Hello world add-on for Stremio with Express

Adds a few public domain movies to Stremio

This example shows how to make a Stremio Add-on with Node.js and Express.

Alternatively, you can also see how to make a Stremio Add-on with Stremio's Add-on SDK at Stremio Add-on Hello World.

Quick Start

npm install
npm start

Then run Stremio, click the add-on button (puzzle piece icon) on the top right, and write http://127.0.0.1:7000/manifest.json in the "Addon Repository Url" field on the top left.

Basic tutorial on how to re-create this add-on step by step

Step 1: init a npm project

Pre-requisites: Node.js, Git

This is the first, boilerplate step of creating an add-on for Stremio. Create a node.js project and add the stremio-addons module as dependency.

mkdir stremio-hello-world
cd stremio-hello-world
npm init
npm install stremio-addons --save
git add *
git commit -a -m "initial commit"

NOTE: to test this add-on, you need to complete Step 5 (run add-on). Start the add-on with node index.js and add the add-on to stremio by going to the Addons page (top right icon) and typing http://127.0.0.1:7000/manifest.json in the text field in the top left and pressing enter.

Step 2: Create index.js, fill manifest

In this step, we define the add-on name, description and purpose.

Create an index.js file:

var express = require("express")
var addon = express()

var MANIFEST = { 
  id: "org.stremio.helloworldexpress",
  version: "1.0.0",

  name: "Hello World Express Addon",
  description: "Sample addon made with Express providing a few public domain movies",

  //"icon": "URL to 256x256 monochrome png icon", 
  //"background": "URL to 1024x786 png/jpg background",

  types: ["movie", "series"], // your add-on will be preferred for those content types

  // set what type of resources we will return
  resources: [],

  // set catalogs, we'll be making 2 catalogs in this case, 1 for movies and 1 for series
  catalogs: [],

  // prefix of item IDs (ie: "tt0032138")
  idPrefixes: [ "tt" ]
};

var respond = function (res, data) {
  res.setHeader('Access-Control-Allow-Origin', '*');
  res.setHeader('Access-Control-Allow-Headers', '*');
  res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json');
  res.send(data);
};

addon.get('/manifest.json', function (req, res) {
  respond(res, MANIFEST);
});

Step 3: basic streaming

To implement basic streaming, we need to update the manifest so Stremio will know that our add-on provides streams. We need to add stream to the resources array.

Just change:

  // set what type of resources we will return
  resources: [],

to

  // set what type of resources we will return
  resources: [
    "stream"
  ],

Then we will set-up a dummy dataset with a few public domain movies.

var STREAMS = {
  movie: {
    "tt0032138": [
      { title: "Torrent", infoHash: "24c8802e2624e17d46cd555f364debd949f2c81e", fileIdx: 0 }
    ],
    "tt0017136": [
      { title: "Torrent", infoHash: "dca926c0328bb54d209d82dc8a2f391617b47d7a", fileIdx: 1 }
    ],
    "tt0051744": [
      { title: "Torrent", infoHash: "9f86563ce2ed86bbfedd5d3e9f4e55aedd660960" }
    ],
    "tt1254207": [
      { title: "HTTP URL", url: "http://clips.vorwaerts-gmbh.de/big_buck_bunny.mp4" }
    ],
    "tt0031051": [
      { title: "YouTube", ytId: "m3BKVSpP80s" }
    ],
    "tt0137523": [
      { title: "External URL", externalUrl: "https://www.netflix.com/watch/26004747" }
    ]
  },

  series: {
    "tt1748166:1:1": [
      { title: "Torrent", infoHash: "07a9de9750158471c3302e4e95edb1107f980fa6" }
    ]
  }
};

And finally we will implement the /stream/ as follows:

addon.get('/stream/:type/:id.json', function (req, res, next) {
  var streams = STREAMS[req.params.type][req.params.id] || [];

  respond(res, { streams: streams });
});

Now let's make sure that the /stream/ can not be called with invalid stream type. We can check against the types defined in our manifest.

Put this snippet before the /stream/ handler:

addon.param('type', function (req, res, next, val) {
  if (MANIFEST.types.includes(val)) {
    next();
  } else {
    next("Unsupported type " + val);
  }
});

As you can see, this is an add-on that allows Stremio to stream 6 public domain movies and 1 series episode - in very few lines of code.

Depending on your source, you can implement streaming (/stream/) or catalogs (/catalog/) of movie, series, channel or tv content types.

To load that add-on in the desktop Stremio, click the add-on button (puzzle piece icon) on the top right, and write http://127.0.0.1:7000/manifest.json in the "Addon Repository Url" field on the top left.

Step 4: implement catalog

We have 2 types of resources serving meta:

• /catalog/ serves basic metadata (id, type, name, poster) and handles loading of both the catalog feed and searching;

• /meta/ serves advanced metadata for individual items, for imdb ids though (what we're using in this example add-on), we do not need to handle this method at all as it is handled automatically by Stremio's Cinemeta

For now, we have the simple goal of loading the movies we provide on the top of Discover.

We need to update our manifest once again, so Stremio will try to pull the suplied catalogs. We must populate our resources and catalogs arrays with the desired data.

  // set what type of resources we will return
  resources: [
    "catalog",
    "stream"
  ],

  // set catalogs, we'll be making 2 catalogs in this case, 1 for movies and 1 for series
  catalogs: [
    { type: "movie", id: "Hello World" },
    { type: "series", id: "Hello World" }
  ],

Then append to index.js:

var util = require("util");

var METAHUB_URL = 'https://images.metahub.space/poster/medium/%s/img';

var CATALOG = {
  movie: [
    { id: "tt0032138", name: "The Wizard of Oz", genres: ["Adventure", "Family", "Fantasy", "Musical"] },
    { id: "tt0017136", name: "Metropolis", genres: ["Drama", "Sci-Fi"] },
    { id: "tt0051744", name: "House on Haunted Hill", genres: ["Horror", "Mystery"] },
    { id: "tt1254207", name: "Big Buck Bunny", genres: ["Animation", "Short", "Comedy"], },
    { id: "tt0031051", name: "The Arizona Kid", genres: ["Music", "War", "Western"] },
    { id: "tt0137523", name: "Fight Club", genres: ["Drama"] }
  ],
  series: [
    {
      id: "tt1748166",
      name: "Pioneer One",
      genres: ["Drama"],
      videos: [
        { season: 1, episode: 1, id: "tt1748166:1:1", title: "Earthfall", released: "2010-06-16" }
      ]
    }
  ]
};

addon.get('/catalog/:type/:id.json', function (req, res, next) {
  var metas = CATALOG[req.params.type].map(function (item) {
    return {
      id: item.id,
      type: req.params.type,
      name: item.name,
      genres: item.genres,
      poster: util.format(METAHUB_URL, item.id)
    };
  });

  respond(res, { metas: metas });
});

We don't need to worry about invalid stream types as we declared type parameter validation in the previous step.

Step 5: run addon

It's time to run our add-on!

Append to index.js:

addon.listen(7000, function() {
  console.log('Add-on Repository URL: http://127.0.0.1:7000/manifest.json')
})

Run the add-on with npm start and add http://127.0.0.1:7000/manifest.json as the Add-on Repository URL in Stremio.

Optionally, you can also make this add-on available online, while still hosting it locally, by using localtunnel.

To use localtunnel with this example, simply do:

npm install -g localtunnel
lt --port 7000

This will typically bring a response such as:

your url is: https://perfect-bird-96.localtunnel.me

In which case you should use https://perfect-bird-96.localtunnel.me/manifest.json as your Add-on Repository URL

Step 6: result