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Mopidy smart home integration, free and open source

Mopidy integration for Gladys Assistant

Control your Mopidy servers: music, volume, playlists, web radios, search, notifications.

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Control your Mopidy music servers from Gladys: local files, web radios, and every source a Mopidy extension adds (Jellyfin, YouTube Music, TuneIn, Subsonic…). Play, pause, change the track, the volume and the mute, start a playlist or a search, play a doorbell sound or a web radio and then go back to the music, see what is playing on the dashboard. Everything stays on your local network: no cloud, no account.

The integration talks to Mopidy through its native API (Mopidy-HTTP: JSON-RPC and the event WebSocket), so it sees changes the instant they happen and knows the Mopidy URIs. It was tested against real Mopidy servers, Mopidy 3.4.2 (Debian package) and 4.0.5. If your Mopidy only exposes MPD (Mopidy-MPD), use the gladys-mpd integration instead. Feedback welcome in the issues.

This integration is not affiliated with the Mopidy project.

What you need​

  • Gladys Assistant 5.2.0 or later.
  • Mopidy 3 or 4 with its HTTP frontend (Mopidy-HTTP, enabled by default), reachable from Gladys on the network: in mopidy.conf, section [http], set hostname = 0.0.0.0 (the default 127.0.0.1 only answers the machine itself). The port is 6680 by default.
  • Mopidy-HTTP has no password: keep it on your home network. A Mopidy behind a reverse proxy in HTTPS works too (enter https://…), as long as the proxy asks Gladys for no password.

Set up​

  1. In Gladys, open Integrations, then Install from GitHub, and enter https://github.com/guim31/gladys-mopidy (or install Mopidy from the catalog once it is listed).
  2. In Configuration, enter the address of your server (192.168.1.20, mopidy.home, 192.168.1.20:6681 for another port, or the address of its web client copied from the browser, http://192.168.1.20:6680/iris/) and a name (Living room). Up to three more servers below.
  3. Choose the Language of the devices (names of the features, messages) and, if you want, the Notification volume. Save.
  4. Click Test the connection: one line per server, with the Mopidy version, what it is doing, its volume and its playlists.
  5. Open the Discover tab and add the devices.

Use fixed IP addresses (a DHCP reservation in your router) or names your DNS resolves: names ending in .local do not resolve inside the integration container.

The device of each server​

Each Mopidy server is one device. Gladys shows it as a music player: the Music dashboard box (play, pause, previous, next, volume) and the Talk on a speaker scene action work with it.

Feature (English names)What it does
PlayPlays the queue (a paused track resumes where it was).
PausePauses.
Previous trackGoes to the previous track.
Next trackGoes to the next track.
Volume0 to 100 %, as Mopidy sees it. Absent when Mopidy has no mixer (mixer = none).
MuteOn or off: the mute of Mopidy's mixer.
Playback state1 while playing, 0 when paused or stopped. Kept in the history, usable as a scene trigger or condition.
Now playing"Title — Artist", "Paused · …" or "Stopped". For a web radio, the song it announces.
PlaylistA list of the Mopidy playlists: picking one replaces the queue with it and plays it.
NotificationReceives an address to play, then puts back what was playing (see below).

The list of playlists follows Mopidy: a playlist created or deleted appears or disappears in the list.

Dashboard widget​

Add the Mopidy player widget to a dashboard. In its settings, pick a server (empty: the first one of the configuration). It shows:

  • the title of the track and, below, the artist and the album (or the station of a web radio);
  • the volume as a gauge;
  • the state (playing, paused, stopped), the position in the queue, random and repeat;
  • four buttons: Previous, Play or Pause, Next and Options…. Options… opens a form filled with the current values: the volume, a playlist to play, random play and repeat. Only what you change is sent.

The widget follows the server as it changes: it is refreshed within ten seconds when a track starts, the volume moves or a playlist is created. No cover art (see Limits).

Scenes​

Triggers​

  • Mopidy track started: Mopidy starts a track — play, next track, a playlist, another client such as Iris or a phone app. Optionally limited to one server. The scene gets the title, the artist, the album, the URI of the track, and "artist · album". Notifications do not trigger it, nor the track resumed after one.
  • Mopidy server lost: a server that answered stops answering (switched off, crashed, off the network). Optionally limited to one server; the scene gets its name.

Whether music plays or not is the Playback state feature: use the core trigger on a device state for that.

Actions​

The server is chosen among the devices of the integration (empty: the first one of the configuration).

  • Play a Mopidy playlist: replaces the queue with a Mopidy playlist, by its name (capitals and accents do not matter) or its URI, and plays it. The number of tracks queued can be used in the next actions of the scene. An unknown name fails the action with the list of the playlists. You can also choose a playlist from a list with the core action Control a device, on the Playlist feature.
  • Play an address on Mopidy: plays an address — a web radio (http://…, https://…), a sound on a web server, or a Mopidy URI (file:///music/doorbell.ogg, local:track:…, tunein:station:…) — at the volume you give (empty: unchanged). Then: Resume the previous music (the address plays once, then what was playing comes back, see below) or Keep playing it (replaces the queue). The action fails when Mopidy cannot play the address.
  • Search and play on Mopidy: searches the library of Mopidy (every backend that can search: local files with Mopidy-Local, Jellyfin, YouTube Music…) for an artist, an album or a title, and plays the first 50 tracks found in place of the queue. The number of tracks can be used in the next actions.
  • Clear the Mopidy queue: stops the server and removes every track from its queue.
  • Mopidy random play: on, off, or toggle. The result (on or off) can be used in the next actions.
  • Mopidy repeat: off, the whole queue, or the current track.

Notifications and "Talk on a speaker"​

The Notification feature of a server, the Play an address on Mopidy action with Resume the previous music, and the Talk on a speaker action of Gladys (the voice comes from Gladys Plus) all work the same way:

  1. the address is added at the end of the queue (your queue is never replaced) and played at once, with the Notification volume of the configuration (or the volume of the action);
  2. Mopidy stops after it; it is then removed from the queue, and the volume and the options (random, repeat, single, consume) come back;
  3. the track that was playing resumes at the second it was interrupted; a paused track stays paused, a stopped server stays stopped.

A second notification while the first one plays replaces it. If someone takes over the server meanwhile (another track, the next one), the notification ends without touching the music. A notification that still plays after five minutes is ended and the music comes back. A web radio sent as a notification is not a notification: it keeps playing (its address stays in the queue).

The Talk on a speaker action has a volume slider, but Gladys does not pass it on to external integrations: use the Notification volume of the configuration.

Scene ideas​

  • Doorbell: when the doorbell button is pressed, Play an address on Mopidy file:///music/sounds/doorbell.ogg on the living room server, volume 70, then resume the previous music.
  • Wake-up radio: at 7:00 on weekdays, Play an address on Mopidy with the address of your favorite radio, Keep playing it, volume 25; at 7:45, the Pause feature.
  • Evening: at sunset, Search and play on Mopidy "jazz", then Mopidy random play on.
  • Nobody home: when the house becomes empty, the Pause feature of every server.
  • Server down: on Mopidy server lost, send a message to the family: the music server of the living room is down.

How it refreshes​

The integration keeps Mopidy's event WebSocket open on each server: what happens on Mopidy, from Gladys or from another client, is in Gladys within a second. On top of that, every server is read every 30 seconds (it also checks that it still answers, and opens the WebSocket again if a proxy dropped it), and an unchanged value is sent again every six hours so that Gladys never shows it as old. Only the changes are sent to Gladys.

A server that stops answering is shown unreachable (transport badge of the device, connection status of the integration), and the integration tries again: after 2, 5, 15, 30 seconds, then every minute. Nothing else is needed when it comes back.

Mopidy has no quota: the integration sends one batch of reads per change and one every 30 seconds per server.

Troubleshooting​

  • "does not answer": check the address and the port (6680, or the port of the [http] section of mopidy.conf), that Mopidy listens on the network (hostname = 0.0.0.0) and that no firewall blocks the port between Gladys and the server.
  • "no Mopidy-HTTP at this address and port": something else answers on this port, or Mopidy-HTTP is disabled (enabled = false in [http]).
  • "access refused (a proxy in front of Mopidy?)": a reverse proxy asks for a password: let Gladys reach Mopidy directly on port 6680.
  • "no live events" in Test the connection: the WebSocket /mopidy/ws cannot be opened (a proxy that does not pass WebSockets): the states are then read every 30 seconds.
  • The volume stays empty: Mopidy has no mixer (mixer = none in the [audio] section, for a fixed-volume output): change the volume on the amplifier.
  • A notification does not play: the address must be reachable from the Mopidy server itself (not from Gladys), and known to an installed backend: http(s):// needs the Stream backend (built in), file:// a folder of the [file] section, tunein: the TuneIn extension. No Mopidy extension can play this address means no backend knows its scheme.
  • The Playlist list is empty: Mopidy has no playlist yet (M3U playlists live in playlists_dir of the [m3u] section).
  • More details: the logs of the integration (Integrations → Mopidy → Logs) show the connections, the losses and the returns, and one line per command. Restart the container with LOG_LEVEL=debug to see every event received.

Limits​

  • Up to four servers. A server is known by its slot in the configuration: changing its address keeps the device and its history.
  • No cover art in the widget: Mopidy gives image addresses on its own network, which the dashboard may not reach.
  • No browsing of the library: playlists, searches, addresses and URIs.
  • The search queues at most 50 tracks, a playlist at most 500.
  • Mopidy cannot be found automatically on the network: enter the addresses.
  • The volume of the Talk on a speaker action is not passed on by Gladys (the Notification volume applies).
  • Gladys 5.2.0 or later (the Options… form of the widget).

Configuration settings​

These are the settings Mopidy asks for in its configuration screen in Gladys.

SettingTypeRequiredDescription
Your Mopidy serverssectionNoMopidy with its HTTP frontend (Mopidy-HTTP, port 6680), reachable from Gladys: set hostname = 0.0.0.0 in the [http] section of mopidy.conf. Enter its IP address (add :port if it is not 6680). Up to four servers.
Server addressstringNoIP address or name of the Mopidy server, with :port if it is not 6680. The address of its web client works too.
NamestringNoName of the device in Gladys. Empty: "Mopidy" followed by the address.
Second serversectionNoSame fields, for another Mopidy server of your network.
Server addressstringNo
NamestringNo
Third serversectionNoSame fields, for another Mopidy server of your network.
Server addressstringNo
NamestringNo
Fourth serversectionNoSame fields, for another Mopidy server of your network.
Server addressstringNo
NamestringNo
OptionssectionNoThe notification of a server plays an address (a doorbell sound, an announcement), then puts back what was playing.
Notification volumeselectNoVolume during a notification, back to the previous one after. Gladys does not pass on the volume of its "Talk on a speaker" action.
Language of the devicesselectNoNames given to the features when a device is added (Volume, Playlist…), and language of the messages.

How to install Mopidy in Gladys​

  1. In Gladys, open Integrations: Mopidy appears in the catalog, next to the native integrations, with a community badge.
  2. Click Install. Gladys pulls the Docker image (ghcr.io/guim31/gladys-mopidy:1.0.0), starts it in a sandbox isolated from the core, and generates the integration's interface (devices, discovery and configuration).
  3. Open the Configuration screen of the integration, fill in the settings, and save.
  4. You can also install it directly from its repository URL: https://github.com/guim31/gladys-mopidy.

Mopidy requires Gladys >=5.2.0. The catalog inside Gladys refreshes every hour, so a new version becomes available at most one hour after its release.

Not running Gladys yet? It is free and open source: follow the installation guide to get started.

About external integrations​

Mopidy is an external integration: a community integration packaged as a Docker container and published on GitHub, that Gladys installs in one click and runs in a sandbox isolated from its core. It is published and maintained by guim31, not by the Gladys core team.

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