Ampache

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Ampache
Design by Karl Vollmer
Developed by Ampache Team
Latest release 3.4.1 / May 31, 2008
Preview release 3.5-Alpha1 / N/A
OS [OS Independent]
Genre streaming media / file manager
License GNU GPL/LGPL
Website www.ampache.org

Ampache is a free software Web-based Audio file manager / web Media Server. The name is a play on the two words Apache and Amplifier. It was originally written to take advantage of Apache's Mod_mp3 but has since been adapted to use its own streaming method[1]. Ampache's Mascot is squirrel called Fraz. It was originally drawn by Kirsten Petersen and later digitized by Ben Shields.

Contents

[edit] History

Ampache is one of the oldest Applications of its kind that is still actively developed[citation needed], having been released in 2001. Its original author, Scott Kveton went on to create the OSUOSL at Oregon State University and passed off Developmental lead to Karl Vollmer who has been responsible for it since early 2003.

[edit] Development Goals

Ampache's goal is to allow access to a persons music from anywhere in the world. It is written specifically for private / small group implementations but does allow an admin to enable public registration. Ampache primary objective is to maintain a simple, secure and fast web front end that will run on almost any hardware and any platform that supports PHP. It is also written to accommodate music collections in excess of 2 Terabytes. The largest known Ampache instance was in excess of 3 Terabytes of music.

[edit] Extensions / APIs

Ampache also provides an API for pulling out meta data in the form of XML documents. There are many methods supported in the API in which to access Ampache data. Originally created for use with Amarok2, but can also be used to create other front-ends to Ampache. Access to the API is controlled by internal Access Control Lists and currently all requests have a 5000 result limit for performance reasons. The following applications are known to have plug-ins that use Ampache's XML API

[edit] Publications

Ampache has been featured in numerous online blogs and technical articles. One of the more notable was the O'Reilly book Spidering Hacks which tested the security of online applications. Ampache was found to be immune to standard spidering hacks as described in the O'Reilly article, and it has continued that trend by focusing on security during its development. The Code Philosophy listed on Ampache's wiki specifically lists security as one of those most important considerations during application development.

[edit] Distros with Ampache packages

[edit] Version history

Version Release date Important changes
1.01 April 29, 2001 first public release
1.07 May 4, 2001 Improved Interface
1.10 May 8, 2001 First PHP Only Version of Ampache
1.20 July 22, 2001 ID3v1.1 support added along with Genre support
2.0 February 5, 2002 Many Feature enhancements per-user statistics added, restarting Apache no longer needed when new songs are added
3.0 April 5, 2002 Randall Ehren added to development team, XML-RPC functionality allowing multiple Ampache instances to be linked, mod_mp3 not longer used
3.1 December 23, 2003 Complete re-write of Ampache code by Karl Vollmer and Robert Hopson. Modifications to your Apache config are no longer needed for Ampache to run.
3.2 August 11, 2004 Downsampling, RSS Feeds and Now Playing added along with numerous improvements to Album art / Meta-data gathering
3.3 May 17, 2005 Added GetText support, batch downloading, user registration and WMA,M4A,FLAC support. This was the first version with a native PHP installer.
3.3.1 June 21, 2005 First themeable version of ampache, moved away from non-standard installation method (/docs) Implemented URL method for MPD plug-in.
3.3.2 October 1, 2006 Optional bandwidth based bitrates for downsampling, Keyword Quick search on all pages, move to new authentication system (Vauth) and new IP based ACL system.
3.3.3 January 26, 2007 AJAX actions introduces in a few places, Democratic Play, Integrated Last-FM player, Integrated Flash Player and Added HttpQ support.
3.4 May 10, 2008 Complete re-write in PHP5, AJAX'd interface, Active Playlist concept added, XML API, Dynamic Playlists and vastly improve browsing system.
3.5 **In Progress** Adding support for Web 2.0 Style tagging of objects, Additional dynamic playlist options and improve mobile device support

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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