PHP is suppose to be the "new" support to write website but I suspect we can achieve way more..

Will it be theoretically possible to run a "Winamp" or media player from a PHP code without having to upload the document (ie music/video) to the server?

Did anyone ever try to create such "apps" ?

I'm not sure if I know what you mean. If you mean, can we get php to play music on the clients browser, the answer is a definite "no".

PHP is server sided, so all we can do from the server is let the client download the music, and put in the proper HTTP headers to get a plugin to play the music.

Cheers

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I think it would depend entirely on what you have in mind. If you want PHP to run winamp on the /server/, considering that winamp is installed on the server OS, then I say it is possible.

As far as the client's browser, well then you're talking about a more complicated undertaking laden with security hurdles that you're unlikely to overcome without client approval. For the sake of argument I'd say that anything is possible given enough effort. Any solution would likely be a mix of more than one language, for instance PHP and Microsoft .NET, or PHP and Java. But anything you want to do on the client's machine is going to be met with security dialouges. You can't just launch software on the client's machine, if you could it'd probably be considered a virus or spyware.



Regards,
Rich

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[http://www.smilingsouls.net]
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What I was thinking of something in the lines of running programs equivalent to word/excel/powerpoint/winamp etc. from the server.

We are entering in the age of "permantly online" internet connection so there's no need for every PC/MAC/PDA to store the same program. with HTML/JAVA on every machine, it should be no issue to enable this and I can't see any downside of this!

So to return to my query will it be possible to run a server side apps which will be minimum download on the client and COULD run the data from the client with no need to upload those data to the server.

(Again)- Data are processed localy, but some/most of the program is run on the server.. ??

Apology for intrusion.

I ask: streaming mp3s (. mp3 is !4streaming, i guess ) from server ( Linux ) without downloading on client; if .asf files stream from IIS ?
I guess, Flash files ( .swf ) can also stream from server ;)