Skip to main content
jishi
Headliner II
March 5, 2013

Sonos with node.js, my attempt!

INFO

Source code here: https://github.com/jishi/node-sonos-http-api
Sonos Web Controller draft (work in progress!): https://github.com/jishi/node-sonos-web-controller
Sonos IR control (requires lircd and IR reciever): https://github.com/jishi/node-sonos-remote-control

==============================================================


I know that there already is an attempt at this by this guy: http://forums.sonos.com/showthread.php?t=32643, but I found it to be a bit lacking in functionality so I decided to write up my own.

I have created a simple web-based API using what I have, which could be useful for integrating stuff with other applications. This web based API is inspired by other RESTful APIs, however I don't think it follows the correct guidelines to be called a REST API.

IT supports most basic features like:

play, pause, seek, next, prev, volume, mute, setAVTransportURI

It also supports these advanced fatures:

State of player as JSON, zone info as JSON, Play favorite item, presets (grouping, volume, avTransportURI)

You can read more in the README for each project.

To run it as a service under linux, I suggest using pm2 (https://github.com/Unitech/pm2). You need to run it in forked mode (-x)!

For Windows, you might try Winser http://jfromaniello.github.io/winser/

Cheers!
      This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

      391 replies

      jishiAuthor
      Headliner II
      March 7, 2013
      Thought there would be more interest in something like this.

      However, following up myself:

      I bought a raspberry pi primarily to test this out, and it was even easier than expected, to get this running. Installed a precompiled version of Node 0.8.16 on the default raspbian image and everything works as expected.

      Also implemented the following:

      +/-volume support
      seek
      next/previous

      I'm guessing it would be possible to utilize some sort of button board to get physical buttons to control your Sonos (I'm thinking presets), but even some sort of wireless keyboard could be useful.
      davey400
      Contributor III
      March 8, 2013
      A lot of us will definitely be interested in your progressions on this project, but (like me) they are probably just waiting to see what happens.

      Maybe if you release/reveal the code you allready have, and some quick instructions of how to use it, you will probably get more response.

      Don't know if this is part of your plans, but what I would like to see is a good looking web based controller that can run on an IIS server. (An alternative to the old perl-based controller)

      Good luck with this project and keep up the good work!
      jishiAuthor
      Headliner II
      March 8, 2013

      Don't know if this is part of your plans, but what I would like to see is a good looking web based controller that can run on an IIS server. (An alternative to the old perl-based controller)

      Good luck with this project and keep up the good work!

      Thank you for your reply, it helps knowing that there is a demand to keep the spirit up :)

      Yes, the next step is to try and reproduce a simple html5 controller based on websockets (with socket.io) to get a more native look and feel. I have never seen the perl-based controller though. Since node doesn't interact with IIS as far as I know, this will not be hosted on IIS. However, node has built-in support for http, so there is no need for this, and this would be platform agnostic.

      The tough nut to crack as I see it is the music and queue management. I have no insight on how the music browsing works, since I exlusively rely on spotify myself.

      I will add my progress so far to my github as soon as I figure out the smartest way to handle topology events and how to structure the npm, hopefully this weekend.
      henkelis
      Trending Lyricist I
      March 8, 2013


      Yes, the next step is to try and reproduce a simple html5 controller based on websockets (with socket.io) to get a more native look and feel. I have never seen the perl-based controller though.

      The tough nut to crack as I see it is the music and queue management. I have no insight on how the music browsing works, since I exlusively rely on spotify myself.



      Sonospy has an optional HTML GUI front end (using jQuery and Javascript) that supports browsing - you ought to be able to work out how browsing works from that.
      jishiAuthor
      Headliner II
      March 8, 2013
      Sonospy has an optional HTML GUI front end (using jQuery and Javascript) that supports browsing - you ought to be able to work out how browsing works from that.

      Good tip. However, the main problem for me is that I have no indexed music om my system, so I have no way of inspecting the actual traffic.
      buzz
      buzz
      Grand Maestro
      March 8, 2013
      jishi,

      SONOS allows up to 16 shares, you could create a small share on the computer for testing purposes. I keep a few small folders for such purposes. And, there is a large folder that can be expanded if I ever need to test beyond the 65000 limit. The metadata is distinct even though the track contents might not be distinct.
      jishiAuthor
      Headliner II
      March 17, 2013
      Okay, here is the first draft.

      https://github.com/jishi/node-sonos-http-api

      if you don't want to muck around with git, I have a zip-file which you can use:

      http://upload.grabbarna.se/files/sonos-http-api.zip

      unzip it to a folder, then just invoke from a command prompt or powershell or bash or whatever while standing in the folder:

      code:

      node server.js


      I don't handle topology yet, had some issues with timing and haven't had time to look into it.

      I have only tested it in node 0.8.16, should work fine in 0.8.x but unsure about earlier versions. It works on a raspberry pi, and should be okay on any nodejs supported platform.

      Feedback is welcome, forking and patches as well.

      Have fun!
      jishiAuthor
      Headliner II
      March 23, 2013
      Here is an update.

      I have managed to implement the topology stuff now as well, which basically means that you are able to send commands to any player, and it will control the coordinator instead.

      This means that if:

      Kitchen and Office is grouped, command to either player will control them both (except for volume). This is probably much more handy.

      Posted a pre-zipped package here:

      http://upload.grabbarna.se/files/sonos-http-api-v2.zip

      And also pushed the latest version to github.
      jishiAuthor
      Headliner II
      March 25, 2013
      For those interested in the progress:

      http://upload.grabbarna.se/files/sonos-web-controller-draft-3.png

      Man, does it takes forever to replicate the GUI in HTML...
      jishiAuthor
      Headliner II
      March 28, 2013
      Finally pushed the web controller to a public repository:

      https://github.com/jishi/node-sonos-web-controller

      Nothing is actually working (except for zone discovery), but if you want to try it out to get a feeling on how it will behave in the browser, please feel free to do so. You will also be able to follow my commit logs :)

      If you want to help out, give me a shout. The main reason for me doing this, is because I want to expose a working controller for all my co-workers. Being behind firewalls and on different nets, it would simplify it a lot if I could just expose a web-based controller for everyone to use. It could also be useful for controlling a system remotely.
      Show more replies
      Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement