Frequently Asked Questions

General

  1. What is Jukes?
  2. Why should I use Jukes rather than other programs to organize and play music?
  3. On which platform does it run?
  4. Does it run on Mac OS X?
  5. Where do I get help on Jukes?
  6. I have a question that is not addressed here. Where can I ask?

Using Jukes

  1. What are the prerequisites for using Jukes?
  2. How do I load my entire collection at once?
  3. How do I connect multiple machines to the same music collection on my network?
  4. Can I to copy my database to back it up?
  5. Do I need to be connected to the Internet to use Jukes?
  6. Can I share playlists with my friends?
  7. What version of tags do you use?
  8. What types of audio files does Jukes support?
  9. Can the Jukes really handle my large collection?
  10. What kind of "internal" db are you using? Will I still be able to browse this db with some kind of application? Write my own reports against that database?

Problems

  1. Why does the Amazon Web Service search only return 10 results?
  2. I get the following error: "JIntellitype.dll not found in java.library.path".

Development

  1. Can I contribute?
  2. Can I translate to my language?
  3. I think I found a bug in Jukes. What should I do?
  4. When will feature XYZ be implemented?

General

What is Jukes?
Jukes is a cross platform music player and organizer for people with large music collections.
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Why should I use Jukes rather than other programs to organize and play music?
The main features of Jukes that distinguishes it from similar programs is that it uses an internal database for indexing and quick access to your music. I know that Itunes uses a database also and but they don't seem to "get it". ITunes is an XML format which is slow and HUGE storage. Jukes allows mutliple users to connect to the same database and is written in Java so it works on all platforms supporting Java 1.6 or higher.
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On which platform does it run?
We provide some pre-compiled binaries for the Windows, Linux and MacOSX platforms but Jukes will run anywhere if there is a Java 6+ environment installed. Check the Download.
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Does it run on Mac OS X?
Yes it does. On MacOSX, you don't even have to install a Java environment, since it comes with the operating system, so you can start using Jukes right away! Although only MacOSX 10.5 or higher come with Java 6. It will not run on 10.4 or under.
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Where do I get help on Jukes?
This FAQ answers some frequent questions already, please read the it thoroughly.

If these resources don't help you with your problem, or if you think that you found a bug that is not yet documented, you should contact us.
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I have a question that is not addressed here. Where can I ask?
See our Contacts page.
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Using Jukes

What are the prerequisites for using Jukes?
Jukes is a Java application that is quite resource intensive. We recommend at least a 1 Ghz machine with 512 MEG RAM running JRE 6 or higher.
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How do I load my entire collection at once?
Under the Catalog menu option there is an Album Finder option. Just point this at a directory where your music is and it will try and find and load it all. This may take a while....
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How do I connect multiple machines to the same music collection on my network?
Please see the Remote Connection How-To section.
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Can I to copy my database to back it up?
Yes, it just a directory of 5 files that makes up the database. In Jukes you can do Tools->Backup Database and it will compact your files and put them in a ZIP file for you.
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Do I need to be connected to the Internet to use Jukes?
No. While HSQLDB uses TCP/IP and HTTP to connect it does so as localhost as default. The only feature you will not be able to use without a connection is the Amazon Web Service for album searches. This of course needs the Internet.
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Can I share playlists with my friends?
Yes, but only tracks they have in their database will be played. So if you send a friend a list of 10 songs but they only have 8 of them on their machine of course only those 8 tracks will be loaded. Playlists can either be saved as Winamp .M3U files or XSpiff .xspf files.
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What version of tags do you use?
For MP3's ID3v1.1 and ID3v2.4 are used. For OGG, FLAC, SPEEX the Vorbis Comment tags will be used. For APE the Monkey Audio tagging format is used.
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What types of audio files does Jukes support?
Currently Ogg Vorbis OGG, MP3 MPEG, Monkey Audio APE, FLAC Free Lossless Audio, and SPEEX Codec For Free Speech are supported.
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Can the Jukes really handle my large collection?
Yes. Jukes has been tested with a collection of 5000+ full albums with over 55,000 songs and a 320 GIG hard drive.
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What kind of "internal" db are you using? Will I still be able to browse this db with some kind of application? Write my own reports against that database?
Jukes is using an open source DB called HSQLDB. http://hsqldb.org/. It is the same internal database used in OpenOffice 2.0. Yes you can browse it using any JDBC compliant database tool like the wonderful Aqua Data Studio. http://www.aquafold.com/. Once you connect to the database your can query it any way you like for custom reporting. The JDBC connection URL is jdbc:hsqldb:hsql://127.0.0.1/jukes.
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Problems

Why does the Amazon Web Service search only return 10 results?
This is a limitation of the Web Service. Since Amazon offers it for free they only allow 10 results per search.
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I get the following error: "JIntellitype.dll not found in java.library.path".
You are using the Windows version of Jukes and JIntellitype.dll is not in the same location as the JAR or EXE or in Windows/System32.
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Development

Can I contribute?
Yes, please! Check out the contact page and contact us!
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Can I translate to my language?
Yes, please! Translations are welcome, check out contact page and contact us!
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I think I found a bug in Jukes. What should I do?
You should post it to the forums to make sure it is documented. If there is a strack trace associated with it in the (user_home)./jukes/juke.log that would be very helpful too.
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When will feature XYZ be implemented?
Depends. If it is something you really sorely need, you could (politely) try to exert some pressure on us. You can also try to pay us. Or try to implement your feature yourself and send us some patches. In any case, you should contact us about your problem.
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