Hey guys...i'm really busting **** here trying to find an answer for weeks!

I'm in the process of opening a major web station, managing playlist and content can be excruciating and i know that some stations have something like that in their stations, what i want to achieve is to open an ftp account to each DJ, and he uploads his content to the folder, the Auto dj reads the content of that folder and automatically play that file...dose anyone know of some kind of script that exist to do this? or am i looking at the wrong software to do this?..i'm on the hunt for a VPS and considering Centova for it...but is this doable?

Thank you for your help, Guy.

Hi Guy, I see you also sent us a email asking the same question, sorry for the delay, and I don't mean to sound like a Centova Cast salesman but your not going to find another product that can beat Centova as far as features goes, others try, even I have tried but developing a control panel such as this is much more work than you would think. Some providers have built control panels for their hosting company, and some work very well but still do not compare. If you were going to develop a panel just for your needs that is possible, and free (SHOUTcast & the auto dj scripts are free), however even then you've got a lot of coding to do if you want to control it through a web browser.


 

what i want to achieve is to open an ftp account to each DJ, and he uploads his content to the folder, the Auto dj reads the content of that folder and automatically play that file

Centova already allows this, but only per account and you must move each song to a Centova Cast playlist. You could allow your dj's access to your files via FTP, even create a folder in your /media folder for each DJ, and  a special playlist for each DJ. The newer version has a lot more support for this,
http://www.centova.com/data/themes/centova2/images/v3tour/djs.png

Right now with the current version you would need to give them your Centova password

The Centova Cast API sounds like what you would also want to look into http://www.centova.com/docs/cast/centovacast_xml_api.php

As far as a web based & server based auto dj Centova is it. It's very stable and has very little problems which means less support tickets! We have been selling it since 2008 and have done very well, it sells itself! 

Hi.

Thanx for taking the time to reply.

Well.. basically what i need is to eliminate the need in 'updating media library' all the time and just simply...every file i uploaded, gets into the respected playlist according to the folder i open in /media/***...the character of this station is only prerecorded sets, which means no live dj's or sam software usage. only mp3 files with autodj..that is why i need the room to wiggle with this.

i'm not that techi so i dont really understand the API instructions you sent me, but it sounds like theres a solution there? if so can you guide to the basics?

Also..i do think Centova 3 can answer my questions, but its not for purchase right? only at beta stage?

The new version does the updating media library for you, and I think you can automatically have it placed in, say the General Rotation folder using their API (not sure about that)  but you could hire a coder from freelance.com or scriptlance.com, or Centova may even be able to assist you if you open a ticket

Yes v3 is what you want, it's what I want also but I have not been able to get it to run stable yet, they give you a free 30 day license, if you had a fresh server or vps please let me know I would be happy to install it for you., the problems I had with it may just be due to my providers servers or configurations, others do not seem to have problems but I think only a handful are actually running it.

I see...looking into the API documents i can see there are serious answers for my questions..espacialy in the update media library API..where can i edit these API's?

As for v3..if i purchase a VPS i can use v3 for just a month? no way to keep using it after it with a purchased license?

Also..a bit off topic..but i was looking at these VPS's http://www.hostv.com/vps-server.shtml and i was wondering..in order to have about 200 listeners in 2 - 4 hours a day at peak and 150 the rest of it...would these packages be good for me? i wont lie i looked at your packages also but i dont have that kind of money right now, i need a VPS but low cost monthly and powerful enough to hold these numbers.

If i can keep the V3 after the trial i would be thankful if you could install it ofcourse

You would need a coder to connect the API with your installation to do as you wanted, shouldn't be too hard a job, about $50 I would guess

You get a month free, after that it's per month and depends on the amount of accounts you have http://www.centova.com/pages/castpackages/

The unmetered bandwidth is a plus but the 100M port is not, low cost and online radio do not mix, buffering music will quickly end your SHOUTcast biz. 1 GIG or ram should be the bare minimum. I would give you a referral but I can only install if it's through someone else I already know it does not work with the providers we use

I See...so basically i need a 1GiG port minimum?

Sucks you cant install it i need the help as you can tell lol but ill try to manage!

btw, to install Centova do i need 'unmanaged VPS'? or managed?

I really thank you for your help buddy!!

No sorry I meant RAM, 1GIG of RAM is about the least you can have or SHOUTcast will not run right, a 100M port would work but a 1G is better

The un-managed means the provider will not help you unless their equipment fails, managed means you have a system admin to manage your server.

Both v2 and v3 require some command line knowledge, v2 is a lot more work to install v3 is a breeze but you will need to know how to set up DB and run commands in something like Putty

lol..ill try to find a 1gig ram servers out there..hope fully metered bandwidth with 4TB will be suffice .

I'm sure theres a guide to install Centova 3 out there to total noobs ?!

http://www.centova.com/doc/manuals/centovacast/quickref/quickstart.html

Thank you for your help buddy!!

v2.x doesn't bundle its own FTP server (it works with your existing FTP server) so it has no way to know when users have uploaded files.  But if you really wanted this functionality you could add a cron job to run, say, every 5 minutes and run:

Code: [Select]

/usr/local/centovacast/system/runascc/runascc exec ccmanage reindex USERNAME
That'll pull in any new files into the media library. 

Creating per-DJ playlists is a separate exercise... this is just off the top of my head but the process would be roughly as follows:

Under your media directory create directories for each DJ, named with the DJ's name.  Say, DJFoo and DJBar.

In Centova Cast, create playlists which have corresponding titles (DJFoo and DJBar).

Then create a cron job to run:

Code: [Select]

# remove all tracks with "DJFoo" in the path (i.e., under media/DJFoo) from the DJFoo playlist
/usr/local/centovacast/system/runascc/runascc exec ccmanage playlist --playlistname=DJFoo --action=remove --trackpath=DJFoo

# add all tracks with "DJFoo" in the path (i.e., uinder media/DJFool) to the DJFoo playlist
/usr/local/centovacast/system/runascc/runascc exec ccmanage playlist --playlistname=DJFoo --action=add --trackpath=DJFoo

Repeat for each DJ.

That second cron job should be scheduled to run only when the DJFoo playlist is NOT active... if you remove all the tracks from the playlist while it's active, bad things will happen.

Whoops, I have CCv3 on the brain... For v2, /usr/local/centovacast/system/runascc/runascc should actually be /home/centovacast/system/runascc/runascc in all of the above commands.

DUDE..your awesome! hehehe you practically automated my job to the max! thank you so much sir.

So i just wont give the remove command..just the add..and remove the tracks from the playlist manualy.

btw..d you think you can answer the meta tags problem in V3? its not showing, only (null)...

Lets say you provide a fix for this, how ready is V3 Beta2 to broadcast?

If you don't use the remove command, it'll re-add all of the tracks to the playlist every time the cron job runs.  (There is no duplicate prevention, because some folks create complex playlists where a specific track is intended to play multiple times.)  So your playlist will grow out of control after awhile.

As for v3, if you can post a bug report in the v3 beta forum with instructions to reproduce it, we'll check it out.  Thanks...