NAME

MusicRoom::CoverArt - Identify suitable cover images for tracks

DESCRIPTION

This package scans a directory full of images to identify a suitable image for a nominated music track. The software is configured by a specification file that tells it where to find images. Here is an example specification file:

    # Look for the ID, then the artist and finally use a default
    by_id/<id>.jpg
    by_artist/<artist>.jpg
    default.jpg

In the function calls the $track argument is assumed to contain a reference to a hash with values for all the attributes that are mentioned in the specification file.

If the package is called like:

    use MusicRoom::CoverArt;

    my $t1 = {id => "tf6ty2", artist => "Paul Simon", 
               song => "That Was Your Mother",
               album => "Graceland"};

    my $jpg1_file = MusicRoom::CoverArt::locate($t1);

The specification file above causes the software to look for the files:

    /data/music/meta/art/by_id/tf6ty2.jpg
    /data/music/meta/art/by_artist/Paul Simon.jpg
    /data/music/meta/art/default.jpg

returning the name of the first one that is found or undefined if there are none of them.

A more reasonable specification file might look like:

    by_id/<id>.jpg
    by_dirartist/<dir_artist>/<artist> - <name>.jpg
    by_dir/<dir_name>.jpg
    by_artist/<artist>.jpg
    default.jpg

This tells the software to look for:

    1. The exact ID
    2. A combination of the artist associated with the directory, 
       the real artist and the track name.  This lets us specify 
       an image like "Various Artist/The Byrds - Mr Tambourine Man.jpg"
       which is used whenever that song is found on a Various Artist 
       collection
    3. An image that is named the same as the album directory
    4. An image of the artist
    5. A default image if none of the above are available

    my $t1 = {id => "tf6ty2", track => "10", length => "02:51", 
               artist => "Paul Simon", song => "That Was Your Mother",
               album => "Graceland", dir_artist => "Paul Simon",
               dir_album => "Graceland", dir_name => "Paul Simon - Graceland",
               size => "1371741", quality => "7", year => "1986"};
    my $t2 = {id => "8nj3vp", track => "06", length => "03:16",
               artist => "The Clash", song => "Tommy Gun", 
               album => "The Singles", dir_artist => "The Clash",
               dir_album => "The Singles", dir_name => "The Clash - The Singles",
               size => "1575705",quality => "7",year => "1978"};