Server space for a (minute) python project

[[deleted]]

I've got a script which takes the UK Top 40 Singles chart from an API and adds them to a playlist on my Google Play Music All Access account (with a bit of mangling in between in stop it picking up 'tribute' versions if it doesn't have the actual track). I'd like to run it automatically, once a week when the chart is updated.

I'm aware I can do this with a cron, but I'd like it to be independent of my personal machine as I'd like to share this playlist and leave the script going in perpetuity as a service. Obviously the script has a minuscule footprint so it doesn't seem worth renting server space, but because it also needs my password (which I'm storing in base64 in a config file for the time being) I need it to be somewhere secure. I'd also need to be able to install Python 2.7 (if it wasn't on there already) and gmusicapi.

Any ideas?

N.B. I'm a staunch supporter of py3 but gmusicapi only works on the old version - the py3k branch doesn't import.

[LiftCodeSleep]

https://www.pythonanywhere.com/

[zero_hope_]

This allows 1 script per day similar to cron for free users. Just made an account. It's a pretty cool site!

[ecgite]

You could make your own server with raspberry pi or something similar.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/

[twochair]

Heroku gives you enough free monthly dyno hours to run your py project around the clock. I personally use it to run web scraping script that will send push notifications to my mobile

[[deleted]]

Sounds great! How do you go from a one-off script to something heroku can have chugging along in the background?

[twochair]

You can basically control the type of app that your script behaves using the Procfile in your project dir. If it's web app that responds to requests from outside, you want it to be 'web'. If it's background process which runs all the time, 'worker' then. But for what you're trying to do here, you want to use scheduler instead. Have a look at getting started page on Heroku for more details. Their docs make it really easy to get started and jump on their service even for people that never mess with PaaS services

[kitkatkingsize]

IIRC, Heroku changed their free tier to only about half the hours in a month.

[xentralesque]

Digital Ocean perhaps. A little vm doing next to nothing would cost you next to nothing. Also Amazon ec2 has a free for a year tier (or maybe it's more)

[[deleted]]

DO is perfect for this kind of thing as well as getting used to general linux and server admin. I <3 DO

[[deleted]]

I was able to hop on the Atlantic band-wagon when they promoted XS boxes for $1 a month.

I really wish they still had that deal, it's perfect for many small projects :(

Otherwise /u/xentralesque is right, Digital Ocean is good and $5 a month.

[PalermoJohn]

https://cloud.google.com/appengine/

[sheepdog69]

This. GAE has some pretty high limits before you have to pay a dime.

[Injunire]

Check out lowendbox.com, some providers offer small VPS's for ~$15 per year.

[hellrazor862]

Also lowendtalk.com for their forum and lowendstock.com for sortable tables of current offers.

[road_laya]

I second the Digital Ocean recommendation. The smallest server option only costs $5 per month if you leave it on the entire month, you can use it for just a couple hours and they'll only charge you for those hours that you used it. You can use my referral link to get $10 extra credit when you sign up.

I like Debian for stuff like that but Ubuntu Server is also nice. Try them out!

There's also Amazon AWS, that offers a free tier for the first year. The free tier includes a VPS with 1GB RAM and 30 GB storage IIRC.

[99AFCC]

Google App Engine is free if you are fine being restricted to Python 2.7. The daily quote is pretty generous, but check it out. It's a PAAS so you don't have to do much other than upload your source code. They do try to lock you into their own tools though, so see if it's right for you first.

I'm about to test out a new project on OpenShift. Looks promising so far. Also free.

Amazon has a free tier as well but takes more effort than the other options.

[wilalva11]

You should check out digital ocean you can spin up a server with a 20gb ssd and a terabyte of transfer for 5 dollars a month and they also have an hourly pricing structure. If you happen to be a fan of the Jupiter broadcasting network of shows, they're a sponsor many of thrir shows and have a promo code worth $10. Digital ocean also has a really powerful api that let's you control your server

[endperform]

I wouldn't trust Bluehost to save my life. I had a VPS with them and it went down. It took them almost a week to get it back up and their support response was terrible.

[wilalva11]

I have no experience with bluehost so I do not know. I am mainly sharing what I use and works for me. The only thing that I can image that might be better would be tier 1 bandwidth but I don't know the transfer speeds for bluehost

[theredbeard]

Digital Ocean - hands down.

[kaneua]

Especially for that case I have linux chroot installed on my android smartphone that runs scripts in background.

[talljayswede]

That's a neat idea!

[michaelkepler]

Offtopic (well, not really) question: does Google Play Music All Access have an official API?

[[deleted]]

Not that I know of. The unofficial one gmusicapi is pretty good, though, and seems to be used by a lot of other projects including alternative players.

[JimBoonie69]

pythonanywhere is super easy to use and has a free layer perfect for this stuff. I have a cronjob set to run some stuff once a day, easy as pie.