Plugin: Web UI for v7

[jreichen]

Since those commands modify your system nielm changed them a long time ago to do HTTP POST actions, which must be buttons on a form as opposed to regular hyperlinks. They're styled to look like links so they look like the rest of the commands on the left. They must be using some stylesheet properties that mobile Safari doesn't recognize.

I'm cutting back work on nielm's web UI but if I need to release an update I'll look into this. As you mentioned it's not hurting functionality though so I won't make a special update for this.

[jfstockton]

I've got the web UI working to start and stop playback of a mediaFile (via MediaFileCommand?command=WatchNow...), but I can't figure out how to force playback to start at the beginning of the file.

Also, I haven't found a way to get back status from the file being played, like the current position, so I can make a progress bar in my web page.

Any pointers would be appreciated.

[jreichen]

You can always look through the code for the current STV in SageTV Studio. That's where I get a lot of ideas from.

I think to start playback from the beginning you'll want to call ClearWatched, then call Play.

The current playback position can be retrieved using the GetMediaTime API. You probably have to pass the current ui context id since you're asking it for the playback position on a specific client/extender/placeshifter.

I'm not sure how familiar you are with the APIs, but here's the API doc from Sage. You can find Studio documentation in Opus4's signature (I don't have the direct link handy).

[nettech_gt]

I just installed and when I type in http://yourserver:yourport/sage I get prompted for a username and password... but my Sage server username and password doesn't work. Is there a default username and password? Is there a way to reset the username and password? THANX!

[tmiranda]

username: sage
password: frey

[nettech_gt]

Cool THANX!! Now.. how do I set my own username and password? THANX!

[PosterBoy]

The Jetty web server plugin controls the access to the web pages

The thread for configuration of Jetty web server plugin is here:
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48818

The Wiki for the Jetty plugin is here:
http://tools.assembla.com/sageplugins/wiki/Jetty

And assuming you are running SageTV V7 specifically the page that talks about setting the username and password is here:
http://tools.assembla.com/sageplugin...cConfiguration

[nettech_gt]

THANX!!! Very helpfull!

[Slugger]

Ok, so I see a couple hundred of you have already went ahead and upgraded to the latest build of the nielm web UI. Here's the details on what's going on with this plugin.

First, I've taken over ownership of this plugin and will be responsible for any future updates in the near future.

Though I may now be listed as the owner in the plugin repository, there is one piece of this plugin I do not support and will not ever edit/update/fix/rewrite/etc. and that's the VLC/streaming code in this plugin. Whatever code is in there will remain there and will not be touched by me. I don't use it, I don't plan on using it, I don't know how the code works, I won't look at the code, I'll just leave it as is. If someone else wants to join the fun and take ownership of that code then I'm happy to have you do so.

So the 2.31 update... This is a few weeks of work, mostly behind the scenes stuff. I had to copy the project source code out of the old SourceForge CVS repository into my SVN repository and make a number of significant build changes to get the plugin to build, upload to Google Code, then submit the plugin updates to Sage under my environment. Basically, this release is just to prove to myself that I can now build and update this plugin within my environment. There are a couple of fixes/enhancements in this build, again just to prove that I can get source code changes to build properly.

The changes in this build that users will see are:

1) Favorites Editor: Always allow edits to the keyword criteria of a favourite. This is something I've always wanted for a long time so I added it quickly. There are more changes down the road coming to the favs editor (more on that later).

2) For users of the mc2xmlepg plugin, you can modify the tvdb series id of a show via the web. More details on this functionality are available in the mc2xmlepg support thread.

The rest of the changes are internal and relate to moving the project source from SF to Google Code, build fixes to support building and uploading in the GC SVN environment and some additions for future plans (more on that later).

What are my plans for the future?

I'll be clear up front, my plans are limited. Basically, my interests, as far as this plugin is concerned, relate to the modification and addition of configuration features. So I'm interested only in modifying things like the favs editor, scheduling views/editors, EPG viewer, etc. However, the code is not exactly in a state where changes can be made easily to these (or any) features. So current features are basically just going to be kept as is with bugs fixed as reported, when possible. Aesthetic bugs/features are very unlikely to be addressed by me. These are the hardest to address and interest me the least. I'm personally more interested in addressing functional bugs/features. Things like the favs editor: Why can't I add a keyword to a title favourite? (fixed in this 2.31 build). Why can't I add a person to a title fav? Why can't I create a team based fav like I can from the standard STV? These are the things I'm interested in addressing.

The other area of interest I'll be playing with in the future: Leveraging Groovy scripting as a quick and easy way to add functionality to the web server. The base requirement of this was actually added in the 2.31 update. Namely, the web UI will now process groovy scripts - it's actually how I added the tvdb id editor for mc2xmlepg plugin users. The next update will also add support for Groovy Server Pages (GSPs). These features allow for quick and easy additions of functionality to be inserted into the current web UI. More details on this will be documented after the next update since I'm still experimenting with the Groovy/GSP support.

Ok, what can the average user expect to see in the near future?

Once the Groovy support is locked down, these are the first few features I plan on adding:

• SRE users: Separate web UI will be eliminated; override editor integrated into this web UI
• An object metadata/property editor; quickly and easily modify properties of media files, favs, etc. (i.e. any supported object type) via the web UI; this will have some intersting side effects to be discussed later
• UserRecord editor (maybe)
• Plugin viewer/manager (maybe)

Those are just the few that come to the top of my head. If the Groovy experiment goes well then these kinds of things become relatively easy to add, but time will tell.

Anyway, there's my thoughts on what I plan to do with this plugin over the coming months. Obviously, any bug/feature requests from users are welcome as well.

[wayner]

How about integrating the web UI from all of your plugins? It would be great to be able to view the SJQ queue from the Webserver UI, and why not use this for SageAlert as well?

One other nice thing might be the ability to put in your own links - that way you could link to other Sage web pages like BMT, etc. Alternatively by default you could provide links to the most popular other Sage web services and allow the user to modify the URL if required. This way the Sage Web server could be the main landing page for your web server rather than the Jetty apps page.

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by wayner

How about integrating the web UI from all of your plugins? It would be great to be able to view the SJQ queue from the Webserver UI, and why not use this for SageAlert as well?

Some level of SJQ support is likely, especially since the web UI went AWOL in SJQv4.

SageAlert... maybe, but dev has pretty much ceased on SA since the Google takeover... and porting that UI into this web UI would not exactly be fun, quick, or easy so I'll likely leave that one alone.

One other nice thing might be the ability to put in your own links - that way you could link to other Sage web pages like BMT, etc. Alternatively by default you could provide links to the most popular other Sage web services and allow the user to modify the URL if required. This way the Sage Web server could be the main landing page for your web server rather than the Jetty apps page.

This would fall under aesthetics so wouldn't be high priority to me. But it's perhaps simple enough that I might consider it. Wouldn't be for some time down the road, though, if at all.

[wayner]

OK, the SJQ stuff would be very helpful. When trying out tasks it is kind of cumbersome to go into TV shows, click on a show, start a task and then go back to the main menu and into setup to go to SJQ. It would be great to keep a browser window open to check if the task worked and/or read the logs.

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by Slugger

Some level of SJQ support is likely, especially since the web UI went AWOL in SJQv4.

ohhhh pretty please pretty much the only reason i still use SJQ3 is the webui...

[jbrandon]

I've installed tmiranda's Limit Intelligent Recordings plug-in and in a effort to limit what is being recorded I tried to select a category of Sitcom which has 230 (and others) listing and set it to don't like using the web interface. Pressing Set the browser screen goes to all white and does not seem to complete the task.

As long as the catagory has around 20 or less entries it works just fine...

Any suggestions? I have stopped and started the SageTV service.

[Slugger]

Any errors in the sage log file after attempting the action?

[jbrandon]

I did not have logging turned on... But the good news is this morning everything work as it should. The screen does flash white for a second or two then back to the listings.

Originally Posted by Slugger

Any errors in the sage log file after attempting the action?

[Slugger]

Here's a preview of the upcoming v2.33 release, due out by, let's say Sunday(ish):

Version 2.33
1. Add support for groovy and GSP processing from plugin resource path

This, I think, is the coolest/most useful addition. I have to write up a wiki doc with details for those who want to take advantage, but basically the web UI now supports processing of groovlets and GSP scripts. This basically allows anyone to easily add new functionality to the web server as separate plugins, if so desired. I've created templates for page headers and footers, which allows for quick and easy consistent page creation. Full examples of how to write such web pages are included in this update (see below).

2. SREv4: Web UI updates to support new GSP policies

Nothing exciting here, but I reluctantly had to do this.

3. Add media file metadata editor

Directly edit all metadata associated with a media file right from the media file's details page. This is completely written in Groovy and is a complete example of how to add new functionality via groovlets and GSP scripts.

4. Add favourite properties editor

Now you can edit the properties of favourites from the web UI. This may not seem like much to most, and it probably isn't to most users, but SJQ users, for example, can now edit some valuable SJQ settings directly from the web.

5. Issue 317: tvdb id editor did not handle custom show ids properly

Bug fix for mc2xmlepg users.

6. Issue 320: Add SREv4 status icons where appropriate

Status icons show up on the home page, upcoming recordings, and detailed info pages, as appropriate. The familiar icons from the STV and old web UI have returned.

7. Add UserRecord editor

This is more for plugin devs who use the UserRecordAPI as their data store. I debated on adding this one for awhile, but I think its benefits outweigh its dangers.

You can crawl through any UserRecord object and modify the name/value pairs of a record. This serves two purposes:

1. Plugin devs can easily view/modify their UserRecords as needed during development
2. End users can modify data when necessary to correct issues, reset state, etc.

SREv4 users, for example, now have direct access to the SRE data store and if something were to go wrong with the state of a monitor, it can now be easily corrected via the web. Of course, the flip side is a user can now unknowingly corrupt the UserRecord data store (at the plugin application level, not the wiz.bin level), but I figure more ability is better than no ability so I've gone ahead and included this feature in the released builds of the web UI.

This feature was also completely written in Groovy and added in as a separate Groovy addon.

8. Add Plugin Manager

Just finished this one tonight and is probably the the most useful to the most users. You can now install, uninstall, enable, disable, and configure your SageTV plugins from the web UI. Still testing this one, but looks good. There are few limitations at the moment - the biggest one being option type of 'Button' is currently not supported when configuring a plugin from the web. The other being that an upgrade, install or uninstall that requires a restart will not restart the server, but just tell you that a restart is required.

This feature was also added via a standalone series of Groovy scripts.

Each feature written in Groovy could have been packaged as standalone plugins, but I've decided to include them directly in the core web UI plugin since it seems appropriate because I'm maintaining all the code. My wiki doc will discuss how to package up new Groovy pages as separate plugins for those wanting to add new features to the web UI.

[heffneil]

Very cool. Also very uplifting to see development continue for a product that is vital in our household despite the manufacturers clear abondonedment. Thank you very much and keep up the good work!

[doc]

Originally Posted by heffneil

Thank you very much and keep up the good work!

+1

Not sure how I'll use the new features but looking forward to having a play

[tmiranda]

Very nice. I especially like #7 because many of my plugins use the UserRecord and it will be nice to be able to view and edit the data.

#1 is also very cool. I think this opens up lots of possibilities, but I still need to wrap my brain around it.