Attaching Events To "Now Playing"

Dev Community Dev/API Corner
1

Hello

Im going to develop an application that will dim the lights in my living room if a movie is played on my tv.

Does anyone know if there is a port i can connect to on my pms to listen for events or if there is another way of attaching myself to the server without polling it.

 

Thanks

Levi

2

PlexWatch can trigger notifications when a video is started or stopped. So you can get a notification from pushover or pushbullet etc. you can also configure it to run a script so if you have a script that will dim your lights plexwatch will trigger the script for you.

3

Hi

Thanks for getting back to me.

I’ve had a look at the program - installed and had a play.

It works however uses the method I was trying to avoid - polling the server. I want instant results which would mean continuously polling the server 24/7 evey 5 seconds or less and that’s not great… And still not really quick… Ideally the lights would dim the instant you click play…

I have next week of - I will devote a morning to resolving this problem.

Thanks again for your reply

4

I've been looking at the trakt scrobbler code recently.

Apparently there's a websocket you can use to get notifications. Maybe only if you have plex pass?

ws://127.0.0.1:32400/:/websockets/notifications

https://github.com/trakt/Plex-Trakt-Scrobbler/blob/master/Trakttv.bundle/Contents/Code/pts/activity_websocket.py

5

You star!

Thank you very much - works perfect!

Anyone else going down the same path may find the below url useful to resolve the sessionKey to some useful info!

http://localhost:32400/status/sessions

I will put together a little C# library and post my finished work here probably monday

Thanks again!  :D

6

Hi

For anyone interested - got my service finished - code below - there is a lot of info available from plex - i dont parse it neatly to a class - i just pick out the information i need (given more time this would be a neater way of writing) - the plex half of this application took approx 30 mins however getting it to work with my light switches was a little more involved and troublesome so took me bout 3 hours in total.

This is running as a service on my fileserver. the lights are controlled in real time with no polling.

Please excuse slightly messy code - works 100% perfectly though.

Enjoy

Thanks

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

using WebSocketSharp;

using System.Net;

using System.Net.Sockets;

using System.Web;


namespace PlexNotificationCatcher.Classes

{

class Application

{

static string PlexRootUrl = “192.168.100.50:32400”;

WebSocket ws;


    public Application() { }

    public void Start()
    {
        ws = new WebSocket("ws://" + PlexRootUrl + "/:/websockets/notifications");
        ws.OnMessage += (sender, e) => OnNotificationRecieved(e.Data);
        ws.Connect();
    }

    public void Stop()
    {
        ws.Close();
        lightwaveSender.Close();
    }

    private void OnNotificationRecieved(string Notification)
    {
        //"_elementType":"NotificationContainer","type":"playing","size":1,"_children":[{"_elementType":"PlaySessionStateNotification","sessionKey":"2340","guid":"com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb://193131/1/5?lang=en","ratingKey":"70948","url":"","key":"/library/metadata/70948","viewO
        // Only get the notificatinos in interested in
        if (Notification.Contains("\"type\":\"playing\""))
        {
            string SessionKey = Notification.Split(new string[] { "\"sessionKey\":\"" }, StringSplitOptions.None)[1].Split('"')[0];
            string State = Notification.Split(new string[] { "\"state\":\"" }, StringSplitOptions.None)[1].Split('"')[0];

            string sessionXml = new WebClient().DownloadString("http://" + PlexRootUrl + "/status/sessions");
            if (State == "stopped")
                PlayingEventFired("", "", State, SessionKey);
            else
            {
                // Pull deviceName and film name from above xml (only stuff i care bout)
                string[] sessions = sessionXml.Split(new string[] { "<Video " }, StringSplitOptions.None);
                for (int i = 1; i < sessions.Length; i++)
                {
                    if (sessions*.Contains("sessionKey=\"" + SessionKey + "\""))
                    {
                        string PlayerName = HttpUtility.HtmlDecode(sessions*.Split(new string[] { "<Player " }, StringSplitOptions.None)[1].Split(new string[] { "title=\"" }, StringSplitOptions.None)[1].Split('"')[0]);
                        string VideoTitle = sessions*.Split(new string[] { "title=\"" }, StringSplitOptions.None)[1].Split('"')[0];
                        PlayingEventFired(PlayerName, VideoTitle, State, SessionKey);
                        break;
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }

    private void PlayingEventFired(string PlayerName, string VideoTitle, string State, string SessionKey)
    {
        if (GetPrevSessionState(SessionKey) == State)
            return;
        PlayerName = SetPrevSessionState(SessionKey, State, PlayerName);

        if (PlayerName.ToLower().Contains("living room") || PlayerName.ToLower().Contains("livingroom") || PlayerName.ToLower().Contains("chromecast"))
        {
            if (State == "playing")
                SendLightwaveRFCommand("!R1D1F0", PlayerName, "Playing " + VideoTitle);
            else if (State == "paused")
                SendLightwaveRFCommand("!R1D1F1", PlayerName, "Paused");
            else if (State == "stopped")
                SendLightwaveRFCommand("!R1D1F1", PlayerName, "Stopped");
        }
    }

    UdpClient lightwaveSender = new UdpClient(9761);
    IPEndPoint ip = new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Broadcast, 9760);
    private void SendLightwaveRFCommand(string Command, string PlayerName, string Description)
    {
        byte[] bytes = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("100,!F*p



");

lightwaveSender.Send(bytes, bytes.Length, ip);


        System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(200);

        bytes = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("568," + Command + "|Plex - " + PlayerName + "|" + Description + "



");

lightwaveSender.Send(bytes, bytes.Length, ip);

}


    List<object[]> SessionStates = new List<object[]>();
    private string GetPrevSessionState(string SessionKey)
    {
        for (int i = 0; i < SessionStates.Count; i++)
            if (SessionStates*[0].ToString() == SessionKey)
                return SessionStates*[1].ToString();
        return string.Empty;
    }
    private string SetPrevSessionState(string SessionKey, string State, string PlayerName)
    {
        bool Set = false;
        for (int i = 0; i < SessionStates.Count; i++)
        {
            if (SessionStates*[0].ToString() == SessionKey)
            {
                if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(PlayerName))
                    SessionStates*[2] = PlayerName;
                SessionStates*[1] = State;
                Set = true;
                return SessionStates*[2].ToString();
            }
        }
        if (!Set)
            SessionStates.Add(new object[] { SessionKey, State, PlayerName });
        return PlayerName;
    }
}



}
7

You star!

Thank you very much - works perfect!

Anyone else going down the same path may find the below url useful to resolve the sessionKey to some useful info!

http://localhost:32400/status/sessions

I will put together a little C# library and post my finished work here probably monday

Thanks again!  :D

Hi, ive been using this url for a while to get the state of my plex and using that to change light scenes, but the url is down. i get a "Unauthorized" page.

is this related to updates on plex home?

id really like to know if this gets resolved, or if theres another url i can read out with python.

i hope to get some help!

8

Hi

Go to settings, server - show advance

do you have the below checked? if so try unchecking it

Thanks

  Require authentication on local networks

Sets the allowed networks setting to 127.0.0.1/255.255.255.255. This requires other computers on a local network to authenticate before accessing the server.

9

i already had that unchecked. any other tips?

10

i already had that unchecked. any other tips?

It is a result of Home mode been enabled.

You'll need to use a token to authenticate

See this thread:

https://forums.plex.tv/topic/129340-getting-a-token-from-plextv/?p=775682

/T

11

Hello

Spent a little time last night making some improvements

Ive attached V2

Now suitable for others to use

Loads Application variables from XML file

Supports multiple rooms - each room has properties:

  • Name
  • Devices (Array)
  • Users (Array)
  • Play Command
  • Pause Command
  • Stop Command
  • Include Music (Will run commands if music is played)
  • Is Dark (Will only run commands between sunset and sunrise)
  • Lat and Long (used for Is Dark)

Example config files are included

Need to be installed as a service.

Thanks

12

Now accepts player unique ids as it wasn’t distinguishing between my chromecasts


I won’t upload another copy yet in case I make more changes


Thanks

13

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