Importing data from another application
Introduction
Helium Music Manager can import data from other applications. This is very useful when you have already built up your music library in another application but now want to migrate it over to Helium Music Manager. Data can be imported from:
- Helium Music Manager 2006
- iTunes (version 4.5 or higher)
- Windows Media Player (version 9 or higher)
- MediaMonkey (version 2.x)
Helium Music Manager can also import and export data in it's own native data structure, from and to Access, MS SQL/MSDE and MySQL formats.
Tasks
Preparations
When importing data you use the Database Management tool. The tool can be started by clicking Tools | Database | Management... from the main menu.
Getting started with the import
The first thing you must be aware of when importing data
is that the data that you import is always imported
to your active database. The active database (depending on the vendor
type) is marked with bold in the list. Upon a
first start of Helium Music Manager (after it is first installed), the
first tab, "Access Databases" will be
active and that means that you are working with an Access database type.
To perform the import, click the Import
button and select the data source type that you would
like to import.
After that follow the steps described on your screen (these may vary depending on the import source type).
Tips and tricks
If you are unsure about the result of the import and/or want to be careful with your current database data, you can create a new (test) database by clicking the New... button on the bottom toolbar. Once this new (test) database is created you can perform the import into this database, verify the results and then perform the import into your real database.
iTunes and Windows Media Player data sources expose different and varying amounts of information. None of these applications expose all the information that Helium Music Manager allows you to work with, so the result of the import may need to be adjusted and completed in Helium Music Manager after the import.
Microsoft SQL Server 2005/Express Edition are database formats supported by Helium Music Manager. It's highly recommended that you use one of these formats when you have a music collection with over 15.000 songs, because the overall speed will be much better with any of these databases. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition is a free database which can be downloaded from: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/editions/express/default.mspx.