STV Import: Toolbar for SageMC (v1.0a / June 11, 2007)

[MeInMaui]

Hi Everyone,

I put together this toolbar import after seeing a number of people wishing that SageMC had better mouse support. I hope this is useful to someone.

Many thanks go out to mickp for testing and Dirk (flachbar) for great suggestions and a little java programming magic. Also, thanks go to GKusnick for his studio tools. I would have never been able to put together an import without it.

Aloha,
Mike

You can download it here.

From the download description:

At least SageTV v6.1.x, Java v1.6, and SageMC v6.3.3 are required

This import adds a toolbar to the top of the screen for SageMC, providing enhanced mouse support. The toolbar is normally hidden and will roll down when the mouse cursor is moved to the top of the screen. It will roll back up when you move the mouse away. In the Video OSD, the behavior is slightly different, requiring a mouse click at the top of the screen to activate the toolbar.

In the first release, the basic functionality includes the following commands: back, forward, home, sleep, fullscreen toggle, exit, transport controls, volume controls, mute, and direct access to the weather menu and calendar.

Version 1.0 of the toolbar import adds two user configurable toolbars (in addition to the Minimal and Fullsize configurations) and two user configurable fixed button layouts for placing buttons directly on menu screens. Different combinations of toolbar + fixed button layout can be selected for the Main Menu, Submenus, and the Media Player OSD. By default, the fixed button layouts are disabled in all screens and the Minimal toolbar configuration is enabled in all screens.

Editing of User Configurable Buttons

Buttons and button groups can be enabled/disabled from the toolbar options menu or by highlighting any button in the toolbar or fixed button layout to be edited and pressing the options key and then selecting Enable/Disable Buttons.

Any editable button/button group can be moved or rescaled by highlighting the button to be edited, pressing the options key, and then selecting Move/Scale Button. You can then use the arrow keys to move the button(s), the Pgup/Pgdn keys to rescale, and the stop key to restore the default size/location.

Toolbars

The Minimal and Fullsize toolbar configurations are still available. The Minimal toolbar is now the default.
There are now two additional custom toolbar configurations labeled MyBar 1 and MyBar 2. These two configurations are user editable.

Fixed Buttons

There are now two user editable configurations (Layout 1 and Layout 2) for placing fixed buttons and button groups on screen. Separate Back, Fullscreen/Windowed, and Sleep icons are available in the fixed button layouts in addition to all of the buttons available in the toolbars.

Other

This import also adds functionality to the record and conflict icons. The record icon takes you to the Schedule menu and the conflict icon takes you to the conflict management menu when clicked. There is also now an option to disable the invisible navigation spots in SageMC to prevent conflicts if buttons are placed over the spot (upper left corner of the menu).

Note: There is currently a limitation when using the stop popup screen for video playback. One option is to press stop a second time. This is currently not possible using only the mouse.

Installation

Unzip the contents of the download into your SageTV directory. Then start Sage and import Toolbar_Import.xml (in the STVs\SageTV3\ folder) into SageMC.

For use with the Google Calendar plugin:

Install the Google Calendar STVi first. (Very important! The calendar menu must exist for the Toobar to properly link to it.)
Install the Toolbar as per above.
Go to the Extras section of the SageMC Options menu and enable 'Toolbar Calendar Icon Selectable'
Also in the Extras section, go to the Calendar Options and disable the Navbar.

Version History

v0.1
Initial Release

v0.2

- Added an Options Menu for the toolbar. It is accessible from the SageMC Options / Extras section or by pressing the options key while any button in the toolbar is focused
- Added shortcut button to jump to the Playlist Manager
- Added user configurable shortcut button (configure button in options menu)
- Added TV command button. (This toggles fullscreen video/video preview)
- Added Record button. (Initiates a manual recording while watching live tv)
- Added option to select alternate toolbar backgrounds from the options menu. (I have provided glassy backgrounds in blue, red, green, smoked and purple in addition to the original metallic background.)
- Adjusted layout and button sizes to (hopefully) improve aesthetics

v 0.2b

- Added minimal toolbar view. This view has a smaller footprint and eliminates the diskbar, calendar, and weather items. The background image is set independently of the fullsize toolbar. Both background settings are preserved.

v 1.0

- Complete redesign. (See description above)

v 1.0a

- Misc. small bug fixes
- Added option to disable toolbar animation separately in the Main Menu, Submenus, and MediaPlayer OSD
- Added Diskbar to custom toolbars. (Because the diskbar does not gain focus, you must click on the diskbar to bring up its options menu for moving/rescaling.)
- Added standalone shortcut button. (This is the same button that is grouped with the playlist and TV buttons, just made available separately.)

[Madcoder]

Wow. Let me be the first to say, thank you very much. This kind of thing has been missing overall. Now the GUI can remain clean looking (with SageMC), and still have a control bar. Sage is getting better all the time thanks to the work of guys like you, Flachbar, and others. Hats off.



Oh, and it imports perfectly fine for me.

[MeInMaui]

Woohoo! It works for someone!

Thanks!

Aloha,
Mike

[alon24]

The menu bar is great.

A little request, can you add a record button for live tv?

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by alon24

The menu bar is great.

A little request, can you add a record button for live tv?

Thanks!

Do you mean a button to start live tv? Or a button to start a manual recording while watching live tv?

[technazz]

I like what I see. Even though i rarely pick up the mouse within Sage i might install it.

With this any chance to see the current SageMC OSD updated? I think I heard before that the images are interanally generated. I think thats the only part of SageMC that bothers me.

Technazz

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by technazz

I like what I see. Even though i rarely pick up the mouse within Sage i might install it.

With this any chance to see the current SageMC OSD updated? I think I heard before that the images are interanally generated. I think thats the only part of SageMC that bothers me.

Technazz

I don't think it makes sense to change the OSD graphics with this import, but I'll take a look and see if Dirk and I can change the graphics over to external files (like we did with the diskbar) and build it into SageMC. It would be nice to have more control over the look of the OSD.

Aloha,
Mike

[technazz]

Originally Posted by MeInMaui

I don't think it makes sense to change the OSD graphics with this import, but I'll take a look and see if Dirk and I can change the graphics over to external files (like we did with the diskbar) and build it into SageMC. It would be nice to have more control over the look of the OSD.

Aloha,
Mike

Thanks for considering!
Nice OSD goes a long way. Guide, menus, icons, selection bars look great but OSD which I think you see the most of doesn't match everything else.

Technazz

[MTuckman]

Somehow I missed this when it was released and just now noticed it. This will come in very handy when I am using the Client on my laptop, as out of habit I normally reach for the trackpoint when trying to pause, etc.

Looks really nice!!!

[alon24]

Originally Posted by MeInMaui

Thanks!

Do you mean a button to start live tv? Or a button to start a manual recording while watching live tv?

I mean, while watching tv, a button to start recording the show.

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by alon24

I mean, while watching tv, a button to start recording the show.

Yes, I'll definitely add this to the next version. Thanks for the clarification.

Aloha,
Mike

[MeInMaui]

Hi Guys,

I added a few instruction to the download and first post regarding use with the Google Calendar plugin:

For use with the Google Calendar plugin:

Install the Google Calendar STVi first. (Very important! The calendar menu must exist for the Toobar to properly link to it.)
Install the Toolbar as per above.
Go to the Extras section of the SageMC Options menu and enable 'Toolbar Calendar Icon Selectable'
Also in the Extras section, go to the Calendar Options and disable the Navbar.

Aloha,
Mike

[Armondole]

Originally Posted by MeInMaui

Hi Guys,

I added a few instruction to the download and first post regarding use with the Google Calendar plugin:



Aloha,
Mike

Absolutely great work here! Lots of people complain about lack of mouse support for SageMC so hopefully they will see this import because it certainly helps! Something as simple as going to the home screen is a pain in butt if you don't have this...

ps: your calendar looks pretty cool too!

[Morgan111]

Wow, I'm glad I am running into some free time to check out all of these new goodies! Can't wait to load this up! Way to go Mike!

[MeInMaui]

Wow, this thread has been really quiet.

As of this post, I see there have been 85 downloads of the toolbar. Is it fair to assume that it is working reasonably well for everyone?

Aloha,
Mike

[Halstead]

Originally Posted by MeInMaui

Wow, this thread has been really quiet.

As of this post, I see there have been 85 downloads of the toolbar. Is it fair to assume that it is working reasonably well for everyone?

Aloha,
Mike

it's working great on my clients (seriously- this is awesome), but I can't seem to get in installed on my server (and thereby the placeshifters). I've even tried turning off the server functionality altogether, but so far no joy.

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by Halstead

it's working great on my clients (seriously- this is awesome), but I can't seem to get in installed on my server (and thereby the placeshifters). I've even tried turning off the server functionality altogether, but so far no joy.

It looks like you are running java 1.5 on your clients and java 1.4.2 on your server. I just looked and GKusnick's Studio Tools, which I used to generate the import, require at least java v1.5. It looks like you will have to update your server. Sorry I missed that before and will update the installation instructions. If it helps, I've found v1.6 to be very stable and everything seems much 'snappier' than with previous versions. I'm running it on both server and client.

Sorry for the confusion.

Aloha,
Mike

[Halstead]

Originally Posted by MeInMaui

It looks like you are running java 1.5 on your clients and java 1.4.2 on your server. I just looked and GKusnick's Studio Tools, which I used to generate the import, require at least java v1.5. It looks like you will have to update your server. Sorry I missed that before and will update the installation instructions. If it helps, I've found v1.6 to be very stable and everything seems much 'snappier' than with previous versions. I'm running it on both server and client.

Sorry for the confusion.

Aloha,
Mike

That was it, all set! thanks, Mike. One note- it doesn't seem to want to load on my Mac OS X Placeshifter. I'm running 1.5 on it, FYI.

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by Halstead

That was it, all set! thanks, Mike. One note- it doesn't seem to want to load on my Mac OS X Placeshifter. I'm running 1.5 on it, FYI.

Glad it's working!

I don't use placeshifter, so I have no idea what its limitations are, especially on a Mac. So unfortunately for now, use on a PS client is unsupported. Sorry.

Aloha,
Mike

[Halstead]

Originally Posted by MeInMaui

Glad it's working!

I don't use placeshifter, so I have no idea what its limitations are, especially on a Mac. So unfortunately for now, use on a PS client is unsupported. Sorry.

Aloha,
Mike

Understood. Needless to say, PS support would be invaluable, especially considering that they're often keyboard/mouse driven.

I really appreciate the work done so far.