New DiscoGS Authentication Requirement

Discogs
Discogs will start requiring authentication for searches starting August 15th. Unlike the previous image download authentication requirement that was implemented without announcement, this change has been announced via email to developers. This gave us plenty of time to work the needed changes into the upcoming releases. Especially important since the review time on the Mac App Store slows down immediate fixes. The latest CDpedia beta already has the new code in place for authentication.

The Discogs API already implemented a technology called OAuth for user authentication to private data such as collections and want list access. Although this is the wrong technology for the general search API, because it requires too much user interaction, it’s easier to integrate for developers. Taking this in mind it seems the Discogs developers have been generous enough to leave the search API without any limits on a per account basis, allowing for a single account sign on and the API to continue to operate without friction. So the new plugin is authenticating automatically with a CDpedia Discogs account and will continue to be as ease to use.

Should you for any reason want to authenticate with your own account, this can be done in the Preferences -> Sites by double clicking the gear button to the right of Discogs in the list of sites. It will expand the details view to full screen and load the Discogs site. Here you need to login, if not already logged in, and then approve CDpedia for access. From then on your own generated tokens for CDpedia will be used to authenticate into Discogs.

Also integrated into the update is a small change to beef up the genres. The styles information now goes into genre field if there is no custom field named “Styles”.

For big fans of Discogs, do take the CDpedia beta for a spin and if you find any issues with the new authentication please me us know.

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