OVERVIEW
========
This software consists of two parts, namely:
1) a streaming server (RTSP protocol) written in C++ and,
2) a web application interfacing with this server.

The server uses the Livemedia library (http://live555.com/) and gives
you a StreamServer class to play with. C++ tests is in the main function
in server.cc, reading this will tell you all you need to know about how
the server works.

The Python binding is generated with Swig (http://www.swig.org/).
Testing of the bindings is done in test.py, which is also a good read to
see how you can use the software.

The web application uses the Cherrypy Python module
(http://cherrypy.org/) to serve pages. Furthermore, the web interface
uses the Prototype JS framework (http://www.prototypejs.org/) to update
the content without page reloads. Take a look in web.py to see how all
this works.

A demonstration video can be found at:
http://athena.oderland.com/~spantzo/stream-demo/video/

The software itself can be found at:
http://athena.oderland.com/~spantzo/stream-demo/stream-demo.tar.gz

The software is also available on Github:
http://github.com/pilt/stream-server/tree/master
or: `git clone git://github.com/pilt/stream-server.git'

DEPENDENCIES
============
You will need Python 2.5 (should work with other versions too, see
Makefile in this case) to build this software. The Livemedia C++ library
is included, as well as the Cherrypy web server module.

Note: If you want to rebuild the Python bindings, Swig will be needed
too.


BUILD INSTRUCTIONS
==================
You should only have to type `make' to build things. To build the Python 
bindings, type `make bindings' (this requires Swig).

Building has only been tried on a few GNU/Linux boxes.


RUNNING
=======
Run `python web.py' when in the top directory. This will start a
web server on port 8080, start the streaming server and give you an
interactive shell to play around with.

You can try pointing your web browser to http://localhost:8080 and
then type `stream.stop()', to start the streaming server again type
`stream.run()'. You can do also things like `media = media[:-1]' to
remove the last entry in the media play list.

To get a hint on what can be done with the software, read test.py and
web.py. The StreamServer code resides in server.cc.

Note: When you wish to quit, try Ctrl+D followed by Ctrl+C. The web
server will not terminate until you leave http://localhost:8080.
Also, hammering Ctrl+C seems to disturb Cherrypy, causing it to never
terminate and the program to hang.


TESTING
=======
Testing is done by running `make tests'. If you want to do it manually,
run `./server' and `python test.py' when in the top directory.

Note: No output when running `./server' means that the tests passed
without failures.


TODO
====
* If there is a need for a bigger web interface, we should consider
  using a templating language.


PROBLEMS
========
Memory leakage somewhere in the Livemedia library, not waiting for
threads to finish correctly.