Kontroller

JulienBlanc's picture
Submitted by JulienBlanc on Sun, 2020/11/15 - 12:35
Rating: 
4.8
Your rating: None Average: 4.8 (5 votes)

This application is a remote control for kodi, intended to be mainly used for « blind » use, where kodi screen is not needed to operate (ie, to play music without switching on the tv).

It can also be used as a standard remote (with haptic feedback).

It tries to follow sfos interface guidelines as much as possible.

Source code is available on github: https://github.com/Julien-Blanc-tgcm/kontroller

Current features include :

  • music browsing / playing via albums / artists / songs / genres or files
  • video browsing / playing via categories (Films, TV Shows, Music videos) or files
  • subtitle / audio track selection when playing videos
  • multiple server (multiple kodi instances) support
  • generic remote
  • control of kodi internal volume or of an external device (if device is supported, feel free to open a github issue if it is not).
  • Server shutdown
  • Library refresh / cleanup

Application is translated in French, Swedish, German, Russian (partly) and English.

Screenshots: 

Category:

Keywords:

Application versions: 
AttachmentSizeDate
File harbour-kontroller-0.7-1.armv7hl.rpm312.47 KB18/04/2020 - 12:54
File harbour-kontroller-debugsource-0.7-1.armv7hl.rpm6.5 KB18/04/2020 - 12:54
File harbour-kontroller-debuginfo-0.7-1.armv7hl.rpm2.92 MB18/04/2020 - 12:54
File harbour-kontroller-0.6-1.armv7hl.rpm296.63 KB05/04/2020 - 13:22
File harbour-kontroller-0.5-1.armv7hl.rpm294.25 KB01/04/2020 - 19:37
File harbour-kontroller-0.4-1.armv7hl.rpm291.27 KB15/03/2020 - 11:50
File kontroller-0.3-1.armv7hl.rpm323.21 KB14/03/2020 - 13:49
File kontroller-0.2-1.armv7hl.rpm316.18 KB11/01/2020 - 17:05
File harbour-kontroller-0.8-1.armv7hl.rpm314.88 KB24/04/2020 - 08:58
File harbour-kontroller-debuginfo-0.8-1.armv7hl.rpm2.93 MB24/04/2020 - 08:58
File harbour-kontroller-debugsource-0.8-1.armv7hl.rpm6.5 KB24/04/2020 - 08:58
File harbour-kontroller-0.8-2.armv7hl.rpm315.02 KB25/04/2020 - 16:02
File harbour-kontroller-debuginfo-0.8-2.armv7hl.rpm2.92 MB25/04/2020 - 16:02
File harbour-kontroller-debugsource-0.8-2.armv7hl.rpm6.5 KB25/04/2020 - 16:02
File harbour-kontroller-0.9-1.armv7hl.rpm318.01 KB09/05/2020 - 12:02
File harbour-kontroller-debuginfo-0.9-1.armv7hl.rpm2.91 MB09/05/2020 - 12:02
File harbour-kontroller-debugsource-0.9-1.armv7hl.rpm6.48 KB09/05/2020 - 12:02
File harbour-kontroller-0.10-1.armv7hl.rpm320.93 KB10/05/2020 - 11:00
File harbour-kontroller-0.11-1.armv7hl.rpm326.95 KB20/05/2020 - 08:48
File harbour-kontroller-0.11-2.armv7hl.rpm326.91 KB20/05/2020 - 20:27
File harbour-kontroller-0.12-2.armv7hl.rpm292.33 KB01/06/2020 - 10:33
File harbour-kontroller-0.12-3.armv7hl.rpm292.55 KB02/06/2020 - 08:11
File harbour-kontroller-0.13-0.armv7hl.rpm296.35 KB12/09/2020 - 15:45
File harbour-kontroller-0.14-1.armv7hl.rpm343.13 KB13/09/2020 - 13:43
File harbour-kontroller-0.14-3.armv7hl.rpm343.38 KB13/09/2020 - 15:03
File harbour-kontroller-0.15-1.armv7hl.rpm405.47 KB19/09/2020 - 19:39
File harbour-kontroller-0.15-3.armv7hl.rpm392.94 KB20/09/2020 - 15:20
File harbour-kontroller-0.16-0.armv7hl.rpm411.14 KB27/09/2020 - 16:12
File harbour-kontroller-0.16-2.armv7hl.rpm413.68 KB02/10/2020 - 08:58
File harbour-kontroller-0.17-2.armv7hl.rpm415.78 KB15/11/2020 - 12:35
Changelog: 

# Changelog

## Version 0.17

* Added recently added / recently played items in music
* Improved currently playing page

## Version 0.16

* Fixed several usability issues
* no longer uses a pulldown menu for volume / playing options, instead
clicking on the album art goes to the currently playing page
* shows the volume in tho dock
* reworked the currently playing page
* added a remorse on the stop button

## Version 0.15

* Added wake on lan support to wake up the server
* Changed several icons

## Version 0.14

* Fixed a lot of layout issues
* Added basic library management (cleaning and refreshing for audio/video)
* Added menu to shutdown kodi server

## Version 0.13

* New home page - no longer uses a grid (did not work in landscape mode)
* Added server discovery
* Improved experience on first use

## Version 0.12

* Added search function in lists
* Added an icon provider, to add custom icons to the app. Movies icon has
been replaced by a new one
* fixed issues related to some play buttons/actions not working

## Version 0.11

* new gui for currently playing item, feedback for volume
* integration of repeat one/all and shuffle mode
* improvements on volume management
* fixed wrong indication on touchpad
* add download options for albums, not only using file browsing but
also in artist view or in list view

## Version 0.10

* added german translation (thanks popanz)
* fix #6 (images not displayed if using http auth)
* added icon to identify file type (ref #1)
* may fix #18 (to be checked)
* small cleanup in some files

## Version 0.9

* Fixed an issue which could prevent connection if using only one server
* Fixed TV Shows pages which were broken
* Few internal improvements
* Honor the "ignorearticle" setting of the server
* fix playlist page was sometimes not displaying anything (or slow to display)

## Version 0.8

* added about page
* fixed centering of text input
* fixed albums list not alphabetically sorted
* added busy indicator on some lists

## Version 0.7

* lots of internal changes, fixes some app crashes
* correctly keep last connected server
* added a volume plugin for minidsp products
* download files to music / videos folder, respectively
* reworked the remote control page, which is much more usable now
* small ui/layout improvements

## Version 0.6

* fixes for landscape mode
* fixed some bugs related to genre for music
* reviewed settings page, use of a dialog page
* introduced preliminary support for volume plugins

## Version 0.5

* includes russian translation from dikonov
* added support for volume keys
* fixes for landscape mode

## Version 0.4

* mostly technical version, improvements of repository architecture
* moved the name from kontroller to harbour-kontroller (needed for jolla store
inclusion)
* use static build of libqjsonrpc - needed for jolla store inclusion
* added swedish translation, many thanks to eson57 for it

## Version 0.3

* new server settings interface
* removed the multiple zone options from interface (it is not working
currently)
* added the login / password fields in the server settings, implemented
basic auth handling

## Version 0.2

* initial public release

Comments

Pelzlurch's picture

Pelzlurch

Thu, 2020/10/08 - 12:07

Last update was a really great one. Thanx for adressing my wishes/issues. Moving volume to the now playing section was a brilliant idea! Anyway, I have some more things which I would like to report/suggest.
Now, that it is possible to wake my kodi machine it would make sense to add an option to send it to sleep.
On the now playing view, it would in my opinion make sense to show in the lower section the five next playing songs. The album/artist art isn´t very useful for me.
The slider for jumping to a defined position in a song isn´t moving accoringly, while playback.
A control unit for the lockscreen would also be nice to have.

If I can help you with anything but coding let me know. I´m always willing to help or to donate.

JulienBlanc's picture

JulienBlanc

Thu, 2020/10/08 - 21:51

Since 0.15 it is possible to remotely shut down the machine, it’s in server management page, there is a pulley menu with the reboot and shutdown options. I could add sleep and hibernate, but that will make a lot of items in the pulley (maybe i'll add an option for this).

I'll take a look at why the slider is not moving correctly, and keep the idea of the next playing items in mind. I'm not sure what you mean with the lock screen, do you mean being able to control kodi while the phone is locked ? That seems a good idea, i'm not sure it's feasable, though.

Pelzlurch's picture

Pelzlurch

Thu, 2020/09/17 - 14:52

One further thing: A wake host function would also be a nice feature to have.

JulienBlanc's picture

JulienBlanc

Thu, 2020/09/17 - 19:43

Yes, that will be included in the soon to be released 0.15 :). Wake On Lan is the only one supported, i can integrate other mechanisms (wifi plugs for example) if there is demand.

Pelzlurch's picture

Pelzlurch

Mon, 2020/09/14 - 16:50

kontroller is getting better and better. Thanx for your great work. I think with the new update it's time for me to switch to kontroller as my main app for controlling kodi. 

Anyway, where there is light there must be shadow (just a few minor ones): Two things which I find somewhat annoying:

  • When you try to change volume you have to use the pull up menu. This is problematic, because I hardly cope to do that without pressing one of the buttons (skip, pause, whatever...)
  • There is the X button, which makes it possible to stop playback and empty the playlist. This is quite a mighty button. I think there should be a remorse timer for this button. Especially if you consider the problem with the pull up menu, described above.
JulienBlanc's picture

JulienBlanc

Mon, 2020/09/14 - 18:54

Thanks for your feedback. I’ve created two issues for that in github (the position of the volume slider is a mess). A remorse is indeed a nice idea. The « X » should also need another icon (same size as the others, and with a filled square).

Pelzlurch's picture

Pelzlurch

Thu, 2020/05/07 - 19:57

Thank you Julien for a further great kodi remote contoller! 
I have tons of music on my kodi machine. Unfortunately it is not sorted correctly. If  I choose the artist view I have parts which are sorted correctly, but very often there are artists starting with a Z which are sorted above artists which start with an A. That is not only a problem with Kontroller but also with Kodimote. Onthe kodi machine and withe the official Kore app artists are sorted the right way. Do you have an idea what the reason could be?

JulienBlanc's picture

JulienBlanc

Thu, 2020/05/07 - 20:37

Kontroller does not do its own sorting, but it relies on kodi to do it. By default, it requests a sort on the label (which in the case of artists, should be their name), with the option to ignore article (so that "The Stooges" will appear between "Sebadoh" and "Supertramp", for example). I believe kodimote does the same, although i never checked.

I'm not sure what kore does. From rapid testing, it also uses ignore article option, but i didn't check what it asks kodi precisely. Could you post a sample of the "invalid sort" you encounter ? It may help diagnose the issue. On my machine results of the two apps seems similar.

Also, what is « a ton ? ». It should work fine even for more than a thousand artists. I just found doing testing that songs are not sorted, this will be fixed in next release.

Pelzlurch's picture

Pelzlurch

Fri, 2020/05/08 - 16:53

Hi Julien,
here is the very beginning of the Artist List on Kontroller and Kore. It lso looks like there are on some Artist Names blanks in front of the Name. I doublechecked that. There are no blanks in the Tags:kontroller
Kore

By the way there is a geman translation missing. I will fix that on the weekend. ;)

JulienBlanc's picture

JulienBlanc

Sat, 2020/05/09 - 12:11

This indeed looks strange…

I made a few fixes in 0.9, could you check the behaviour ? I believe kore does its own sorting, instead of relying on kodi to do it, which could explain some differences.

The extra space probably comes from the image: if you're using password authentication, the image is not displayed (issue https://github.com/Julien-Blanc-tgcm/kontroller/issues/6 ).

Pelzlurch's picture

Pelzlurch

Sat, 2020/05/09 - 18:50

Unfortunately artists are still sorted the wrong way. What has changed is, that the extra space has grown. 
I already tried to build the library of kodi anew but still the same sorting. Strange. 
Songs by the way are sorted correctly.

German translation is finished.

JulienBlanc's picture

JulienBlanc

Sun, 2020/05/10 - 11:04

I’ve created an issue for this :  https://github.com/Julien-Blanc-tgcm/kontroller/issues/18

I believe a change in 0.10 could fix this (this is the same kind of change that fixed it for songs) : https://github.com/Julien-Blanc-tgcm/kontroller/commit/8460dc2b3a342961d...

Can you confirm this on the issue tracker ?

Thanks for the german translation ! It is released together with 0.10

Pelzlurch's picture

Pelzlurch

Sun, 2020/05/10 - 14:06

I already confirmed it in the bug tracker. Anyway I also write it here: You nailed the problem. Sorting is now working like it should. And also the covers are now shown. Great work! Thank you! If I can help you with anything but coding, let me know.

JulienBlanc's picture

JulienBlanc

Sun, 2020/05/10 - 16:28

Any help is always welcomed :). It can be any of :

  • translations
  • test / bug reporting
  • feature requests / ideas for improvements

By the way, i'm gonna change the interface a bit for the next version, i am a quite unhappy with a few things currently. So any idea is welcome.

Pelzlurch's picture

Pelzlurch

Sun, 2020/05/10 - 18:33

For the German translation, I'm always ready to help you. With other languages I fear, I'm quite useless. :(
And of course I'm  willing to test and report bugs at any time. If you need any help with graphics, I can also help you. Even so I'm not sure if you need help on that side. The icon at least is really nice.
Should I post the feature requests here or on github? Things which I miss/dislike the most at the moment:

  • Bigger control buttons woould be helpful
  • Possibility to reboot, shutdown ...
  • Possibility to control volume
  • The Touchpad of the remote control looks somewhat lost and crippled at the moment.
JulienBlanc's picture

JulienBlanc

Mon, 2020/05/11 - 08:19

Github is a better place to discuss new features, since it allows tracking them, commenting, history, etc.

Volume can be controlled by the physical buttons, but there is no feedback yet (this is something that i want to change, but for which i lack a good ui idea).

reboot / shutdown will come, as well as library management.

What do you mean by bigger control buttons ? Which device are you using ?

Pelzlurch's picture

Pelzlurch

Sun, 2020/05/17 - 09:08

Thanx for the hint how to control volume. I have a Pro1 and opened a new issue on Github for that.

sdiconov's picture

sdiconov

Tue, 2020/03/10 - 23:58

I can test on JollaC and Inoi T8. I can also translate it into Russian. There is one feature missing in both Kodimote and Kontroller - support for .cue files. The desktop Kodi transparently handles .cue and dislays tracks, but both remote apps show flac and cue files instead. Even if kodi does not allow to see tracks, cue might be parsed on the phone side. When the user chooses a track, the app can play the image file and rewind to the start of the chosen song.

JulienBlanc's picture

JulienBlanc

Wed, 2020/04/01 - 23:07

Thanks for the translation. Version 0.5 should fix most of the landscape issues, let me know if you still have some (outside the "remote" part which need a complete rework)

JulienBlanc's picture

JulienBlanc

Wed, 2020/03/11 - 20:06

I don't speak a word of russian, but translations are very welcomed. I’ve uploaded the source code to github - https://github.com/Julien-Blanc-tgcm/kontroller , but it’s still in an early stage (i need to add qjsonrpc as submodule and provide a better working compiling environment). Once this is done, PR for translations should be quite easy.

For cue files, i'm reluctant to add a cue parser into the remote : cue files are well handled by kodi. However, this is an interesting use case to have, i'll think about a solution (probably for v0.4, i want to release v0.3 soon).

sdiconov's picture

sdiconov

Tue, 2020/03/31 - 19:02

This app lacks ability to set kodi username and password (FIXED). It could not connect unless login/password is cleared in Kodi. Besides it has two different port entries. A short help text is needed to explain the meaning of the port entries and what options must be set in Kodi (FIXED).

Other problems:
1) The app fails to adapt its main page layout (the one with big rectangular buttons) in landscape mode. Some buttons go off-screen.

2) the remote control page lacks play-stop-pause controls and has low-res icons. Looks bad on a tablet screen (Tested with Inoi T8).

3) In file mode album covers are often not shown (Kodi does show them while browsing those same files. The covers in this case were stored as "cover.jpg" files). It would be better to use bold or colored text to mark directory entries instead of [brackets]. 

JulienBlanc's picture

JulienBlanc

Mon, 2020/03/09 - 14:50

Thanks for your feedback. I’ll add some fields for user / password (i've reworked the settings page, i'll add that for v3). Since i don't use them i never had the issue.

As for the landscape and tablet issues, indeed the app is not designed to work in these modes, it is only tested on jolla 1 and xperia X / XA2 phones. I guess there are a lot of other issues (tablet would need a dedicated interface to take advantage of the bigger screen imho).

File mode currently show covers for files that are also in the library. I'll check how it can be improved for files not in the library.