Squeezebox Server Driver

This driver establishes a connection with the server software rather than the player. You will have to have a running version of the Logitech Media Server in order to use this driver, even if you are not playing local music.

New in 1.51

(Complete revision history is at the bottom)

Fixes a bug on longer browser lists

1.50

This version adds commands to navigate the music folder

Connection

This driver is for the Logitech Squeezebox family of players, and any other audio system relying on the Squeezebox Server Software, an open source audio server system. The driver is IP only and was tested using Squeezebox Server Software version 7.6.1. It was tested with a Squeezebox Touch, a Squeezebox Radio, Squeezeplay desktop software and the Vortexbox Player from the VortexBox Server System. Because the driver establishes a connection with the server software rather than the player it will not support players connected directly to mysqueezebox.com

It supports server based music files as well as the music streaming service at mysqueezebox.com which gives you access to (this is a partial list) Pandora, Rhapsody, Napster, Slacker,Classical.com, Last.fm, MP3tunes, Mediafly, Live Music Archive, SHOUTcast, and Live365

Because of the depth and sophistication of this system, significant knowledge of the Squeezebox system is required to get the most out of the system.

Configuration

To set up the driver you need to enter the server's (NOT the player's) IP address in the Connection Settings section of the XP-8's Drivers tab. The server provides two ports, one for the commands, and another for artwork and other html formatted information. These ports default to ports 9090 and 9000 respectively. There is very little need to change them.

Each player requires its own instance of the driver

The most important part is the player name (player names in 1.4) entered under Squeeze Options. You must give the actual name of the player so that the driver can get it's id from the server.

Now Playing List

The Now Playing list is a standard Item List Data Source variable for showing the current play queue for the system. There are a couple of choices for selecting an item in the list, both are used in the K4 sample. On the first, or Now Playing page, the item list is given the 'Play from Now Playing List' command so that you can scroll through the list and jump to a tune in the list when selected. The second 'Edit Playlist' page uses the 'Sect from Now Playing List' command to refresh all the NP Selected Metadata variables. This allows you to look at all the metadata from a selection (including extensive file type information which the sample shows on another page). Using the Select from... command lets you edit the list as selected items can be moved around in the list, or removed entirely. You can even save the current list under the 'Playlists' menu by using the Save Now... command.

The Save Playlist command actually only turns on the Show Save Prompt variable to show a keyboard for entering a name. It's the Enter command under the File Saving Keypad category that actually does the saving. It then turns off the Show Save Prompt variable so the keyboard goes away. The cancel command hides the keyboard without doing the save.

The Edit Playlist page on the K4 also jumps to the sync page; we'll deal with that below.

The T2-C example shows another variation on the Now Playing list: as you scroll through the list the NP Selected variables are automatically updated so you can see the artist and album of the highlighted item in the list.

Most of the streaming functions and apps only have one item in the now playing list. If you want to make them invisible you can use the Remote/Local Media variables to rearrange the layout based on what’s playing. Be warned though that while the Internet Radio functions do this, Rhapsody and Napster both put actual items into the list but still show up as streaming media.

<<-- Pandora Note -->>

Pandora has similar visibility variables that you can use to show the thumbs up and thumbs down commands, there's no sense showing them unless you're actually USING Pandora. The sample files replace the Repeat and Shuffle buttons with Up and Down

Browsing

The Browsing list operates in one of four modes: Enter, Play, Add, or Favorite. The example file doesn't have an Enter button because the list will revert to Enter after every selection, there's no need to have a button for it. In Enter mode, selecting from the list just drills down through the menus. A separate command, placed on the list title in the sample file, backs you up to the top menu. If you're at the bottom of the hierarchy, say a song, or radio station, it will play that item, replacing whatever is in the now playing list. To play an album (or genre, or artist), put the list in Play mode before you select the item and it will be moved to the list, replacing what's there now. If you put it in Add mode it will add the new selection to the list (reshuffling if shuffle is on). Putting it in Favorites mode will add the selection to the Favorites menu and then take you to that menu. If you're already on the Favorites menu then putting the list in favorites mode will delete the item from the list.

Everything the server can play is accessible from the top level of the menu, but some function may require excessive drilling to get to what you want to here, so a 'Jump to Browse Location' command has been added. This gives you shortcuts to some of the more common menus as if they were the top level. You can still back up from each of these menus to the actual top level menu. Remember that most of these Apps with direct jumps will only work once they've been installed by visiting mysqueezebox.com.

Some menu selections require text input from the user which can be provided by a second keyboard, the data entry keyboard. This works identically to the File saving keyboard but uses a completely different set of commands.

Configuring the Top Menu

The top level menu can show the following:

Favorites

Artists

Albums

Genres

New Music

Years

Random Mix

Playlists

Internet Radio

Local Radio

Pandora

Sirius Internet Radio

SHOUTcast

Rhapsody

Classical.com

Live365

MediaFly

MP3tunes Music Locker

Radioio

Slacker

Apps

The Driver Tab of the Controller Properties has this list and checkmarks for the ones you would like included in the menu, they ARE NOT all on by default. Many of the menu choices require the App be installed on mysqueezebox.com before they will function.

Sync

The Players list shows all the players under the control of the Squeezebox Server and allows you to have several of the players playing in sync. The works VERY well for the Squeezebox players, fairly well for the VortexBox Players and poorly if at all for the PC based players such as Squeezeplay and the stream players. Simply select the player to sync and press Sync, Release puts it back to solo operation.

Credentials

Streaming music is tied to a specific account on my.squeezebox.com. This account determines which apps are used and which accounts are used by that app. This can now be changed on the fly. 5 accounts can be entered into the driver tab and will show up in the account list. Selecting one of these will change the account the server is using to the selected account. This is a sever wide command so the new setting will apply to every player connected to that server

Other Commands

Sometimes you may want a macro or button to play a specific thing every time it's pressed (such as a button for Random Tracks, a specific Internet Radio station or Pandora Quick Mix). This can be done using the Hard Coded Play command with the URL of the item to be played. The easiest way to get the URL is to use the web interface to turn what you want into a favorite and click on that favorite to show it's url. If you want to give the user a little control over what the buttons do another command exists to play a specified favorite. The only problem there is that there isn't a way to reorder the favorites so it's hard to get what you want to be under the button if you want to change it..

Selecting the Player

There are slots for eight names in the driver tab of the processor dialog. When the driver starts up it will send commands to player number 1. There are four ways to change this (they're demonstrated on the K4 of the sample file, hit the Player button on the first page):

Select Player from Player List: On a list using the [Player State]Players variable you can use this command to directly select a new player to switch control. This list will change if the number of connected players changes so it does not match the list created in the controllers driver tab.

Select Player by Config Number: You can send a command with an integer parameter that matches a players number as entered in the list. There are also commands that will move to the next or previous players in the list.

Select Player by Name: You can send a command with the actual name of the player. The player name does not have to be in the drivers list.

Give Control to Another Driver: If you find that you're creating macros to make sure that you change players whenever another device is changing states, whether it's changing the room a panel is controlling or the source feeding a particular zone, you can give another driver direct control over which player is being controlled. The driver tab will give you a drop down showing the available variables. When the chosen variable changes the driver will automatically switch to the player in the list whose number matches the new value of the variable. If you need to you can put the same name in multiple slots in the list. This does not prevent any of the other methods from being used but any change in the controlling driver will cause thi driver to resync.

There are now two variables to support these commands, the first is the current players name, the second is the number from the list. If the player name is not in the driver's list the current player number will be 0

Library Scanning

There are two commands for scannning the library to find new additions. The first, Rescan, simply looks through the library for new additions and adds them. The second, Wipe Cache, erases the current database of the library and rescans from scratch. The simple scan has a single boolean variable to allow a highlight or an alert. The 'Wipe Cache' has variables to track the progress of the scanner as it can take some time to complete. Wiping the cache will stop all the players, even if they're playing external streams, but they may be restarted. Remember though that you can't start playing local music at that point becasue you have no library database until the scan is complete.

Revision History

1.0: The initial release of the software

1.1: Resolves XP 2.3 vs 2.4 firmware compatibility issues and adds the ability to send text messages to display on the player.

1.1 notes: A command that, in rare cases, could cause a touchpanel to lock up under XP8 firmware 2.3 or earlier has been removed. Because of this, 2.3 firmware systems cannot update the playing list when using streaming radio functions (there's only one item in the list anyway). 2.4 or later firmware is recommended for this driver as it makes use of new list management features to highlight items on the now playing list.

Also added in this version is a command to send text to the players display. In this current version the 'Time to Display' parameter is not functioning and all messages last the same length of time.

1.2: Adds several more direct browsing buttons and increases the flexibility of the top level menu.

1.3: Adds 'New Music' menu item, allows changing of my.squeezebox.com credentials and adds 'button' command for remote emulation.

1.4: Adds commands to change the player the driver is controlling as well as several other small fixes..

1.41 fixes a problem with the first 10 tracks showing up twice in the menu lists

1.42 fixes the scan command and adds the 'Wipe Cache' option that erases the current server library before the scan

1.5: Adds Music Folder function as well as Apex tags

1.51 Fixes a bug on longer browser lists

1.53 Adds the Advanced Programming Extensions for Integration Designer 10 and above

1.54 Fixes the App folder on Logitech version 7.9