Database Management

Introduction to the Database Management dialog

The Database Management dialog is where you can switch between different databases, select the type of database to use and perform different tasks on your current database. The active database is displayed in bold.
 
You can import information from iTunes or Windows Media Player version 9 or 10 databases as well as from other Helium Music Manager databases.
 

Using the Database Management dialog

Open the Database Management dialog by any of the methods below:

• Click the Tools | Database | Management option on the main menu.
• Press CTRL-D on your keyboard.

Access Databases

This is the default database type for Helium Music Manager, you do not have to install any third party software to use it. It is suitable for smaller databases.

Microsoft SQL Server Databases

To use this database type you have to install one of the following third party software:

• Microsoft SQL Server 2005
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition in version which is free. This database is more suitable for larger databases with thousands of files and a lot of album and artist pictures.
 
For more information look at the section Installing And Connecting To A Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition Database.
 

MySQL Databases

To use this database type you have to install one of the following third party software:

• MySQL 5.x
• MySQL 4.x
• MySQL Connector/ODBC 3.51.23+

This database are free for personal use, this database type also works better than Access with larger databases with a lot of pictures and thousands of files.

For more information look at the section Helium Music Manager with MySQL.

 

Toolbar buttons

• New...
  Clicking this button will open a dialog where you can create a new database, for Access it will be a file dialog where you enter a filename and for SQL Server it will be a dialog where you enter the name of the database server and a name for the database.

  • Clicking New on the Microsoft SQL Server tab will open the Create new Microsoft SQL Server Database dialog.
  • Clicking New on the MySQL tab will open the Create new MySQL Database dialog.

• Open...
  Clicking this button will open a dialog where you can open an existing database, for Access it will be a file dialog where you browse for a database and for SQL Server it will be a dialog where you enter the name of the database server and the name of the database.

  • Clicking Open on the Microsoft SQL Server tab will open the Open Microsoft SQL Server Database dialog.
  • Clicking Open on the MySQL tab will open the Open MySQL Database dialog.

• Import
  Clicking this button will open a submenu where you can choose what to import.
  You can import from iTunes, Windows Media  Player, Media Monkey v2.x or another Helium Access or SQL Server database. You can also import Music Information Data which can be exported from the export menu.

  • Import Helium Access database
    Clicking this menu item will open a choose file dialog, select the database you want to import and press OK.
  • Import Helium MSDE/MS SQL database
    Clicking this menu item will open the Open MSDE/MS SQL database dialog
  • Import Helium MySQL database
    Clicking this menu item will open the Open MySQL database dialog
  • Import Music Information Browser data
    Clicking this menu item will open the Import Music Information Browser data dialog, with this dialog you can import data exported with the Export Music Information Browser data function in the Export menu.
  • Import iTunes (version 4.5 or higher) database
    Clicking this menu item will import your iTunes database to Helium Music Manager database.
  • Import Windows Media Player (version 9 or higher) database
    Clicking this menu item will import your Windows Media Player database to Helium Music Manager database.
  • Import MediaMonkey v2.x database
    Clicking this menu item will import a MediaMonkey database to your Helium Music Manager database.
   

• Export
  Clicking this button allows you to export Music Information Data, such as Artist pictures and biographies and other data not stored in your music files.

• Tools
  Clicking this button opens an submenu with three tools. Compress Database, that can only be used on Access databases, and Housekeep database, that removes artists, genres, publishers and countries that are not in use and does not have any pictures or biographies added on them. Optimize Active MS SQL Database only works when you are using a MS SQL database. this command will do a few optimizations on the database (index defragmenting) which can result in better performance.

• Remove
  Removes the selected database, you cannot remove the active database.