Shn Admin
editing to-do: consider rename to SourcesAdmin?, update misc crossrefs
This page is designed to contain instructions for volunteer shncirc admins, culled from various emails sent in the past to new volunteers. Note: if you are a shn admin, your duties also entail being a SetlistAdmin - please review that page as well.
If you are not an admin yet but want to be, please read the volunteer page.
(Regular users wanting to know about the Shn DB itself should read ShnDatabaseGuide instead. It's a waste for you to read this page unless you want to volunteer.)
Thanks so much for volunteering to track shn information!
URLs you will need
Contact info
Starting Out:
Second step: Gather info to put into the shn db.
Adding entries, the meat and potatoes of shn adminship
Finer Points:
It takes longer to explain all this in words here than it is to just try it out. :) Give it a try and let us know if you have any questions. Feel free to look at the other lists at the link below to give you an idea of what kind of info should go in the comments column or what have you.
Happy tracking!
This page is designed to contain instructions for volunteer shncirc admins, culled from various emails sent in the past to new volunteers. Note: if you are a shn admin, your duties also entail being a SetlistAdmin - please review that page as well.
If you are not an admin yet but want to be, please read the volunteer page.
(Regular users wanting to know about the Shn DB itself should read ShnDatabaseGuide instead. It's a waste for you to read this page unless you want to volunteer.)
Admin Tips: Maintaining the SHNs in Circulation Database
Thanks so much for volunteering to track shn information!
URLs you will need
- The magic url to do stuff: http://db.etree.org/shnmaint/
- User overview of the shn db: http://db.etree.org/shn_walkthrough.html
- The shn db listing itself: http://db.etree.org/shncirc/ for short, or http://db.etree.org/etree_shnlist.php
- SHN & MD5 FAQ: http://research.umbc.edu/~hamilton/shnfaq.html
Contact info
- shncirc@yahoogroups.com - discussion list, subscribe at very bottom of shnmaint page discussion web board: http://db.etree.org/messageboards/list.php?f=1
- db@etree.org - administration list for db.etree.org. Use this email for volunteering.
Starting Out:
- If you are receiving this message, you have probably been through the process of getting set up to be an admin, as outlined here: http://db.etree.org/messageboards/read.php?f=1&i=316&t=315
- The most important stuff now happens using your admin homepage, http://db.etree.org/shnmaint/
- You access it using your normal db login. The admin team will have set up the page to reflect the bands you've volunteered to maintain. What you do through this page will affect how your band's shn info looks in the db. It's all done through fill-in web forms.
- At http://db.etree.org/shnmaint, hit the "Edit Header/Footer" button. If you are in charge of more than one band, choose a band from the pulldown first. You will now see several fill-in boxes. The first, band site, is not implemented but can be filled in for your own reference.
- The band abbreviation is used whenever a user downloads a txt or md5 file, so it is very important to fill this in. Use only letters and numbers and NO spaces in the abbrev. You can use the etree standard abbrev., if there is one. Once the abbrev. is in place, you can reference people straight to a band by using http://db.etree.org/shncirc/ABBREV, such as http://db.etree.org/shncirc/gd for the Grateful Dead pages. It will go to the most recent year table.
- There are Header and Footer boxes to fill in which are also important. These will affect the top and bottom of the band year tables that users see. The boxes can take html code, so that you can add useful links, etc. The most important item to have is your contact info. This allows users to help you by sending you shn info (such as txt and md5 files) to put in the tables.
- Sample html code for mail contact:
- Please send any additions or corrections for this list to <a href="mailto:your@email.address">Your Name</a>. Thanks!
- Sample html code for a link to a web site:
- The <a href="http://www.gratefuldead.com">Grateful Dead</a> site.
- Repeat for other band(s) you're in charge of. This is mostly a one-time setup, but please update headers and footers as necessary, especially if your contact email address changes!
Second step: Gather info to put into the shn db.
- With your contact info on the table, people may email you about shns that are going around. You can also post an announcement to etree@etree.org or other relevant lists, stating that you are a shn admin looking for needed info. For more info, just keep watching postings or sites in various places where shns circulate for your band(s), then contact the people that mention the shns. In all cases, the minimum info you will need are the .txt (sometimes called .nfo) and .md5 files (for a shn set) or .ffp files (for a flac set). People can email these, pasted into a message body, or as attachments if you're willing.
- You may hear of show(s) at ftp sites, perhaps mentioned on the announce list. You could log on as a regular user to get the txt/md5s, but often sites are so full it's hard to get a slot when you want it just for that. Some siteops have web pages, eg http://foosite.etree.org, that list their contents and may have downloadable txt/md5s. Otherwise, feel free to contact the siteop directly. Since they get a lot of grovel mail, use a clear subject line and message to let them know you're a db admin after txt/md5s. When you contact a siteop you could ask him to just email the txt/md5s. If he's a regular hoster of a lot of the band's material, perhaps ask him to consider a special access l/p (info-only or even siteop level if he's willing). That will save you having to email him every time there's a new seed.
- The txt file has tracklist or source info. Why do we need md5s in the db, too? The md5s have 2 solid purposes: 1) checking if the shns downloaded OK; and 2) "fingerprints" for a given shn set. The second one is most important from a circ list standpoint. It helps identify a particular shn set even better than having a txt file. For more explanation and pointers, go here: http://research.umbc.edu/~hamilton/shnfaq.html
Adding entries, the meat and potatoes of shn adminship
- Now that you have shn info in hand, there is a stepwise process to get it into the db, using the forms at http://db.etree.org/shnmaint
- Tom has a giant main "show" db of dates played by bands, typically with setlists. To make an entry ("Add SHN") into the companion "shn" db, an entry has to exist in the show db first. Use the box under "Check for show in database: ". Put in the date and the band and hit "Lookup". If the results say, "show DOES exist", you can go on to "Add SHN". If the results say, "show DOES NOT exist", you have to add the date manually to the show db before adding an entry to the shn db. (Update - you may encouter a bug while creating the show. Workaround: http://db.etree.org/messageboards/read.php?f=1&i=682&t=682) If you have a known setlist to add to the master show db, go ahead (if there's an online setlist site for a band, that will help you a lot). If not, just leave all those parts blank. The band, date and 4-digit year are the most important parts. (For "weird" cases, see Finer Points below.)
- Now, you can create a shn entry by clicking "Add SHN". Ideally, you should have the files for the txt and md5s already on your HD. Put in all the info you have, including the paths to those files. When you hit "update", it will go and fetch the files off your HD and into the db. If you don't have the files handy, you can add them into the entry during a later editing session. You can even point to a "dummy" file on your HD and then paste the contents of a real one into the entry later. The required "Comments/Source" section of the entry is typically for source info, seeder credit, brief flaw notes, etc. As in the table header/footer sections, the comments section also accepts html code. (I often put cross-reference links in mine).
- On the maintenance page you'll now see extra links that can let you go back and check or change what you just did, "Edit Last SHN Again" to change or update, and "View Last SHN Edit" to see the entry as a user will see it. By the way, the "View" link is the one that you can give out to users to point right to a specific shn info entry, example: http://db.etree.org/shninfo_detail.php?shnid=1594
- On the table pages themselves, you can also go and modify entries by the "edit" or "delete" functions on the left hand side. To activate these functions, hit "Go" on "Edit or Delete SHN for [any band]" at least once during your online session. Hitting that "Go" will always take you to the current year; then hit any year at the top of the table to get to the shn entry you want to edit. Note to delete an entry easily, no user must have it linked to his list. So if you make a big mistake and want to just scratch the whole entry, it's most convenient to do this quickly before a user sees the shn and links it.
Finer Points:
- User Comments
- If people post public commments attached to your shn entries, Tom has it rigged so you will see the 10 most recent comments at the bottom of the maintenance page. If there aren't any comments, you won't see that. If there are a lot, you can toggle back through them using the "Next 10" link. Sometimes people point out db corrections there rather than emailing you, so it's handy to check them out and follow up if necessary. If comments get out of hand - general discussions not related specifically to the filesets - they can be deleted as well.
- Link Artists to Artists
- In the shn db, your band's shns are usually listed under just one main band name. But in the show db, sometimes the band may also have alternate names, under which users have listed the same dates (example: Garcia vs. Jerry Garcia vs. Legion of Mary). At the top of the shnmaint page is a link that lets you associate the alternate band names with the name in the shn db. If the artists are linked, and if you have shn info for a date, then a user will be able to link the shn info to their list entry even if they are using the alternate band name. The instructions for linking bands are on the linking page.
- Co-Admins
- You can have admins working on the same shn list(s) along with you. If you have a friend who is willing to help maintain shns, contact Tom and the friend can get set up for adminship in the same way. If you already have fellow admins and want to ask someone else to join, it's good etiquette to OK it with the other admins first.
- People can also be added at a lower level of adminship, just to maintain the show setlists for your band, like "setlist gurus". You can add them yourself using the shnmaint page "Add New Show Maintainer" box. To work on setlists, they use these urls, which you should tell them:
- For lookup of the specific band: http://db.etree.org/showmaint/
- For the correction "queue" of many bands (see below): http://db.etree.org/showmaint/corrections/
- A list of both full co-admins and show admins is in the upper right of the shnmaint page. Be careful not to hit the "Remove" buttons next to the names or you will nuke people's privileges.
- Authorize show changes:
- Users can suggest changes and corrections to the setlists in the main show db. When they do, it goes to the "queue" for potential approval. On the shnmaint page, the link to the queue is "Authorize show changes." As shn admin, you have permission to approve or deny anything in the queue. You may want to watch for changes to the band(s) you maintain. Any band, trade-friendly or not, may be covered. Please feel free to help out with the bands that don't even have shn admins to watch over them. However, please accept or deny changes wisely. Some suggestions are not as well-considered as others, and may include extraneous information that does not belong in the show record (track timings, disc splits, source information, etc.).
- There are several buttons which can be hit. Note that there is a difference in "Authorize as update for this show", which makes changes to the existing gig entry, vs. "Authorize as new show", which creates a whole separate, extra gig on the date. Also note that users often hit their "submit" button accidentally, so that there will not really be a change to make (in those cases, hit "Do Not Authorize").
- Special date cases
- The db was set up initially for a 1 numerical date = 1 gig format, and later modified to allow vague dates with "??", plus multiple gigs per date. However, the shn db part is a little choppy on these. Here are workarounds.
- Vague dates: If a ??-containing date (example: 08/??/91 studio rehearsals) already exists, you can lookup the setlist, edit the setlist, and link a shn to it. If it does not exist, you can't add it from the shnmaint page- you will get an error. Instead, create it at the user level from the main db.etree.org as if adding it to your list. The url: http://db.etree.org/addshow.php
- Multiple gigs: Bands sometimes play late and early shows on the same date, and these can be added to the db separately by users. By default, the shnmaint page's show lookup, and the linking of any shn info, only goes to the first gig that happens to have been entered into the db.
- To switch the shn info to the other gig, you have to contact the dbadmin crew at db@etree.org, who can do it manually. They will need the the shnid #, the showref # it's currently linked to, and the showref # it needs to be linked to instead. To get the numbers: you can see the shnid # by going to the individual page for the shn entry. You can see the show ref #'s for instance by pretending you are going to add a gig to your list and taking the showref number from the "add show to my list" url. Luckily this is a fairly rare case to have to deal with. [Here's a thread] about it.
- Bad Dates
- Setlist and shn admins can't physically change or delete dates from the main show db. To send a report to someone who can, see RepairDates.
- Bowing Out
- Being an admin is a commitment to participate. If you can't participate anymore, please don't just go missing - let people know, say goodbye! Please contact the dbadmin team at db@etree.org, and also maybe add a note to your table header/footer. This will allow the rest of us to make arrangements for additional or replacement admins, so that shn db updates can continue for everyone. GhostPages are a drag.
- If you think you need help, it's also OK to let people know, and ask around for volunteers yourself. Folks at db@etree.org can get co-admins set up for you. Contact that address or have the new person do so.
It takes longer to explain all this in words here than it is to just try it out. :) Give it a try and let us know if you have any questions. Feel free to look at the other lists at the link below to give you an idea of what kind of info should go in the comments column or what have you.
Happy tracking!
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