XMMS InfoPipe

Graphical media players don't do things "the Unix way".
It used to be true.
Now they do!

NOTE:
The PHP script included in the package has a known bug. In recent versions of InfoPipe, the amount of data returned by infopipe has been increased, and the PHP script read a fixed-size, way too small chunk of data from the pipe - this was often manifested as truncated track titles or other such things. I have been sent patches to this problem already, and will apply it in time and release a modified version. I apologise humbly for being unbelieveably lazy!
Meanwhile, you can try fixing the script yourself, since the change isn't that difficult. On line 14, on "$input = fread ($info, 261);", change 261 to something higher (for instance, 2048).
Once again, I apologise for not notifying of the issue as soon as it came to my attention.

ANOTHER NOTE: As far as I'm concerned, InfoPipe is in "stasis". In other words, it's nominally maintained by yours truly, but there isn't much to be updated. You're better off trying to fix it yourself, I may not be able to help too soon! (I'm extremely slow to reply to email, for example.) Actually, if you want new features, you're better off completely reimplementing it - hell, XMMS is pretty antiquated, why not reimplement the whole media player? =) (Well, not a bad idea! Not at all! No, really, people innovate a lot these days!) If you send me patches, you probably won't be seeing them much; I'll do another release when and only when I need to do that. I'm moderately proud of InfoPipe as it is - I've built something that works and doesn't need constant maintenance. =)

Some maintenance afterall: Love XMMS-InfoPipe? Want to switch to kewl new world of Beep Media Player, but you're addicted to InfoPipe? Not worry! Here's a patch against InfoPipe 1.3 that lets you build the plugin for BMP! (Be sure to read the stuff in the beginning of the patch file for instructions on how to build, and what else is needed...)

Also, you may need to change xmms.h to whatever header is used in Beep Media Player. You also may want to use the ./build.sh script followed by ./configure - the libtool provided with this thing is proto-ancient, and probably doesn't cooperate with BMP.

Further silliness: I'll probably add some random patches I've found to the web page later. Not that these really do any good, some are already applied, you see... One exhibit of note is Da Fox's infopipe.c replacement which will probably make things a lot more interesting.

[So-called screenshot]

XMMS InfoPipe is a plugin that reports XMMS status via named pipe. Handy if you want to add interesting real-time information for a personal web page, or a web cam page.

While there's a possibility of setting up programs to be executed by XMMS when changing songs, XMMS InfoPipe provides better introspection: You can get information on song position, song length, playlist position, status (stopped/playing/paused), song title as displayed by XMMS, and file name. The information is reported in easily parseable textual format.

The possibilities for information use are limitless. So far, here are some of the things people have been using InfoPipe for:

Showing information of XMMS on home page, webcam page, or something related (script included)
Showing player information on IRC (spotted one script for Irssi)
Using any speech synthetizer to say the song information, reducing the need for external displays, and helping listening to unfamiliar music in bed when all you have is a remote control =) (script included).
Yeah, LIRC plugin seems to support this already, but it only supports ViaVoice - this allows you to use any speech synth... or any other types of output. Just an example of flexibility - I created the script to do that at 4 o'clock in the morning, and even got 99% of Perl recommendations of good coding right, even when I wasn't fully awake =)

Download source code

version 1.3 (released 2002-05-19)

Some improvements coming...?

Things marked "Done" are coming in next version. "Wanted" are ideas that are likely to be implemented in next version; "Postponed" are things to be done later (but will appear), and "No Idea" means can't be done - yet.

No Idea: Better file meta information. (the speech synthesis script could benefit from this, and getting CBR/VBR info wouldn't hurt either.) Does XMMS support file metadata retrieval? I saw no easy way.
Done: A kluge for the above that's done in "client end"... =) the web info script takes the filename and reads the tags directly from the file.

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Last Modified: $Date: 2006-05-30 19:10:23 +0300 (ti, 30 touko 2006) $