XML Playlists Overview

An XML playlist is a text-based XML file that contains information about each file you would like to present in the player. An XML playlist is used to populate the list of tracks within Rave, which means that no special server-side functionality is required.

Benefits of using an XML playlist:

Minimize server load.
XML playlists are files, hence, no server-side processing is required.

Run Rave on a CD, DVD or Hard Drive.
Again, an XML playlist is just a file, the data within the playlist can be set up to use relative paths.

Run Wimpy on servers that don't support PHP, ASP or ColdFusion.
Although most servers have either PHP, ASP or ColdFusion, some servers do not, or server administrators limit the functionality of these programs.

Customize the order in which items appear in the list.
Since the "Automatic Playlist" option reads the contents of folders using an alphabetic list, sometimes files are not in the preferred order. Using an XML playlist allows you to organize the display order.

Customize the Artist, Title, Image, Description and Links.
An XML playlist allows you to include much more information about each track.

Creating an XML playlist

There are two methods for creating XML playlists:

1. Use Playlister to automatically generate Wimpy formatted playlists.

2. Create an XML playlist manually.

Click here to download some example XML playlists. Open a playlist.xml file in a text editor (such as notepad) and edit the <filename> for each item so that it is a URL an mp3 file on your server. Example:

<filename>http://www/path/to/track.mp3</filename>

For advanced XML authors, check out the Wimpy XML Playlist File Format.

Applying an XML playlist

1. Create an XML playlist. 2. Upload the XML file to your server. 3. Use the Customizer tool and select "XML Playlist" from the drop-down menu, then enter the URL to the XML file into the field.