Python JSON Decoder Error

Question

I'm currently using a script that broadcasts to IRC when a specified Twitch TV Channels goes on Air.

But for some reason I keep getting an error when it goes online. But when it goes offline it works perfectly fine.

Python Code:

# Twitch IRC status autoupdate
# Create an empty file called config.yml in the same directory, containing:
# host: irc.quakenet.org
# port: 6667
# channels: ["#channel", "#anotherchannel"]
# nspass: "nickserv/Q password"
# password: "server password for BNC or private server"
# twitch: "channelname"

import requests
import yaml
from HTMLParser import HTMLParser
from sys import stdout

from twisted.internet import reactor, task, protocol
from twisted.python import log
from twisted.words.protocols import irc
from twisted.application import internet, service

with open('config.yml') as f:
    config = yaml.load(f.read())
HOST, PORT = config['host'], config['port']


def munge(inp):
    # Prevents highlight notification in most clients
    return inp[0] + u"\u200b" + inp[1:]


class TwitchProtocol(irc.IRCClient):
    password = config["password"] if "password" in config else None
    nickname = 'Twitch'
    username = 'Twitch'
    versionName = 'Twitch'
    versionNum = 'v1.0'
    realname = 'by blha303. https://gist.github.com/blha303'
    loopcall = None
    status = False


    def signedOn(self):
        for channel in self.factory.channels:
            self.join(channel)
        #Quakenet
        self._send_message("auth %s %s" % (self.nickname, config["nspass"]), "Q")
        #Nickserv
        self._send_message("identify %s %s" % (self.nickname, config["nspass"]), "NickServ")
        #Nickserv that doesn't support specifying a nickname
        self._send_message("identify %s" % config["nspass"], "NickServ")

        def restartloop(reason):
            reason.printTraceback()
            print "Loop crashed: " + reason.getErrorMessage()
            self.loopcall.start(5.0).addErrback(restartloop)
        self.loopcall = task.LoopingCall(self.getTwitchStatus)
        self.loopcall.start(5.0).addErrback(restartloop)

    def getTwitchStatus(self):
        channel = config["twitch"]
        data = requests.get("http://api.justin.tv/api/stream/list.json?channel=" + channel).json()
        if data and not self.status:
            fmt = "{}: {} {} ({})"
            self.status = True
            title = data[0]['title']
            playing = ("playing " + data[0]['meta_game']) if "meta_game" in data[0] else ""
            viewers = "\x033\x02Online now!\x02\x0f " + str(data[0]["channel_count"]) + " viewer"
            print viewers
            viewers = viewers + "s" if not " 1 view" in viewers else viewers
            print viewers
            h = HTMLParser()
            for ch in self.factory.channels:
                self._send_message(h.unescape(fmt.format(title, munge(channel), playing, viewers)), ch)
        elif not data and self.status:
            self.status = False
            for ch in self.factory.channels:
                self._send_message("%s is now offline." % channel, ch)


    def privmsg(self, user, channel, message):
        nick, _, host = user.partition('!')
        print "<%s> %s" % (nick, message)


    def _send_message(self, msg, target, nick=None):
        if nick:
            msg = '%s, %s' % (nick, msg)
        self.msg(target, msg)
        print "<%s> %s" % (self.nickname, msg)


class TwitchFactory(protocol.ReconnectingClientFactory):
    protocol = TwitchProtocol
    channels = config["channels"]

if __name__ == '__main__':
    reactor.connectTCP(HOST, PORT, TwitchFactory())
    log.startLogging(stdout)
    reactor.run()

elif __name__ == '__builtin__':
    application = service.Application('Twitch')
    ircService = internet.TCPClient(HOST, PORT, TwitchFactory())
    ircService.setServiceParent(application)

But when it finds that the twitch tv channel is on air it will give an error.

Error:
2013-12-08 22:42:12+0000 [-] Traceback (most recent call last):
2013-12-08 22:42:12+0000 [-]   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/twisted/internet/base.py", line 1192, in run
2013-12-08 22:42:12+0000 [-]     self.mainLoop()
2013-12-08 22:42:12+0000 [-]   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/twisted/internet/base.py", line 1201, in mainLoop
2013-12-08 22:42:12+0000 [-]     self.runUntilCurrent()
2013-12-08 22:42:12+0000 [-]   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/twisted/internet/base.py", line 824, in runUntilCurrent
2013-12-08 22:42:12+0000 [-]     call.func(*call.args, **call.kw)
2013-12-08 22:42:12+0000 [-]   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/twisted/internet/task.py", line 218, in __call__
2013-12-08 22:42:12+0000 [-]     d = defer.maybeDeferred(self.f, *self.a, **self.kw)
2013-12-08 22:42:12+0000 [-] --- <exception caught here> ---
2013-12-08 22:42:12+0000 [-]   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/twisted/internet/defer.py", line 137, in maybeDeferred
2013-12-08 22:42:12+0000 [-]     result = f(*args, **kw)
2013-12-08 22:42:12+0000 [-]   File "irctwitch.py", line 60, in getTwitchStatus
2013-12-08 22:42:12+0000 [-]     data = requests.get("http://api.justin.tv/api/stream/list.json?channel=" + channel).json()
2013-12-08 22:42:12+0000 [-]   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/requests/models.py", line 651, in json
2013-12-08 22:42:12+0000 [-]     return json.loads(self.text or self.content, **kwargs)
2013-12-08 22:42:12+0000 [-]   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/json/__init__.py", line 338, in loads
2013-12-08 22:42:12+0000 [-]     return _default_decoder.decode(s)
2013-12-08 22:42:12+0000 [-]   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/json/decoder.py", line 365, in decode
2013-12-08 22:42:12+0000 [-]     obj, end = self.raw_decode(s, idx=_w(s, 0).end())
2013-12-08 22:42:12+0000 [-]   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/json/decoder.py", line 383, in raw_decode
2013-12-08 22:42:12+0000 [-]     raise ValueError("No JSON object could be decoded")
2013-12-08 22:42:12+0000 [-] exceptions.ValueError: No JSON object could be decoded
2013-12-08 22:42:12+0000 [-] Loop crashed: No JSON object could be decoded

How can I fix this error?

Thankies, TameTimmah

Answer 1

2013-12-08 22:42:12+0000 [-]   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/json/decoder.py", line 383, in raw_decode
2013-12-08 22:42:12+0000 [-]     raise ValueError("No JSON object could be decoded")
2013-12-08 22:42:12+0000 [-] exceptions.ValueError: No JSON object could be decoded

The json module was asked to decode something that wasn't JSON data.

2013-12-08 22:42:12+0000 [-]   File "irctwitch.py", line 60, in getTwitchStatus
2013-12-08 22:42:12+0000 [-]     data = requests.get("http://api.justin.tv/api/stream/list.json?channel=" + channel).json()

The thing that you called .json() on was not valid JSON. Try printing out the result of requests.get() before calling .json() and see what happens.