Control remote sessions (DLNA)

[provokateurin]

Split off from #50

[provokateurin]

@jmshrv I just looked at what the web UI does and it only uses the https://api.jellyfin.org/#tag/Session APIs to control the playback. This way it should probably be even simpler.

[jmshrv]

Ah yeah it should be easy if DLNA can be controlled there :)

Finamp should probably be controllable through the session API, but that'll be quite a niche and complex feature that's out of scope here anyway 🙃

[Chaphasilor]

Finamp should probably be controllable through the session API, but that'll be quite a niche and complex feature

I mean I honestly wouldn't mind if the next/prev track and play/pause buttons would be shown on the dashboard, but I'm guessing this requires a socket connection?

[provokateurin]

That part can be implemented separately, but I agree it's probably a feature that's not going to be used much.

[jmshrv]

but I'm guessing this requires a socket connection?

I'd assume so, I'd need to look for some documentation. Emby's doc on remote control only talks about controlling other clients, not about how to become a controllable session.

[provokateurin]

Re-architecting this is quite hard. It's basically impossible to just make two separate classes with the different implementations. It's not as clean, but I think it actually makes more sense to just have the two implementations in the existing MusicPlayerBackgroundTask. This also makes it a lot easier to transition between the two implementations when playing something, because they know of each other.

[provokateurin]

And I think some kind of WS will be required, because the clients need to be informed about changes of the session (e.g. play state). Not sure where to find documentation about that. Maybe it makes sense to implement the being-remote-controlled part first, because then we can already listen for those changes.

Sadly this seems to be a lot of work and I don't have enough time to get into this in the next few weeks. I can take a look again (hopefully) around mid February, but please don't have any expectations. I hope someone else can pick this up in the mean time :)

[Chaphasilor]

And I think some kind of WS will be required, because the clients need to be informed about changes of the session (e.g. play state).

Ahh right, because the playback happens server-side and could be influenced by the playback device itself (e.g. pressing a pause button on the speaker/tv).

As for documentation, if there really is nothing to be found, the source code of the Jellyfin app should offer some insights. That's one of the clients supporting remote control, afaik. The Jellycon Kodi addon as well, but that's not a mobile client.

[jmshrv]

This also makes it a lot easier to transition between the two implementations when playing something, because they know of each other

Ah yes that's true, I didn't consider how awkward ripping out the whole player backend mid-playback would be.

Sadly this seems to be a lot of work and I don't have enough time to get into this in the next few weeks

That's fine, I also have exams that I should probably be revising for coming up soon so I won't be as active 🙃

[provokateurin]

As for documentation, if there really is nothing to be found

I didn't search for any documentation, I just assumed implementing doing anything for this feature is more work than I can do right now :(

[Chaphasilor]

No worries! You could also start setting things up and maybe implement a bit while you have time, so that others can pick up where you left off! You don't have to do this in one go :)

[provokateurin]

Will do, wasn't that much though

[b3nis]

I am here cheering on any progress on this!

Sadly, I am no developer. Happy to QA if that is needed in the future.