NIX/WIN/WEB

Here’s a simple script for managing/editing playlists in the popular JW Player.

It’s called [ Media Manager For JW Player ], and is GNU General Public License software which means it’s free and anyone can edit it.

That means I hope that this little manager will be of use to someone, but more importantly, may grow into something larger if others want it pick it up and run with it.

The Media Manager For JW Player Interface

The quick what-for-and-why:

What is it?

A front-end GUI to the rss playlist format JW Player uses to play movie and image content.

Why does it exist?

As far as I know, adding and managing playlists is a manual, text file editing process. This means if you want to give a third party access to your playlist, they need to have direct server access, or they need to edit such files and bug you to upload them…

This small app removes that barrier by providing a GUI to the playlist files in the format of a web page interface. It will also make it easier for non-technical users to manage media playlists, as they do not need to know the rss or XML format.

What features does it have?

Basic Logging – Good for keeping track of who does what on the server.

Multiple Users and Login – A basic text based login is easy to edit and requires no database

Movies and Images – JW Player handles both, so does this app. A simple menu lets you select media type.

Multiple Play Lists – Supports 4 individual playlists, can be expanded to handle more.

Automatic iFrame Creation – Each playlist has an iFrame link created for you for easy integration.

What are the system and software requirements?
PHP 5.2+, write access to your web server, and an existing copy of JW Player.

What’s the future of Media Manager For JW Player?

The idea is that we’ve got a good start for creating a more feature rich GUI, with a few more features we’re well on our way to creating a truly useful tool.

For example:

• Right now it handles images and video, but it would be nice if it did so automatically. That is to say, your file uploads MIME would be checked and the appropriate type selected automatically.
• It would be nice to have a way to set the skin to be used for the iFrame method.
• Better error checking
• Handle XML playlist formats.
• Handle Advertising and other ‘Pro’ version features.

Update: 9/11/11

Simple Pie, which this little script uses, doesn’t play well with PHP 5.3 because of how it utilizes return values by reference. The issue is minor however, as the issue doesn’t cause errors but rather warnings–many warnings. Thus, if using PHP 5.3 or higher please be sure to disable error messages.

I’ve also gone in an reformatted the README file, as well as updated the Simple Pie version to the newest available.