Plugin: SageAlert v2.x

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by Slugger

The problem I face is that I must ensure that the common jar file is exactly at the same version as the SageAlert plugin.

What does the common JAR do that requires it to be a separate plugin? If SageAlert is meant to be the only consumer of sagealert-common, then it seems like the easiest solution would be to package both JARs in one plugin. On the other hand, if sagealert-common is meant to have more consumers than just SageAlert, then some sort of backward-compatibility version leeway seems unavoidable.

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

What does the common JAR do that requires it to be a separate plugin? If SageAlert is meant to be the only consumer of sagealert-common, then it seems like the easiest solution would be to package both JARs in one plugin. On the other hand, if sagealert-common is meant to have more consumers than just SageAlert, then some sort of backward-compatibility version leeway seems unavoidable.

Any plugin can be a consumer of sagealert-common. Among those consumers is also SageAlert. This common jar contains various interfaces that other plugins can implement to fire events that SageAlert will listen for and send configured notifications about. The new plugin 'Custom Events' shows how a standalone plugin can add passive SageAlert support, which allows users to configure custom events in SageAlert if they have it installed and if they don't then the standalone plugin isn't affected and still operates perfectly even without SageAlert being installed. The Custom Events plugin depends only on sagealert-common. If SageAlert also happens to be installed, it'll detect that Custom Events is installed and configure itself accordingly.

Yeah... I'll have to be careful about changing the interfaces in that jar and I'll remove the MaxVersion in the SageAlert manifest for the next build.

[Slugger]

Snapshot 970 is now available. This build fixes the upgrade problems seen in more recent builds. You will still have to uninstall/reinstall SageAlert for this upgrade, but once you're at 970 then the upgrade feature should work again for all future updates.

A few other bug fixes also in this build - this version is my recommended version for all users.

[Slugger]

Due to undocumented behaviour in the core IsMediaFileObject() API call , the various media deleted events are ignored by SageAlert in versions 966-970, inclusive, as containing invalid arguments. Jeff has update the IsMediaFileObject() API docs for the next release to document the actual behaviour of the method:

This will return false if the argument is a MediaFile object, BUT that
object no longer exists in the SageTV database.

I just checked in the fix and those events will be handled properly again in the next released build (after 970).

[davidk21770]

I'm getting the system info message:
SageAlert: License file is invalid or not found: some features of this software have been disabled:
SMPT server support disabled
Only one notification sent per event
Please consider making a donation

I did a search on this thread and can't find any real info on a license file? None was mentioned when I installed it and I got no notice of this kind of change before I made the upgrade that I believe changed the software to unusable-ware!
What gives?

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by davidk21770

I did a search on this thread and can't find any real info on a license file? None was mentioned when I installed it and I got no notice of this kind of change before I made the upgrade that I believe changed the software to unusable-ware!

See posts 74-80, in particular the FAQ link in #76.

But basically you're right. There's a note in the fine print on the plugin release notes, which (if you're like me) you probably didn't read before upgrading. Now that you have upgraded, your options are either to pay the license fee to make the plugin usable again, or else go grab the source, strip out the license check, and build your own unlocked version.

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by davidk21770

I'm getting the system info message:
SageAlert: License file is invalid or not found: some features of this software have been disabled:
SMPT server support disabled
Only one notification sent per event
Please consider making a donation

I did a search on this thread and can't find any real info on a license file? None was mentioned when I installed it and I got no notice of this kind of change before I made the upgrade that I believe changed the software to unusable-ware!
What gives?

Originally Posted by GKusnick

See posts 74-80, in particular the FAQ link in #76.

But basically you're right. There's a note in the fine print on the plugin release notes, which (if you're like me) you probably didn't read before upgrading. Now that you have upgraded, your options are either to pay the license fee to make the plugin usable again, or else go grab the source, strip out the license check, and build your own unlocked version.

Or the "warning" (in all caps) on the second line of the plugin description:

WARNING: Starting with v2.0.0.920, SageAlert requires a license file to unlock all features!

I can't make people read the plugin details, but I kind of assume people read at least two lines of text about a 3rd party piece of software before installing it.

In addition to rebuilding from source as GKusnick mentioned, you could uninstall the current version, ensure all the dependencies remain installed and download the three 2.0.0.916 zips from here and install the app directly into Jetty. You lose the ability to install/upgrade via the plugin manager, but 916 does not require a license. 916 is missing some bug fixes and the new events added since then, but if it does what you need it to do then that's an option.

[phareous]

The only thing I use SageAlert for is to email me when something goes wrong with the sage server. While I am not against paying you for your work, I think $7.50 is too high for what it does. So I will unfortunately be uninstalling it

The other reason is because you took features that were free and removed them. I would have been much more supportive if you had a donators version that had new features not previously available

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by phareous

The only thing I use SageAlert for is to email me when something goes wrong with the sage server. While I am not against paying you for your work, I think $7.50 is too high for what it does. So I will unfortunately be uninstalling it

The other reason is because you took features that were free and removed them. I would have been much more supportive if you had a donators version that had new features not previously available

Fair enough.

[darcilicious]

I'd like to donate but can't recall the "path" to navigate to get to the "donate" button.

I'd like to recommend that minimally there's a link to it from here: http://code.google.com/p/sagetv-addo...AlertUserGuide and that information about needing to donate for full functionality be included there as well or at least a link to the Donate FAQ from there.

Sorry if I'm missing the obvious but I have looked for on the website and have checked the most obvious places from the plugin screens in SageTV itself, I think.

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by Slugger

I can't make people read the plugin details, but I kind of assume people read at least two lines of text about a 3rd party piece of software before installing it.

Apparently people who already have it installed trust you enough to upgrade it without reading the description. You should take that as a compliment.

Originally Posted by darcilicious

I'd like to donate but can't recall the "path" to navigate to get to the "donate" button.

There's a Donate button in the lower right corner of the SageAlert web UI (at http://yourserver:yourport/sagealert/).

[darcilicious]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

There's a Donate button in the lower right corner of the SageAlert web UI (at http://yourserver:yourport/sagelaert/).

Thank you! (Would be great if this info were in the plug-in details and/or on the User's Guide page )

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by darcilicious

Thank you! (Would be great if this info were in the plug-in details and/or on the User's Guide page )

That's a fair request and an oversight on my part. Will get those docs updated asap.

[darcilicious]

Excellent! And thanks for a great plug-in, was glad to be able to donate!

[davidk21770]

I came back from vacation. There were system notices that several plugins needed to be updated (this being one of them). The system notice did not mention anything about what changes were made, just allowed me to update -- which is what I did. Again, there was no notice on the system info page from which I performed the update.

[toricred]

I'm guessing you mean that you updated from the System Messages area. That's one place Slugger probably didn't think about and I don't know how one would put something in there anyway.

It does have the link to the plugin details if I remember correctly, but you probably wouldn't think about that.

Edit:

By the way, I only use it for e-mailing when there's a problem as well. I believe the donation was totally worth it just for the insurance policy.

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by toricred

I'm guessing you mean that you updated from the System Messages area. That's one place Slugger probably didn't think about and I don't know how one would put something in there anyway.

It does have the link to the plugin details if I remember correctly, but you probably wouldn't think about that.

I can't mod that screen, its contents are controlled by the core. However, toricred is correct when saying that clicking on the sys msg does provide a prompt to upgrade or to read the updated plugin details. Clicking on the plugin details takes you to the updated details/release notes where line two of the description mentions the license file requirement.

[Slugger]

Another alternative is to submit a feature request to SageTV asking for the ability to install older versions of plugins. I do not delete the install files for older versions when I submit a new build. The only reason you can't install an older version is because SageTV doesn't currently support it. If they did, one could go back and reinstall SageAlert 2.0.0.916 - the last build not requiring a license file.

[Slugger]

Yet another alternative...

Use Growl as your notification server in SageAlert. I believe there's at least one other user that I know of who feeds the SageAlert events to Growl and then uses Growl to send emails. I've never tried it like that, but I believe it can be done. Doing emails that way wouldn't require a license file (since you're not using the SMTP server settings via SageAlert).

[darcilicious]

Originally Posted by Slugger

Yet another alternative...

Use Growl as your notification server in SageAlert. I believe there's at least one other user that I know of who feeds the SageAlert events to Growl and then uses Growl to send emails.

Yes this works for me I send e-mails from Growl to an SMS gateway because twitter was just ridiculously unreliable.