Question

I have some sound files in a couchdb database (not related to web2py). My web2py application has access to this database, and I want to stream the sound files so that they can be listened with the HTML audio tag, like this:

<audio src="http://www.myserver.com/.../track06.mp3" preload="auto"></audio>

I am planning to do this streaming based on this suggested example:

def streamer():
    import os
    path=os.path.join(request.folder,'private','largefile.mpeg4')
    return response.stream(open(path,'rb'),chunk_size=4096)

But I have some open questions:

1. My filename is not in the local filesystem, but in a couchdb database, accessible via REST. How can I open that for streaming?
2. What kind of request will the audio tag send when it is activated, GET/POST/…? Can this be handled with web2py?

Basically, I would like to know if somebody has a working example of streaming couchdbattachments via web2py.

Answer 1

The solution I am using now is this:

def open_remote_recording():
    recording_doc_id, recording_id = tuple(request.args)
    url = get_doc_url(server = RECORDINGS_SERVER, database = RECORDINGS_DATABASE, doc_id = recording_doc_id, attachment = recording_id)
    content_type = 'audio/mp3'
    f = urllib.urlopen(url)
    return f

@auth.requires_login()
def recordings():
    f = open_remote_recording()
    return response.stream(f, chunk_size=4096)

The get_doc_url function is just creating a url to access the attachment.
The content_type is fixed, but this should be obtained from the attachment (I do not yet know how to do this).