Yes. While this is a powerful feature which advanced users may find very useful, it is likely that less-experienced users may find it difficult to construct relative file paths in the manner necessary for use on a server (vs. that of their home PC).
As such, this feature is disabled by default and is not officially supported in any capacity by Centova Technologies.
Specifying file paths
When your users build their M3U files, they will normally construct them using the paths to the MP3s on their local computer. In order for Centova Cast to use the same M3U file, however, the MP3s must be on the server, and the paths in the M3U file must refer to the paths on the server.
For example, say the user has an MP3 on his computer named C:\MP3\Rock\rock_music.mp3, and he wishes to create an M3U playlist file containing this single MP3. The steps would be as follows:
1. Using FTP, upload the contents of the C:\MP3 folder to the media directory on the Centova Cast server, maintaining the complete directory structure.
So in the user's FTP client, he should see a Rock directory inside his media directory, and the rock_music.mp3 file should appear within the Rock directory, just as it would on his local computer.
2. Create an M3U file which uses paths relative to the C:\MP3 folder for each MP3.
So the relative paths in the M3U file should look like Rock\rock_music.mp3. If the M3U file specifies absolute paths instead (such as C:\MP3\Rock\rock_music.mp3) this will NOT work because there is no such file as C:\MP3\Rock\rock_music.mp3 on the server.
Once these conditions are met, the user can upload his M3U file.
Enabling M3U Importing
If you wish to enable this feature, edit /usr/local/centovacast/etc/centovacast.conf and find the following line:
ALLOW_IMPORT_M3U=false
Change it to:
ALLOW_IMPORT_M3U=true
If this line does not already exist, simply add it at the end of the file.
Finally, restart Centova Cast using:
/etc/init.d/centovacast restart
Uploading an M3U File
After this feature has been enabled, users simply need to launch the media library, select the playlist into which they would like to import the M3U file, and then click Options->Import M3U Playlist.
Tracks will be imported in the order in which they appear in the M3U file. Note that once the tracks are imported, they will be governed as usual by the rules of the playlist into which they were imported. (For example, if you import the M3U into a scheduled playlist, the tracks will play at whatever time you've scheduled for the playlist. If you've imported them into a general rotation playlist, they will play with the randomization and weighting settings you've applied to the playlist, and so-on).
