Announce: Ampache plugin 1.0

[flemming]

After what feels like an eternity of development, I'm happy to announce my first SqueezeCenter plugin. It provides SqueezeCenter with access to music stored on an Ampache server. You can find more info about Ampache at their site:

http://www.ampache.org/

You can download the plugin from:

http://ampache-squeezecenter.googlecode.com/

Since the plugin utilizes Ampache's XML based API the server can be located anywhere, effectively allowing SqueezeCenter to have a remote catalog. Essentially this provides similar functionality to the MP3Tunes plugin, minus the cost, but plus the need to setup and run an Ampache instance somewhere. Since you can connect multiple Ampache instances together, you and your friends can share your catalogs with each other and have access to everyone's music through SqueezeCenter.

Since Ampache development is out of my control there are a few documented issues, but the majority of the functionality works as intended and should be fully functional after the next Ampache release.

Please report any bugs or feature requests you might have. Patches and suggestions are always welcome. I'm sure some of the more savvy plugin developers out there might have a tip or two as to how I could have done things better. Enjoy.

Robert

[egd]

This is great news, I've been waiting for this to come along for as long as I've known of Ampache. Thank you :-)

[Silverbullet]

Robert,
Tried installing the plugin with extension downloader and manually. Every time when I go to settings>plugins>ampache>settings I get "404 Not Found: settings/plugins/Ampache/settings/basic.html". Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.
Silverbullet

Version: 7.3.3 - 27044 @ Mon Jun 15 15:14:08 PDT 2009
Hostname: Ted3
IP: 192.168.1.22
HTTP Port: 9000
OS: Windows XP - EN - cp1252
Platform: 586
Perl Version: 5.8.8 - MSWin32-x86-multi-thread
MySQL Version: 5.0.22-community-nt
Total Players Recognized: 5

[flemming]

Originally Posted by Silverbullet

Robert,
Tried installing the plugin with extension downloader and manually. Every time when I go to settings>plugins>ampache>settings I get "404 Not Found: settings/plugins/Ampache/settings/basic.html". Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

Yup, the problem was I assumed that everyone's PERL install would include a particular module and it doesn't. I released version 1.1 earlier this week which includes Digest::SHA::PurePerl which should fix this problem.

[Silverbullet]

Originally Posted by flemming

Yup, the problem was I assumed that everyone's PERL install would include a particular module and it doesn't. I released version 1.1 earlier this week which includes Digest::SHA::PurePerl which should fix this problem.

In my case this did not fix my problem. I have 1.1 installed and I still get the 404 error. Any additional things I can check?

[flemming]

Turn on debugging for 'plugin.ampache' under 'Settings/Advanced/Logging' and then check out the squeezecenter log file (not sure where that lives under Windows) for some hopefully more useful info. Let me know what you find. I've never tested the plugin under Windows, so there may be a couple other things I took for granted because I'm using Linux.

[Silverbullet]

Originally Posted by flemming

Turn on debugging for 'plugin.ampache' under 'Settings/Advanced/Logging' and then check out the squeezecenter log file (not sure where that lives under Windows) for some hopefully more useful info. Let me know what you find. I've never tested the plugin under Windows, so there may be a couple other things I took for granted because I'm using Linux.

Funny thing there is no plugin.ampache in the list. But here is something from the log:
[09-06-27 14:05:32.5469] Slim::bootstrap::tryModuleLoad (278) Warning: Module [Plugins::Ampache::Plugin] failed to load:
Can't locate object method "BINMODE" via package "Slim::Utils::Log::Trapper" at /<C:\Program Files\SqueezeCenter\server\squeezecenter.exe>CGI.p m line 797.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at Ampache/Ampache.pm line 33.
Compilation failed in require at Plugins/Ampache/Plugin.pm line 24.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at Plugins/Ampache/Plugin.pm line 24.
Compilation failed in require at (eval 1152) line 2.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at (eval 1152) line 2.

[09-06-27 14:05:32.5477] Slim::Utils::PluginManager::enablePlugins (493) Error: Couldn't load Plugins::Ampache::Plugin

[flemming]

Hmmm, I'll need to dig up a Windows machine and do some poking around. I'll get back to you.

[egd]

Robert

I've gotten the plugin (1.1) installed and configured and I've got Ampache v.3.5-Beta2 Subversion Rev: 2001 running.

Looking at the plugin settings it asks for:
Ampache version #
Ampache server URL
Ampache username
Ampache password

I've supplied all these, saved the changes and restarted SC. Where to from here?

[flemming]

First off I'd highly suggest upgrading Ampache to 3.5.1 as it fixes a number of bugs in the API that the plugin relies on, but the SVN version you have may have those fixes already too. If you've got things configured and you've restarted Squeezecenter you should see Ampache under Music Services. If you don't then I'm going to jump out a window