TuneTracker™ QuickTip

Directly Playing Songs Stored Elsewhere

Note: The following information is about a third-party feature which we do not support. It's very, very cool, but use it at your own risk. It might cause lockups or crashes. We haven't tested it enough yet to know for sure how and where it might impact on your TuneTracker broadcast.

SCENARIO:  There are so many potential scenarios it's hard to narrow it to just one, but let's just say, you want your TuneTracker radio station to play songs off computers located elsewhere on your local area network, off a computer somewhere else in town, or even off a computer located somewhere else in the world.

SOLUTION:   FTP-FS. FTP-FS allows you to "mount" any computer, anywhere, as if it was a hard drive on your local TuneTracker machine. It shows up in a desktop "tracker" window, and you can drag and drop files from it into local folders, etc. So far, it sounds nice, but ho-hum. However, the integration is so complete that you can literally add lines to your program log that will let you PLAY AUDIO FILES straight off the other computer!

The following instructions make it seem more complicated than it is. Once you've installed the program and tried it a bit, you'll find this is all very straightforward.

1. The left and right arrow buttons let you flip through pages and pages of MyShow buttons, all configured exactly as you want them.
2. Download FTP-FS from BeBits.
   
3. The left and right arrow buttons let you flip through pages and pages of MyShow buttons, all configured exactly as you want them.
4. Unzip the downloaded zipfile and open the resultant installation folder.
   
5. The left and right arrow buttons let you flip through pages and pages of MyShow buttons, all configured exactly as you want them.
6. Open a Terminal window (/boot/apps/Terminal)
   
7. The left and right arrow buttons let you flip through pages and pages of MyShow buttons, all configured exactly as you want them.
8. Drag and drop install.sh into your Terminal window, then select your Terminal window and hit Enter. This will install FTP-FS. You only need to do this once.
   
9. The left and right arrow buttons let you flip through pages and pages of MyShow buttons, all configured exactly as you want them.
10. You wouldn't have to, but it's probably best to reboot at this point.
    
11. The left and right arrow buttons let you flip through pages and pages of MyShow buttons, all configured exactly as you want them.
12. Make a copy of the bookmark file found in the "bookmarks" folder of your FTP-FS installation folder.
    
13. The left and right arrow buttons let you flip through pages and pages of MyShow buttons, all configured exactly as you want them.
14. Edit the bookmark copy and put in the loginformation for the FTP server you wish to mount.
    
15. The left and right arrow buttons let you flip through pages and pages of MyShow buttons, all configured exactly as you want them.
16. Click "Save and Mount."
    
17. The left and right arrow buttons let you flip through pages and pages of MyShow buttons, all configured exactly as you want them.
18. After a few seconds, a normal Tracker window will appear, showing your remote computer.
    
19. The left and right arrow buttons let you flip through pages and pages of MyShow buttons, all configured exactly as you want them.
20. Browse to the location of the file you want to play.
    
21. The left and right arrow buttons let you flip through pages and pages of MyShow buttons, all configured exactly as you want them.
22. If you have Tracker set up to display paths at the top of the window, you can now copy-and-paste the path information into your format clock, master log, or program log. To the path information, you'll need to type-in the filename. Be sure to include the word "Play" ahead of it if it is anything other than a finished program log. A typical path and filename will look something like this (we have used generic wording for the connection information):
    
    /boot/home/ftpfs/username@www.domain.com/public_html/audio/thenews.mp3

MOST PROMISING USES

Probably the most exciting and promising way to use this feature is when playing a routine file that is kept fresh on another machine; one that your programming calls for routinely such as a newscast or weather report, a daily or hourly feature, etc.

For example, suppose your radio station is downtown, and you're at home. You want to always do the news and weather right at your home desktop, and you don't want to always have to upload the latest version to your downtown computer. Now, the downtown computer can play the files straight off your desktop at home.

Or, maybe you work with/collaborate-with people in other areas who create broadcast content for you. With this system, all they have to do is set up an FTP server and you can play their contents straight off their machine. No need to download it.

The server end will, of course, need to be running an FTP server. If the server machine is running Haiku®, that's as simple as going into Network preferences, choosing "Settings," and enabling the FTP server's x-box. Put in a username and password, and save.


LEAST PROMISING USES

Since TuneStacker needs direct access to Haiku® file attributes, something not available via FTP, FTP-FS can't be used to randomly search for and add remotely-stored music as TuneStacker generates program logs. For that reason, it's not terribly practical as a way of playing music.


TELL US HOW IT GOES!

If you try it, please tell us! We would like to know about any implementations of this system, and how they go for you.

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