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UPnP vs New API

  • 3 October 2018
  • 12 replies
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I control my theater room with Demopad and it includes a Connect feeding into the system. After a lot of reading and learning and much trial and error, I've been able to build a Sonos page within Demopad using UPnP, that shows cover art, a progress bar for the current track, and a queue of the current track + the next three. It also has play, pause and track skip controls.

My question - should I be trying to move across to the new API ? Will it give me more control ? Will it make things easier ?

This is purely a hobby for me so forgive me if I'm misunderstanding how the new API works.
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Best answer by Ryan S 3 October 2018, 18:36

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12 replies

Userlevel 7
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The main thing missing from the Cloud API, and it is huge, is the ability to play anything other than Sonos Favorites. It covers discovery and av transport reasonably well, but choosing music to play is the big hole.
I guess the thing that puzzles me (and apparently folks at Control4 and others who depend on this) is why Sonos would write an API that is less capable than the UPnP interface?
Because it's clearly a work in progress. Expect it to evolve to become more comprehensive.

My understanding is that the UPnP API is not documented, and is not formally supported by Sonos. It's great to have (and I use it for a bunch of automation tasks), but depending on it is risky since it's intended for Sonos's internal use and subject to change without notice.


Risky or not UPnP is the only way for people to accomplish what they want to do today (and have been doing for many years). Sonos should not expect folks to adopt the new API when it is lacking so much of the functionality that UPnP provides. I wonder how much priority has been placed on closing those gaps sooner rather than later?
Userlevel 7
Badge +26
Hi Peter, there's a lot of functionality built into the new API. If you are curious, should definitely check it out: https://developer.sonos.com/
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Hi Ryan,

So the whole API is open to hobbyists like me ?

Cheers,
Peter
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Also - where is the best place to get detailed help on using the new API ?

Cheers,
Peter
Userlevel 7
Badge +26
Yes, and that link has some resources and direction for if you need help.
Userlevel 7
Badge +22
If you sign up you will get access to a lot of infirmation, examples and discussion, worth doing if you are interested in programming something.
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Many thanks. Have signed up and will dive in and see how it goes.

Cheers,
Peter
Userlevel 1
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The main thing missing from the Cloud API is that it's not not a cloud based API.
The main thing missing from the Cloud API, and it is huge, is the ability to play anything other than Sonos Favorites. It covers discovery and av transport reasonably well, but choosing music to play is the big hole.
I guess the thing that puzzles me (and apparently folks at Control4 and others who depend on this) is why Sonos would write an API that is less capable than the UPnP interface?
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FWIW I've decided to stick with UPnP for now.
Userlevel 7
Badge +20
I guess the thing that puzzles me (and apparently folks at Control4 and others who depend on this) is why Sonos would write an API that is less capable than the UPnP interface?
Because it's clearly a work in progress. Expect it to evolve to become more comprehensive.

My understanding is that the UPnP API is not documented, and is not formally supported by Sonos. It's great to have (and I use it for a bunch of automation tasks), but depending on it is risky since it's intended for Sonos's internal use and subject to change without notice.