Squeezebox Binding

Documentation of the Squeezebox binding Bundle

Introduction

From the Wikipedia entry:

Slim Devices was established in 2000, and was first known for its SlimServer used for streaming music, but launched a hardware player named SliMP3 able to play these streams in 2001. Although the first player was fairly simple only supporting wired Ethernet and MP3 natively, it was followed two years later by a slightly more advanced player which was renamed to Squeezebox. Other versions followed, gradually adding native support for additional file formats, Wi-Fi-support, gradually adding larger and more advanced displays as well as a version targeting audiophile users. Support for playing music from external streaming platforms such as Pandora, Napster, Last.fm and Sirius were also added. The devices in general have two operating modes; either standalone where the device connects to an internet streaming service directly, or to a local computer running the Logitech Media Server or a network-attached storage device. Both the server software and large parts of the firmware on the most recent players are released under open source licenses.

In 2006, Slim Devices was acquired by Logitech for $20 million USD. Logitech continued the development of the player until they announced in August 2012 that it would be discontinued. Given the cross-platform nature of the server and software client, some users have ensured the continued use of the platform by utilizing the Raspberry Pi as dedicated Squeezebox device (both client and server).

For installation of the binding, please see Wiki page Bindings.

Please note there are two parts to the Squeezebox binding. You need to install both org.openhab.io.squeezeserver and org.openhab.binding.squeezebox. The io.squeezeserver bundle is a common library used by both this binding and the Squeezebox Action and handles all connections and messaging between openHAB and the Squeeze Server. This ensures you only need to specify one set of configuration in openhab.cfg (see below), which can be used by both the binding and the action.

Example Configuration

First you need to let openHAB know where to find your Squeeze Server and each of your Squeezebox devices. This configuration is entered in your openhab.cfg configuration file and is used by both the Squeezebox binding and the Squeezebox Action:

# Squeeze server
squeeze:server.host=192.168.1.129
# Bedroom Squeezebox
squeeze:bedroom.id=de:ad:be:ef:12:34
# Kitchen Squeezebox
squeeze:kitchen.id=ab:cd:ef:12:34:56

Full Configuration

Please refer to the following example configuration (options included in the file openhab_default.cfg in openHAB 1.8.1 and earlier may be confusing):

############################ Squeezebox Action and Binding ############################
#
# Host (IP address) of your Logitech Media Server
#squeeze:server.host=

# Number of retries to allow for a failed connection. (optional; defaults to 3)
#squeeze:server.retries=
*NOTE: this setting will be available in 1.9.0 or later releases

# Timeout (in seconds) between retries of a failed connection to the
# Logitech Media Server. (optional; defaults to 60)
#squeeze:server.retryTimeout=
*NOTE: this setting will be available in 1.9.0 or later releases

# Port of CLI interface of your Logitech Media Server (optional, defaults to 9090)
#squeeze:server.cliport=

# Webport interface of the your Logitech Media Server (optional, defaults to 9000)
#squeeze:server.webport=

# TTS URL to use for generating text-to-speech voice announcements
# the URL should contain one '%s' parameter which will be substituted
# with the text to be translated (new as of openHAB 1.8)
# (defaults to Google TTS service using the URL below)
#    http://translate.google.com/translate_tts?tl=en&ie=UTF-8&client=openhab&q=%s)
# (another TTS service is http://www.voicerss.org/api/ which requires an API key)
#    https://api.voicerss.org/?key=YOURAPIKEYHERE&hl=en-gb&src=%s
#squeeze:ttsurl=

# Maximum TTS sentence length - for example the Google TTS service only
# permits up to 100 chars - the Squeezebox speak action will break long
# strings into sentence chunks call the TTS service repeatedly
# (defaults to 100)
#squeeze:ttsmaxsentencelength=

# Id (MAC address) of your first Squeezebox.  MAC addresses of players are case-sensitive. 
# Use small letters (a-f) if the address contains them. Example:
# squeeze:Kitchen.id=de:ad:be:ef:12:34
#squeeze:<boxId1>.id=

# Id (MAC address) of your nth Squeezebox
#squeeze:<boxIdN>.id=

NOTE: The <boxId>s above will be used in both the binding item configs and the action calls to select with which of your Squeezebox devices to communicate.

Item Binding Configuration

The syntax of an item configuration is shown in the following line in general:

squeeze="<boxId>:<command>[:<extra>]"

Where <boxId> matches one of the ids defined in your openhab.cfg file.

Squeezebox commands

Command	Purpose
power	Power on/off your device
mute	Mute/unmute your device
volume	Change volume by 5%
play	Play the current title
pause	Pause the current title
stop	Stop the current title
next	Skip to next title
prev	Skip to previous title
http:stream	Play the given http stream (obsolete as there is now a new squeezeboxPlayUrl() action for handling this inside rules directly)
file:file	Play the given file on your server (obsolete as there is now a new squeezeboxPlayUrl() action for handling this inside rules directly)
sync:player-id2	Add player-id2 to your device for synced playback

Squeezebox variables

Variable	Purpose
title	Title of the current song
album	Album name of the current song
artist	Artist name of the current song
year	Release year of the current song
genre	Genre name of the current song
coverart	Address to cover art of the current song
remotetitle	Title of radio station currently playing
ircode	String of the cached IR code

Examples

Here are some examples of valid binding configuration strings:

squeeze="player1:volume"
squeeze="player1:title"
squeeze="player1:play"

As a result, your lines in the items file might look like the following:

Dimmer sq_test_volume 	   "Volume [%.1f %%]"	{ squeeze="player1:volume" }
String sq_test_title	   "Title [%s]"		{ squeeze="player1:title" }
Switch sq_test_play	   	   "Play"		{ squeeze="player1:play" }
String sq_test_ircode	   "IR-Code [%s]" 	{ squeeze="player1:ircode" }

NOTE: when binding the 'play' command to a switch item you will trigger 'play' when the item receives the ON command. It will also trigger 'stop' when the item receives the OFF command. The same applies for 'stop' and 'pause' except ON=>stop/pause and OFF=>play. This is so you can setup a single item for controlling play/stop by defining mappings in your sitemap:

Switch item=sq_test_play mappings=[ON="Play", OFF="Stop"]

And whenever the player state is changed from outside of openHAB, these items will be updated accordingly, since there is now no longer a separate item for 'play' and 'isPlaying'.

v1.4.0: Squeezebox binding can store the latest IR code (form the infrared remote) in a variable, which can be used to do some actions. Look at this rule:

rule "IR Code catched"
when
    Item sq_test_ircode received update
then
    if (sq_test_ircode.state=="00ff32cd") {
        sendCommand(Licht_Schlafzimmer, ON)
        logInfo("IR Code rules", "schalte Schlafzimmerlicht ein")
    } else if (sq_test_ircode.state=="00ff708f") {
        sendCommand(Licht_Schlafzimmer, OFF)
        logInfo("IR Code rules", "schalte Schlafzimmerlicht aus")
    }
end

##Additional Control of Logitech Media Server

Another method to gain some extra control of the LMS not provided by the binding is via HTTP GET requests. Using rules, a switch/number etc can be linked to the required HTTP GET request.

All available GET requests can be found on the LMS. In any browser enter <IP Address of LMS>:9000

Help button on the bottom left → Technical information → Logitech Media Server Web Interface For the multiple player variable either the IP address or the MAC address can be used.

##Example for adding playlists

Item file:

Number Squeezebox_PlayList	"Playlists”

Rule file:

rule "Squeezebox_PlayList"
when
	Item Squeezebox_PlayList received command
then
	switch(receivedCommand) {
		case 0 : sendHttpGetRequest("http://<IP Address of LMS>:9000/?p0=playlist&p1=play&p2=<Name of Playlist>&player=<MAC Address of Player>")
		case 1 : sendHttpGetRequest("http://<IP Address of LMS>:9000/?p0=playlist&p1=play&p2=<Name of Next Playlist >&player=<MAC Address of Player>")
	}
 end

Sitemap file:

Selection item=Squeezebox_PlayList label="Start Playlist" mappings=[0="<Name of Playlist>", 1="<Name of Next Playlist >"] 

Example for displaying text

Rule file:

rule "SqueezeboxDisplay"
when
	<any event>
then
	var String text= "Das ist ein Text mit variablem Inhalt: " + Item1.state.toString + 
	" und " + Item2.state.toString 
	var String url = "http://192.168.2.5:9000/status?p0=display&p1=&p2=" + text.encode("UTF-8") + "&p3=300&player=00:04:20:06:21:6d" 
            sendHttpGetRequest(url)
 end

The is UTF-8 encoded. The URL calls the squeezebox server at port 9000 with this parameters: p1=upper display line, p2=lower display line, p3=duration of display, player= MAC address of player

More Examples

• Select Radio-Stations
• Use local TTS instead of Google-Translator