Support (Releases)

Support is fully provided to all releases made on any of our release platforms (Itch, Microsoft Store and Taproom). Please open an issue, and we will try and fix the issue ASAP. Upon issues being fixed, you will need to wait until the next release if you wish to experience the fixed version in a stable state.

Support (Early-Access Releases)

In early access releases the same applies as with normal releases: Support is fully provided and feel free to open an Issue on GitHub if you have problems. However, with these types of releases, you need to remember that they are non-stable releases and you may encounter issues. These builds of the application do not reflect the complete state of the app in any way.

::alert{type="note"} This is essential knowledge for the debugging process, please read these before creating an issue. ::

How to find the Application Data Directory

The location of your application data varies depending on your operating system, see your platforms path below:

• MS Store: %localappdata%\packages\27554FireDevElijahKlauman.CiderEA_270bejk4xgzqp\LocalCache\Roaming\C2Windows

• Windows (non-MS Store): %appdata%\C2Windows

• Linux: $HOME/.config/sh.cider.genten

• MacOS: /Library/Application Support/sh.cider.genten

Why is my DiscordRPC status not appearing?

Try the following if Discord Rich Presence is not appearing on Discord.

Cider is Skipping or Not Playing Explicit Songs

If you are experiencing this issue, your account might have content restrictions set to "Clean". Login to , go to Profile Picture > Settings, then login again and check the "Content Restrictions" under "Parent Controls".

Make sure that Music is set to Explicit.

::alert{type="note"} It could potentially be a case where explicit playback is restricted in your country, in this case you may need to change your Apple Account region to resolve this. ::

Why do I keep getting 'localtunnel.me connection refused' on macOS?

This is a fairly rare case and can be resolved fairly easily. Follow the steps below and it should resolve your issue:

1. Disable any Antivirus and/or Firewall present on your device. These can conflict with the WebSocket API in the client and will cause this error. (ESET is a known offender for this.)

2. Ensure you do not have a VPN on or any policies enabled on your device that can affect network traffic. Company managed devices may also have policies blocking this.

3. Check that you do not have Cider running already - and that nothing is running on the same port that Cider operates under - 10767.

Outside of this advice, there is an for it, unfortunately we are stuck with it as one of the key components in Cider uses it as a dependency. We cannot help further on this issue.

Why is the app launching with a blank screen on Linux?

This is a somewhat common issue for those on OpenSuse and other distro's that require their /etc/hosts file to manually set. To resolve this issue, you will need to ensure that your /etc/hosts file is set up correctly. See the example below for how it should look:

Example Plugin

Electron App Documentation

Electron BrowserWindow Documentation

Communicating with the Renderer instance from Main (IPC Main)

Communicating with main instance from the Renderer (IPC Renderer)

theme.json files require the following properties:

• name: string - The name of the theme

• description: string - Brief description of the theme

• version: string - Version of the theme

• author: string - Theme authors

• github_repo: string - The source repository of the theme, this is required for Cider to automatically update the theme. Formatted <owner>/<repo_name>

• pack: array - (optional) Declare individual LESS files as styles within the package

  • Pack Object Format:

    • name: string - Name of the style

Hostname and Port

All API endpoints are accessible at http://localhost:10767.

We've observed that using 127.0.0.1 when IPv4 is disabled tends to break and not connect. We recommend you do not turn off IPv4, but if you are required to do so, try using [::1]:10767.

Authentication

Unless explicitly disabled within Cider, all API requests require a valid API token. You can generate this token, or turn off authentication, from the menu at Settings -> Connectivity -> Manage External Application Access to Cider within Cider.

The generated token should be passed in the apptoken header of all requests. Do not prefix the token with Bearer or any other string; just pass the token by itself in the header.

This token is not required if disabled within the settings menu.

/api/v1/playback

The API endpoints documented below are all nested under /api/v1/playback.

GET /active

Responds with an empty body and status code 204: No Content. This endpoint can be used to quickly check that the RPC server is still active.

GET /is-playing

Responds with a boolean value indicating whether music is currently playing.

GET /now-playing

Responds with an Apple Music API response for the currently playing song.

POST /play-url

Triggers playback of an item.

Accepts a url of the item to play. This URL can be found by right-clicking on an item and clicking on Share -> Apple Music in Cider, Share -> Copy Link in the official Apple Music app, or by copying the URL when viewing an item in the Apple Music web app.

POST /play-item-href

Triggers playback of an item.

Accepts an href (Apple Music API identifier).

POST /play-item

Triggers playback of an item.

Accepts a type of item to play and an id for the item. type should be one of the accepted types in the Apple Music API, such as songs. Note that the ID is required to be a string, not a number.

POST /play-later

Adds an item to the end of the play queue (played after all other items currently in the queue).

Accepts a type of item to play and an id for the item. type should be one of the accepted types in the Apple Music API, such as songs. Note that the ID is required to be a string, not a number.

POST /play-next

Adds an item to the start of the play queue (played next, before all other items in the queue).

Accepts a type of item to play and an id for the item. type should be one of the accepted types in the Apple Music API, such as songs. Note that the ID is required to be a string, not a number.

POST /play

Resumes playback of the current item. If no item is playing, the behavior set under the menu Settings -> Play Button on Stopped Action in Cider will take effect.

POST /pause

Pauses the currently playing item. If no item is playing or if the item is already paused, this will do nothing.

POST /playpause

Toggles the play/pause state of the current item. This has the same behavior as calling /pause if the item is playing, and /play if the item is paused.

POST /stop

Stops the current playback and removes the current item. If items are in the queue, they will be kept.

POST /next

Moves to the next item in the queue, if any. Autoplay enable/disable status will be respected if the queue is empty (infinity button within the queue panel in Cider).

If no item is currently playing but there is one in the queue, it will be started.

POST /previous

Moves to the previously played item, which is the item most recent in the playback history.

If no item is currently playing but there is one in the playback history, it will be started.

GET /queue

Gets the current queue as a list of Apple Music response objects. Note that this also includes part of the history and the currently playing track.

POST /queue

Not currently functional.

POST /queue/move-to-position

Moves an item in the queue from the startIndex to the destinationIndex. Optionally returns the queue if passed returnQueue.

Note that the index is 1-indexed (starts at 1, not 0). Also note that the queue contains some items that are from the history, so the items visible in the Up Next view in Cider may start at a number higher than 1.

POST /queue/remove-by-index

Removes an item from the queue by its index

Note that the index is 1-indexed (starts at 1, not 0). Also note that the queue contains some items that are from the history, so the items visible in the Up Next view in Cider may start at a number higher than 1.

POST /queue/clear-queue

Clears the queue of all items.

POST /seek

Seeks to a given offset, in seconds, in the currently playing item.

Accepts a position in seconds to seek to. Note that /now-playing returns a timestamp in milliseconds via the durationInMillis key, which should be divided by 1000 to get the duration in seconds.

GET /volume

Gets the current playback volume as a number between 0 (muted) and 1 (full volume).

POST /volume

Sets the current playback volume to a number between 0 (muted) and 1 (full volume).

Accepts a volume as a number between 0 and 1.

POST /add-to-library

Adds the currently playing item to the user's library. No effect if already in library.

POST /set-rating

Adds a rating to the currently playing item. Rating is -1 for dislike, 1 for like, and 0 for unset.

Accepts a rating as a number between -1 and 1.

GET /repeat-mode

Gets the current repeat mode as a number. 0 is off, 1 is "repeat this song", and 2 is "repeat".

POST /toggle-repeat

Toggles repeat between "repeat this song", "repeat", and "off".

Note that this method doesn't take the mode to set, just changes to the next mode in the cycle repeat this song -> repeat -> off.

GET /shuffle-mode

Gets the current shuffle mode as a number. 0 is off and 1 is on.

POST /toggle-shuffle

Toggles shuffle between "off" and "on".

GET /autoplay

Gets the current autoplay status as a boolean. true is on and false is off.

POST /toggle-autoplay

Toggles autoplay between "off" and "on".

/api/v1/amapi

The API endpoints documented below are all nested under /api/v1/amapi. These API endpoints are generally for more advanced use-cases than the above endpoints, and pass through the raw Apple Music API responses directly with no translation.

POST /run-v3

Makes a request to the given path on the Apple Music API and returns the response.

/api/v1/lyrics

The API endpoint documented below is nested under /api/v1/lyrics.

GET /:id

Gets lyrics for the given song ID. Currently non-functional but on track to be fixed soon.

The client uses a set list of protocols, including custom and overriding ones for AM apps. This is a list of all the protocols that the client uses.

• cider

• itms

• itmss

• music

• itunes

URL Schema

The URL schema is as follows: protocol://{action}/{type}/{id}

The available actions are:

• play

• open

The available types are:

• s (song)

• a (album)

• p (playlist)

• r (radio)

The ID must be the catalog ID of the item as the library item may not be available.

Additional Protocols

The client also handles additional protocols such as:

• Apple Music URLs: protocol://music.apple.com/...

• Our Discord Server: protocol://discord

• Our GitHub: protocol://github

Getting Started

Recommended / Required Development Utilities

• NodeJS 14.0.0 or greater

• (Optional, but highly recommended)

• Have an Apple Developer Account and be a member of the . This is necessary to play music through the app.

• Basic Command Line Knowledge

::alert{type="warning"} While not required, PNPM is recommended for compiling Cider, and you can install it by using:

npm install -g pnpm ::

::alert{type="caution"} To remind you again, if you don't have an Apple Developer account to sign the Cider binary after building, it WILL NOT work. ::

Cloning the repository

Open a command prompt window in the directory you'd like Git to clone to and enter the following command

Optionally, if you'd like to use the Development branch of Cider to test upcoming features switch your branch by moving your terminal into the directory and using git to checkout the branch by entering the following commands

::alert{type="tip"} If you'd like to update your repository in the future to keep up to date, use the command (Make sure you're in the directory, you originally cloned in)

git pull ::

Installing Dependencies

Now for the fun part, by using pnpm, npm or yarn (we'll be using pnpm in this case) enter the following command to automatically obtain all required dependencies for installation.

::alert{type="note"} This step could take a little while on some machines. ::

Create an account to VMP-sign Cider.

What is this for? MacOS doesn't like development Widevine DRM keys for some reason. Therefore, we need to sign our own production keys here. This can be done as follows:

Remember your account name and password because you will need it later.

Once in a while, you may need to re-authenticate the VMP account. If that is the case:

Create Apple signing keys and app-specific password.

1. In Xcode: Under Xcode > Preferences (⌘,) > Accounts, you may add your Apple ID. With your team selected, the View Details... in the bottom right could find you the available certificates for generation/download.

2. After that, select all of the certificates in Keychain Access to generate as a .p12 file. Remember the file location and the .p12 password.

3. the app-specific password of your Apple Developer account

Setting up environment variables.

You can set the environment variables permanently by edit the ~/.bash-profile file and add the above lines at the bottom of the file.

Final fixes

Electron-Packager doesn't like MacOS notarization. You need to manually patch the files in order for it to work properly:

Compiling Cider

This step takes a little while on the first compilation so bear with it as it does what it needs to do.

This will generate a universal signed and notarized binary. (Don't mind the "not working" command line, it works)

::alert{type="warning"} On some low-end machines this process could take up to ~20-30 minutes. (It will look like it hangs at the notarization part, don't exit it). ::

Installing Cider

Your new Cider installation setup file is ready for you! You can find your setup executable in your cloned folder directory on your system in the subfolder dist/ and from there you'll see your new Setup file.

::alert{type="note" title="Success"} Congrats! You've successfully compiled your own build of Cider! ::

Backend Development

Getting Started

Recommended / Required Development Utilities

Cider offers a simple REST API to remotely control the app.

URL: http://localhost:9000/api/

Endpoints

Getting Started

Recommended / Required Development Utilities

Cider Documentation

This repository contains the documentation of the Cider app. This serves as the central hub for all documentation related to the Cider Client, providing comprehensive guides, best practices, and reference materials for end-users and developers alike.

If you are interested in contributing to this project, please read the .

Once you have completed your plugin its time to publish! Create a new repository for the plugin and upload the files.

To have the theme indexed into Cider's built in plugin explorer, add cidermusicplugin as a topic on the repository.

These are some unsorted quirks and features about Cider that will be moved later

• Cider is built with the following frameworks and technologies

  • Electron

  • Vue 2

Resources in the theme can be accessed by their filenames in the theme folder.

Examples:

background: url("my_image.png")

@import url('another_less_file.less')

Cider Frontend API (CiderFrontAPI)

App Functions/Methods (app.*)

Cider Audio (CiderAudio)

Attributes are applied to elements to expose app state information to CSS

If one does not already exist, create a new theme directory in the user data folder.

• Windows: %appdata%/Cider/themes

• Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Cider/themes

Once you have completed your plugin its time to publish! Create a new repository for the theme and upload the files.

To have the theme indexed into Cider's built in theme explorer, add cidermusictheme as a topic on the repository.