UPnP Devices for Node.js

upnp-device lets you create UPnP Devices in Node.js. The goal is to have an easy to use API, rather than exposing all UPnP internals.

Limitations

• 2 implemented device specification included: MediaServer:1 and BinaryLight:1
• MediaServer has only been tested with audio

Install

npm install upnp-device

In case you want to use the built in media server you also need to install Redis, preferrably using your system package manager.

Documentation

Basic usage

var upnp = require('upnp-device');
 
var mediaServer = upnp.createDevice('MediaServer', 'My Media Application');
 
mediaServer.on('ready', function() {
    mediaServer.addMedia(0, media, function(err, id) {
        console.log("Added new media with ID:" + id);
    });
    mediaServer.ssdpAnnounce();
});

For a real world usage example, look at Bragi, a media server using node-upnp-device.

API

upnp.Device

Event: 'ready'

function() { }

Emitted when the server has been assigned an IP, the HTTP server has started and SSDP messaging has been initialized.

Event: 'error'

function(err) { }

upnp.createMyDevice(device, name[, address])

Create an instance of your own device implementation. Check the examples on how to create your own devices and services.

• implementation - A implementation of a device specified by the UPnP Forum
• name - The name of the device as it shows up in the network.
• address - Optional IP address to bind server to. If the address is omitted an IPv4 address will guessed using the IP configuration

var myDevice = require('./MyDevice')

var device = upnp.createMyDevice(myDevice, 'My Device');

device.on('ready', function() {
    device.ssdpAnnounce();
});

upnp.createDevice(type, name[, address])

• type - A device specified by the UPnP Forum.
• name - The name of the device as it shows up in the network.
• address - Optional IP address to bind server to. If the address is omitted an IPv4 address will guessed using the IP configuration

device.addMedia(parentID, media[, callback])

Applies to MediaServer.

The metadata needs to be extracted by the client, either through user input or by reading for example ID3 tags.

• parentID - Parent container of media. 0 means root.
• properties - Object with class properties. Example below.
• [callback(err, id)] - Called when all media has been added to the database. Returns the ID of the top container added.

container = {
    'class': 'object.container.album.musicAlbum',
    'title': 'My album'
};

item = {
    'class': 'object.container.audioItem.musicTrack',
    'title': 'My song',
    'creator': 'An artist',
    'location': '/media/mp3/an_artist-my_song.mp3',
    'album': 'My album'
};

Other official UPnP classes and properties are defined in the MediaServer specification.

The server only stores the media info for as long as it is running. It is the responsibility of the client to store media information across restarts if desired.

device.removeMedia(id[, callback])

• id - ID of object to remove. If it has children, they will also be removed.
• [callback(err)]

Development

upnp-device is written in CoffeeScript.

Contributions and comments are welcome on GitHub or IRC (jacobrask@FreeNode).

Acronyms

• UDA: [UPnP Device Architecture] upnp-uda
• DCP: [UPnP Device Control Protocol] upnp-dcp
• DIDL: Digital Item Declaration Language, XML dialect for describing media. To describe content in AV devices, UPnP uses DIDL-Lite, a subset of DIDL.
• UPnP AV: [UPnP Audio/Video] upnp-av

See also

• UPnP.org
• UPnP client by @TooTallNate
• Gammatron by @mattijs