Simple Python Script To Control XBMC via Web/JSON API
#1
Hey guys. I've recently been working on finishing up my "perfect" media solution. Part of this is writing some custom scripts to handle getting everything "perfect".
My original inspiration for this particular script was to be able to run Martijn's excellent ArtworkDownloader add-on via a script on my "server" box where I run SABnzbd, SickBeard, CouchPotato, et all.
I was able to write this with help from a variety of sources. I found but did not use a very big Python JSON client for XBMC. It was too big and full featured for my simple needs. I was looking for a single simple script file that I could plug various Method calls into. I found a lot of examples of code online and some stuff on this forum, but nothing had all the parts put together in a single place, so I figured I'd post my work here.
This script has been tested against Gotham Milestone 1, and supports authentication. I built in some limited error handling and have tested the script against a variety of issues, because I intended to use this in an automated capacity. Can't have things just crash & burn if the target XBMC instance is not running or something Tongue
Here's my Python code (with a lot of comments):

Code:
#!/bin/env/python
import json
import urllib2
import base64

# Setings
# The IP address for the XBMC instance you want to talk to
ip = '192.168.1.10'
# The port number XBMC's web interface is listening on
port = '8080'
# The username on XBMC's web interface (just comment or delete this line if you don't use authentication
username = 'xbmc'
# Same as the username.
password = 'xbmc'

# Here you specify the method and parameters you want to pass to the XBMC JSON API
# For a LOT of info on the kinds of things you can do with the interface go here:
# http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=JSON-RPC_API/v6
# Here's an example of just sending an on-screen notification. This should help you understand the syntax
# method = 'GUI.ShowNotification'
# parameters = {"title":"Hello There!", "message":"This is a notification!", "displaytime":3000}
# This is what I am actually doing with this script, running the Artwork Downloader.
# Note: I am using the "silent" mode to avoid having a pop-up dialog box that would need to be closed.
# Also note: this stuff is very syntax-specific. Boolean and Int values must not be quoted. Strings must be doublequoted.
method = 'Addons.ExecuteAddon'
parameters = {"addonid":"script.artwork.downloader", "params":{"silent":"true"}, "wait":True}

# This is a single, reusable method that makes a call to XBMC and gives you back the response

def getJsonRemote(host,port,username,password,method,parameters):
    # First we build the URL we're going to talk to
    url = 'http://%s:%s/jsonrpc' %(host, port)
    # Next we'll build out the Data to be sent
    values ={}
    values["jsonrpc"] = "2.0"
    values["method"] = method
    # This fork handles instances where no parameters are specified
    if parameters:
        values["params"] = parameters
    values["id"] = "1"
    headers = {"Content-Type":"application/json",}
    # Format the data
    data = json.dumps(values)
    # Now we're just about ready to actually initiate the connection
    req = urllib2.Request(url, data, headers)
    # This fork kicks in only if both a username & password are provided
    if username and password:
        # This properly formats the provided username & password and adds them to the request header
        base64string = base64.encodestring('%s:%s' % (username, password)).replace('\n', '')
        req.add_header("Authorization", "Basic %s" % base64string)
    # Now we're ready to talk to XBMC
    # I wrapped this up in a try: statement to allow for graceful error handling
    try:
        response = urllib2.urlopen(req)
        response = response.read()
        response = json.loads(response)
        # A lot of the XBMC responses include the value "result", which lets you know how your call went
        # This logic fork grabs the value of "result" if one is present, and then returns that.
        # Note, if no "result" is included in the response from XBMC, the JSON response is returned instead.
        # You can then print out the whole thing, or pull info you want for further processing or additional calls.
        if 'result' in response:
            response = response['result']
    # This error handling is specifically to catch HTTP errors and connection errors
    except urllib2.URLError as e:
        # In the event of an error, I am making the output begin with "ERROR " first, to allow for easy scripting.
        # You will get a couple different kinds of error messages in here, so I needed a consistent error condition to check for.
        response = 'ERROR '+str(e.reason)
    return response

# Here's an example of using the above method and variable values to make XBMC run the add-on
results=getJsonRemote(ip,port,username,password,method,parameters)
# I just print the results out
print results

I hope this proves useful to someone. As I said, all this info exists in various pieces on the web, wiki, and elsewhere. However, I couldn't find anything that included all the bits I wanted in a format I could understand.
If you're even mildly familiar with Python you can probably understand what this code does. I'm still a complete novice, though I have now switched to Python as my language of choice for scripty things I need to do for server maintenance and automation. I used to use BASH, but Python is way more powerful.
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Simple Python Script To Control XBMC via Web/JSON API - by SleepyP - 2014-06-11, 22:04
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