Plugin: SJQv4

[Slugger]

You'd have to experiment a little. Does the core fire a new RecordingStarted event when you change the recording status from live to manual record? If so, then that's how you would catch it. If not, then there's nothing SJQ can do since the core isn't providing a new event for the new status.

[peternm22]

Does the core fire a new RecordingStarted event when you change the recording status from live to manual record?

How can I check if it does?

[Slugger]

Enable Sage debug logging, start watching live tv - you should see a RecordingStarted event triggered in the log. Then hit the record button to change it to a manual recording. Is another RecordingStarted event logged? That's how you find out.

[peternm22]

Unfortunately, it looks like it doesn't raise another event.

[Slugger]

Ok, so you'd have to either manually add the job to the queue or periodically scan your library looking for such recordings and adding them to the queue.

[TechBill]

I am reading up on this Plugin but it 45 pages long so it'll take me awhile to read but wonder if someone can point me to the right direction.

What I am trying to do is set up something to restart SageTV service nightly but make sure there no recording in process before restarting. If there was a recording then to wait until recording end before restarting.

Is this someone that this plugin can do?

Is there a step by step instruction stepping up a restart service with this plugin somewhere?

Thank you

Bill

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by TechBill

I am reading up on this Plugin but it 45 pages long so it'll take me awhile to read but wonder if someone can point me to the right direction.

What I am trying to do is set up something to restart SageTV service nightly but make sure there no recording in process before restarting. If there was a recording then to wait until recording end before restarting.

Is this someone that this plugin can do?

Is there a step by step instruction stepping up a restart service with this plugin somewhere?

Thank you

Bill

Follow this tutorial. The only difference is when it tells you download the scripts, download and use the linked to test script, but use the below script to do the restarts instead of the linked to script that does the app dir backups. Everything else in the tutorial is valid for your situation. You must run the standalone task client, etc. just as described in the tutorial.

/****** CONFIG BELOW ******/
def testMode  = true // You might want to run this in test mode while you test your task setup in SJQv4
def sleepTime = 300  // How many seconds does SageTV need to restart? BE CONSERVATIVE HERE!!
/****** END CONFIG ******/

print "Restarting SageTV... "
if(!testMode) {
    Utility.ServerRestart()
    println "DONE"
    print "Waiting for SageTV to start up... "
   sleep 1000L * sleepTime
   println "DONE"
} else
    println "SKIPPED (test mode)"
return 0

[TechBill]

Originally Posted by Slugger

Follow this tutorial. The only difference is when it tells you download the scripts, download and use the linked to test script, but use the below script to do the restarts instead of the linked to script that does the app dir backups. Everything else in the tutorial is valid for your situation. You must run the standalone task client, etc. just as described in the tutorial.

/****** CONFIG BELOW ******/
def testMode  = true // You might want to run this in test mode while you test your task setup in SJQv4
def sleepTime = 300  // How many seconds does SageTV need to restart? BE CONSERVATIVE HERE!!
/****** END CONFIG ******/

print "Restarting SageTV... "
if(!testMode) {
    Utility.ServerRestart()
    println "DONE"
    print "Waiting for SageTV to start up... "
   sleep 1000L * sleepTime
   println "DONE"
} else
    println "SKIPPED (test mode)"
return 0

Thank you so much!

Bill

[wayner]

Has anyone ever written a script to upload files to a seedbox via ftp? Any suggestion on how to automate an FTP session via script from SJQ? I essentially want to creat an SJQ job that would upload a show to a server via FTP upon completion - perhaps after compressing the show first to save space.

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by wayner

Has anyone ever written a script to upload files to a seedbox via ftp? Any suggestion on how to automate an FTP session via script from SJQ? I essentially want to creat an SJQ job that would upload a show to a server via FTP upon completion - perhaps after compressing the show first to save space.

I haven't done it, but it's possible. If you're using the plugin version of the task client then ensure the commons-net library plugin is installed (install it if it's not) and then you can use the FTPClient class from it within your groovy script to perform FTP actions.

http://commons.apache.org/net/api-1....FTPClient.html

The jar should already be included with the standalone version of the task client.

A quick glance at the FTPClient javadocs suggests it's going to be a bit of work to get it going, but if you're willing to try and follow the API, it should be quite doable. The sample code provided in the javadocs above looks pretty straightforward to follow along with.

[evilpenguin]

Question about CronTab jobs, i'm running my server with power saving enabled so it goes to sleep whenever its not recording. So how does it work if I've got a daily job scheduled to go off at midnight and the server isn't on? Will it execute the task the next time it wakes up or will the task only execute if the server happens to be on at that time?

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Question about CronTab jobs, i'm running my server with power saving enabled so it goes to sleep whenever its not recording. So how does it work if I've got a daily job scheduled to go off at midnight and the server isn't on? Will it execute the task the next time it wakes up or will the task only execute if the server happens to be on at that time?

In order for the crontab to insert a task into the task queue, the server would have to be on at the time the crontab schedule would match (so midnight, in your example). If your server is sleeping at midnight then the crontab would not insert the new task into the queue. I've reviewed the cron4j project documentation and there is no support to run missed jobs.

However, tasks inserted into the SJQ task queue will run (eventually). So you could insert the task at any time of the day into the SJQ task queue (via SJQ crontab or any other means) and then restrict your task client to only run the task between midnight and 8am (or whatever). If the server happens to be off at midnight then no big deal, as long as the server comes back on before 8am then the task will be executed. If it doesn't, then the task will sit in the queue until the follow day. Not ideal, but it's about the best you can do - cron wasn't really designed for "servers" that don't run 24x7.

[KarylFStein]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Question about CronTab jobs, i'm running my server with power saving enabled so it goes to sleep whenever its not recording. So how does it work if I've got a daily job scheduled to go off at midnight and the server isn't on? Will it execute the task the next time it wakes up or will the task only execute if the server happens to be on at that time?

Another option if your BIOS supports it is to set a "wakeup" time. I do this so my desktops are awake five minutes before their scheduled nightly backups. When I ran WHS, it woke up the computers automatically for backups, but now am back to Acronis TIH and it doesn't have that ability being client-based. I imagine WHS uses a "magic packet" to wake up the computers. I do that myself so I can VPN into my home and send a magic packet to a certain desktop via a web page, (modified PHP code I found somewhere), on my 24/7 server. After a few seconds, I can then fire up Remote Desktop of VNC and connect to the desktop. But that probably doesn't apply here if you don't have a full-time server somewhere...I just think it's neat and works well.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by Slugger

I haven't done it, but it's possible. If you're using the plugin version of the task client then ensure the commons-net library plugin is installed (install it if it's not) and then you can use the FTPClient class from it within your groovy script to perform FTP actions.

I have figured out how to do this in a DOS (is that still the right term?) batch file and I will soon be posting a file to automate the encoding (via handbrake) and FTPing of a file as this may be useful to others. I will use this to access TV recordings while travelling as the main constraint is usually my upload speed from home so having the file available on a server with a fast download speed has an advantage.

For example -- let's say you are in Asia and want to watch a hockey game. The hockey game will likely run from 7:30-10pm but that is in the morning for Asia and you are likely working. You can encode the file to a more efficient format and upload to a server - this should be done by about 1am in Toronto. By the time I get back to my hotel in Asia it will likely be 6 pm and I can start the download before dinner and hopefully have the file downloaded in less than an hour and it is on your laptop and ready to watch at that time or on the flight back home. Having to download the file directly from my PC at home would be much slower as my upload speed is only 2 Mbps (900MB/hour).

One further question for Slugger or others.

How do I write some of the attributes of a TV recording to a text file? I want to generate a text file that will look somewhat like a Sage properties file but with my own customized format. How do I create a text file in Groovy and then write elements like the show name, episode name, description, format, etc to that file?

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by wayner

I have figured out how to do this in a DOS (is that still the right term?) batch file and I will soon be posting a file to automate the encoding (via handbrake) and FTPing of a file as this may be useful to others. I will use this to access TV recordings while travelling as the main constraint is usually my upload speed from home so having the file available on a server with a fast download speed has an advantage.

For example -- let's say you are in Asia and want to watch a hockey game. The hockey game will likely run from 7:30-10pm but that is in the morning for Asia and you are likely working. You can encode the file to a more efficient format and upload to a server - this should be done by about 1am in Toronto. By the time I get back to my hotel in Asia it will likely be 6 pm and I can start the download before dinner and hopefully have the file downloaded in less than an hour and it is on your laptop and ready to watch at that time or on the flight back home. Having to download the file directly from my PC at home would be much slower as my upload speed is only 2 Mbps (900MB/hour).

All to watch the Leafs? Really? Doesn't that make a flight from Asia to Canada that much longer?

One further question for Slugger or others.

How do I write some of the attributes of a TV recording to a text file? I want to generate a text file that will look somewhat like a Sage properties file but with my own customized format.

What type of attributes? Basically, get the MediaFile object and then perform queries on it.

def mf = MediaFileAPI.GetMediaFileForID(123456)
def output = new StringBuilder()
output.append("title = ${MediaFileAPI.GetMediaTitle(mf)}\n")
output.append("episode = ${ShowAPI.GetShowEpisode(mf)}\n")
new File("C:/mydata/mydata.txt").write(output.toString())

Now C:/mydata/mydata.txt contains the attributes as written above. The above code does not do any appropriate error checking/handling and is left out to aid in readability.

How do I create a text file in Groovy and then write elements like the show name, episode name, description, format, etc to that file?

This is a more generic, "how do I write Groovy code?" and those questions I leave to the Groovy docs: http://groovy.codehaus.org/Documentation

However, this question looks very similar to the one above, so the code example I've provided should be a good starting point.

[wayner]

Thanks Slugger, I will gve that a try. And I don't think an Oilers fan is in any position to give grief to a Leafs fan.

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by wayner

Thanks Slugger, I will gve that a try. And I don't think an Oilers fan is in any position to give grief to a Leafs fan.

Hey now!! At least the Oilers tell you when they're rebuilding, they don't hide behind it. Besides, the Oilers provided me the thrill of being in Raleigh, NC for Game 7 of the 2006 Finals. What have Leafs done lately? This century? Last half of last century?? Should I go on?

[wayner]

How do I add an SJQ Action to a Manual recording? I see how to do it for a Favorite but how do I assign a task to occur when specific manual recording stops?

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by wayner

How do I add an SJQ Action to a Manual recording? I see how to do it for a Favorite but how do I assign a task to occur when specific manual recording stops?

After you've scheduled the manual recording, go to your rec sched, select the manual recording then on the details menu there should be an option to "Assign SJQ Tasks". Once you click that, the rest should be familiar.

[wayner]

I don't see an Assign SJQ Tasks. I see SRE Options but I don't see anything for SJQ, either in the Detailed Options screen that comes up first, nor in the Record Options screen.

It looks like you have to set up the event when you create the recording as that gives you the option to record this show and assign to event. I was able to assign to an event by deleting the recording and then re-adding it and assigning to event.