AgileAdam.com

Tech Tips

Using OBS and Blackhole as an Audio Router

/ July 22, 2024
I’ve been having a difficult timing capturing aggregate audio from my Shure MV7 microphone and my system audio. After trying the BlackHole + Audio Midi Setup unsuccessfully I found some information about how to use OBS Studio + BlackHole to configure, monitor, and send audio from many sources into a single output.

Using this configuration I’m able to record, transcribe, etc. all of this audio as if it were a single input source. An added bonus is that I can monitor the input, adjust levels, etc. from the OBS Studio user interface.

For what it’s worth, this entire process seems to work exactly the same with the VB-CABLE Virtual Audio Device. Just use VB-CABLE instead of BlackHole 16ch in steps 3 and 5 below.

Step 1: Install Blackhole ( brew install blackhole-16ch )

Step 2: Install OBS Studio

Step 3: Open OBS Studio’s Settings. Set Audio ➙ Advanced ➙ Monitoring Device to BlackHole 16ch

Step 4: Add macOS Audio Capture sources to OBS Studio and configure each to use Monitor and Output (monitor is the important piece). In the example below I’m getting audio from my mic and two specific applications (Chrome and Zoom).

Step 5: Use BlackHole 16ch as the “microphone” or “input” in the app of your choosing (audio recorder, transcription tool, etc.)

Bonus Tip

What if you want to control your microphone output to Zoom (or whatever) from within OBS Studio? You can use a second virtual audio device! Using the OBS Audio Monitor plugin you can route the actual audio “Output” from OBS Studio to whatever device you choose. The “Audio Mixer” dock controls the output to BlackHole (via the “Monitor Only” setting and corresponding Monitor -> BlackHole 16ch application setting), and the Audio Monitor dock controls output to VB-CABLE (via the “Monitor and Output” setting).
1. Install the VB-CABLE virtual audio device
2. Install the OBS Audio Monitor plugin
3. Enable the Audio Monitor dock
4. Configure the output to go to VB-CABLE
5. In whichever apps you’d like, use VB-CABLE as the “Microphone” (input) instead of your actual microphone.
6. Make sure only your microphone is set to “Monitor and Output”
7. If desired, you can set a hotkey to mute/unmute your microphone via Settings ➙ Hotkeys ➙ Shure MV7 in (for example)
  
  You can set the same hotkey to both mute and unmute, and it’s a universal hotkey that is available even if OBS isn’t the front window.
Bonus Bonus Tip

One more for ya! Enabling the Waveform plugin in the preview area is a great way to have a visual reminder when your microphone is “hot.”

After disabling all of the unneeded docks here’s what I’m left with:

You can even add additional waveforms for your other input sources:
read more
Tech Tips

You Can’t Fit a Square Title into a Round Url

/ April 30, 2024
For whatever reason I always mix up the format for markdown links.

Here are the possibilities (only one is valid):
1. [https://agileadam.com](View my site)
2. [View my site](https://agileadam.com) ← the correct one!
3. (https://agileadam.com)[View my site]
4. (View my site)[https://agileadam.com]
I’ve come up with a mnemonic I’m going to try employing:

You can’t fit a square title into a round url.

It’s a variation of the idiom, “You can’t fit a square peg into a round hole.”

Square brackets. Round parentheses. You get it.

Update July 12, 2024

This still isn’t landing for me. “Can’t fit a square peg into a round hole” is easy to remember… but which is the peg and which is the hole? Square URL? Square Title? Round Title? Hmmm.

Maybe an acronym would serve me better? Here are my initial thoughts:
- “SLAP” (Square Label, Address in Parentheses)
- “SNAP” (Square Name, Address in Parentheses)
- “SLAP” (Square Label, Address in Parentheses)
If you take a closer look, it’d be easy to accidentally assume “L” means “link” (aka URL), so maybe I should rule those out. That leaves me with “SNAP”, which seems like it’d be worth trying for awhile.

I wish I knew what drives me to go down these rabbit holes.
read more

Writing Tests for Drush Commands

/ March 21, 2024

There are plenty of examples of these in the wild, but I figured I’d show a stripped down version of an automated Kernel test that successfully tests a drush command. The trick here is making sure you set up a logger and that you stub a few methods (if you happen to use $this->logger() and dt() in your Drush commands). Also featured in this example is the use of Faker to generate realistic test data.

<?php

declare(strict_types = 1);

namespace Drupal\mymodule\Tests\Kernel {

  use Drupal\KernelTests\KernelTestBase;
  use Drupal\mymodule\Drush\Commands\QueueCommands;
  use Drush\Log\DrushLoggerManager;
  use Faker\Factory;
  use Faker\Generator;
  use Psr\Log\LoggerInterface;

  /**
   * Tests the QueueCommands Drush command file.
   */
  final class QueueTest extends KernelTestBase {

    /**
     * {@inheritdoc}
     */
    protected static $modules = [
      // Enable all the modules that this test relies on.
      'auto_entitylabel',
      'block',
      'datetime',
      'eck',
      'field',
      'file',
      'image',
      'link',
      'mymodule',
      'mysql',
      'options',
      'path',
      'path_alias',
      'system',
      'text',
      'user',
      'views',
      'views_bulk_operations',
    ];

    /**
     * The Faker generator.
     *
     * @var \Faker\Generator
     */
    protected Generator $faker;

    /**
     * The logger.
     *
     * @var \Drush\Log\DrushLoggerManager|\Psr\Log\LoggerInterface
     */
    protected DrushLoggerManager|LoggerInterface $logger;

    /**
     * The Drush queue commands.
     *
     * @var \Drupal\mymodule\Drush\Commands\QueueCommands
     */
    protected QueueCommands $drushQueueCommands;

    /**
     * Set up the test environment.
     */
    protected function setUp(): void {
      parent::setUp();

      // Install required config.
      $this->installConfig(['mymodule']);

      $this->faker = Factory::create();
      $logger_class = class_exists(DrushLoggerManager::class) ? DrushLoggerManager::class : LoggerInterface::class;
      $this->logger = $this->prophesize($logger_class)->reveal();
      $drushQueueCommands = new QueueCommands();
      $drushQueueCommands->setLogger($this->logger);
    }

    /**
     * Tests the mymodule:close-all-registration-entities drush command.
     */
    public function testCloseAllRegistrationEntities() {
      // Create a single registration entity.
      // Just demoing simple Faker usage for blog post.
      $registration = \Drupal::entityTypeManager()
        ->getStorage('registration')
        ->create([
          'type' => 'appt',
          'field_echeckin_link' => $this->faker->url(),
          'field_epic_id' => $this->faker->randomNumber(9),
          'field_first_name' => $this->faker->firstName(),
          'field_has_echeckin_link' => $this->faker->boolean(),
          'field_outcome' => NULL,
          'field_phone_number' => $this->faker->phoneNumber(),
          'field_sequence_is_open' => 1,
        ]);
      $registration->save();

      // This method exists in my module's Drush command file.
      // It sets field_sequence_is_open field to 0 for all open reg entities.
      // drush mymodule:close-all-registration-entities.
      $this->drushQueueCommands->closeAllRegistrationEntities();

      // Assert that the registration entity was updated.
      $this->assertCount(1, \Drupal::entityTypeManager()
        ->getStorage('registration')
        ->loadByProperties(['field_sequence_is_open' => 0]));
    }

  }
}

namespace {
  if (!function_exists('dt')) {

    /**
     * Stub for dt().
     *
     * @param string $message
     *   The text.
     * @param array $replace
     *   The replacement values.
     *
     *   The text.
     */
    function dt($message, array $replace = []): string {
      return strtr($message, $replace);
    }

  }

  if (!function_exists('drush_op')) {

    /**
     * Stub for drush_op.
     *
     * @param callable $callable
     *   The function to call.
     */
    function drush_op(callable $callable) {
      $args = func_get_args();
      array_shift($args);
      return call_user_func_array($callable, $args);
    }

  }

}

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<?php

declare(strict_types = 1);

namespace Drupal\mymodule\Tests\Kernel {

use Drupal\KernelTests\KernelTestBase;

use Drupal\mymodule\Drush\Commands\QueueCommands;

use Drush\Log\DrushLoggerManager;

use Faker\Factory;

use Faker\Generator;

use Psr\Log\LoggerInterface;

/**

* Tests the QueueCommands Drush command file.

final class QueueTest extends KernelTestBase {

/**

* {@inheritdoc}

protected static $modules = [

// Enable all the modules that this test relies on.

'auto_entitylabel',

'block',

'datetime',

'eck',

'field',

'file',

'image',

'link',

'mymodule',

'mysql',

'options',

'path',

'path_alias',

'system',

'text',

'user',

'views',

'views_bulk_operations',

];

/**

* The Faker generator.

* @var \Faker\Generator

protected Generator $faker;

/**

* The logger.

* @var \Drush\Log\DrushLoggerManager|\Psr\Log\LoggerInterface

protected DrushLoggerManager|LoggerInterface $logger;

/**

* The Drush queue commands.

* @var \Drupal\mymodule\Drush\Commands\QueueCommands

protected QueueCommands $drushQueueCommands;

/**

* Set up the test environment.

protected function setUp(): void {

parent::setUp();

// Install required config.

$this->installConfig(['mymodule']);

$this->faker = Factory::create();

$logger_class = class_exists(DrushLoggerManager::class) ? DrushLoggerManager::class : LoggerInterface::class;

$this->logger = $this->prophesize($logger_class)->reveal();

$drushQueueCommands = new QueueCommands();

$drushQueueCommands->setLogger($this->logger);

}

/**

* Tests the mymodule:close-all-registration-entities drush command.

public function testCloseAllRegistrationEntities() {

// Create a single registration entity.

// Just demoing simple Faker usage for blog post.

$registration = \Drupal::entityTypeManager()

->getStorage('registration')

->create([

'type' => 'appt',

'field_echeckin_link' => $this->faker->url(),

'field_epic_id' => $this->faker->randomNumber(9),

'field_first_name' => $this->faker->firstName(),

'field_has_echeckin_link' => $this->faker->boolean(),

'field_outcome' => NULL,

'field_phone_number' => $this->faker->phoneNumber(),

'field_sequence_is_open' => 1,

]);

$registration->save();

// This method exists in my module's Drush command file.

// It sets field_sequence_is_open field to 0 for all open reg entities.

// drush mymodule:close-all-registration-entities.

$this->drushQueueCommands->closeAllRegistrationEntities();

// Assert that the registration entity was updated.

$this->assertCount(1, \Drupal::entityTypeManager()

->getStorage('registration')

->loadByProperties(['field_sequence_is_open' => 0]));

}

namespace {

if (!function_exists('dt')) {

/**

* Stub for dt().

* @param string $message

* The text.

* @param array $replace

* The replacement values.

* The text.

function dt($message, array $replace = []): string {

return strtr($message, $replace);

}

if (!function_exists('drush_op')) {

/**

* Stub for drush_op.

* @param callable $callable

* The function to call.

function drush_op(callable $callable) {

$args = func_get_args();

array_shift($args);

return call_user_func_array($callable, $args);

}

I learned this via the migrate_tools project here.

Development

Using Data Providers in PHPUnit Tests

/ March 19, 2024

This is the before code, where a single test is run, and each scenario I’m testing could be influenced by the previous scenario (not a good thing, unless that was my goal, which it was not).

  /**
   * Tests the getRegistrationsWithinNumDays function.
   */
  public function testGetRegistrationsWithinNumDays() {
    $firstRegDateTimeStr = '2024-03-18 08:00:00';
    $this->mhpreregTestHelpers->createRegistration(['field_reg_datetime' => '2024-03-18 09:00:00']);
    $this->mhpreregTestHelpers->createRegistration(['field_reg_datetime' => '2024-03-19 13:00:00']);
    $this->mhpreregTestHelpers->createRegistration(['field_reg_datetime' => '2024-03-20 14:20:00']);
    $this->mhpreregTestHelpers->createRegistration(['field_reg_datetime' => '2024-03-20 17:35:00']);
    $this->mhpreregTestHelpers->createRegistration(['field_reg_datetime' => '2024-03-21 17:35:00']);
    $this->mhpreregTestHelpers->createRegistration(['field_reg_datetime' => '2024-03-22 08:00:00']);

    $registrations = Utils::getIdsOfRegistrationsWithinNumDays(1, $firstRegDateTimeStr);
    $this->assertEquals(2, count($registrations));

    $registrations = Utils::getIdsOfRegistrationsWithinNumDays(2, $firstRegDateTimeStr);
    $this->assertEquals(3, count($registrations));

    $registrations = Utils::getIdsOfRegistrationsWithinNumDays(3, $firstRegDateTimeStr);
    $this->assertEquals(5, count($registrations));
  }

/**

* Tests the getRegistrationsWithinNumDays function.

public function testGetRegistrationsWithinNumDays() {

$firstRegDateTimeStr = '2024-03-18 08:00:00';

$this->mhpreregTestHelpers->createRegistration(['field_reg_datetime' => '2024-03-18 09:00:00']);

$this->mhpreregTestHelpers->createRegistration(['field_reg_datetime' => '2024-03-19 13:00:00']);

$this->mhpreregTestHelpers->createRegistration(['field_reg_datetime' => '2024-03-20 14:20:00']);

$this->mhpreregTestHelpers->createRegistration(['field_reg_datetime' => '2024-03-20 17:35:00']);

$this->mhpreregTestHelpers->createRegistration(['field_reg_datetime' => '2024-03-21 17:35:00']);

$this->mhpreregTestHelpers->createRegistration(['field_reg_datetime' => '2024-03-22 08:00:00']);

$registrations = Utils::getIdsOfRegistrationsWithinNumDays(1, $firstRegDateTimeStr);

$this->assertEquals(2, count($registrations));

$registrations = Utils::getIdsOfRegistrationsWithinNumDays(2, $firstRegDateTimeStr);

$this->assertEquals(3, count($registrations));

$registrations = Utils::getIdsOfRegistrationsWithinNumDays(3, $firstRegDateTimeStr);

$this->assertEquals(5, count($registrations));

}

This is the after code, where three tests are run. Unfortunately this takes 3x longer to execute. The upside is that each scenario cannot affect the others and it’s perhaps more readable and easier to add additional scenarios.

  /**
   * Data provider for testGetRegistrationsWithinNumDays.
   */
  public function registrationsDataProvider() {
    return [
      // Label => [numDays, expectedCount].
      '1 day' => [1, 2],
      '2 days' => [2, 3],
      '3 days' => [3, 5],
    ];
  }

  /**
   * Tests the getRegistrationsWithinNumDays function using a data provider.
   *
   * @dataProvider registrationsDataProvider
   */
  public function testGetRegistrationsWithinNumDays($numDays, $expectedCount) {
    $this->mhpreregTestHelpers->createRegistration(['field_reg_datetime' => '2024-03-18 08:00:00']);
    $this->mhpreregTestHelpers->createRegistration(['field_reg_datetime' => '2024-03-19 09:00:00']);
    $this->mhpreregTestHelpers->createRegistration(['field_reg_datetime' => '2024-03-20 13:00:00']);
    $this->mhpreregTestHelpers->createRegistration(['field_reg_datetime' => '2024-03-21 14:20:00']);
    $this->mhpreregTestHelpers->createRegistration(['field_reg_datetime' => '2024-03-21 17:35:00']);
    $this->mhpreregTestHelpers->createRegistration(['field_reg_datetime' => '2024-03-22 17:35:00']);
    $registrations = Utils::getIdsOfRegistrationsWithinNumDays($numDays, '2024-03-18 08:00:00');
    $this->assertEquals($expectedCount, count($registrations), "Failed for {$numDays} days.");
  }

/**

* Data provider for testGetRegistrationsWithinNumDays.

public function registrationsDataProvider() {

return [

// Label => [numDays, expectedCount].

'1 day' => [1, 2],

'2 days' => [2, 3],

'3 days' => [3, 5],

];

}

/**

* Tests the getRegistrationsWithinNumDays function using a data provider.

* @dataProvider registrationsDataProvider

public function testGetRegistrationsWithinNumDays($numDays, $expectedCount) {

$this->mhpreregTestHelpers->createRegistration(['field_reg_datetime' => '2024-03-18 08:00:00']);

$this->mhpreregTestHelpers->createRegistration(['field_reg_datetime' => '2024-03-19 09:00:00']);

$this->mhpreregTestHelpers->createRegistration(['field_reg_datetime' => '2024-03-20 13:00:00']);

$this->mhpreregTestHelpers->createRegistration(['field_reg_datetime' => '2024-03-21 14:20:00']);

$this->mhpreregTestHelpers->createRegistration(['field_reg_datetime' => '2024-03-21 17:35:00']);

$this->mhpreregTestHelpers->createRegistration(['field_reg_datetime' => '2024-03-22 17:35:00']);

$registrations = Utils::getIdsOfRegistrationsWithinNumDays($numDays, '2024-03-18 08:00:00');

$this->assertEquals($expectedCount, count($registrations), "Failed for {$numDays} days.");

}

Tech Tips

Showing Salesforce RecordId in the Contact List

/ March 7, 2024

I have a table of contacts in Salesforce. To my surprise you cannot choose to show the RecordId (e.g., 0036g00002d4BOHAAU) in the field configuration. I did some digging and it seems it’s not possible without using some workaround that requires a calculated field or similar. I just needed the IDs for a one-time use. I realized the ID is included in the linked fields but didn’t want to have to hover each of the “Name” and “Account Name” links to see the IDs. So, I whipped up some javascript to simply append the RecordId to the end of these links. I can run the javascript via console, or even add it to a user script or place it automatically with a code injector extension.

BEFORE

AFTER

read more

Development

Skip Empty Values During Concatenation in a Drupal 10 Migration

/ January 3, 2024

UPDATE. You can do the same as below without the need for a custom module function. (source)

  field_address_full:
      - plugin: callback
        callable: array_filter
        source:
          - address_1
          - city
          - state
      - plugin: concat
        delimiter: ', '

field_address_full:

- plugin: callback

callable: array_filter

source:

- address_1

- city

- state

- plugin: concat

delimiter: ', '

This quick example shows one method to ignore empty values in a Drupal 10 migration concatenate process.

Code

Migrate code:

process:
  temp_address_parts:
    -
      plugin: skip_on_empty
      method: process
      source:
        - address_1
        - city
        - state
    -
      plugin: callback
      callable: mymodule_migrate_filter_empty
  field_address_full:
    plugin: concat
    delimiter: ', '
    source: '@temp_address_parts'

process:

temp_address_parts:

plugin: skip_on_empty

method: process

source:

- address_1

- city

- state

plugin: callback

callable: mymodule_migrate_filter_empty

field_address_full:

plugin: concat

delimiter: ', '

source: '@temp_address_parts'

Module code:

/**
 * Filters out empty values from an array.
 */
function mymodule_migrate_filter_empty($values): array {
  return array_filter($values, function ($value) {
    return !empty($value);
  });
}

/**

* Filters out empty values from an array.

function mymodule_migrate_filter_empty($values): array {

return array_filter($values, function ($value) {

return !empty($value);

});

}

Result

Example data:

address_1,city,state
1 Main St.,Portland,ME
2 Main St.,Portland
,Portland,ME

address_1,city,state

1 Main St.,Portland,ME

2 Main St.,Portland

,Portland,ME

Resulting field_address_full plain text value

1 Main St., Portland, ME
1 Main St., Portland
Portland, ME

1 Main St., Portland, ME

1 Main St., Portland

Portland, ME

Development, Tech Tips

Using lnav to View Live DDEV Logs

/ October 18, 2023

https://lnav.org/ is a fantastic tool to work with log files. The SQL query functionality is a lot like https://github.com/multiprocessio/dsq, which also impresses.

My quick tip is that lnav can read from stdin. This means you can pipe content into it. Here’s how I monitor my ddev environment in realtime. Hooray for colors!

Shell

ddev logs -f | lnav -q

1

ddev logs -f | lnav -q

If you haven’t explored lnav you’ll want to dive into the documentation a bit. It does a lot more than just give pretty colors to your log files / output. https://docs.lnav.org/en/v0.11.2/hotkeys.html is certainly worth bookmarking.

read more

Development

Rendering null boolean values with Grid4PHP

/ September 14, 2023

I’m a big fan of Grid4PHP for adding a quick CRUD user interface to a MySQL database.

I have a lot of boolean columns, like “is_telehealth” that need to start as NULL until we make a determination about the field’s value. Grid4PHP renders null booleans as “0” in the table/edit form. This is misleading, given it’s not actually a 0 value. If you add the ‘isnull’ attribute to the column it lets you save the null value, but it still renders as a “0”.

Using a custom formatter I was able to render an empty string (nothing) instead of “0” for these null booleans:

$boolNullFormatter = "function(cellval,options,rowdata){ return cellval === null ? '' : cellval; }";
$cols[] = ['name' => 'is_in_gmb', 'isnull' => true, 'formatter' => $boolNullFormatter];
$cols[] = ['name' => 'is_property', 'isnull' => true, 'formatter' => $boolNullFormatter];
$cols[] = ['name' => 'is_telehealth', 'isnull' => true, 'formatter' => $boolNullFormatter];

$boolNullFormatter = "function(cellval,options,rowdata){ return cellval === null ? '' : cellval; }";

$cols[] = ['name' => 'is_in_gmb', 'isnull' => true, 'formatter' => $boolNullFormatter];

$cols[] = ['name' => 'is_property', 'isnull' => true, 'formatter' => $boolNullFormatter];

$cols[] = ['name' => 'is_telehealth', 'isnull' => true, 'formatter' => $boolNullFormatter];

Development

Drupal Migrate API skip_on_multiple Process Plugin

/ June 7, 2023
Here’s a Migrate API process plugin I wrote in Drupal 9 that skips a property or row when more than one value exists. My use case:
1. My source data has locations; each location has multiple associated organizations
2. My new Drupal site has locations; each location has a parent organization
3. I want to only populate the field_parent_org field (an entity reference) if there is a single organization value in the source data for the location
4. I’m using a custom module called “pdms_migrate”
I’ve stripped out all of the noise from the examples below… hopefully it’s enough to help you understand the example:
read more

Tech Tips

Quick Search Results using Raycast and DDGR

/ March 23, 2023

This is more or less a proof of concept. I wanted a fast way to look up facts without navigating away from what I’m working on.

Using Raycast is a natural place to start given you can pull it up and make it go away with ease. I looked for extensions in the Raycast Store (they’re free, despite the name) that might help but nothing seemed to do what I wanted. The Wikipedia extension does a great job of pulling information but it’s not as useful if I want a quick fact like “zip code for Portland Maine”.

Next I began looking for command line tools that return web search results. Googler came up as a top choice but the project has been archived. ddgr was the next one I came across; it works beautifully to return DuckDuckGo search results as JSON. I installed it with homebrew ( brew install ddgr ).

Finally, I whipped up a quick Raycast script command that would accept an argument, use ddgr to get the top search results, then spit them out in the Raycast output window. Raycast scrolls to the bottom of the output automatically, so I reversed the order of the top 10 results so that the most relevant appears at the bottom. That’s it!

There isn’t any graceful error handling, automated test coverage, etc. Use it at your own risk. 😉

#!/usr/bin/env python3

# Required parameters:
# @raycast.schemaVersion 1
# @raycast.title DDGR Search
# @raycast.mode fullOutput

# Optional parameters:
# @raycast.icon 🔍
# @raycast.argument1 { "type": "text", "placeholder": "search query", "percentEncoded": false }

# Documentation:
# @raycast.description Search using the ddgr command line tool
# @raycast.author Adam Courtemanche

import json
import subprocess
import sys

query = sys.argv[1]
output = subprocess.check_output(["ddgr", "--json", query])
data = json.loads(output)
# Reverse the results so the most relevant are at the bottom
# because Raycast will scroll you to the bottom of the output
data.reverse()
for result in data:
    print(f"{result['abstract']} {result['url']}")
    print("")

#!/usr/bin/env python3

# Required parameters:

# @raycast.schemaVersion 1

# @raycast.title DDGR Search

# @raycast.mode fullOutput

# Optional parameters:

# @raycast.icon 🔍

# @raycast.argument1 { "type": "text", "placeholder": "search query", "percentEncoded": false }

# Documentation:

# @raycast.description Search using the ddgr command line tool

# @raycast.author Adam Courtemanche

import json

import subprocess

import sys

query = sys.argv[1]

output = subprocess.check_output(["ddgr", "--json", query])

data = json.loads(output)

# Reverse the results so the most relevant are at the bottom

# because Raycast will scroll you to the bottom of the output

data.reverse()

for result in data:

print(f"{result['abstract']} {result['url']}")

print("")

Bonus Tip

Bonus Bonus Tip

Update July 12, 2024

Code

Result