The xPL Project

Introduction

The SliMP3 and SqueezeBox are networked music players manufactured by Slim Devices that allow you to listen to your digital music collection anywhere in your home. The server software has native support for the xPL protocol.

The devices are now distributed by Logitech under the new name SqueezeCenter and comprise:

• the Squeezebox Classic, a player with a display and an infrared remote control
• the Squeezebox Receiver, a player which can be hidden anywhere
• the Squeezebox Boom, a player with a display, a remote control and loudspeakers
• the Transporter, a hi-fi component player
• the Squeezebox Controller, a wi-fi remote control with an LCD display, a scroll wheel and buttons

The system bases on a PC (Windows, Linux, Mac OS) which stores and distributes your CD collection and the players which act as end devices. The players can be either hardware devices (see the above mentioned pieces of equipment) or software (Softsqueeze, SqueezePlay).

What You Need

• SlimServer/SqueezeCenter version 5.2 or greater, running on any supported platform.
• A PC running any flavour of xPL Hub, as described in the HowTo guide.

Enabling xPL Support in SqueezeCenter

Web interface

The SqueezeCenter is controlled via a web interface:

• Open your Web browser and navigate to the control interface. For example: http://localhost:9000/

The web interface is regularily evolving and you can choose between different interfaces. With version 7.3, default interface:

• Click on Settings (bottom right)
• Select the Plugins tab and scroll all the way down to xPL Interface
• Enable the xPL Interface plugin.
• Restart your SqueezeCenter software and check that your player(s) are functioning.

On Mac OS X, SqueezeCenter is stopped and started via the corrresponding panel in the System Preferences.

Broadcast address

The xPL plugin broadcasts to address 255.255.255.255 which isn't necessarily your broadcast address. If you don't see any xPL messages from the SqueezeCenter and you have a broadcast address of (typically) 192.168.1.255, edit:

• /Library/PreferencePanes/Squeezebox.prefPane/Contents/server/Slim/Plugin/xPL/Plugin.pm on an Apple Mac
• /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8/Slim/Plugin/xPL/Plugin.pm on a (Gentoo) Linux PC

and change:

        my $ipaddr   = inet_aton('255.255.255.255');

to:

        my $ipaddr   = inet_aton('192.168.1.255');

Restart your SqueezeCenter software and check that your player(s) are functioning.

On a Linux system, you can find your broadcast address with:

ifconfig | grep Bcast

On a Mac OS system, you can find your broadcast address with:

ifconfig | grep broadcast

and the xPL plugin with:

find / -iname "plugin.pm" 2>/dev/null | grep xPL

Configuring Infra-red support

SlimServer's xPL interface can handle infra-red signals in a variety of ways. By default, no xPL messages are sent when you press a button on your remote control. To change this, do the following:

• Open the xPLHal Manager and click on xPL Devices.
• Your player(s) should be listed, along with xPLHal, in the right-hand window.
• Double-click on the name of your player to bring up it's configuration window.
• Select xplir from the list of configurable items.
• The value will probably be set to "none". Delete the current value, and enter the word buttons
• Click OK.

Your player will now send an xPL message whenever you press a button on it's remote control.

Message Schema

The SlimServer message schema is an extension of the audio.basic schema.

Controlling the SqueezeCenter via the web interface or via the SqueezeBox Controller triggers a remote.basic message.