Ampache API

The Ampache API Provides methods for pulling out it's meta data in the form of simple XML (and JSON!) documents. This was originally created for use by Amarok, but there is no reason it couldn't be used to create other front-ends to the Ampache data.

Access to the API is controlled by the Internal Access Control Lists. Currently all requests are limited to a maximum of 5000 results for performance reasons. To get additional results pass offset as an additional parameter.

If you have any questions or requests for this API please submit a Feature Request. All dates in the API calls should be passed as ISO 8601 dates.

News

Ampache 7 development has started!

The good news is that API6 will remain as the primary API for the next major version. This means NO breaking changes for the API!

API6 will continue to be extended and developed as normal.

Archived Version Documentation

After each release, a documentation page will be created to allow pruning old features from the current version.

Ampache supports the last major release of each API version. You can also check out the past releases page for some historical detail but DO NOT use these pages as a guide for API development.

API Changelog

Take a look at the API Changelog to keep an eye on changes between versions

Before you begin

Ampache 5.2.0+ supports multiple API versions. This means that you can send your handshake with a specific version (e.g. 390001, 440001, 5.2.0 or 6.0.0) you will be sent API3, API4, API5 and API6 responses in return.

To change from API3 to API5 you can send a ping with a new version parameter to update your session (or send goodbye to log off and start again.)

API3 is not recommended for use outside of running old applications and it is recommended that you turn off API versions you don't use.

Sending Handshake Request

Multiple authentication methods are available, described in the next sections.

NOTE if you use a Bearer Token you do not need to send a handshake request.

User / Password

The handshake is a combination of the following three things

Encoded Passphrase
Timestamp
Username

The key that must be passed to Ampache is SHA256(TIME+KEY) where KEY is SHA256('PASSWORD'). Below is a PHP example

$time = time();
$key = hash('sha256', 'mypassword');
$passphrase = hash('sha256', $time . $key);

Once you've generated the encoded passphrase, you can call the following URL (localhost/ampache is the location of your Ampache installation)

http://localhost/ampache/server/xml.server.php?action=handshake&auth=PASSPHRASE&timestamp=TIME&version=6.0.0&user=USER

Api Key

The key that must be passed to Ampache is the API Key generated for a specific user (none by default, only the administrator can generate one). Then call the following URL (localhost/ampache is the location of your Ampache installation):

http://localhost/ampache/server/xml.server.php?action=handshake&auth=API_KEY&version=6.0.0

If you are using Ampache 4.0.0 and higher; the key can be passed to Ampache using SHA256(USER+KEY) where KEY is SHA256('APIKEY'). Below is a PHP example

$user = 'username';
$key = hash('sha256', 'myapikey');
$passphrase = hash('sha256', $user . $key);

HTTP Header Authentication

Ampache supports sending your auth parameter to the server using a Bearer Token.

The auth parameter does not need to be sent with your URL. We will check your header for a token first

GET https://demo.ampache.dev/server/json.server.php?action=handshake&version=6.0.0 HTTP/1.1
Authorization: Bearer 000111112233334444455556667777788888899aaaaabbbbcccccdddeeeeeeff

Ampache scheme

To standardize how to transfer Ampache connection information, the following Ampache scheme is defined.

ampache://authentication@hostname[:port]/subdirectory[#parameters]

for example:

ampache://myuser:mypwd@localhost/ampache
ampache://yourapikey@localhost:993/ampache#ssl=true

Stream Token's

Ampache6+ allows you to create a Stream Token for a user.

The biggest bonus here is that these static tokens let you can create links that avoid the risk of the session expiring and don't require a handshake to create a session.

Once a user has been given a streaming token; all Democratic, Song, Podcast Episode and Video streams will use this session token.

e.g. https://music.com.au/play/index.php?ssid=supercoolstreamingtoken&type=song&oid=1511&uid=1&player=api&name=The%20Smashing%20Pumpkins%20-%20Wound.flac

This token does not allow a user to do anything except stream music and it requires an Admin to create the token for the user.

Application Name

By default Ampache uses USER_AGENT as application name but this could also be defined through http query string. Add &client=YourAppName to override the application name. This parameter also works on stream sessions.

Geolocation

Latitude
Longitude
Place name

Optionally, you can also provide geolocation information &geo_latitude=$latitude&geo_longitude=$longitude, with an optional place name if you already know coordinates match &geo_name=$placename.

Result

If your authenticated User and IP match a row in the Access List the following will be returned.

For XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<root>
  <auth><![CDATA[cfj3f237d563f479f5223k23189dbb34]]></auth>
  <api><![CDATA[6.0.0]]></api>
  <session_expire><![CDATA[2022-08-17T04:34:55+00:00]]></session_expire>
  <update><![CDATA[2021-07-21T02:51:36+00:00]]></update>
  <add><![CDATA[2021-08-03T00:04:14+00:00]]></add>
  <clean><![CDATA[2021-08-03T00:05:54+00:00]]></clean>
  <songs><![CDATA[75]]></songs>
  <albums><![CDATA[9]]></albums>
  <artists><![CDATA[17]]></artists>
  <genres><![CDATA[7]]></genres>
  <playlists><![CDATA[2]]></playlists>
  <searches><![CDATA[17]]></searches>
  <playlists_searches><![CDATA[19]]></playlists_searches>
  <users><![CDATA[4]]></users>
  <catalogs><![CDATA[4]]></catalogs>
  <videos><![CDATA[2]]></videos>
  <podcasts><![CDATA[2]]></podcasts>
  <podcast_episodes><![CDATA[13]]></podcast_episodes>
  <shares><![CDATA[2]]></shares>
  <licenses><![CDATA[14]]></licenses>
  <live_streams><![CDATA[3]]></live_streams>
  <labels><![CDATA[3]]></labels>
</root>

For JSON

{
    "auth": "cfj3f237d563f479f5223k23189dbb34",
    "api": "6.0.0",
    "session_expire": "2022-08-17T06:21:00+00:00",
    "update": "2021-07-21T02:51:36+00:00",
    "add": "2021-08-03T00:04:14+00:00",
    "clean": "2021-08-03T00:05:54+00:00",
    "songs": 75,
    "albums": 9,
    "artists": 17,
    "genres": 7,
    "playlists": 2,
    "searches": 17,
    "playlists_searches": 19,
    "users": 4,
    "catalogs": 4,
    "videos": 2,
    "podcasts": 2,
    "podcast_episodes": 13,
    "shares": 2,
    "licenses": 14,
    "live_streams": 3,
    "labels": 3
}

All future interactions with the Ampache API must include the AUTHENTICATION_TOKEN as a GET variable named auth.

Methods

All methods must be passed as action=METHODNAME. All data methods can take an optional offset=XXX and limit=XXX. The limit determines the maximum number of results returned. The offset will tell Ampache where to start in the result set. For example if there are 100 total results and you set the offset to 50, and the limit to 50 Ampache will return results between 50 and 100. The default limit is 5000. The default offset is 0.

You can also pass it limit=none to overcome the limit limitation and return all the matching elements.

For more in depth information regarding the different api servers you can view the following documentation pages.

Auth Methods

All Auth methods return HTTP 200 responses

handshake
goodbye
ping
register
lost_password Ampache 6.1.0+

Non-Data Methods

All Non-Data methods return HTTP 200 responses

bookmarks
system_update
users
user_preferences

Data Methods

All Data methods return HTTP 200 responses

advanced_search
albums
album
album_songs
artists
artist
artist_albums
artist_songs
bookmark Ampache 6.1.0+
bookmark_create
bookmark_delete
bookmark_edit
browse
catalogs
catalog
catalog_action
catalog_add
catalog_delete
catalog_file
catalog_folder
deleted_podcast_episodes
deleted_songs
deleted_videos
flag
followers
following
friends_timeline
genres
genre
genre_albums
genre_artists
genre_songs
get_bookmark
get_indexes
get_similar
index Ampache 6.3.0+
labels
label
label_artists
last_shouts
licenses
license
license_songs
list (Replaces get_indexes)
live_streams
live_stream
live_stream_create
live_stream_delete
live_stream_edit
now_playing Ampache 6.3.1+
player Ampache 6.4.0+
playlists
playlist
playlist_add Ampache 6.3.0+
playlist_add_song
playlist_create
playlist_delete
playlist_edit
playlist_generate
playlist_remove_song
playlist_songs
podcasts
podcast
podcast_create
podcast_delete
podcast_edit
podcast_episodes
podcast_episode
podcast_episode_delete
preference_create
preference_delete
preference_edit
rate
record_play
scrobble
search_group Ampache 6.3.0+
search Ampache 6.3.0+ (alias for advanced_search)
search_songs
shares
share
share_create
share_delete
share_edit
songs
song
song_delete
stats
system_preference
system_preferences
timeline
toggle_follow
update_art
update_artist_info
update_from_tags
update_podcast
url_to_song
user
user_create
user_delete
user_edit (Replaces user_update)
user_playlists Ampache 6.3.0+
user_preference
user_smartlists Ampache 6.3.0+
user_update
videos
video

Binary Data Methods

All binary methods will not return XML/JSON responses. they will either return the requested file/data or an HTTP error code.

For information about about how playback works and what a client can expect from Ampache check out API Media Methods

@return (HTTP 200 OK)

@throws (HTTP 400 Bad Request)

@throws (HTTP 404 Not Found)

@throws (HTTP 416 Range Not Satisfiable)

download
get_art
stream

Control Methods

All Control methods return HTTP 200 responses

democratic
localplay
localplay_songs

Access Levels

Some methods have a user access level requirement. Access goes from 0-100 and is split into the following types.

5: Guest
25: User
50: Content Manager
75: Catalog Manager
100: Admin

Request URL Examples

For the purpose of this example the Ampache host is 'localhost' and the path to Ampache is /ampache

Requesting all genres whose name starts with Rock

XML

http://localhost/ampache/server/xml.server.php?action=tags&auth=1234567890123456789012345678901&filter=Rock

JSON

http://localhost/ampache/server/json.server.php?action=tags&auth=1234567890123456789012345678901&filter=Rock

Requesting all song titles, with an offset of 5000

XML

http://localhost/ampache/server/xml.server.php?action=songs&auth=12345678901234567890123456789012&offset=5000