Apache::MP3 Version 4.0

This module takes a hierarchy of directories containing MP3, Ogg
Vorbis, or Wav audio files and presents it as a browsable and
searchable song library for streaming over the web.  It requires the
Apache (version 2) web server, the mod_perl (version 2) embedded Perl
interpreter, and either or both of the MP3::Info and Ogg::Vorbis
modules. In addition, you must have Locale::Maketext and CGI::Session
installed.

Audio files are displayed in a list that shows the title, artist, duration
and bitrate.  Subdirectories are displayed with "CD" icons. The user can
download an MP3 file to disk by clicking on its title, stream it to an MP3
decoder by clicking on the "play" link. Users can also stream the entire
contents of a directory, or select a subset of songs to play.

A DEMO is available at http://www.modperl.com/Songs.  In this demo, stream
time is limited to 30 seconds in order to avoid copyright infringement.

See the "screenshots" directory for some pictures of Apache::MP3 in action.

See below for CHANGES.

INSTALLATION

1. Prequisites

This module requires mod_perl, MP3::Info, MP3::Icecast and Locale::Maketext,
all of which are available on CPAN.  Locale::Maketext in turn requires
I18N::LangTags.

2. Configure MIME types

Apache must be configured to recognize the mp3 and MP3 extensions as MIME
type audio/mpeg.  Add the following to httpd.conf or srm.conf:

 AddType audio/mpeg mp3 MP3
 AddType audio/playlist m3u M3U

If you plan to use Shoutcast-style playlists, add the following as well:

 AddType audio/x-scpls pls PLS

If you plan to use Ogg Vorbis, add the following as well:

 AddType application/x-ogg ogg OGG

3. Install icons and stylesheet

This module uses a set of icons and a cascading stylesheet to generate its
song listings.  By default, the module expects to find them at the url
/apache_mp3.  Create a directory named apache_mp3 in your document root,
and copy into it the contents of the F<apache_mp3> directory from the
Apache::MP3 distribution.

You may change the location of this directory by setting the I<BaseDir>
configuration variable.  See the I<Customizing> section for more details.

4. Set Apache::MP3 to be the handler for the songs directory

In httpd.conf or access.conf, create a E<lt>LocationE<gt> or
E<lt>DirectoryE<gt> section, and make Apache::MP3 the handler for this
directory.  This example assumes you are using the URL /Songs as the
directory where you will be storing song files:

  <Location /Songs>
    SetHandler perl-script
    PerlHandler Apache::MP3
  </Location>

If you would prefer the song file listing that allows the user to sort it
in various ways, set the handler to use the Apache::MP3::Sorted subclass
instead.  A further elaboration is Apache::MP3::Playlist, which uses
cookies to manage a persistent playlist for the user.

5. Load MP3::Info in the Perl Startup file (optional)

For the purposes of faster startup and memory efficiency, you may load the
MP3::Info module at server startup time.  If you have a mod_perl "startup"
file, enter these lines:

  use MP3::Info;
  use Apache::MP3;

6. Set up song directory

Create a directory in the web server document tree that will contain the
audio files to be served.  The module recognizes and handles
subdirectories appropriately.  I suggest organizing directories
hierarchically by artist and/or album name.

If you place a file named "cover.jpg" in any of the directories, that
image will be displayed at the top of the directory listing.  You can use
this to display cover art.

If you place a list of .mp3 file names in a file with the .m3u extension,
it will be treated as a playlist and displayed to the user with a
distinctive icon.  Selecting the playlist icon will download the playlist
and stream its contents.  The playlist must contain relative file names,
but may refer to subdirectories, as in this example:

  # file: folk_favorites.m3u
  Never_a_Moment_s_Thought_v2.mp3
  Peter Paul & Mary - Leaving On A Jet Plane.mp3
  Simon and Garfunkel/Simon And Garfunkel - April Come She Will.mp3

7. Set up an information cache directory (optional)

In order to generate its MP3 listing, Apache::MP3 must open each sound
file, extract its header information, and close it.  This is time
consuming, particularly when recursively generating playlists across
multiple directories.  To speed up this process, Apache::MP3 has the
ability cache MP3 file information in a separate directory area.

To configure this, choose a directory that the Web server has write access
for, such as /usr/tmp.  Then add a configuration variable like the
following to the <Location> directive:

 PerlSetVar  CacheDir       /usr/tmp/mp3_cache

If the designated directory does not exist, Apache::MP3 will attempt to
create it, limited of course by the Web server's privileges.  You may need
to create the mp3_cache directory yourself if /usr/tmp is not world
writable.

TESTING IT

Open up the MP3 URL in your favorite browser.  You should be able to see
directory listings, and download and stream your songs.  If things don't
seem to be working, checking the server error log for messages.

Run "perldoc Apache::MP3" for more configuration information.

CHANGES

See Changes.

AUTHORS

Lincoln Stein, <lstein@cshl.org>
