boxeeremotelib: python interface to the boxee remote api

Python library to use the boxee remote api. The library includes functionality to discover servers via boxee's UDP-based discovery as well as an interface to the actual commands. The intention of this project is to support a web interface to the remote and any other non-traditional uses.

It is currently tested against a single boxee box and only on linux, so please share any negative results that you experience, but it should work more widely.

Scripts

A couple of scripts are provided, boxee_discover and boxee_command.

$ boxee_discover
192.168.1.104:8800

All servers on the network should be listed. A bit more functionality can be found with boxee_command:

$ boxee_command back setstring:batman
$ boxee_command down select

From the main menu, the previous example should go back to the search screen, type 'batman', and select the first result. It should be noted that the server is being auto-selected, but a specific server can be given

$ boxee_command --host=192.168.1.104 --port=8800 getvolume
100

In addition to the normal commands,

$ boxee_command -l
back
backspace
down
getpercentage
getvolume
left
mute
pause
playnext
playprev
right
seekpercentage
seekpercentagerelative
select
setstring
setvolume
stop
up

commands can be quickly repeated by adding '_n' on to the end of a command name, where 'n' is the number of times to repeat the command. These repeat commands are available from the library as well.

$ boxee_command backspace_6 setstring:misfits

Discovery

Discovery works by broadcasting an XML snippet on your local network. There are some validation mechanisms in place, and this library attempts to follow them more closely than many other similar libaries, but any attempts by Boxee to clean up this library seem to have fallen away. Queries are presented as the iphone remote, as boxee seems to only respond to these.

This mechanism, particularly on my often overloaded boxee box, is somewhat unreliable. A wake up may be needed. Some amount of reliability will likely be added in the future.

>>> from boxeeremotelib import Discoverer
>>> d = Discoverer()
>>> d.get_servers() #failed attempt
{}
>>> d.get_servers()
{'192.168.1.104': {'application': 'boxee', 'http_port': 8800, 
'name': 'boxeebox', 'version': '1.5.1', 'http_auth_required': False}}

Command Interface

This interface is meant to serve a number of purposes, and it is meant to be expanded on in the future.

>>> from boxeeremotelib import CommandSpawner, CommandInterface
>>> spawner = CommandSpawner.from_discovery_result(*d.get_servers().iteritems().next())
>>> ci = CommandInterface(spawner)
>>> def printit(res):
...     print res
... 
>>> ci.getvolume(cb=printit)
100
>>> ci.setvolume(90)

It is likely clear from this example that the library is written with callback libraries in mind.

Authors

Library written by Kali Norby kali.norby@gmail.com.

Thanks

Android boxeeremote - helpful guide, particularly for discovery

knorby / boxeeremotelib