The VideoLAN Forums

I asked here:

[url]https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=151176&p=496713#p496713[/url]

But the reply was short of really helping me understand what to do.

I have VLC on a remote machine which I want to use to play as a "juke box" kind of thing. (Play music)

I read there are options for remote control, but the instructions seem to be written for people who already know what to do and how to do it.

I am neither of those and am wanting help on how to set it up.

I may also want to put buttons on the machine via GPIO ports and control things that way as well.

The documentation I am reading also assumes a lot of the person's knowledge.
I (again) don't have this knowledge and so can't use it as given.

I am asking here on the support forum for help in how to do this.

The commands would be things like:
(inputs)
Load VLC and play "playlist" (or song)
Exit VLC
Play
Pause
Next
Previous
Volume controls
Speed of playback (maybe, but not really imagined at this point)

(outputs)
Name of song/track being played.

Someone?
Please.

Hi, you could have ping on the post, I sometime miss answers because of the number of open post here.

There is documentation about the API in share/lua/http/requests/README.txt, here: https://github.com/videolan/vlc/blob/master/share/lua/http/requests/README.txt

If you know where to find them in the current interface, you can also activate the network inspector of your browser and check the requests that are sent.

Is it clearer ?

Hi, you could have ping on the post, I sometime miss answers because of the number of open post here.

There is documentation about the API in share/lua/http/requests/README.txt, here: https://github.com/videolan/vlc/blob/master/share/lua/http/requests/README.txt

If you know where to find them in the current interface, you can also activate the network inspector of your browser and check the requests that are sent.

Is it clearer ?

First line:
Sorry? I don't understand what you mean. I saw your reply to the original question and posted a reply to that. I have not (yet) seen a reply to that.

Line 2:
That link is new to me. I did not know if it before now. Thanks. I shall look and see what I can make of it.
Though I don't understand what an API is. I'll look into it.

Line 3:
If I know where to find "them"?
What is this "them" of which you speak?

Update:
I'm looking at the link you supplied.
Interesting. Looks promising.
But although this link shows me the commands which I can send and the replies I get, it lacks telling me which protocol it uses and which port.
OK, it has lua and http in the title, so I'll take it as those are the "protocol". but still not the port.

Hi,

Sorry? I don't understand what you mean. I saw your reply to the original question and posted a reply to that. I have not (yet) seen a reply to that.

Sometime you might answer and I might miss it, so it gets buried below the quantity of post. Don't hesitate to send a message again if you don't have answer for ~a week. The forum is hard to track as there is no assignement possible. :/

That link is new to me. I did not know if it before now. Thanks. I shall look and see what I can make of it.
Though I don't understand what an API is. I'll look into it.

Basically VLC exposes an HTTP server on the endpoint defined by --http-host and --http-port.
You can send HTTP requests to execute things or get info from VLC.
The document above documents the different requests that you can send.

If I know where to find "them"?
What is this "them" of which you speak?

If you know which button in the HTTP interface is producing the action you're looking for, you can dump the HTTP request that is sent when you click the button with the network inspector from your browser.
Check https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools/Network_Monitor

Update:
I'm looking at the link you supplied.
Interesting. Looks promising.
But although this link shows me the commands which I can send and the replies I get, it lacks telling me which protocol it uses and which port.
OK, it has lua and http in the title, so I'll take it as those are the "protocol". but still not the port.
Top

The option are documented by vlc help and are:
The Lua HTTP interface exposes requests through HTTP endpoints documented in the README.txt, so it's basically only HTTP GET requests if I remember correctly. Protocol is HTTP, host is the one from --http-host, port is the one from --http-port.

PS: If you want, you can quote things on this forum with

Basically VLC exposes an HTTP server on the endpoint defined by --http-host and --http-port.
You can send HTTP requests to execute things or get info from VLC.
The document above documents the different requests that you can send.

Sorry. Still not getting it fully.

I know this won't help, but just for now I will load VLC on this machine with the ports open so I can test the interface all locally and when it works, simply change the --http-host.

Ok. What is the --http-port number?
I open the interface window and select 'all interfaces' but it doesn't tell me the port. 8080 as I saw somewhere?

So as an example I have manually loaded a song and paused it. I want it to resume. I would send the command:
?command=pl_forceresume (Port 8080. Though somewhere in the documentation I read port 9999)

Nothing happens.

So I can't move forward from there because I am still not moving.

I'm using Node-red to try and control VLC.
Just so everyone is on the same page.

I think I also may need help with how to start VLC so it has the port open.

While trying things, this is what I get:
(trying to start VLC with HTTP port open)
Ok, I'm stuck.