Pandora v34 API Update Required

FYI - this is apparently fixed in pianobar on github: https://github.com/PromyLOPh/pianobar/issues/236

Hoping that can help get pithos working again. :)

See if this works:

I attempted to implement the JSON API that the official Android client uses. It seems to be much more stable than the XMLRPC API , so it might be nice to offer it as an alternative for when the XMLRPC API breaks.

Code is here: https://github.com/kreed/pithos/commits/json

I haven't tested it extensively, but it seems to work so far. I was able to implement everything used in Pithos except the different audio formats. Currently it is limited to 64kbps AAC. I imagine some of the "Pandora at Home" devices would have access to higher quality audio and may also use the JSON API. It might be worth checking out some of them.

http://www.pandora.com/everywhere/home

The attachment "Update for Pandora protocol 34" of this bug report has been identified as being a patch. The ubuntu-reviewers team has been subscribed to the bug report so that they can review the patch. In the event that this is in fact not a patch you can resolve this situation by removing the tag 'patch' from the bug report and editing the attachment so that it is not flagged as a patch. Additionally, if you are member of the ubuntu-reviewers team please also unsubscribe the team from this bug report.

[This is an automated message performed by a Launchpad user owned by Brian Murray. Please contact him regarding any issues with the action taken in this bug report.]

I'm very skeptical of using some random person's website (over HTTP, nonetheless) to get a piece of data. If this "solution" is chosen in the end, it would be nice to have the source code of http://ridetheclown.com/s2/synctime.php posted somewhere, along with a config option for setting it to an alternative URL so I can run my own synctime instance.

Metro Pandora did something a little bit different to fix its app. Looks like they hardcoded some stuff, though magic numbers like that are likely to break. https://metropandora.codeplex.com/SourceControl/changeset/changes/90806

The patch is merely an implementation of PromyLOPh did to fix pianobar. It gets Pithos working again, but is not intended as a permanent solution.

I've merged James Burton's patch as a temporary fix, but I agree with Reed that it is not a permanent solution. ZigZagJoe's synctime.php is just a constant (manually set) offset from time(). It changes rarely, but that's another point of failure. It would also break if Pandora begins to validate the sync token passed to authenticateListener. I do not plan to use this code in a release, but it's on GitHub as an option for people who want Pithos to work right now.

Regarding the Metro Pandora implementation, the sync tokens stay valid for only about 48 hours. I captured a token immediately after the API change, and it no longer works.

The longer term solution is something more like Christopher's implementation of the JSON API from the WebOS client. That seems to be the direction pianobar is going as well. We'll need to do more work to get that API up to the functionality and stability of the XMLRPC API, however.

I'm also considering a more radical change -- wrapping the official HTML5 client in webkit. Pithos would become an adapter that passes events like media keys and sound menu clicks into the HTML5 client and extracts data such as the current song and play/pause state to send to the sound menu and notification daemon. The HTML5 client no longer requires Flash, and its user interface isn't bad. The UI is non-native, but is more complete and elegant than the existing Pithos UI. We could use greasemonkey-style javascript injection to tweak the UI as necessary.

Kevin,
If you plan on making these changes, please consider using webkit-gtk instead of webkit. The reason for this request is because the normal webkit has very little accessibility. On the other hand, webkit-gtk works very well with Orca.

I found a way to get the other audio formats with the JSON API, so it should now be feature-complete. Please test it if you can.

Kevin, if you're serious about creating an HTML5 client I'd recommend creating a different project or finding a way to distinguish it from Nuvola Player (http://projects.fenryxo.cz/Nuvola_Player/Main_page/). Pithos is great at what it does and I haven't found an alternative I can live with. Nuvola Player is a pain because it plays ads and asks if you're still listening and pausing for any length of time all but assures your session will timeout. But right now it works and my Pithos client doesn't. :/

Pianobar just closed their issue, seems a solution has been found.

I've been testing the latest build of Pithos available on git that contains a proper fix and it appears to be working better than ever! Congrats and thanks for a fix! (hopefully it won't be broken any time soon)

https://github.com/kevinmehall/pithos

I'm confused. Is Pithos now being developed in github rather than launchpad's BZR repo, and when did this happen?
P.s. I did a clone of the git repo and it appears to be working perfectly.

Nicholas and tasse77: Please don't modify bug assignees unless you know that somebody is or is not working on a bug. Don't add yourself as an assignee unless you're going to work to resolve the issue yourself.

Stephen Ostrow: I think that development is now handled on git and imported to launchpad at regular intervals (this is just a guess on my part, anyone feel free to correct me). See also: https://code.launchpad.net/~kevin-mehall/pithos/git-import for the related BZR repo.

I'm confused as well. I'm not an idiot - I've compiled kernel's since Red Hat 5 and Mandrake days, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to run the code you download with bzr. It says you need python-distutils-extra, which I attempted to install but it says it is missing setuptools. In fact it reminds me of RPM package hell we used to experience back in the day. Is there not going to be another Ubuntu package for this?

Of course there will be. But there has to be a release first, which will get packaged, then backported.

The bug status will be updated when that occurs.

I've released 0.3.17, which thanks to Christopher Eby, implements the JSON API. It's in the PPA, on the releases page, and on GitHub now. It will be a little while until packaged in Ubuntu and Debian repositories.

@Stephen: Yes, development moved to GitHub (https://github.com/kevinmehall/pithos) as of 0.3.16. The lp:pithos git-import branch is a mirror in bzr.

@Tony: If you're unable to build the package with the latest code and the instructions on http://kevinmehall.net/p/pithos, please report a bug with the full error.

Does this fix pianobar as well, or just pithos?

This bug was fixed in the package pithos - 0.3.17-1

---------------
pithos (0.3.17-1) unstable; urgency=low

  * New upstream bugfix and UX improvement release
    - Switch to JSON API. (closes: #670676, LP: #988395)

 -- Luke Faraone <email address hidden> Thu, 03 May 2012 23:48:44 -0400

pianobar has not been fixed; when it is, the status will be reflected in that package at the top of this page.

This bug was fixed in the package pianobar - 2012.05.06-1

---------------
pianobar (2012.05.06-1) unstable; urgency=high

  * New upstream version.
    - JSON api support (closes: #670483, LP: #988395)

 -- Luke Faraone <email address hidden> Sun, 06 May 2012 14:24:34 -0400

Please do not change the bug assignee unless you are.committing to fix the bug
 As this bug has already been fixed, the change is most definitely not appropriate

Uploaded a backport of 0.3.17. Can't test it, as I'm in ZA, but Vagrant said it worked, in #1093865

This bugfix upload seems to contain a lot of extra changes. The test case is really not sufficient, it needs to include a plan for verifying most of the program functionality and not just this bug. That said, since pithos is totally non-functional in precise at the moment, it seems better to accept this than keep it waiting.

> That said, since pithos is totally non-functional in precise at the moment, it seems better to accept this
> than keep it waiting.

So... What more needs to be done to move this forward?

> So... What more needs to be done to move this forward?

It's still in the review queue
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/precise/+queue?queue_state=1&queue_text=pithos

I'll prod the SRU team

I'm looking at the SRU upload briefly now, I would be much happier processing a targeted fix for just the API issue. This seems to have a minimal patch on the upstream bug tracker. Please can you check to see if this is suitable.

Thanks.

I'm rejecting pithos from the precise-proposed queue, sorry. We either need a better testing plan, giving us some confidence that most of the client works, or to have the minimal API patch applied instead of the backport.

its say update and everything your sites prvide just run me in circles.. maybe there is something Im not getting.. im still new ubuntu can you please help?

Hi Chris: I've uploaded a new version of the package to -proposed which only incorporates the minimal JSON API changes.

Hello Kevin, or anyone else affected,

Accepted pithos into precise-proposed. The package will build now and be available at http://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pithos/0.3.14-1ubuntu12.0.1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, and change the tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

Confirmed that version 0.3.14-1ubuntu12.0.1 is able to log into pandora and play music.

Can confirm ability to login but can not load any playlists.

When ever I try to select a playlist I get :
WARNING:root:Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pithos/gobject_worker.py", line
34, in _run
    result = command(*args)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pithos/pandora/pandora.py", line
250, in get_playlist
    songs.append(Song(self.pandora, i))
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pithos/pandora/pandora.py", line
274, in __init__
    self.audioUrl = d['additionalAudioUrl'][self.pandora.audio_format]
IndexError: list index out of range

Then if I try to play
ERROR:root:Gstreamer error: Resource not found., gstplaybin2.c(3824):
setup_next_source (): /GstPlayBin2:player
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/pithos", line 535, in on_gst_error
    self.current_song.message = "Error: "+str(err)
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'message'

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
John Vozza
NetRom Internet Services
973-869-9256
http://www.netrom.com

On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 1:39 PM, Vagrant Cascadian <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> ** Tags removed: verification-needed
> ** Tags added: verification-done
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/988395
>
> Title:
> Pandora v34 API Update Required
>
> Status in pianobar:
> Fix Committed
> Status in Pithos:
> Fix Released
> Status in “pianobar” package in Ubuntu:
> Fix Released
> Status in “pithos” package in Ubuntu:
> Fix Released
> Status in “pianobar” source package in Oneiric:
> Confirmed
> Status in “pithos” source package in Oneiric:
> Triaged
> Status in “pianobar” source package in Precise:
> Confirmed
> Status in “pithos” source package in Precise:
> Fix Committed
> Status in “pianobar” package in Debian:
> Fix Released
> Status in “pithos” package in Debian:
> Fix Released
>
> Bug description:
> == SRU Discussion ==
>
> [Impact]
>
> * Pithos fails to allow users to log in to Pandora, and has no useful
> functionality without logging in.
>
> [Test Case]
>
> * Install pithos 0.3.14-1
> * Run it
> * Provide login credentials
> * Attempt to log in
>
> [Regression Potential]
>
> * I know of no services running older Pandora APIs, so there's
> nothing to connect with using the old API, thus no regression
> potential, really.
>
> I've backported the JSON API patch to this release.
>
> == Original Report ==
>
> Pandora changed the authentication and login methods, breaking
> Pithos/Pianobar.
>
> Upstream in pianobar: https://github.com/PromyLOPh/pianobar/issues/236
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/pianobar/+bug/988395/+subscriptions
>
> !DSPAM:500,51703157271161985895729!
>
>

@rommer, That looks like bug #1009343, which is fixed in git. The workaround is to choose the "aacplus" audio format instead of "mp3-hifi" in the preferences dialog.

It is a separate change on Pandora's side, not related to this bug or Luke's patch.

Awesome! That nailed it. Able to login and listen to music once again/

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
John Vozza
NetRom Internet Services
973-869-9256
http://www.netrom.com

On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 3:37 PM, Kevin Mehall <email address hidden>wrote:

> @rommer, That looks like bug #1009343, which is fixed in git. The
> workaround is to choose the "aacplus" audio format instead of "mp3-hifi"
> in the preferences dialog.
>
> It is a separate change on Pandora's side, not related to this bug or
> Luke's patch.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/988395
>
> Title:
> Pandora v34 API Update Required
>
> Status in pianobar:
> Fix Committed
> Status in Pithos:
> Fix Released
> Status in “pianobar” package in Ubuntu:
> Fix Released
> Status in “pithos” package in Ubuntu:
> Fix Released
> Status in “pianobar” source package in Oneiric:
> Confirmed
> Status in “pithos” source package in Oneiric:
> Triaged
> Status in “pianobar” source package in Precise:
> Confirmed
> Status in “pithos” source package in Precise:
> Fix Committed
> Status in “pianobar” package in Debian:
> Fix Released
> Status in “pithos” package in Debian:
> Fix Released
>
> Bug description:
> == SRU Discussion ==
>
> [Impact]
>
> * Pithos fails to allow users to log in to Pandora, and has no useful
> functionality without logging in.
>
> [Test Case]
>
> * Install pithos 0.3.14-1
> * Run it
> * Provide login credentials
> * Attempt to log in
>
> [Regression Potential]
>
> * I know of no services running older Pandora APIs, so there's
> nothing to connect with using the old API, thus no regression
> potential, really.
>
> I've backported the JSON API patch to this release.
>
> == Original Report ==
>
> Pandora changed the authentication and login methods, breaking
> Pithos/Pianobar.
>
> Upstream in pianobar: https://github.com/PromyLOPh/pianobar/issues/236
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/pianobar/+bug/988395/+subscriptions
>
> !DSPAM:500,51704d73317421303181727!
>
>

The verification of this Stable Release Update has completed successfully and the package has now been released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regresssions.

This bug was fixed in the package pithos - 0.3.14-1ubuntu12.0.1

---------------
pithos (0.3.14-1ubuntu12.0.1) precise-proposed; urgency=low

  * Update to JSON API (LP: #988395)
 -- Luke Faraone <email address hidden> Wed, 10 Apr 2013 23:34:29 -0400

oneiric has seen the end of its life and is no longer receiving any updates. Marking the oneiric task for this ticket as "Won't Fix".

The Precise Pangolin has reached end of life, so this bug will not be fixed for that release