Web Playlists for Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0 provides a way to create a list of media content items, such that playback of the content items on client computers is controlled by the Web server. This feature for IIS 7.0 allows content providers to control the order and the content that is viewed by users in Web playlists (files with .isx file name extensions). For example, this feature allows for the insertion of advertisements in a list of media content items so that users must play them before proceeding to the next item in the list. Additional constraints can be added to individual media items in the playlist, such as the ability to prevent seeking through an item, skipping to the next item in the list (or allowing skip-forward only after a specified percentage of the currently playing item is played), or skipping back to the beginning of the currently playing item.
Web Playlists includes these key features:
· Support for all digital media files types. Any digital media file type that can be downloaded from a Web server can be added to a Web playlist by using this feature.
· Nested Web playlist media entries. Web playlist files (.isx) can be added as media entries to the Web playlists that you create, up to five levels deep. For more information about how nested playlists work in this feature, see Creating a Simple Playlist.
· Remote HTTPd media entries. Content locations that begin with the httpd:// URL prefix can be added as media entries to the Web playlists that you create, allowing you to reference a remote Web server page that returns a custom URL or path for the media item to be played.
· Session settings. Allows you to specify the maximum number of clients that can connect to the playlist and the amount of content that must be watched before skip functionality is enabled on the client.
· Session provider settings. Allows you to add ASP.NET session persistence and provides an additional level of control for the content on a Web server by configuring multiple options that specify how long the content referenced by a playlist is available to users.
· Impersonation settings. Allows for media items that are protected by user credentials to be added to playlists.
· ASX import. Allows for quick conversion of client-side playlists (files with .asx file name extensions) for files stored on the Web server to Web playlists.
· Custom providers. A COM interface is included that you can use to write native and .NET-based custom providers that extend the default behavior of Web Playlists. For more information, see the Extending Web Playlists through custom providers.
The following prerequisites must be fulfilled to install Web Playlists:
· You must use IIS 7.0 running on Windows Server 2008 RC1 or later or Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1).
· The IIS Management Console role service for Web Server (IIS) must be installed to manage Web Playlists using the IIS 7.0 user interface (UI). In addition, the UI requires the .NET Extensibility role service if you are running the Web Server (IIS) role on Windows Server 2008 or the .NET Framework if you plan to install this feature on Windows Vista.
· To maintain ASP.NET session state persistence, the ASP.NET role service for Web Server (IIS) must be installed if you are running the Web Server (IIS) role on Windows Server 2008. (ASP.NET is not supported on Server Core installations of Windows Server 2008.) If you install the ASP.NET role service after installing Web Playlists, you must reinstall the Web Playlists feature so that it can use the ASP.NET session persistence provider.
· You must install Web Playlists as an administrator. (See Downloading and Installing for more information.)
Two separate downloadable installation packages are available for Web Playlists Go Live. Download the appropriate package for your version of Windows:
· Web Playlists for IIS 7.0 (x86)
· Web Playlists for IIS 7.0 (x64)
You must be an administrator on the computer to run the installation package. This can be accomplished by one of the following methods:
· Log on to the computer using the Administrator account.
· Log on to the computer using an account with administrative privileges, open an elevated command prompt (Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator), and then type the following command to run the installation:
msiexec /I playlist32golive.msi
-or-
msiexec /I playlist64golive.msi
If you encounter problems during installation, type the following command in the elevated command prompt to create a log file that contains information about the installation process:
msiexec /L playlist.log /I playlist32golive.msi
-or-
msiexec /L playlist.log /I playlist64golive.msi
Analyze this log file after a failed installation to help determine the cause of the failure.
To remove Web Playlists from IIS 7.0, in Programs and Features in Control Panel, click Web Playlists for IIS 7.0 under Uninstall or change a program, and then click Uninstall.
You may
encounter the following issues when you use Web Playlists Go Live:
·
Can’t display invalid
playlists.
In IIS Manager, on the Playlists page in the Web Playlists feature, invalid ISX
playlist files are not displayed. Web playlist files are based on Extensible
Markup Language (XML); Check these files and fix any XML syntax errors that
they might contain. For more information about the syntax used in ISX files,
see "Playlist XML Format" in Creating a Simple Playlist.
The following walkthroughs for Web Playlists are available on IIS.net:
· Setup and Configuration. Describes how to download and install Web Playlists and how to configure settings in the feature configuration files.
· Creating a Simple Playlist. Describes how to create Web playlists by using the Web Playlists feature or the Appcmd.exe command-line tool in IIS 7.0 and how to set additional properties for them. It also describes the attributes in Web playlist (.isx) files.
· Using Playlists with Different Media Players. Describes how players on client computers consume Web playlist (.isx) files. This document shows you how to update your Web pages so that players can consume the .asx response correctly when they request an .isx file.
· Extending Web Playlists through custom providers. Describes how to extend the default functionality of Web Playlists by using the COM interface to write custom providers.
· Web Playlist Go Live Readme. For those using an offline copy of this document, this link points to the latest version on IIS.net.
Also, be sure to visit the IIS Media Delivery Blog where IIS team members who work on digital media will discuss Web Playlists and other technologies in the pipeline that can help you better serve digital media content to your users.