Totem does not implement DBus standrad for MediaPlayer.

[moma]

Binary package hint: totem

Hello,
I have an application that needs to interact with various media players. This application uses DBus to watch signals that media players send.

Many good media players (like Amarok and Guayadeque player) now implement the DBus API and standard well, but Totem seems to lag behind development. AFAIK, Totem does not use DBus to inform other applications about its doings.

My application wants to track the media players' "TrackChange" signal/message on the DBus.

Dbus-monitor is a nice tool to peek what messages applications send to/via DBus.
Start dbus-monitor
$ dbus-monitor

Here is a typical output of a standards following media player.
The output shows a "TrackChange" signal on the DBus. It is sent when media player changes to a new song/radio-channel or track.

Signal sender=:1.477 -> dest=(null destination) serial=65 path=/Player; interface=org.freedesktop.MediaPlayer; member=TrackChange
       array [
          dict entry(
             string "location"
             variant string "file://http://38.108.111.24:8002"
          )
          dict entry(
             string "title"
             variant string "There s a kind of hush"
          )
          dict entry(
             string "artist"
             variant string "HERMANS HERMITS"
          )
          dict entry(
             string "album"
             variant string "Flower Power Oldies - We play the groovy tunes you love from the 50s, 60s and 70s"
          )
          dict entry(
             string "tracknumber"
             variant int32 1819045746
          )
          dict entry(
             string "genre"
             variant string "50s 60s 70s oldies"
          )
       ]

Other applications can catch and react to this message.

Important links:
http://www.mpris.org/1.0/spec.html
http://wiki.videolan.org/DBus-spec (the spec)
http://dbus.freedesktop.org

BTW: RhythmBox does use DBus but the interface and signal names are totally different from standard.
I think its interface name is "org.gnome.Rhythmbox.Player" instead of standard's "org.freedesktop.MediaPlayer"
and eg. it calls "TrackChange" signal for "playingUriChanged". Anyhow, you can easily check these things with dbus-monitor.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: totem 2.30.2-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-24.43-generic-pae 2.6.32.15+drm33.5
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-24-generic-pae i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Architecture: i386
Date: Sat Sep 18 17:48:30 2010
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100429)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: totem

[moma (osmoma)]

hello,
Ok, I try to use the GLib binding with DBus.

The reference manual is missing couple of methods
http://dbus.freedesktop.org/doc/dbus-glib/dbus-glib-DBusGProxy.html

It is missing at least
dbus_g_proxy_call_with_timeout (DBusGProxy *proxy, const char *method, int timeout, GError **error, GType first_arg_type,...)
this is quite important.

Maemo.org has more update manual page
http://maemo.org/api_refs/4.0/dbus-glib/group__DBusGLib.html

[madbiologist (me-again)]

In Totem 2.32.0 on Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" just select Edit->Plugins... and tick the box next to D-Bus Service.

I'm not sure if this exists in Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx".

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Thanks for the report, it has been some time without any response or feedback in this bug report and we are wondering if this is still an issue for you with the latest release of Ubuntu the Natty Narwhal, May you please test with that version and comment back if you're still having or not the issue? Please have a look at http://www.ubuntu.com/download to know how to install that version. Thanks in advance and sorry for the late response.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

We are closing this bug report because it lacks the information we need to investigate the problem, as described in the previous comments. Please reopen it if you can give us the missing information, and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to "New". Thanks again!