AirControl (3rd Party Control API) Discussion
My favorite news that came out today with the 1.7 update to ATVFlash (Black) is the beta of AirControl. Not only does it open up lots of possibilities with regards to 3rd party remote control (Crestron, Control4) but it also works great with the free Mac application. Makes it super easy to control the AppleTV completely from Mac OS... and also to enter text (for searches, or inputting long URLs into Couch Surfer Pro.)
More info on the: Support page
Already we are seeing some add-ons to leverage this new control:
Tiny script for marking X episodes as watched in AppleTV MediaPlayer
https://gist.github.com/310081
I thought I'd start a thread for more discussion. What other ideas do you have? How can the Mac app be improved?
I for one, would love to see an AirControl script (or better yet, a bookmarklet, and/or Safari extension?) to send the current URL to AppleTV's CouchSurfer Pro. Navigating to launch CouchSurfer, and then copy-and-pasting the URL into AirControl's text field works... but clicking a button sure would be easier. This workflow would make CouchSurfer a much more viable presentation tool.
Actually it wouldn't be that hard to create a function to navigate the onscreen keyboard, you just need to remember the current position and mode of the cursor.
I'm busy over the weekend, I'll maybe post something next week
This is not done yet by any means. But you can select various characters...
Still needs lots of work.
https://gist.github.com/3104089
andsens, thanks for that, but text entry is already built into the AirControl Mac application. Click this button when on an ATV screen with a text entry field:
[img]http://www.fofer.com/sharedimages/AirControl-2...
So really what I wanted was a script to leverage that native control, to take the current URL in your computer's browser, and open it with a click in Couch Surfer Pro on the ATV.
I agree that I am really excited for the potential aircontrol provides.
Is there any way to get a copy for the source code for the mac app or aircontrol (mainly just to see if there are any more commands besides the ones listed available) I would really look forward to being able to launch a specific app ex media or tv shows, or even feedback of the current application or what app is currently highlighted. also it would be great to be able to change the port number aircontrol listens on.
This is a great addon I already have a working crestron module!
Thanks for all the hard work!
I couldn't help myself. The script is done now. It also types all the special characters.
I haven't tested it thoroughly. It works as long as the starting position is the lower case a.
https://gist.github.com/3104089
Here are some undocumented aircontrol commands:
wake=1 -- wake AppleTV
sleep=1 -- Sleep AppleTV
plugin=com.apple.frontrow.appliance.settings -- Navigate to settings menu
plugin=com.apple.frontrow.appliance.media/LocalSources -- Navigate to My Files menu
kf=1 -- relaunch AppleTV (reset)
np=0 -- ?? unknown command ??
does anyone know the name of the netflix plugin?
I did some digging and here are some other plugins to try (haven't tested yet)
com.apple.frontrow.appliance.internet.flagstaff
com.apple.frontrow.appliance.internet.vimeo
com.apple.frontrow.appliance.internet.nba
com.apple.frontrow.appliance.internet.movie-trailers
com.apple.frontrow.appliance.internet.wsj
com.apple.frontrow.appliance.internet.NHL
com.apple.frontrow.appliance.internet.internet-photos
com.apple.frontrow.appliance.internet.dot-mac
com.apple.frontrow.appliance.internet.flickr
com.apple.frontrow.appliance.internet.photo-stream
com.apple.frontrow.appliance.internet.internet-youtube
com.apple.frontrow.appliance.internet.internet-podcasts
com.apple.frontrow.appliance.movies.movie-trailers
com.apple.frontrow.appliance.internet.netflix
So I tested all the above plugin options I posted above and none of them work :(. But I did get the following to work for XBMC
plugin=com.apple.frontrow.appliance.xbmc (You still have to press select to get passed the second option screen)
I'm still looking, since I mainly use netflix and xbmc I am hoping I will find something.
Success! Netflix, lol! so simple it was tricky!
/plugin=netflix
guess im a bit overdue to register on this forum... anyhow since i love working on aircontrol so much it was a good time for me to chime in on a discussion.
all you need to do is use the last component of the identifier (internet-youtube, netflix, movie-trailers, NHL.. etc)
these /should/ all work in 5.0 + (the version with the redesigned main menu) in 4.4.4 only the internet based identifiers will work.. mostly do to an oversight on my part.
re: any more api, there is none, you guys have smoked the whole thing out.
as for navigating into stuff like my files in media, thats when the path comes in (ie com.apple.frontrow.appliance.media/LocalSources) the way that one works is based on the plugins identifier and then each category inside those plugins also has its own unique identifier. snuffing those out takes some sneaky work with cycript.
@nitotv: thanks for this awesome plugin. is it possible to navigate o a specific playlist using folder structure commands?
It would be great to use Aircontrol to play a playlist.. So that the AppleTV could be used as an alarm clock, for example
Hi Folks
I am sorry in advance for this base question.
Could someone please give me a basic run down of "airControl", it's features and general uses.
Thanks
http://support.firecore.com/entries/21375902
Is there a way to list the names of all plugins?
For instance in roku you can do it (so it gives the names easily)
For instance weather isn't called weather and I tried all of the toll gate spelling possiblities.
What about Media player? Any direct link to that?
see post #6 above
plugin=com.apple.frontrow.appliance.media/LocalSources -- Navigate to My Files menu
no, but its on my to-do list.
Thanks!
For those interested, our Control4 driver for home automation with ATV v2 (with Firecore) may be viewed by video here: www.youtube.com/diamonddesignc4 Its selling well on our website. Way to go Firecore!
as of 371 you can now send commands apl and apcat='identifier'
apl will list all appliances/plugins/merchants whatever. for appcat=identifier some of them wont actually work to list categories because they wont have them.
So what do these new commands return?
"apl" will list all the appliances available on that device.
and "appcat=identifier" will navigate to that identifier (i.e. netflix?)
Thanks mate
appcat='identifier' will list the categories of the appliance identifier specified. any of the plugins where the categories are dynamically generated (netflix, hulu, vimeo, etc..) will NOT return any categories because its impossible to poll for them in the same manner i do for the others.
it appears initially i said the wrong thing as one of the new commands, its appcat not apcat. sorry about that!
I still dont understand how we can navigate to that identifier, for example if I would like to navigate to WEATHER I would:
http://apple-tv.local/apl=com.apple.frontrow.appliance.internet/firecore.weather.category
But that doesnt work, so how can i get to weather for example?
Thank you in advance
Is it possible to Navigate to folders in Media (my files)?
what would be the path for example?
Hi
Has anyone had success with the short cuts to the apps such as Media player? I can get the navigation and now playing to work but nothing else.
The previous posts give details of the undocumented features but whatever I try doesn't work.
Any help would be appreciated.
Fulltopuk
Is is possible to get 'event-driven' information from AirControl interface?
I want to display the 'Now Playing' information on a keypad (including a play-time/duration bar).
I didn't see time/duration info in the 'npx' examples. I would also like to know when any "Now Playing" information changes. (the appleTv 1 http/dacp interface waits until there has been a change in the data before sending a response to a status update)
I have built a pretty robust crestron module for the jailbroke atv2. I have pretty much all the features i want in the module except for 1.
How does the aircontrol for mac app send text to a search field on the atv. What is the command structure. This would be a perfect additin to an otherwise very good module,
Any way to get this protocol.
Excuse me but I must be stupid. How do I even access this plugin .. I see it no where in settings or ?
I'm using AJAX via jQuery to create a webapp, but I'm getting ...not allowed by Access-Control-Allow-Origin in Chrome. It executes the command, but the npx command won't return the Now Playing XML because of the access control. Any way to modify the origin control in FireCore?
Thanks,
Howie