droopy-vlc is an HTTP service that sends commands to VLC's HTTP endpoint.
After installing the npm module (droopy-vlc), you can require the service and start controlling Vlc.
>>npm install droopy-vlcvar VlcService = require("droopy-vlc"),
vlc = new VlcService("http://:password@localhost:8080");
vlc.volume(80).then(function(vlcStatus) {
console.log("Successfully set volume to " + vlcStatus.volume);
});All methods return Q promises that resolve with a VlcStatus object
{
fullscreen: 'false',
aspectRatio: 'default',
time: '1264',
timeDisplay: '21:04',
volume: '0',
duration: '6572',
durationDisplay: '1:49:32',
state: 'playing',
rate: '1',
position: '0.19233977794647',
title:'Example Title',
artist:'Unknown Artist',
album:'Unknown Album',
filename: 'example.flac'
}Passes back a VlcStatus object.
vlcService.status().then(function(status) {
console.log(status); //You could continuously poll this
});Requires a time parameter in seconds.
//move the the 2 minute mark
vlcService.seek(120).then(function(status) {
console.log(status);
});Requires a volume level between 0 and 200.
//max volume
vlcService.volume(125).then(function(status) {
console.log(status);
});If currently paused the video will play, otherwise pause.
vlcService.togglePause().then(function(status) {
//statue.state will be "paused" or "playing"
console.log(status);
});If currently fullscreen, it will shrink the window, else make it fullscreen
vlcService.fullscreen().then(function(status) {
//statue.fullscreen will be "true" or "false"
console.log(status);
});Adjusts the playback speed. Unfortunately I couldn't find a way to make it go backwords like a "rewind"
//Play 3 times as fast (fast forward)
vlcService.rate(3).then(function(status) {
console.log(status);
});Next song in the playlist.
vlcService.next().then(function(status) {
console.log(status);
});Previous song in the playlist.
vlcService.previous().then(function(status) {
console.log(status);
});Play song by id in the playlist.
vlcService.play().then(function(status) {
console.log(status);
});Remove song by id in the playlist.
vlcService.deleteItem().then(function(status) {
console.log(status);
});Remove all song in the playlist.
vlcService.empty().then(function(status) {
console.log(status);
});Return the actual playlist [{ name : String, duration : Number, id : Number},... ]
vlcService.playlist().then(function(vlcPlaylist) {
console.log(vlcPlaylist);
});Repeat the entire playlist
vlcService.loop().then(function(status) {
console.log(status);
});Repeat the last song
vlcService.repeat().then(function(status) {
console.log(status);
});VLC's Http endpoint is not enabled by default. You can enable by launching VLC with a --etraintf http flag. VideoLan documentation
UPDATE: New versions now require you to setup a password to access the HTTP endpoint. To do this go to Tools -> Preferences -> Main Interfaces -> Lua -> Lua HTTP Password.
>>C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe -f <filepath> --etraintf httpThe following are helper methods that I use to launch and close VLC on Windows PC.
exec = require('child_process').exec;
var killVlc = function() {
try {
//var cmd = 'tasklist /fi "ImageName eq vlc.exe" /fo csv /nh';
var cmd = 'taskkill /IM vlc.exe';
var child = exec(cmd, function(err, stdout, stderr) {
if (err) {
console.log(err);
console.log(stderr);
}
});
} catch (ex) {
console.log("kill catch");
}
};
var launchVlc = function(filepath) {
var params = " -f " + " \"" + filepath + "\" --extraintf http";
var child = exec(options.exePath + params, function(err, stdout, stderr) {
if (err) {
console.log(err);
console.log(stderr);
}
});
};