How to continuously monitor rhythmbox for track change using python

Question

I want to monitor the change of track in Rhythmbox using python. I want to continuously check for change of track and execute a set of functions if the track is changed. I have written a piece of code which gets hold of the Rhythmbox interfaces from the dbus and gets the current track details. But this program has to be run manually to check for any change.

I am new to this and I would like to know how we can create a background process which continuously runs and checks Rhythmbox.

I dont want to make a Rhythmbox plugin(which rather would make my work simple) as I will be extending the application to listen to multiple music players.

Please suggest me what exactly I would have to do to achieve the functionality.

score 13 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 06 '10 at 03:20

The Rhythmbox player object (/org/gnome/Rhythmbox/Player) sends a playingUriChanged signal whenever the current song changes. Connect a function to the signal to have it run whenever the signal is received. Here's an example that prints the title of the song whenever a new song starts, using the GLib main loop to process DBus messages:

#! /usr/bin/env python

import dbus
import dbus.mainloop.glib
import glib

# This gets called whenever Rhythmbox sends the playingUriChanged signal
def playing_song_changed (uri):
    global shell
    if uri != "":
        song = shell.getSongProperties (uri)
        print "Now playing: {0}".format (song["title"])
    else:
        print "Not playing anything"

dbus.mainloop.glib.DBusGMainLoop (set_as_default = True)

bus = dbus.SessionBus ()

proxy = bus.get_object ("org.gnome.Rhythmbox", "/org/gnome/Rhythmbox/Player")
player = dbus.Interface (proxy, "org.gnome.Rhythmbox.Player")
player.connect_to_signal ("playingUriChanged", playing_song_changed)

proxy = bus.get_object ("org.gnome.Rhythmbox", "/org/gnome/Rhythmbox/Shell")
shell = dbus.Interface (proxy, "org.gnome.Rhythmbox.Shell")

# Run the GLib event loop to process DBus signals as they arrive
mainloop = glib.MainLoop ()
mainloop.run ()

This is awesome. One of these days I'll figure out a good use for it. :) — Sam Dolan, Nov 06 '10 at 03:29
I tried it, but I got an error - http://s020.radikal.ru/i723/1308/e5/2046183ed28e.png how can it be solved? — Tebe, Aug 27 '13 at 16:06

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 08 '14 at 07:03

I am using Ubuntu 14.04.1 and the above script is deprecated for Rhythmbox 3. I am using this script to write the current song to ~/.now_playing for BUTT to read, but you can update it for your needs. Rhythmbox uses MPRIS now and you can get info here:

http://specifications.freedesktop.org/mpris-spec/latest/index.html

#!/usr/bin/python

import dbus
import dbus.mainloop.glib
import glib

# This gets called whenever Rhythmbox sends the playingUriChanged signal
def playing_song_changed (Player,two,three):
    global iface
    global track
    global home
    track2 = iface.Get(Player,"Metadata").get(dbus.String(u'xesam:artist'))[0] + " - "+ iface.Get(Player,"Metadata").get(dbus.String(u'xesam:title'))

    if track != track2:
        track = iface.Get(Player,"Metadata").get(dbus.String(u'xesam:artist'))[0] + " - "+ iface.Get(Player,"Metadata").get(dbus.String(u'xesam:title'))
        f = open( home + '/.now_playing', 'w' )
        f.write( track + '\n' )
        f.close()


dbus.mainloop.glib.DBusGMainLoop (set_as_default = True)

bus = dbus.SessionBus ()
from os.path import expanduser
home = expanduser("~")
player = bus.get_object ("org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.rhythmbox", "/org/mpris/MediaPlayer2")
iface = dbus.Interface (player, "org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties")

track = iface.Get("org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player","Metadata").get(dbus.String(u'xesam:artist'))[0] + " - "+ iface.Get("org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player","Metadata").get(dbus.Strin$
f = open( home + "/.now_playing", 'w' )
f.write( track + '\n' )
f.close()

iface.connect_to_signal ("PropertiesChanged", playing_song_changed)

# Run the GLib event loop to process DBus signals as they arrive
mainloop = glib.MainLoop ()
mainloop.run ()

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 12 '10 at 23:58

Take a look at the Conky script here:

https://launchpad.net/~conkyhardcore/+archive/ppa/+files/conkyrhythmbox_2.12.tar.gz

That uses dbus to talk to rhythmbox, like so:

bus = dbus.SessionBus()
remote_object_shell = bus.get_object('org.gnome.Rhythmbox', '/org/gnome/Rhythmbox/Shell')
iface_shell = dbus.Interface(remote_object_shell, 'org.gnome.Rhythmbox.Shell')
remote_object_player = bus.get_object('org.gnome.Rhythmbox', '/org/gnome/Rhythmbox/Player')
iface_player = dbus.Interface(remote_object_player, 'org.gnome.Rhythmbox.Player')

You can call a number of functions on iface_player to get the required information. It looks like you'll have to poll from this example though. If you want to receive a message from dbus on track change you'll have to do that in a different way. This discusses from avenues to explore:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=156706

score -2 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 12 '10 at 23:13

Something like:

from time import sleep

execute = True
while execute:
    your_function_call()
    sleep(30) # in seconds; prevent busy polling

Should work just fine. If that was hooked up to something that listened to signals (import signal) so that you could set execute to False when someone ctrl-c's the application, that'd be basically what you're after.

Otherwise, have a Google for daemonisation (which involves forking the process a couple of times); from memory, there's even a decent Python library now (which, from memory, requires 2.5/2.6 with statements) which would help make that side of things easier :).

Please see [Process Management](http://mywiki.wooledge.org/ProcessManagement) and double-fork no more, my son! — Dennis Williamson, Mar 17 '11 at 20:11

How to continuously monitor rhythmbox for track change using python

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