It’s so quiet (Shhh! Shhh!)

If I don’t post here very much in the next few weeks, it’s because I’m working on a way to bring back the Musicwhore.org artists directory without making it such a backbreaking data entry time hog.

I’ve been exploring ways to integrate Musicbrainz and Amazon Webservices into the administration of the site. Amazon was already a presence on the site, but now I’ve been working on code to make handling the Musicwhore.org database easier.

I’ve already set up a mirror of Musicbrainz for my own development, although I’m experimenting with using the site’s web service. I haven’t seen anyone try anything with PHP, but last night, I wrote a class to build queries to the service, and I’m using someone else’s XML parser class to manage the results. It looks promising.

I’m still trying to decide whether to switch the directory contents over to Musicbrainz with existing supplementary items from Musicwhore.org or still power the site with the existing Musicwhore.org database, with data entry assisted greatly by Musicbrainz.

The thing that hangs me up is the fact my database is a bit more thorough on artists (mainly Japanese ones) than Musicbrainz. I don’t want to make a switch a lose content which makes the somewhat distinct.

Regardless, I’ll be coding away in my cave for a while.