pipepito/acestream-scraper repository overview

⁠Acestream Scraper

Code can be found here⁠

A Python-based web scraping application that retrieves Acestream channel information and generates M3U playlists. Built using Flask, BeautifulSoup, and SQLAlchemy.

⁠Features

• Scrapes Acestream channel information from multiple URLs
• Extracts channel names and URLs from both JSON data and HTML content
• Generates M3U playlists with optional refresh
• Refreshes channel data on demand
• Displays channel metadata via web interface
• Supports ZeroNet URLs
• Database migrations support
• Service-oriented architecture
• Repository pattern for data access
• Built-in Acestream engine with Acexy proxy (optional)
• Channel status checking
• Acexy status display in the dashboard
• Interactive setup wizard for easy configuration
• Channel search functionality
• Automatic rescraping at configurable intervals
• API documentation via OpenAPI/Swagger UI

⁠Quick Start

⁠Using Docker (Recommended)

1. Pull and run the container:

   docker pull pipepito/acestream-scraper:latest
   docker run -d \
     -p 8000:8000 \
     -v "${PWD}/config:/app/config" \
     --name acestream-scraper \
     pipepito/acestream-scraper:latest
   

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2. Access the setup wizard:

   Open your browser and navigate to http://localhost:8000

   The first-time setup wizard will guide you through configuration:

   • Base URL format (acestream:// or http://)
   • Acestream Engine settings
   • Source URLs to scrape
   • Rescrape interval

3. Alternative: Manual configuration

   Create a config/config.json file:

   {
       "urls": [
           "https://example.com/url1",
           "https://example.com/url2"
       ],
       "base_url": "http://127.0.0.1:8008/ace/getstream?id=",
       "ace_engine_url": "http://127.0.0.1:6878"
   }
   

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⁠Running with Acexy Enabled (Recommended)

The image includes an embedded Acestream engine with the Acexy proxy interface, which provides a user-friendly web UI:

docker run -d \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -e ENABLE_ACEXY=true \
  -e ALLOW_REMOTE_ACCESS=yes \
  -v "${PWD}/config:/app/config" \
  --name acestream-scraper \
  pipepito/acestream-scraper:latest

The Acexy web interface will be available at http://localhost:8080.

⁠Using with ZeroNet

The application can scrape ZeroNet sites for channel information:

⁠Running with TOR disabled

docker run -d \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  -p 43110:43110 \
  -p 43111:43111 \
  -v "${PWD}/config:/app/config" \
  -v "${PWD}/zeronet_data:/app/ZeroNet/data" \
  --name acestream-scraper \
  pipepito/acestream-scraper:latest

⁠Running with TOR enabled

docker run -d \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  -p 43110:43110 \
  -p 43111:43111 \
  -e ENABLE_TOR=true \
  -v "${PWD}/config:/app/config" \
  -v "${PWD}/zeronet_data:/app/ZeroNet/data" \
  --name acestream-scraper \
  pipepito/acestream-scraper:latest

⁠Usage Guide

⁠Web Interface

Access the web interface at http://localhost:8000

⁠Dashboard

The main dashboard provides:

• Channel statistics (total, online, offline)
• Search functionality for channels
• Download playlist button
• Add/delete channels
• URL management
• Configuration options

⁠Channel Management

• Adding channels: Enter a channel ID and name in the form
• Searching: Use the search box to filter channels by name
• Status checking: Click the "Check Status" button to verify if a channel is online
• Delete channels: Remove unwanted channels with the delete button

⁠URL Management

• Add new URLs: Enter URLs to scrape in the "Add New URL" form
• Refresh URLs: Update channel data by clicking "Refresh" on a URL
• Enable/Disable URLs: Toggle URLs on/off without deleting them
• Delete URLs: Remove URLs you no longer want to scrape

⁠M3U Playlist

Get the M3U playlist for your media player:

• Current playlist: http://localhost:8000/playlist.m3u
• Force refresh: http://localhost:8000/playlist.m3u?refresh=true

To use in your media player (like VLC):

1. Copy the playlist URL (http://localhost:8000/playlist.m3u⁠)
2. In your media player, select "Open Network Stream" or similar option
3. Paste the URL and play

⁠API Documentation

The application provides OpenAPI/Swagger documentation:

• Access at: http://localhost:8000/api/docs
• Interactive API documentation for developers
• Test endpoints directly from the browser

⁠Acexy Interface

If you enabled Acexy (recommended):

• Access the Acexy interface at: http://localhost:8080
• Check Acexy status directly in the main dashboard
• Manage your Acestream connections through a user-friendly web interface

⁠Configuration

⁠Application Settings

Configure through the setup wizard or directly in config.json:

• urls: Array of URLs to scrape for Acestream channels
• base_url: Base URL format for playlist generation (e.g., acestream:// or http://localhost:6878/ace/getstream?id=)
• ace_engine_url: URL of your Acestream Engine instance (default: http://127.0.0.1:6878)
• rescrape_interval: How often to refresh URLs (in hours, default: 24)

⁠Acexy Configuration

Acexy provides an enhanced proxy interface for Acestream, with a web UI for better management:

• ENABLE_ACEXY: Set to true to enable Acexy and Acestream engine (default: false)
• ACEXY_LISTEN_ADDR: Address for Acexy to listen on (default: :8080)
• ALLOW_REMOTE_ACCESS: Set to yes to allow external connections (default: no)
• ACEXY_NO_RESPONSE_TIMEOUT: Timeout for Acestream responses (default: 15s)
• ACEXY_BUFFER_SIZE: Buffer size for data transfers (default: 5MiB)
• ACESTREAM_HTTP_PORT: Port for Acestream engine (default: 6878)

⁠Channel Status Checking

The application verifies if channels are available:

• Shows which channels are online/offline in the dashboard
• Click "Check Status" button to verify individual channels
• Status history and error messages displayed in the UI

To use this feature:

1. Ensure you have Acestream Engine running (built-in if ENABLE_ACEXY=true)
2. Configure ace_engine_url to point to your Acestream Engine instance
3. Use the "Check Status" buttons in the UI to verify channel availability

⁠Port Mapping

• 8000: Main web interface
• 43110: ZeroNet web interface (if ZeroNet enabled)
• 43111: ZeroNet transport port (if ZeroNet enabled)
• 8080: Acexy web interface (if enabled)
• 6878: Acestream HTTP API port (internal)

⁠Volumes

When using Docker, mount these volumes:

• /app/config: Configuration files
• /app/ZeroNet/data: ZeroNet data directory (if using ZeroNet)

⁠ZeroNet Configuration

The application looks for a zeronet.conf file in the /app/config directory. If none exists, it creates one with default values:

[global]
ui_ip = *
ui_host =
 0.0.0.0
 localhost
ui_port = 43110

To customize ZeroNet access:

1. Create your own config/zeronet.conf:

[global]
ui_ip = *
ui_host =
 127.0.0.1
 your.domain.com
 localhost:43110
ui_port = 43110

1. Mount it when running the container:

docker run -d \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  -p 43110:43110 \
  -v "${PWD}/config:/app/config" \
  --name acestream-scraper \
  pipepito/acestream-scraper:latest

⁠Security Note

• Add your domain(s) to ui_host for public access
• Always include localhost for local access
• Set ALLOW_REMOTE_ACCESS=no to restrict Acestream access to localhost only

⁠Healthchecks

The container includes health checking:

• Main application health check at /health endpoint
• Acexy health check (if enabled)
• Automatic retry for temporary failures

⁠Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please fork the repository and create a pull request with your changes.

⁠License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

⁠Acknowledgements

Special thanks to the developers of Flask, BeautifulSoup, SQLAlchemy, and other dependencies used in this project.

• Acexy⁠ - Enhanced Acestream proxy interface
• Acestream-http-proxy⁠ - HTTP proxy for Acestream