Thanks for downloading the Manna Mp3 player! This music player/jukebox is a collaboration of both open source and proprietary code. (Third party licensing information and links to full open source libraries provided below or on the website at www.MannaMP3.com). It also involves the contributions of several very talented individuals. Please see the acknowledgements section below and visit the sites and galleries of those who allowed their work to be used in this project! You will surely find great and affordable (in many cases free) help for your own projects!
The Manna Mp3 Music Player software is free software that may be generally transferred and/or used freely as a stand-alone element in commercial or non-commercial applications and websites, with a few exceptions and restrictions as specified in our official license agreement (click here). Primarily, those restrictions are that 1) this software itself is not sold, 2) that it is not used for pornographic, unlawful, defamatory, hateful, or other immoral purposes, 3) that no modifications are made to it prior to redistributing it, and 4) that it is used in accordance with all third party licensing information.
If you wish to sell or distribute a derivative of this software email me at kent@MannaMP3.com to discuss. If you do not wish to transfer or redistribute the software, feel free to modify the proprietary code and HTML (at your own risk) even including removing references to MannaMP3 like the "powered by MannaMP3" link - again as long as you still abide by the general restrictions such as not using it in a context that may be considered offensive, hateful, highly immoral, etc. (We are happy to give you free stuff but we don't want our hard work being used for something that is going to hurt or offend!).
Requirements: A Web Server running PHP 4.x or 5.x, and a flash enabled browser.
Installation is easy. Just create a web-accessible folder on your server (that you can write to), upload the files from the zip file, and open install.php in your browser. Then follow the instructions. For future purposes, you will find a welcome screen when you go to http://www.yourdomain.com/install_folder/ with links to go to the admin area or to launch the music player.
(For information on how to FTP with the software already built into Windows XP and Windows Vista,
click here).
FTP in Windows XP
- Go to My Network Places.
- Click on Add a Network Place.
- Click Next.
- Make sure "Choose another network location" is selected, and click Next again.
- Type ftp://ftp.yourdomain.com (replace yourdomain.com with the domain name you are attempting to access) into the space provided, and click Next.
- Uncheck the "Log on anonymously" checkbox, type in the username from the email and click Next.
Give the connection a name (My Webspace, for example) and click Next.
- Click Finish to save that location (it will appear in My Network Places) and then it will make a connection for you.
- You will be prompted for your password, which you can ask your computer to remember if you wish.
Transferring Files
- Once your FTP location has been created, you can find it in My Network Places. Double-clicking it may open your remote location in the same way as Windows opens folders, and you can drag files from local folders to the remote folder and back again in the familiar manner. If you do not have the same behaviour, check Internet Explorer settings. The IE settings are tools, internet options, advanced, browsing, put a check beside "Enable folder view for FTP sites".
Moving Files Around on the Server
You cannot move files or folders from one place to another within your remote folders directly; however, you can copy a file to a local folder and then copy it back to the remote folder. Deleting the original remote file and the local copy will then complete the moving process. This is a limitation of the FTP protocol itself.
FTP in Windows Vista
1. Open the FTP website in your browser.
2. Click Page, and then click Open FTP site in Windows Explorer. If you use a different web browser, follow the instructions that came with your browser. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
3. In Windows Explorer, press ALT, click File, and then click Login as.
4. Type the user name and password, and then click Log On.
One thing that separates this from other web-based mp3 players is that instead of placing all songs in one long list to scroll through, it separates the songs by folders so you can quickly find the song you want to hear even if you have an extensive music library! This is done by detecting mp3s (and subfolders of mp3s) in the directory path you specify, then updating the music player menu automatically. So all you need to do is FTP your songs and folders to the server and click to refresh the playlists from the music player menu (Menu -> Reset Playlists/Menu). You can also pick and choose any combination of mp3 files in your mp3 directory path to create your own custom playlists.
Other features include optional password protection of the music player (to avoid unlawful streaming of copyrighted songs!), an integrated filemanager and uploader to quickly delete or add new songs, many pre-designed backgrounds to choose from, and several integrated add-on widgets that can easily be plugged into the music player page with little or no HTML knowledge. These add-ons include a stylesheet changer, a message scroller, and a comment board/guestbook, all of which are discussed in more detail below. (Note: Links and documentation for the original versions of these freeware/open souce add-ons can be found in the acknowledgments section).
- The stylesheet changer allows yourself and visitors to change the background images and stylesheet used "on the fly" while accessing the music player page. You will find a number of built-in stylesheets to choose from, and you can select which categories/groups of these stylsheets are displayed for visitors to choose from. You can also add your own stylesheets (more info on that below). And to make your custom stylesheets part of the stylesheet changer, just edit the portion of the mplayer/stylesheets.php file designated for custom themes. Follow the format of the other listings and direct the href= to "../css/theme_(your_stylesheet).css".
- To add your own content to the message scroller, just edit the file external.htm in the mplayer folder (mplayer/external.htm).
- Messages for the comment board are stored in .txt files at mplayer/gbook/messages/. (You can also edit the style sheet info for the message board by modifying mplayer/gbook/style/style.css and mplayer/gbook/index2.php).
Customization options
- As mentioned, you can create your own stylesheets to customize the look and feel of the music player page to match your site. To use your own background image, title, and other images, etc., simply start with one of the existing .css files in the css folder and modify it to your liking. Then resave it using the naming convention "theme_(your_unique_name).css". This theme will then be added to dropdown list in the admin area (where you can set it as the default). If you wish to also add it to the "on the fly" style sheet changer, as mentioned above, just edit the file css/stylesheets.php.
- To add your own cover to the cover screen on the music player itself (upper left corner), place an image titled coverart.jpg (130x130px) in the folder for any list of mp3s. When that playlist is selected, that image will appear.
- To create custom playlists using any combination of songs found in your MP3 folders, in addition to the playlists automatically generated by scanning your MP3 folders, follow these steps:
- View one of the existing playlist files found in the playlists folder (with a .xspf extension) to identify the format.
- Copy (do not cut!...or at least do not resave the file if you do) and paste the rows of any playlist that contains song data for the songs you wish to put in your custom list and assemble a new playlist file.
- Place the file in the playlist_custom folder using the naming convention "playlist_(playlist_name).xspf".
- When you are done select Reset Playlists from the Music Player menu. Your custom playlists should then appear by going to Menu -> Custom Lists.
- To make your own skins for the music player, just edit the xspf_player_manna.fla and xspf_player.as files in the playlist directory (of course, you will need to know Flash to do this). Or you can visit our website for links to current skins (http://www.mannamp3.com/skins/).
The most natural way for this player to open is in a separate popup window. This enables all of the program's features. The code for this is provided below (as well as in the admin area):
Insert this code in the header tag:
Insert one of these three examples into the body:
Note: The paths used here in the body text (mplayer/mplayer.php) assume the HTML/PHP file you are linking from resides in the root of the main installation directory for this music player (the "manna" folder). If it is different, make sure to adjust the directory path appropriately.
If you want to just drop the music player into an existing webpage, use the code below.
Note: Replace the URL path above with the correct one to point to your server, using either mplayer/gray.php or mplayer/black.php depending on what background color scheme you desire for the music player. You may wish to increase the width from 505 to 605 in order to allow for one additional level of subfolders to display properly (from the "playlist 2" menu). Also, this height is set for the music player and message scroller together (and without the message board). With the message scroller and comment board, you will want to use a minimum height of 780. And if you choose not to display the comment board or the message scroller, you will want to use a height of 325.
If you want to only display the music player using only one designated playlist, and without any of the dropdown menus for the music player, you can do that too. First locate the playlist file that corresponds to the playlist you wish to use (you will find this in the playlist directory using the naming convention "playlist_(folder_name).xspf"). Then simply modify the code below (including specifying whatever width and height you desire and the correct path to the xspf_player.swf file). Then add it to your HTML page (Note: The skin used will be the one you select in the admin area):
If you use this method, you can even refer to playlists on a domain other than the domain on which you which have installed the MannaMp3 software. However, this may require a crossdomain.xml file on the root of your playlist host server (see below):
Changes I made in the admin area do not show up in the music player (or "when I start the music player it doesn't show any of my mp3 files"). What happened?
Answer: First, make sure you clicked "save changes" to save your settings before launching the music player. And make sure you entered the correct path/URL to your mp3 folder if you are having problems with the playlists. (It is also important that the path ends with a slash(/))!. If you are unsure about the absolute path to your MP3 directory, click "use the default". This will show you the format to use. Just modify the last part of it to point to the correct directory (or upload your files/folders to the "mp3" folder specified in the default). Additionally, after adding or renaming any mp3 files or folders (or if it is the first time you are starting the music player), make sure you click "Scan Mp3s", and choose "Scan All." This will update the music player menu along with the playlists. You may also wish to run the scanner to resolve other issues, such as a newly selected skin not displaying (as often this resolves caching and other issues).
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What browsers work best with the MannaMP3 player?
Answer: The MannaMP3 player has been tested on all major browsers and the only significant incompatibility issues were found with the Safari browser, which has some conflicts with the integrated filemanager and stylesheet changer. Otherwise, provided you have not disabled the ability to open popup windows or use cookies which are needed for some elements of the program, and provided you are using a version recent enough to support iframes, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera should all run the application smoothly. The only slight exception is the one mentioned below in the next question.
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Why do I only see a partial list of my stylesheets to choose from on the music player page, but a full list in the admin area?
Answer: For some reason Internet Explorer limits the number of stylesheets you can select from in the "on the fly" stylesheet changer to 28. You may want to try using Firefox or Opera to get around this, or else just select your desired stylesheet from the settings configuration screen. There is also an option in the admin area to pick and choose the groups of stylesheets you wish to appear in case you want to be more selective about this (and as mentioned below, if you have added a bunch of your own stylesheets, putting some limitation on the number of them used may also be a good idea to speed up the initial loading time of the music player!).
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Why doesn't the default stylesheet I selected in the admin area appear right away (or why do random stylesheets appear when I pull up the music player)?
Answer: If you have the "on the fly" stylesheet changer enabled, this tends to override the default stylesheet selector - mostly because of file caching. A new vistor will still see your default stylesheet when they first get to the page, but you may see whatever stylesheet you last chose in the stylesheet changer, or you may see the generic stylesheet ("theme_main.css") until you select a different one.
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How do I put in my own message scroller content or administer the message board application?
Answer: The answers to these questions are found in the admin area/configuration settings screen by just mousing over the "info" links next to the respective items.
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What if I want the comment board on one page and the music player on another page?
Answer: You can do this as well as have multiple music players on multiple pages, all with different settings. Though this requires separate installations of the program, we have made this a rather seamless process by putting an option in the admin area called "Enable Multiple Installation Mode." Check this option, then simply edit the file multi_sample.php in the mplayer directory (manna/mplayer), putting in the correct path to your different installations of the program according to the format provided (they should all end in mplayer/setup.php). Afterwards, save the file wherever you want on your server, and in each installation of the program specify the path to this file in the entry box provided in the admin area just below the Enable Multiple Installation Mode option (titled "Include path for multiple installations"). A dropdown menu will then appear at the top of the page, which will allow you to quickly jump back and forth between the admin areas of the different installations.
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Are there any performance tips for enabling the program to load faster?
Answer: Yes. Even though it should be relatively fast, there are some things you can do to speed it up. The place to target is the initial startup, as the program switches pretty fast between playlists and background images once it starts. Even though it implements rich graphics and photos, most of these have been scaled down by creating a seamless background that repeats and is not very large in filesize (most are around 25-75k). And though it offers a number of add-on apps (e.g. comment board, message scroller, etc) that load with the music player, the footprint for these is very small.
The most effective way to make the music player come up in blazing speed we have found is to preload the .swf file for the music player (especially if it is a custom skin which tends to be a larger file size than the default skin) along with two javascript files (xpath.js and SpryData.js, which represent a total filesize of 200k). These can often be loaded into a page prior to the music player page (preferrably the page that links to the music player) without a significant detriment to the performance of that page - that is, if the page is already relatively light and if its primary focus is on displaying copy/content. This is because the content comes up right away and the user is focused on that while the other stuff is loading in the background, as opposed to waiting for a flash movie to display and looking at a blank screen in the meantime.
So balancing the load across different pages can be a good way to increase the speed at which the music player pops up for visitors. This can also be done for images such as the background image for the music player page if it is a large one. Below is the code you will want to use for preloading all these different elements.
Add the following code to the head section of your PHP/HTML page which links to the music player to preload the javascript files (if these files do not reside in the same directory as your HTML file of course, adjust the src= path appropriately):
<![CDATA[
<script src="xpath.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="SpryData.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
]]>
You would use the following format to preload the background image (again this goes in the header):
<![CDATA[
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
<!-- preload background image
Image1= new Image(674,842)
Image1.src = "css/main.jpg"
// End Hiding -->
</SCRIPT>
]]>
Use the following code in the body section to preload the music player swf file. (Note: You may want to put this at the bottom of your page, as the Opera browser tends to leave a space where you embed the file even if you designate hidden=true. Also, xspf_player.swf is the default player skin, which resides at manna/playlists/xspf_player.swf. Even if you have upgraded skins, this is the filename you will use in the preloading as the program replaces this file with whatever skin is selected (and stores a copy to revert back to if unselected)).
<![CDATA[
<embed src="http://www.yourdomain.com/manna/playlists/xspf_player.swf" hidden="true">
]]>
You may also wish to try deselecting a portion of the stylesheet categories used for the stylesheet changer in the admin area (or disabling the stylesheet changer altogether) to minimize initial load time of the music player.
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Can I edit the HTML to remove the links to "Daily Manna," "Flash Video," and "Powered by MannaMP3"?
Answer: Provided you do not redistribute the software after modifying it, yes you may. It will make us sad, but yes you may.
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Since your program is free, does that mean I can freely use all the graphics and other software for other projects?
Answer: The third party graphic elements, photos, and source code used in this software package all have their own copyright and usage restrictions. We have received approval either directly from the respective individuals and/or companies to include these items in our distribution, or have been given permission via their licensing agreements which have been included in this software distribution. You will still need to abide by the respective licensing agreements for the items you are interesting in incorporating into your own projects or you will need to contact the respective individual for permission to use their artwork. In most if not all cases you will most likely find people are very agreeable to letting you do this, and even overjoyed that you are interested in using their work! Just make sure to ask first. Below is a list of all the companies or individuals that have provided graphics, photos, or source code included in this project, and a link to their website and/or license agreement.
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Thanks to the many contributors to this project, including the following:
The following individuals freely contributed the great photos and illustrations used in the different themes (photos and illustrations which I usually modified - often in great detriment to the quality of the originals!):
If there are any disputes on behalf of the providers of any of the existing graphics or software in this distribution that may have been misrepresented or accidentally included without proper approval, please email kent@MannaMP3.com
Manna Mp3 Official License Agreement - Click here
Licenses from other software included in this distribution:
My PHP Indexer 1.1 - released under the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE | download site
XSPF Web Music Player - license | download site | documentation
Abobe Spry Javascript Library - license | download site
For updates, skins, and other stuff, check out our website: http://www.MannaMP3.com
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| © 2009 MannaMp3.com. All Rights Reserved. |
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