December 21, 2015 at 10:19Manage multimedia centers using HTTP GET requests
In this article I would like to talk about how you can manage at the moment the most popular multimedia centers - KODI (XBMC) and Dune HD, using HTTP GET requests.
Here we will describe only the most popular requests that can be controlled remotely (for example: within the home WiFi network or with the appropriate settings of the router from the INTERNET network), not only using pre-written scripts, but simply entering them into the address bar of the browser. I will not describe all the requests here, because: firstly, many of them are used extremely rarely, and secondly, there is complete documentation for this. These requests can be used in the same way to control multimedia centers when building Smart Home systems, which I actually used to develop my own.
Here are the very requests:
1. Launch a file for playback.
Links to files should be direct, that is, explicitly point to a playback file or stream, links from Youtube are not, therefore, they won’t work. How to get a direct link to a video from Youtube, you can see here .
Hereinafter:
LOGIN - login set in the KODI settings (Web server -> Allow Kodi control over HTTP).
PASSWORD - the password set in the KODI settings (Web server -> Allow Kodi control over HTTP).
URL - network or Internet address of the reproduced resource.
ip-address - IP address of the device in the home or INTERNET network.
If you configure Dune HD so that when you press the POWER button on the remote, it goes into Standby mode, then when asked to play a file, it will turn on automatically.
2. Volume control.
Set the volume level to 35.
3. Rewind to a specific position.
Attention! For KODI, the value 50 is indicated in percent, and for Dune HD in seconds since it does not have such a function (I did so - I wrote a small script that gets the full duration of the track, and by means of simple calculations I set the value already in percent).
There is one more nuance - here and in the future for KODI you first need to get the value “playerid” , this is the id of the active player.
It is obtained using the following request: http: // LOGIN : PASSWORD @ ip-address: 8080 / jsonrpc? Request = {"jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "Player.GetActivePlayers", "id": "1"}, if I remember correctly, the order is approximately the following: for audio - " playerid ": 0, for the video -" playerid ": 1, for the photo -" playerid ": 2. Values must be of type integer, i.e. integers without quotes.
4. Pause / Play.
5. The next track in the playlist.
There is no explicit command for Dune HD, so the transition to the next track is done by emulating a button press on the remote control. In the documentation, the command codes are written in one place, so I made a file with the correct commands, which can be taken here .
6. Previous track in the playlist.
Do not forget to put your "playerid" in requests to KODI (XBMC) .
There are also many different types of queries for these multimedia centers, with which you can implement almost any functionality. As a result, you can get, for example , such a web-based management interface on which all actions with the control panel will be displayed, or equip the multimedia center with the ability to voice search for such content as music or video. Formats of multimedia center responses: KODI (XBMC) - JSON format, Dune HD - XML format. Management can be implemented in various programming languages that support sending HTTP GET requests, and the ability to work with JSON, for this purpose I used the well-known php (curl, json_decode and for DuneHD simplexml_load_file).
JSON-RPC_API / v6 Kodi / XBMC
DUNE IP CONTROL DOCUMENTATION
Here we will describe only the most popular requests that can be controlled remotely (for example: within the home WiFi network or with the appropriate settings of the router from the INTERNET network), not only using pre-written scripts, but simply entering them into the address bar of the browser. I will not describe all the requests here, because: firstly, many of them are used extremely rarely, and secondly, there is complete documentation for this. These requests can be used in the same way to control multimedia centers when building Smart Home systems, which I actually used to develop my own.
Here are the very requests:
1. Launch a file for playback.
Links to files should be direct, that is, explicitly point to a playback file or stream, links from Youtube are not, therefore, they won’t work. How to get a direct link to a video from Youtube, you can see here .
- 1.1 KODI (XBMC) - http: // LOGIN : PASSWORD @ ip-address : 8080 / jsonrpc? Request = {"jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": "1", "method": "Player.Open" , "Params": {"item": {"file": " URL "}}}
- 1.2 Dune HD - http: // ip-address / cgi-bin / do? Cmd = launch_media_url & media_url = URL
Hereinafter:
LOGIN - login set in the KODI settings (Web server -> Allow Kodi control over HTTP).
PASSWORD - the password set in the KODI settings (Web server -> Allow Kodi control over HTTP).
URL - network or Internet address of the reproduced resource.
ip-address - IP address of the device in the home or INTERNET network.
If you configure Dune HD so that when you press the POWER button on the remote, it goes into Standby mode, then when asked to play a file, it will turn on automatically.
2. Volume control.
- 2.1 KODI (XBMC) - http: // LOGIN : PASSWORD @ ip-address : 8080 / jsonrpc? Request = {"jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": "1", "method": "Application.SetVolume" , "Params": {"volume": 35 }}}
- 2.2 Dune HD - http: // ip-address / cgi-bin / do? Cmd = set_playback_state & volume = 35
Set the volume level to 35.
3. Rewind to a specific position.
- 3.1 KODI (XBMC) - http: // LOGIN : PASSWORD @ ip-address : 8080 / jsonrpc? Request = {"jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "Player.Seek", "params": { "playerid ": 0 ," value ": 50 }," id ":" 1 "}
- 3.2 Dune HD - http: // ip-address / cgi-bin / do? Cmd = set_playback_state & position = 50
Attention! For KODI, the value 50 is indicated in percent, and for Dune HD in seconds since it does not have such a function (I did so - I wrote a small script that gets the full duration of the track, and by means of simple calculations I set the value already in percent).
There is one more nuance - here and in the future for KODI you first need to get the value “playerid” , this is the id of the active player.
It is obtained using the following request: http: // LOGIN : PASSWORD @ ip-address: 8080 / jsonrpc? Request = {"jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "Player.GetActivePlayers", "id": "1"}, if I remember correctly, the order is approximately the following: for audio - " playerid ": 0, for the video -" playerid ": 1, for the photo -" playerid ": 2. Values must be of type integer, i.e. integers without quotes.
4. Pause / Play.
- 4.1 KODI (XBMC) - http: // LOGIN : PASSWORD @ ip-address : 8080 / jsonrpc? Request = {"jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": "1", "method": "Player.PlayPause" , "Params": { "playerid": 0 }}
- 4.2 Dune HD - http: // ip-address / cgi-bin / do? Cmd = set_playback_state & speed = 0 - pause / 256 - play
5. The next track in the playlist.
- 5.1 KODI (XBMC) - http: // LOGIN : PASSWORD @ ip-address : 8080 / jsonrpc? Request = {"jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": "1", "method": "Player.GoTo" , "Params": { "playerid": 0 , "to": "next" }} -
- 5.2 Dune HD - http: // ip-address / cgi-bin / do? Cmd = ir_code & ir_code = E21DBF000
There is no explicit command for Dune HD, so the transition to the next track is done by emulating a button press on the remote control. In the documentation, the command codes are written in one place, so I made a file with the correct commands, which can be taken here .
6. Previous track in the playlist.
- 6.1 KODI (XBMC) - http: // LOGIN : PASSWORD @ ip-address : 8080 / jsonrpc? Request = {"jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": "1", "method": "Player.GoTo" , "Params": { "playerid": 0 , "to": "previous" }} -
- 6.2 Dune HD - http: // ip-address / cgi-bin / do? Cmd = ir_code & ir_code = B649BF00
Do not forget to put your "playerid" in requests to KODI (XBMC) .
There are also many different types of queries for these multimedia centers, with which you can implement almost any functionality. As a result, you can get, for example , such a web-based management interface on which all actions with the control panel will be displayed, or equip the multimedia center with the ability to voice search for such content as music or video. Formats of multimedia center responses: KODI (XBMC) - JSON format, Dune HD - XML format. Management can be implemented in various programming languages that support sending HTTP GET requests, and the ability to work with JSON, for this purpose I used the well-known php (curl, json_decode and for DuneHD simplexml_load_file).
Materials used
JSON-RPC_API / v6 Kodi / XBMC
DUNE IP CONTROL DOCUMENTATION