Ask HN: Options for self-hosted media cataloguing tools?

4 points by Rumperuu 3 years ago | 1 comment

I currently track my media through a variety of sites (e.g., Goodreads for books, Letterboxd for films). I want to:

a) move from these services to something self-hosted; and

b) combine all the various types of media into a single catalogue.

The only two self-hosted tools for this that I've found so far are Bookwyrm and Koillection. Bookwyrm has interesting social features through ActivityPub, but as far as I can tell it isn't extensible to media other than books. Koillection is content-agnostic, but doesn't come with any default media types (inconvenient) doesn't appear to have any sort of import function for the data I export from the sites I'm currently using (dealbreaker).

The key features I would like are:

• visually customisable;

• record notes for each item catalogued;

• automatically retrieves cover art; and

• provides CSV importing.

Can anyone suggest anything that would fulfil these? As far as I can tell, unless someone can suggest something I've overlooked my options are:

• whip up something basic myself (but I'm time-limited at the moment so would like to avoid this if possible);

• use Bookwrym and modify it to extend the Book object; or

• use Koillection and try to manually import my data directly into the database.

CrypticShift 3 years ago |

I suggest you look at the latest iterations in No-Code/Lowcode Personal DBs, like https://www.getgrist.com/ (not the backend type like supabase)

You will have more flexibility and control over your DB Schema and Data. However, you will certainly loose most media-cataloguing related features.

> visually customisable.

They do offer some customization; you will have to see if it is enough for you.

> record notes for each item catalogued.

More than That, you can add any field you want (multi select…)

> provides CSV importing

More importantly, some provide Merge on import. So your can keep your Goodreads/Letterboxd (Social/Mobile...) and periodically merge them with your DB.

> automatically retrieves cover art

Some do have open APIs. In any case, you can write short custom python scripts for your needs (API or Web scraping), and use the merge function to update your DB. This will of course work for any metadata out there, not just cover art.