Squeezebox Binding

This binding integrates the Logitech Media Server (opens new window) and compatible Squeeze players.

Introduction

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 (opens new window) 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).

Taken from: Wiki (opens new window)

Supported Things

At least one Squeeze Server is required to act as a bridge for Squeeze players on the network. Squeeze players may be official Logitech products or other players like Squeeze Lites (opens new window).

Discovery

A Squeeze Server is discovered through UPnP in the local network. Once it is added as a Thing the Squeeze Server bridge will discover Squeeze Players automatically. If your Squeeze Server is not discovered automatically, you can add it manually by creating a .thing file containing something like this (more example below (opens new window)):

Bridge squeezebox:squeezeboxserver:myServer [ ipAddress="192.168.1.10", webport=9000, cliport=9090 ]

Binding Configuration

The binding has the following configuration options, which can be set for "binding:squeezebox":

Parameter	Name	Description	Required
callbackUrl	Callback URL	URL to use for playing notification sounds, e.g. http://192.168.0.2:8080	no

When a SqueezeBox is used as an audio sink, the SqueezeBox player connects to openHAB to get the audio stream. By default, the binding sends the SqueezeBox the URL for getting the audio stream based on the Primary Address (Network Settings configuration) and the openHAB HTTP port. Sometimes it is necessary to use the Callback URL to override the default, such as when using a reverse proxy or with some Docker implementations.

Thing Configuration

The Squeeze Server bridge requires the ip address, web port, and cli port to access it on. If Squeeze Server authentication is enabled, the userId and password also are required.

Squeeze Players are identified by their MAC address, which is required. In addition, the notification timeout can be specified. If omitted, the default timeout value will be used. A notification volume can be optionally specified, which, if provided, will override the player's current volume level when playing notifications.

Here are some examples of how to define the Squeeze Server and Player things in a things file.

Bridge squeezebox:squeezeboxserver:myServer [ ipAddress="192.168.1.10", webport=9000, cliport=9090 ]
{
    Thing squeezeboxplayer myplayer[ mac="00:f1:bb:00:00:f1" ]
}

If Squeeze Server authentication is enabled, the user ID and password can be specified for the Squeeze Server:

Bridge squeezebox:squeezeboxserver:myServer [ ipAddress="192.168.1.10", webport=9000, cliport=9090, userId="yourid", password="yourpassword" ]
{
    Thing squeezeboxplayer myplayer[ mac="00:f1:bb:00:00:f1" ]
}

The notification timeout and/or notification volume can be specified for the Squeeze Player:

Bridge squeezebox:squeezeboxserver:myServer [ ipAddress="192.168.1.10", webport=9000, cliport=9090 ]
{
    Thing squeezeboxplayer myplayer[ mac="00:f1:bb:00:00:f1", notificationTimeout=30, notificationVolume=35 ]
}

Server Channels

The Squeezebox server supports the following channel:

Channel Type ID	Item Type	Description
favoritesList	String	Comma-separated list of favorite IDs & names, updated whenever list changes on server

Player Channels

All devices support some of the following channels:

Channel Type ID	Item Type	Description
power	Switch	Power on/off your device
mute	Switch	Mute/unmute your device
volume	Dimmer	Volume of your device
stop	Switch	Stop the current title
control	Player	Control the Zone Player, e.g. play/pause/next/previous/ffward/rewind
stream	String	Play the given HTTP or file stream (file:// or http://)
source	String	Shows the source of the currently playing playlist entry. (i.e. http://radio.org/radio.mp3
sync	String	Add another player to your device for synchronized playback (other player mac address)
playListIndex	Number	Playlist Index
currentPlayingTime	Number	Current Playing Time
duration	Number	Duration of currently playing track (in seconds)
currentPlaylistShuffle	Number	Current playlist shuffle mode (0 No Shuffle, 1 Shuffle Songs, 2 Shuffle Albums)
currentPlaylistRepeat	Number	Current playlist repeat Mode (0 No Repeat, 1 Repeat Song, 2 Repeat Playlist)
title	String	Title of the current song
remotetitle	String	Remote Title (Radio) of the current song
album	String	Album name of the current song
artist	String	Artist name of the current song
year	String	Release year of the current song
genre	String	Genre name of the current song
coverartdata	Image	Image data of cover art of the current song
ircode	String	Received IR code
numberPlaylistTracks	Number	Number of playlist tracks
playFavorite	String	ID of Favorite to play (channel's state options contains available favorites)
rate	Switch	"Like" or "unlike" the currently playing song (if supported by the streaming service)
sleep	Number	Power off the player in the specified number of minutes. Sending 0 cancels the timer

Example .Items File

Add the items you want to use to an .items file, for example:

Switch YourPlayer_Power    "Squeezebox Power"  {channel="squeezebox:squeezeboxplayer:736549a3:00042016e7a0:power"}
Dimmer YourPlayer_Volume   "Squeezebox Volume" {channel="squeezebox:squeezeboxplayer:736549a3:00042016e7a0:volume"}
Image  YourPlayer_AlbumArt "Squeezebox Cover"  {channel="squeezebox:squeezeboxplayer:736549a3:00042016e7a0:coverartdata"}

Playing Favorites

Using the playFavorite channel, you can play a favorite from the Favorites list on the Logitech Media Server (LMS). The favorites from the LMS will be populated into the state options of the playFavorite channel. The Selection widget in HABpanel can be used to present the favorites as a choice list. Selecting from that choice list will play the favorite on the SqueezeBox player. Currently, only favorites from the root level of the LMS favorites list are exposed on the playFavorite channel.

How to Set Up Favorites

• Add some favorites to your favorites list in LMS (local music playlists, Pandora, Slacker, Internet radio, etc.). Keep all favorites at the root level (i.e. favorites in sub-folders will be ignored).
• If you're on an older openHAB build, you may need to delete and re-add your squeezebox server and player things to pick up the new channels.
• Create a new item on each player

String YourPlayer_PlayFavorite "Play Favorite [%s]" { channel="squeezebox:squeezeboxplayer:736549a3:00042016e7a0:playFavorite" }

For HABpanel (do this for each player)

• Add a Selection widget to your dashboard
• In the Selection widget settings
  • Enter the YourPlayer_PlayFavorite item
  • Select Choices source of Server-provided item options
  • Modify other settings to suite your taste
• When you load the dashboard and click on the selection widget, you should see the favorites. Selecting a favorite from the list will play it.

For Sitemap

• To use state options on the playFavorite channel, simply omit the mappings from the Selection widget.

Selection item=YourPlayer_PlayFavorite label="Play Favorite"

Notifications

How To Set Up

Squeeze Players can be set up as audio sinks in openHAB. Please follow the openHAB multimedia documentation (opens new window) for setup guidance.

You can set the default notification volume in the player thing configuration.

You can override the default notification volume by supplying it as a parameter to say and playSound.

You can play notifications from within rules.

rule "Garage Door Open Notification"
when
    Item GarageDoorOpenNotification received command ON
then
    // Play the notification on the default sink at a specified volume level
    say("The garage door is open!", "voicerss:enUS", new PercentType(35))
    // Play the notification on a specific sink
    say("The garage door is open!", "voicerss:enUS", "squeezebox:squeezeboxplayer:5919BEA2-764B-4590-BC70-D74DCC15491B:20cfbf221510")
end

And, you can play sounds from the conf/sounds directory.

rule "Play Sounds"
when
    Item PlaySounds received command ON
then
    // Play the sound on the default sink
    playSound("doorbell.mp3")
    // Play the sound on a specific sink at a specified volume level
    playSound("squeezebox:squeezeboxplayer:5919BEA2-764B-4590-BC70-D74DCC15491B:20cfbf221510", "doorbell.mp3", new PercentType(45))
end

Rating Songs

Some streaming services, such as Pandora and Slacker, all songs to be rated. When playing from these streaming services, sending commands to the rate channel can be used to like or unlike the currently playing song. Sending the ON command will like the song. Sending the OFF command will unlike the song. If the streaming service doesn't support rating, sending commands to the rate channel has no effect.

Known Issues

• There are some versions of squeezelite that will not correctly play very short duration mp3 files. Versions of squeezelite after v1.7 and before v1.8.6 will not play very short duration mp3 files reliably. For example, if you're using piCorePlayer (which uses squeezelite), please check your version of squeezelite if you're having trouble playing notifications. This bug has been fixed in squeezelite version 1.8.6-985, which is included in piCorePlayer version 3.20.
• When streaming from a remote service (such as Pandora or Spotify), after the notification plays, the Squeezebox Server starts playing a new track, instead of picking up from where it left off on the currently playing track.
• There have been reports that notifications do not play reliably, or do not play at all, when using Logitech Media Server (LMS) version 7.7.5. Therefore, it is recommended that the LMS be on a more current version than 7.7.5.
• There have been reports that the LMS does not play some WAV files reliably. If you're using a TTS service that produces WAV files, and the notifications are not playing, try using an MP3-formatted TTS notification. This issue reportedly was fixed in the LMS (opens new window) by accepting additional MIME types for WAV files.
• The LMS treats player MAC addresses as case-sensitive. Therefore, the case of MAC addresses in the Squeeze Player thing configuration must match the case displayed on the Information tab in the LMS Settings.

Caught a mistake or want to contribute to the documentation? Edit this page on GitHub (opens new window)