Is there hope for CCLI SongSelect integration?

As many folks know, the CCLI SongSelect importer in openlp.org has been disabled due to problems with the service. What many people don't know is that all the applications out there that interface with SongSelect are actually pretending to be web browsers, and are painstakingly pulling the information out of the SongSelect web pages.

The reason openlp.org (and many other presentation applications) stopped working with SongSelect was because CCLI was busy moving their systems from a ColdFusion-based setup to an ASP.NET-based setup (to be honest, I'm not sure if that's an improvement). I took a look at SongSelect again today, and it seems like they have finished the conversion and are now in full swing with the ASP.NET system.

This is both good news and bad news for us. The good news is that it means that we can integrate with SongSelect again. The bad news is that ASP.NET is a terrible system (for reasons I won't go into right now) and it's gonna take a very long time to get the SongSelect integration working again.

We're going to look into getting it going for release with openlp.org 1.2, but unfortunately we can't make any promises.

Re: Is there hope for CCLI SongSelect integration?

CCLI SongSelect integration is highly highly over-rated.

Why?  CCLI SongSelect lyrics are chaotic, inconsistent and require manual editing ANYWAY.

 

1. Each CCLI song starts with chorus -- whether or not you (or the artist) sings it that way.

2. Bridge is marked as "other".

3. Pre-chorus is sometimes mislabeled or not labeled at all.

4. Line breaks are done at every vocal phrase (when you take a breath).  In my experience, most songbooks I've done required 2-3 phrases to be combined into one line.

 

In short, my 800 page worship team songbook required EACH AND EVERY CCLI SONG lyric to be manually edited. I've used CCLI SongSelect for 5 years and know it in and out.  I even found about 6 lyric/typo errors which I reported to CCLI.

 

In summary, let's compare:

NEW SOLUTION w/ CCLI SongSelect Integration: copy, paste, edit.

CURRENT SOLUTION: copy paste and edit.

 

Can someone tell me the difference?  I see none.

Re: Is there hope for CCLI SongSelect integration?

Hi there, we are using the import feature to SongSelect and like it a lot. It is a lot easier than copy and paste as it puts the chorus and verses onto different slides right away and includes the copyright information as well. Over here in Germany the lyrics seem to be of high quality. Bridge is also marked as other but do you know any other song database that is legal and has more songs / better quality? Yes, maybe some songs have to be edited but it is still the best solution to get lyrics into OpenLP that is out there.

Re: Is there hope for CCLI SongSelect integration?

As an ASP.Net developer I would have to disagree with your assessment of the technology.  It is actually quite good, but like anything, if you don't have good developers, the best tools are of no use.  That being said, I'm investigating the use of openlp in our church and was curious as to how the integration with SongSelect is?  You're welcome to send me a message if you'd like.

Thanks

Doug