Generally, not all browsers support all the facilities used by the SIFD Archive. The exception to this is the Mozilla Firefox browser which is a free dowload from Mozilla and should support all features of the archive. A portable copy of Firefox is included on the archive stick and is invoked with the SIFD Archive (Explore with Firefox browser).cmd included on the USB stick. Using this does not require Firefox to be installed on the computer but will be slower to start than a locally-installed copy.
Some known limitations of other browsers are:
The SIFD Archive makes extensive use of Javascript to provide all the functionality. Some browsers may default to not allowing Javascript and will need to be reconfigured to allow it. If you have internet access then this guide gives instructions on how to do this in various browsers.
Alternatively, download a browser (such as Chrome or Firefox) that defaults to allowing Javescript. There are also command files on the SIFD Archive stick that will run these browsers directly from the stick, and these should be shown when you select the stick in File Explorer. A double-click on either of these will run the Archive from the selected browser but may be slower than a locally installed copy of a browser.
It is not possible to write-protect the stick - and using the supplied browsers will write to the stick anyway. If you make a complete mess of the stick it can always be returned for a refresh for which a small fee will be payable.
Videos are in both m4v (MPEG-4 H264) and ogv (Ogg-Video) formats and most modern browsers can play one or the other. The selection of the appropriate format is completely automatic.
Audio is stored as mp3 encoded (MPEG-2, layer 3) files and should be universally playable.
Pictures files are stored as JPGs encoded to "high" quality.
Text files are stored as PDFs. Many browsers include built-in PDF support, but others may need a suitable PDF reader, such as Adobe Reader, to be installed.
Audio is mp3 encoded to a VBR (Variable Bit Rate) format (using the lame extreme option - supposed to be studio quality and of a superior quality to DAB digital radio). With a good quality source (like the original CD or equivalent master recording) it should be indistinguishable. Bear in mind that most of the SIFD material is originated from old masters (even 78s)! Other audio material is taken from cassettes and may be of variable quality. Audio quality will also be limited by the audio quality of the computer sound card and an external sound card may give better results.
Only a modern browser is required to browse the archive (and a couple for Windows are included on the stick). The archive is fully tested on Windows as this is the platform on which it is developed.
Minimal testing has been performed on Apple Macs, but it is expected to work fine with the Safari browser.
No testing has been done on Android, but it should work. To try with some Android devices it will need to be transferred to a suitable memory card, such as Micro-SD. Please tell us if you have tried it, and what the results are.
The contents are searchable by Dance name, Artist or Album and normal browser search facilities may be used (like Ctrl+F in Firefox). For example, to seach for a specific dance, select the Dances Sorted by Name page and then press Ctrl+F (or equivalent for your browser). Usually only a fragment of the name needs to be entered.
No program other than a suitable browser is required for searching.
Dance notes are generally stored as jpg image files in the archive. With the desired dance notes displayed, just swipe up diagonally (either to left or to the right) across the browser window and the browser print dialog should appear. The exact details of this dialog varies between browsers but will generally allow control of margins, running headers/footers and other printer-specific options.
Most sets of dance notes in the archive are also available as a pdf of the full set of notes for the album, and this may be printed (either in full or selected pages) using the browser printing facility. This may be preferred when several pages of notes from a specific album are required. As with printing the jpg image files, the exact details will vary between different browsers.
In the normal playlist Play track list mode, the next track will start playing when the previous track ends. In the Edit track list mode, the next track will be put in paused mode rather than played. When you are ready to play the track, click the Play button to start playing this track immediately, or the Restart button to play after any delay (if specified in the settings menu).
USB3 is preferred and will give the best performance. It will work fine with USB2, just slower. It is unlikely to work at all well (certainly not the video playback) with USB1.
These will be made available by returning the USB stick for a refresh for which a small fee will be payable. When available, updates will be announced, either on the SIFD website or in the SIFD Newsletter.
The archive contains all the material from the SIFD CDs, EPs & 78s (taken from the original master recordings where available) plus a few additional items that were rejected for the finished disks. The music from a selection of course cassettes that accompany SIFD dance courses is also included to allow the dances to be practised. In addition there is the full corpus of music kindly donated by the Živko Firfov group.
If you have hosted the archive on a server and are accessing the archive from an Apple device (like an iPad) you may create a web app (an icon on the one of the home screens). These create a manifest (a local cache) of frequently used parts of the web app. Whenever these parts are updated in new refreshes of the archive the web app will need to be recreated by accessing the new version of the archive from the Safari browser and then selecting Add to home screen. The new web app created can then be moved to the desired home screen and the old web app can be deleted.