Viewing History for Imported Videos?

[tmiranda]

Is there any way to get a viewing history for Imported Videos, even if the video has been deleted? I can see how the viewing history can be determined using Airings, but not for imported videos.

All I really need to determine is if a specific video has been imported sometime in the past but is now deleted.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Is there any way to get a viewing history for Imported Videos, even if the video has been deleted? I can see how the viewing history can be determined using Airings, but not for imported videos.

All I really need to determine is if a specific video has been imported sometime in the past but is now deleted.

I don't think there is a way or will be a way. You could keep it yourself in something external but would not be easy that is for sure....

Wouldn't really know what you would keep filename/showname/titlename it would be pretty hard.

[tmiranda]

I really do not want to keep track of it myself but I do not see a way of doing it otherwise.

I'm working on making the Malore Online Browser automatically record Podcasts that are selected as Favorites. I'm looking for a way to keep track of what's already been downloaded, I mean recorded , and then deleted so I do not download the same podcast again. (Similar to the way Sage will not re-record TV shows that have already been watched, even if you delete the recording after watching it.)

I have figured out a way to uniquely identify Podcasts that have been downloaded so I can tell which podcasts are "new" and which are already in the library but this only works for files that are physically on the disk. Once you DeleteFile() for an imported video the Show metadata is also removed. (As far as I can tell. I was hoping I was wrong about this.)

The other option I have is to make the downloaded podcasts Airings instead of imported media, but I'm not sure I like the idea of messing with the Airings portion of the database. I've spent several hours reading posts on the subject and it just seems to be a can or worms.

Suggestions welcome. (Greg, this is where you can chime in and tell me what I'm doing that's stupid so I can get smarter )

Tom

[GKusnick]

I don't really have much to add. You've pretty much answered your own question: once a video has been deleted from the import database, there's no record of it anymore. If you want to avoid downloading things twice, it's up to you to keep a record of what you've already downloaded. In your shoes I would do this in a separate file, without trying to shoehorn it into Wiz.bin.

[tmiranda]

That's what I'm thinking as well. Better I screw up my own .properties file instead of the wiz.bin

On a somewhat related topic, I'm using java.util.Properties.load and .save to access a custom .properties file. When I save the file the properties are not saved alphabetically. I know there is a way to make the .properties file save alphabetically but I can't remember what it was. Do you know?

[PLUCKYHD]

See this thread by me ran into the same issue

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46224

the next to last post by jriechen will tell you an example on how to save them sorted.

[tmiranda]

Thanks Plucky, I knew I saw this issue discussed befire but I could not find the answer. So the short answer is that it must be sorted manually.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Thanks Plucky, I knew I saw this issue discussed befire but I could not find the answer. So the short answer is that it must be sorted manually.

no problem it isn't really hard to implement that Right before the save....but I agree you would think this would be something the property class would already do/support.

[razrsharpe]

here's some code to sort properties (put this in its own java file...):

import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.Enumeration;
import java.util.Properties;
import java.util.Vector;

public class SortedProperties extends Properties {

        public Enumeration keys() {
                Enumeration keysEnum = super.keys();
                Vector<String> keyList = new Vector<String>();
                while (keysEnum.hasMoreElements()) {
                        keyList.add((String) keysEnum.nextElement());
                }
                Collections.sort(keyList);
                return keyList.elements();
        }
}

then when you define your property map rather then using:

Properties props = new Properties();

use this:

SortedProperties props = new SortedProperties();

When you do this its completely transparent.... no need to do anything special... works a like a treat this is what ortus does for its property files


EDIT: While I'm sharing figured I'd just share the code that we use to save a property file (will save all property's in sage***.properties with a parent of parentprop)...

        public static boolean SaveSagePropertyFile(String filename, String parentprop, String DoNotSaveProps){

                ArrayList propkeys = ortus.api.GetSagePropertyAndChildren(parentprop);
                SortedProperties props = new SortedProperties();


                FileOutputStream propfile = null;

                String[] DoNotSavePropsArray = DoNotSaveProps.split(",");
                for (String s : DoNotSavePropsArray){
                        propkeys.remove(s);
                        propkeys.remove(parentprop.concat("/").concat(s));
                }
                ortus.api.DebugLog(LogLevel.Trace2, "SageSaveProperyFile, Props to save: " + propkeys);

                for (String propkey : (String[])propkeys.toArray(new String[0])){
                        props.setProperty(propkey, ortus.api.GetSageProperty(propkey, ""));
                }

                ortus.api.DebugLog(LogLevel.Info,"SageSavePropertyFile, Filename: " + filename);

                try{
                        propfile = new FileOutputStream(filename);
                        props.store(propfile, "TVE Settings file");
                        propfile.close();
                        ortus.api.DebugLog(LogLevel.Info, "SageSavePropertyFile, Success");
                        return true;
                }
                catch(IOException ioe){
                        ortus.api.DebugLog(LogLevel.Error, "SageSavePropertyFile, I/O Exception: " + ioe);
                        return false;
                }


        }

[tmiranda]

Thanks razrsharpe. I've got this on the "To Do" list once I get the new functionality actually working.

Why is it that when you start on something the cycle goes something like this
:
1 You first think "Wow, this will be a lot of work."
2 Next you think "It's really not so bad and it won't take too much time."
3 Next "Hmm, it's harder than I thought."
4 Next "Man, I forgot about that issue... and that issue... and that issue..."
5 Next "Holy crap, I'll never finish this."
6 Many, many hours later "Just a few more things to fix..."
7 More hours later "Only one or two things left to do."
8 More hours later "just one last thing to get right ..."
9 "Finally!"

I'm on step 6

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Thanks razrsharpe. I've got this on the "To Do" list once I get the new functionality actually working.

Why is it that when you start on something the cycle goes something like this
:
1 You first think "Wow, this will be a lot of work."
2 Next you think "It's really not so bad and it won't take too much time."
3 Next "Hmm, it's harder than I thought."
4 Next "Man, I forgot about that issue... and that issue... and that issue..."
5 Next "Holy crap, I'll never finish this."
6 Many, many hours later "Just a few more things to fix..."
7 More hours later "Only one or two things left to do."
8 More hours later "just one last thing to get right ..."
9 "Finally!"

I'm on step 6

I think you are a little wrong it usually goes to step 6 and then jump back to step 3 and repeat

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

I think you are a little wrong it usually goes to step 6 and then jump back to step 3 and repeat

ya very rarely have i ever gotten to step 9 ... and when i do its usually "meh, thats close enough to call done "

[tmiranda]

razrsharpe,

The SortedProperties class worked great. Thank you!

I really appreciate all of the help you, Plucky, stuckless and Greg have given me. You all have saved me tons of time.

Tom

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

razrsharpe,

The SortedProperties class worked great. Thank you!

I really appreciate all of the help you, Plucky, stuckless and Greg have given me. You all have saved me tons of time.

Tom

no prob

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

razrsharpe,

The SortedProperties class worked great. Thank you!

I really appreciate all of the help you, Plucky, stuckless and Greg have given me. You all have saved me tons of time.

Tom

No worries without stuckless and Greg I would not be were I am today. (and of course Razor and I have been teaching each other as well. )

[tmiranda]

An update to this in case anybody needs the info in the future. I had to keep track of the viewing history manually. I did it by:

- Creating a unique string that identifies the Video. The string uses the show title, episode title, author, description and a few other items. Hopefully this results in a string that is unique for each show. This is not fool-proof, but it should do for what I am using it for.

- Storing the strings in a custom .properties file.

I'm actually using this to keep track of Podcasts that have been downloaded and imported into Sage's library.

Tom