Steps to recover an STVI?

[broconne]

Anyone have suggestions on how to recover an STVI?
I had a hard drive crash a while ago. I am finally ready to work on my plugin again.

I have decompiled my Java code so I have that back minus the erasure details..

However, I am unsure the best method to recover my STVI. I have downloaded the STVI - but when I import it back in using studio, everything seems to be there but my menu entry into my plugin. However, if I exit sage, saving my changes and start again my main screen is distorted.

Any tips on the step to recover an STVI so I can work on it again?

[GKusnick]

Are we talking V6 or V7? For V7, you shouldn't need to import it using Studio. Just install it as a plugin and it will be imported automatically on startup. And you definitely don't want to do a Save As, since that will save the entire STV+STVI as a new STV, set that as the default, and still import the STVI again on startup, making a hash of everything. If for some reason you need to save the STV+STVI as a merged STV, always use Save A Copy for that to avoid changing the default.

But you shouldn't even need to do that if you make a point of always saving your STVI changes in STVI form using UID File Difference. But for this to work properly, you must disable all other STVI plugins except the one you're working on before you make any changes that need saving.

[PLUCKYHD]

And make sure you turn off the plugin if you save a full stv and start working from it or you will have a double import.

[broconne]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

Are we talking V6 or V7? For V7, you shouldn't need to import it using Studio. Just install it as a plugin and it will be imported automatically on startup. And you definitely don't want to do a Save As, since that will save the entire STV+STVI as a new STV, set that as the default, and still import the STVI again on startup, making a hash of everything. If for some reason you need to save the STV+STVI as a merged STV, always use Save A Copy for that to avoid changing the default.

But you shouldn't even need to do that if you make a point of always saving your STVI changes in STVI form using UID File Difference. But for this to work properly, you must disable all other STVI plugins except the one you're working on before you make any changes that need saving.

Interesting. I always worked on a full STV and then just did the UID file difference when I was exporting a new version of my plugin.

If I try to save the merged STV using Save A Copy, when I load that merged STV I still end up with a distorted screen on startup.. I assume because it is importing the STVI again on startup..

[broconne]

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

And make sure you turn off the plugin if you save a full stv and start working from it or you will have a double import.

I assume there is some step I am missing here.. If I disable the plugin, the code in the plugin seems to disappear from studio?

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by broconne

I assume there is some step I am missing here.. If I disable the plugin, the code in the plugin seems to disappear from studio?

I was refering to if you are saving as and working with a full stv.

[broconne]

Ok.. My preference is to work with a full STV and my clean development server, as that is how I am used to coding in Studio.

Here are my steps:

(1) Uninstall SageTV
(2) Delete SageTV directory
(3) Reinstall SageTV
(4) Install TVBrowser Plugin
(5) Open Studio - Save A Copy As - name "TVBrowser.xml"
(6) Disable TVBrowser Plugin.
(7) In studio - select Open - select TVBrowser.xml
(8) Everything looks ok. Shutdown SageTV
(9) Open SageTV
(10) Screen look list this:


I am clearly missing or failing to understand a step... Just not sure which ones.

[GKusnick]

If you're going to work with a full, merged STV, then you really should set aside a copy of the base STV you started from in step 3. Keep it in a safe place, separate from your SageTV installation directory, where it won't be overwritten by downloadable STV updates and new beta releases. Otherwise you may find you don't have the right version to compare against to recover your changes.

As to what's causing your screen corruption issues, my best guess is that you're loading your merged STV from a different directory path than the stock STV, so that it can't find the stock images it expects. If you want to work from a separate directory, you'll need to copy over all the images and other resources from the stock directory. The merged STV alone is not sufficient.

This is another reason why I prefer to save my work in STVI form, so that I'm developing and testing in the environment in which the code will actually run, rather than having to set up a secondary environment to satisfy all the dependencies.

[broconne]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

If you're going to work with a full, merged STV, then you really should set aside a copy of the base STV you started from in step 3. Keep it in a safe place, separate from your SageTV installation directory, where it won't be overwritten by downloadable STV updates and new beta releases. Otherwise you may find you don't have the right version to compare against to recover your changes.

As to what's causing your screen corruption issues, my best guess is that you're loading your merged STV from a different directory path than the stock STV, so that it can't find the stock images it expects. If you want to work from a separate directory, you'll need to copy over all the images and other resources from the stock directory. The merged STV alone is not sufficient.

This is another reason why I prefer to save my work in STVI form, so that I'm developing and testing in the environment in which the code will actually run, rather than having to set up a secondary environment to satisfy all the dependencies.

The merged STV is saved in the same directory as the original. So I don't think its image related?

So.. How do you keep working on something if you do it in STVI form? Everytime you start Sage backup, do you just import your STVI again?

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

If you're going to work with a full, merged STV, then you really should set aside a copy of the base STV you started from in step 3. Keep it in a safe place, separate from your SageTV installation directory, where it won't be overwritten by downloadable STV updates and new beta releases. Otherwise you may find you don't have the right version to compare against to recover your changes.

This is what I do. I start with the stock, unmodified .xml file and then start modifying as needed. I keep a copy of the unmodified STV in a safe place so I know what to compare the modified STV against to create the STVi. I also do a sanity check by applying the STVi to the latest and greatest STV making sure that the STV fileset number does not change.

[bialio]

IF I have an existing STVi that I want to update:

1) load up a clean default STV. (Save a copy off somewhere)
2) import the STVi
3) Save As "SageTV7 + mySTVi.xml"
4) Modify away.
5) When done, UID diff with the saved copy from Step 1.
6) Generate new STVi from the diff.

ez pz.
btl.

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by broconne

So.. How do you keep working on something if you do it in STVI form? Everytime you start Sage backup, do you just import your STVI again?

It's imported automatically by the plugin manager. I have a one-click build script that takes the generated STVI and repackages it as a local plugin in SageTVPluginsDev.xml. So it's not that big a deal for me to always save my work in ready-to-use plugin form.