SAM Broadcaster HTML Output

Setting up the SAM Broadcaster HTML Output

SAM Broadcaster includes the option to generate web pages which can be added to your website and used to display a variety of different information.  You can display the currently playing track, track information, playlists, the contents of your music library and other details.

You can either use the included webpage templates as they are or depending upon your web coding skills, you can customize these templates or create your own templates.  These templates are used to generate the actual web pages which would also include the actual information so the "_playing.html" template would be combined with the currently playing track information to create the "playing.html" webpage which would be uploaded via FTP to your website.  This process is repeated for all of the templates you have configured for use.

To start, open SAM Broadcaster, click on Config->HTML output where you will find the two, General template files and one Playlist template file available along with their corresponding output files which are the files which will be uploaded via FTP to your website.

Ref	Explanation
1	Add or Remove HTML Input and Output files, the same functionality is also provided below for the Playlist HTML Output option
2	Configuration (existing file must be first selected)
3	Moves files up or down in the list
4	General HTML File window
5	Set the track duration under which, HTML updates are not generated (usually used for adverts, Station IDs and other short tracks)
6	Playlist HTML File window
7	FTP Username box
8	FTP Password box
9	Enter the name of the directory where your album art will be stored on your web server (folder must already exist, an example would be "pictures/")
10	Enter the directory root for your website (this is not your website URL and may commonly be "httpdocs/"
11	Check this box if your FTP service supports the passive FTP mode
12	Enter your FTP port number which by default would be 21
13	Enter your FTP host URL or IP address
14	Check this box if you wish to generate updated files when tracks change

 

The default path to the Template files is:

C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\SpacialAudio\SAMBC\samHTMLweb

(%username% is used as an alternative to the currently logged in user's username and can be used to locate the correct folder when the file path above is pasted into a window)

If the files are not in the list, Click the [+] sign to browse to and locate your template files.  Then specify the output file location however, this must be a location to which the files can be written. If you cannot locate the generated files, check your Event Log window which would show the following types of errors if there was a problem writing the files to the specified location:

An error message related to "HTML input file does not exist" means the template file you are attempting to use cannot be found at the provided location whilst the message "Unable to write HTML output file" usually means SAM Broadcaster cannot save the files to the given location.  You would need to verify the file locations to resolve this issue.

Configure your FTP settings to upload the files to your web server with the information usually provided by your web hosting service provider.

Edit the _config.html file in a text editor to suit your needs, ensure you replace the dummy email address with your actual email address and specify your station's logo by replacing "logo.gif" with the actual filename.  Your station logo must be added to your images folder for this to work.

Once you have completed all of these steps, simply click the Tools menu in SAM Broadcaster, select HTML Output and click Generate to create the files shown in the HTML Output options and click Generate Playlist to create playlist webpages for the tracks in your music library.  There is a third option available, "Upload All Pictures" which will upload the images and pictures which are used throughout these generated pages.  This also includes the album art and this can take some time to complete.  You should regularly click this option to upload any new album art you might have.

 

Ensuring you have checked the "Auto-generate on song change" checkbox will automatically update items like the Currently Playing and Coming Up track options.

These pages should now be fully functioning.

There are a large number of configurable items available including style sheets and HTML pages.  Unfortunately, we are unable to provide assistance with the configuration of this feature because of the many different configurable options available.  We are also unable to assist with third-party software services which would include your web host.  If you have an active SAM Broadcaster subscription and have issues with this feature, we will be able to provide you with the default folder contents which will reset your changes.