DLNA Collection plugin for Exaile

This plugin allows Exaile to browse the music from DLNA media servers. It allows user to connect to a media server, and upon connection, searches the server for audio tracks. The discovered audio tracks are then organized into virtual Exaile collection, from which they can be browsed and added to Exaile's queue or playlist.

The plugin implements only a browser, i.e., the collection of the audio tracks from the media server via the GUPnP/GUPnpAV library. The actual playback is handled entirely by Exaile's ability to stream from HTTP locations.

Requirements:

• Exaile
• GIR bindings for GUPnP library
• GIR bindings for GUPnPAV library

Installation:

The plugin can be installed by copying the dlna-collection folder from plugins to the plugin folder of your Exaile installation.

The DLNA Collection plugin should then be listed under Media Sources in the Plugins list.

Usage:

Enabling the plugin will add a Connect to DLNA... item menu under Tools, where the discovered DLNA media servers will be listed.

Clicking on the server entry will connect to the server and open new collection panel that is populated once discovery of audio tracks is completed. From there, the tracks can be added to queue or a playlist.

The plugin supports notifications about server-side changes; a rescan of media share is typically performed five seconds after the last update notification from a server. In case you wish to trigger manual rescan, hold Shift key and click on the Refresh collection view button at the top of the collection panel.

To disconnect from the share, click the Disconnect button at the top of the collection panel. Note that closing the collection panel does not disconnect from the share, and that the closed panel can be re-opend by View -> Panels menu.

Tested with:

• rygel 0.36.1
• minidlna 1.1.6

Known issues:

• Adding a track from media server to the playlist and playing it for the first time causes the tree view in collection panel to collapse its entries.

  This is because when tracks are imported into the virtual collection, their tags are populated from properties returned by the DLNA server. Once the track is actually played, the tags are updated from the stream. This update triggers refresh of the tags in the tree-view, which in turn causes the view itself to be updated and collapsed.

  As such, this happens every time when a track from media server is played for the first time.