bjgeiser

This is an application for streaming music from an Ampache Music Server. Using this application you can stream all of your music over your internet connection anywhere you take your mobile phone. You can also trade server addresses with friends and access their music collection as well.

It was designed to operate like the Music Player included with WebOS, and navigation is nearly identical. With this app the 8gb storage limitation is no more.

Ampache is an open source PHP/Apache/MySQL project that will give you a working media portal for free. Check out ampache.org for more details.

WARNING: This app requires an Ampache Server to connect to. That means you will be responsible for installing and configuring your very own web server. Setting up Ampache is not a hard task but it's also not trivial. If you are a beginner be sure to read up and look to the forums for help and be prepared to spend some time.


More Screen Shots

Version Information

Version 0.7.0 (Beta) (10/29/2009)

• New Feature: Now Playing, now playing screen will now continue playing after navigating away from the now playing page
  • Any list of songs can be enqueued onto the end of the current playlist
  • Tap and Hold a song to add just that song
  • Delete the now playing list from any scene
  • TODO: Build a playlist editor to remove items from a list
• New Feature: Random Music
  • Shuffle all Songs NOTE: This is using an documented method from the Ampache Server and does not allow for retrieval of song information.
  • Random Album Selector cover-flow like to allow random browsing
  • Artist, Albums, Songs of the moment lists
• New Feature: Redesign of progress indicator for loading content, works the same as the web browser and you can cancel while loading at any point.
• New Feature: Added the ability to e-mail the xml from problem tracks with corrupted tags to enable easier debug
• Improvement: Auto restart stalled stream after 20 seconds of stalled state.
• Improvement: Optimized all images included in the ipk making for a much smaller download.
  • NOTE: If you are using the included backgrounds you will need to reset
  you settings.
• Improvement: Modified all icons to have the same look and feel.
• Improvement: Spinner on now playing scene is now in the command menu and not covering up the cover art.
• Improvement: Made restarting a partially downloaded list optional, button click continues download
• Improvement: Removed all scene transitions makes the app much faster
• Improvement: Fixed the buffering indicator
  • Can now move the slider outside the buffered part of a song and it will start the download from the point you dropped
  • If the start of the buffer has been deleted by the audio service it will now be displayed
  • Fixed the issue where it would resize itself and make the now playing screen jump around
• Bug Fix: Added code to remove bad characters resulting in "unicode error" on the application side

Version 0.6.0 (Beta) (10/15/2009)

• New Feature: Genre Browser
• Performance Improvement: Entire app has been optimized using dburmans new optimizer, should make it snappier
• Performance Improvement: Speed improvements to list loading
• Performance Improvement: Pending Ampache Server Requests canceled when navigated away from
• Improvement: Using real published APIs for bluetooth and headset controls
  • Headset Controls are as follows: Double Click: Next Track, Click: Play/pause, Click and Hold: Prev Track
  • Bluetooth has been updated to the new API, untested so check it out.
• Improvement: Connection Cancel Button
• Improvement: Artist Albums Scene allows grabbing all songs from 1 artist.
• Improvement: Filtered songs lists now have have intelligent options. Giving you the option to play filtered songs or all songs.
• Bug Fix: Filtered Songs list pushed to now playing fixed
• Bug Fix: Found bug in ampache global search, added work around
• Bug Fix: Fixed problem if you pressed next at the last item your song would fail to load
• Bug Fix: Infinity NaN:NaN in now playing should be gone now, pesky bug

Version 0.5.0 (Beta) (09/27/2009)
NOTE: Changed versioning to allow for lower number to be used for small bug fixes.

• New Feature: (Global Search) should vastly improve performance if you know what you are looking for.
• New Feature: (Dynamic Resizing) Dynamic resizing of now playing screen. Meaning support for the Palm Pixi. Resizing during notifications. ect.
• New Feature: (Rotation) Landscape Mode (Rotation) Default:Off
• New Feature: (Performance Tuning) Per/Account Settings for fine tuning of performance (Recommended Usage: Make 2 accounts, one for a fast connection and one for a slow)
  • Fetch Size: Change how many items are downloaded at once from the server. Default: 300 items. Recommended higher number for fast connection, lower number for slow connection.
  • Artist Albums Art: Moved this setting from system wide to account specific.
• New Feature: (Quick Links) Clickable Links in Songs list for Search, Playlists, for loading Album or
• New Feature: (Albums Sorting) Albums List is now Sortable thru App Menu current sorting choices are Alphabetical, Year, Artist. Choice is saved.
• Improvement: Partially loaded lists will start loading where they left off, upon navigating back to them.
• Improvement: Made Audio player wait 500 ms before starting stream when user requests next/prev song this way if you a user is tapping next repeatedly it will not attempt to start every song as it did before.
• Improvement: Complete rewrite of underlying code that drives list loading, should be faster && less buggy.
• Improvement: Icons in list headers
• Improvement: Added scrims to cover up clickable items when app is busy
• Bug Fix: Play/Pause with Palm Headphones restarted track. Works as expected now.
• Bug Fix: Fixed filtering while loading on Albums and Artists. If you attempted to filter the list while it was loading the filter would not apply to newly downloaded items. This is now resolved.
• Bug Fix: Fixed ping so that it pings in sync with the session timeout (~30minutes). Previously pinged every 1 minute. Should save on battery.
• Bug Fix: Auto size background to fit available screen, choosing a part of a bigger image as the background isn't going to happen with current API.
• Bug Fix: Fixed spaces in background path.

Version 0.0.4 (Beta) (09/13/2009)
NOTE: Needed to change name (com.ampache.ampachemobile to com.palm.ampachemobile) to get headphone events to work, this will allow you to have v0.0.3 and v0.0.4 installed at the same time. Just go ahead and delete your older version.

• New Feature: Background Selector
• New Feature: Pause on Headphone Removal.
• New Feature: Stream Debug Mode
• New Feature: Now Playing Gestures
• New Feature: Remote Control via Bluetooth
  • Left-to-Right: Previous Track (Quick Flick)
  • Right-to-Left: Next Track (Quick Flick)
  • Double Tap: Play/Pause
• Improvement: Icons in Main Menu
• Improvement: New Icon (It's better but I am still not loving it)
• Improvement: Now Playing Scrolling Turned off.
• Improvement: Preferences Menu clean up.
• Bug Fix: Stopped run away timer in the AudioPlayer (should improve battery life)
• Bug Fix: Accidentally released with log level cranked to max (not sure what the Pre does with this). Turned it down, likely will improve performance.
• Bug Fix: Fixed issue with "The " in artist list. Caused extra dividers to be displayed.

Version 0.0.3 (Alpha) (08/30/2009)

• Bug Fix: Songs with no art were breaking XML parsing
• Improvement: Spinnner stays in the middle after a scroll
• Improvement: Displays Error message if you are running the wrong version of Ampache

Version 0.0.2 (Alpha) (08/29/2009)

• New Feature: Playlist Browser (Playlists need to be generated via Ampache web interface)
• New Feature: Cover art in AristAlbums List (Off by default, it can be a performance killer)
• Bug Fix: Shuffle All for an Individual album crashed app.
• Improvement: Better error messages when things go wrong
• Improvement: UI Improvements to numerous to list.

Version 0.0.1 Initial Release (Alpha) (08/27/2009)

• Feature: Album Browser (w/search)
• Feature: Artist Browser (w/search)
• Feature: In Application Now Playing Screen
  • Playlist
  • Shuffle
  • Song Buffering
• Feature: Multiple Server/Accounts Support

Known Bugs/Issues

• Unicode (Usually asian tracks) Characters in Ampache can cause the app to fail.
• Menu bars are loosing their text when you navigate back up thru the menus.
• Ampache 3.5 has issues with cover art. Upgrade to 3.5.1
• WebOS appears to have an issue when you pause a media stream. Pausing a stream and leaving the application open will cause your phone to heat up and use up battery.

Requirements

• Palm Pre
• Ampache Music Server running at least version 3.5.1

Setup

• A really basic setup is on the google code page (i'll update this time permitting)
• Be sure to check the AmpachPre thread as there is a lot on there as well. (My thanks to fain for taking the time to make some documentation)
• If you are a windows user look for fains windows vista help (should work for XP/Win 7 as well.)

Feature Request/Future Plans
Feature & Issue Tracker

Donate
If you would like to support the Ampache Mobile project please donate. Ampache Mobile will always be free, but as the project grows some monetary support would be nice. Donations will be used to support development of Ampache Mobile.



Source
Source/IPK is available here:
ampache-mobile - Project Hosting on Google Code

Murpher

ok, this looks Ridiculously amazing... but I'm completely lost on how to install the ampache server... a little help por favor?? ps, I went over to the ampache forums too, and if necessary I will go over it all with a fine tooth comb, but if someone else knows where to look, the forums over there are a mess...

bjgeiser

I'd start with their wiki. They have a guide on how to install for various operating systems. Getting a webserver up and running is just part of it too, you also have to get it available on the internet to really use the app as intended.

Also there is a pretty lengthy thread started for the AmpachPre app on this forum.

okasaki

c'mon, is this a legitimate app? I have a server, be wary until more info comes out..

bjgeiser

I assure you this is legitimate. Go download the source if u like.

ampache-mobile - Project Hosting on Google Code

tredftw

This app looks amazing, the only thing stopping me from looking into the ampachpre app was that the ui looked less than spectacular, but this is perfect! thank you!

asciiphil

I don't know much about Ampache, so apologies if this is easily answered. I have music in both FLAC and MP3. Ampache Mobile seems to be able to play the MP3s but not the FLACs. I see that Ampache does transcoding to generate audio streams. Is there a way to make Ampache Mobile take advantage of that transcoding so the Pre can play all of my music?

czarphanguye

Does this support Ampache 3.4.4 or do I need to install a newer version?

Edit, Nvm. Found a repo to to the current ampache version for ubuntu. https://launchpad.net/~cjsmo/+archive/ppa if anyone else needs this...

Ampache is set-up, yet still getting ACL Error on the Connection test. Suggestions? Using 3.5.1

EDIT (yet again.) Fixed by added a new ACL.

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mattickus

I am able to login and see my music but when I select an album or shuffle I just get a spinning circle and nothing happens after that. Is there a setting I am missing?

tntsniper

great concept, but it'd be amazing if you could come up with a way where we can just use our home computers as a server and then login on our phone.. w/ out setting up an ampache server.

Like we download an app on our pc.. then on the phone.. set up a connection.. and boom we have our music streaming.

Anyway this is possible?

falz

This is what Ampache does, but with the added benefit of letting you stream from the web interface from any computer as well. If you want to listen to your home collection on your pre, this app + ampache is definitely the way to go. If you have issues installing ampache, their docs/support should definitely be able to help you out.

On topic, I just installed this app and it's great! I saw no simple way in the other Ampache app to shuffle or do playlists, while it's clear how to do it in this one.

One suggestion, perhaps make it more clear that you have to enter 'http://'' in the URL field, or do some check to put it in there automatically. I had to do 10 or so test connections debugging my web logs before I realized it didn't actually hit the server. If you don't have the URL correct, it just gives a generic error.

okasaki

Ok, so my apologies for my previous post, definitely a legitimate app (I had just read about the Apache server getting comprimised, and didn't enter http:// before my ip, lol!). Much cleaner than Ampachepre! Like that it brings up all of your albums or artists instead of having to search. Also very nice to keep everything in the same card.

Anyway, Great start to another amazing app!

JayMadison

This is a really awesome piece of software, I think the only thing it really needs is a way to do playlists for it to be perfect. Are you involved with the folks working on ampachepre? Both of you have done an amazing job.

JayMadison

I"m having issues w/ shuffle and the spinning circle as well, granted I love how album playlists work I'm just hoping for a customizable playlist at some point, maybe it could interpret the RSS feed amache can generate or just work w/ M3U's.

bjgeiser

I'll fix the next version so its clear you need http. I am thinking of making the account addition screen a bit easier. Maybe I'll make it try to log in once before I allow it to add the account and throw up some suggested reasons why it might be failing. The reason its going to stay a complete url and not auto append the http is the potential for you to try out https (encryption), which I haven't been able to get working yet but I think it should (I think you need a properly signed key that WebOS will accept).

Also the next version will have playlists added. It will require you to build those playlists thru ampaches web interface to start with, I'll look into building them while in the app in the future.

Could you elaborate on the issues you are seeing with shuffle and the spinning circle.

I've been able to get FLAC, Ogg and other codecs to play using the transcoding feature in Ampache.
config:transcode [Ampache :: Wiki]

Another great reason to use transcoding is that it will make the app run much faster, pulling down 320kpbs mp3s over the cellular network probably isn't going to be the fastest thing ever. I have my server setup to transcode all codecs including mp3 down to 96kbps.

In general the Pre can only stream the codecs it has support for, so if you can play it using the included music player then you can likely stream it.

Direct from Palm:

Supported Audio Formats

The Pre supports the following audio formats:

* MP3
* AAC
* AAC+
* eAAC+
* AMR-NB
* QCELP
* WAV (LPCM, ADPCM, uLaw, aLaw)

fordaaronj

Works perfectly. Looks great, quick, my favorite app on the Pre so far. Let me know if you need any assistance in furthering this project. Keep up the good work.

figus

It works great... but i have 1 issue...

I have configured a DynDNS (in the ath.cx domain) address pointing to my actual (external) IP... i used to enter that in ampachPre and it worked (if I navigate to that address in the browser it displays the login page)... but here it doesn't it always says "Empty Response".... but if i use my IP it is succesfull...

has anyone experienced this?? how did you solve it?

thanks

bjgeiser

Are you putting http in the url?

falz

It's a NAT issue. You may need a different profile from inside your house VS outside. If you turn wifi off and connect via EVDO it will probably work. You could also fix this with a DNS entry if your home firewall allows you to add DNS records. (same hostname, but give the internal IP instead of external).

timbtimb

Amazing app.

Does anyone know why in ampache most of my music has the same album art picture? Like 90%+ of my music uses the same pic as it's cover. In iTunes this doesn't happen...