About:

This project is for use as a personal hobby and to further explore use of databases, web development and the Python programming language. This project is open-source, so feel free to fork this repository and make it your own.

Requirements (Alphabetically):

• Axios -- Version Used: v0.21.2
• Body-Parser -- Version Used: v1.19.0
• Dotenv -- Version Used: v8.2.0
• EJS -- Version Used: v3.1.5
• Express -- Version Used: v4.17.1
• Express-Session -- Version Used: v1.17.1
• Mongoose -- Version Used: v5.10.7
• Node.js -- Version Used: v16.13.1
• Nodemon -- Version Used: v2.0.4
• NPM -- Version Used: v8.1.2
• Passport-Local-Mongoose -- Version Used: v6.1.0
• Passport-Local -- Version Used: v1.0.0
• Passport -- Version Used: v0.4.1
• Query-String -- Version Used: v6.13.5
• Spotify-Web-Api-Node -- Version Used: v4.0.0
• Twilio -- Version Used: v3.57.0

Usage:

NOTE: All API Keys and other sensitive information are kept inside a .env file (already placed in the .gitignore file).

Example .env configuration

HOME_URI=<The URL that your web app will be deployed to. Heroku is a good and free webapp host.>
MONGO_URL=<You can get this from your MongoDB Atlas dashboard>
SECRET=<Random string used for cookies. See 'express-session' npm package for more information>
OPENWEATHER_API_KEY=
TWILIO_SID=
TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN=
TWILIO_PHONE_NUM_RECIPIENT=<Used to receive an SMS in case of (un)succesful logins>
TWILIO_PHONE_NUM_SENDER=<Used to send an SMS in case of (un)succesful logins>
SPOTIFY_CLIENT_ID=
SPOTIFY_SECRET_ID=
SPOTIFY_USER_ID=

Navigate to the root directory

npm install
npm start

Project Idea:

Create a RaspberryPi program that will make use of the SenseHAT extension, in order to take weather readings such as temperature and humidity. These readings will work along the Spotify API to form a RaspberryPi Spotify Web Server, that plays different playlists, based on weather conditions.

This project is in very early stages so no screenshots or data exist. Hopefully this gets filled out with time.

01/06/2020: Deployed using Heroku service: https://raspi-spotify.herokuapp.com/

Implementation:

Spotify:

• Use of Spotify API
  • Allow for play / pause track
  • View currently playing track
  • Skip to previous / next track
  • Toggle repeat between off / context / track
  • Will append for:
    • volume control -- Spotify currently allows only for Desktop client support
    • device switching

Weather Logging:

• Use of SenseHAT OpenWeather API for data gathering
• MongoDB for data storage and access
• Python and BeautifulSoup requests library to send data into website as live test

WebPage:

• CSS and Bootstrap Framework for styling
• EJS for HTML templates (View Model)
• Heroku WebService to host NodeJS application online
• HTML for creating the page
• MongoDB and Mongoose framework for data storage
• Node.js and Express for back-end

API:

This app is set to run on port 3000 or can be manually changed either in the source code or by introducing a PORT environment variable. It acts as an interface, to directly communicate with the Spotify API.

In order to communicate with the API, an Authorisation Token is required. You can get one by visiting http://localhost:3000/

This redirects to Spotify's login page and asks access for the following permissions:

user-modify-playback-state
user-read-email
user-read-playback-state
user-read-private
user-read-recently-played
user-read-currently-playing
user-modify-playback-state

Once granted, the user now has an Authorisation Token valid for 1 hour. A Refresh Token is also returned which can be used to extend the current session. More information can be found on Spotify's Authorization Guide (https://developer.spotify.com/documentation/general/guides/authorization-guide/).

With the Authorisation Token, the user can now make requests to the API.

Endpoints:

Name	Endpoint	Operations Supported
Home Page	http://localhost:3000/	GET
Logout	http://localhost:3000/logout	GET
Pause Track	http://localhost:3000/spotify_pause	GET
Play Track	http://localhost:3000/spotify_play	GET
Play / Pause Track	http://localhost:3000/spotify_play_pause	POST
Next Track	http://localhost:3000/spotify_next	POST
Previous Track	http://localhost:3000/spotify_previous	POST
Repeat Off / Context / Track	http://localhost:3000/spotify_repeat	POST
Shuffle Tracks	http://localhost:3000/spotify_shuffle	POST
Weather Data	http://localhost:3000/weather	GET

More endpoints exist such as /error, /spotify, /spotify_callback and /spotify_get_current which are not meant to be used by the user directly (see below chart).

WebApp layout:

The WebApp has a simple interface that should already be familiar to most media players.

On the top is the applications name, along with the username of the currently logged in user (This links to their Spotify profile). Below is a hyperlink that redirects the user the logout endpoint, terminating their current session and Authorisation Token.

In the middle row, the currently playing track can be seen with links to the track and all its artists. The media buttons are read as follows:

Shuffle is currently off

Shuffle is currently on

Skip to previous track

Pressing the button will pause the current track

Pressing the button will play the current track

Skip to next track

Repeat is currently off

Repeat is currently on context state. Repeats entire queue.

Repeat is currently on track state. Repeats currently playing track.

Known-Issues:

• /weather endpoint returns 4xx error if the API call has not returned and the user requested again.
• Spamming any media button can cause unstable state in the application although the player (most of the times) responds to the given commands in order. This was tested with a decent internet connection (DL: 100Mbps, UP:90Mbps) and response times of 200-300ms for each command.
• Currently playing track sometimes shows the previous playing track (State discrepancy).