Sourcing from a directory

You can configure either a broadcast or an on-demand publishing point to stream files from a directory.

• For a broadcast publishing point, set the publishing point path to reference the directory that contains the files you want to stream, such as C:\WMPub\WMRoot. All of the digital media files in the directory are streamed to connected clients automatically. To play the stream, users type the URL for the publishing point in their players; for example, mms://servername/publishing_point_name.
• For an on-demand publishing point, set the publishing point path to reference the directory that contains the files you want to stream, such as C:\ WMPub\WMRoot. Users can either receive a single file or all the files in the directory. If you want to stream all the files in the directory, you must enable the Enable access to directory content using wildcards property on the Properties tab of the publishing point. This property enables you to use wildcard characters in the URL of the publishing point. The following examples show how you can use this to provide different content streams to users:
  • Stream all digital media files in a directory. Use the asterisk (*) wildcard character in place of the file name in the connection URL to stream all of the digital media files within a directory; for example, mms://servername/publishing_point_name/*.
  • Stream only certain file types in a directory. Use the asterisk (*) wildcard character in place of the file name in the connection URL but specify the file extension to stream all of the digital media files of a certain type. For example, you can use mms://server_name/publishing_point_name/*.wmv to stream only the video files or mms://server_name/publishing_point_name/*.wma to stream only the audio files.

Notes

• The asterisk (*) wildcard character cannot be used to replace portions of a file name or extension.
• The server does not use your user account to access files and streams; it uses the Network Service account by default. If you are sourcing from a file that is in a folder other than C:\WMPub, make sure that the folder is shared and that the Network Service account has at least read permissions for the folder. If the Network Service account does not have permissions for a folder, the server will not be able to connect to it. For more information about rights and permissions, see Understanding rights.
• Content streamed by Windows Media Services must meet the minimum supported content length of the player to ensure reliable playback. The minimum supported content length for Windows Media Player 9 Series is 5 seconds. The minimum supported content length for previous versions of Windows Media Player is 30 seconds.
• If your publishing point is accessing files on a computer running Windows 2000 Server as a source of content, you may have difficulty streaming the content due to differences in the way that Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003 handle user account authorization and privileges. If the two computers are members of the same domain, on-demand publishing points that have the WMS NTFS ACL Authorization plug-in enabled and attempt to retrieve content from a computer running Windows 2000 Server will cause remote clients to receive an "Access denied" error message. Local clients, such as the Test stream feature of Windows Media Services, are not affected. If the two computers are not members of the same domain, see To access content on a computer running Windows 2000 Server.

Related topics

• About publishing point types
• Announcing content
• Sourcing from playlists, files, and encoders
• To access the Add Publishing Point Wizard
• To add a publishing point using the advanced method
• To stream a directory of files