Developers

NOTE: For people familiar with Python, it is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that you use and build with venv due to the restrictive requirements of the tested packages listing. While newer versions MAY work, there is no guarantee that PyInstaller and other utilities will build a proper executable.

Development Requirements

To locally build and install What’s Now Playing, you will need the following:

  1. Python for your operating system (3.10 or 3.11 is required. 3.12 has issues)

  2. Access to a development shell (e.g., /Applications/Utility/Terminal on OS X)

  3. git installed and working

Linux Pre-work

If you are on Linux, it is recommended that you install dbus-python at the system level first to get the basic OS requirements put in place first. For example, for Debian-style systems:

sudo apt-get install python-dbus

macOS Pre-work

You will need a working, modern ICU library:

  1. brew install icu4c

  2. export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/homebrew/opt/icu4c/lib/pkgconfig

Commands

python -m venv (virtualenv directory)
source (virtualenv directory)/bin/activate
git clone https://github.com/whastnowplaying/whats-now-playing.git
cd whats-now-playing
git checkout [version]
pip install ".[dev,docs,osspecials,test]

At this point, you should be able to run the software from the shell:

NowPlaying

Build Executable

To build a stand-alone executable, there is a helper script to do all the work:

  • macOS

builder.sh macosx

  • Windows

builder.sh windows

  • Other

builder.sh

This bash script will:

  1. Create a venv

  2. Install the contents of the venv

  3. Run PyInstaller

In the end you should have a zip file with your newly built binary.

There should now be a dist directory and inside that directory will be either a NowPlaying.app on OS X or just a NowPlaying single file.