Bash script to compose packets and send them to a Kodi instance running an Event Server.
Its only dependency is the xxd command.
(which is usually packaged with vim-common so should be widely available)
It is a re-write in bash of the xbmcclient.py python library included in Kodi.
Implementation of XBMC's UDP based input system.
A set of classes that abstract the various packets that the event server currently supports. In addition, there's also a class, XBMCClient, that provides functions that sends the various packets
NB. Kodi also allows control via it's JSON-RPC API.
JSON-RPC is a HTTP- and/or raw TCP socket-based interface for communicating with Kodi. It replaces the deprecated HTTP API.
However this tool is using a third way to control Kodi - the EventServer
The EventServer in Kodi was created to satisfy a need to support many input devices across multiple hardware platforms. Adding direct support for a multitude of devices generally decreases performance and stability, and becomes difficult to maintain. The EventServer was created to provide a simple, reliable way to communicate with and control Kodi.
A quick and easy way to tell clients apart is to look for the port number they use to connect to Kodi.
- JSON-RPC API clients communicate with Kodi using TCP on port
9090 - EventServer clients communicate with Kodi using UDP on port
9777
This (and any other Event Client) requires Kodi to be configured to allow remote control from applications on other systems.
git clone git@github.com:yertto/event_client.git ~/Code/event_client
export PATH="$HOME/Code/event_client/bin:$PATH"
| repo | JSON-RPC API | Event Server | CLI | language | description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| kodi-remotecontrol | 🚫 | ✅ | 🚫 | python | This is a Python remote control for Kodi with minimal but sufficient basic controls. This remote control acts as a WebSocket Gateway of the UDP Event Server API for more reactivity. |
| kodi-control | ✅ | 🚫 | ✅ | python | Kodi Control can be used to control a running instance of Kodi from a terminal. You can use it to interactively control the app and the players by opening a terminal and typing individual characters to perform various actions |
| kodi-cli | ✅ | 🚫 | ✅ | python | used from the command line to execute commands against a target Kodi host via the RPC interface defined at JSON-RPC API This provides a Kodi JSON-RPC client. All Kodi JSON methods can be called as methods to the KodiJSONClient instance. |
| python-kodijson | ✅ | 🚫 | 🚫 | python | Simple python module that allow kodi control over JSON-RPC API |
| xbmc-client | ✅ | 🚫 | ✅ | python | is a Kodi command line client, written in Python to control your Kodi instance through the JSON-RPC API ( |
| kodijsonrpc | ✅ | 🚫 | 🚫 | python | This provides a Kodi JSON-RPC client. All Kodi JSON methods can be called as methods to the KodiJSONClient instance. |
| kodicontroller | ✅ | 🚫 | 🚫 | python | This package provides an array of functions which can be used to control a Kodi instance. |
| PyKodi | ✅ | 🚫 | 🚫 | python | An async python interface for Kodi over JSON-RPC. This is mostly designed to integrate with HomeAssistant. If you have other needs, there might be better packages available. |
Home Assistant - Kodi (View Source) is a Home Assistant integration to control a Kodi multimedia system.
However I wanted to use Kodi's Event Server so I could use button events to drive the UI and Home Assistant integration didn't appear to do that.
In particular I want to send Left and Right button events so I can use the Skip Steps to incrementally skip.
I only found one alternative that would connect to the Event Server.
However to run as a script in my Home Assistant it needs to be able to run with the very minimal resources used by BusyBox
BusyBox combines tiny versions of many common UNIX utilities into a single small executable. It provides replacements for most of the utilities you usually find in GNU fileutils, shellutils, etc. The utilities in BusyBox generally have fewer options than their full-featured GNU cousins; however, the options that are included provide the expected functionality and behave very much like their GNU counterparts. BusyBox provides a fairly complete environment for any small or embedded system.
So I made this tool to work just using bash & BusyBox's version of xxd.
(And remarkably enough, it appears to achieve everything the python library does.)
The tests can be run with:
make test
These tests make "golden test" assertions against pre-created binary packets.
The packets have been manually tested and confirmed to work against Kodi v20.1-Nexus
ie. by running:
cat shpecs/support/NOTIFICATION/10chars_with_title.bin | EVENT_SERVER_HOST=$kodi_host kodi_event_sendcat shpecs/support/BUTTON/R1-info.bin | EVENT_SERVER_HOST=$kodi_host kodi_event_send
Or run interactively using:
kodi_event-test_menu
Where the "golden" pre-created binary packets can be re-created using uid=1700610725 and checked to have stayed unchanged with di
6CE3
ff & xxd
eg. when a diff of their xxd hexdumps produces no difference...
diff -u <(xxd < shpecs/support/LOG/10chars.bin) <(uid=1700610725 pt=LOG kodi_event_packet "$(printf "X%.0s" {1..10})" | xxd)
Or sent to Kodi using the generic kodi_event command setting a different packet type (pt) for each event type:
pt=BUTTON kodi_event escape- along with other button names for the default
map_name=KBfound in keyboard.xml - https://kodi.wiki/view/Keyboard_controls
- along with other button names for the default
map_name=XG pt=BUTTON kodi_event dpadleft- along with other button names for
map_name=XGfound in gamepad.xml
- along with other button names for
map_name=R1 pt=BUTTON kodi_event mymusic- along with other button names for
map_name=R1found in remote.xml
- along with other button names for
code=11 pt=BUTTON kodi_event- will send the button with code
"11"
- will send the button with code
pt=ACTION kodi_event CreateBookmarkpt=NOTIFICATION kodi_event hello worldicon=shpecs/support/ha.png pt=NOTIFICATION kodi_event hello world with an iconpt=LOG kodi_event hello logs
Or there's also convenience scripts that pass in the pt type to kodi_event:
kodi-helo# equavilent topt=HELO kodi_eventkodi-button escape# equavilent topt=BUTTON kodi_event escapekodi-action CreateBookmark# equavilent topt=ACTION kodi_event CreateBookmarkkodi-notification hello world# equavilent topt=NOTIFICATION kodi_event hello worldkodi-log hello logs# equavilent topt=LOG kodi_event hello logskodi-ping# equavilent topt=PING kodi_eventkodi-bye# equavilent topt=BYE kodi_event
Nb. all these commands require an EVENT_SERVER_HOST env var pointing at the Kodi instance.
(Or BROADCAST=255.255.255.255 to broadcast to all running Kodi instances.)
eg.
BROADCAST=255.255.255.255 kodi-notification hello all kodi instances
Or if your router doesn't like that, then something like:
BROADCAST=192.168.1.255 kodi-notification hello all kodi instances- (ie. if your kodi instances ar on the
192.168.1.xnetwork.)
- (ie. if your kodi instances ar on the