Namp! Version 2.X This module takes a hierarchy of directories containing MP3, Ogg Vorbis, or Wav audio files and presents it as a browsable song library for streaming over the web. It requires the Apache web server, the mod_perl embedded Perl interpreter, and either or both of the MP3::Info and Ogg::Vorbis modules. 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 Namp! in action. See below for CHANGES. INSTALLATION 1. Prequisites This module requires mod_perl, MP3::Info 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 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 directory from the Namp! distribution. You may change the location of this directory by setting the I configuration variable. See the I section for more details. 4. Set Apache::MP3 to be the handler for the songs directory The core of Namp! is a perl module called Apache::MP3. In httpd.conf or access.conf, create a ELocationE or EDirectoryE 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: SetHandler perl-script PerlHandler Apache::MP3 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 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. AUTHOR Lincoln Stein,