Topic: Is the Remote Server protocol documented? (Read 13972 times)

MahlerFreak · « **on:** July 29, 2006, 05:20:55 pm »

I'm trying to build a Web UI for searching the MC database. Does the remote server provide for searching and otherwise controlling MC over HTTP? And if so, is this documented somewhere? I can't seem to find anything ... but then, I may just be overlooking the obvious

Thanks in advance for any help.

JimH · « **Reply #1 on:** July 29, 2006, 07:28:59 pm »

Quote from: MahlerFreak on July 29, 2006, 05:20:55 pm

I'm trying to build a Web UI for searching the MC database. Does the remote server provide for searching and otherwise controlling MC over HTTP?

Yes. Try starting it up and connecting to it with a browser.

MahlerFreak · « **Reply #2 on:** July 29, 2006, 09:21:20 pm »

Quote from: JimH on July 29, 2006, 07:28:59 pm

Yes. Try starting it up and connecting to it with a browser.

Thanks! I *did* miss the obvious

Now, I'm hoping that there is something else obvious. The Web UI is perhaps not, umm, bleeding edge ... understandable enough, it's probably designed to be just a test harness. I could easily just parse the DOM returned from the "view?......" URLs, and make a much better UI. But doing a bit of spelunking, it appears that the ability to query through the remote server is limited - I can't search by Composer or any user-defined field (in fact, it appears the only content-oriented queries supported are artist/album, disk location, file type, genre). Are there ways to extend the kinds of Library fields which can be queried through the remote server? I'm hoping to avoid the work of building my own HTTP server plugin ...

Thanks again.

surfikus · « **Reply #3 on:** September 25, 2006, 10:03:19 am »

Did something changed to this topic? I need the web access to control MC via an other tool, and therefor it would be fine to change the zone, see the playlists are played in a special zone, ... A documentation to this interface would be fine. Anybody with experience?

Surfikus

MahlerFreak · « **Reply #4 on:** September 25, 2006, 09:42:58 pm »

The web interface does not seem to be documented, but from my own experimentation it's very limited. I'm building my own HTTP interface, which is already much more capable than the built-in one.

Can you describe your desired functionality more precisely? It is probably not difficult for me to implement at this point. I'm still a couple of weeks from releasing what I have, if you can hold out that long.

surfikus · « **Reply #5 on:** September 26, 2006, 12:38:01 am »

Hi,

that's what I expected, no documentation at all. But it sounds good that you've started to build up your own HTTP interface. As I mentioned I want to control the MC via HTTP. For the moment I use a small programm to combine the MC11 with the Russound CAV6.6. It works very well but for the moment I control the MC11 over the included UNOs. In addition I want to control the music over some touchpanels which I've installed in the house. That would be the first step, I think that's what you tried to build up. At the end I want to control the MC via an independent visualisation from my home control system. There it's possible to analyze webpages and send IP-commands via TCP or UDP to control different things - in my case I want to control the MC11.
The important things I want to control are: zones, playlist, volume, title, ...
Probably you can help me?!

Surfikus

MahlerFreak · « **Reply #6 on:** September 26, 2006, 09:12:09 am »

I am building the HTTP server in conjunction with a JavaScript-based Web application which will let me control SlimDevices Squeezebox players using library information from J River. The HTTP server supports only queries at this point, but adding play, pause, etc commands is actually pretty trivial.

Right now, the server outputs either JSON (JavaScript format) or XML. Do you have the skills to build your own pages using JavaScript or XSLT? If so, I can put something together by later this week for you to try.

surfikus · « **Reply #7 on:** September 26, 2006, 10:53:29 am »

It´s a long time I used C for small programs. Probably it´s possible for me but it´s a hard work. Or I have to wait for someone who has the time to program a simple web frontend for MC. If you want you can send me something and I have look if it´s possible for me or if I can use it?!

MahlerFreak · « **Reply #8 on:** September 27, 2006, 10:43:57 pm »

I'm working on the web client right now. It's slow work - I have to figure out the mostly undocumented Dojo AJAX toolkit at the same time I'm learning some of the worst aspects of cross-browser JavaScript development. I'm guessing about one more week before I can send out test versions to a very select group of testers ...

Stay tuned.

surfikus · « **Reply #9 on:** September 29, 2006, 01:16:55 am »

That sounds great. If I can help you testing or something else - please let me know.

pipi31415 · « **Reply #10 on:** October 15, 2006, 09:09:07 pm »

Sort of on this topic... is there a way to retrieve more extended information about the media playing, especially songs? Track/album title, length, play position, cover art?
Thanks and nice to be here (my first post!).

richard.e.morton · « **Reply #11 on:** November 21, 2006, 04:47:24 pm »

interesting stuff, I have asked about something like this a few times, preferably exposing the full playlist functionality via an http / xml interface so that somethin like Python / Perl / PHP can control it from a web page on my phone as a remote control rather than being limited to WindowsMobile devices with Netremote.

Very excited about this development, well done guys... what's the progress?

Richard

MahlerFreak · « **Reply #12 on:** November 30, 2006, 03:50:03 pm »

Quote from: richard.e.morton on November 21, 2006, 04:47:24 pm

interesting stuff, I have asked about something like this a few times, preferably exposing the full playlist functionality via an http / xml interface so that somethin like Python / Perl / PHP can control it from a web page on my phone as a remote control rather than being limited to WindowsMobile devices with Netremote.

Very excited about this development, well done guys... what's the progress?

Richard

I have an operational version of an HTTP client, but right now the XML output is not up to date (I've been focusing on JSON output). I have a functioning, fairly rich AJAX-style web client up and functioning as well - kind of iTunes-like, with support for MC playlists and zones. If you're interested in testing this, send me an email.

I'm planning on broader distribution from a dedicated web site early next year.

jojo1967 · « **Reply #13 on:** January 03, 2007, 03:45:05 am »

I'm interested in this project. One thing I really liked about the jukebox software I used to use for my setup (E jukebox) which had a very nice web system in the software. It was great software, until the developer started finding no time to work on his project, fix bugs etc. I've looked for many ways to control from and display to my PDA or other displays. I was toying with the idea of putting a mirror monitor in the kitchen from the HTPC but haven't gotten to the point of putting it in there, yet :-)

juggler · « **Reply #14 on:** January 21, 2007, 05:11:06 am »

Quote from: MahlerFreak on November 30, 2006, 03:50:03 pm

I'm planning on broader distribution from a dedicated web site early next year.

Any update on this? I am interested in this project. I have quite a bit of AJAX/DHTML experience so might even be able to contribute.

Cheers, Alfie.

MahlerFreak · « **Reply #15 on:** January 22, 2007, 12:22:56 pm »

I expect to have the first wide distribution beta up on a new website by end of next week (Feb 2). There have been a few folks testing thus far, with positive feedback, but I haven't sent out a new release for several weeks due to substantial reworking of the HTTP server plugin for better performance on very large libraries (10K - 50K tracks) and easier extension to different library and playback applications. I also reworked the HTTP "API" to make it simpler to understand and build apps on.

The initial web client is a rich iItunes/MC-like web app, based on the dojo AJAX toolkit. After I get the first beta up, I'm going to work on a Prototype-based app for smaller-screen devices (Dojo is brutally bloated for small devices, and I'm not too enamored of it generally after several months of working with it).

There will be pretty good documentation of the HTTP protocols, so for other folks to build apps on it should not be difficult.

MahlerFreak · « **Reply #16 on:** February 02, 2007, 04:04:28 pm »

Well, due to one thing or another the Web site is not yet up, and I haven't finished quite everything I want to put into the client. But for those who were waiting for the promised Feb. 2 release date, I do have a very functional release together which you can begin testing with. It provides an HTTP server plugin and MC-like web client, which allows you to control multiple MC zones, as well as any SlimServer clients (Squeezebox, etc), from any web browser on your network. If you're interested and don't want to wait another 2-3 weeks for the official beta, send me an email and I'll forward you the current release.

Scott

Mr ChriZ · « **Reply #17 on:** February 03, 2007, 04:20:08 pm »

It's looking awesome Scott!!
Will it be skinnable in someway eventually?

MahlerFreak · « **Reply #18 on:** February 03, 2007, 04:36:00 pm »

Well, I guess its skinnable in the sense that any web app is skinnable - modifying html, css, image files, and JavaScript files can completely change the look/feel of it. At this point, though, the web client side of my stuff is a bit thrown together, if you know what I mean, and needs to be cleaned up and thoroughly documented to make changing it easier. I'm also planning to put some basic look/feel stuff into the "settings" button - things like background/text colors, text sizes, etc.

The basic paradigm for skinning web apps is simply to create alternate web pages for different "skins", and point your browser to the appropriate page. This is exactly how I plan to handle alternative clients for PDA and tablet clients (like Nokia 770).

Scott

datdude · « **Reply #19 on:** February 03, 2007, 06:39:45 pm »

Well hopefully there will be a small page version for standard cell phones with browsing capability! I'm waiting to get my next cell phone based on whoever can get good interface to MC on it.

MahlerFreak · « **Reply #20 on:** February 05, 2007, 10:44:12 am »

Well, I can see from feedback from a number of folks already that I'm going to have to move up the priority for a lightweight client ...

datdude · « **Reply #21 on:** February 05, 2007, 11:19:01 pm »

So I guess the question is, as long as it works over a browser, it should be able to work on any cell phone that has bluetooht/wi-fi and browser compatiblity? Or will it be more specific as to which clients can handle it?

MahlerFreak · « **Reply #22 on:** February 06, 2007, 12:51:28 am »

Well, in theory the current client could display on any browser. But in practice, imagine iTunes or MC compressed down to fit on your cel - that's pretty much what this client would look like. Plus, its about 400 KB or so of JavaScript code, occupying many times that size in memory footprint. And, the UI needs to be optimized to work without a mouse and keyboard.

So overall, the capabilities of the target hardware category have to be taken into account when building web apps like this. That's what I mean when I say "lightweight client".

Scott

ThoBar · « **Reply #23 on:** February 16, 2007, 08:55:12 pm »

Hows this going?

Any chance of getting a hold of a beta?

Cheers,
C.

MahlerFreak · « **Reply #24 on:** February 24, 2007, 10:04:48 pm »

Confishy,

Sorry, haven't been checking this forum as often as I should.

Send me a PM with your email, and I'll send you a beta.

We're a couple of weeks from the full Beta, with Web Site, full docs, etc.

Scott

Messiahs · « **Reply #25 on:** June 01, 2007, 01:36:22 pm »

some news about a full beta ?

Messiahs

skeeterfood · « **Reply #26 on:** August 29, 2007, 04:54:35 pm »

Any more development on this?

-John

carbo · « **Reply #27 on:** October 12, 2007, 09:38:53 am »

I'm also interested in an enhanced webserver...

Is it possible to have the plugin in its current state even if it s not finished ?

Thanks,

Messiahs · « **Reply #28 on:** October 22, 2007, 01:29:22 am »

Hi carbo,

i'm working on a enhanced webserver.
At this time it is only a alpha version, but if you want to test it just send me your eMail via pm.

Edit:
here you can find my webserver
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=43402.0

Messiahs

INTERACT FORUM

Author Topic: Is the Remote Server protocol documented? (Read 13972 times)