A product from

Using Helium Music Manager in a multi-user environment

This guide is aimed at those who want to use Helium Music Manager in a multi-user environment. We call it a multi-user environment when one or more computers (up to five allowed currently) connects to a central storage where the music and database is located. This gives many benefits over regular software setups, where each client has its own database. Some of the benefits of Helium Music Manager's approach are:

All meta-data (track details like Artist, Album and Title) is only being stored once.
If one user changes meta-data on one computer all other computers can instantly see these changes and benefit from them, be it spelling corrections or additional information being added such as an artist's biography, album pictures or genre being set.
Allows for the easy integration of additional software (like the Helium Web Streamer, Helium Streamer for iPhone and Helium Remote for iPhone).

Throughout this guide (and other guides which involves a multi-user environment) we will use the terms Server and Client. When we refer to these terms we mean the following:

Server - this is the computer where your music is stored. It is also where your database (the storage for meta-data information) is located. All clients should connect to the database on this computer to be able to share the same music library.
Client(s) - this is the computer (or computers) that connects to the Server to share the music library. The software installed on a Client is normally just an installation of Helium Music Manager Network (which is the only version which lets you connect to a Server). The Client software can be installed and used on the same computer as the Server if you do not want to have a dedicated server machine. You can connect up to five clients to one Server (this includes the Client being used on a Server machine - if any).

Prerequisites

There are a couple of prerequisites needed to be handled before we can start setting things up. These include the following:

All computers need to be connected to the same local area network (LAN) to be able to communicate with each other. This is beyond this tutorial to explain but generally means that all computers are connected (wired or wireless) to the same router or modem.
The Server computer needs to have all music stored on an internal or external hard drive. It is possible to have the music stored on other locations such as a NAS device but this tutorial does not cover this.
The Server computer needs to share the drive or folder where the music is stored. This is needed for all Clients to be able to access the music. Make sure to give full rights for the share (read, modify and delete - or read/write). It is beyond the scope of this tutorial to explain this in detail for all operating systems but below are some links to get you started:
- File sharing on Windows XP
- File sharing on Windows Vista
- File sharing on Windows 7 (see the section Share files from any folder on your computer)
On the Server machine you need to configure your Windows Firewall (and/or other firewall software installed) to allow incomming traffic on TCP port 1433.

If all points above have been sorted out, you're good to go!

Setting up the Server

Setting up the Server software is as easy as installing the free Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express database. This software allows for multiple computers to share the same data store. SQL Server 2008 R2 Express contains lots of features and settings, but we will only concentrate on a few, making it pretty easy to set up.

Download the appropriate version of SQL Server 2008 R2 Express from one of the links below and then start the installation:

Follow the instructions below to go through the installation:

Once the installation dialog comes up, click on the New installation or add features to an existing installation link.
The installation is mostly about accepting the terms and clicking Next throughout the different steps.
When the installation is at the Database Engine Configuration step, you need to select Mixed Mode under Authentication Mode. You also need to specify a password that will be used to connect to the database (make sure that you remember this password as it is needed later in this guide). Click Next to continue through the rest of the installation process.

Once the installation is finished you can close the SQL Server Installation Center window.

Start the SQL Server Configuration Manager (found in the Start Menu under Programs > Microsoft SQL Server 2008 > Configuration Tools > SQL Server Configuration Manager).
Select SQL Server Services on the left window. If the state on SQL Server Browser is not running, you have to configure and start the service.
Double-click the SQL Server Browser entry to bring up the SQL Server Browser Properties window.
Move to the Service tab and change Start Mode to Automatic. Click OK to apply the changes.
Right-click on SQL Server Browser in the right window and select Start to start the service.
On the left window, expand SQL Server Network Configuration > Protocols for SQLEXPRESS. You see that TCP/IP protocol status is Disabled.
Right-click on TCP/IP and select Enable to enable the protocol. A dialog is then displayed informing you that you have to restart the SQL Service to apply changes.
On the left window, select SQL Server Services. Right-click SQL Server (SQLEXPRESS) on the right window and click Restart. The SQL Server service will be restarted.

That's everything that is needed for the Server. Now you are ready to move on to installing the Clients. Remember that you can have one Client installed on the same machine as the Server if you want.

Setting up the Client(s)

Setting up the first client

These steps only need to be carried out once, on the first Client that connects to the Server.

Install Helium Music Manager Network. The Network version is the only version that is able to connect to a database on another computer (the Free or Premium versions of Helium Music Manager can't do this) .
Start Helium Music Manager and go to the Database Management dialog (press CTRL-D on your keyboard or go the the Advanced > Library > Management menu option).
Go to the Microsoft SQL Server databases tab and then click the New button.
Under the Microsoft SQL Server name box, type the name or IP address of your Server computer and add \SQLEXPRESS after so that is will look like this:

COMPUTERNAME\SQLEXPRESS

Make sure that it's a backslash and not a forward slash or it won't work.
Under Connection options, select SQL Server authentication.
Under Login options, type in the following information:
1. Under User name, type sa
2. Under Password, type in the password that you specified in step 3 under Setting up the Server above.
Click the Refresh button and you should see a dialog saying Connection successful! If not, please see the troubleshooting guide below.
Type a name for your database in the Database name box and click OK to create it and connect to it.

You have now successfully created the database and connected your first client. Congratulations!

Now it's time to add your music to the database.

Fire up the Add Files to Library dialog by either pressing CTRL-Insert on your keyboard or by clicking the File > Add Music > Add Files to Library menu option.
Expand the Network entry (on Windows XP you need to expand My Network Places > Entire Network > Microsoft Windows Network > WORKGROUP - where WORKGROUP is the name of your own workgroup) and find the Server computer where you have shared your music.
Expand the shared folders by clicking on the plus sign by the Server computer and checkmark the shared drive or folder where your music is stored.
Click OK to start adding your music to the database.

Once all your shares have been scanned and all music has been added to your database you are ready to connect the remaining clients - if any.

Setting up the remaining clients

This sections describes how to connect Clients to your Helium Music Manager multi-user environment. Please note that you need to first complete the Setting up the Server and Setting up the first client sections.

Install Helium Music Manager Network. The Network version is the only version that is able to connect to a database on another computer (the Free or Premium versions of Helium Music Manager can't do this) .
Start Helium Music Manager and go to the Database Management dialog (press CTRL-D on your keyboard or go the the Advanced > Library > Management menu option).
Go to the Microsoft SQL Server databases tab and then click the Open button.
Under the SQL Server name box, type the name or IP address of your Server computer and add \SQLEXPRESS after so that is will look like this:

COMPUTERNAME\SQLEXPRESS

Make sure that it's a backslash and not a forward slash or it won't work.
Under Connection options, select SQL Server authentication.
Under Login options, type in the following information:
1. Under User name, type sa
2. Under Password, type in the password that you specified in step 3 under Setting up the Server above.
Click the Refresh button and you should see the database that you created earlier in the list below.
Select the database in the list and click OK to open it.

That's it! You have now configured the Server and Client and should be good to go to set up additional Clients if needed.

Things to note:

If more than one Client is connected to the Server at the same time and one Client changes something (by using the Tag Editor for example) the other Clients may need to do a simple refresh by pressing CTRL-F5 on their keyboard. This is because much of the information is stored in memory for performance reasons.

Troubleshooting

I'm not able to connect to the Servers' database

Make sure that you have opened the required ports (TCP port 1433) in the firewall and that TCP/IP has been enabled for the SQLEXPRESS instance.