SubFire Radio playlist generator released

[acroyear]

Oops. the 1.1.1 wasn't quite totally complete. It is working now.

In addition, for the new 1.2.0, I upgraded some of my dependent libraries (materialize-css, jquery) and fixed the issues that broke it on mobile/narrow browsers. It works on my 7" tab now.

[vferg]

I have tried a few times now to try and log into the site using my server info without any success. I do use https with no cert which seems to be the only thing mentioned here as a possible reason why this may not work? Ive tried internal, external, chrome browser, and IE without success. If you have any suggestions as to what this may be let me know and I will try. If you need additional info I will get you that as well.

Thanks for the help

[acroyear]

Ok, on Chrome (OSX) these are the steps I followed.

1) In one tab, connect to your server directly, logging in as the account that you want the radio playlists to be owned by.
1.1) at this point, I got the expected security warning, and clicked "proceed to ..."

2) In a separate tab, open http://subfireplayer.net/radio - do not kill the first tab or log it out.
(note: https://subfireplayer.net/radio mostly works, but it won't load the font icons from google because I hard-coded the http protocol in it, which is something I need to fix)

3) Set the settings in the Server card and attempt to log in.

At this point, Chrome had already accepted a 'session' with the site with the self-signed cert, and so it allowed my page to piggy-back onto the already approved and open session.

To use later, you may occasionally need to set up that first tab (maybe just once each time you restart Chrome), then start my app. The login creds should be persisted.

[DrFink]

Hello acroyear,

I discovered "SubFire radio" some days ago, and I really like it - thank you for your work.

I have one "feature request": to regenerate playlists (or "regenerate all") automatically, e.g. every x hours/days (with x being a variable the user can set).

With that feature, and with the existing SubSonic feature "Saved playlists are available as Podcasts" (so you can call/load a playlist via an URL), SubFire Radio would become a greater "internet-radio-like playlist generator."

For example: I generate a playlist, then turn on my internet radio device and load the podcast of that playlist. One hour later the playlist is re-generated automatically, and after that I load the podcast again, and it's a different podcast - same songs, different order - like you are listening to your own internet radio station (as long as - in my example - I don't load the podcast more than once within one hour).

And even better than using an icecast/shoutcast server, you can create lots of playlists (= podcasts = stations).


If it's not possible for you to build in such a feature, is there a special HTTP-command when a user press the "Regenerate Playlist" or "Regenerate all" button? Maybe I can try something in Tasker on my Android phone, like "execute that command every x hours".

Thanks,
Frank

[acroyear]

I have thought about that, but as the app is client-run only, the most direct way I could do it would be to provide a WebService (that is, a process that Chrome or Firefox keeps in memory that can wake up and do things on a timer). This would require that 1) you load the radio via https, 2) your server is https and not on a self-signed cert. Chrome has very particular requirements regarding web services.

Those requirements rule out quite a lot of systems (including my own at present).

I do have an idea that could at least fire the regen-all by a single url. E.g., go to http://subfireplayer.net/radio/#regenAll and it would automatically fire off the regen-all process (and then strip out #regenAll so it wouldn't do it again). It would mean first you'd have to log in on that client first, so I don't know of Tasker can manage that. Also, the memory load from caching (temporarily) all of the folders, artists, and albums fetched can sometimes be bigger than Android browsers can handle.

But on the desktop, combine that url with an extension that would open a tab (Tab Schedule from Chrome looks promising - nevermind. doesn't want to work at all (oh, one called Crontabs seems to work, and it'll auto-close, too)) and maybe things will work.

I'll give that a try in the next week or so. I wouldn't mind a fresh cache every morning either esp just to get unique playlist/station artwork every day.

[acroyear]

well, easier than I thought.

If you open the url http://subfireplayer.net/radio/#regenAll=true, it should do exactly that: automatically start a regenerateAll call on your current cached login.

You can then use a tool like Chrometabs: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/crontabs/abhmbcedbojnghofcfmnageegmkmpkac, to automatically open (and close) the tab so long as Chrome is running.

If the url doesn't work the first time, hold the shift-key down while pressing the browser's reload button: it means the older version of the scripts is still cached and needs to be refreshed.

[DrFink]

Hallo Joe,

thanks a lot for the information, that's sound really great. The link http://subfireplayer.net/radio/#regenAll=true is exactly what I was looking for

"Chrometabs" is one possibility to automatically open this link, Tasker will be another one. Tasker is an automation tool for Android, something like IFTTT for your Android device. E.g.: If you are connected to (your) WiFi, then open Chrome on your Android device, open a specific URL and press a specific button or make a specific command. Tasker is quite powerful and there are many third-party-addons for Tasker which makes it even more powerful.

Thanks again,
Frank

[acroyear]

As I said, my concern with Tasker isn't Tasker itself but whether or not the Android browser will not run out of memory processing the data. Everything your stations ask for is locally loaded during the regeneration process. In my case, with 50000 songs and 90 stations, that can potentially hit the limit depending on the phone model. Some of my stations can't even load by themselves on Android Chrome in isolation because they ask for too many items to filter through.

Still, if it works with your setup, go for it.