On-demand playlists of more than one track

[kilucas]

I downloaded the version called IR On-demand Scan Dir - v-2.0. I've provided somee comments on my experiences below but please don't interpret any of them as criticisms - I'm not knowledgeable enough to be certain of what I think I've found and the coders might not intend it to be a fully rounded suite.

I unzipped it into a local folder and then set my web server (MS PWS 4) to provide an alias called 'ondemand' for the local folder. This meant that http://<myserver>/ondemand/index.asp would invoke the index.asp file provided in the download. Effectively the download is a little web site.

To get this ondemand web site to work with your music files and with SHOUTcast on demand you have to tell it where to find your music (this is a reference to the folder in which all your mp3s are stored - they can be in sub-folders as well), and you have to tell it where on your hard drive the folder called 'temp' is that is unzipped from the download. This fooled me for ages (because I hadn't spotted that such a folder had been unzipped). Here's what I believe the sitee does.

It records key parameters in the file called setup.inc that you edit with a text editor and it's key you get them right. I found most of them obvious except 'tempdir' - the hard drive reference to the unzipped temp folder. On my PC this became C:\<intermediate path folders>\ondemand\temp\ because 'ondemand' was the folder I unzipped to and the unzipping process created the temp folder within it. Don't miss the '\' off the end.

The Web site will look at all your music folders and files and allows you to specify which files will be added to a playlist. It keeps track of this file list in a cookie and then transfers the list to a true playlist file (.pls) only at the point when you say you want to listen to the music you've selected.

At this point the site manufactures the .pls and places it wherever you've specified as 'tempdir'. It then redirects your browser to http://<your web pathname>/temp/<the playlist it just manufactured>.pls. This is the web reference to exactly the same playlist that has just been placed in the 'tempdir' location which is why the site doesn't work if 'tempdir' points somewhere else - a playlist gets made but the browser looks for it in the wrong place.

Redirecting the browser to the .pls invokes your default .pls player (Winamp, Real, etc). The playlist contains calls to the SHOUTcast ondemand content which then gets played.

I've encounteered some quirks that I'll mention in case they should affect you.

I've already mentioned that tthe folders and files aaren't necessarily listed in alphanumeric order and I see that the coders are considering adjusting this.

I found that apostrophes in folder or file names could mean that folders appeared to be empty when they were not. removing the apostrophes cured the problem.

I find there's a limit to the number of files you can select succesfully and it varies. I'm guessing it's due to a restriction in the amount of text the cookie will hold as I appear to be able to hold more items on the list when their pathnames are short.

As the file list is held in a cookie you will find you return to the site with yourr last list intact. (You'll also see that you can't clear it without visiting a folder that contains music files rather than just sub-folders).

I find I'm unable to play some lists consistently across PCs that default to Winamp and Real as ttheir .pls playeer. I think culprit will turn out to be filename that contain commas, long filenames or perhaps where unsual characters appear in the file name such as an umlaut in a pianists name. Some of these filenames were constructed via the CDDB lookup from the CD_Reader Winamp input plugin so I may have to look more carefully at how I name (or maybe tag?) files.

On the whole I think it does what I wanted even though the non-alpha sorting gets pesky for long lists. I think the rest comes down to me getting my file names into acceptable shape (although it'd be better still if I didn't have to). So thanks to the coders for this.

I intend to look at the MP3toolbox offering as it sounds as if it may be a little more comprehensive. Unfortunately PHP is foreign to me and, I suspect, my web server. So I'm having to check out what's involved in PHP-enabling the web server first.

Hope this helps.

Kevin