It was probably last weekend that I made my test configuration use Mopidy 3. I waited until Iris was available because that’s the best looking interface, IMO. The test configuration had been using the latest Snapcast for at least a week before that. I wanted to make all of my mistakes on a test image before I moved it to the production system.
It took me an embarrassingly long time to find the solution to why I could get to Mopidy from the host using localhost, but no other device. “From any browser on the LAN” is one of the biggest selling points for me of Mopidy. I knew that it was only Mopidy refusing connections and that it had to be that I had it misconfigured. Mopidy 2 worked fine just before the update.
I was too timid to ask because I knew that I had missed something obvious. In my defense, I didn’t spend that many waking hours looking for the answer - I decided that spending time with my dog was more important.
The answer is, of course, that mopidy/http is set to respond only to localhost by default as a security measure. I applaud the team for this feature and for making it the default. I care about computer security. My brother calls me paranoid in fact.
Anyway, as a cautionary tale to anyone seeing the same issue, make sure to read through the docs about mopidy/http. In fact read through the docs in general.
[http]
hostname = ::
default_app = iris
On to other frustrations, I typically used mopidy/local for my backend. Previous to Mopidy 3, mopidy/SQLite was separate and I didn’t like it, not for the implementation, but because you are by default at the mercy of “some dude on the internet” for how the database gets generated.
I want to get more in depth with Python and I’m still planning on making myself the maintainer of mopidy/local. I think there is a lot of room for improvement - feature-wise - it works well as designed, but because I was diving through the docs I found that mopidy/file covers a lot (most) of what I want.
So because I didn’t just ask a stupid question and inevitably feel stupid because the answer was well documented, Mopidy 3 is a clear improvement over Mopidy 2. I have most of the functionality of my old system. Iris is my default UI and I can sidestep mopidy/local with mopidy/file and find my music in a way that is more intuitive for me.
I don’t have Mopidy/CD anymore, which sucks, not because I use it regularly, but because it enables more spontaneity with the system. I suspect that I will be rolling it into mopidy/local, should I become the maintainer of it.
Anyway, read the docs! Mopidy is a very flexible ecosystem and you can probably make the system you want with it if you are patient and studious. Many, many thanks to all of you for taking the time to create a wonderful music playback system for me. I need to step up!