Monday, December 20, 2010

Automatically backup a Rivendell database

I have just discovered that there is a Rivendell Macro for backing up
a database as often as you wish.

DATABASE BACKUP

Mnemonic: DB
Syntax:
DB !
Create a backup copy of the active Rivendell database in .

On my set up I made a new macro called back up database. It has only 2
lines in it.

DB /home/geoff/Downloads/RivendellBackUp/RD-Backup.sql!
RN /home/geoff/Downloads/RivendellBackUp/datestamp.sh!

The first line makes a new sql file called RD-backup.sql
The second line runs a shell script that renames the backup sql file
to the current day's date.

#!/bin/bash

#Special program to rename the current database back up with todays date.

#NOTE If sharing created files with windows users Colons eg : cannot be in filenames
#I suggest doing the date variable creation like this.
# currentdate=`date +%F-%H.%M.%S`
currentdate=`date +%F-%X`

sleep 30
mv ~/Downloads/RivendellBackUp/RD-Backup.sql
~/Downloads/RivendellBackUp/RD-$currentdate.sql


Note
I found that sometimes the Rivendell macros crash rdairplay so I now run from a command line the following script..... 


#!/bin/bash

currentdate=`date +%F-%X`

echo $currentdate

mysqldump -u rduser -pletmein --lock-tables=false Rivendell > /home/geoff/rivendell-backup/RD-$currentdate.sql



You can set up this macro to run daily weekly or whenever.

Rivendell Time Pips at the Top of Hour by Frederick JH

These instructions were written by Frederick JH and are very good

I made a pips tone audio file using Audacity. Using Generate>Tone from the
Audacity menu, I made a 800Hz, 3 seconds long audio file. I then used the
envelope tool to make 4 pips by pulling the audio level to nothing. The
first three pips are 150ms long starting on the 0 seconds, 1 second and 2
second marks. The fourth started at 2600ms and continued to the end of the
3 seconds.

Go into RDLibrary and create a macro cart. Call it something like "Pips
fade down and up". Then add the following three lines:

MD 1 -9 500!
SP 3000!
MD 1 0 1!



Then go into RDCatch and schedule this macro cart each hour at ??:59:57
Then again in RDCatch schedule a playback of your pips audio cart each
hour at ??:59:57

You need to have a playback output setup in RDAdmin>Manage Hosts> select
your host >Edit>RDCatch>Play Deck Setup a Play Deck to the same Card: and
Port: numbers as one of the Main Log outputs in RDAdmin>Manage Hosts>
select your host >Edit>RDAirplay

What is not real obvious is that you can setup more than one playback deck
for RDCatch. Just select another Play Deck number from the drop down then
set the Card: and Port: numbers to some thing other that None.

Explanation of the RML commands


MD 1 -9 500! => Deck fade Main Log(1) to -9dbFs in 500ms
SP 3000! => Sleep for 3 seconds (3000ms)
MD 1 0 1! => Deck fade Main Log(1) to 0dbFs in 1ms

One other tip, as you may be dreading making all those 48 events in
RDCatch there is a way to "copy" events. Make your original event save it,
then open it again to edit it. Next make the need changes for the new
event, in this case change the hour on the start time, then click the
"Save as New" button.


http://rivendell.tryphon.org/wiki/How_to_play_time_tone_pips_and_fade_the_currently_playing_audio