Is this even possible? grab metadata from mp3 from the beginning of an upload!

My boss has asked me for the following features:

  • Have uploads of mp3 tracks to our service be made asynchronous
  • Immediately allow editing of the track form
  • Grab the tracks metadata (i.e. from the file header) from the
    beginning of the upload to prefill the form

My initial reaction was that it wasn’t possible but I decided to ask
around to see if other had any other ideas. Would this be possible
perhaps via chunked transfer? Or perhaps some custom flash?

The reason why I’m asking here is that I recognize it could be made
possible with a custom nginx module I guess.

Regards,

Saimon

On Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 12:01:26PM +0100, Saimon M. wrote:

My boss has asked me for the following features:

  • Have uploads of mp3 tracks to our service be made asynchronous
  • Immediately allow editing of the track form
  • Grab the tracks metadata (i.e. from the file header) from the
    beginning of the upload to prefill the form

My initial reaction was that it wasn’t possible but I decided to ask
around to see if other had any other ideas. Would this be possible
perhaps via chunked transfer? Or perhaps some custom flash?

As the ID3 tag of an mp3 file is at the end, I guess you’re SOL unless
you implement it client-side (IIRC it’s a fixed-length structure at the
very end of the file; comes in two major versions). Probably a flash
uploader will be required.

The reason why I’m asking here is that I recognize it could be made
possible with a custom nginx module I guess.

I’m not sure the web server of choice is of any relevance here, but to
keep on topic you may wish to have a look at the wiki:

Best regards,
Grzegorz N.

Thanks Grzegorz…

I should have investigated id3 location first.

Custom flash looks like the only possibility right now…

The reason I mentioned the server was a stupid thought of doing two
uploads, the first to extract the id3 data and the second to actually
upload the whole file but this while I still assumed id3 was at the
beginning of the file.

Anyway, thanks again.

On Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 12:44 PM, Grzegorz N.
[email protected] wrote:

perhaps via chunked transfer? Or perhaps some custom flash?
keep on topic you may wish to have a look at the wiki:
nginx Info Page


Saimon M.
Freelance Web D.
(Available for hire - For details visit http://saimonmoore.net)

Skype: saimonmoore
Yahoo IM: saimonmoore
Google IM: saimonmoore

As the ID3 tag of an mp3 file is at the end

ID3v1 is located at the end of the file, ID3v2 is located at the
beginning
of the file and it’s been in use for over a decade now, so Saimon
shouldn’t
have problems with that. Just keep in mind that neither of tags is
required.

Best regards,
Piotr S. < [email protected] >