The general idea

Valknut has a /sh chat command that runs a program, and sends the text that the program prints out to the hub as chat, as if you said it.

[19:41:38] <VALKNUT> /sh date

[19:41:38] <ejs> Fri Dec 5 19:41:38 GMT 2008

Many media playing programs provide some way for another program to get info about the current song playing, exactly how varies, and usually you need to use a small script (bash, perl, python etc.) to produce the exact message you want.

You can then define some short command e.g. "/a" to be "/sh amarok2-now-playing".

The scripts/programs

The provided programs all produce slightly different output. The exact version of the media player is not required, that is just the version I had.

• Audacious 1.5.1 - bash script

  Audacious provides "audtool", the script formats and arranges the output.

• Xmms 1.2.11 - C program

  Compile: gcc -Wall -O2 -g `xmms-config --cflags` `xmms-config --libs` -o xmms-now-playing xmms-now-playing.c

  Xmms provides libxmms for C programs to use, alternatively use XMMS Announcer.

• Rhythmbox 0.11.6 - bash script

  Rhythmbox provides "rhythmbox-client", you do not really need the script, just use "rhythmbox-client --print-playing-format ...". The bash script lists the items available for the format string.

• Kaffeine 0.8.7 - bash script

  This version of kaffeine uses KDE 3.5, so uses the "dcop" command, which is very easy to use.

• Amarok 1.4.10 - bash script

  KDE 3.5, the "dcop" command.

• Amarok 1.98 , VLC 0.9.8a, maybe more - C++ program

  Compile: g++ -Wall -O2 -g `pkg-config --cflags QtCore QtDBus` `pkg-config --libs QtCore QtDBus` -o amarok2-now-playing amarok2-now-playing.cpp

  Amarok 2 uses KDE 4, which replaced dcop with dbus.

  You can enable the dbus interface in VLC and then run "amarok2-now-playing vlc".

  If run with an argument other than "vlc" or "amarok", that is the dbus service name, run "qdbus" for a list, "org.mpris.audacious" is Audacious, but "audtool" is more appropriate.

  TODO: add some kind of --format option to this program, unless a better program already exists somewhere.

  Alternatively, the qdbus program could be used in the same way the dcop program was, in a script.