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THE
"EMBEDDED INFO" OPTION The “File Attributes” and “User DB” search options are standard search engine options, available at any time. The “Embedded Info” option is a bit different, in that you have to specifically tell Harbor if you want to even make this search option available. The “Embedded
Info” search capability is an “optional option” because it has a
significant effect on the speed in which inventory updates are done.
Typically updating your
system inventory database (without enabling the ability to use the
“Embedded Info” search option) takes Harbor a maximum of about 10-15
seconds to complete, regardless of how many audio files you actually
have in inventory. However,
if you enable the ability to use the “Embedded Info” option, an
inventory update can take several minutes to complete on a system
containing hundreds or thousands of audio files in its inventory. The reason for
this disparity lies in the massive requirements dictated by “Embedded
Info” searches. While analyzing the chunk header info of a single
audio file takes seemingly no time at all (witness the speed in which
the File Detail view is displayed), analyzing the chunk header info of
hundreds or thousands of files takes a very noticeable amount of time.
As an example, 2000 assorted audio files take about four minutes to
analyze on a 450 MHz Pentium III system. Under normal
circumstances, this would mean that performing a search on such a system
with the Embedded Info option engaged would take a minimum of 4 minutes per
search; not very impressive performance, and therefore not a real
useful feature for systems with a significant number of audio files. Harbor avoids this problem by integrating embedded info searches with the system inventory database. If you plan to use embedded info searches, you tell Harbor this by checking the special “Enable Embedded Info” box at the top of the “DB Search Options” section of your Tools/Preferences menu. When you check this box, it instructs Harbor to do an embedded info analysis on every audio file when it performs an inventory update. This info is then stored in the system inventory database itself. Then, when you run
a search that includes the “Embedded Info” option, Harbor only has
to search its own database (which it does all the time anyway), and the
searches are reduced from an obscene minutes-long process to the serene
couple of seconds they normally take with just the other search options
enabled. There is a bit of
a trade off; inventory updates now take several minutes to run,
but since the likelihood is that you will need to update your inventory
far less often that you will want to do searches in Harbor, this is
typically a very acceptable trade-off to be able to gain such a powerful
search feature. On the other hand,
if you really don’t need or desire the “Embedded Info” search
capability (many users are content with searching their own databases or
even just the file attributes), there is no need for you to even have to
slow down the inventory updates. In this case, just leave the special
“Enable Embedded Info” box unchecked, and your inventory update
times will not suffer. “Enable
Imbedded Info” and “Embedded Info” checkboxes When you do check
the special “Enable Embedded Info” box and click either the
“Apply” or “OK buttons on the Tools/Preferences
menu, this
will enable the “Embedded Info” check box, but will not
automatically engage it – it is still unchecked. You are enabling the
option to perform an embedded info search, but – just like the “File
Attributes” and “User DB” search options – you have the choice
at any time to actually engage or disengage this option for any given
search. To actually exercise your right to search embedded info for a
given search, check
the “Embedded Info” box with a click of your mouse. Anytime you change
the state of the special “Enable Embedded Info” box from unchecked
to checked – i.e. any time you newly enable the ability to search
embedded info, Harbor needs to make sure that the system inventory
database is updated with the actual embedded chunk header info from your
audio files. For this reason, whenever such a state change occurs, when
you close the Tools/Preferences menu, Harbor will pop up a warning that
an inventory update will automatically and immediately take place. Click “OK” on this message and Harbor will do the update,
and when it is done you will be ready to swing. |
