Table of Contents

English-speaking FAQ of Radio.Blog.Club

Thanks to hannaxbear, Berticus & Elcid

Basic Information

What should I do before posting?

Follow these steps:

  • Search the forums using the search function and/or browse some of the most recent threads on the board.
  • Now you may post, but please remember to provide a URL to your radio.blog and be specific with your question.

What's the difference between radio.blog and juke.blog?

Radio.Blog is a web-based flash application which dynamically creates a playlist of audio files to be heard by a website's visitors. It is a standalone application, requiring the visitor only to have flash installed on their computer. Juke.Blog is NOT radio.blog. Juke.blog is a radioblogclub.com feature which lets you select a list of favorite songs from the radioblogclub.com database. This playlist of favorites is only available to you when you visit the club website - it cannot be output, or used externally.

Where can I download radio.blog?

Note: There is an archive of all of the Radio.Blog versions available located here.

What's the difference between versions 1.4 and 2.x?

Please see this thread.

What's new about version 2.5?

Please see this thread.

Other Radio.Blog Mods

Where can I find a list of all of the available versions of Radio.Blog?

What is Radio.BlogDJ (aka RBDJ)?

RBDJ (aka Radio.blogDJ) created by Albright is a free PHP script that allows members of a community to upload their own music in MP3 format into your radio.blog's playlist. rbDJ can be integrated into forums, blogs and CMSs which feature a member database. Administrators will also have administrator privileges on rbDJ. Click here to go to the thread that talks about RBDJ and here to download it and/or find out more.

Where can I find out more about Admin Radio.Blog?

Please see this thread.

Where can I find out more about Radio.Blog HTML Playlist?

Please see this thread.

What if I want special characters in my song names?

Try using this modified playlist.php that allows special characters and has a better shuffle function.

Installing Radio.Blog

I don't understand how to install radio.blog. Can you help?

Please see this thread for a detailed tutorial on how to install radio.blog. A shorter and more recent tutorial that includes visuals written by Berticus can be found here. If you are more of a visual learner or cannot read English well, you may want to try Berticus's Video Tutorials, but please note that they are currently in a “beta” stage and need to be perfected, so we encourage you to leave comments or suggestions about it.

I am using MAC. How do I get radio.blog working?

Please see this thread.

How do you put radio.blog on Xanga?

Please see this thread.

How do you put radio.blog on MySpace?

Thanks to DarkPontiac and absent, we have found a successful way to put radio.blog on myspace! The entire thread is here, but the direct link to the directions are here. DarkPontiac has also created a program that will help you with the coding, which can be found here.

Or you can use radio.blog 3.0 and use pldilley's technique here.

How do you put radio.blog on MSN Space?

In short, you probably can't. You kind read a more descriptive explanation provided by Berticus here.

How do you put radio.blog on Friendster?

kolot182 has found a way to put radio.blog on Friendster. Learn more about it here.

How do you put radio.blog on Blogger?

First make sure you set up your radio.blog at a different host first. If you need more help with that, please refer to one of the previous questions above that says “I don't understand how to install radio.blog. Can you help?” After you have set up your radio.blog online, refer to this post to find out how to include radio.blog on your actual blogger page.

How do I get radio.blog to pop-up in a window?

Please see this post.

How do I add my favorite songs from juke.blog to my radio.blog?

We do not encourage this. Berticus offers an excellent explanation here. In short, you cannot and/or are not allowed to. Sorry. Buy the CD!

Where do I get music for my radio.blog from?

From CDs or MP3s you already own. If you have none, purchase them.

Can I use .WMA, .WAV, or any other file type than .MP3?

If you are planning to follow directions and convert the songs, then no, you cannot. The only way you can do this is if you convert them to .MP3. However, if you use the non-PHP version or see the directions for “Customized Order Playlist” above, then you can, but your songs will remain the same size, which can be a problem since it will take up plenty of bandwidth and file space.

Host Issues

Where do I find a good free host?

If you want to put your radio.blog on a free host, there are some things you should look for, such as:

  1. PHP support°
  2. XML, SWF, and RBS°° support.
  3. Enough file space and bandwith. If you want to put a lot of songs on your radio.blog, naturally, you need a host that has a lot of space and bandwith. A good comfortable amount of space would be 100 MB with 10 GB of bandwith, but it is possible to have a host with less.
  4. No file size limit.

°not necessary if you use the non-PHP version.
°°not necessary if you use the SWF version.
Note: A host that you should beware of is 100webspace.com and their sibling hosts as it is not compatible with radio.blog. See this thread for a list of working hosts. If you have a suggestion for a good host, please post here.

What is bandwidth and how much bandwidth does radio.blog take?

It varies from user to user, depending on how many people listen to your songs, how many songs you have, and how large your mp3 file is. Bandwith = Number of MP3s x Size of MP3s x Number of Listeners.

How can I lower the bandwidth consumption of my radio.blog?

  1. Use the convert32.bat if you are not already doing this.
  2. Change the register value to 0 in your config.xml. This will remove your radio.blog from the radio.blog club database so random people using radio.blog club will not leech off your bandwith. However, if you want to be indexed, then do not do this.
  3. Use Berticus' Extended Playlist Mod.

What if my host does not support PHP?

This can be solved using the non-PHP method hannaxbear produced, which you can find out more about here.

How do I set radio.blog up in ASP?

Download Ghismo's ASP version here. If you are having any type of trouble with it, please refer to the ASP thread.

How do I set radio.blog up in a Linux server?

Please see this thread.

What if I'm using a Windows server?

Though we are not 100% sure as to what a concrete solution might be at the moment, we know that you may need some “extra-troubleshooting”. For now, try using the non-PHP version, the ASP version, or get a nix server (Unix/Linux/BSD).

How do I host my radio.blog's songs on a different server than my index.php?

You can do this by uploading the entire sounds folder to the server you plan to host your music files on. Then open config.xml and change the playlist.php file path to the new URL of the playlist.php file (ex. http://musicserver.com/sounds/playlist.php). The playlist.php file path looks like this in the config.xml:<playlist path="sounds/playlist.php" />

Can I upload my music to multiple servers but keep them in the same radio.blog?

Yes, please use Berticus' modded version of radio.blog here. This mod was originally created to help save bandwidth by allowing a user to use multiple servers to host their radio.blog, but keep it within the same radioblog. Please send any feedback about the instructions, as well as the mod itself, to Berticus.

Customizing Radio.Blog

What can I do to customize my radio.blog?

Please see the following.

  1. Alphabetized, Shuffled, or Customized Playlist: This thread will tell you how to put your playlist in ABC or numerical order, have it shuffle every time it loads, or put it in any order you want.
  2. Customize Colors: This method allows you to change the colors of your radio.blog.
  3. Customize Background: This method allows you to change the background of your radio.blog to any color or an image.
  4. Change Timestamps: This method allows you to change the timestamp to say [now].
  5. Different Sizes: This method allows you to use two other smaller sizes of radio.blog.
  6. Song Counter: This method allows you to monitor how many times a song on your radio.blog has been played.

I followed the instructions on how to customize my radio.blog, but it's not working !

If you have edited the config.xml to change the colors, the background, or anything similar, you can do four things:

  1. Double-check that you have followed the instructions exactly.
  2. Refresh the page.
  3. Clear your browser's cache.
  4. Search forum threads for answers.

If you still cannot get it to work properly, then feel free to post a new thread.

What are those numbers in the brackets on my playlist (ex. [-12d]) and how do I remove them?

This is a timestamp, representing when you uploaded it. You cannot get rid of it. However, you can get it to say “now” instead. To do this, open your playlist.php file with Notepad, and look for: echo "<track trackMod=\"".$trackMod."\" title=\"".$trackName."\" path=\"".$webPath.$track."\"/>\n"; And replace it with: echo "<track trackMod=\"9999999999\" title=\"".$trackName."\" path=\"".$webPath.$track."\"/>\n"; If you have a 2.x version lower than 2.4, then please see this post.

The scrolling speed for 2.5 is really slow, how do I speed it up?

Basically, you can't control the scrolling speed, so you'll either have to deal with it or download Radio.Blog 1.4.

How do I get my radio.blog's songs to be added to radioblogclub.com's search engine?

Click on the button on your radio.blog labeled “I want my radio.blog”.
If you are using the SWF version, or any other version that modifies the filenames/types from the standard ”.rbs” you will be unable to add your songs to the database.

How do I prevent my radio.blog from being added to radioblogclub.com's search engine?

Make sure you are using Radio.Blog 2.5 and in the config.xml file, set the register value to 0, like this: <register value=“0” />

Technical Issues

I am unable to convert my songs ! What do I do?

You have four solutions:

  1. Make sure you are trying to convert MP3 files, not WMA, WAV, or anything else.
  2. Make sure that you have a “sounds” folder in the creat.sound directory. In other words, if there is no “sounds” folder, make one.
  3. Make sure you are trying to convert the songs on your local machine, not the server.
  4. See this thread if you are still unable to convert your songs.

My converted songs are playing really fast ! What do I do?

Please see this thread.

My songs are stuck on preloading and/or my host does not support .RBS extensions !

If your host is siteburg, this is the problem. Use the non-PHP version. If your host is not siteburg, check your playlist.php (on your host, not your computer) and if there is extra ads or coding at the top, use the non-PHP version. If this does not solve the problem, make sure that your song's title contains no foreign characters outside of 1-9 and A-Z. If this still does not work, please try this method, known as the .SWF version.

When I try playing my songs, they play for a while but then just end up skipping to the next song. Why?

This might be because of the speed of your internet connection. Try increasing the number of the buffer value in your config.xml. After doing this, you might have to change the crossfader value to 1 as well. In some cases, this may be caused by a slow host. If this is indeed the case, you will need to use lower quality songs (ie. smaller file sizes) or find a new host.

My playlist says [NaN] undefined ! What do I do?

The odds are that it is your host causing the problem. If your host has ads or includes extra coding in all of your files, particularly playlist.php, then therein lies your problem. The extra coding disrupts the parsing of the playlist.php and therefore causes the ”[NaN] undefined” issue. The solution? Find another host. Or you may try using the non-PHP version, which might solve the problem.

My radio.blog says "Loading playlist" and "undefined". What do I do?

The problem lies within your config.xml file. Open it and check if there are any strange symbols like ?»? or - in it. For example, if your config.xml file looks similar to this (notice the - and ?»? in front of each line): <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> - <configs> - <!-- COLORS --> - <color1 value="6AACBA" /> <!-- LOGO, BUTTON --> - <color2 value="FFFFFF" /> <!-- BUTTON TEXT, BACKGROUND --> - <color3 value="6AACBA" /> <!-- PLAYLIST TEXT --> - <color4 value="000000" /> <!-- BORDER --> - <bg_opacity value="100" /> <!-- BACKGROUND OPACITY -->   - <!-- PLAYLIST PATH --> - <playlist path="playlist.xml" />   - <!-- PARAMETERS --> - <buffer value="7" /> - <crossfader value="0" /> <!-- 1 | 0 --> - <style value="full" /> <!-- full | mini | compact -->   - </configs> Then simply delete all of the - and strange characters like ?» and save the config.xml file. It should be fine now.

My radio.blog keeps saying "Loading playlist" and "sounds/playlist.php". What do I do?

The problem is that your playlist.php file is probably missing. Did you remember to upload it? Did you upload it to the sounds/ folder? Make sure that you've done this correctly. If you are absolutely sure that you have, then go ahead and post your question on the forums, but remember to include your radio.blog URL!

FAQ's For Radio.Blog 3.x

How to install the 3rd beta version of Radio.Blog?

Please see this thread.

How to start the radio automatically?

There are 3 ways to do that. You just need to add one of these 3 lines in your index file before the Radioblog.start(); line:

  1. RadioBlog.autoplay.trackmod = '1234567890'; (where '1234567890' represents the timestamp of the song)
  2. RadioBlog.autoplay.title = 'artist - title of the song'; (the song name)
  3. RadioBlog.autoplay.tracknum = '1'; (track position)

Can I add a background image in this version?

At the moment you can't. However astro is working on.

My radio displays a "File Error" message when I try to play a song. Why?

Because the sampling rate of your .rbs files is greater than 22.05 kHz.

My radio doesn't appear at all, is there any way to solve this problem?

There are 2 reasons:

  • You've certainly disabled the Javascript in your browser
  • You have to upgrade your Flash Player to 9.0 (the most recent version).

My host doesn't support PHP. Is there any alternative?

The method consists in creating a playlist.xml file in which you'll have to paste the following code which looks like this (if you have one .rbs file in the folder): <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <playlists> <playlist title="Example 1"> <track trackMod="1158588650" title="TITLE" path="URL" /> </playlist> </playlists> You can add as many <track trackMod=“1158588650” title=“TITLE” path=“URL” /> as you want. Here is another example with several playlists (with 1 song inside each folder): <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <playlists> <playlist title="EXAMPLE 1"> <track trackMod="1158588650" title="TITLE" path="URL" /> </playlist> <playlist title="EXAMPLE 2"> <track trackMod="1158588650" title="TITLE" path="URL" /> </playlist> </playlists> Then open your index file, and edit the file by replacing: RadioBlog.playlist = 'http://yourdomain.com/folder/sounds/playlist.php'with:RadioBlog.playlist = 'http://yourdomain.com/folder/sounds/playlist.xml'

How to organize my songs alphabetically?

Open the playlist.php file, then find this line:krsort($this->sounds); and replace 'krsort' with 'asort'.

How to organize my songs randomly?

It's the same step as above, except you have to replace 'krsort' with 'shuffle'.

How to autoplay the radio.blog if you're using the embed code?

There are 2 ways.
Either:<embed title="null" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://stat.radioblogclub.com/radio.blog//skins/default/player.swf" allowscriptaccess="always" bgcolor="#ECECEC" id="radioblog_player_1" flashvars="id=1&amp;status=maximize&amp;playlistPath=PATH TO PLAYLIST.XML OR PLAYLIST.PHP&amp;tracknum=1&amp;colors=body:#ECECEC; border:#BBBBBB;button:#999999;player_text:#666666; playlist_text:#666666;new_tracks:#000000;" height="100%" width="100%"> Or:<embed title="null" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://stat.radioblogclub.com/radio.blog//skins/default/player.swf" allowscriptaccess="always" bgcolor="#ECECEC" id="radioblog_player_1" flashvars="id=1&amp;status=maximize&amp;playlistPath=PATH TO PLAYLIST.XML OR PLAYLIST.PHP&amp;title=title of track&amp;colors=body:#ECECEC; border:#BBBBBB;button:#999999;player_text:#666666; playlist_text:#666666;new_tracks:#000000;" height="100%" width="100%">

FAQ's For Juke.Blog

How do you add a song to your juke.blog?

When you search for a song, there should be a heart to the left of the title of the song. To add it, click it and it should turn pink, which means that it has to been added to your playlist.

How do you delete a song from your juke.blog?

Click on “Favorites” at the top in the blue section. Now you should see something like:

Notice the pink and white heart to the left. Click it and it should turn gray, meaning it is no longer on your playlist.

How do I download songs from my juke.blog to my computer?

We do not encourage this. Berticus offers an excellent explanation here. In short, you cannot and/or are not allowed to. Sorry. Buy the CD!

How do I change the color of my juke.blog?

You can't. Sorry.

When I try playing my songs, they play for a while but then just end up skipping to the next song. What do I do?

Try clicking on the crossfader button at the bottom. If it still does not work, press the “Pause” button and wait for it to finish preloading. Then press “Play.”

How do I add my juke.blog onto my website?

Your entire juke.blog is not intended to be placed on a website or blog. It is only here for your own listening pleasure. If you would like to share music on your website or blog, then please download Radio.blog and add your own songs to it.
However, you can place one song on your blog; this is currently a beta feature and is subjet to change without any notice. You can learn how to do this here.

I share a computer with another person. Every time I try logging into my account, I am still in the other person's account? What do I do?

Clear the browser's cookies. If you're using IE, go to Tools > Internet Options, then click “Delete Cookies.”

What if I want a song to be added to the radio.blog.club database?

This is how radio.blog club works: The songs found through the search engine are songs that other people, who have their own radio.blog, are hosting. Radio.blog club does not actually host the music itself.
However, you can make requests here but there is no guarantee that they will be granted.

Why do some of the songs on my favorite list turn red?

These are songs that are probably no longer functional because they have been removed from their hosting, but radio.blog is unsure, so it displays the song as red. If you're wondering why these songs “go off-line” (meaning they are removed and no longer work), this is due to how radio.blog club works: The songs found through the search engine are songs that other people, who have their own radio.blog, are hosting. Radio.blog club does not actually host the music itself.

Why are some of the songs on my playlist stuck on preloading?

These are songs that are probably no longer functional because they have been removed from their hosting, so the song no longer works. If you're wondering why these songs “go off-line” (meaning they are removed and no longer work), this is due to how radio.blog club works: The songs found through the search engine are songs that other people, who have their own radio.blog, are hosting. Radio.blog club does not actually host the music itself.

 
faq.txt · Last modified: 2008/01/28 23:36 by astro
 
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