node-icecast-control

A Node.js script to control your own Icecast internet radio station, server-side.

NOTE: This is an early alpha version, initial setup may take time, so please be patient

Introduction

The basic idea is to install the Icecast + ices0 as usual then control the playlist with Node.js script. Since radio station .conf allows only builtin, python and perl modules the python is used as proxy. So the python script and Node.js communicate via socket.io where python requests a tracks and Node.js pushes back the track path and info.

Getting Started

Setup procedure is inevitable.

Include the IcecastControl into script

var IcecastControl = require("./icecast/control.js");

Define options:

var options = {
	verbose: false,
	confdir: "/etc/icecast",  //Directory to store auto-generated .conf and .py file, NOTE: the directory must exist and have write permissions
	tempdir: "/tmp",          //Directory for temporary files, NOTE: the directory must exist
	icescmd: "ices",          //"ices" or "ices0" or other shell command
	socket: {
		host: "localhost",    //Server socket host
		port: 3020            //Server socket port to be open by node.js
	},
	icecast: {
		host: "localhost",    //Socket host of the icecast
		port: 8000,           //Socket port of the icecast
		user: "admin",
		password: "hackme"
	}
};

Set station info, note that the playlist must exist

var station = {
	id: "evergreen",                              //This will be file name, only ASCII number and letters allowed
	name: "Evergreen songs",                      //Human readable station title
	genre: "Evergreen",                           //Genre
	description: "Good old songs",                //Description of the station
	mountpoint: "/evergreen",                     //Stream will be available at http://localhost:8000/evergreen
	url: "http://radio-info-website-goes-here/",  //Website providing information about the station
	playlist: "/path/to/music/playlist.m3u",      //Static playlist, if you want to control the playlist see the "module" property
	yp: false                                     //Publish to yp directory
};

Set another station, this one with dynamic playlist

var station = {
	id: "foo",
	name: "foo bar station",
	mountpoint: "/foo",
	playlist: "dummy.m3u",
	module: {
		ices_init: function() { return 1; }, //1..succes, 0..failed
		ices_shutdown: function() { console.log("ices_shutdown"); },
		ices_get_next: function() { return "/path/to/track.mp3"; },
		ices_get_metadata: function() { return "Author - Track (Album, Year)"; }
	}
};

Open radio stations on Icecast and start the playback

var ic = new IcecastControl(options);
var is = ic.createStation(station);
ic.open(); //Open server socket
is.load(); //Load playlist
is.play(); //Start ices

Yeah, it's working!

foo@ubuntu:/home/foo/icecast# node app.js
Station registered with token: 6e0b0568-2f13-40cb-8b5a-9e948c46405b
Socket listening at port 3020
Found 56 tracks in playlist
ices -c "/etc/icecast/conf.d/dalmatinske.conf"
{ file: '/home/goldfish/radio/dalmatinske/Bajaga - Plavi safir.mp3',
  meta: 'Bajaga - Plavi safir' }

Setup

The procedure is described for Ubuntu 12.10 x64

First, install Icecast

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install icecast2

Optionally edit port and restart

sudo nano /etc/icecast2/icecast.xml
sudo service icecast2 restart

Second, install ices to stream mp3 audio

sudo apt-get install python-dev
sudo apt-get install libmp3lame-dev libxml2-dev libshout-dev libvorbis-dev

cd /tmp
wget http://downloads.us.xiph.org/releases/ices/ices-0.4.tar.gz
tar xf ices-0.4.tar.gz
cd ices-0.4/
./configure --prefix=/usr/local --with-pic --with-lame --with-python
make
make install

sudo mkdir /etc/ices
sudo cp /usr/local/etc/ices.conf.dist /etc/ices/ices.conf

Optionally test the ices

/usr/local/bin/ices -c /etc/ices/ices.conf -v

Now, make sure you have node and npm installed

sudo apt-get install nodejs-legacy npm

Finally, install the node-icecast-control script

git clone https://github.com/papnkukn/node-icecast-control.git
cd node-icecast-control
npm install

Edit the app.js and change station info then start the script. Also make sure the confdir and tempdir directories exist with write permissions.

node app.js

Recommended

icecast-utils for realtime icecast statistics