STV Import: NetFlix

[DwarF]

The latest version is available from the downloads section. It is now a STVi.

The newest version:
has a lot of navigation improvements
is an STVi
allows for title searches (hopefully can be integrated with IMDB STVi)

The README on the download has a lot of information so this is just the quick and dirty:


Installation:
***************************************************************
*** always backup your current properties files beforehand ***
(typically)
<Your Sage Install Dir>/sage.properties
and possibly
<Your Sage Install Dir>/sage.client.properties
***************************************************************
1) unpack the contents into your SageTV directory ( normally C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV)
taking care that the file paths are preserved. This will create STVs/SageTV3/neflix-v{version}.stvi, JARs/netflix.jar and JARs/netflix/source, README, etc

2) Setup -> Detailed Setup -> Advanced -> Import Custom STVi (choose netflix-v{ersion}.stvi

3) Choose File->Import and select the packaged netflix.xml file.

*You will have to add the link into the "NetFlix - Main" menu
manual) 1.Expand your "Online Services" Menu Item.
2.Expand the "MainMenuContainer" under the "Online Services Menu"
3.Drag A button (looks like a coffee bean) down from the panel on the upper
left to the MainMenuContainer panel with the other buttons.
4. Name the Button "NetFlix" (rightclick Properties) and then Drag and Drop
the "NetFlix - Main" Menu to this bean button.

automatic) download and install NielM's Dynamic Main Menu STVi (it's a great module if you don't already have it.

Viola...you are ready to use the plugin!


Configuration:
***************************************************************
Before you can utilize the plugin, you will need to configure it
from: Media Center -> Online Services -> Netflix -> Configure

You must provide an ID, Username, Password and Cache Dir at a
minimum. If you are behind a Proxy, you will also have to provide
the Proxy URL and Proxy Port. There are interfaces to walk you though all of this so it's not too bad.

You can also hide channels you are sure you will never be intersted in
checking out. This will help in the performance of full refreshes.

Your RSS feeds are chached for the period of one day, with the exception
of your Queue, which is updated every time you interact with it.

All primary settings are stored in your sage.properties files. So if you backup your sage.properties files for other installations, you will be effectively backing up your config for this plugin too.

Problems
***************************************************************
If you experience problems with the application not working for you, there are some extended debugging that can be enabled through your sage.properties.
plugins/netflix/NetFlixLogFile=C\:\\temp\\netflix\\sage.netflix.log
plugins/netflix/NetFlixLoggerDebug=4
plugins/netflix/NetFlixLoggerStream=file

The first setting turns on debugging. It is likely already set to true for the alpha releases. the stream needs to be set to file (instead of out or err).
TRACE = 5
DEBUG = 4
ERROR = 2

[Humanzee]

Ah Ha! Something to play with tonight.

[DwarF]

But be aware, you still have to link it in manually. I will release an update later in the week that will use the UI to let you link it in more easily.

[Humanzee]

Originally Posted by DwarF

But be aware, you still have to link it in manually.

using the dynamic menu, or do I need to open studio?

Your instructions mention using the "online services" menu. For some reason I can not access the dynamic menu functions within the "online services" menu. Will the plug in work when linked from the "Shedule Recordings" menu? I'm going to install 4.1.9 tonight, so maybe that will fix my dynamic menu problems when i re-import all my plug-ins.

[kpsmith]

Should I mention that Configuration is mispelled...

Now that I stand no chance of being helped.... HELP!

I was hoping the new STVI import would make this work for me but I still am not pulling any data down to the cache. The log file is also not being created in the cache directory.

Everything seems to be configured but... nothing. You need the "P" before your ID?

Any ideas appreciated

...This is totally cool ... cant wait to get it working.

Thanks

[sleonard]

Nielm's Dynamic Menu has not been updated to handle the Online Services Menu as well as several new features of the default SageTV3.xml properly. Although I love his DM import I have stopped using it until it is updated.

You can link the Netflix Main to another menu using Nielm's import or use Studio without Nielm's import to link it to the Online Services Menu.

[DwarF]

Originally Posted by kpsmith

Should I mention that Configuration is mispelled...

Thanks for the heads up, I will correct it. My IDE doesn't have a spellchecker, and I clearly need one. EDIT: I can't find where it is mispelled. Can you show me where? t/y

Originally Posted by kpsmith

I was hoping the new STVI import would make this work for me but I still am not pulling any data down to the cache. The log file is also not being created in the cache directory.

You should go into your sage.properties (or sage.client.properties) and delete all of your settings that begin with plugins/netflix and start fresh. I corrected the log location problem. (I think)

Originally Posted by kpsmith

Everything seems to be configured but... nothing. You need the "P" before your ID?

Yes, you need the P. It's a good point. I will screw up my password and username and post a screenshot. Perhaps I will update the Help Screen to mention it too.

Sorry I wasn't able to help you in realtime. I can only get on late. and I havne't installed yahoo's messenger yet.

[farscapesg1]

Interesting import. Now if only I used Netflix instead of Blockbuster's online rental. At the time I signed up the wife wanted Blockbuster because of the free 2 rentals per month at local stores, on top of the online rentals. Now if someone could only do the same thing with Blockbuster and their rental queue system.

[DwarF]

The netflix.zip download contains full source code. It would not be a difficult thing to convert the HTML parsers over to Blockbuster. I don't know if they use RSS feeds, so you may have to convert the existing RSS feeds to HTML parsers.

[Humanzee]

did you take the download link out of your first post?
I can't find it this evening.

[DwarF]

At the top, you should see a link that says "Downloads", from there, goto STVi -> NetFlix. At the bottom of that long and monotonous post is a download link.

[kpsmith]

Originally Posted by DwarF

I can't find where it is mispelled. Can you show me where? t/y

The main Configuration button on the Main Screen is spelled "Configuation"

You can see it in the screenshot at

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/down...screen_ZjC.gif

Thanks again for putting this together... I'll play around with it a bit more to see if I can get it to work on my end. Im sure its something simple I'm overlooking.

Tried your advice but still a no go. Do you need a specific version of java? Just getting the main sceen with Search Titles, Search Actors, Configuration, and Media Center. Nothing else. Cache still isn't building and no error log. I'm guess its something wrong with my configuration settings?

[DwarF]

Can you post your log? I compiled it with 1.4 compatability enabled, but another user said they had a problem with it as well. I use 1.5 personally. I didn't use any 1.5 specific syntax or constructs, so I am unsure what is causing the compatablity issue. I may reinstall 1.4 and see if I am using a foundation class that is 1.5 specific.

[kpsmith]

Doesnt seem to produce a log file in the cache directory or elsewhere. I'm going to try and update my java as I'm running 1.42.

Update: I updated to the latest version of Java and its working now. Thanks for your help. Looks like it doesn't work with 1.4 versions of java.

[Humanzee]

This is pretty sweet DwarF, worth the wait
A couple of things I noticed.
is there a way to show the film year when reviewing titles?

When looking at the "New Releases" after loading it only showed the cover art for the first three on the list, when I would use the remote to scroll or page down, the cover art would just cycle through those three, I would get harry potter cover art for the Baby Einstein title etc.

[src666]

First off, I can confirm that it doesn't run under Java 1.4.2 (what Sage comes with) - I had to upgrade to 1.5 before it would work. This is on a clean machine, so there were no traces of other Java installs to confuse the issue.

Second, once I got it running, I left it building the cache for a couple of hours. I still can't view my queue, and it is _still_ downloading files into the cache. The primary problem seems to be the insistance that all the images are grabbed. This is a problem. I can see some of the details (New Releases, Search, "Action & Adventure", etc.), but I would think that my queue would have top priority.

I recommend that you make it less dependent on the images. Download the data first, build the full set of information needed for it to work properly, then get the images at leisure later. Don't insist on loading the images for every item displayed, or at the very least make it optional.

Third, and this may be tied to point 2, but is anyone else having trouble with performance? It takes 10-15 seconds per page to navigate the lists of movies.

BTW, my computer is an Athlon 64 3200, and it's connected to a Athlon 64 3000 Sage server via a gigabit network. Hardware isn't the issue here.

Fourth, once you perform a search it is difficult to back out of it. From the search results, you can only "Return to Search", and the only navigation button on the search menu is "Cancel", which takes me back to the search results. I had to use the "Home" key to go back to the main Sage menu to get out.

Finally, in the readme there is no indication that the cache/logging directory is local to the server, not the client. I'm not sure how this is accessed (directly or through the Sage Server somehow), but I ended up moving my cache to a UNC path with full access rights. You might want to clarify this issue a bit - chances are you are using it on your server computer, and this hasn't come up before.

Overall, I can see this becoming a very useful addin. Once I get access to my queue I'll be able to give it more of a spin, but overall I'm impressed by the work so far.

[Humanzee]

Originally Posted by Humanzee

When looking at the "New Releases" after loading it only showed the cover art for the first three on the list, when I would use the remote to scroll or page down, the cover art would just cycle through those three, I would get harry potter cover art for the Baby Einstein title etc.

Not just "New Releases" I found the same problem in the "Drama" channel too, I assume that this means it could be an issue for all channels.

[Humanzee]

Originally Posted by src666

Second, once I got it running, I left it building the cache for a couple of hours. I still can't view my queue, and it is _still_ downloading files into the cache. The primary problem seems to be the insistance that all the images are grabbed. This is a problem. I can see some of the details (New Releases, Search, "Action & Adventure", etc.), but I would think that my queue would have top priority.

It does take a while to build the cache. It took about a minute to load my que and maybe 4 minutes to load the top 100 channel. Comparetivley, not to bad for the first time. But then again I only got three covers displayed on each channel, even though there appears to be hundreds in the cache.

At least it works, and that is better than nothing. I'm sure it will get better.

[src666]

Originally Posted by Humanzee

It does take a while to build the cache. It took about a minute to load my que and maybe 4 minutes to load the top 100 channel. Comparetivley, not to bad for the first time. But then again I only got three covers displayed on each channel, even though there appears to be hundreds in the cache.

At least it works, and that is better than nothing. I'm sure it will get better.

All I can say is after about 3 hours, it stopped caching. I still don't have a queue or recent activity. I can view things like Top 100 and "channels". I've tried kickstarting the caching, but there has been no further activity.

[kpsmith]

So is it supposed to take that long to Que up? I finally got the main menu to displayy completely but when clicking an option I get an indefinite spinning sage icon. This seems to run and run.

I checked the Que directory and it does download for a while but eventually putters out. The spinning sage icon stays on though so I have yet to get into the menus.

I also can't find the log file still


not complaining.. just trying to get it to work.

Again Dwarf.. thanks for all the work you've put into this.