Retaining STV Imports after Upgrading SageTV

[dbfresh23]

OK, I originally posted this in the 4.1.9 beta thread and Narflex told me to shut up and go away... well actually he just said to start a new thread - so that's what I'm doing.

Forgive me for quoting myself...

Originally Posted by dbfresh23

OK, I just installed 4.1.9 and now I have to re-import all of the import STVIs that I use, which brings me to a suggestion. Why not make it so that there's a separate imports.properties or specific_client.imports.properties? A flat text file that contains a list of the imports being used. This way when I upgrade to the newest SageTV STV I can retain my imports being used and still make use of the updates made in the new STV. Or am I just missing something and this or something like it already exists?

Originally Posted by Narflex

Something like it already exists but we're just not making use of it yet. You can actually specify multiple XML files for it to load and link together using references. We'll be posting more information on it soon. If you want to talk more about it, start a new thread please since it doesn't have anything to do with the beta.

Just so you know why i'm asking...

Originally Posted by Opus4

Just to clarify: any time you install a new version, only the default STV (SageTV3.xml) is overwritten by the one in the installer. Your other STV files are not affected. So, while the imports will still be in the old STV, the new changes in the default STV will not be in your old one where your imports were loaded previously. You would need to start with the new default STV & load any imports again.

For complete testing of all the changes in the beta, you really should start with the latest default STV.

I'm not sure if anyone already knows about what he's talking about so I may need Narflex or Opus4 to chime in here.

[GKusnick]

This probably belongs in the Customizations forum, but you can implement something like this yourself pretty easily in Studio. Just create an STVI file with nothing in it but an STVImported hook, and from that hook make calls to ImportSTVFile to import the STVIs you want:

STVImported
  +- ImportSTVFile("C:\\Full\\Path\\To\\Import1.stvi")
  +- ImportSTVFile("C:\\Full\\Path\\To\\Import2.stvi")
  +- ImportSTVFile("C:\\Full\\Path\\To\\Import3.stvi")
     ...

Each time you upgrade, just import this master STVI to automatically reapply all the STVIs you use.

[sleonard]

Narflex said that he already has something in the works to take card of this issue. I'll bet that it works something like Gregs suggestion but built-in to each new default STV. I'm patient so I am going to wait for the Narflex to implement an official solution to this and keep doing this manually every upgrade until then. It's not that hard or time-consuming.

FYI, before installing a new version I revert to SageTV3.xml, exit Sage, and delete all the SageTV3-X.xml files. After installing I just do the imports all over again. Take about 2-3 minutes and easy but I would like to see Narflex' solution implemented soon.

Actually, I'd like to see this idea taken a lot further: to a complete auto-update system such as the one in XP. Every night Sage checks for, downloads and installs new updates at a specified time.