# Send a 30 Second Clip of an mp3 **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [July 7, 2006, 7:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/send-a-30-second-clip-of-an-mp3/97535 "2006-07-07T19:17:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kortina](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/977dab/32.png) [@kortina](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kortina)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2006, 7:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/send-a-30-second-clip-of-an-mp3/97535/1 "2006-07-07T19:17:48Z")
On my site I’m allowing users to upload songs in mp3 format. Members can download the full song, but on public pages I would like to use a flash player to play a 30 second clip of the song and/or allow downloading of a 30 second mp3 snippet. The songs are stored above the web root directory, and I use the send\_file method for the full file downloads for members. My question is, for the public view: Is it possible to use the send\_file method to send just the first X seconds (or bytes) of a file? If not, is there a way to crop the file somehow using a ruby script and save something equivalent to a ‘thumbnail’ like we use for images? Also, if anyone has any suggestions for a flash player to use to stream mp3s I’d love to hear what they are. ---
**Author:** ![kortina](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/977dab/32.png) [@kortina](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kortina)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2006, 6:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/send-a-30-second-clip-of-an-mp3/97535/2 "2006-07-08T18:41:15Z")
On 7/7/06, Andrew K. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Also, if anyone has any suggestions for a flash player to use to stream > mp3s I’d love to hear what they are. a while back I fiddled with xspf Web Music Player: > **[XSPF Web Music Player](https://sourceforge.net/projects/musicplayer/)** > > Download XSPF Web Music Player for free. XSPF Web Music Player is a flash-based web application that uses xspf playlist format to play mp3 songs. XSPF is the XML Shareable Playlist Format, with specs available at http://www.xspf.org . It seemed very nice and was easy enough to integrate with Rails. It may do just what you are looking for. HTH, Howard ---
**Author:** ![kortina](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/977dab/32.png) [@kortina](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kortina)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2007, 5:36am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/send-a-30-second-clip-of-an-mp3/97535/3 "2007-02-04T05:36:32Z")
Andrew K. wrote: > On my site I’m allowing users to upload songs in mp3 format. Members > can download the full song, but on public pages I would like to use a > flash player to play a 30 second clip of the song and/or allow > downloading of a 30 second mp3 snippet. The songs are stored above the > web root directory, and I use the send\_file method for the full file > downloads for members. > > My question is, for the public view: > > Is it possible to use the send\_file method to send just the first X > seconds (or bytes) of a file? > > If not, is there a way to crop the file somehow using a ruby script and > save something equivalent to a ‘thumbnail’ like we use for images? > > Also, if anyone has any suggestions for a flash player to use to stream > mp3s I’d love to hear what they are. Here’s what I did to solve this problem: send the first 100KB of the song and then play it on the front end using a flash player: ``` path = "/tmp/my_song.mp3" f = File.new(path, "r") data = f.sysread(100 * 1000) # only play the first 100 KB of the song send_data data, :disposition => "inline", :type => "audio/mpeg", :filename => "my_song.mp3" ``` This code goes in the controller of my rails app. If you don’t feed the URL of the controller method into a flash player, this will just make the first 100KB available as a file for download. ---
**Author:** ![kortina](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/977dab/32.png) [@kortina](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kortina)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2007, 6:38am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/send-a-30-second-clip-of-an-mp3/97535/4 "2007-02-04T06:38:52Z")
On 2/3/07, Andrew K. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > data = f.sysread(100 \* 1000) # only play the first 100 KB of the song A cosmetic suggestion: you can ditch the above comment if you change the line to: data = f.sysread(100.kilobytes) J.