Web file Management
Transferring a relational database system to the text based
environment
of web browsers requires considerable adjustment. Since the web is all
about transmitting files over the internet, large files present problems.
The original discography created by Alpha4 was about 3.5 Meg. Breaking
this up into smaller files of about 30-50K and then establishing an index
to these files is relatively easy, but the issues of presentation and the
idea of creating "active" cross references presented some interesting
challenges in terms of both web page and data management.
Since Alpha4 has a very sophisticated report writing facility, I decided to use this facility to generate these individual files with the required HTML markup. This meant establishing an additional datafile to store information about each separate file in order to generate the correct cross reference name anchors and links. A new field containing the name of the web file it apears in was added to the primary music database. In many ways, it is convenient to think of these 400 odd files as drawers in an old fashioned library catalog, with the cross references functioning to point you to other related entries in the catalog. The HTML hypertext link now gives instant movement between these cross references.
Future enhancements that I have considered in the past are discussed below, and it is possible that I maybe able to carry out some of this in the coming months, since the changes would not affect the search facilities of the site.
Other statistics - Listed here are some statistics with respect to ranking of specific titles and performers. The rank frequency distribution for both music titles and performers follows the typical "80-20" rule, with approximately 80% of the songs and performers appearing 20% of the time, and 20% of the listings appearing 80% of the time. Thus there is a "top hits" distribution for both titles and performers.
Music titles - The list below show the top 12 entries for songs and ballads and then for dance tunes. On an absolute basis, the tunes outnumber the songs in terms of the 10 highest ranked, and this probably reflects my involvement as a stringband musician (fiddle, banjo, dulcimer, guitar, etc.) in collecting and indexing both the older recorded material and the modern "old-time stringband" revival recordings and books.
Ballads and SongsTitle | Total hits | Cross Refs | Books | Records |
---|---|---|---|---|
John Henry | 316 | 21 | 84 | 211 |
Barbara Allen | 231 | 15 | 108 | 108 |
Froggie Went A-Courting | 165 | 11 | 87 | 77 |
Buffalo Gals | 157 | 12 | 67 | 88 |
House Carpenter | 149 | 7 | 86 | 56 |
Pretty Polly* | 143 | 10 | 53 | 80 |
Coo Coo Bird | 140 | 13 | 43 | 84 |
Golden Vanity | 139 | 9 | 60 | 70 |
John Hardy | 139 | 5 | 48 | 86 |
Lonesome Road Blues | 133 | 14 | 39 | 80 |
Wildwood Flower | 132 | 6 | 52 | 74 |
Girl I Left Behind Me | 129 | 16 | 56 | 57 |
Dance music (Reels, Hornpipes, etc.) - included here pieces that are primarily used as music to be danced to. Some, such as Old Joe Clark which has many lyrics, are associated with square dances, but were also sung in a wide variety of settings, including children's games, show and display music, and many other social events.
Title | Total hits | Cross Refs | Books | Records |
---|---|---|---|---|
Old Joe Clark | 268 | 8 | 92 | 168 |
Soldier's Joy | 260 | 14 | 70 | 176 |
Turkey in the Straw | 211 | 24 | 69 | 118 |
Sally Goodin | 193 | 14 | 42 | 137 |
Cripple Creek | 199 | 12 | 51 | 136 |
Arkansas Traveller* | 187 | 3 | 61 | 123 |
Miss McLeod's Reel | 156 | 14 | 50 | 92 |
Fisher's Hornpipe | 149 | 7 | 42 | 107 |
Billy in the Lowground | 155 | 16 | 41 | 99 |
Flop Eared Mule | 155 | 20 | 29 | 106 |
Sally Ann | 143 | 11 | 19 | 113 |
Mississippi Sawyer | 135 | 2 | 28 | 105 |
Jane Keefer, November, 2013 Return to Folk Music Index Homepage