Apache::MP3::Skin version 0.9x BETA


NOTE: This is a BETA RELEASE and has been tested on a limited
number of hardware and software configuration.  The author
know of no reason why it shouldn't work everywhere, but is also
certain that it won't.  You should not use this module in a production
environment.  Use at your own risk, and look for updates
at http://www.apachemp3.com



This module subclasses Apache::MP3::Playlist and through the magic
of HTML::Template allows Apache::MP3 to be "skinned".

DEMOS and sample SKINS can be found at http://www.apachemp3.com


INSTALLATION

1. Prequisites

This module requires Apache::MP3 2.12 or greater.  Before you begin
installing this module, install and verify that Apache::MP3 works.
This module also requires HTML::Template 2.00 or greater.  Both Apache::MP3
and HTML::Template are available on CPAN.

2. Download and Install Apache::MP3::Skin

The latest version can be found http://www.apachemp3.com. 

Unzip and untar it, then the following commands:

   perl Makefile.PL
   make
   make install


3. Copy the default Skin Files

Copy the contents of the apache_mp3 included with this distribution
into the apache_mp3 directory which came with Apache::MP3 and should
now be located in your web tree.  

4. Set Apache::MP3::Skin to be the handler for the MP3 directory

If you are already running Apache::MP3, and you should be, then inside
your httpd.conf or access.conf file,  change the handler for your songs
directory from Apache::MP3 (or Apache::MP3::Playlist or something
similar) to Apache::MP3::Skin.  At this point, without going any further
in the installation process, Apache::MP3::Skin will act just as
Apache::MP3::Playlist. If you want you can restart Apache and verify
that that's true.


You should have something like this in httpd.conf or access.conf

  <Location /Songs>
    SetHandler perl-script
    PerlHandler Apache::MP3::Skin
  </Location>

5. Set the default skin

Add two lines to your httpd.conf or access.conf:

PerlSetVar DefaultSkin	default.tmpl #required
PerlSerVar HomePath /Songs           #optional

The result should be something like:


 <Location /songs>
   SetHandler perl-script
   PerlHandler Apache::MP3::Skin
   PerlSetVar HomePath  /songs   # optional
   PerlSetVar DefaultSkin  default.tmpl   # required  
 </Location>

You may have other configuration variables set depending on how
you have Apache::MP3 configured.  Leave them as they also work with
this module.

DefaultSkin is the filename of the skin to be used if no skin is explicity
requested in the url a browser requests.  Set this to default.tmpl to start.
default.tmpl comes with Apache::MP3::Skin and should have been one of the files
copied in step 3.  Apache::MP3::Skin first looks for this file in the directory
that the browser is viewing, and if it doesn't find it there looks in BaseDir 
which is defaulted to be /apache_mp3.

HomePath should be set to the logical root of your songs directory 
structure, if you don't want that to be your document root.  HomePath
is most commonly used when building breadcrumb trails, and in most cases
will be the the same path as in your Location or Directory tag.



6. Restart Apache

Don't forget to restart Apache so that the new configuration is read.


AUTHOR

Robert Graff, <rgraff@apachemp3.com>