Bootleg Database

NOTE as of 1/22/11, Bootleg Database is in a holding pattern. An upgrade to Rails 3 is in the works as there were too many strange bugs causing submitted performances to crash the application. And for whatever reason, the Sphinx search engine would not remain active. A complete graphical redesign is in the works as well.

My first real attempt at a Rails application. This site grew from a need to catalog and keep track of all of the live recordings I’d collected over the years as I’d find myself downloading the same show multiple times, resulting in wasted HDD space as well as torrent ratios.

I figured it was a good excuse to really test myself and see what Rails is made of/what I was capable of building in my free time using some things I’m deeply passionate about (music, web development and pushing myself to learn/grow) as the driving force behind it all without the worry of meeting corporate standards or anything else that comes with doing something for a company.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This site was designed after reading SitePoint’s Everything You Know About CSS is Wrong! using CSS tables which are not supported in IE below version 8.

The site turned into a bigger beast than I thought it would be after discussing the idea at a message board. It turned into not only a bootleg tracker/database, but also a live performance database. It’s possible to all sorts of data on bands, tours, songs, performances, performers, venues and addresses.

At the moment, it’s only open for Nine Inch Nails recordings and performances while I continue to test, improve and expand upon the platform. After all that is worked out, the plan is to open it to any/all bands and eventually to even offer a platform through which users can setup trades between one another.

Users have a collection that they can add and remove recordings too and the feature to track attendance at each show was recently added so users are able to have a chronology of all the concerts they’ve attended as well as see others who also attended.

Not only was this an awesome experience for learning a ton about Rails development and conventions, but it was a huge learning experience for advanced CSS design. The biggest thing I took away from CSS Tables layouts is that despite how much things have changed with CSS, it’s still quite the same.

With CSS Tables:

Developing them is not any faster or more efficient than the old school float-based layouts
It doesn’t offer the same flexibility or adaptability that float-based layouts have
You STILL have to design for IE6 and IE7

Maybe with CSS3 things will REALLY change for the better. Assuming it ever actually comes out…

NOTE: no recordings are hosted on the site. It is merely informational. Most bands (NIN especially) are fine with fans having and trading audio as long as no monetary gain is made from any of it.