Internet radio browser GUI for music/video streams from various directory services.

⌈⌋ ⎇ branch:  streamtuner2


README at [fd4a1b208c]

File README artifact 7253f3c35f part of check-in fd4a1b208c



streamtuner2
============

ST2 is a internet radio browser. It queries online directories like
shoutcast and xiph.org for music stations.

It mimics the original streamtuner 1 to some extend. It's however
written in Python now instead of C.


installation howto
------------------

You can just execute the main binary "st2.py". All the other files
need to be copied into /usr/share/streamtuner2/ however. If it
doesn't work, make sure you have Python and gtk/pygtk installed:

  sudo apt-get install python python-gtk2 python-glade2 python-xdg


The *.glade file represents the GUI.  So if you have the glade-3
application installed, you can inspect and enhance the interface.
Give it a try, report back.


development state
-----------------

There was a lengthy development pause, actual maintenance time of
this application is probably 2-3 months now. However, it is mostly
feature-complete meanwhile. The internal application structures are
somewhat settled. Some modules are still pretty rough (json format,
http functions), and especially the action module for playing and
recording isn't very autonomic (though has some heuristic and uses
stream format hints).

The directory modules mostly work. If they don't, it's just a
matter of adapting the regular expressions. Shoutcast and Live365
lately changed the HTML output, so broke. Therefore PyQuery parsing
methods were implemented, which extract stream info from HTML soup
using CSS/jQuery selectors.
And it should be pretty easy to add new ones. There will also
somewhen be a feature to add simple station 'scripts'; in testing.


comparison to streamtuner1
--------------------------

Streamtuner1 has been written around 2002-2004. At this time it was
totally unfeasible to write any responsive application in a scripting
language. Therefore it was implemented in C, which made it speedy.

Using C however has some drawbacks. The codebase is more elaborate,
and it often takes more time to adapt things.

Personally I had some occasional crashes because of corrupt data
from some of the directory services. Because that was more difficult
to fix in C code, this rewrite started. It's purely for practical
purposes, not because there was anything wrong with streamtuner1.

streamtuner2 being implemented directly in Python (the C version had
a Python plugin), cuts down the code size considerably. It's much
easier to add new plugins. (Even though it doesn't look that way yet.)

For older machines or netbooks, the C streamtuner1 might overall
remain the better choice, btw. Running inside the Python VM makes this
variant more stable, but also way more memory hungry. (This has been
reduced with some de-optimizations already.)


advertisement
-------------

If you are looking for a lightweight alternative, Tunapie is still
in development, and it has a working Shoutcast+Xiph reader.
http://tunapie.sourceforge.net/

Streamtuner2 CLI can also be used as proxy server for streamtuner1.
There is a wrapper available. But there was nobody yet to be found who
wanted it set up globally. (Else streamtuner1 would just require a patch
in /etc/hosts to work again.)
It's available as st1proxy.tgz and cli-mode-only.tgz from
http://milki.include-once.org/streamtuner2/ext/
Contact me for setup help. Requires a webserver with unrestrained
vhost support.


license
-------

Public Domain.
(no rules: unrestricted copying, modification, distribution, etc.)


history
-------

2.1.0
- support for running on Python3 or Python2,
  as well as Gtk3 (PyGI) and Gtk2 (PyGtk with Python2) bindings
- fixed Shoutcast, DMOZ, Live365
- while Jamendo now lists radios only
- removal of basic.ch and tv channels
- include requests+urllib3 in favour of urllib+urllib2
- some manual pages have been updated
- drop PSON and only use plain json module henceforth
- new bundle/ directory, but pyquery/lxml dropped
- colorized debugging output
- uninitialized channels are no longer attached as tabs
- absent liststore references have finally been fixed

2.0.9
- sys.path patch (less py module conflicts) from Stefan Talpalaru
- fixed main_quit signal slot, so window size saving works
- added [new] button in streamedit window
- prepared remaining print syntax for python3 (still needs 2to3 though)
- fix for https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=655596 array error
- transitioned glade file to gtk.Builder, just a few things broke
- made configuration window resizable
- locked station list columns, no longer resortable (associatation mismatch)
- applied Vincents fixed for Windows action.run and Shoutcast PQ parsing
- live365 parsing restored by patch from Abhisek Sanyal
- fix Pixbuf typecasing in mygtk liststore appending

2.0.8
- configuration files use prettified json
- fixed double quotation for %pls players and /local/file handling
- (unused) channel .shutdown function introduced (late saving)
- external plugin: basic file browser, no ID3 editing yet
- allow interpolating of %genre and other fields, streamripper wrapper
- fixed pyQuery parsing for latest shoutcast change
  (strangely the regular expressions were still working)

2.0.7
- json cache files are now stored .gz compressed
- xiph channel .format() call fixed into .mime_fmt()
- simplified __init__ and attributes of main window object
- .play() is now a per-channel function
- global_key now accepts multiple keys, updates gtk view
- new musicgoal plugin with radios and podcasts
- silenced channel initialization errors
- double clicking tabs is functioning now (-> channel service homepage)
- shoutcast finally became a real channel plugin
- processing.py pseudo module removed

2.0.6
- mirrored Station>Extensions menu into stream context menu
- creation of .nobackup files in cache/ and icons/ directories
- global_key plugin allows radio switching via keyboard shortcut
- compound channel plugin is new, mixes different source channels
- new external plugin: podspider
- more documentation restructuring
- feature plugins` options are now listed in configuration dialog
- current_channel_gtk()
- added basic package dependencies for .deb archives,
  packaged-in lxml/ removed (lacked etree.so anyway)
- TV plugin for shoutcast video listings
- simpler overriding of stream column titles is now possible
- cleaner .src.tgz package, contrib/ files have been externalized
- minor fix for quicksearch function

2.0.5
- display logic now can extract homepage URLs from station titles
- automated google search for missing station homepages
- kept .m3u files are reused for playing (faster)
- registration code for (stations) extension submenu
- timer plugin for programming broadcast play/recordings, uses kronos
- heuristic update of bookmarks when reloading station lists
- general thread() wrapper function implemented, for worker pool
- simple mygtk wrapper for adding menu entries
- MyOggRadio plugin is now complete, can upload individual favourites
- links plugin, which lists other radio directories in bookmarks tab
- CLI mode implemented
- two PHP wrapper scripts to generate YP.Shoutcast for Streamtuner1
- GUI startup progress window added
- one GtkWarning message fixed
- the Shoutcast channel was plugin-ed out, but remains in the UI file
- multiple additions to and restructuring of the help files, manpage

2.0.4
- PyQuery parsing for InternetRadio.org.uk channel, and adapted PQ
  usage for shoutcast
- utility function http.fix_url extended, common string parsing
  functions strip_tags, mime_fmt are now in channels.GenericChannel
- http module reworked, visual feedback now for GET and AJAX methods,
  and CookieJar was enabled
- channel/tab order can now be configured (instead of tab dragging)
- fixed PyQuery wrapper module, packaged lxml modules in (evades
  extra support for Windows port, native modules will be used on Linux)
- more Gtk.Widget mini help popups in the dialog windows

2.0.3
- new channel plugin: MyOggRadio (an open source directory)
- also Internet-Radio.org.uk channel, but only regex parsing for now
- the quick search box is now in the toolbar, while an all-scanning
  search feature has been implemented in the former dialog
- Shoutcast.com broke regex parsing, the homepage links are gone
- Category updates are now performed in a thread too
- interna: GenericChannel.display() is now .prepare()
- live365 category parsing fixed
- Live365 and Xiph are no longer built-in tabs, can be fully disabled
- fixed disabling search, config, streamedit windows (gtk close event)
- and a few help files were added

2.0.2
- more checks for initializing channel plugins
- gtkrc theming support extended: apply and combobox in config dialog
- PyQuery as new alternative parsing mechanism, as option for shoutcast
- category tree gets loaded on first display of empty channels
- windows port tested, new external project: python+gtk installer bundle
- removal of .pyc bytecode files from generic .deb and .rpm packages
- distribution includes gtkrc theme "MountainDew"
- removed most debug print statements, introduced a config option for it

2.0.1
- new channel plugin: jamendo (just a simple browser for now)
- new channel plugin: basicch (all new, because old scraper nonfunc)
- new channel plugin: punkcast (just a very basic listing)
- fixed shoutcast channel parsing
- new elaborate http.ajax method using braindamaged urllib2
- extremely cool plugin configuration scheme implented w/ GUI controls
- plugins (except code or glade built-in) now deactivatable individually
- preliminary support for application themes
- support for per-channel .play() method
- reenabled audioformat= in play calls
- channeltab doubleclick doesn't work despite hours of fruitless trying
- add "format" to stream edit dialog
- new helper methods: mygtk.bg(), config.get()

2.0.0
- search function implemented, highlights results in current category list
- right click context menu added
- station data inspection/editor added
- auto_save_appstate implemented
- station delete implemented
- clean up of internal application interfaces: new self.channel() instead
  of self.c[self.cc] kludges all around (all traces rm), and new self.row(),
  and some auxiliary windows now have handling code in separate classes
- now real favicons for directory providers are displayed
- removed directory service homepage button (still in menu), donated icon
  to stations instead; double-click on channel tab still resultless
- load_favicon hook (for currently playing station) added
- added channel switching to menu, and submenu view merged into edit
- fixed initialisation of open channel tab (previously only default
  shoutcast was populated by .first_show method)
- made a new logo for 2.0.0 release
- fixed shoutcast category loading


1.9.9-2
- bookmark handling fixed
- pson/json decoding still flaky

1.9.9
- fixed record action
- shoutcast parser redone twice
- rebuilding of TreeView list more robust noew, always in gobject.idle()
- favicon downloading methods implemented, display enabled per default
- live365 is buggy, but usable
- bookmarks still broken

1.9.8
- save-as dialog implemented (export to .m3u, .pls or .xspf)
- download progress bar added
- last selected category and stream entry is remembered in all channel
  tabs now (though the implementation is spread between a separate but
  unused state.json and mygtk.app_state() which stores notext indexes)
- menu edit/copy implemented: saves current stream URL into clipboard
- fixed XDG_CONFIG_HOME use
- code parts have been extracted into separate modules
- the Google stations plugin has been ported from streamtuner1
- packaging of .deb and .rpm archives

1.9.7
- configuration window added
- threading support enabled (uses python 2.6 processing if avail)
- more generic window/state saving
- update_categories() added in menu
- "generic" class for channels has been separated from shoutcast
- new channel module "live365" (without login support)
- bookmarks module has comments now
- new defaults for audio/ogg and other media types
- pseudo-json is now a fallback if python 2.6 module isn't there
- preparations for saner url extraction in action. class
- better doc for mygtk.columns()
- (temp.) faster initial startup by not .load()ing default category

1.9.6
- added xiph.org example implementation, incomplete
- bookmark module basics done
- rowmap defined manually again, instead of in mygtk.

1.9.5
- basic menu added, toolbar style switching
- glade XML file is searched in binary dir
- static classes move to bottom
- forgotten/deleted streams feature added 
- display() filter

1.9.4
- category change
- app_state
- mygtk.column_view() and .column_data() have been merged into
  more general mygtk.columns() - more elaborate, only depends on
  datamap, instead of individual sublists, pixbuf support added
- shoutcast.rowtypes cellmap titles colsizes cellrendr colattrs gone

1.9.3
- thread for http GET (doesn't work)
- app_restore added
- action.record, browse, homepage stream / channel, .reload streams
- .status() shortuct
- dict2list removed (now in .columns_view)
- treeviewcolumns sizes
- simplified form of datamap, less dicts, more lists, reshuffled
- http. wrapper class
- action. with actual os.system() call

1.9.2
- action.play(), .m3u
- pseudojson instead of pickle in Config class
- more doc on top
- icons in column_view() for category trees
- fix for [format] regex in shoutcast
- mime defaults for action. module in conf
. .pls and .m3u methods in action.

1.9.1
- first real shoutcast server scans
- ??
- ..
- cache stream lists + category names

1.9.0
- first GUI implementation with standard glade
- at least shoutcast category names were read