A lot of multimedia-programs support the org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.MediaKeys D-Bus interface of gnome-settings-daemon. The MediaKeys-Daemon is a clone of that dbus-interface using python, with the additional possibility to execute commands on this interface. The following commands can be called:

• play
• pause
• stop
• next (track in playlist)
• previous (track in playlist)

This makes it possible to bind the mediakeys on your keyboard with the corresponding actions on the interface, and thus control every running media-player. The Usage page describes the integration with Openbox.

Programs supporting the interface

• Rhythmbox
• Decibel Audio Player
• Banshee
• Totem
• gnome-mplayer
• Sonata
• Gnome Music Player Client (gmpc)
• Vagalume
• Ballroom Audio Player
• Evince
• ... probably some more

Dbus example

Besides it's functionality, the mkd.py-file can be used as an example in creating single instance-applications using dbus.

Source Code

The source code for mediakeys-daemon is hosted on Gitorious: http://gitorious.org/mediakeys-daemon