this is a very simple client for the last.fm stream, implemented purely in html+javascript. which means: you can use this page to control your last.fm radio stream. no further software required, just a reasonably modern browser.

this is the fastest GUI client for last.fm that you'll ever use! ...ok that was an exaggeration. but it is certainly faster than the last.fm page itself.

let me know what you think about this!

quick start:

• play a last.fm stream
• go to your music player
• look at the URL that it is playing. it looks like this: http://moses.last.fm/last.mp3?Session=[your session key]
• copy the session key to the clipboard
• come back here, click on "please enter your session key"
• a javascript window appears and asks for the session key. paste it into the text field. click "OK"
• done.

some additional tools and tips:

• you can set a homepage which is then linked to from this page. I set this to my last.fm userpage.
• read the text that is generated by "now playing". there are some interesting links in there. if it only says "ERROR=Invalid session" or "streaming=false", then either the last.fm server is acting up again, or you have set a wrong session key or are not playing a stream.
• click the "+" at the right of the player controls to show more commands
• you can delete the session key and homepage by setting them to an empty value. you can also inspect all cookies that this page stores, and you can of course remove the cookies

there are some limitations:

• this client has no way of understanding any data it receives from the last.fm-server. this is a limitation of html/javascript and could only be solved with additional server-side scripting, which I wanted to avoid in the first place. all this client can do is send commands to the last.fm-server and show the user's response to the user.
• as a result of this, it can't create a session. you have to provide the session key yourself. you can get this key in a number of ways, one of which is to extract it from the URL that your music player uses to play the mp3 stream.

... but this client has the big advantage that it's quite snappy. there are no annoying skinning problems, it loads in a breeze, doesn't crash or hang your pc. and you can bookmark radio stations!

and you don't have to give your last.fm-password to a stranger (i.e., me) in order to use this. everything that happens here takes place between your computer and the last.fm-servers; all data that is stored (the session key, your bookmarked radio stations, etc) remains on your computer, in the form of a browser cookie. I won't see your last.fm username, and I won't see what you are listening to.

this is browser-only, so in theory it's cross-platform. but this client has barely been tested, so I won't make that a promise. (I use firefox and briefly tested it in ie6.) using a modern browser is definitely recommended.

and be aware that the last.fm webservice this client uses is only a test service, so things can and will fail occasionally. if there are too many server errors, or if the server does not seem to react to your requests: try to use the last.fm site instead, or any other last.fm client, and come back later.

you could even store this page on your local hard drive (download lastfm.zip, extract it and open index.html in your browser).

feedback very welcome, I'd like to hear your suggestions.

--
martin dittus, 2005/02/25