Running Wimpy off of your own playlist generator

You can run wimpy off of your own custom back-end application.

The wimpyApp option is used to:

1. Feed Wimpy a playlist.

2. To perform specific server-side stuff such as "serveMP3" (prevent local caching) and "downloadfile" (force download).

Wimpy determines what kind of playlist to load based on the extension of the file defined for wimpyApp.

If the file defined in wimpyApp is an XML file, Wimpy will assume that the returned playlist will be an XML playlist.

Example:

wimpyApp=http://path/to/file.xml

If the extension of for the file defined in wimpyApp is PHP, ASP or CFM, Wimpy will assume that the returned playlist will be a SIFT playlist.

Example:

wimpyApp=http://www/path/to/wmpy.php

RECOMENDED: The most common way to run Wimpy off of a custom application is to output XML playlists to Wimpy. We recommend using the "forceXMLplaylist" option within the HTML code that displays Wimpy. Using this option will cause Wimpy to receive all playlist as XML playlists.

NOTE: It is important to note that you need to ensure your script outputs the proper "headers" for the XML content. If you're not familiar with what a "header" is, then you can probably stop reading this, or refer to your scripting language's help area for more information :). Here are examples for setting the proper headers:

PHP:

header("Content-Type: text/xml");

ASP:

Response.CharSet = "utf-8"
Response.ContentType = "text/xml"

ALTERNATE: You can also "trick" Wimpy into thinking that your app is returning an XML playlist by adding "?foo=bar.xml" onto the end of the URL to your app as:

wimpyApp=http://path/to/yourApp.app?foo=bar.xml&etc=etc

NOTE: Since this "trick" includes a ? and =, you must URL encode the ? and + so that these characters do not interfere with the existing ? and = symbols already in existence and used by wimpy.swf as:

wimpyApp=http://path/to/yourApp.app%3Ffoo%3Dbar.xml&etc=etc

Likewise, If you are attempting to define a dynamic URL to MP3 files, or additional XML playlists within playlists, then you will have to use the "trick" method by tacking on ?foo=bar.mp3 -- or -- ?foo=bar.xml) URL encoded as:

http://path/to/file.app%3Ffoo%3Dbar.mp3
or
http://path/to/file.app%3Ffoo%3Dbar.xml

See Also:

Dynamic URLs (scipt.php?foo=bar)