Introduction to Profiler tools 101

It may seem like DVD Profiler stopped being developed several years ago. That may or may not be true. But that doesn't mean that there are no new ways to use Profiler. There are a number of tools and plugins that extend the functionality of DVD Profiler. And I am here to tell you about some of them, mostly those that I have developed myself.

Note that there are several other users that have created tools and plugins. The main ones that are currently active are mediadogg and DJ Doena.

You can find all my tools here.

At the present you cannot add comments in this blog. Please use the appropriate Invelos forum threads for the respective programs for comments or questions. Should the Invelos forum become unavailable, you can use the DVD Profiler Users group in Facebook.

Exporting your collection

Most of my tools make use of an XML export of your collection. The easiest way of exporting your collection (if it's not a one time thing) is to create a command file.
For example, create a text file containing something like this:

CollectionType Owned
ExportXMLFiltered C:\Exports\Owned.xml

It should of course contain an appropriate path to a directory you have created.
Save that text file somewhere where you'll remember it. Maybe name it ExportOwned.txt.When you want to export your Owned collection, just click File / Run Command File in Profiler and select that text file. This will run the export without you having to answer any questions or make any further selections.

NOTE: In order to have the blog show the oldest post first, I had to manipulate the published time for the posts. This means that when you see "Older posts" at the bottom, that actually means "Newer posts". A bit of a shortcoming in Blogger's functions that you can't do this in a better way.

Latest post: Final Words.

Companion utilities

HTTPJolie by mediadogg

I don't do plugins. But thanks to HTTPJolie I can communicate with DVD Profiler better than just by sending keystrokes. So if your are using my tools, I strongly recommend that you also install the HTTPJolie plugin.

HTTPJolie has two functions. It was originally created to allow users to send commands to HTTPJolie and have the result sent back to the web browser. It was then expanded to allow inter program communication via FTP. That's the function that my programs use.

Note that to use the HTTP functions, DVD Profiler must be run with admin privileges. But to use the FTP functions, it should not.

You can get HTTPJolie here.

CastCrewEdit by DJ Doena.

This is a free standing tool, just like my programs are. My program CastCrewCheck can obtain cast and crew from IMDb via CastCrewEdit. Please note than in order for this to work, you must chose the 32 bit version of CastCrewEdit. Also note that after you have installed it (or installed a new version of it) you must run it by itself once, since it will then pop up a help screen that blocks the communication with CastCrewCheck.

You can get CastCrewEdit here.

ProfilerQuery basics

ProfilerQuery is a very powerful query tool that can also produce simple ad hoc reports. But, as with many powerful programs it can also be a bit overwhelming for a newcomer, so let me just give you a simple introduction.

 The two basic controls in ProfilerQuery are  Main Selection and Presentation. In the first you define the criteria for the search, for example all Blu-Ray profiles whose case type is not HD KeepCase or HD Slim. It would look like this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then you tell ProfilerQuery what data you want in the result. It might look like this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then you click RUN! and the result could look like this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can group the result. Drag CaseType up to the area above and get this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a lot more to learn about ProfilerQuery, and it is all spelled out in the help file. But this should be enough to to get you started.

 DvdpVerify and CastCrewCheck

These are two tools that work well together when you are trying to audit a profile, e.g. make sure that the information actually matches the data in the movie and on the cover.

DvdpVerify

 

This is a tool where you don't need the export file, if you have HTTPJolie installed. You can load the data directly from DVD Profiler.

As you watch the program you just check off the various items.

Tabs that are completely checked and has no errors will show a green signal. Tabs that are completed but has errors will show a red signal. Tabs that are not fully checked show yellow. When all tabs are green or red, you can edit the profile in DVD Profiler and make any corrections that are needed.

Note that the Cast & Crew tab does not have any details, just check boxes to mark that they have been verified. There are two reasons for that; the cast and crew verification is much more complex than the rest of the data, and I already had a separate program for that - CastCrewCheck.

CastCrewCheck

When you start DvdpVerify, CastCrewCheck will also be started if you have it installed, and the cast and crew from the profile will be loaded into CastCrewCheck.

 

If there is no cast/crew in the profile, or if it seems very incomplete, you cast get cast and crew from IMDb via CastCrewEdit. If you intend to contribute the updated profile, it is important that you make sure that the cast roles match the credits, as outlined in the DVD Profiler rules.

There is much more to learn about these programs in their respective help files.