slobbler

Slack status music scrobbler for Linux. Updates slack status based upon any media player using the MPRIS DBus Protocol

Features

• Connects to all players, publishes only the playing one
• Clears status on pause or player exit
• Choose emoji based upon player names
  • For fallback players, randomly chooses from a list
• Only updates Slack status if no status or already playing is set. Won't override an existing status. Detection based upon the status emoji
• Configurable required fields (e.g., must have artist and title)
• Configurable filters on track metadata (artist, title, album), similar format to exceptions, see Advanced config
• Exceptions to filters and required fields, allow scrobble even when it does not have required fields or filter matches
  • Choose field and partial text match, along with custom message format and emoji

    exceptions:
      - field: "title"
        partial: "Udemy"
        emoji: ":male-student:"
        message_format: "Learning: {title}"

    If I'm watching a Udemy course, update status with custom emoji and message

Installation

$ pip install --user git+https://github.com/jeffglover/slobbler.git

Configuration

Create a config file ~/.config/slobbler.yaml:

Basic config

slack:
  user_id: U0123456
  user_oauth_token: xoxp-token

slobbler:
  default_emojis:
    - ":notes:"

Advanced config

slack:
  user_id: U0123456
  user_oauth_token: xoxp-token

slobbler:
  # Custom message format, defaults to "{artist} - {title}"
  message_format: "{artist} - {title}"
  player_emojis:
    # exact match emoji to a specific player
    spotify: ":spotify:"

  default_emojis:
    # random choice of emojis when doesn't match player emoji, must have at least one
    - ":notes:"
    - ":the_horns:"
    - ":headphones:"

  # Defaults to False, set status expiration time based upon track length if possible
  set_expiration: False

  # Required fields, defaults to ["artist", "title"]
  required_fields:
    - "artist"
    - "title"

  # Optional track metadata filters
  filters:
    - field: "artist" # choose field to filter, choice of artist, title, album
      partial: "Nickelback" # contents to filter on

  # Optional exceptions, based on track metadata. Takes precedence over required fields and filters
  exceptions:
    - field: "title" # field from TrackInfo: artist, title, album
      partial: "Udemy" # contents to partial match on
      emoji: ":male-student:" # optional custom emoji on matched exception
      message_format: "{title}" # optional custom message format on matched exception

# Optional listener config
listener:
  # Partial match to ignore by player name, check logs to see how player names show up
  # ignore Firefox web based players, where player name is firefox.instanceNNNN
  ignore: ["firefox.instance"]

Configuring Slobbler as a Slack App

1. Add slobbler to Slack Apps
2. Click Create New App
3. Choose From scratch
4. App Name -> Slobbler and choose your workspace
5. Click Create App
6. Click Add features and functionality
7. Choose Permissions
8. Click Add on OAuth Scope and add emoji:read, users:read, users.profile:read, users.profile:write
9. Copy User OAuth Token use that as user_oauth_token in slobbler config
10. Go back to Basic Information
11. Install your app -> Install to Workspace and Allow permissions

Running

$ slobbler --config ~/.config/slobbler.yaml

systemd

Use systemd to keep it running in the background

~/.config/systemd/user/slobbler.service

[Unit]
Description=Slack status scrobbler
After=network.target
After=dbus.socket
Requires=dbus.socket

[Service]
ExecStart=<path to bin>/slobbler --config ~/.config/slobbler.yaml
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

Start the service

systemctl --user enable --now slobbler.service

Monitor logs

journalctl --user -xeu slobbler.service -f

Useful references

• MPRIS Slack Integration Good starting place for me, helped with figuring out how to work with DBus/MPRIS. This must be run after a player is playing. Won't handle players exiting or starting.
• Linux: Spotify Track Notifier Helpful reference when working with DBus/MPRIS. Only works with Spotify and doesn't do anything with Slack
• dbus-python tutorial
• dbus-python examples