Central FanArt Folder Improvments

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I think today, SageMC would still treat them as movie vidoes (even though they are TV shows) and their fanart would be in Movies.

Good point, we'ed need to label the show as Movie/TV in the .properties file so we could sort them properly.

Originally Posted by jaminben

Using EP's tool they wouldn't, you can scrape the file and it will place it back into the tv recordings list even though the file is located outside the recording drive. It will also use the old images as it would think its a TV recording again.Then if we create a new grouped TV screen which can filter seasons you could have a new screen which is dedicated to TV shows.

The problem there is that I'm not sure we can add new metadata (SeasonNum, EpisodeNum, etc.) to shows in Sage Recordings. I'll have to ask about that.

Originally Posted by jaminben

I was looking at something like this, Series Wide Banners Layout is what I liked best or even Series List Posters Layout.

Wow, those are some good looking screens. I especially like the Series List Poster Layout.

Also, anyone mind if I ask Opus4 to move this thread to the Studio forum?

[stuckless]

Just some other thoughts around the API for this stuff....

First, since sage will be adding the ability to store additional metadata, maybe we could build some api calls around that, which would allow us to access the data now from the properties and then later change the api to use the sage calls...
for example, we could introduce the following api...

phoenix_api_GetMediaFileMetadata(mediafile, key)

Our implementation would actually read that information from the properties file directly, but later once the Sage metadata api is available, we could simply have our api call GetMediaFileMetadata() directly (again no change to the STV)

Currently the api that is being tested, has the following apis...

phoenix_api_GetFanartBackground(mediaObject)
phoenix_api_IsFanartEnabled() : boolean
phoenix_api_SetIsFanartEnabled(boolean)
phoenix_api_SetFanartCentralFolder(dir)

I think that I'd like to add the following apis as well, that would allow us to implement the central fanart folder support that is outlined here...

phoenix_api_GetFanartBanner(mediaObject)
phoenix_api_GetFanartPoster(mediaObject)
phoenix_api_GetFanartWHATEVER_OTHER_IMAGE_ARTIFACT_WE_NEED(mediaObject)

And... ultimately, some search/lookup/write apis

phoenix_api_GetFanartBackgrounds(mediaObject) : Returns String[]
phoenix_api_GetFanartPosters(mediaObject) : Returns String[]
phoenix_api_GetFanartBanners(mediaObject) : Returns String[]

phoenix_api_SetFanartBanner(mediaObject, file)
phoenix_api_SetFanartBackground(mediaObject, file)
phoenix_api_SetFanartPoster(mediaObject, file)

phoenix_api_MetadataSearch(title|mediaObject) : Returns MetadataSearchResult[]
phoenix_api_GetMetadataResultName(MetadataSearchResult) 
phoenix_api_GetMetadataResultYear(MetadataSearchResult) 
phoenix_api_GetMetadataResultScore(MetadataSearchResult) 
phoenix_api_SetMetadata(mediafile, MetadataSearchResult) : Update metadata from a selected search result

[evilpenguin]

Looks great, thanks for hammering that out

[jaminben]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

The problem there is that I'm not sure we can add new metadata (SeasonNum, EpisodeNum, etc.) to shows in Sage Recordings. I'll have to ask about that.

Hmmm, pehaps it wouldn't work due to the way the file is named. I don't know, but if the user where to rename the file once its been moved then I dont see the differnce between a sage recording and an imported tv show using your scraper to regather all the required data.

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Wow, those are some good looking screens. I especially like the Series List Poster Layout.

Yeah, I really like that idea and thats the route I'm trying to take, you can start to see this with the images I posted in SageMC screenshot thread.

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Also, anyone mind if I ask Opus4 to move this thread to the Studio forum?[/B]

I don't mind if it gets moved.

[MeInMaui]

FYI. I have the next release of SageMC working great with Stuckless' Fan Art API for TV, Movies, and Music. You have no idea how happy I was to highlight all of my old lookup code and hit DELETE!

Aloha,
Mike

[jaminben]

Originally Posted by MeInMaui

FYI. I have the next release of SageMC working great with Stuckless' Fan Art API for TV, Movies, and Music. You have no idea how happy I was to highlight all of my old lookup code and hit DELETE!

Aloha,
Mike

Whoa, that was quick, I was only testing this a few hours ago. Sounds very sweet, can't wait to try it On the flip side this also means I've got to change my two imports as well. Oh well it shouldn't be too hard.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by MeInMaui

FYI. I have the next release of SageMC working great with Stuckless' Fan Art API for TV, Movies, and Music. You have no idea how happy I was to highlight all of my old lookup code and hit DELETE!

That's great news!

[stuckless]

Ok, So I'm trying to get my head around "how" the folder layout structure will work, and what types of media will go into each Folder. At face value it seems pretty straight forward, TV goes in TV and Movies go into Movies. But when you start considering things like,

• Will Sage Recorded Movies go into TV or Movies?
• Will non sage recorded TV shows (that are not imported into "recording" go into TV or Movies?

It starts to get a little confusing.

What I propose, is that we follow this model, and call the folders

Recordings/
Videos/
Music/

Using, Recordings and Videos, makes more sense, since anything that Sage thinks is a Recording will go into Recordings and all other video will go into Videos (whether it's TV or not)

Either way, if we use TV/Movies or Recordings/Vidoes we need to document very clearly what types of media will go into each folder, since naming them on their own, it not clear enough.

If we stick with the TV/Movies model (which I like better, based on intent), i think that we'd need to add some extra logic to the tools to ensure that ALL TV types files put their media in TV folder, and all Movie type files put their media in the Movies folder, etc.

That's my cents for now

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Ok, So I'm trying to get my head around "how" the folder layout structure will work, and what types of media will go into each Folder. At face value it seems pretty straight forward, TV goes in TV and Movies go into Movies. But when you start considering things like,

• Will Sage Recorded Movies go into TV or Movies?
• Will non sage recorded TV shows (that are not imported into "recording" go into TV or Movies?

It starts to get a little confusing.

What I propose, is that we follow this model, and call the folders


Using, Recordings and Videos, makes more sense, since anything that Sage thinks is a Recording will go into Recordings and all other video will go into Videos (whether it's TV or not)

Either way, if we use TV/Movies or Recordings/Vidoes we need to document very clearly what types of media will go into each folder, since naming them on their own, it not clear enough.

If we stick with the TV/Movies model (which I like better, based on intent), i think that we'd need to add some extra logic to the tools to ensure that ALL TV types files put their media in TV folder, and all Movie type files put their media in the Movies folder, etc.

That's my cents for now

Mike would have to back me up on this, but I think we've got enough info on sage recordings to tell if they're TV or Movies so that shouldn't be a problem. As for imported stuff, it doesn't get to join the party until its been properly scraped we should be able to tell which is TV and which is Movies.

edit: Sorry for not using more details, but I'm on my way out the door.

[jaminben]

I'm going to go off route a bit and ask for something that could proberly be done with studio but maybe better handled with your java code. Thats if Sages's new api can work the way I think it can.
What I was thinking was... could your code take the season data for a show and using Sage's new api's return the total number of season's available and also allow me to seperate those seasons in a selection list? Currently if I have 3 seasons of Lost those 3 seasons and all their episodes will all appear in the selection list. I think it would be better to split those seasons up and somehow allow a season selection option.

I've attached a screenie showing what it could look like.

Cheers

Ben

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Mike would have to back me up on this, but I think we've got enough info on sage recordings to tell if they're TV or Movies so that shouldn't be a problem. As for imported stuff, it doesn't get to join the party until its been properly scraped we should be able to tell which is TV and which is Movies.

edit: Sorry for not using more details, but I'm on my way out the door.

Even though you may be able the tell if it's a "movie" or not, the current SageMC implementation doesn't do that. It basically treats media as music, recordings (tv), and video (movies).

I'll carry on using the "TV/Movie" notation.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by jaminben

I'm going to go off route a bit and ask for something that could proberly be done with studio but maybe better handled with your java code. Thats if Sages's new api can work the way I think it can.
What I was thinking was... could your code take the season data for a show and using Sage's new api's return the total number of season's available and also allow me to seperate those seasons in a selection list? Currently if I have 3 seasons of Lost those 3 seasons and all their episodes will all appear in the selection list. I think it would be better to split those seasons up and somehow allow a season selection option.

I think this is exactly the type of stuff that should go in a java api. It'll require some thought...

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Even though you may be able the tell if it's a "movie" or not, the current SageMC implementation doesn't do that. It basically treats media as music, recordings (tv), and video (movies).

I'll carry on using the "TV/Movie" notation.

I think TV/Movie makes the most sense from a content perspective, but this does not necessarily match with the SageTV distinction between recording/video library item.

For a recording, I think the Fanart API should search the TV folder first and then cross over to the Movie folder if nothing is found. And for a video library item it should search the Movie folder first and then the TV folder. This would allow movies that are considered recordings to get picked up and TV programs that are moved to the video library to get picked up as well. Music is naturally separated from video items, so that shouldn't be an issue.

The trick is dealing with different media that end up with the same title (like M*A*S*H the movie vs. M*A*S*H the TV series). As long as the movie is in the video library section and the TV series is in recordings, the above approach should work fine. But if you move the TV series to the video library, then there could be confusion. I don't know how to handle that situation unless the ShowID or AiringID were somehow used to distinguish them.

Aloha,
Mike

[jaminben]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I think this is exactly the type of stuff that should go in a java api. It'll require some thought...

Cool, I look forward to seeing what you come up with. Here's another request which is totally unrelated to fanart folders so I apologize... Anyway I've been trying to make unlimited horizontally scrolling text work within a limited screen space. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to work all that well within studio and someone else suggested to me that it could possibly be done with java code. It would not only benefit me but could also be used to better enhance the RSS feed, which also suffers from the same issue.

Here's a link to my original post explaining whats going on.

Many Thanks



edit: Maybe vertical as well

[stuckless]

For a recording, I think the Fanart API should search the TV folder first and then cross over to the Movie folder if nothing is found. And for a video library item it should search the Movie folder first and then the TV folder.

That's a great idea.... I'll add that to the logic.

Ben.... lets finish central fanart improvements and then we'll look into these other things for you

[stuckless]

I just wanted to give an update on the testing / progress.... I've been testing with Ben and Mike, and the testing has been going well.

Recently I added support for "our" new folder layout but not much testing has been done on that yet.

The apis implemented so far include...

phoenix_api_IsFanartEnabled() : boolean
phoenix_api_SetIsFanartEnabled(boolean)
phoenix_api_SetFanartCentralFolder(dir)
phoenix_api_GetFanartCentralFolder()

phoenix_api_GetFanartBackground(mediaObject)
phoenix_api_GetFanartBanner(mediaObject)
phoenix_api_GetFanartPoster(mediaObject)

phoenix_api_GetFanartBackgrounds(mediaObject) : Returns String[]
phoenix_api_GetFanartPosters(mediaObject) : Returns String[]
phoenix_api_GetFanartBanners(mediaObject) : Returns String[]

[jaminben]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I just wanted to give an update on the testing / progress.... I've been testing with Ben and Mike, and the testing has been going well.

Recently I added support for "our" new folder layout but not much testing has been done on that yet.

The apis implemented so far include...

phoenix_api_IsFanartEnabled() : boolean
phoenix_api_SetIsFanartEnabled(boolean)
phoenix_api_SetFanartCentralFolder(dir)
phoenix_api_GetFanartCentralFolder()

phoenix_api_GetFanartBackground(mediaObject)
phoenix_api_GetFanartBanner(mediaObject)
phoenix_api_GetFanartPoster(mediaObject)

phoenix_api_GetFanartBackgrounds(mediaObject) : Returns String[]
phoenix_api_GetFanartPosters(mediaObject) : Returns String[]
phoenix_api_GetFanartBanners(mediaObject) : Returns String[]

Very nice job Sean, All I need now is a scraper to rearrange all my fanart into their correct folders

One other thing, if I'm using:

phoenix_api_GetFanartBanners(mediaObject)

How should the actual banners or any other images be named if their is more than one type of that image. So for example the show Bones has 3 banners available, should they be named:

Bones.jpg
Bones1.jpg
Bones2.jpg
etc....

[stuckless]

Currently if you call GetFanartBackgrounds() it will return all .jpg files in the directory. Names don't matter in Backgrounds/ , Posters/, or Banners/ folders, so it could be as you described, or simply, 1.jpg, 2.jpg, etc.

[evilpenguin]

What will getBackground() return if there are multiple backgrounds? The lowest in the sorting order?

[jaminben]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

What will getBackground() return if there are multiple backgrounds? The lowest in the sorting order?

Currently it gets the first one it comes to, so title.jpg will always come first over title1.jpg.