The UPnP-Inspector

An UPnP Device and Service analyzer based on Coherence

The UPnP-Inspector (The Inspector) is an UPnP Device and Service analyzer based on Coherence. The Inspector helps analyzing UPnP devices and services on your networks. It's both a big help for debugging and a learning tool. The Inspector is loosely modeled after the Intel UPnP Device Spy and the UPnP Test Tool.

Beside the analyzing functions, The Inspector can act as a simple UPnP ControlPoint. You can browse the content of DLNA MediaServers and control MediaRenderers, e.g. make them play music directly from the Media Server.

Features

• inspect UPnP devices, services, actions and state-variables
• invoke actions on any service
• extract UPnP device- and service-description xml-files
• follow and analyze events
• interact with well-known devices:
  • browse the ContentDirectory of an UPnP A/V MediaServer and inspect its containers and items
  • control an UPnP A/V MediaRenderer

Release 0.2.2 - Let the Sunshine In - includes:

• a control-window for UPnP A/V MediaRenderers
• Drag 'n Drop functionality from the MediaServer Browse window to the MediaRenderer control
• a 'Rediscover Devices' menu item
• a 'Refreshing Container' context menu item and an overall refresh upon closing the MediaServer Browse window
• support for dlna-playcontainer URIs
• displaying all elements from a DIDLLite fragment

Installing pre-build packages

Requirements and Installation from Source

The Inspector requires

• Python 2.x or higher (tested with 2.6, but other versions should work, too, Python 3.x is not supported),
• setuptools or distribute for installation (see below),
• PyGTK, and of course
• Coherence >= 0.6.4 and
• Twisted (which is required by Coherence).

Installing The Inspector

When you are reading this you most probably already downloaded and unpacked The Inspector. Thus installing is as easy as running:

python ./setup.py install

Otherwise you may install directly using setuptools/easy_install. If your system has network access installing The Inspector is a breeze:

easy_install upnp-inspector

Without network access download The Inspector from http://pypi.python.org/pypi/upnp-inspector and run:

easy_install upnp-inspector-*.tar.gz

More Hints on Installing setuptools

The Inspector uses setuptools for installation. Thus you need either

• network access, so the install script will automatically download and install setuptools if they are not already installed

or

• the correct version of setuptools pre-installed using the EasyInstall installation instructions. Those instructions also have tips for dealing with firewalls as well as how to manually download and install setuptools.

Custom Installation Locations

The Inspector is just a single script (aka Python program). So you can copy it where ever you want (maybe fixing the first line). But it's easier to just use:

# install to /usr/local/bin
python ./setup.py install --prefix /usr/local

# install to your Home directory (~/bin)
python ./setup.py install --home ~

Please mind: This effects also the installation of setuptools if they are not already installed.

For more information about Custom Installation Locations please refer to the Custom Installation Locations Instructions before installing The Inspector.