Setting up the website

DOCUMENTATION FOR CONFIGURING THE WEB SERVER

*****
This document assumes you have already successfully installed the
following:

1)  Database (PostgreSQL)
2)  A PHP enabled webserver (Apache)
3)  The RIMPS package
*****

Once the above items are installed, you should be able to bring up the
RIMPS interface in your browser.  If you are unable to do this, check the
follwing:

1)  You MUST have PHP enabled in apache.  Read the PHP documentation
    and make sure you have installed it properly.

2)  You MUST have an alias for RIMPS in the http.conf file.

3)  You should have .php and .php3 types defined in the http.conf file.
    There should be a line that resembles this:
  
    DirectoryIndex index.html index.php index.php3


Once you are able to bring up the page, you should be able to browse and
search the database contents.  If you have not populated your database,
this should be done now.  Read the database documentation if you are 
having problems with this.

Now that you are able to browse the contents of your database, we need to
allow access of the actual mp3 files to the webserver.  The following
steps should be performed:

1)  Switch to the RIMPS installation directory (eg. /usr/local/rimps)

2)  Create a symbolic link to your mp3 storage location.  You must have a
    symbolic link created to allow access to the mp3 files.  
  
    (eg. "ln -s /usr/local/storage/mp3 ./mp3")
  
    In this case, my mp3 files are stored under "/usr/local/storage/mp3"

3)  Make sure apache is configured to allow symbolic links.  Here is an
    example from my http.conf file:

    --------
    Alias /rimps /usr/local/rimps 
     
    AllowOverride
    AuthConfig 
    order allow,deny 
    allow from all  
    Options ExecCGI,FollowSymLinks
       
   --------


Now, apache should have access to your mp3 files to stream them to your
web client.  Make sure you configured the RIMPS config.php file.  Try to
browse the contents of your database and click 'play' to stream the file.
Your mp3 player (xmms, winamp) should come up and start streaming.  If the 
player does not start, you must configure the MIME type in your browser.

If the player comes up but does not stream and there are no errors
displayed by your web-browser, there is most likely a problem with your
config.php file.  The 'MP3 server URL' and 'Local storage dir' are very
important to rimps in locating your mp3 files.  Check the following:
  
1)  Configure the 'MP3 server URL' like this:
    $config["mp3server"] = "http://YourHostName/rimps/mp3"; 

    You can see from the example that I'm pointing this to the symbolic
    link we just created in the steps above.  This is the base location of
    the mp3 files under your RIMPS installation directory.

2)  Configure the 'Local storage dir' like this:
    $config[local_storage]  = "/usr/local/storage/media/mp3";

    In the example above, we point to the BASE directory of my mp3 files
    on your filesystem.  This would also be the paramater you passed to
    mp3db when you populated your database. 
    (eg. "mp3db -u rimps -p rimps123 -d pgsql /usr/local/storage/media/mp3")
    You can see that the paths here are the same.  Rimps compares these
    paths in the mp3data table of the database when it attempts to stream.
    You may want to query the database to verify the paths match in the
    mp3data table.


If you receive an error message from your web browser when attempting to
stream a file, there is most likely a problem reading the files from your
filesystem.  Check the following.

1)  Apache must be configured to follow symbolic links.  See the
    documentation and example above.  

2)  Check the apache error_log file.  It will provide very
    helpful information regarding why your files are not accessable.