My Alternative Bose SoundTouch App

This web-app doesn't feature all SoundTouch functions, I just wanted to build something with two features that I was missing in the official app:

• the ability to store more than 6 radio presets*
• the ability to use the speakers as an intercom

* Since starting this project Bose has updated its app and now also supports saving more radio favourites, but it takes more time to access and use that function there than in my small one page app.

Installation

You need to have a computer with Node.js installed to run this webapp. I use a raspberry pi with raspbian os and the pm2 tool to serve the app on my local network.

1. Download this project
2. Only if you want to use the intercom functionality:
   • get a developer API key from http://developer.bose.com
   • enter your key on line 100 in server.js
3. Create yourself a server.cert and server.key fileset by following this guide
4. Copy those files to the root folder of the project
5. Install with npm install from the node console / your terminal
6. Run node server.js and point your client device browser to https://yourserverip:3001. You'll get some warnings about the https certificate not being trusted, just ignore/trust the site.
7. On mobile devices: use the install to homescreen function of your browser to install the webapp as a progressive web app on your device.

**LEGACY - installation on Hass.io**

broken - usage as a Home Assistant addon

Earlier versions of this app also worked as an addon for Home Assistant. As I'm no longer using it that way anymore myself, I have stopped debugging the app to work like that.

The necesarry code is still present in the project and can be used to build upon and fix the Hass.io compatibility. Feel free to do so and open a pull request.

Usage

speaker selection

Use the hamburger menu to select a speaker. Don't see any speakers? Try to refresh the app.

controls

In order to use the controls, the speaker needs to be powered on. You can power on the speaker from within the app.

favourites management

As an example I have included my options file with favourites, you can either manually edit /client/js/options.json or use the heart/unheart icon to remove my favs.

To add new radio favourites you need a detour via the official Bose SoundTouch app:

• select a radio station in the official app
• refresh my app (or switch speakers)
• you should see the selected station in my app, use the heart icon to add to your favourites

Favourites are saved on the server and thus shared by all speakers and users of the app.

Preset intercom messages need to be set manually by editing the options.json file.

intercom

As mentioned, you can set preset messages in options.json.

The message recorder should be self explainatory. When prompted you should of course allow access to your device's microphone.

Still to come

Wanna help out with this project? Here are some To Do's:

• clean up the code (properly use modern javascript, get rid of jQuery usage)
• ✅ make the client work as a progressive web app
• ✅ add the option to record a sound clip and send this over the intercom
• ✅ add error handling where missing
• ✅ store array of radio-stations in options.json, then use these values in stead of hard-coding them in the html
• ✅ in stead of hardcoding the speaker-names, use the Bose API to read out the names and make a dynamic array; also use this to dynamically build the speaker cards and mobile menu

Some Credits

Learn more about the Bose Soundtouch API @ https://developer.bose.com/soundtouch-control-api/apis

I built the lay-out with Bulma css framework: https://bulma.io/

This nice package made it easy to discover the speakers on the local network: https://github.com/watson/bonjour

The sample sound for the intercom function was found here: https://freesound.org/people/11linda/sounds/234034/

I was inspired for the favouriting flow by this project that's similar to mine: https://github.com/jimhome1608/BoseSpeaker