7 ms·

Shiva – More than a RESTful API to your music collection

130 points by rnyman 14y ago

chintan 14y ago
OT: As per the Hindu calendar, yesterday was Shiva's birthday - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maha_Shivaratri http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maha_Shivaratri Great timing!
- sushantsharma 14y ago
  Shivratri is not the birthday of Lord Shiva. It is a day celebrated in reverence of Lord Shiva.
carlob 14y ago
I'd love to try and install this on my nas4free installation. If anyone has tried and wants to chime in…
cllns 14y ago
This seems incredible. I've been wanting something like this for a while, and figured I'd have to make it myself. I'll definitely be checking this out.
- foxbarrington 14y ago
  Ha, actually did spend time making something like this for myself. I prefer to organize music by folder though, so that's how Tailgate does it: https://github.com/davidguttman/tailgate https://github.com/davidguttman/tailgate
shrikant 14y ago
This sounds a LOT like zmusic (which I use currently) by Jason Donenfeld: http://git.zx2c4.com/zmusic-ng/about/ http://git.zx2c4.com/zmusic-ng/about/ (..which is also powered by Python, Flask, SQLAlchemy, Backbone.js etc.)
upthedale 14y ago
The REST API looks like its halfway to being an OData one. Why reinvent the wheel and not go the whole hog?
rjim86 14y ago
that would be me .. i mean thats my name :P
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
factorialboy 14y ago
My next project will be `Jesus`.
- Argorak 14y ago
  You are late: https://rubygems.org/gems/jesus https://rubygems.org/gems/jesus "A web interface for god to speak with mankind" https://rubygems.org/gems/god https://rubygems.org/gems/god
  - prezjordan 14y ago
    That has to be the most clever name for a project I've ever seen.
terryb100 14y ago
Nice! I've also been thinking about something like this for my photos. I have a ton of photos littered in a pics folder. Would love an API would I could query on EXIF data.
- aidos 14y ago
  I've also been thinking the same thing recently. I have iPhoto but it sucks for a) big collections and b) sharing. For example, locally you can browse a collection on another local machine but it sends full res photos across the wire so it's completely unusable.
  - tuxie_ 14y ago
    Image support is planned actually (just noticed that is not in the wish list, will add it) but has some big prerequisites. With photos you have to be a little more careful regarding permissions, which means that users and roles should be supported first. But it will be implemented at some point.
- icebraining 14y ago
  Try a semantic desktop app. If I'm not mistaken, Tracker[1] can index EXIF tags (as well as other metadata formats) and it exposes a SPARQL[2] endpoint that you can query. [1]: http://projects.gnome.org/tracker/ http://projects.gnome.org/tracker/ [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARQL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARQL
magic_haze 14y ago
So... why not Subsonic? It's open source as well, seems a lot more mature, has a rest api, tons of apps, and a spiffy new HTML5 player that's quite good. * Subsonic.org seems to be down, try http://sourceforge.net/projects/subsonic/ http://sourceforge.net/projects/subsonic/ instead.
- StavrosK 14y ago
  Can I use it as an alternative to Google Music? I.e. can I set it to download a playlist to my phone when I come home?
  - magic_haze 14y ago
    Sorry, I don't quite get it. The web player has support for playlists and dynamic streams, so I guess it depends on whether the app available for your phone uses the correct API. The one I use, for example, maintains a 10gb MRU cache of my stuff (with lookahead) and that works out quite nicely for me. YMMV, but it definitely surpassed google music for me in both usability and quality.
- vidarh 14y ago
  I suspect Java would make at least some of us steer clear. Thinking as purely a user, Subsonic looks great. As a developer that wants to hack around on the code handling my music library for fun, I personally wouldn't want the aggravation as I really can't stand Java.
teeboy 14y ago
Interestingly it was Shivratri yesterday for Indians - for Shiva, the destroyer God of Hinduism.
andybak 14y ago
A Subsonic-compatible wrapper for the API would instantly add compatibility with a large number of clients. Same for DLNA (spit). I'm a big Subsonic fan for a couple of reasons: 1. Remote control - I can make the server play the track remotely 2. Configurable offline cache on my phone - I set a large cache size (say 20gb) and use the player normally. Next time I'm offline I've still got access to the last 20gb of music I played. I'm looking for a Subsonic alternative though as I'd like to use an Android TV stick as my server/media center and getting Java running on that will be a pain and probably involve running a full Linux side-by-side. And I'm not even sure if it's going to be possible to run Subsonic server alongside Android effectively. A closing thought. Why are these things needed when we have DLNA/UPnP? Mainly because DLNA apps are uniformally slow and lack essential features. It's stunning how much time and money large companies have spent on DLNA and produced something so horrible.
snambi 14y ago
Sounds good. Would like to try.

130 points by rnyman 14y ago

OT: As per the Hindu calendar, yesterday was Shiva's birthday - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maha_Shivaratri http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maha_Shivaratri Great timing!

sushantsharma 14y ago
Shivratri is not the birthday of Lord Shiva. It is a day celebrated in reverence of Lord Shiva.

carlob 14y ago

I'd love to try and install this on my nas4free installation. If anyone has tried and wants to chime in…

cllns 14y ago

This seems incredible. I've been wanting something like this for a while, and figured I'd have to make it myself. I'll definitely be checking this out.

foxbarrington 14y ago
Ha, actually did spend time making something like this for myself. I prefer to organize music by folder though, so that's how Tailgate does it: https://github.com/davidguttman/tailgate https://github.com/davidguttman/tailgate

shrikant 14y ago

This sounds a LOT like zmusic (which I use currently) by Jason Donenfeld: http://git.zx2c4.com/zmusic-ng/about/ http://git.zx2c4.com/zmusic-ng/about/ (..which is also powered by Python, Flask, SQLAlchemy, Backbone.js etc.)

upthedale 14y ago

The REST API looks like its halfway to being an OData one. Why reinvent the wheel and not go the whole hog?

rjim86 14y ago

that would be me .. i mean thats my name :P

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

factorialboy 14y ago

My next project will be `Jesus`.

Argorak 14y ago
You are late: https://rubygems.org/gems/jesus https://rubygems.org/gems/jesus "A web interface for god to speak with mankind" https://rubygems.org/gems/god https://rubygems.org/gems/god
- prezjordan 14y ago
  That has to be the most clever name for a project I've ever seen.

terryb100 14y ago

Nice! I've also been thinking about something like this for my photos. I have a ton of photos littered in a pics folder. Would love an API would I could query on EXIF data.

aidos 14y ago
I've also been thinking the same thing recently. I have iPhoto but it sucks for a) big collections and b) sharing. For example, locally you can browse a collection on another local machine but it sends full res photos across the wire so it's completely unusable.
- tuxie_ 14y ago
  Image support is planned actually (just noticed that is not in the wish list, will add it) but has some big prerequisites. With photos you have to be a little more careful regarding permissions, which means that users and roles should be supported first. But it will be implemented at some point.
icebraining 14y ago
Try a semantic desktop app. If I'm not mistaken, Tracker[1] can index EXIF tags (as well as other metadata formats) and it exposes a SPARQL[2] endpoint that you can query. [1]: http://projects.gnome.org/tracker/ http://projects.gnome.org/tracker/ [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARQL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARQL

magic_haze 14y ago

So... why not Subsonic? It's open source as well, seems a lot more mature, has a rest api, tons of apps, and a spiffy new HTML5 player that's quite good. * Subsonic.org seems to be down, try http://sourceforge.net/projects/subsonic/ http://sourceforge.net/projects/subsonic/ instead.

StavrosK 14y ago
Can I use it as an alternative to Google Music? I.e. can I set it to download a playlist to my phone when I come home?
- magic_haze 14y ago
  Sorry, I don't quite get it. The web player has support for playlists and dynamic streams, so I guess it depends on whether the app available for your phone uses the correct API. The one I use, for example, maintains a 10gb MRU cache of my stuff (with lookahead) and that works out quite nicely for me. YMMV, but it definitely surpassed google music for me in both usability and quality.
vidarh 14y ago
I suspect Java would make at least some of us steer clear. Thinking as purely a user, Subsonic looks great. As a developer that wants to hack around on the code handling my music library for fun, I personally wouldn't want the aggravation as I really can't stand Java.

teeboy 14y ago

Interestingly it was Shivratri yesterday for Indians - for Shiva, the destroyer God of Hinduism.

andybak 14y ago

A Subsonic-compatible wrapper for the API would instantly add compatibility with a large number of clients. Same for DLNA (spit). I'm a big Subsonic fan for a couple of reasons: 1. Remote control - I can make the server play the track remotely 2. Configurable offline cache on my phone - I set a large cache size (say 20gb) and use the player normally. Next time I'm offline I've still got access to the last 20gb of music I played. I'm looking for a Subsonic alternative though as I'd like to use an Android TV stick as my server/media center and getting Java running on that will be a pain and probably involve running a full Linux side-by-side. And I'm not even sure if it's going to be possible to run Subsonic server alongside Android effectively. A closing thought. Why are these things needed when we have DLNA/UPnP? Mainly because DLNA apps are uniformally slow and lack essential features. It's stunning how much time and money large companies have spent on DLNA and produced something so horrible.

snambi 14y ago

Sounds good. Would like to try.