This is sort of a guide for future devs stumbling upon flapi

[stet-stet]

OS: Win 10 Home, 10.0.19045.5072

So this is intended as a guide for users who want to start developing on this, but would like to save some time needed to get it to work in its current state.

Installation commands:

conda create fl -n python==3.12
(navigate to directory)
pip install -e .
flapi install

I ran into two problems so far,

Problem 1 with MIDI ports

I made ports with LoopMIDI but for some reason there was no response.

I was able to mitigate this problem by using the trial version of LoopBe30 instead, also modifying the _consts.py file and setting everything up manually.

DEFAULT_REQ_PORT = "01. Internal MIDI"
DEFAULT_RES_PORT = "02. Internal MIDI"

However, this (allegedly) only works for 60 minutes after each boot, not sure if there is any other free solution that works

Problem 2 with message mismatch between server-side and client

this is from server-side consts.py , found on C:\Users\(user name)\Documents\Image-Line\FL Studio\Settings\Hardware\Flapi Server

    EXEC = 0x04
    """
    Exec message - this is used to run an `exec` command in FL Studio, with no
    return type (just a success, or an exception raised).
    """

    EVAL = 0x05
    """
    Eval message - this is used to run an `eval` command in FL Studio, where
    the value that it produces is returned.
    """

this is client-side _consts.py, found on this repo

    REGISTER_MESSAGE_TYPE = 0x04
    """
    Register a new message type for the client.
    """

    EXEC = 0x05
    """
    Exec message - this is used to run an `exec` command in FL Studio, with no
    return type (just a success, or an exception raised).
    """

Due to this mismatch, the import statements sent with fl_exec in setup_server() is actually eval'd, returning a syntax error and crashing the whole thing.

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<frozen runpy>", line 198, in _run_module_as_main
  File "<frozen runpy>", line 88, in _run_code
  File "C:\Users\(username)\anaconda3\envs\fl\Scripts\flapi.exe\__main__.py", line 7, in <module>
  File "C:\Users\(username)\anaconda3\envs\fl\Lib\site-packages\click\core.py", line 1161, in __call__
    return self.main(*args, **kwargs)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\(username)\anaconda3\envs\fl\Lib\site-packages\click\core.py", line 1082, in main
    rv = self.invoke(ctx)
         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\(username)\anaconda3\envs\fl\Lib\site-packages\click\core.py", line 1697, in invoke
    return _process_result(sub_ctx.command.invoke(sub_ctx))
                           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\(username)\anaconda3\envs\fl\Lib\site-packages\click\core.py", line 1443, in invoke
    return ctx.invoke(self.callback, **ctx.params)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\(username)\anaconda3\envs\fl\Lib\site-packages\click\core.py", line 788, in invoke
    return __callback(*args, **kwargs)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\(username)\Desktop\fl_antics\Flapi\flapi\cli\repl.py", line 230, in repl
    status = enable(req, res)
             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\(username)\Desktop\fl_antics\Flapi\flapi\__enable.py", line 123, in enable
    return try_init(random.randrange(1, 0x7F))
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\(username)\Desktop\fl_antics\Flapi\flapi\__enable.py", line 146, in try_init
    setup_server()
  File "C:\Users\(username)\Desktop\fl_antics\Flapi\flapi\__enable.py", line 162, in setup_server
    fl_exec(f"import {', '.join(consts.FL_MODULES)}")
  File "C:\Users\(username)\Desktop\fl_antics\Flapi\flapi\__comms.py", line 252, in fl_exec
    assert_response_is_ok(response, MessageType.EXEC)
  File "C:\Users\(username)\Desktop\fl_antics\Flapi\flapi\__comms.py", line 116, in assert_response_is_ok
    raise decode_python_object(msg[2:])
  File "<string>", line 1
    import playlist, channels, mixer, patterns, arrangement, ui, transport, plugins, general
    ^^^^^^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

After manually fixing these two points, stuff written on the README starts to work!

[MaddyGuthridge]

If you've got the time to get it working, I'd massively appreciate your help! I've unfortunately been super busy with other projects.

[stet-stet]

I've no idea how my next months will unfold, but if I find the time I'll definitely do so! Thank you and @dimentorium so much for this awesome project :)

[MaddyGuthridge]

Thanks so much for your contributions on this issue. Unfortunately, I no-longer have the time or energy to maintain Flapi, so I am officially designating it as unmaintained. You can read more about this here.

Since Flapi is free and open-source software, I encourage you to create a fork if you have the motivation to improve it. I'm happy to help you out as described in the linked document, and I hope that the project can reach its potential with your contributions!

[stet-stet]

No worries! And thanks for informing us about the problems you have encountered.