[mythtv-users] The Telnet interface and Perl

[Jerome Yuzyk]

Reading the "Web-based remote control thread" got me wondering about using the 
Telnet interface for controlling my own set-up. I don't need web access, just 
some remote method I can use through my main workstation. This script may be 
informative or demonstrative for others interested in their own interface. To 
give it a bit of a (cheap) GUI I made a little tree of KDE KMenu entries to 
run the script with the most-common functions I use. It's pretty simple Perl, 
but requires the Net::Telnet module. Maybe you will see something you can 
use. This could be modifieded to create a web interface with Perl's CGI 
module, which I might do when I have "tinker time" next.

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#!/usr/bin/perl

my $host = 'tv';	# Modify for your Host and Port
my $port = '6546';

my %P = (

    # Skip
    #
    'sa'	=> [ 'key right',	'skip ahead 30s'],
    'sb'	=> [ 'key left',	'skip back 5s'	],
    'sc'	=> [ 'key end',		'skip Commercial'],
    'scb'	=> [ 'key home',	'skip Commercial back'],

    # Jump
    #
    'ja'	=> [ 'key pagedown',	'jump ahead 10m'],
    'jb'	=> [ 'key pageup',	'jump back 10m'	],

    'esc'	=> [ 'key escape',	'Escape'	],
    'del'	=> [ 'Delete',		'delete program'],
    'p'		=> [ 'key p',		'Pause/Unpause'	],
    'i'		=> [ 'key i',		'Information'	],

    # Jump Points
    #
    'slide'	=> [ 'Slideshow',	'Slide show'	],
    'play'	=> [ 'jump playbackrecordings',	'Playback recordings'	],

    # Volume
    #
    'mute'	=> [ 'key f9',		'Mute/Unmute'	],
    'vd'	=> [ 'key f10',		'Volume Down'	],
    'vu'	=> [ 'key f11',		'Volume Up'	],
    );

unless ( @ARGV ) { &Menu; exit 0; }

my $function = lc $ARGV[0];

unless ( defined $P{$function} ) { &Menu; exit 0; }

my $repeatable = 'sa|sb|ja|jb|i|vu|vd';
my $repeats    = $ARGV[1] || 1;

use Net::Telnet;

my $telnet = new Net::Telnet ( 

    Timeout =>10, Errmode =>'die',

    Host    => $host, Port    => $port,
    );

$telnet->open;

# Special keys that require multiple steps.
#
# Delete
#
if ( $function eq 'del' ) {

    $telnet->print('key d'); 
    sleep 1;

    $telnet->print('key up'); 
    sleep 1;

    $telnet->print('key enter');
    }

# Random Slideshow
#
elsif ( $function eq 'slide' ) {

    $telnet->print( 'jump mythgallery' );
    $ok = $telnet->waitfor( /OK/ );

    $telnet->print( 'key m' );
    $ok = $telnet->waitfor( /OK/ );

    $telnet->print( 'key down' );
    $ok = $telnet->waitfor( /OK/ );

    $telnet->print( 'key enter' );
    $ok = $telnet->waitfor( /OK/ );
    }

# Operations that can be repeated
#
elsif ( $function =~ /$repeatable/ ) {

    my $operation = $P{$function}->[0];

    for ( 1..$repeats ) {

        $telnet->print( $operation );

	$ok = $telnet->waitfor( /OK/ );
        }
    }

else {

    $telnet->print( $P{$function}->[0] );
    }

$telnet->close;

# All Done!


sub Menu
{
    print "\n";
    print "	remote  function  [repeat]\n";
    print "\n";
    foreach my $k ( sort keys %P ) {
	print sprintf( "	%-5s%-20s	%s\n", $k, $P{$k}->[0], $P{$k}->[1] );
        }
    print "\n";
    }

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