gnome-shell-extensions-mediaplayer

gnome-shell-extensions-mediaplayer is a simple extension for controlling any MPRIS v2.1 capable media player.

This extension will monitor D-Bus for active players and automatically display them in the GNOME Shell's volume menu by default.

Screenshots

Volume menu integration, rating support for Banshee, Rhythmbox. Support of playlists in Banshee (MPRIS 2.1 playlist interface)

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Indicator menu on the right with custom status text and current album cover

You can go to the next or previous track by using the mouse wheel on the status icon. You can also play or pause the player by clicking with the middle button on the status icon.

You may also use the status icon to run your favorite media player if no player is running (see the rundefault setting below).

The current track rating can also be displayed and changed depending of the player you are using (see the rating setting below).

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Centered indicator with custom status text

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gnome-shell-extensions-mediaplayer can be easily configured through http://extensions.gnome.org as well as command-line (all settings are listed below).

Installation

Via extensions.gnome.org

• https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/55/media-player-indicator/

Packages

• Arch Linux - AUR package by Alucryd
• Ubuntu - webupd8 PPA
• Frugalware - package by Baste

Manual installation

Git branches master and devel work with GNOME Shell 3.4 and 3.6. For older GNOME versions (3.0 and 3.2), separate branches gnome-shell-3.0 and gnome-shell-3.2 exist, but they won't have most of the new features.

Prerequisites: automake, gnome-common, gettext, glib2 devel files

System-wide:

./autogen.sh
make
sudo make install

In your ~/.local directory:

./autogen.sh
make install-zip

Restart the shell and then enable the extension.

Settings

All settings can be changed from within the gnome-shell-extension-prefs tool, or from the command line.

• Position of the indicator: (default: 'volume-menu')

  gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.mediaplayer indicator-position 'center'|'right'|'volume-menu'
  

• Start the default media player by clicking on the status icon if no player is running: (default: false)

  gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.mediaplayer rundefault true
  

  You can configure the default media player in GNOME System Settings, under Details → Default Applications.

  Note: This setting has only effect if indicator-position is 'center' or 'right'.

• Indicator appearance: (default: 'icon')

  gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.mediaplayer status-type 'icon'|'cover'
  

  Note: This setting has only effect if indicator-position is 'center' or 'right'.

• Indicator status text: (default: empty)

  gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.mediaplayer status-text ' <span color="#76B0EC" font="9">%t</span>'
  

  The status text can be formatted with the Pango syntax. %t, %a, %b are replaced respectively by the current title, current artist and current album playing.

  Note: This setting has only effect if indicator-position is 'center' or 'right'.

• Show the volume control slider of the media player: (default: false)

  gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.mediaplayer volume true
  

• Show the playlists of the media player: (default: false)

  gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.mediaplayer playlists true
  

• Show the rating of the current track: (default: false)

  gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.mediaplayer rating true
  

  Players supported (get: show the rating, set: set a rating):

  • Banshee (get/set)
  • Rhythmbox (get/set)
  • Clementine (get)
  • Amarok (get)

  Warning: Ratings are not part of the MPRIS specification thus specific code must be written for each player to set or get the current track rating. Note that for some players there will be no support to get/set the rating from this extension. For example, Clementine does not offer any way to set the rating of a song except from the Clementine GUI (http://bit.ly/INFEon).

• Hide the position slider: (default: true)

  gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.mediaplayer position false
  

• Set the size of the cover: (default: 80)

  gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.mediaplayer coversize 100
  

Compatible players

Any player that supports the MPRIS v2 spec can be supported.

Note: Many players will require you to enable the MPRIS v2 support manually. If your player is listed but still doesn't work, look for words "MPRIS" or "D-Bus" in the player's plugins.

This extension has been tested with:

• Amarok
• Audacious (3.2 with "MPRIS 2 Server" plugin)
• Banshee (with "MPRIS D-Bus interface" extension)
• BeatBox
• Clementine
• DeaDBeeF (with third-party DeaDBeeF-MPRIS plugin)
• Dragon Player
• Exaile (with third-party Sound Menu plugin)
• GMusicBrowser
• GNOME-Mplayer (1.0.7)
• Guayadeque (0.3.2)
• JuK
• mpd (with mpDris2 daemon)
• Nuvola aka Google Music Frame
• Pithos
• Pragha (with MPRIS2 enabled under "Internet Services")
• Quod Libet (with "MPRIS D-Bus support" plugin)
• Rhythmbox (with "MPRIS D-Bus interface" plugin)
• Spotify
• Tomahawk
• Totem (with "D-Bus Service" plugin)
• VLC (2.x with "dbus" control interface)
• XBMC (with "MPRIS D-Bus interface" add-on)
• and more...

Known bugs

Track position is not updated correctly

Some players do not send the MPRIS "Seeked" signal so the extension can't update the position slider when the song is seeked from the extension or the player.

• Banshee (bug report)
• Exaile – fixed in 3.3.0 (bug report)
• VLC – fixed in 2.x? (bug report)

Not supported players

• Nightingale 1.11 – no native MPRIS support, only a third-party v1 plugin

Authors

• eonpatapon (Jean-Philippe Braun)
• grawity (Mantas Mikulėnas)

Based on the work of horazont (Jonas Wielicki).