UPNP Client and MediaRenderer for NodeJS

A modern UPNP client made in Typescript. Compatible with both ESM and CommonJS.

• UpnpDeviceClient: to connect to any UPNP devices
• UpnpMediaRendererClient: to play medias on UPNP devices
• also includes DLNA helpers

Install

$ npm install upnp-client-ts

Usage of UpnpDeviceClient

import upnp from 'upnp-client';

// Instantiate a client with a device description URL (discovered by SSDP)
const client = new upnp.UpnpDeviceClient('http://192.168.1.50:4873/foo.xml');

// Get the device description
const deviceDescription = await client.getDeviceDescription();
console.log(deviceDescription);

// Get the device's AVTransport service description
const serviceDescription = await client.getServiceDescription('AVTransport');
console.log(serviceDescription);

// Call GetMediaInfo on the AVTransport service
const callActionResponse = await client.callAction('AVTransport', 'GetMediaInfo', { InstanceID: 0 });
console.log(callActionResponse);

const listener = (event: UpnpEvent) => {
    console.log(event);
};

await client.subscribe('AVTransport', listener);
// Will receive events like { InstanceID: 0, TransportState: 'PLAYING' } when playing media

await client.unsubscribe('AVTransport', listener);

Usage of UpnpMediaRendererClient

import upnp from 'upnp-client';

const client = new upnp.UpnpMediaRendererClient('http://192.168.1.50:54380/MediaRenderer_HT-A9.xml');

const options = {
    autoplay: true,
    contentType: 'audio/flac',
    dlnaFeatures: dlnaContentFeatures, // see below for dlnaHelpers
    metadata: {
        title: 'My song',
        creator: 'My creator',
        artist: 'My artist',
        album: 'My album',
        albumArtURI: 'http://127.0.0.1/albumArtURI.jpg',
        type: 'audio'
    }
};

await client.load('http://127.0.0.1/music.flac', options);

await client.loadNext('http://127.0.0.1/next-music.flac', options);

await client.pause();

await client.play();

await client.stop();

await client.next();

await client.previous();

await client.seek(60);

// you can also call any AVTransport action supported by your device
const response = await client.callAVTransport('YourCustomAVTransportCall', {
    InstanceID: client.instanceId
});

Usage of dlnaHelpers

You can generate DLNA flags and features thanks to the provided helpers, for instance:

const dlnaContentFeatures =
    `${upnp.dlnaHelpers.getDlnaSeekModeFeature('range')};` +
    `${upnp.dlnaHelpers.getDlnaTranscodeFeature(false)};` +
    `${upnp.dlnaHelpers.defaultFlags.DLNA_STREAMING_TIME_BASED_FLAGS}`;

Tips and tricks

In the metadata you're passing to your speaker, make sure to avoid using accents and special characters.

Here is a simple helper you could use:

const escapeSpecialChars = (value: string) => {
    return value
        .normalize('NFD')
        .replace(/[\u0300-\u036f]/g, '') // remove all accents from characters
        .replace(/&/g, '&')
        .replace(/</g, '&lt;')
        .replace(/>/g, '&gt;')
        .replace(/’/g, "'");
};

Debugging

Run with debug traces

$ DEBUG=true node index.js

Inspiration

This project is based on the awesome work from @thibauts.

Maintainer

Corentin Mors