Testers Needed: MultiUser Support

[tmiranda]

I've been fiddling around with a new Plugin that supports multiple user views. It's in the early stages but I'd like some brave individuals to help me test things out. The code is not really beta quality yet, but it's not terrible either.

Each user can define their own favorites and will only see those recordings that "belong" to them (because they are a favorite or a manual they requested). The playback position for each user is remembered. Recordings are only physically deleted when all users that have access to the recording delete it.

I'd post a screenshot, but there's really not much to see since it looks exactly like the default STV except for a new "Users" menu under Setup that allows you to define, administer and switch users.

If you are interested in testing please respond here. You will be on the bleeding edge so expect things to not work.

Tom

[PLUCKYHD]

Another feature I wish sage had natively...none the less good job taking the initiative on this one I would test it for you.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

Another feature I wish sage had natively..

Yes, I hope this becomes obsolete because Sage puts it in the core. But I need to do something now because my kids are getting older and I'm tired or having to sort through all of their stuff to find what I am interested in. And, as an added bonus, I don't have to see the many "Design" shows and soap operas my wife has recorded.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Yes, I hope this becomes obsolete because Sage puts it in the core. But I need to do something now because my kids are getting older and I'm tired or having to sort through all of their stuff to find what I am interested in. And, as an added bonus, I don't have to see the many "Design" shows and soap operas my wife has recorded.

Hear hear looks foward to trying it.

[toricred]

I would love to test this.

[mayamaniac]

Sign me up too.

It seems that TeamOrtus is also doing multi-user from the look of their preview video, it shows a menu to change user. I'm not sure how customizable it is but it looks kinda cool.

[tmiranda]

OK. I'll package it up and post it. I saw that Ortus was doing something similar but I do not know much about the details yet.

[tmiranda]

To install on an Extender or Placeshifter:
- Download and unzip the attached manifest to the install directory on your Sage server.
- Install the Multi-User UI Mod Plugin.

To install on a SageClient:
- Download and unzip the attached manifest to the install directory on your Sage server (NOT the SageClient's install directory.)
- Install the Multi-User General Plugin (or Multi-User UI Mod Plugin) on your Sage server.
- Install the Multi-User UI Mod Plugin on your SageClient.


To configure:
- Go to Setup -> Users.
- Select "Log In" and log in as Admin. (The default password is Admin).
- Select "Configuration" and set the loglevel to Trace. (I'll need that for debugging purposes.) Set "Stay Logged In After Reboot" and "Require User Passwords" to you liking.
- Select "Add User". Enter a user name and password and then select "Commit". User names and passwords are case sensitive.

Expected Behavior:

- If you are logged in as Admin, or if you are not logged in as anybody, Sage will behave as if this plugin is not installed at all.
- You must be logged in as Admin to make any changes to the Plugin configuration or to add and remove users.
- When a user is first created they inherit all recorded shows, imported media and favorites.
- Each user can delete shows and videos independently of other users. Once the last user deletes a show or video, it is physically deleted from the SageTV database.
- Each users' viewing point within a recording or video is maintained independently of other users'.
- Each user can delete and add favorites independently of other users. Once the last user deletes the favorite, it is physically deleted from SageTV.
- As new shows are recorded only users that have that show marked as a favorite or a manual recording will see the recording.
- Conflicts are handled on a global basis so it is possible for one user to override a recording scheduled by another user.
- Intelligent Recording is handled on a per user basis.
- Shows recorded as a result of "Intelligent Recording" being enabled are visible to all users that have Intelligent Recording enabled.

Notes and Know Issues:

- The user interface will be slow right after a user is added. This is because the first time a Sage object is accessed it must be initialized. This is a one-time process so subsequent access will be fast.

- The green portion of the timebar in the OSD does not progress.

- After selecting "Switch User" the wrong user name is displayed on the menu.

- I have only done limited testing with ComskipPlayback enabled so I suspect it will not work correctly. The CommercialDetector UI mod uses ComskipPlayback so that will not work either, but the General plugin should work fine.

To Do's:

- Implement a "give recording to" function.

- Put in a check to make sure General plugin is installed if running on a SageClient.

- Ensure compatibility with ComskipPlayback and CommercialDetector UI mod.

Please post issues here and then enter them here: http://code.google.com/p/tmiranda/issues/list

When you find an issue please ZIP and attach your sage logfile.

[sleonard]

Can more than one person log into an extender at a time? For when the whole family is watching the same thing at one location.

S

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by sleonard

Can more than one person log into an extender at a time? For when the whole family is watching the same thing at one location.

S

No. I thought about providing this ability but for now I'm keeping it simple. If yo want to remind me add it as a feature request on the google "issues" page linked above.

[tmiranda]

Arg, just found a bug that causes all new recordings to appear for all users. It's what I get for making "one small change" before posting the manifest.

Edit - I fixed the bug last night. I'll post an updated manifest but it may not be until tomorrow because a client just called and wants to meet today at 6:30 PM. Darn clients getting in the way of my Sage habit

[tmiranda]

Update: Fixes the bug that caused all new recordings to show up for all users. Also fixes a bug that prevented changing a user password.

[toricred]

I seem to be having a problem installing this. Is the site with the download having a problem?

Edit:

OK, now I can get to the download site, but I only see beta 1 files.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by toricred

I seem to be having a problem installing this. Is the site with the download having a problem?

Edit:

OK, now I can get to the download site, but I only see beta 1 files.

Strange. They were there last night I'll see what went wrong later today. I think something strange happened to Google code last night because I tried to install another Plugin (from the repository) and it failed. I thought my internet connection went down....

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Strange. They were there last night I'll see what went wrong later today. I think something strange happened to Google code last night because I tried to install another Plugin (from the repository) and it failed. I thought my internet connection went down....

Have at look at your inbox. I think your beta 2 files were accidentally uploaded to my project in Google Code instead of yours. See that email for more details.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by Slugger

Have at look at your inbox. I think your beta 2 files were accidentally uploaded to my project in Google Code instead of yours. See that email for more details.

Ooops....

I just uploaded them to my site.

[toricred]

OK, now I have it installed. When logged in as Admin I show all the options for adding users etc, but when I select Configure it says I'm not the Admin. Any help?

[tmiranda]

Are you using an extender, placeshifter or SageClient?

[tmiranda]

And what is the value of these properties?

mus/LoginLastUser
mus/LastLoggedinUser

[toricred]

I was doing it on the server. I am running in service mode. I got it to work on an extender si it might be related to sageclient.properties vs. sage.properties.

Next problem is that I can't get anything to play with this plugin enabled and using TVE.