AzuraCast / Radio Station plugin integration

[gusaus]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Similar to LibreTime #9, we'd like to provide ways for AzuraCast users a way to connect and publish show and playlist content into WordPress.

Describe the solution you'd like
Unlike LibreTime, there's already an API that @tonyzeoli and @majick777 are evaluating for Radio Station PRO https://github.com/netmix/radio-station-pro/issues/30. As we're already including Radio Station (free), users of our platform will have the option to upgrade when integration is available.

Describe alternatives you've considered
Assuming AzuraCast integration will be available as part of Radio Station (PRO), this should be the best option. We could potentially help direct resources towards development via a paid beta https://github.com/OpenProducer/community/issues/8 or hackathons OpenProducer/community#11 directed towards AzuraCast and Radio Station/WordPress users.

Additional context
This twitter thread provides some context around initial discussions about integration/collaboration between these projects https://twitter.com/GetOpenProducer/status/1247978645773152256

[gusaus]

Now playing for AzuraCast plugin adds a widget to your WordPress sidebar showing the currently played song of a AzuraCast station by their public API. You’re able to configure whether to display the album, title, artist, artwork and player links.

I've yet to test myself... wonder if there's anything that could be incorporated into Radio Station integration or options for an audio player #22

[tonyzeoli]

The issue with this plugin is it doesn't use the live API, so it has to refresh every 3 minutes, which creates a lag between songs. It also is only a widget and doesn't save the playlist per show, which is what we're planning to do. It's not as extensive and there's some chatter in the reviews that it doesn't refresh fast enough to be accurate.

…

On Tue, Apr 28, 2020 at 3:49 AM Gus Austin ***@***.***> wrote: Now playing for AzuraCast plugin <https://wordpress.org/plugins/now-playing-widget-fuer-azuracast-stationen/> adds a widget to your WordPress sidebar showing the currently played song of a AzuraCast station by their public API. You’re able to configure whether to display the album, title, artist, artwork and player links. I've yet to test myself... wonder if there's anything that could be incorporated into Radio Station integration or options for an audio player OpenProducer/newspack-platform#22 <OpenProducer/newspack-platform#22> — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <OpenProducer/newspack-platform#8>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AA65WO33BZQVUZOAFOHZLELRO2C7FANCNFSM4MQNYTWA> .

[gusaus]

Thanks @tonyzeoli - I figured y'all have already seen that plugin.

What do you think about the idea of a paid beta https://github.com/OpenProducer/community/issues/8 and/or series of hackathons OpenProducer/community#11 targeting AzuraCast users as a way to fund the development of this feature. Probably would also be a way to direct resources towards audio player(s).

Based on conversations over Twitter, it seems like there's a need to fill https://twitter.com/SlvrEagle23/status/1248002697812459520

[majick777]

Just to note for Radio Station we are more going to be working with syncing Show schedules via APIs first. This is the main gap in functionality we really want to fill.

Syncing of playlists into a widget or player would probably come later. There are some players that can already do this for some services.

[gusaus]

Syncing of playlists into a widget or player would probably come later. There are some players that can already do this for some services.

I'd like to hand off #22 to whoever can properly scope out and develop a player that AzuraCast and LibreTime can plug into.

[gusaus]

What do you think about the idea of a paid beta OpenProducer/community#8 and/or series of hackathons OpenProducer/community#11 targeting AzuraCast users as a way to fund the development of this feature. Probably would also be a way to direct resources towards audio player(s).

In addition to the above, I think we could upfront a good bit of development cost if we ran a crowdfunding campaign similar to CiviCRM's Make it Happen OpenProducer/community#13

[tonyzeoli]

@gusaus When we release PRO, the player will pull song data from the Sjoutcast or Icecast stream. I think the same will be true for our free player. The user will be able to listen to the stream in the player and see the current song being played. As @majick777 said in an earlier post, we will get to syncing playlists in the future, but for now it's ab out syncing the schedules from play out systems.

[gusaus]

@tonyzeoli Unlike LibreTime at least for the moment #9, AzuraCast has a robust, well-documented API (https://docs.azuracast.com/en/developers/apis) and they've been selected to participate in the FundOSS pilot (https://fundoss.org/) happening probably in about one month.

As we're already discussing collaboration in various forums, we might be able use FundOSS as an opportunity to help raise and allocate funds toward integrations. I've set up this post to further discuss in the open AzuraCast/AzuraCast#3930

[gusaus]

@tonyzeoli Per our Monday marathon convo, I think we agreed this functionality would be nice to have in https://wordpress.org/plugins/radio-station/

If yes, possibly we can create a Make it Happen style fundraising campaign (see OpenProducer/community#13) when y'all are at a point to finish the project scope https://github.com/netmix/radio-station-pro/issues/30 and move forward.

Thoughts?

[gusaus]

@tonyzeoli I'm assuming your comment(s) regarding fundraising campaign would also hold true for AzuraCast? #9

As mentioned above #8, there should be more demand and opportunities to fund if we can finish the project scope and launch a campaign to coincide with AzuraCast's participation in FundOSS (https://fundoss.org/).

[tonyzeoli]

Yes, everything FREE has a COST. :) This is literally 50 to 100 hours of development for each add-on, for each service. If we can get funded, that would be great. Then we can build it and release it for free with a limited feature set.

[gusaus]

So my suggestion would essentially be the same as #9

Sort out the project scope (including cost) in https://github.com/netmix/radio-station-pro/issues/30 and transfer the issue to https://github.com/netmix/radio-station

Assuming there will be separate repos for each addon (is that correct?), I think all issues pertaining to free (plugin and addons) would be easier to track and fund (ongoing dev/maintenance) if grouped under the main repo

Ask me to explain further if this approach still sounds murky.

[gusaus]

Hey all! With regards to https://github.com/netmix/radio-station-pro/issues/132#issuecomment-894578592, I'm using https://pro.radio/theme-features/radio-player/ on https://soundsandcolorsradio.com/ and would be happy to share the code and/or give you access to a Pantheon instance if you wanna dig around.

[tonyzeoli]

Hey Gus, Sorry for the “radio silence" - just trying to grapple with a bunch of stresses over here. We’ve actually gotten the player working with icecast snd shoutcast. I’m going to send you a free version for your site tonight if PRO to install and play around with. I’ll be in touch later.

On Tue, Aug 17, 2021 at 4:50 PM Gus Austin ***@***.***> wrote: Hey all! With regards to netmix/radio-station-pro#132 (comment) <netmix/radio-station-pro#132 (comment)>, I'm using https://pro.radio/theme-features/radio-player/ on https://soundsandcolorsradio.com/ and would be happy to share the code and/or give you access to a Pantheon instance if you wanna dig around. — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <https://github.com/netmix/openproducer-platform/issues/19#issuecomment-900620892>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AA65WO4UMXOQYGQG72AHOM3T5LDRPANCNFSM4MQNYTWA> .

-- Sent from Gmail Mobile

[gusaus]

Thanks Tony - Not surprised you're still consumed with the launch and I'm ready to help wherever I can!

I’m going to send you a free version for your site tonight of PRO to install and play around with.

This actually could be one way I can help - once I test and get comfortable with it, I'll start hyping it up and ideally upsell to some of the clients I'm working with. Also will have a better sense for other ways I can contribute.

[gusaus]

Here are a couple bits of discussion with @SlvrEagle23 (project lead of AzuraCast) from AzuraCast chat about 'potential' integration with WordPress and Drupal -

I will say I don't really see the Drupal and Wordpress plugins being the "way forward" per se with increasing audience and engagement with AzuraCast, because what I see is a very complex negotiation between their database schemas and ours, and missed expectations about how smooth that integration would be

there are reasons using our web UI makes sense for most users...it immediately indicates to you, for example, if you're doing an action that would require reloading your station to persist to your listeners

I would rather see resources funneled into building out functionality that we're missing to hit feature parity with commercial competitors than seeing us try to build confusing sideways integrations with other systems that resemble, but don't match, our structure

Look over the issue description and you'll notice it's essentially a dup of LibreTime integration #9. What the author of this issue (me!) didn't take into consideration was that AzuraCast does not have the same functionality as LibreTime (see AzuraCast/AzuraCast#4460 (comment) and some of the previous comments in that issue), hence the integration points @tonyzeoli first brought up in the LibreTime discussion would be different.

That said, I'm not a product owner or maintainer of the Radio Station plugin, nor do I have a good sense of roadmap and priorites. If/when integration with Radio Station makes sense (near term or long), I'd like to suggest this issue in the Radio Station PRO repo https://github.com/netmix/radio-station-pro/issues/30 be the basis for a feature request/RFP in the appropriate free/public repo and we create a fundraising campaign (aka project) on the Radio Station open collective once we flesh out a process (see https://github.com/OpenProducer/community/discussions/27).

our audience may be looking for Drupal/Wordpress integration, for sure, but in the form of players, embeddable widgets, etc...not in the form of an entirely separate radio management thing inside either

As @tonyzeoli noted in #8 (comment) there is integration with the player currently included in Radio Station PRO. Problem is much of the other features and functionality Radio Station (free or PRO) includes isn't needed by a large amount (majority) of AzuraCast users running sites on WordPress.

So to Buster's point, we should focus on what a majority of AzuraCast users want and need #22