Uploading media (MP3) files

Question:

How do I upload my media for use with Centova Cast v2?

Answer:

Typically, media is uploaded via FTP. If FTP integration has been configured on your server, then the process is very similar to that of uploading files to a web site:

  1. Connect to your server's IP address (or domain name) using an FTP client. (If you don't already have an FTP client, we recommend SmartFTP or WinSCP).

  2. Login to the FTP server using your Centova Cast stream's username and password. Note that this is not your "admin" account; you need to use the actual username and password you specified when creating the stream in Centova Cast.

  3. Upon logging in, you should see a "media" directory. Open the "media" directory and upload your media files (i.e., MP3s) into this directory.

    Note: Depending on how your Centova Cast installation was setup, you may automatically be placed in the "media" directory. If you do not see a "media" directory when you login, then simply upload your media files into the current directory.

  4. Once your media files have been uploaded, be sure to login to Centova Cast's web interface, click "Manage Playlists", and then click "Update Media Library". This will allow Centova Cast to import all of your new media files, and retrieve the necessary song covers and affiliate information from Amazon.com (if enabled).

If you are unsure of whether FTP integration has been configured on your server:

  1. Did you pay for professional installation service from Centova Technologies? If so, the E-mail you received when your installation was completed should have indicated whether FTP integration had been setup. (Note that except in very unusual cases, we virtually always setup FTP integration during installation.)

  2. If you installed Centova Cast yourself, you should have seen a message near the end of the installation process (after running install.sh) which indicated whether or not FTP integration was configured automatically.

  3. If the install.sh script could not automatically setup FTP integration (due to an unexpected or non-standard pre-existing Pure-FTPd/ProFTPd configuration), you would have had to setup FTP integration manually by following the instructions of the installation guide.

  4. If in doubt, just try it. If you're able to login via FTP, then FTP integration is configured; if you get a "Login failed" error, then it's likely not.

Troubleshooting

I cannot login via FTP. I get an "Authentication failed" error.

This can mean one of a few things:

  1. You are entering an invalid username or password. You need to use your Centova Cast account's username and password. Make sure that you're not using the Centova Cast 'admin' account, and that you're not accidentally using your source authentication password instead of your server password.

  2. Certain FTP integration methods require that you wait up to 5 minutes after creating an account (or changing its password) before the FTP account will be usable. If you have not waited 5 minutes, please do so, then try again.

  3. If you are also using a web hosting control panel on the same server as Centova Cast, it's likely that you've created an account in the web hosting control panel with the same username as your Centova Cast account (but with a different password). You need to make sure that you never use the same username in your web hosting control panel and Centova Cast if you want to use FTP integration.

  4. If you are certain that your username and password are correct, FTP integration is likely not setup (or not setup correctly). You'll need to refer to the Centova Cast installation manual to perform FTP integration.

I cannot connect to my FTP server. I "connection refused" or "timed out" error.

This means your FTP server is not running or is blocked by a firewall. This is not a Centova Cast issue -- please contact your systems administrator.

I can login fine, but I don't see any "media" directory.

Do you see any directories at all? If not, but you are able to upload files, it's likely that your FTP server was setup to place you in the media directory automatically. If so, just upload your media to the current directory.

If you do see other files or directories, but no media/ directory, then this likely means that you are logged into the wrong account. Check that you do not already have an account on your server with the same username.

For example, if your Centova Cast username is jsmith, and you also have a web hosting account on the server with the username jsmith, the FTP server will not be able to determine which account you want to login to. It will arbitrarily choose between the two, usually giving preference to the web hosting account.

The solution is to ensure that you always use unique usernames when creating accounts in Centova Cast.

I can login fine, but I encounter an error when I try to upload.

Depending on the error message, this could mean one of a few things:

  1. If the error mentions disk quotas or disk space, it's likely that you've exceeded your disk quota. Delete some files and try again.

    It's also possible that the server itself is out of disk space. Again, free up some space on the server and try again.

  2. If the error mentions a permissions problem (such as "Permission denied", "Access denied", or similar) then your Centova Cast installation is likely damaged -- this would indicate a permissions problem with your /home/centovacast/vhosts directory or the subdirectories/files it contains. Refer to this article for recovery information.

Do I have to use FTP integration?

No, Centova Cast does not require that you use FTP integration. In fact, Centova Cast does not care how you place your media on the server.

When a Centova Cast stream account is created, Centova Cast creates a directory named:

/home/centovacast/vhosts/USERNAME/var/spool/media/

This is the media directory for the stream, and you simply need to place your media files in this directory to use them with Centova Cast. Centova Cast's FTP integration feature automatically stores uploaded files in the directory above, but you can also place your media files there through other means. For example:

  • You could setup a Samba share to copy files over a local network from a Windows machine.

  • You could create symbolic links in the media directory to point to other directories on the server, thus allowing a single stream to use media from a number of different directories, or allowing multiple streams to share the same directory.

  • For server-to-server transfers, you could use rsync, scp, or similar to copy media directly into the media directory.

  • If your users already have a home directory on the server (perhaps created by a hosting control panel, for example), you could create a symbolic link in the media directory to point to a subdirectory of the user's existing home directory. This would allow the user to use a single FTP account for both web hosting and streaming media.

Note that all of the above examples require varying degrees of setup and configuration outside of Centova Cast and are not officially supported by Centova Technologies; these are simply examples of options available to a skilled systems administrator.

Important note: Any media placed in a stream's media directory must be readable by the centovacast UNIX user account. It does not necessarily need to be owned or writable by the centovacast account, however you will definitely encounter errors if any of your media files (or the media directory itself) is unreadable.

FTP integration has not been setup. What do I do?

You have two options. Either:

  1. Setup FTP integration. Refer to the Centova Cast installation guide for instructions.

  2. Manually place your media on the server as described in the section above.

My Centova Cast partition is too small. Can I place my media on another partition?

Yes. Please refer to this article for instructions.

Can I force Centova Cast to use media already on the server?

Yes. Simply create a symbolic link in the Centova Cast account's media directory pointing to the existing media directory, as described in this article.

My users have uploaded media to their home directories. Can Centova Cast use that?

Yes. Simply create a symbolic link in the user's Centova Cast media directory pointing to the user's home directory, as described in this article.

Can I pre-load a "default" set of media into my new client accounts?

Yes, please refer to this article.

Can I automatically create a symbolic link for media files in each new account?

Yes, this is possible but you need shell scripting experience. Login to your server via SSH and read /home/centovacast/system/scripts/README for more information about Centova Cast's Event Notification Scripts system.

Alternately, you can also do this by placing a symlink in the skeleton directory as described in this article.

NOTE: This article is for Centova Cast v2 only; an alternate version exists for Centova Cast v3.