spotify (native linux client)

Since spotify includes an indicator to control some of its functions, this allows us to use dbus to send events.

There is a great script on ubuntuforums that covers this.

First install a prerequisite:

sudo apt-get install libnet-dbus-perl

Now copy and paste the script into a text file called spcmd and save this to your home folder.

Give it execute rights:

chmod +x ~/spcmd

Lets move this to a more useful folder:

mv ~/spcmd /usr/local/bin

Now, lets create a quick list.

First copy the spotify desktop file to your home folder:

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/applications

cp /usr/share/applications/spotify.desktop ~/.local/share/applications

Open the file and copy and paste the quick list to the end of the file. Save it.

gedit ~/.local/share/applications/spotify.desktop

end result

quicklist

X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts=PlayPause;Next;Previous;Stop;



[PlayPause Shortcut Group]

Name=PlayPause

Exec=spcmd playpause

TargetEnvironment=Unity



[Next Shortcut Group]

Name=Next

Exec=spcmd next

TargetEnvironment=Unity



[Previous Shortcut Group]

Name=Previous

Exec=spcmd previous

TargetEnvironment=Unity



[Stop Shortcut Group]

Name=Stop

Exec=spcmd stop

TargetEnvironment=Unity

spcmd

#!/usr/bin/perl



use 5.010;

use strict;

use warnings;

use File::Basename;

use Net::DBus;



# Figure out some dbus stuff

unless ( defined $ENV{'DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS'} ) {

&set_DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS;

#die "Don't know which dbus to attach to.

Make sure environment variable DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS is set.";

}

#my $bus = Net::DBus->find;

my $bus = Net::DBus->session;

my $spotify = $bus->get_service("org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.spotify");

my $player = $spotify->get_object("/org/mpris/MediaPlayer2", "org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player");

my $application = $spotify->get_object("/org/mpris/MediaPlayer2", "org.mpris.MediaPlayer2");

my $getorset = $spotify->get_object("/org/mpris/MediaPlayer2", "org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties");



# Handle command line argument

if (scalar @ARGV == 0) { &print_help; }

given ($ARGV[0]) {

# when ('play') { $player->Play(); } #Does not work for some reason.

when ('pause') { $player->Pause(); }

when ('playpause') { $player->PlayPause(); }

when ('next') { $player->Next(); }

when ('previous') { $player->Previous(); }

when ('stop') { $player->Stop(); }

when ('playstatus') { print $getorset->Get("org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player", "PlaybackStatus") . "

"; }

when (m/spotify:(artist|album|track):[0-9a-zA-z]{22}/) { $player->OpenUri($_); }

when ('metadata-debug') { &print_debug_metadata; }

default { &print_help; }

}





# Print the help text

sub print_help {

print "USAGE: " . basename($0) . " {pause|playpause|next|previous|stop|playstatus|met adata-debug|<spotify URI>}



";

print "	" . "pause" . "		" . "Causes spotify to pause current playback." . "

";

print "	" . "playpause" . "	" . "Causes spotify to pause or play current playback." . "

";

print "	" . "next" . "		" . "Goes to next song." . "

";

print "	" . "previous" . "	" . "Goes to previous song." . "

";

print "	" . "stop" . "		" . "Stops playback." . "

";

print "	" . "playstatus" . "	" . "Prints current playstatus (Playing/Paused)." . "

";

print "	" . "<spotify URI>" . "	" . "Starts playing supplied URI." . "

";

print "	" . "metadata-debug" . "	" . "Shows available data on currently playing song." . "

";

print "	" . "		" . "Fairly unformatted, thus "debug" data." . "

";

print "

";

print "EXAMPLES:	" . basename($0) . " playpause" . "

";

print "		" . basename($0) . " spotify:track:5XXAq1r5r73ZyBS0XAiGw0" . "

";



exit;

}



# Print some raw metadata

sub print_debug_metadata {

# Dereference the metadata hashref by copying it to a local hash

my %metadata = %{ $getorset->Get("org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player", "Metadata") };



# Print all metadata

print "Now Playing:

";

for (keys %metadata) {

print $_ . ":	" . $metadata{$_} . "

" unless ($_ eq 'xesam:artist');

}



# Dereference the artist arrayref by copying it to local array

my @artistarray = @{ $metadata{'xesam:artist'} };



# Print all artists.

foreach my $artist (@artistarray) {

print "artist: 	" . $artist . "

";

}

}



sub set_DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS {

my $curruser = `whoami`; chomp $curruser;

my $procname = 'spotify';

my $pid = `pgrep -o -u $curruser $procname`; chomp $pid;

my $environ = '/proc/' . $pid . '/environ';

my $dbussession = `grep -z DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS $environ`; $dbussession =~ s/^DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=//;



$ENV{'DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS'} = $dbussession;

}