How do I get Widgetbox's "Flash MP3 Player" to recognize my XSPF file through yolasite.com?

Not sure how to check that, but I'll play around with it later today. Thanks again!

Hi again, Dave. Do you happen to know of any free online file hosting sites that allow for manual configuration of MIME types? It seems like that's the issue with both hosts I've tried so far. (Simplicity + Free = Less flexibility.)

Additionally, do you happen to know - once I have the XSPF file hosted in a correctly configured location - will I have to host my mp3s in that same location? Or can I keep them on my Yola site's File Manager?

Thanks again for your help so far.

- - -

Perhaps there's an easier way besides XSPF to use the Flash Mp3 Player Widget? It also reads RSS feeds, but I don't know an efficient way of creating an RSS feed containing just mp3 files from my hard drive.

One thing I did get to work was creating a new blog just for this playlist, and using its RSS feed as the link in the Widget. But creating a new blog for each playlist seems like a wasteful and cumbersome solution!

I'm not aware of any free hosting sites that allow you to configure MIME types. Sorry! Also not aware of any good alternate MP3 widgets. You could always contact the developer for some help.

http://www.widgetbox.com/developer/ba...

Hi Kyle, I'm the developer of that widget.

What you can do to try to serve the file properly is to use PHP to proxy your playlist file. Try this:

Create a folder and put your XSPF file in it. Name your XSPF file "playlist.xspf". Create a PHP file and put it in that folder too. Let's call the PHP file "proxy.php".

In the PHP file, use this code:

<?php

header('Content-type: application/xspf+xml');
readfile('playlist.xspf');
flush();

The above code should be saved into your PHP file. There should be no whitespace (new lines, extra spaces, etc.) before the <?php.

Try this out and let me know how it turns out!

My host, yola.com, doesn't allow upload of .php or .html files. So an XSPF solution seems hopeless for a web-design newbie like me!

I think I'll try the RSS route instead. My new plan is:

1.) Create a new (hidden) webpage that includes my playlist's mp3s
2.) Create an RSS feed of that page, and
3.) Input that feed URL through the Flash MP3 Player widget.

...Does that sound reasonable?

If that doesn't work, I'll let you know. Thank you both again for all your help!

Your RSS feed MUST include <enclosure> tags for that to work--it's not the <link /> tags that matter.

What you can try is to make your RSS feed by hand (using enclosures), then save it as a .xml file. Try uploading the XML file and use that as your playlist.

XSPF is a bit of an obscure format for site hosts...XML is a lot more common and should be supported by a company like Yola.</enclosure>

Thank you again, Matt. Incredibly helpful. Yes, Yola does allow XML.

And thanks for the tip about the enclosure tags. I hadn't included them originally.

Since I've moved away from the XSPF solution, I started a new thread about using RSS with your widget:
http://getsatisfaction.com/widgetbox/...

Any further thoughts? :)

Hi
I'm still having this problem - no matter what I do....it still won't play my .xspf file. Please help. I've implemented your php solution to no avail...
a.

This widget won't play my xspf file no matter what I do - I've thried the php solution - to NO avail!
I would like to use rss too....BUT with this widget - I like the feature where it shows art as well....please help asap!

Hi a, I'm the developer of this widget. Could you provide the link to your XSPF feed? Thanks

Matt

Sure:
http://ottawacitizennews.com/podasset...

I looked at your feed, and the player needs full track information to properly render your playlist. You only have one track in there at the moment and no track details. The player needs more information than that to put something together.

If you're looking to play only one file, check out my other widget: http://widgetbox.com/widget/mp3

Thanks

Matt

Can you send me an example of a .xspf file that it should be like? I'm not sure what you mean by full track information....
Thanks!

It still doesn't work - I am using this code from the .xspf website:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<playlist>
<tracklist>
<track>
<location>http://example.com/song_1.mp3</location>

<!-- artist or band name -->
<creator>Led Zeppelin</creator>

<!-- album title -->
<album>Houses of the Holy</album>

<!-- name of the song -->
<title>No Quarter</title>

<!-- comment on the song -->
<annotation>I love this song</annotation>

<!-- song length, in milliseconds -->
<duration>271066</duration>

<!-- album art -->
<image>http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00...</image>

<!-- if this is a deep link, URL of the original web page -->
<info>http://example.com</info>

</track>
</tracklist>
</playlist>

My page is at http://www.ottawacitizennews.com/pod/

the path to the xspf is www.ottawacitizennews.com/pod/playlis...

Please help!

Hi all!

I'm releasing a new version of the Flash Mp3 widget this afternoon. It includes an updated parsing engine. Please make sure all XSPF feeds:

- Have a playlist title (a <title></title> element in the <playlist></playlist> tag)
- Have proper information for each item (title, location, image, etc.)

Also, XSPF feeds should (from here on out) be served with the MIME type text/xml. On most servers, you can save your feed with a .xml extension and this will already be properly configured.

Thanks!

Matt

One other note: you need a crossdomain.xml file in the root of your site. For reference, check out mine:

http://cdn.serverboy.net/crossdomain.xml

Notice that it isn't in any folders. Your crossdomain.xml file MUST be on the same subdomain as your playlist.

Matt, Thanks for that
I have a question: If I use this player in the widget and I upload my mp3s to the server and new xspf file....will the payer automatically/dynamically update? Please tell me it will! (but I suspect it doesn't...)
Thanks!
a.

Hi a

It sure does! It actually downloads a new copy of the playlist every time a user hits it. So it's always up to date.

Thanks

Matt