For many webmasters who publish dynamic content, Wordpress has become the CMS of choice.
Many media houses including news papers, magazines and radio stations have taken on to wordpress. For radio stations there is always a need to intergrate their studio content from the broadcast computer into the stream and therefore onto their website. many ways can achieve that but we would like to share the easiest way to do that within a few clicks.
BEFORE YOU INSTALL THE PLUG-IN
Before you install the WordPress plug-in, you will need to configure both SAM Broadcaster and your mySQL database to allow your webserver to access them.
It is highly recommended that you set up a mySQL user specifically for use by the plug-in. This user only requires SELECT access on the songlist, requestlist, and queuelist tables of your SAM database. It does not require any global access privileges, nor does it need to be able to modify any data in your database.
For security reasons, the plug-in will NOT allow you to use the “root” user, even if you have configured it to be allowed external access.
1) First you will need a functional wordpress site.
2) I am assuming you have a licensed Sam broadcaster software running on the mysql installation NOT Firebird
3) Create a user on your mysql DB NOT the root user.
4) You will also need admin rights to the Wordpress site. I am assuming you know how to download plugins and activate them inside your wordpress Dashboad.
5) Get a wordpress plugin called The NGS SAM Integrator Here. This is a WordPress Plug-In designed for users of Spacial Audio’s SAM Broadcaster software. It allows you to set up a section on your WordPress site which integrates directly with your SAM Broadcaster Pro software, allowing your visitors to make requests whether you are DJing live or not.
According to the plugin author, It has been tested with and confirmed to work with SAM Broadcaster installations using the MySQL database system. Other database systems have not been tested, nor can this plug-in be verified to support them.
6) Install the plugin activate it and configure it and you will be ready to go. You will need to read the following too if you are not very familiar with that process before you start.
Special Considerations And Sam Broadcaster Guide
NOTE make sure you download from that link above as that is the latest stable version. It has the following new changes
It is also recommended that you take steps to secure your installation of mySQL before allowing external access by this, or any other application or user. For information on how to secure your mySQL installation, please see http://www.mysql.com/why-mysql/white-papers/a-guide-to-securing-mysql-on-windows/.
There are lot of different options you configure in SAM Broadcaster related to how it handles incoming requests. Most of these are fairly self explanatory and can (and should) be adjusted over time to best suit your own needs as well as those of your visitors. I will only cover those settings which are necessary to allow the plug-in to function.
- In SAM Broadcaster, click File > Config and select Request Policy.
- Make sure that Enable Requests is checked.
- You will see a list entitled Only accept requests from these IP addresses.
The default IP addresses in that list are mostly associated with Audiorealm, which is the site that Spacial Audio uses to process requests if you choose not to process them yourself. This plug-in processes all request internally so you will need to add your webserver’s IP address to this list. It is recommended, when possible, that you use the IP address rather than the domain name here.
For information on the additional Request Policy settings in SAM Broadcaster, please see your SAM Broadcaster documentation or integrated help files.
You will also need to ensure that your firewall and/or router are configured to allow incoming connections on the proper ports for MySQL and SAM Broadcaster. By default, these ports are 1221 for SAM Broadcaster and 3306 for MySQL.
Once this is done, the hard part is out of the way. Installation and configuration of the plug-in itself is very easy and straight forward.
Manual Installation Instructions
- Upload the NGS SAM Integrator Plug-In to your WordPress Site and Activate it
- Open the NGS SAM Integrator Settings
- Enter Your SAM Broadcaster details including the host address and port where the SAM Broadcaster client is running.
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Enter the Connection Details for your SAM Broadcaster Database.
For security reasons, the "root" user should never be used for this or any other web based application. For this reason, the plug-in will not allow to use "root" as the database user name.
It is recommended that you configure a new database user specifically for use by the plug-in and only give it SELECT access on your SAM Database.
The plug-in does not need, nor would it make use of, any other privileges. - The option for "Show Queue Time" will display a message to inform one of seven different messages to give your visitors a general idea of how long the queue is, but not a specific queue time. (Default is YES)
- You may manually specify the post ID's of pages you have already set up to hold your play list and top requests list. If these are left blank (or if the specified posts do not exist), new posts will automatically be created containing the proper shortcodes when you save your options.
The New Shortcodes
[songsearch] … [/songsearch]
The first new shortcode is the [songsearch] shortcode. As the name implies, it allows you to create a hyperlink to your song list, searching for a specified artist, title, or album. For example, if you were writing an article that mentioned AC/DC, you could use [songsearch]AC/DC[/songsearch] and it would create a link to a list of all of your AC/DC tracks.
You can also include an option “search” argument to search for something other than the literal text you are linking. For example, [songsearch search="Pink Floyd"]my favorite band[/songsearch] would hyperlink the text “my favorite band” and link it to a list of Pink Floyd songs.
This shortcode will work for song titles and albums as well as artists. It does, of course, depend on the tags in your SAM Database being accurate.
[toplist]
The second new shortcode is [toplist]. This shortcode will allow you embed a short list of the most requested songs from your library into other content. By default, it will list the top five, but you can specify the number using an optional “num” parameter. For example, [toplist num=10] would list the top ten requests instead of the top five.
The Widgets
Top Request Widget
The first of the widgets is the Top Requests widget. Like the [toplist] shortcode, it will list the top five songs by default. The widget can be configured to list any number you like. The list is not hyperlinked for requesting.
Upcoming Tracks Widget
This widget will list the next five tracks in your queue. If a song was requested through the web-based request system, it will be marked with a ” ~requested~” tag. Like the Top Request Widget, it can easily be reconfigured to show more (or less) tracks.
Recently Played Widget
This widget displays a list of recently played tracks (including the current track). Like the Upcoming Tracks Widget, it will mark any tracks which were requests and, of course, the number of tracks can easily be reconfigured.
NOTE the write up has been made with the help of the publisher's notes and images.
