Plugin to control programs on your PC

[JoChn]

Hi! It is possible to make some plugin to control e.g. foobar when player is connected? I mean, everything is great right now, but when you change volume, you can't change volume of foobar, but only system volume.
Or e.g. use player to control Photoshop (prev - undo; next - redo)
For now it will be great to control volume a foobar.

[Llorean]

This feature more or less already exists on devices that can do it - see the USB HID feature if your device supports it.

[JoChn]

Yes. I know this option, but I ask about add to this list my own programs? Then I add shortcuts to keys on player and follow-up that control programs which I add

[saratoga]

Yes. I know this option, but I ask about add to this list my own programs? Then I add shortcuts to keys on player and follow-up that control programs which I add

Assuming your program supports hot keys, you should already be able to do this by assigning the USB HID keys to whatever you want in your programs.

[JoChn]

Ehm... So I must change the hotkeys in USB HID? If yes, how to do that? Sorry, but I do not understand all of your reply. 

[saratoga]

Ehm... So I must change the hotkeys in USB HID? If yes, how to do that? Sorry, but I do not understand all of your reply. 

USB HID just makes your device generate key presses.  Its up to you to configure your software to recognize the key presses and do something with them. 

[JoChn]

But it is impossible to change hotkeys used by player?

[torne]

Currently there are two ways to make Rockbox send USB HID codes:

1) plug it in normally and let it go into USB mode, then press buttons while on the USB screen. This sends one of the several sets of USB HID codes we support, but they can't be redefined without changing and recompiling the Rockbox code. Many media player apps *do* support the multimedia keys, e.g. winamp has support for it in gen_hotkeys, it's just turned off by default (though in winamp at least, it doesn't capture the volume keys "properly" and it *also* controls the system volume at the same time).

You can use this with arbitrary applications via something like AutoHotkey on your PC: make it respond to the multimedia keys or any of the other sets of keys Rockbox can send, and instead send a particular hotkey to a particular app.

2) Plug it in while holding the charging-only button, then run the remote_control plugin. This has a different set of options/menus for what HID codes to send, but still can't be redefined without modifying the plugin and recompiling.

Someone could write a patch to make remote_control read a button configuration from a file, that would probably be useful.