Editing of Songs Database with Access and Saving to KMA Files

[ddouglass]

As those of you with Access have probably discovered, you can open Hoster's Songs.mdb database file and edit fields such as Title, Artist and DiscID to make corrections.

I urge you to cautiously use this as you would the Registry Editor. If you make a mistake, it cannot be undone, and may prevent Hoster ever finding or playing the changed files again.

Warning! Do not change the BookID, Path, RecordID, Type, or any fields to the right of the "Type" field. Changing these can prevent Hoster from playing these songs.

The Problem: If you use Access to edit your Songs Database, if you ever rebuild the Songs Database in Hoster, all your changes are thrown away. This is because the Rebuild operation reads each KMA file header for the data that is saved in the Songs Database.

The Answer: You need a copy of Microsoft Access installed. As you make edits in Access, write down the BookIDs for the records you edit. Then close Access and run Hoster. Go to the Tools menu and run the "Edit Songs" command. In the dialog (either Single or Multiple Selection), search for one BookID at a time that you edited. They will appear in the "found" list below. Highlight all of them (don't change anything) and click the Apply button. This updates the KMA header for each of those files so it matches your edits in the Songs Database.

Cautions when editing with Access:

1. When you open Songs.mdb in Access do not convert it to a newer version file. Leave it as an Access 97 database file or Hoster cannot use it.
   
   
2. If you do a Find and Replace in Access DO NOT select Replace All or you will change all KMA files. Only modify one set of files (ex: same DiscID) at a time with the Replace button.
   
   
3. Write down which BookIDs you changed to insure you can apply your changes in Hoster's Edit Songs dialog so they are permanent.

Comments or questions? Please post them in this thread.

Edited by Admin.