Dropbox and SongBook question

Hi SFDonovan,

I have tried this and it doesn't work, unfortunately. Though if anyone has found a way to make it work, I would be very happy to be proved wrong.

The syntax for the url that you need to post in your browser address bar to get a song file to be processed by the Chordie renderer is:

http://www.chordie.com/chord.pere/my_server.com/my_directory/my_file.chopro

You replace this bit with the relevant part of the url for your file:

my_server.com/my_directory/my_file.chopro

(The file extension does not need to be ".chopro", it can be ".pro", ".txt", ".CRD")

For example, to avoid copywrite problems, here is a song that I have written:

This is the songfile on Dropbox that I access with the Linkesoft Songbook app on my iPhone (you should see a preview of the song file):

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g8ebcqp1b3tw4 … 20GCEA.txt

I have just uploaded the exact same file to a Google Site (you should be prompted to download the file)

https://sites.google.com/site/lizpanton … 20GCEA.txt

Both those links should work for you.

The first one, on Dropbox, should show you a preview of the contents of the file.

The second one, on the Google Site will prompt you to download the file, i.e. there is no preview.

I think that this might be why Dropbox does not play nice with the Chordie renderer, i.e. there is no way to get a direct download link to a file on Dropbox, only a link to a preview page - from which you must then select another link to download the file.

You can see how the Chordie renderer handles those two files by trying these links:

Song file on Google Sites - rendered by Chordie - as if by magic! :-)

http://www.chordie.com/chord.pere/sites … 20GCEA.txt

Song file on Dropbox - nothing to see here :-(

http://www.chordie.com/chord.pere/dropb … 20GCEA.txt

You don't have to use Google Sites to host song files in order to get them processed by the Chordie renderer. There are other options. It is just a shame that they do not include Dropbox!

I have written a couple of blog posts about how to "hijack" the Chordie renderer, in order to "publish" a Chordie Songbook containing songs that are not necessarily indexed by Chordie.

Chordie hijack Part 1:
http://ukes4fun.org.uk/2010/08/21/chord … our-songs/

Chordie hijack Part 2:
http://ukes4fun.org.uk/2010/08/21/chord … -songbook/

If you do decide to duplicate your song files somewhere other than Dropbox then you can, of course, also submit them to be indexed by Chordie so that they show up in Chordie search results.  See the Chordie FAQ and Contact Info for further details (the form to submit a song file url seems to have disappeared in the latest update to the site).

I hope this information is helpful - if disappointing!

Best wishes,

Liz
ps. if you or anyone else encounters any unexpected problems with the links I have posted, please comment so that I can see what the problem might be. The only link where there SHOULD be a problem is the one demonstrating that Dropbox does not work with Chordie, i.e.

http://www.chordie.com/chord.pere/dropb … 20GCEA.txt