Agatha is a user-friendly PHP script designed for streaming playlists and music through Apache web server.
Agatha is a powerful Web-based MP3 playing system that allows users to stream, create, manage, and share playlists, as well as control music playing on remote systems. This software does not require a database and provides full play-on-server support. It has been successfully tested with Apache 1.3.x and PHP 4.x under Linux.
However, please note that Agatha might not guarantee anything other than taking up space on your disk. Moreover, it was designed for use on a private network, and there may be some security issues that should be addressed.
Installation is straightforward. Simply unpack the tar ball, and move or rename the directory to any name you prefer under your Apache document root (htdocs) directory, then point your browser to it. All files must be readable by Apache, and the "playlists" and "sharedplaylists" directories must be writable by the Apache user.
To ensure security, playlists and MP3 files do not need to be visible by your web server.
In addition, to use Agatha's cool local play features, you will need to install a Perl package. This can be done using the command "perl -MCPAN -e 'install MP3::Daemon'" as root. This package will also let you play music from the command line.
After verifying that you can play MP3s from the command line, make a few small changes. If the daemon is running, kill it with "mp3 quit". Using your favorite text editor, open up the file /usr/bin/mp3 and change the location of the socket that the mp3daemon uses as indicated. Whatever location you use, you will need to put the same path in the Agatha config file.
Finally, there are a few device files in /dev that the Apache user must have permissions for. You can use the easiest way to set these permissions, which is "chmod o+r,o+w /dev/mixer chmod o+r,o+w /dev/dsp".
Using Agatha is easy. Simply click the song name to stream it, and select several songs and click "submit" to stream the list. You can also add selected songs to a new or existing playlist by selecting "Add to Playlist". Edit the list by clicking on the white icon next to the name, and click the red symbol icon to play on the local server using the Perl package mp3daemon. For recursive play, click the little folder icons to stream whole directories and the red icons to play on the server.
Overall, this release of Agatha comes with some improvements, such as MP3 file extensions being case-insensitive and the bug which caused recursive directories to fail when played from other than the top level being fixed.
However, please note that Agatha might not guarantee anything other than taking up space on your disk. Moreover, it was designed for use on a private network, and there may be some security issues that should be addressed.
Installation is straightforward. Simply unpack the tar ball, and move or rename the directory to any name you prefer under your Apache document root (htdocs) directory, then point your browser to it. All files must be readable by Apache, and the "playlists" and "sharedplaylists" directories must be writable by the Apache user.
To ensure security, playlists and MP3 files do not need to be visible by your web server.
In addition, to use Agatha's cool local play features, you will need to install a Perl package. This can be done using the command "perl -MCPAN -e 'install MP3::Daemon'" as root. This package will also let you play music from the command line.
After verifying that you can play MP3s from the command line, make a few small changes. If the daemon is running, kill it with "mp3 quit". Using your favorite text editor, open up the file /usr/bin/mp3 and change the location of the socket that the mp3daemon uses as indicated. Whatever location you use, you will need to put the same path in the Agatha config file.
Finally, there are a few device files in /dev that the Apache user must have permissions for. You can use the easiest way to set these permissions, which is "chmod o+r,o+w /dev/mixer chmod o+r,o+w /dev/dsp".
Using Agatha is easy. Simply click the song name to stream it, and select several songs and click "submit" to stream the list. You can also add selected songs to a new or existing playlist by selecting "Add to Playlist". Edit the list by clicking on the white icon next to the name, and click the red symbol icon to play on the local server using the Perl package mp3daemon. For recursive play, click the little folder icons to stream whole directories and the red icons to play on the server.
Overall, this release of Agatha comes with some improvements, such as MP3 file extensions being case-insensitive and the bug which caused recursive directories to fail when played from other than the top level being fixed.
What's New
Version 0.7.2: N/A