Simple Web Client

Overview

Important: This web interface is has limited functionality. If you need a more functional and nice looking web interface then please use the advanced web client.

Features

Pros

Fast, mostly text-based interface
Most functions do not use JavaScript
Simple configuration of web server
Easier to manage track lyrics and album cover images than in the PalmClient.

Cons

Coarsly looking text interface
Limited functionality compared to the Palm Client or the advanced web client

Installation and Configuration

Download

Download the Simple Web Client package at SourceForge.

Installation

Upack the archive simplewebclient-*.tar.gz and copy the files and the img directory to a directory on your seb server, i.e. to ~/music/public_html/simplewebint/.

If you have an existin installation of the simple web client you may keep a copy of the file gdweb-settings.php. Then, all new files can be copied over the existing installation.

The web client needs to be able to access to the database. It assumes that the mysql server is on the local host, and does not need a password for the connection (This is the case in a default GiantDisc installation).

Client Configuration

For many operations, the web client needs to access to the GiantDisc server. According to the GD client-server model the web client can either control the same playlist as a PalmClient, or it can have it's on seperate playlist. In the file gdweb-settings.php the adress and port number of a GD server or a listener must be specified (variables $gd_server_host and $gd_server_port). Make a copy of gdweb-settings.php in order not to lose the settings when an updated version of the web client is installed in the future.

Apache Server Configuration

In order to search and browse for audio tracks and to play them in the playlist window, now special configuration of Apache is needed.

If you want to be able to download audio files or to display cove images, the media files must be accessible by Apache. HEre are some sample URLs to media files that are generated by this web client:

  http://yourhost/webint-install-dir/musichome/00/tr0x34ab83fd-3.mp3
  http://yourhost/webint-install-dir/musichome/02/img0x34ab83fd-00.jpg

The URLs above should be translated to accesses to the following files in the file system:

  ~music/00/tr0x34ab83fd-3.mp3
  ~music/02/img0x34ab83fd-00.jpg

There are two ways to accomplish this

Making a symbolic link from your webint install directory to ~music like this:
ln -s ~music ~music/webint-install-dir/musichome
you have to allow 'FollowSymLinks' in your http.conf.
Note: This method is simple, but inherently insecure because the entire directory ~music is exposed to the web

Redirecting accesses to musichome using alias or rewite rules in httpd.conf
Heres' an example apache configuration section:

### access to GiantDisc media files

# redirect accesses to musichome to /home/music
AliasMatch ^(.*)/musichome/(.*) /home/music/$2

# only allow access in subdirectories 00, 01, ... 99
<DirectoryMatch /home/music>
  Order allow,deny
  Deny from all
</DirectoryMatch> 
<DirectoryMatch /home/music/[0-9][0-9]>
  Order allow,deny
  Allow from all
</DirectoryMatch>

Screenshots

Special Functions

Genre Translation Table (Options Menu)

The genre translation table specifies, how a id3 genre can be translated to a GiantDisc genre. This is particularly useful if mp3 tracks with clean id3-tags including the genre tag are to be imported. It is worth spending some time to set up your personal genre hierarchy along with a translation table, in order to efficiently get meaningful genre metatags in the database.

Data Consistency Checks (Options Menu)

There are some functions available to check the consistency of the database and the media files.

Change Log

Version 1.0, April '06

Redevelopment of considerable parts of the simple web client.

New playlist window
Search function now uses the routines of the server instead of direct database access
Web interface settings are now stored in the database, and not in cookies

pre 1.0

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