Controlling Boxee ?

EDIT: I see I posted this in the wrong section, maybe someone can move it to the Indigo Touch forums ?

First of all, thank you so much for the enhanced way of making control pages in Indigo 4! I finally figured out how to make everything work beatiful both on iPad and iPhone this weekend and it has just enhanced the experience with Indigo (again!) to a whole other level!

We use controlpages to control lights, devices, scenes, IR equipment, EyeTV, iTunes and so on. I´ve built a nice grapic UI (the first one is nice, but will be modified slightly) that both me and the misses can play around in with ease. Applescript made this a blast to make. However, I would like to control Boxee with my shiny new control pages. The only thing I have managed to do is make a button for launching and quitting Boxee with Applescript. Seeing as Boxee is a ported app to OS X, its Applescript capabilities is very limited. There is a way to control Boxee via URLs.

http://developer.boxee.tv/Remote_Control_Interface

I´m not sure how to implement this in my control pages, is it as easy suggested ? When running those URLs from the same machine that both Indigo and Boxee reside on, do I have to specify an IP in the URLs ?

Has anyone done something similar ?

Some of my controlpages:

?.. There is a way to control Boxee via URLs.

http://developer.boxee.tv/Remote_Control_Interface

I´m not sure how to implement this in my control pages, is it as easy suggested ? When running those URLs from the same machine that both Indigo and Boxee reside on, do I have to specify an IP in the URLs ?...

It should be pretty easy. I'd suggest using "curl" to manage the communications - it is already installed on your Mac. Just call it with do shell script in your AppleScript. For example:
Set foo to do shell script "date"

For the host address portion of your URL, you can use localhost or 127.0.0.1 - for example:
Http://127.0.0.1/YourStuffGoesHere

I can send you an example if you'd like.

My knowhow is limited to some Applescript, so an example would be just great! Never done anything with shell scripts.

Practice makes perfect, so I´d love to learn more

No, problem... Well, one problem, I am on my iPad at the moment. I'll send you an example in a few hours when I am back on the Mac. In the meantime, try a search of the forums for keyword curl. I am pretty sure there is something close to what you are looking for. This one may be helpful...
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4963&p=36403&hilit=Curl#p36403

I have been snooping around, and thought i did a breakthrough when i could initiate Pause/Play with this little applescript. I "made it up myself", meaning I have no idea if it is formatted or even fully written the way it should.

This one actually works:

Code: Select all


tell current application
    do shell script "curl -o /dev/null http://192.168.10.105:8800/xbmcCmds/xbmcHttp?command=Pause"
end tell


This one (and the other SendKey and Action commands) does not work, for some weird reason:

Code: Select all

tell current application
    do shell script "curl -o /dev/null http://192.168.10.105:8800/xbmcCmds/xbmcHttp?command=SendKey(270)"
end tell

This last one is supposed to move up in the Boxee menusystem.

I´m a little stuck atm. Anyone care to enlighten me ?

The tell current application and end tell should not be necessary. Otherwise it looks like you've got the idea. The command that didn't work looked ok to me, maybe it is a bug in boxee. To do a simple test of your command, just enter it in the URL field of the Safari window and press return.

BTW, if you want to capture output from the boxee command, you can do:

Code: Select all

set foo to do shell script "curl http://localhost:8800/xbmcCmds/xbmcHttp?command=SomeCommand"

If the output you want is long, or complexly formatted, post it here and I can show you ways to filter it in the shell script.

I think you are on to something. It must be a bug in Boxee. In Safari i get a OK output, which it also does when I do the pausecommand. There are hundreds of commands, so I will just have to try them one by one. Sadly, I've left for work now for 4 days, but I'll post an update when I get back in the weekend.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!!

[jay (support)]

Parenthesis characters aren't valid in a URL, so you have to URL encode them:

( = %28
) = %29

So, the command to do an up arrow would be:

Code: Select all

curl -o /dev/null http://localhost:8800/xbmcCmds/xbmcHttp?command=SendKey%28270%29

I'm not that familiar with the curl options so there may be some way to have it do the URL encoding...

Hm, that could explain it

I am not sure about the use of parentheses in a GET method Query-String (text after after the "?"). I found this page with details on the xbmc web interface (this should be pretty much the same as boxee). They repeatedly call out the parentheses. Also, the fact you received an "Ok" response to your Safari test would indicate the command string was valid

[jay (support)]

I tried it with the parens encoded and it worked...

However, you definitely should go with the supported API IMHO...

It DOES work, only to well. Mine continues to press the button even after I´ve stopped pressing it. Meaning: If I press Up, Boxee continues to go UP until i Quit Boxee. Seems weird. Did you get that behaviour ?

EDIT:

i did a stop script command, seemed to do the trick. Would that be right ? Just wanna make sure, so I dont mess up anything here...

Oh, and I also do: tell application "System Events"

Thats right too ?

EDIT2:

Whats this API you are talking about ?