Vibe Streamer 3 - Information

Hi everyone!

I thought it was time to give you all some information on
the development of the upcoming version, cleverly named Vibe Streamer 3.0

[b1v3nr85a]History[/b1v3nr85a]

It's been a while since the last version was released. This is not because the development has stopped, but because a lot of the future plans and features really does require a better and more powerful server application than the one I wrote for the first version.

Since I really want Vibe Streamer to keep growing, I took the decision that it was time to make the required changes instead of building something larger on a core that wasn't prepared for it.

So for over a year I've worked hard re-writing the application completely from scratch, taken all the time I need to get things the way I think is right for the future development of Vibe Streamer.

Why I'm writing a post now is because a lot of the server core functionality is actually completed now, and Vibe Streamer has progressed from something quite simple, to a more advanced core that should be prepared for many new ideas and future implementations. This is enough for me do dare go out with some more information to you all.

[b1v3nr85a]What new features will be added?[/b1v3nr85a]

The major changes in Vibe Streamer, apart from the entire re-write, is that it should now support a lot of the new upcoming features that myself and people have requested. Some of them will be released in the first version, but a lot of nice features will be implemented in later updates.

The reason for this is that I first want to make sure the first version is stable and as functional as it should be. Some of the features will be named in a future info-posting, so don't ask me please.

[b1v3nr85a]What's going on now and what's planned to happen?[/b1v3nr85a]

At the moment I've just started with the new version of the standard skin.
Things on the server have changed quite a bit, which also requires the skin to change. This time, just like the server part, I'm leaving room for plugins and improvements without adding much trouble to the developers.

[b1v3nr85a]So when will the next version be released?[/b1v3nr85a]

A few days ago I begun the skin development. I need to give it some thought and tests before I feel comfortable on how the skin is best put together. When that's completed and I have a rather stable and basic Vibe Streamer application based on the new server, Vibe Streamer will go into alpha version. This will be available in a console version of the server together with an early version of the standard skin.

While this is tested I will work with the Windows GUI (the easy part), while correcting bugs and ideas for improvements that will be available for the first official release.

[b1v3nr85a]Summary[/b1v3nr85a]

That's some news for you all. This has grown to quite a huge project for just a single developer, and with a full-time job and a record label to manage besides that I try to take whatever time I can to develope this application. This prevents me from making any promises, but just have patience and most likely Vibe Streamer 3.0 will see the light of day in a not too far future.

//erik

Thanks Siit!!

We will Wait.

Great news! I was curious to know this as well

Great news, looking forward to the alpha release!

Are there currently ways of receiving automatic notifications when there is VS news?

3.0 will rock!

WAUW!! THATS GREAT NEWS,SIIT

i hope you can improve the seachfunction,outside the network
because vibestreamer is the best online mp3player ever

well well.. i love to hear that!

You're the best Siit! Lemme know if you need beta testing. I'd love to support any way I can.

Btw, injected abum cover support... That's all I'm sayin. lol

Same here, I'd love to be part of the alpha/beta-testing

5 features I'd love to see
- Integrated search (searching through pathname should suffice, so nothing has to be changed to the database format)
- Radio mode
- Server-side playlist creation
- Include tags in playlist format for faster loading
- Load tags when playing (if not retreived already)

can't wait, hoping to see beta testing in the not too distant future

Hows it going siit. Need any help, not that I could probably do anything but yeah . Hows thing? Hows the GUI and overall stuff doing? Anywyas chat in a bit

~Amish

Things are going fine. I've played around quite a bit with the new JavaScript framework that I base the new skin on, and I'm actually not far from taking the next step to making the new flash player, which is the lesser fun part really

Although, before I can do that I need to have the new design from sox. I'm back from winter holiday now so now I'm able to nag on him for a bit to have the new design..

So things are generally going well enough for now.

I'll keep you updated as soon as something new happens, most likely with a screenshot from the new skin to start with...

Ohh sounds exciting man =)

What framework are you using? Prototype? Dojo? Whatever it it sounds pretty expansive.

The new flash player, is it going to be made in Flash 8? Beacuse I know CS3 is out but that uses AS3. But yeah.

Hope you had fun on holiday.

~Amish

I'm excited! I can't wait for the screenshots. Thanks a lot siit!

Current update

- The flash players main features are done, although there is no design it's able to stream the music. The flash player is this time done i Actionscript 3 / Adobe CS3.

- I'm still working on the standard skin and fighting off a few bugs with the file indexing and the script-engine implementation which needs a few improvements..

- I was thinking a while, when working with the indexing, to keep working towards UTF-8 encoding everything. But if I choose that direction everything will take too much time and I'll never finish.. so I'm still doing iso-8859-1 only and move the UTF-8 support to a future release.

That's all for now.. I'm just a few bugs away from starting alpha testing it myself while working

wouw!!! Excelente noticia... Muchas Gracias.
Ya espero con ansias esta version
Thankz!!!

Aw keep checking post for while now been hoping for that screen shot . Well seems good and cant wait to update it. (v2 that is)

I have to blame the designer for that one as soon as I have something I'll show you...

Appreciate the updates siit. Keep up the good work!

Current update

While awaiting the design I've focused on other parts in order not to just stand still

- A lot of bugfixes and refactoring
- Yesterday I started with the server GUI, this went very smooth and this probably changed the plans for having the alpha testing as a console application. Now the console application is history, it's now back to the GUI for me
- A major new functionality that I actually wasn't planning to have for the first release, but I just couldn't keep my hands off and so far it seems to be working rather ok.. I won't give any details until I know for sure that it's actually working as I hope.. otherwise I might end up making people disappointed p

But generally, a very basic standard skin is up and running on my work-computer now and it feels very good to actually be up and able to listen to music and use the code I've been working on for so long.. now, let's just hope the flashplayer and skin design arrives soon Until then I'll keep working with the server GUI and testing the new features...

Until next time

I am so excited about this release I can barley sit still for a couple of seconds just thinking about it. You have truly created something extraordinary and I have utter respect for your programming skills. Many thanks!

Hi,
Congratulations for this wonderful mp3server, i love it !

Maybe the next release containt some new fonction ?
- https access ?
- automatically indexing (for new mp3 files), or indexing button starting avalaible from the web page ?
- modification for tag ? filename ? move, delete files or directory ?

So many ideas, but i know this is a long job !

Thanks for all
Jérémie (From France, that explain my bad English !)

Current update

- The server GUI is nearly complete. Apart from a few minor fixes and some advanced settings that will be added later, it's at least well enough to administrate a Vibe Server.. this was actually something I dreaded a lot due to it being quite boring, so it feels very nice to have this part almost over with

- The flash player design has finally arrived and I just began putting together the flash code. As soon as I've got it all together I'll take a few screenshots to show you the result. I'll keep focusing on having the player ready and then go through a bit of the skin code in order to go forward with the tests I need to do before giving you all a better view on what's to come in the next version.

nice program man!!

i just installed it yesterday and really like it so far

things i like (and hope they will remain in the new version p)
* It is basic, small, easy
* It has nice user and group managment functions
* It works pretty smooth for 350GB mp3s
* seems like no plugin / add on / external tool is required for listening music and all goes via the http port (which is nice for listening music @ work behind the firewall)

Things i miss (and hope they will be in the new version)
* encryption / https
* easier drag / drop GUI with support for ctrl-a and ctrl(-shift) selections
* I have only 30/35k upload and have no idea how it scales when multiple users listen. Also I wonder if I get full cd quality streaming when listening alone. Not much info / settings can be found about all this in vibestreamer itself

Hey,

I'm a long time user of the old version, and also a PHP/Javascript programmer by day.. if you need any help let me know. I probably wouldn't be of much use writing the backend, but if you're looking for plugins written in PHP or interface features in JS, I could be of some help.

Jon

Current status

- Ran into some multithreading problems that has to be solved.. this will cause major problems when creating something like an administration skin.. so before I continue I will have to look upon this..

Request

- Is there any html/css/javascript/ajax developer that's interested in helping out by re-coding the old standard skin entirely, with the same design, to fit the new engine? Even though I'll bring a new skin with the next version, I'll still keep the current standard skin as a possibility.. PM me if you're interested..

If you need help you may email me ..

i really wanna help with that, but i think it don't have time enough to learn more about AJAX.

Some ideas
- instead if frames -> div containers (JS would be always required)
- folder and file list dynamically updated (AJAX)
- mootools as AJAX framework, what do you think about that?
(mootools demos http//demos.mootools.net/ )

some more ideas

* option to install as service
* more ways of sorting / filtering (i always like to sort on date for example)

Keep it up! .

I've just downloaded the version 2.06 and it's amazing. I really love it.

I'm waiting for the next version. Just a suggestion for it...... it would be great if we were able to launch a lightweight version of the server. Maybe just the service, console or something like that.
In addition, I don't know if you know gnump3d, it's another streamer (but it's for Unix) and it has a feature that is really useful... you can download the .pls and reproduce it using your favorite straming player (instead of the web player). Maybe you can provide both options. It's just an idea
btw.... for the next time... can I write in spanish or only in english ?


Bye !

english please.

a lightweight server - do you want to run it in background all the time and keep ram usage as low as possible? well, the current VS 2.06 is 6 mb at start-up on my system. Thats pretty small, especially in times of 1gb+ RAM machines. Whats the reason why you want a lightweight version? If you need online access to all of your files, set up a homeftp server.

"reproduce"? do you mean "getting pls playlist from server to play files in your favorite media player"? Generating a pls file is simple. But why playing the music in an external player? Okay, you have your reasons. But VS isn't intended to stream to external media players (all transfers require authorization, no direct access to the host's file system for security reason -> virtual path). Apart from this, you can use Shoutcast or Icecast instead of VS if you want to stream music to various media players.

- I was thinking a while, when working with the indexing, to keep working towards UTF-8 encoding everything. But if I choose that direction everything will take too much time and I'll never finish.. so I'm still doing iso-8859-1 only and move the UTF-8 support to a future release.

Sorry to disturb you. In my opinion, adding UTF-8 support is the most important function since with this function, your GREAT program can be used in all countries, including non-english countries.

As a programmer, I think you will be glad to see many people who are using your product (software). Even though you can add many new functions to the new version, ppl who are not using english as their mother-tongue languages will not (or cannot) use your program if they have many songs which is named by their languages.

I know it takes so much time to add this function; however, it is worth when you see your product is broadly used all over the world.

This in only my opinion, if there are any points which you don't agree, please dot get mad on me. Thanks alot.

Again, I REALLY appreciated what you have done.

Hi!

Yea, UTF-8 encoding is incredibly important, .. but as you know, since there are so much work with the entire rewrite and the new functionality, the UTF-8 support would just make the work go on forever at this point... that's why I'll just support ISO-8859-1 in the first version of Vibe Streamaer 3....

Though this time I've made preparations and kept all parts created and used by vibe streamer able to implement UTF-8 support.. so yea, I won't just ignore it and I see it's just as important as you do.. but I made the decision to ignore it this time only to be able to keep up with the development and soon have the new version out for you all

Even though there are looads of new features I'd like to add, when a stable Vibe Streamer 3 is out, this is my top priority for sure..

english please.

a lightweight server - do you want to run it in background all the time and keep ram usage as low as possible? well, the current VS 2.06 is 6 mb at start-up on my system. Thats pretty small, especially in times of 1gb+ RAM machines. Whats the reason why you want a lightweight version? If you need online access to all of your files, set up a homeftp server.

"reproduce"? do you mean "getting pls playlist from server to play files in your favorite media player"? Generating a pls file is simple. But why playing the music in an external player? Okay, you have your reasons. But VS isn't intended to stream to external media players (all transfers require authorization, no direct access to the host's file system for security reason -> virtual path). Apart from this, you can use Shoutcast or Icecast instead of VS if you want to stream music to various media players.[/quote2c92dc0x]
Well... actually I don't really know how is the Vibe server architecture so I'm not able to analyze the impact of that requirement, but if isn't big, it could be a nice-to-have feature.

english please.

a lightweight server - do you want to run it in background all the time and keep ram usage as low as possible? well, the current VS 2.06 is 6 mb at start-up on my system. Thats pretty small, especially in times of 1gb+ RAM machines. Whats the reason why you want a lightweight version? If you need online access to all of your files, set up a homeftp server.

"reproduce"? do you mean "getting pls playlist from server to play files in your favorite media player"? Generating a pls file is simple. But why playing the music in an external player? Okay, you have your reasons. But VS isn't intended to stream to external media players (all transfers require authorization, no direct access to the host's file system for security reason -> virtual path). Apart from this, you can use Shoutcast or Icecast instead of VS if you want to stream music to various media players.[/quote168krlm9]
Well... actually I don't really know how is the Vibe server architecture so I'm not able to analyze the impact of that requirement, but if isn't big, it could be a nice-to-have feature.[/quote168krlm9]

I had written a very long answer

About the first part of your comment...... The 2.06 version works very good in my system as well, I was just suggesting that it should keep it. I mean, the new and fresh 3.0 version (that has a full rewrite of the code) should continue on the same way. I have more than 40GB of music and I wouldn't like to see my cpu usage and ram to grow.
In addition, I already have a ftp server but, as you know, a streaming and ftp server have different goals.

A comment around all this Vibe Streamer will ofcourse always be kept as lightweight as possible.. but more advanced features certainly takes more resources, that's for sure..

One of the big changes with Vibe Streamer 3 is that it now uses an xpath engine for searching and keeping track of the shared files.. and since this needs good performance a lot of it will have to be indexed and cached in memory,.. so the server uses more memory than Vibe Streamer 2, but still not big numbers compared to other server applications.. Another drawback with this is that the first initial indexing takes more time than it does in todays version.. but still, this gives so much more possibilities, so I don't really see it as a drawback..

But well.. check out Firefox for instance, I think it uses up around 60mb(!) of memory when running it.. p

Keeping an application lightweight is always worth aiming for.. no matter what..

at this instant, my firefox 2.0.0.13 uses 63 MB. Yesday it was about 200 MB. VibeStreamer 2 is around 6 MB

siit i'm really interessed into the performance of xpath / VS 3. How long will it take to find a song by name or tag, if the the music collection is ~80 GB? (after everything has been indexed once.) Compared with a SQL-Database, does it take a lot more time?

I'm testing on a collection of around 120GB. If I do a testsearch for "all songs that start with 'A' and are longer than 100 seconds" (on a 1.4ghz laptop) , it goes in an instant.. so well, there's well enough performance I'd say..

I thought a while how it would be to implement a database instead and have vibestreamer run all data there... even though that would be more optimal and easier to develop when it comes to thread safety for example.. that kinda takes out the meaning of vibe streamer a lightweight server, easy enough for anyone to setup, but still flexible and built for future growth... aswell as it would be dependant on having a complete database setup on your server..

... and it wouldn't be much fun to develop either

SQLite
[quote21qyarmk]SQLite is a software library that implements a self-contained, serverless, zero-configuration, transactional SQL database engine.

SQLite is the most widely deployed SQL database engine in the world. It is used in countless desktop computer applications as well as consumer electronic devices including cellphones, PDAs, and MP3 players. The source code for SQLite is in the public domain.[/quote21qyarmk]

http//sqlite.org/

yea, was looking at that aswell a while ago.. but for configurations I feel xml is a much better format.. and implementing that for the share indexing only or working towards the xml layer didn't feel necessary.. we'll see.. maybe future growth might require something like it.. but that will be taken care of when that time comes..

Thanks for the updates, siit! Really appreciate it. Keep up the good work! Your beta testing fans await patiently.

Hi there!

First of all I wanna say, that i really really like your player

Ok and Second, i wanna ask a really annoing question

Is there a date (or just an estimate) when the first alpha / beta (for public?) is going to be released?

Thanks & Greets

Current update

The alpha version has now gone unofficially live on a few servers.. this means that I'm currently running it live on my own as well as together with Sox and a few other close people involved with Vibe Streamer..

The focus is now on trying to narrow down any obvious problems with the server in order to have a stable version ready for public testing...

A few notices regarding the test version is that playlists will be excluded at first.. this is due to the reason that I didn't like the way playlists were handled in the current version of Vibe Streamer and I'd like to give this a bit more thought before I implement it again in the new version,..also the "last played" history functionality for each user haven't yet been implemented due to the same reason.. all for the matter of implementing the functionality as it should have been in the first place.. once and for all..

Please note though, that in the official release of Vibe Streamer 3.0, both of these features will of course be included..

As soon as I've collected some feedback regarding the new skin, I'll have a few screenshots posted so you can all see the result.. after that it won't be long until you can all test the alpha version for yourselves..

cheers

// siit / erik

Hehe Nice!

I really really looking forward to the first open alpha / bet version!

Thanks for everything you do for us all!

Hows alpha testing man?

Current update

The unofficial alpha testing is still going strong. As with any other alpha applications I've found quite a few problems that have been fixed. Most of them were due to performance and thread safety.

The server now seems quite stable with the basic functionality except for an odd memory leak related to the scripting engine that I have to fix.. I've managed to locate the source of the problem and I'm currently looking into the documentations to see how it can be fixed.

[b1sr5x0sq]broadcasting[/b1sr5x0sq]
Aside from this I've just begun testing one of the new major features in vibe streamer 3 to see if it's even possible to realise as I think it is.... it's called "Broadcasting" and that pretty much sais it all.. it pretty much adds more of a "streaming" concept into Vibe streamer ]

It's now possible to "hook in" on what other connected sessions are currently listening to (if these have enabled the broadcasting mode).. this has been implemented as a general concept into the server, using broadcasters and broadcast channels, so the future use for this will definately have even more possibilities that I'll announce later when I know that this works well enough to add it officially into the server...

I haven't felt comfortable enough to announce this earlier, and I still can't give any promises.. but now, although flash is giving me some hard times with the streams I'm generating I'm pretty close to actually have it working! So right now I'm making adjustments nighttime, and listening to some of the broadcasts my users are playing at daytime..

[b1sr5x0sq]skin adjustments[/b1sr5x0sq]
I'm also making some skin adjustments/improvements based on some of the reactions from the users. The main focus for me at the moment here is it make it possible for people with huge music libraries to browse without much problems.. this is something that Sox is currently trying to figure out what would be the best solution from a designers point of view.

As a note on this, the new standard skin uses much more complex javascript and this might be heavy on people with huge collections or old computers.. so when vibe streamer 3 goes public there will also be a rewritten version of the old standard skin for those that for some reason preferred the old times

[b1sr5x0sq]So what about the alpha?[/b1sr5x0sq]
It's coming, don't worry... but handing out an alpha version that has some obvious bugs and without all the functionality I actually want to be tested will only give me more to think about .. and that will most likely delay the whole release.. but just the fact that I've got a few servers up and running and working quite fine, tells me that it's getting closer every day

Glad to hear of the Alpha-ness! Keep it up, and work hard testers!

If you need a tester, I'm all for it. I run vibestreamer on a server @ home and listen to music everyday from work (i have it running on port 80 instead of default to bypass corporate firewall).

Any chance there will be IIS integration in the new version?

If you mean an integration, in the way you can install vibe streamer as a web application on IIS and no other software is required, then no.. or are you after another kind of integration?

Hey siit, hope it's coming along.

I'm really interested in the way the 'vibe' language will work. Will it be kep the same as before or be more OOP. I wouldn't imagine it to have the same functaionality as PHP for example obviously.

A programmer like yourself has done basically the same thing as you in "Messenger Plus Live!" and has coded his own language for scripting. And it really can do some AMAZING stuff, no doubt. Check the CHM file too see some of the stuff.

http//www.msgpluslive.net/scripts/view ... mentation/

But yeah, if your interested, maybe a DLL for PHP could be developed, so that in the skin an extra frame can be added that loads up PHP, and processing of things can be done with the PHP language.

Don't worry about getting to it tho. Just a suggestion.

Peace out bro

~Amish

If you mean an integration, in the way you can install vibe streamer as a web application on IIS and no other software is required, then no.. or are you after another kind of integration?[/quote10ijx89n]

No I meant the IIS application one. My ISP only provides 1 IP address and I like to run VibeStreamer off port 80. Therefore, I must use the multi-homing feature of IIS to run mulitple websites with different sub domains. It would be nice to have vibestreamer be one of those sites rather than running it off of a different port. The reason I run it on 80 is so that it is accessible through all firewalls, no matter where I am (cafe, work, airport, etc).

The feature I most look forward to seeing is the ability to set the buffer delay (in Kilobits). On a so-so cable connection, upload rates sometimes do not keep up with the default buffer and the music experiences frequent interruptions. Currently there seems no way to remedy this except to manually pause the track and wait for more to load.

If version 3 addresses this and is as solid as I hope, I will definitely be making a donation of appreciation to the project, as I frequently use Vibestreamer already.

Hey well you already use vibe stremer frequently. Don't you think its best to donate now. We can already tell that its goign to be an awsome program, and with that extra donation maybe extra things maybe added.

The feature I most look forward to seeing is the ability to set the buffer delay (in Kilobits). On a so-so cable connection, upload rates sometimes do not keep up with the default buffer and the music experiences frequent interruptions. Currently there seems no way to remedy this except to manually pause the track and wait for more to load.

If version 3 addresses this and is as solid as I hope, I will definitely be making a donation of appreciation to the project, as I frequently use Vibestreamer already.[/quoteo8zqrwzu]
that i would really like too

or some setting to reduce the bitrate

[quote3c9j9ohe]or some setting to reduce the bitrate[/quote3c9j9ohe]
I don't think there would be a way to reduce bitrate on the fly, however a setting that would delay the requested track by either size, or length of time should solve that problem. Or of course use 128 bitrate files instead of something like 320 which will reduce the file size itself, and then increase your buffering times.

[quote1nksxm0c]I don't think there would be a way to reduce bitrate on the fly[/quote1nksxm0c]

there is, but siit may add that feature (transcoding) later

[quote3e2t9fzu]there is, but siit may add that feature (transcoding) later[/quote3e2t9fzu]
So my guess is it would re-encode the file server-side before sending to the remote machine right?

non-blocking realtime encoding

[quote2px8msqt]No I meant the IIS application one. My ISP only provides 1 IP address and I like to run VibeStreamer off port 80. Therefore, I must use the multi-homing feature of IIS to run mulitple websites with different sub domains. It would be nice to have vibestreamer be one of those sites rather than running it off of a different port. The reason I run it on 80 is so that it is accessible through all firewalls, no matter where I am (cafe, work, airport, etc).[/quote2px8msqt]

I do this myself by having an apache instance doing the port forwarding based on hostname, although this is also possible to do with IIS together with a customized isapi filter. But it's nothing I'll provide with vibe streamer.

[quote2yfn6qxm]non-blocking realtime encoding[/quote2yfn6qxm]

As said earlier, transcoding has been played around with and it's now very possible to implement and it's very likely it will appear in a future release..

[quotedmvvpynx]I'm really interested in the way the 'vibe' language will work. Will it be kep the same as before or be more OOP. I wouldn't imagine it to have the same functaionality as PHP for example obviously. [/quotedmvvpynx]

Some info.. The new script language used by the vibe streamer server is now based on the Spidermonkey javascript engine, the same javascript engine used by firefox for instance.. so practically, anything possible in javascript is now possible in to do server-side on your vibe server... this was one of the first implementations i did in vibe streamer 3.0, and is now actually what I'm working on with optimizing/finalizing aswell as trying to understand why it's giving me a strange memory leak.. other than that, it's good stuff

Is there a chans to search for my songs in the new version and is it possible to download songs in this version?

Is there a chans to search for my songs in the new version and is it possible to download songs in this version?[/quote29hufwwe]

Hi a search is definitly implemented (it's written somewhere before, just read through the thread)

for example

One of the big changes with Vibe Streamer 3 is that it now uses an xpath engine for searching and keeping track of the shared files..[/quote29hufwwe]

and the download feature is already implemented now (using blackskin, dont know an default, bu I think its too)

Current update

- After many many many long nights of unit testing and analyzing.. the odd memory leaks are no more as far as I can see! You can't believe how good it feels

More info coming soon..

Yes I can.
Not with mem leaks but I know the "long nights" of debugging.

Any chance on a beta test version being released soon?

Current update

The alpha testing I've spoken a lot about gets closer. The installation package has just been completed and I've decided to just make a few refactoring/fixes but no new implementations before I finally release it to people here on the forum to try out.

A big notice is that what's coming first is an ALPHA version, that means it's not even beta, so please bear that in mind. There are a lot of work to be done before everything I want to be in Vibe Streamer 3 is completed. But this alpha version now should work as a fine replacement for your old version.

So meanwhile you await the official alpha release, here are some details and important information on what's to expect in the new version. It's just a selection of the major things coming up since a list of everything would be hard to do.

[b28ktcdje]- Complete re-write of everything[/b28ktcdje]
The server has been rebuilt is is now much more configurable and flexible. The core is now designed around OS-independent code making it more possible to port Vibe Streamer in the future.

[b28ktcdje]- New script language based on the SpiderMonkey engine[/b28ktcdje]
In other words, server-based javascript with a more object-oriented approach. It's now very easy to implement new objects and classes into the API.

The alpha version comes with the basic classes required by the standard skin. But soon more classes and functions will be added, such as the nice HttpClientRequest class that enables server-based http requests to be made from the script language.

[b28ktcdje]- Support for ID3v2.4[/b28ktcdje]
I Also added prepared support for different meta data readers for future implementations.

[b28ktcdje]- Support for real-time transcoding[/b28ktcdje]
This has only been tested slightly so-far and has been temporarily removed to be worked on during the alpha-stage.

[b28ktcdje]- New share indexer[/b28ktcdje]
All meta information is now indexed together with the files, making the
indexing process longer, but gives access to all meta data at once.

[b28ktcdje]- XPath support for querying shares[/b28ktcdje]
It's now possible to use xpath to search through the indexed shares, making it fast to browse and query through the shares.

[b28ktcdje]- Sites[/b28ktcdje]
What was earlier called "skins" are now called sites.
Sites act more like websites, even though they can all only run on a single port it's possible to run them on different paths and domains. Each site also have a configuration file "site.xml" that works much like the web.xml does on tomcat. A global site.xml exists in the installation directory
which list the basic mime types and the default error pages.

[b28ktcdje]- More flexible security settings[/b28ktcdje]
It's now possible to set security on shares aswell as site-specific security based on users, groups and/or ip-address rules.

[b28ktcdje]- Encrypted passwords[/b28ktcdje]
A small but needed feature.

[b28ktcdje]- Anonymous user access[/b28ktcdje]
It's now possible to set a default user that should be used as anonymous user. This is only possible to configure in the sites.xml.

[b28ktcdje]- Custom Resources[/b28ktcdje]
A few future plugins will require to have it's own settings on a user that's stored in the user store. This will be made possible through custom resources. This is an easy implementation that just haven't been implemented yet in the alpha version, but will definately be in the final version.

[b28ktcdje]- SSL support[/b28ktcdje]
This is now working, except for a bug related to using Internet Explorer and playing flash over https. So if you're using SSL currently, I'm recommending you to use another browser until this is fixed.

[b28ktcdje]- UPnP support[/b28ktcdje]
A start for easier configuration of the router.

[b28ktcdje]- More flexible group support[/b28ktcdje]
A user can now be a member of multiple groups, and groups can now have settings that are inherited to the user.

[b28ktcdje]- Broadcasting[/b28ktcdje]
I've been playing around with the possibility of a user actually being able to listen to what another user listens to. This exists in the alpha version, but has some major lag issues that I'll be tweaking during alpha, so it's just there to show what it's about. When the broadcasting system is completed it will open the door to a few more features I've been planning.

[b28ktcdje]- More flexible login[/b28ktcdje]
It's now supported to login both through the old basic authentication method but also a form-based login to solve the logout issues in the previous version.

[b28ktcdje]- A new standard skin[/b28ktcdje]
This is installed as your "default site" during installation. The new standard skin is based on the extjs (www.extjs.com) javascript framework and the ajax technology.

The skin is still being worked on a lot when it comes to design, and also some performance issues when having a large amount of files and folders. The new standard skin should work in most browsers, but isn't recommended to use in IE6 due to its lack of performance.

The new standard skin has also been given a support for "addons", which is new features that can easily be added without re-writing the entire skin. The basic rule is that the core of the skin will change between versions, but writing addons that override or add functionality from outside the core, and using css to make design changes should make it possible to add new functionality without having to go through the entire code.

Both the source for the standard skin and the flash player will be available for download in the final version.

[b28ktcdje]- Playlist support[/b28ktcdje]
Playlists have been temporary removed in the alpha version, since it's not a major implementation and there are more important things to focus on first. This will although be implemented in the final version after the server been tested and a few opinions on the new standard skin has been heard.

That's all for now. Hopefully I've answered a couple of questions, and keep a lookout for the first alpha release.

wow, great news siit! i'm looking forward to real-time transcoding for faster loading high-bitrate songs on home dsl connections.

- New share indexer --> will it be possible to sort songs and folders by creation date? i really need that feature to keep track of my music, 'cause it is constantly growing.

another wish when hitting the stop-button of the player but the song isn't fully loaded, it keeps loading. Would it be possible to stop loading a song to free the bandwidth? And if you could resume downloading from where it stopped later would be even more awesome!

Everyone have their own specific demands/requirements, so when the alpha is out I'm gonna set up a new thread where people can discuss what could be improved in order to get as much as possible out of it..

//erik

One issue that has been brought to my attention is that Vibe and the iPhone don't play well together. I guess the iPhone doesn't support Flash but does support Quicktime, naturally. Is it possible with the new version to script it to serve files using Quicktime or an Open Source alternative that streams in Quicktime format? I know my son would love to be able to access our MP3s with his iPhone so I'm sure there's a few others out there that feel the same.

Hi!

I'm not so sure about anything support the quicktime format, but there should be other ways I'm sure..

I've been interested in the portable format for a long time, but as always time is worst for me since I've found it most important to improve the server at the moment.

But still, if people are interested in having a portable implementation of Vibe Streamer on a certain format, do some research that might give me a clue of what might be the best approach to solve it, and maybe a couple of interested developers could give it a go? .. I'd really like to see a vibe streamer client running on the psp, wii, ps3, iphone etc..

A thing I've been thinking about quite a lot is actually checking into J2ME.. as far as I can see it should be possible to create a client there.. and java is supported on quite a few platforms..

but java isnt supported on iphone. I THINK adobe flash is coming soon on ipod, but not in browser, its a seperate application.

Check out www.dnbradio.com on the ipod touch and thats works well, but im not sure how you can listen and control the stream at the same time /

[quote1fan616c]No I meant the IIS application one. My ISP only provides 1 IP address and I like to run VibeStreamer off port 80. Therefore, I must use the multi-homing feature of IIS to run mulitple websites with different sub domains. It would be nice to have vibestreamer be one of those sites rather than running it off of a different port. The reason I run it on 80 is so that it is accessible through all firewalls, no matter where I am (cafe, work, airport, etc).[/quote1fan616c]

I do this myself by having an apache instance doing the port forwarding based on hostname, although this is also possible to do with IIS together with a customized isapi filter. But it's nothing I'll provide with vibe streamer.[/quote1fan616c]

WOAH. Didn't know you could do that with IIS. This would solve a lot of things for me...gonna have to google this...

I looked it up regarding the Iphone, and apple have actually blocked all of the audiofunctionality on the phone except for in their own applications.. so you can't for instance give the quicktime player an url and play it.. etc..

I do this myself by having an apache instance doing the port forwarding based on hostname, although this is also possible to do with IIS together with a customized isapi filter. But it's nothing I'll provide with vibe streamer.[/quoteqpc7bo7b]

Could you provide me with a link or some more detail on how this is done in IIS? I don't thinking I'm googling the 'right' terms.

So essentially, what you are saying, is that requests say with 'music.mydomain.com' can be filtered by IIS and then redirected to another box? (seemless to the user?)

Thanks Siit.

Leave it to Apple to mess things up for their customers.

Will version 3 read the cover art from the mp3 IDV3.2 tag?