Are you using CATraxx

The purpose with this group is to see how many users on Discogs there is using CATraxx as "offline" inventory tool

There is also a facebook group : https://www.facebook.com/groups/FNPrgFans/
CATtraxx support forum : http://forum.fnprg.com/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=18806

I use CATraxx since 2008 and I really like it.

I am using Catraxx 9.44 and my API for Discogs lookups is not working anymore :(

+1. Would very much like some kind of solution to this :(

I am also affected by this, I have been using CATraxx for several years and am severely impacted by this recent issue. I would like to see if there is reasonable solution, without having to buy another software program and start over on the cataloging of my collection.

Yes today went to add some vinyl to my database and saw it no longer working. No other software seems to have the functionality I need.

I am having the same issue between CATraxx and Discogs which started two days ago.

Without connecting to discogs CATraxx loses most of its effectivity. I am really angry at this issue.

I installed OrangeCD which does use the Discogs API. However, it seems it will only import V6 Catraxx XML format. I've had to change programs twice in the last 15 years and once lost data from a back system failure. I am not ready to redo all my work again. I've emailed the author of OrangeCD. I am hoping he has a way to import V9 Catraxx data.

Long time CATraxx user. Was disappointed when we lost images but I usually replaced those so it was not a huge deal. Obviously this is a different situation. It doesn't work at all. I am going to remain patient and hope there is a solution made available to fix this before I freak out and buy another cataloging software.

Been playing around with OrangeCD. It works, but is nowhere near extensive as Catraxx. Things like Reissue, Remastered, Vinyl Color, etc are missing. Can't add different formats to media and have them remembered. Things like 2 x CD, 3 X CD allows you to enter them, but are not added to available format selections for future use. Spoiled by CATraxx.

CATraxx simply rules... :(

SO if I get this correct on here:
http://www.discogs.com/developers/#page:authentication,header:authentication-oauth-flow

Does this mean that in order to get OAuth to work CATrax would need to be able to allow each user to have his own consumer key for interrogation?

Not sure how that would be handled and if a complete rewrite is needed, someone got any idea?

While playing with OrangeCD, the first time I went to lookup against Discogs it asked me to log in and allow OrangeCD to become an Authorized Application to Discogs. This shows up in your Profile under Settings.

I think the Internet.DLL will need to be rewritten to handle the method signature Discogs is now requiring. CATraxx would have its own key for the API, but at an application level and not at an individual level. I am hoping it will be rewritten, but I wouldn't count on it.

Long time CATraxx user here. It looked like there was hope with the reinstatement of the forums but this issue with Discogs is truly a set back. I hope Fredrik decides to start developing the software again or agrees to sell it to someone who is willing to love and care for it. It's a great piece of software that I used on a daily basis.

I have been using Catraxx since the very beginning (oldest entries from 1995, the earliest entries undated) and I remember all the manual work I had to do when entering records before it was connected with Discogs. Now this is really going to be an effort entering tracks manually again! :-( I really hope Frederik, or someone who would be taking over the awsome work he has done to develop Catraxx into the world's best record collectors programme. I still got thousands of records waiting to be entered, so I really hope a solution to this will be implemented soon. Meanwhile I just have to soldier on manually.

That's a real bad trouble, as I need Catraxx in order to have all my cds and vinyl records constantly updatetd. Well, should I suggest an idea. All of us we can ask to the catraxx programmer to release a proper update to the software in order to face this trouble and make catraxx perfectly working with discogs. He can previously decide a cost for the operation and we can share it all. I guess all of us would pay i.e. 25 euro each to get our software working again. We are 25 people, well the paying euro 1.000,00 for a litlle private update I guess should be fair enough or not?
Do you agree? Is there anybody who is in touch with catraxx staff, in order to send this urgent proposal?

I'd be all for paying to get the functionality back. Any of the other applications I've tried that work with Discogs are not up to par with CATraxx. Some handle the import of CATraxx data well and others don't. Unfortunately I am fearing a switch is inevitable. :-(

Before "Manual Query" was introduced in CATraxx, there was a third party application called V4C (Vinyl for CATraxx). It scraped certain websites and added it to the CDDB tables for import. Perhaps it could be recreated (or resurrected) to be used with the new Discogs API and other sites...I'd be willing to pay for that app.

I have purchased two licenses and now a headache. I hope that the problem will be solved. I am open to any proposal.

Yes I hope too, but Who will report our problem to the catraxx staff and ask them to work it out?

Hi All

I will take contact to Catraxx next week, and try to work something out.

But the last response from him was -> For the foreseeable future

However, if we can give him a "amount" of money to provide a hotfix, could it open a door.

The combination of CATraxx and Discogs had everything I wanted, except maybe the possibility to input info to Discogs from CATraxx.

Yes man, I agree with the paying something to get the problem solved. Let's call it private assistance. We all should spend money to buy a regular license for another working catalogue software, we all shgould waste time to convert all of our massive databases. Time = money, well if we all decide to share the cost of an hotfix we will the cost will be small and benefit very big. Sorry for my english but I hope you had understood me.

Just posting to add my name to the count of affected users.

Unfortunately I think that if Discogs integration is important to you, it's time to treat CATraxx as abandoned and move on to some other software. Even if we were somehow able to coax Frederik to fix this particular issue, we would all be right back in the same boat the next time the Discogs API changed.

Another user here. And so the CATraxx flag outside my flat is slowly lowered. I'm not crying. I just have something in my eye.

If there is a call for a fund to make this happen, I am all in. It is only that having followed the discussion why Catraxx development stopped, it was not money or the lack of it that caused it...

One more unhappy Catraxx user. Nothing else comes close.

I'm also a long time user of Catraxx, and I'm really sad to see the very good integration between Catraxx and Discogs vanish like the breeze.

I have also been using Catraxx (Platearkivet) for many many years !!
I am very unhappy about the things going on now !! Hope there will be a solution to this problem !!!!

Frigging great. A new internet.dll file was downloaded when I opened Catraxx today. Now Discogs is not even an option. Guess that is the signal we are screwed. If there was time to code Discogs out why not take the time to code a fix?

Yeah, I just noticed the same thing, that is total crap.

Yeah, I agree why take time to stub out busted functionality?

I have sent the developer of OrangeCD some CATraxx XML files so he can look at fixing the import function. So far of any of the options, that is the application I am leaning towards.

I have been using Catraxx for a thousand years and have quite an extensive database that I obsess about daily. I keep scanning all the artwork and updating my database which I also have online. Today i find out I can no longer grab data from Discogs like I have been forever. I am beyond sad. I am retired and my music collection is a major hobby. What the hell world?
If you'd like to take a peek at what this obsession can do:

http://www.weirdenergy.com/cdlist/index.html

Hopefully there is a fix coming.

NOTE: My program automatically downloaded the latest internet.dll file which made Discogs vanish. I restored the previous version from backup and Discogs was back, but all searches came back empty. Huge sigh.

Damn, CATraxx without Discogs is like White Russian without Vodka.
I'm not really shure where to locate the problem, Discogs or CATraxx ...
This should be fixed asap.

cheers Martin

Fearing the worst, I have been playing with the alternatives. Music Collector is no longer an option as they only mirror Discogs information once a month. So those who buy vinyl regularly would have to wait until the mirror contains the information. This is a deal breaker for me.

Hoping the author OrangeCD can fix the CATraxx import at this point.

I already have 2 weeks of entry to do. :-(

Although I am sad about the disconnect from Discogs (and eventual demise) of CATraxx, there was a small silver lining for me. Since I knew there was a deadline, I finally had to add all my vinyl to my Discogs collection and then have it linked and downloaded into CATraxx via the API. Since my vinyl collection is not growing and I want to sell most of it eventually, this was a useful exercise. I may have to make some manual downloads & updates in the future, but the worst of it is behind me. I do thank the Discogs staff for extending the cut-off date from August to October, that helped a bunch.

Yea, me too. Not happy. Unlike some others weighing here I haven't been using since the stone age, but still.

+1 also for me tragedy Catraxx without Discogs

I have a working proof of concept for an HTTP proxy that applies the required OAuth authentication headers to CATraxx requests against the Discogs API. Not ready for release yet but if you want to use it when I do release it, you need to block the DLL auto-update NOW. See the linked thread for details: http://forum.fnprg.com/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=18816

Lazlo.Nibble
See the linked thread for details: http://forum.fnprg.com/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=18816

I'm glad you have overcome your initial (realistic) pessimism as expressed in your initial comment in this thread. This is good news. Now, before I go into more questions/comments (helpful ones, hopefully), do you want discussion to happen here, or at the the http://forum.fnprg.com discussion forum? Or a combination of the two?

Here's what you said over there:

I'm going to use this thread as home-base for the application for now and will be linking to this thread on Facebook and Discogs so all the discussion is in one place.

How do block the DLL auto-update exactly?

Yeah, I looked at how much effort it'd take to migrate to a different app vs. how much it'd take to write the proxy and it wasn't even close.

I'd prefer to keep any detailed discussion on the fnpforum site, but don't mind answering questions wherever you can find me.

hedonismheffner
How do block the DLL auto-update exactly?

You should visit the fnprog forum as described, but in a nutshell, the current suggestion is to make the previous DLL file read-only.

Registration at http://forum.fnprg.com is pretty typical, if they ask a anti-spam question about the book cataloging program, it is "Bookcat".

[edit] posts at FNProg.com forum require moderator approval; who is the moderator of the forum?

So I found an old copy of the .dll file and copied it to the proper location. Made a copy of the latest .dll before I did that so i have one of both. Anxiously waiting for the rest of the goodies to get this functionality back again. Awesome stuff here.

Using catraxx for about 7 years now and I am missing the manual update from discogs. I hope a solution is coming soon.......

How do block the DLL auto-update exactly?

Open Catraxx and click on menu item "Tools"
then click on "Options"
then click on "Internet"
Look for "automatically check for program update" and check never
Then hit Okay in the upper right corner.

I have found that using an older version of the internet.dll file makes searching Amazon useless and using the latest version of Internet.dll makes using Amazon useful. As I have backed up a copy of the older version I am now using the newer until a fix appears that can make use of the older version. If anyone needs a copy of the older version I can help.

The solution would be Fredrik patching the Discogs option back in the way it was before update. But I think it would be better to discuss it on FNP forum, as there is at leaset some chance Fredrik monitoring the activity. Not so much here on Discogs.
Here http://forum.fnprg.com/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=18816
and here http://forum.fnprg.com/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=18806

My understanding of the situation is that Discogs changed things on their end that made it difficult for Fredrik to continue to be able to use them for data. And now that he is no longer maintaining Catraxx it is not up to him to fix things. (even though he possibly could) When someone says they are finished, let it be.

aangen
When someone says they are finished, let it be.

Bunch o crap! When someone sells a product to the public and gives little to no notification or makes no accommodation to customers that's just bad business practice. Discogs is the culprit here and I get that but to just walk away doesn't sit well with me or many others users. Say what you will and I have been following this saga for sometime the Traxx product line could have been sold to someone else to continue development and support. As it is we are screwed in the long run. Even if Lazlo.Nibble is able to provide the needed updates I would not expect that this fix will last forever nor that Lazlo.Nibble will be around the next time Discogs changes the method of data access.

I'm using since about 2009 for inventory, really would like it to work with discogs api again. perhaps frederick can update (or get another programmer to do it) and then charge renewal / update fee for cattraxx upgrade? that happened before in past, and i think it was $20 update which i am willing to pay to get this enabled again!

Hey folks ...
I'm also very sad, that CATraxx is not working with Discogs anymore.
I don't care about other web-services, like amazon.
The best online database is Discogs and the best programm I know is CATraxx.
For any solution I would like to pay also some money.

But if there is no chance anymore to add or update items in the CATraxx database;
I found a program today ... http://www.firetongue.com/cd-database.html
At least you can add but no updates in this version items from Discogs.
I also got problems to import my CATraxx database to OrangeCD.

krach666
But if there is no chance anymore to add or update items in the CATraxx database;
I found a program today ... http://www.firetongue.com/cd-database.html
At least you can add but no updates in this version items from Discogs.
I also got problems to import my CATraxx database to OrangeCD.

I have sent the author of OrangeCD a sample of my CATraxx database as XML about three weeks ago, but haven't heard anything regarding a fix for the import yet.

I also sent about ten days ago an XML file of my Catraxx's DB at OrangeCD's developer but got no answer. I think that support about this issue is a "bit poor" from the team of OrangeCD

OrangeCD is a decent programm with great discogs integration, but believe it is a one-man-show, too.
recently there were a few updates but before these recent updates there was no activity for almost one year.
so the chance of a sudden or sneaky death of the software seems to be very high, too.
if someone would give me the guarantee that it will be supported better in future i think i would move to OrangeCD.

The only thing that comes closest to a "guarantee" you ask for is open-source software. No more no less.

I USED Catraxx, now I only cry...

I guess this is dead?

CATraxx works fine with Lazlo's proxy solution.

HellZat - thanks for the reply. I did check the correct forum and am back in business. Thanks to Lazlo for the solution. Very nice. Happy camper again.