RMS II
RMS Web Player

RMS Web Player

• Introduction
• System Requirements
• Software Components
• Software Installation
• Software Setup
• Notes

Introduction

The RMS Web Player consists of two CGI applications, one helper application, and some associated template HTML files. Once it is installed on a web server Macintosh, the RMS Web Player lets web browser clients make queries on sound, band scan, and web monitoring log data files. The queries allow the web browser user to be able to select just those data files that meet a certain criteria -- for example, select just those sound files that have a certain frequency, broadcaster and language, within the past 3 days.

In all, the RMS Web Player lets web browser users:

• Select sound files by: Broadcaster, Language, Location, Time, Date, Frequency
• Listen to or Download the selected set of sounds, or graph an individual sound
• Select scan files by: Location, Band, Time, Date
• Graph, View, or Download the selected set of scans
• Select web monitoring data by: URL, Location,, Date
• Graph andView the selected set of web monitoring data

The sound, scan, and web monitoring data files must reside on the same Macintosh as the Web Player (i.e. usually the RMS Librarian and RMS Web Player will reside on the same Mac).

System Requirements

CPU:           Any PowerPC Macintosh or PowerBook
Memory Usage:  16MB
Disk Usage:    1MB + however much space is needed to cache query files
Network:       Internet connection
OS:            OS X 10.4 or later

Software Components

• RMS Player (v3.4 for use with Librarian 2.3 and later)
• RMS PlayerCompactor (v3.4)
• WebMonitoring app and files (2.3.1)
• StuffIt Framework (v7.0.3 or later)
• WebStar web server software (v5.3 or later)
  
• For viewing MP4's from a client browser, the web browser computer must have QuickTime installed:
  - OS 8.6/9.x requires QuickTime Player 6.0.3 (free, non-Pro)
  - OS X 10.3.9-10.4.x recommended QuickTime Player 6.5+ (free, non-Pro)
  - Win recommended QuickTime Player 6.5+ (free, non-Pro)

Software Installation

1. For complete OS X installation instuctions, see Reference_E: OS X Installation Notes.

Software Setup 

1. Set the PlayerCGI.acgi Preferences:
   • Launch the Player CGI application by double-clicking its icon in the Finder. It is located in the "cgi-bin" folder which is inside the "RMSPlayer" folder.
   • Choose Preferences from the File menu to open the Preferences dialog.
   • In the Preference's Data Files section, set where the "RMS Data" folder resides. This folder is the one into which the RMS Librarian places all the incoming Sound, Scan, Script and Log files. Click Set, then navigate to and select the "RMS Data" folder. The CGI will search this folder for data files when performing a query. Note that the RMS Librarian, Player CGI, and WebMonitor CGI MUST all reference the same "RMS Data" folder for query requests to work properly. For details on how the RMS Librarian uses the "RMS Data" folder, refer to the RMS Librarian documentation.
   • In the Preference's Librarian Location section, set the location of the RMS Librarian application. Click Set, then navigate to and select the Librarian application. The Player CGI needs to know where the Librarian is located so that it can access the "RMS Librarian Census" file, and the "Bands" file.
   • The Cache and Log file preference settings can be adjusted as needed for your installation.

     Important Note: The "RMS Data" folder must reside inside the same folder that directly contains the "RMSPlayer" folder (it can be nested inside folders in that folder). Here's an example of a typical setup:

     WebStar "root" folder
        milestone_1.2.htm
        "RMSPlayer" folder
           "html" folder
           "cgi-bin" folder
        "RMS Data" folder
           (this folder contains nested folders which contain data files)

2. Set the WebMonitorCGI.acgi Preferences:
   • Launch the WebMonitor CGI application by double-clicking its icon in the Finder. It is located in the "cgi-bin" folder which is inside the "RMSWebMonitor" folder.
   • Choose Preferences from the File menu to open the Preferences dialog.
   • In the Preference's Data Files section, set where the "RMS Data" folder resides. This folder is the one into which the RMS Librarian places all the incoming Sound, Scan, Script, Log, and Web Monitoring Log files. Click Set, then navigate to and select the "RMS Data" folder. The CGI will search this folder for data files when performing a query. Note that the RMS Librarian, Player CGI, and WebMonitor CGI MUST all reference the same "RMS Data" folder for query requests to work properly. For details on how the RMS Librarian uses the "RMS Data" folder, refer to the RMS Librarian documentation.
   • In the Preference's Librarian Location section, set the location of the RMS Librarian application. Click Set, then navigate to and select the Librarian application. The WebMonitor CGI needs to know where the Librarian is located so that it can access the "RMS Librarian Census" file.
   • In the Preference's Web Server Name section, type the name of the web server on which the CGI is running (e.g. "america.ibb.his.com" if this is the Americas server in DC). The WebMonitor CGI needs to know its web server name so that it can post requests to itself.
   • The Cache and Log file preference settings can be adjusted as needed for your installation.

     Important Note: The "RMS Data" folder must reside inside the same folder that directly contains the "RMSPlayer" and "RMSWebMonitor" folders (it can be nested inside folders in that folder). Here's an example of a typical setup:

     WebStar "root" folder
        milestone_x.x.htm
        "RMSPlayer" folder
           "html" folder
           "cgi-bin" folder
        "RMSWebMonitor" folder
           "html" folder
           "cgi-bin" folder
        "RMS Data" folder
           (this folder contains nested folders which contain data files)

Notes

• The PlayerCGI.acgi and WebMonitorCGI.acgi applications will launch automatically if necessary when a browser client submits a query. The PlayerCGI.acgi will automatically launch PlayerCompactor when needed. PlayerCompactor should be in the same folder as PlayerCGI.acgi so that it can find it.
   
• The current Broadcaster, Language, and Location lists are dynamically updated by the CGI; it reads the "RMS Librarian Census" file created by the Librarian to do this.
   
• The HTML template files in the "html" folder should only be edited using a text editor (such as BBEdit). Do not use a web page editor (such as Claris Home Page), otherwise the template file may become invalid for use by the CGI.
   
• If CGI queries seem to take a long time to complete, try reducing the scope of the query. For example, when performing a sound query, reduce the number of broadcasters, languages and locations specified in the query. In general, the greater the scope (i.e. set of potential data files) of the query, the longer it takes to complete the query. Another option for improving query performance is to adjust the RMS Librarian's Tasking Time preference setting to be "more neighborly". Refer to the RMS Librarian documentation for information on how to adjust this setting.
   
• In addition to the standard Scan and Sound query web pages, the Player CGI also provides a CGI command which lets user's directly query for a specific set of broadcaster(s), language(s), location(s), frequency(s), time range and date(s) or 'last N days', and it returns a list of links to sound files which match the search criteria. The returned list is displayed in a window by itself, and the list includes links to all target sound files. The window also provides an option to download a .sit or .zip of the listed sound files.
  
  The HTTP command for invoking this CGI command has the following format: http://america.his.com/RMSPlayer/cgi-bin/PlayerCGI.acgi?brd=VOA&loc=ISLA&lng=ENGL&frq=15250&day=2&btm=1000&etm=1400&sound_da=yes, where brd specifies the broadcaster, loc specifies the location, lng specifies the language, frq specifies the frequency, btm specifies the begin time (UTC), etm specifies the end time (UTC), day specifies the number of days back in time to search, and sound_da specifies that it's a direct access sound query command. You can specify more than one broadcaster, language, location and/or frequency; for example, http://america.his.com/RMSPlayer/cgi-bin/PlayerCGI.acgi?brd=VOA&loc=ISLA&loc=JOHA&lng=ENGL&lng=RUSS&sound_da=yes. In addition, you can specify "all" for the broadcaster, location and language query fields as follows: http://america.his.com/RMSPlayer/cgi-bin/PlayerCGI.acgi?brd=-+All+-&loc=-+All+-&lng=ENGL&sound_da=yes. Note that in this example, the '+' characters are used to represent spaces. If the frq filter is not included in the query, then all frequencies are retrieved. Likewise, if the day filter is omitted, then all available days of data will be searched. If the begin and end time settings are omitted, then all times are retrieved. If just begin time is specified, then end time is assumed to be 2359 UTC, and if just end time is specified, then begin time is assumed to be 0000 UTC.
  
  If you want to specify specific date(s) to query rather than the 'last N days' then you need to replace the parameter 'day=N' with 'dat=YYYYMMDD'. To query multiple dates you just add more parameters, for example: 'dat=20030615&dat=20030616&dat=20030618'.
  
  There are also three parameters that are used by the AutoDownloader that most users can ignore, but for completeness they are: dnlSIT=yes or dnlZIP=yes or dnlTGZ=yes. At most one of these options should appear in the CGI command. They automatically download the archive (SIT or ZIP or TGZ, respectively) of sounds that result from the rest of the query.
  
• Web browser clients downloading sounds or scans as .sit must have StuffIt Expander 8.0.2 in order to be able to decompress the data. Downloading as .zip requires a ZIP decompressor (such as StuffIt Expander 8.0.2 on the Mac, or WinZip on Windows). Sounds downloaded as .zip will lose the data in the resource fork of the sound file (i.e. +/20kHz scan and audio graph data).
  
• In order for the Web Player to create graphs, it utilizes Java applets running in the client's browser to actually plot the data. If you're using Microsoft Internet Explorer v3.01 or v 4.0 for the Macintosh to view scan graphs, there's a bug in Microsoft's Java Virtual Machine that causes the scan graphs to not be drawn after a few (e.g. 5 - 10) graphs have been drawn properly. To avoid this problem, you must use Apple's Java Virtual Machine rather than Microsoft's. To select the Apple Virtual Machine, invoke Explorer's Preferences menu command, and in the dialog displayed, click "Java" in the list at the left. The panel to the right contains a popup menu which lets you select the Java Virtual Machine Explorer will use. Select the "Apple MRJ" option and click OK. If "Apple MRJ" doesn't appear as an option in the pop-up menu, you'll first need to install Apple's Java Virtual Machine on your computer. Make sure to install v2.0 or later of Apple's virtual machine, and note that the virtual machine can only run under MacOS 8.1 or later. Also, note that Microsoft Internet Explorer v4.0 for the PC does not exhibit this errant behavior.
   
• When viewing a graph of scan file data in the browser, you can "re-center", "zoom in", and "zoom out" as follows:
  • To "re-center" click the mouse in the graph where you want to re-center. The graph will be redrawn with the data at the clicked point near the center of the graph.
  • To "zoom in" hold down the SHIFT key and click the mouse where you want to zoom in. The graph will be redrawn zoomed in, with the data at the clicked point near the center of the graph.
  • To "zoom out" hold down the CONTROL key or OPTION key (ALT key on Windows) and click the mouse where you want to zoom out. The graph will be redrawn zoomed out, with the data at the clicked point near the center of the graph.