On "Rings"

2026-09-20 - hearthsinger

This post is ever so slightly delayed, but the Rings webring is officially live and accepting new members! I want to write a bit about some of the goals for Rings beyond the basic webring functionality.

A goal I have for Rings, and a primary reason that the ring requires a backend (as opposed to a more common shared client-side js snippet), is for it to serve as a common/shared set of tools that its members can use (and contribute to). The first and reference example here is actually the implementation of the "Now Playing" widget this site uses on both the mainpage and about pages.

Inspection of the script source for this site reveals that the client-side javascript pulls no data from Last.FM directly, instead querying Rings' backend services. A similar query can be made with cURL:

curl -s https://api.ooooo.garden/integration/strawbs/LastFM

Looking at the response here shows us a pretty clean single-track response returned in a far more pragmatic JSON format than the XML-as-JSON response supported natively by the Last.FM API.

{
   "album" : "Volumes: One - Selections From Music Concerts 2019-2023 Bon Iver 6 Piece Band",
   "artist" : "Bon Iver",
   "date" : "17 Sep 2026, 20:09",
   "name" : "P.D.L.I.F. – Red Hill Auditorium, Perth, AU. Feb 26 2023",
   "url" : "https://www.last.fm/music/Bon+Iver/_/P.D.L.I.F.+%E2%80%93+Red+Hill+Auditorium,+Perth,+AU.+Feb+26+2023"
}

On top of all of this, this is a public endpoint - all calls to the LastFM API require authentication of some sort, at minimum an API key that can perform read-only opertions on its own, or a combo API key/secret that are required for user-scoped write access. Rather than exposing an API key in client-side js (even if that key is read-only), rings allows its members to configure a Last.FM connection simply by providing their LastFM username with their member configuration. We'll provide a quick reference JS snippet for you to get easily up and running without the need to setup a Last.FM API account or manage any keys.

Now, it should be said: The "blessed" way to achieve something like this would be for Rings to configure an OAuth-based application and have members go and complete an OAuth consent flow, allowing Rings to mint user credentials on their behalf on the fly. And hey - if you join the ring and want to get that set up? We'll happily accept your change and configure callback handling in our integration framework!

For now, though - join the ring and provide your username, and rip the JS to fetch your most recently scrobbled trick right off this page. I won't tell anyone!

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