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Simply put, I'm using a plugin that I'd like to host on a different server from the one my site is on. I'd like to point joomla to the plugin content stored on that other server, not in the plugin folder of my Joomla site.

Why would I want to do that? Well...

Background: I have been using Joomla since version 1.5, and way way back then, I started using mp3browser.

I've been updating it to function myself for years, because I haven't found a better way to make nice little lists of audio files for my users to interact with. These are recordings I have made myself, that my organization owns.

I've been hit with a warning from my hosting provider, that storage of mp3s is no longer allowed (it's considered bulk storage, even if the files are linked), so I need to move them to another server.

The plugin I'm using browses then lists the server's files within a specified folder, including media tags for playback on each file. As such, the php files need to be executed by the server that also hosts the files.

My wonky idea is to move the plugin to my other server and have Joomla point itself to that server for that particular plugin (folder).

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  • Is it the mp3browser at github.com/sverhagen/mp3-browser? If so, I can see it hasn't been touched in 7 years, so it may well now be abandoned. It then won't get updated with Joomla versions, and will eventually break. I suggest you have a look at forking the project, and try changing its code to access the mp3 files in the other server. If it really is abandoned and you want to keep using it then you'll have to do something like that at some stage. With Joomla 4 you can also define a remote media filestore, and the admin media manager can work with that. Commented Mar 4, 2024 at 10:01
  • @RobbieJackson It has broken, at least 4 times over the past 15 years I've been using it, and I've been fixing it to keep working, but I guess it's time to let it go. Commented Mar 4, 2024 at 21:31
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    I've been documenting at github.dev/joomla/Manual/pull/235 a filesystem plugin which would let you have media files on an FTP server. If you could change your mp3-browser plugin code to access a file in this way then it might offer you a viable solution. The documentation isn't yet merged, but on that github page you can press the "dot" keyboard key, then click on filesystem-plugin.md in left hand pane, then right-click on its tab in right hand pane and select Open Preview. This will let you read the document more easily. Commented Mar 13, 2024 at 10:48
  • @RobbieJackson Thanks for lead, I'll check it out! Commented Mar 19, 2024 at 13:37
  • Of course, if you can use NFS to set a mount point on the server then you wouldn't need to use FTP. Commented Mar 20, 2024 at 21:10

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The plugin code needs to be on the same server in the same instance of Joomla that is going to execute it otherwise it cannot be loaded at each invocation of Joomla. If the plugin is on another server you need to be able to address or locate the plugin code and at a minimum you would need a URL to the 'other' server. The code that loads Plugins isn't designed or intended to use a URL to get code to execute from other locations, remote or otherwise.

With the plugin code on the same instance of Joomla you may be be able to modify the code to list and retrieve files on the other server using a URL or a web api. This would all be dependant on the code in the Plugin and whether it can be modified to retrieve files remotely.

Another option maybe to store the .mp3 files with a different extension and or filename on the same server that would obscure them from your hosting companies attention and in the plugin code do a conversion of the stored name to the displayed name for downloading etc.

Or find a better Hosting company that can tell the difference between file storage and website content.

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  • The plugin I'm using uses php functions that don't work across http, they work on files that are on the server's filesystem. I agree, that I at a minimum need to link the php files on the other server in the code that loads the plugins somehow, which is what I'm trying to figure out. However, it seems like this may be more trouble than just building a new database and populating it with all the filenames and locations. Commented Mar 4, 2024 at 1:57
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I think it is simplier to add your plugin in the "local" joomla plugin folder, and into the code source, you store le content on another server

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  • I'm not sure I understand. Into the code source I store the content on another server? The PHP can't get the contents or file info from another server.. Commented Mar 3, 2024 at 12:46
  • It's dépends server's config Commented Mar 4, 2024 at 6:31
  • Not really... the php functions I'm using operate on the fielsystem, so it doesn't really matter what my settings are. If the folders with mp3s are on a different server from the php files, they can't operate on them. Commented Mar 4, 2024 at 21:32
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That will (and should!!) never work. Why not move the mp3s to e.g. amazon S3 and mount them as folder on the server running Joomla?

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  • It would have been much better to just do this, mount external storage into the filesystem. Oh well, went down a completely different path. Commented Apr 3, 2024 at 20:33

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