It is important that you read and agree to this License Agreement before using your software.
Many thanks for choosing to use a product from Draftlight Networks. Your software is part of our range of FMP Flash Media Playheads, and plays MP3 format files from an HTTP server or servers. It collects a list of music files by reading a playlist, which can be in either XSPF or Extended-M3U format. All of the startup settings are controlled by an XML configuration file. The playhead itself is a single, small SWF Flash document that can be embedded into your website with ease, and is compatible with over 95% of all web browsers.
The free version of our FMP256 playhead has the same reliable, ultra-compact core as our commercial playheads, but is limited in operation:
You must ONLY upload the '.swf' file, your configuration file, your playlist and your music tracks. Do NOT upload any files from the DOCUMENTATION folder.
This will be loaded from the same website folder as the SWF file, and using the same name as
the playhead (but with an XML extension). For example, if the playhead is available at
http://www.mywebsite.xx/music/fmp256.swf
then the configuration file must be at
http://www.mywebsite.xx/music/fmp256.xml
The file contains XML data that defines all of the startup parameters for the playhead (autostart,
volume, etc) and of course the location of the playlist itself. The configuration file must be
present, and must have a playlist defined, or the playhead will stop and display an error.
A sample configuration file is shown below:-
The parameters in an init tag are as follows (some may not influence your particular playhead design):-
This contains a relative or absolute URL linking to a playlist. There should be only one playlist tag per configuration file. The opening tag has two parameters:-
The playlist will read details of the MP3 files from a playlist (a text file). It will support two of the most common formats - XSPF and Extended-M3U. The location of the playlist, and the type of file to be read, is defined in the configuration file (see above). The playlist can be loaded from anywhere on the web, provided you ensure the server hosting the playlist has provided a policy file permitting access.
The player will show an error and disable itself if the configuration file or playlist file cannot be opened. If a user has an older version of the Flash player, they will be prompted to update.
If the playlist contains more than one entry, it will play the contents in the same order as the file list them, unless the 'shuffle' attribute is set in the configuration file. When the playhead first starts opening a track, it will begin playback as soon as enough data has loaded - this usually means about 5 seconds of audio. A progress bar shows the state of download. Once the track has downloaded once, it is stored in memory on the user's computer and so is not re-downloaded if they listen to the track repeat (except where the webserver delivers the MP3 file with a special No-Cache header).
If a track cannot be loaded (the MP3 file is unavailable) the playhead will remove it from the list and try the next file. If it ends up with only one valid track, it will turn on looping and replay that track over and over. If it finds NONE of the MP3 files can be loaded, it reports an error.
Remember - the player ONLY accepts native MPEG encoded MP3 files. It will reject any other audio format, streams, or Microsoft ADP encoded MP3s. Flash also has problems with interpolated bitrates, so we advise you stick to 44k mono or stereo, CBR encoding. Test your files before publishing your site!
First, if you want to rename the playhead SWF file then change the name of both the SWF file and the XML configuration file as well - then open the configuration file in a text editor and edit it to define your startup options and playlist as we have described above.
Now, all you need to do is upload the SWF and XML files to your webserver, then put the code into your web pages to show the Flash player on your site. We have included an example page, called EXAMPLE.html, which shows you the code for your chosen design. You can edit that file, or copy one of the OBJECT sections into your own page. The example page shows two methods of embedding the playhead, the first one is the standard Object-Embed method, the second is the (recommended) Satay Pro method.
Remember that if you've renamed your SWF file, change the name wherever it appears in your web page code.
The following instructions are normally not required for basic use of the playhead. users wishing to change some of the default settings should read on..
With Flash Player 7 and above, enhanced security prevents a Flash document from loading data (XML or M3U) from another website unless that site has given permission. This means that a remote server hosting your configuration and playlist files must also publish a small XML file called "crossdomain.xml", that informs the Flash Player that they allow others to read their data. If this file is missing, your FMP256 playhead will display an error.
This is only a concern where the PLAYLIST or CONFIGURATION FILE are on a different website domain to your SWF playhead. If they are on the same domain, then a policy file is not needed.
For example, if our playhead is at
http://www.mysite.com/users.smith/fmp256.swf
Then it tries to load a playlist from
Policy files are not needed to access MP3 data or images. For more information on the format of a Policy file, CLICK HERE.
You are solely and entirely reponsible for obtaining the permissions, licenses and agreements needed to play audio files on your website. We accept no liability for the music you play, and any license or intellectual property infringements you may make. ALL commercial music is copyrighted and you MUST buy a license from the songwriter, record label and/or Performer Rights agency before you can put music on a website, unless you are the sole owner of all such rights. Normally if you have written the music yourself, including all scores and lyrics, have performed it yourself and have not signed any agreement with a record label, you are the rights owner and need no extra permission. For cover versions or sampled works, you DO need permission. For detailed info on copyright and licenses, see our online guides at http://bandfoundry.draftlight.net/resources/copyright/. Draftlight do not supply licenses and will not assist in obtaining them.
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