Support for remote interfaces on devices e.g. Android

[lazka]

Original issue 1377 created by reiter.christoph on 2014-04-25T08:37:46.000Z:

Some other players provide a network interface and a corresponding Android app for remote control. We could re-implement (parts) of their interfaces in a plugin.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.nstamato.bansheeremote
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.qspool.clementineremote
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.peterbaldwin.client.android.vlcremote

We already have a the upnp + mpris plugins, which should in theory work as well if rygel is installed. Testing this and listing some working clients in the docs would be nice.

[lazka]

Comment #1 originally posted by nick.boultbee on 2014-04-25T11:24:30.000Z:

+1 for this, and I might be able to help on the Android side (if we actually need anything, rather than reuse).

A bit of unification of remote interfaces would be probably good too actually.

[lazka]

Comment #2 originally posted by reiter.christoph on 2014-04-25T11:40:58.000Z:

We could also try to implement the MPD protocol :) There seem to be lots of mobile mpd clients.

Not sure how hard that would be compared to the above ones. It would certainly reduce future maintenance since it's not likely to change or go away.

[lazka]

Comment #3 originally posted by reiter.christoph on 2014-04-25T11:55:10.000Z:

Looks good:

• Some gpl2 code: https://github.com/mots/xbmcpd/blob/master/xbmcpd.py
• Protocol: http://www.musicpd.org/doc/protocol/

[lazka]

Comment #4 originally posted by nick.boultbee on 2014-04-25T12:20:42.000Z:

Agreed - I think the way to future-proof may be closer to implementing well-known interfaces. MPD certainly has been around a while and always seemed good.

Also: proper DLNA (given the UPnP stuff already existing) might be do-able. That said, I've already got a couple of (buggy) implmentations running on my NAS, and a couple of even buggier media renderers - so testing is the hard bit, and motivation isn't that great there for me.

[lazka]

Comment #5 originally posted by reiter.christoph on 2014-04-26T17:48:32.000Z:

See revision 8174a01f3bad

[lazka]

Comment #6 originally posted by reiter.christoph on 2014-05-04T08:51:00.000Z:

MPDroid works now: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.namelessdev.mpdroid

QL has a fake playlist only containing the playing song, so there is no library/playlist support, only remote control.

[lazka]

Comment #7 originally posted by spxxxk on 2014-05-05T12:04:51.000Z:

Getting that error when trying to connect (see dump).
Also bear in mind I have no idea what I'm doing, which bring me to :
how would one set MPDroid up in order to work with QL ?

What I did ...

• Checked MPD server plugin in QL.
• Installed MPDroid on android device.
• In MPDroid settings
  • Host: hostname of my machine
  • Port: default
  • Password : ? blank
  • Streaming host: ? hostname of my machine ..
  • Streaming port : default
• Connect -> got dumped error.

Also, I've been using Coversal and its QL plugin, which is a remote control GUI using SSL to control QL. Working great but is what it is, just a remote.

[lazka]

Comment #8 originally posted by reiter.christoph on 2014-05-05T12:37:17.000Z:

Thanks for testing.

Only host and port need to be specified. I need to improve the plugin description..

This is also just a remote atm, so no streaming / playlist management. Only shuffle/repeat/singe mode selection, seeking, volume, meta data and the usual player controls. Album art gets pulled by the app from the web, not from QL.

As for your error, fixed with revision bd679a6, the PPA is building it right now.

[lazka]

Comment #9 originally posted by spxxxk on 2014-05-05T13:12:53.000Z:

Thanks, now working !
Got progress bar and currently playing meta data, so it's already better than Coversal.

Got another dump though, not sure what triggered it. Nothing major crashed AFAICS.

[lazka]

Comment #10 originally posted by reiter.christoph on 2014-05-05T14:11:06.000Z:

Thanks, fixed: revision 73f53f2

[lazka]

Comment #11 originally posted by spxxxk on 2014-05-05T15:58:16.000Z:

Could be a MPDroid issue, but MPDroid gets unresponsive after losing focus for a couple of minutes. By that I mean the app is stuck on an old track and buttons are unresponsive. I have to close and restart it. It then shows a "connecting to MPD server" message and works as it should.

Maybe the server, here QL, has to send a "I'm still here" signal from time to time.

Then again "I have no idea what I'm doing".

[lazka]

Comment #12 originally posted by reiter.christoph on 2014-05-05T17:42:10.000Z:

Can you get the output of "quodlibet --debug" for when it happens? Using the latest package uploaded 5 minutes ago.

Here MPDroid recovers when woken up.. not sure what could be wrong.

[lazka]

Comment #13 originally posted by spxxxk on 2014-05-05T18:21:31.000Z:

Here's the output (attached).
It goes from 'idle' to 'close' seconds (4~10) after I click the home button or switch app or shut down the screen (with MPDroid focused).
Doesn't happen when letting the app focused after minutes, locked screen and all.

Not sure it's worth invastigating on your side as it is very likely an MPDroid or android issue (kitkat on nexus 4).

[lazka]

Comment #14 originally posted by reiter.christoph on 2014-05-05T19:47:30.000Z:

Thanks. Output looks the same here. I'll try on a nexus 4 some time.

[lazka]

Comment #15 originally posted by reiter.christoph on 2014-05-06T19:16:33.000Z:

I did test with a stock Nexus 4 today but couldn't reproduce. But I only had it running for half a minute until the connection closed in sleep mode.

[lazka]

Comment #16 originally posted by reiter.christoph on 2014-07-19T12:50:23.000Z:

Small update: The top 6 clients in the Play Store should work now

[nodiscc]

Hi @lazka , maybe this should be documented a bit more? A search for "control quodlibet from android" led me here but it was not obvious at first.

I can confirm that MPD server plugin + MPDroid works fine for me (play/pause/next/previous/shuffle/volume control/coverart). As mentioned there are a few limitations (the playlist only shows the current playing song, no library search, no support for ratings ... but I can live with these).

Should I send a patch for https://quodlibet.readthedocs.io/en/latest/guide/interacting.html#integration-with-third-party-tools ?