SoCo-CLI Interactive Mode, Shortcuts, etc.

[pwt]

This follows on from a discussion started over at the https://github.com/pwt/SonosKeyController repository, initiated by @naxels, regarding less onerous ways of using SoCo-CLI as a command line client -- i.e., interactive use rather than use in scripts, etc.

The initial discussion is captured over at: pwt/SonosKeyController#2.

[pwt]

SoCo-CLI 0.3.0 adds an API mode, allowing the use of SoCo-CLI as a very high level Sonos control library. This makes it more suitable for use as an extension to utilities like SonosKeyController.

The docs are at: https://github.com/avantrec/soco-cli#using-soco-cli-as-a-python-library.

[pwt]

@naxels wrote:

Had some ideas for the interactive mode:

• add a help (shortcut h) or command (shortcut c and/or cmd) to print the commands you can use.
• • maybe > h playback to list all playback commands
• • > h group to list all grouping commands
• • > h queue to list all queueing commands

^ let me know if you like that idea, from the code I could see the actions are only specified with details in the README, however I am more than willing to help to translate this into the help/command idea if you have an idea for a framework to put this in.

• have some key metrics/information that always display on top (like top/htop would show cpu/mem on top)
• • Sonos Speaker name and maybe Ip address for example
• • Even if doing it on top is not easily possible, maybe update the line text to this (with "Portable" as example):
• • • Sonos Portable > and display Press 0 to exit in help / while entering Interactive mode
• ability to switch Sonos Speaker in interactive mode with s, spkr or speaker command
• • example: > s "Portable" (or ip) to switch to that Speaker

Quite a bit of this is implemented now in SoCo-CLI 0.3.4. I like it, actually, and I've started using it myself :) I'm going to add some form of tab command-completion, and shortcuts that can be saved in a separate file. v0.3.5 will also allow setting the active speaker just by typing its number.

You're right that the command documentation could do with a better framework from which multiple types of document could be generated. The code needs substantial tidying up, too. Project started small and grew bigger than I expected!

[naxels]

Awesome! this works beautifully!

[naxels]

I just had another idea for adding shortcuts to Interactive mode, based on what we discussed in SonosKeyController.

Since you are using the .soco-cli folder to store history, maybe in the same folder you can store what I call Alias commands.

When in Interactive mode, you can quickly setup an alias to a keyboard shortcut and this is saved to a file for future use

Here was my reasoning for this idea:

1. I start the soco-cli app using sonos -i
2. Press 2, which happens to always correspond to the Speaker I am looking for
3. Now I type volume to find the current volume of the Speaker, which is on pause.
4. Because I use this keyword often, I use the (what I call Alias) v shortcut to quickly get the volume (this happens to be build in)
5. Next I want to know the Track that will be played, so I type track, however what I would like to do is:
6. alias track t or alias t track and from that moment onwards, t will be the new shortcut for this
7. Now I want to have the track played, so I type play, which I would like to alias/shortcut to p
8. So I type alias play p or alias p play and am set
9. Regularly I just forward 15 seconds or backward 30 seconds, so I setup aliases/shortcuts for these too:
10. alias < seek_back 30s or alias seek_back 30s <
11. alias > seek_forward 15s or alias seek_forward 15s >
12. Jumping up and down the volume:
13. alias + rel_vol 5 or alias rel_vol 5 +
14. alias - rel_vol -5 or alias rel_vol -5 -
15. running alias without parameters would show me all my custom setup aliases and their setup.

Of course the issue to figure out is whether or not you should allow someone to repurpose the build in commands, for example q to mean something else than what is setup already (maybe not allow, return error?).

And when in the future I decide to have < or > mean something different, I can always overwrite my own aliases using the same command.

This way we get very close to SonosKeyController, only needing an additional Enter keyboard command.

Ps: The ability to switch between speakers by just typing the number and hit enter is such a wonderful shortcut :)

[pwt]

Thanks.

Yes this is along the lines I was thinking of, but goes a bit further. It's nicely thought out, so I've implemented it as you suggest, and it's included in v0.3.9.

https://github.com/avantrec/soco-cli#shell-aliases

There is some tricky coding, especially around action sequences stored as aliases, so expect some bugs!

[naxels]

Like how you are able to add the chaining of commands!

[pwt]

The next version allows any command to be aliased, except for 'alias' itself, for obvious reasons. So, one can alias numbers, 'exit', etc.

[pwt]

In v0.3.11, aliases can include other aliases, with loop detection. Also, a new 'single keystroke' mode enables functionality equivalent to SonosKeyController for Unix-y systems.

[pwt]

Perhaps worth mentioning that single keystroke mode also works for Windows systems now.

[adamcduncan]

I wanted to reach out with another idea along a similar usage pattern to what @naxels mentioned above.

My general pattern is:
sonos -i
4 # set speaker
play_favorite_number 21
track

It would be cool if there was a "persistent mode" for the track function. It might even be a modifier for the play_favorite* functions. For example, play_favorite_number 21 --show-tracks would play the favorites station while always listing the then playing track.

Apologies if this is already implemented and I happily take an RTFM redirect! :)

[adamcduncan]

Nice! Thanks for the implementing this feature. I will test it this morning and revert with feedback.

[adamcduncan]

This works well! I would say that a "double Ctrl-C" feels like the way to go. The first ctrl-c exits the track_follow process and returns control to the sonos shell. The second ctrl-c exits interactive mode completely. For the track_follow action, I would probably post a short message on launch to the user "Press ctrl-c to exit follow mode and return to the sonos shell." or similar. Thanks again for looking at this. So good!

[pwt]

This works well!

Good -- thanks for testing.

I would say that a "double Ctrl-C" feels like the way to go. The first ctrl-c exits the track_follow process and returns control to the sonos shell. The second ctrl-c exits interactive mode completely. For the track_follow action, I would probably post a short message on launch to the user "Press ctrl-c to exit follow mode and return to the sonos shell." or similar.

Agreed -- I'm taking a look at how much surgery is required on the signal handling logic to implement this.

[pwt]

Version 0.3.45 Adds the track_follow action for the non-interactive case. It does not terminate when the target speaker is paused or stopped, so can only be stopped using CTRL-C.

Implementing this behaviour for the interactive shell, without a CTRL-C ending the shell session is ... tricky. However, now that there's a non-interactive track_follow action, there is a workaround using the exec command in the shell, as follows:

$ sonos -i Study

Entering SoCo-CLI interactive shell.
Type 'help' for available shell commands.

SoCo-CLI [Study] > exec sonos Study track_follow

This starts a SoCo-CLI subprocess, running track_follow, which will keep running until cancelled using CTRL-C, returning control to the SoCo-CLI shell.

Note that this can be aliased for quick access, e.g.:

SoCo-CLI [Study] > alias tf exec sonos %1 track_follow
Alias 'tf' created
SoCo-CLI [Study] >

Then, in the shell, one can just use tf <speaker_name> to start the subprocess.

Let me know if any of this needs clarification ... and let me know of any problems, of course!

[pwt]

In v0.3.47, I've evolved track_follow so that it automatically runs in a subprocess in interactive mode.

This provides the desired behaviour of track_follow continuing to run when playback is stopped or paused, while CTRL-C returns control to the interactive shell.

(The advice above to use exec still works, but is now redundant.)

[adamcduncan]

This is great, pwt. Thanks for all the work on it. I will use it this week and revert with any issues/bugs I find.

…

On Mon, Jun 7, 2021 at 5:12 AM pwt ***@***.***> wrote: In *v0.3.47*, I've evolved track_follow so that it automatically runs in a subprocess in interactive mode. This provides the desired behaviour of track_follow continuing to run when playback is stopped or paused, while CTRL-C returns control to the interactive shell. (The advice above to use exec still works, but is now redundant.) — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#10 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAXHV2ZZBWCCEGS2PWE7E33TRSEP3ANCNFSM4WIXZFNA> .

-- ***@***.*** | w:617-512-2509 | c:908-873-8195

[pwt]

Just to note that v0.4.6 adds a track_follow_compact (or tfc) action, which works like track_follow but prints information for each successive track on a single line, e.g.:

      1: [16:40] Artist: King Crimson | Album: In The Court Of The Crimson King | Title: Epitaph
      2: [16:45] Artist: Julie Miller | Album: Broken Things | Title: All My Tears
      3: [16:49] Artist: Nahko & Medicine for the People | Album: Take Your Power Back | Title: Lifeguard
      4: [16:53] Artist: Chuck Berry | Album: The Great 28 | Title: Nadine
      5: [16:55] Artist: Bob Marley | Album: Exodus | Title: Waiting in Vain
...

[adamcduncan]

I have been using the track_follow_compact feature quite a bit lately and I love the single line format. I had the idea that I might like to pipe that output to a file to create a list of the songs that were played during that session. Given that track_follow* is running in a sub-process, I wasn't sure if you had access to the local shell. For example, could a user do something like this:

track_follow_compact > playlist_dump.txt

or even

track_follow_compact >> playlist_dump.txt to keep a running list of what you've been listening to.

I haven't quite sorted what I intend to do with this list, but thought I would post here to see if you had thoughts.
Many thanks, as always.

[pwt]

Redirection of the output to a file works fine if you do it directly from the command line, but not in the interactive shell. So:

% sonos <speaker> tfc > tracks.txt works, or % sonos <speaker> tfc >> tracks.txt to append.

On Unix, if you want to see the output as well as redirect to a file, then use tee:

% sonos <speaker> tfc | tee tracks.txt or % sonos <speaker> tfc | tee -a tracks.txt to append.

Note that it's quite possible to run multiple instances of tfc on the same host, e.g., one via an interactive shell and one directly via the command line.

[adamcduncan]

Nice! Great addition.

…

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 30, 2021, at 12:01 PM, pwt ***@***.***> wrote:  Just to note that v0.4.6 adds a track_follow_compact (or tfc) action, which works like track_follow but prints information for each successive track on a single line, e.g.: 1: [16:40] Artist: King Crimson | Album: In The Court Of The Crimson King | Title: Epitaph 2: [16:45] Artist: Julie Miller | Album: Broken Things | Title: All My Tears 3: [16:49] Artist: Nahko & Medicine for the People | Album: Take Your Power Back | Title: Lifeguard 4: [16:53] Artist: Chuck Berry | Album: The Great 28 | Title: Nadine 5: [16:55] Artist: Bob Marley | Album: Exodus | Title: Waiting in Vain ... — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.

[adamcduncan]

Oh fantastic. Thanks for the reprex on using that from the command line. I like the `tee` example! I'll play around and if anything useful comes of it, I'll post. Thanks again!

…

On Thu, Aug 12, 2021 at 11:27 AM pwt ***@***.***> wrote: Redirection of the output to a file works fine if you do it directly from the command line, but not in the interactive shell. So: % sonos <speaker> tfc > tracks.txt works, or % sonos <speaker> tfc >> tracks.txt to append. On Unix, if you want to see the output as well as redirect to a file, then use tee: % sonos <speaker> tfc | tee tracks.txt or % sonos <speaker> tfc | tee -a tracks.txt to append. Note that it's quite possible to run multiple instances of tfc on the same host, e.g., one via an interactive shell and one directly via the command line. — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#10 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAXHV25C6CZP4TBWAOLV3HTT4PR7RANCNFSM4WIXZFNA> .

-- ***@***.*** | w:617-513-2509 | c:908-873-8195

[pwt]

In v0.4.13 I've generalised the subprocess approach in the shell so it's used to run all long-lived commands that might require a CTRL-C to exit (wait_start, etc.), and these no longer exit the SoCo-CLI shell when terminated (same as for track_follow, etc.)

I've also switched each subprocess to run in an OS shell of its own, meaning that shell expansions like redirects (>) will now work. This is a long-winded way of saying that statements such as tfc > tracks.txt or tfc | tee -a tracks.txt will now work from within the SoCo-CLI interactive shell as well as from the command line.

As always, let me know of any problems or suggestions for improvement.

[adamcduncan]

Thanks so much! These are excellent feature enhancements.

…

-adam

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 14, 2021, at 11:34 AM, pwt ***@***.***> wrote:  In v0.4.13 I've generalised the subprocess approach in the shell so it's used to run all long-lived commands that might require a CTRL-C to exit (wait_start, etc.), and these no longer exit the SoCo-CLI shell when terminated (same as for track_follow, etc.) I've also switched each subprocess to run in an OS shell of its own, meaning that shell expansions like redirects (>) will now work. This is a long-winded way of saying that statements such as tfc > tracks.txt or tfc | tee -a tracks.txt will now work from within the SoCo-CLI interactive shell as well as from the command line. As always, let me know of any problems or suggestions for improvement. — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.