[icecast] Status.xml

Wed Dec 17 07:20:19 UTC 2003

Hi Mike and Oddsock,

Thanks for your VERY quick answer! The whole Icecast community definitely
rocks and it's always a pleasure to get answers from guys who know what they
are talking about :-)

I am interested in the XML file because I would like to retrieve the ID3
tags (Artist and Song) into my Flash client from the XML file. I already
retrieved the ID3 tags directly from the streaming flow (without passing
through an external status page) but the results were not very convincing. I
am only able to update the ID3 tags one time for the first listened song,
but they would not update the following songs. It might be an icy-metaint
issue (this header is not received because Flash doesn't send the right
headers when requesting the stream). It is the reason why I am now trying to
pass through an XML status file.

The reason why I would like to store the XML file on a remote web server is
because I am afraid retrieving the ID3 tags from several connected users
(through Flash) at the same time would increase the CPU charge of the
streaming server. Imagine 100 connected users would ping the server at the
exact same time to update the ID3 tags of the currently played song...
By storing both the Flash client and the XML file on the same web server, I
think it would decrease the charge of the streaming server.

.	Can I set up Icecast to store this file on a remote web server (by
uploading it through FTP for example)?
.	Otherwise, can I create another XSL file (hosted on the web server)
that would read the XML file hosted on the streaming server, to re-create it
on the web server? But in this case, the admin password would be sent in
clear text through the internet, right? (My web server and my streaming
server are not located at the same location).

One of the problems I think I will encounter by retrieving the ID3 tags from
an XML file will be to update the artist and song information at the right
moment. Flash won't be able to detect when the song changes so it will have
to check any change in the XML file every 5 seconds for example (which
doesn't seem to be a good solution...). I might be able to determine when to
update the ID3 tags by retrieving the duration of the song and start a
countdown based on this duration. In this case, Flash would check the XML
file only when the countdown is finished, which means the end of the song.

Unfortunately, when I check "stats.xml" the duration is not available.

.	Is it possible to know the song's duration and store this
information into an XML file?

Also, if anybody has a better idea of how I could retrieve the ID3 tags into
Flash (I am convinced I am not doing it in the best way); I am completely
opened!

Thanks in advance.

MAX

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-icecast at xiph.org [mailto:owner-icecast at xiph.org] On Behalf Of
oddsock
Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2003 7:09 AM
To: icecast at xiph.org
Subject: Re: [icecast] Status.xml

At 04:22 PM 12/17/2003 +1100, you wrote:
>status.xml does not exist as a real file. It is generated by the icecast2
>server on demand, and served after going through an XSL transformation (it
>may also be available untransformed - it was a while ago, but I'm not
certain
>that's still available).
you can view the XML that goes into the transformation as Mike said via the 
"stats" admin function, which is described clearly in the documentation 
here http://www.icecast.org/files/icecast_docs/icecast2_admin.html

note that http://server:port/admin/stats and 
http://server:port/admin/stats.xml are equivalent.

oddsock

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