Streaming bookmarks made easy in Linux

I enjoy listening to audio streams. I can enjoy stations from cities where I once lived, from places I've visited, or just exotic locales I'll likely never visit. I could never come up with a good way to manage my streaming bookmarks. Perl came to the rescue. Using a single Perl script I store my favorite stations and can generate two tools.

The first tool creates Linux (Cinnamon) menu shortcuts for my stations. It also creates a file I can use with my simple URL shortener.

Check out my Perl script below.

• Apache URL shortener

#!/usr/bin/env perl

# This Perl script take a list of streaming URLS and does two things with it.
#
#   1. Creates Linux menu items for each station.
#   2. Creates a file that can be used with an Apache URL shortener.
#
# This is intended to be used with Linux. I suppose it could be modified to work with Windows and/or macOS.
# It assumes ~/.local/share/applications/streaming exists. nvlc must me installed. You can use a different
# player, be sure to modify the script to reflect this.
#
# To use add your favorite stations to the bottom of the script, run, and if nothing happens that's probably
# good news, it worked. Using Cinnamon (possibly other desktops) press the super key and then enter a station
# you want to play and you should hear something.


sub linuxMenu() {
    $desktopPath = $_[0];
    $desktopName = $_[1];
    $desktopUrl = $_[2];
    $desktopIcon = ($_[3] eq "") ? "streaming.png" : $_[3];

    unlink "${desktopPath}/*.desktop";

    $filename="${desktopPath}/${desktopName}.desktop";
    open (MENU, ">", ${filename});
    print MENU "[Desktop Entry]\n";
    print MENU "Type=Application\n";
    print MENU "Name=${desktopName}\n";
    print MENU "Comment=${desktopName} streaming\n";
    print MENU "Exec=nvlc \"${desktopUrl}\"\n";
    print MENU "Terminal=true\n";
    print MENU "Icon=/home/jcm/.local/share/icons/${desktopIcon}\n";
    close (MENU);
}

# This feeds my Apache URL shortener.
# https://opensource.com/article/18/7/apache-url-shortener

sub apacheAliases() {
    $apacheFile = $_[0];
    $apacheNickname = $_[1];
    $apacheUrl = $_[2];

    open (APACHE, ">>", "${apacheFile}");
    if ($apacheNickname ne "") {
        print APACHE "s/${apacheNickname} ${apacheUrl}\n";
    }
    close (APACHE);
}

foreach (sort(<DATA>)) {
    chomp;
    $i++;
    next if (/^#/);
    ($category,$name,$url,$tags,$favicon,$nickname) = split /~/;

    &linuxMenu("/home/jcm/.local/share/applications/streaming",${name},${url},"${favicon}");
    &apacheAliases("/home/jcm/Desktop/apache.txt",${nickname},${url});
}

__DATA__
#$category~$name~$url~$tags~$favicon~$nick
1970s~Magic 70s Florida~http://airspectrum.cdnstream1.com:8012/1605_192~~~m70fl
1980s~Austin 80s~http://n1fa-e2.revma.ihrhls.com:80/zc8403~~~austin80s
1980s~WRBQ (Q105)~http://playerservices.streamtheworld.com/pls/WRBQFM.pls~~~q105
BBC~BBC World Service~http://stream.live.vc.bbcmedia.co.uk/bbc_world_service~~~bbcws
Classic Rock~94.3 FM WIBG~http://ice7.securenetsystems.net/WIBGFM~~~wibg
Classic Rock~96 Rock~https://ample.revma.ihrhls.com/zc8917/18_ccr2w3iwb5a602/playlist.m3u8~96rock.jpg~96rock
Classic Rock~B97~https://stream.revma.ihrhls.com/zc2609~~~b97
Classic Rock~Classic Rock Florida HD~http://streaming505.radionomy.com:80/ClassicRockFloridaHD~~~crfl
Classic Rock~New Hampshire's 95.7~http://stream.abacast.net/direct/saga-wzidfmaac-ibc2~~~wzid
Public Radio~KAMU Radio FM 90.9~http://kamu.streamguys1.com/hd1-192~~~kamu
Public Radio~KUT 90.5 FM~http://kut.streamguys1.com/kut-free.aac~~~kut
Public Radio~WFIT~https://streaming.wfit.org/wfit-fm~~~wfit
Public Radio~WNYC~http://wnyc-iheart.streamguys.com/wnycfm-iheart.aac~~wnyc
Public Radio~WREK 91.1 Atlanta GA~http://streaming.wrek.org:8000/main/128kb.mp3~~~wrek
Public Radio~KBRW~http://tektite.streamguys1.com:5340/live~~~kbrw