out properties as the exception is being thrown in the MP3File constructor. Must be an incompability with the class.
Will debug this a little further when I find time and the source code…

Any other ideas, someone else?
Thanks
Jörg