VFS Examples?

[crusing]

What did you do for the VFS? As far as I can tell you can't group using filepath. I am playing with using year and original air date in the metadata to create a drill down view to match my folder structure of year\month\video name.* but this requires manual maintenance.

Thanks

[wrems]

Here is my vfs:

            <view name="wr_home_videos_only" label="WR Movies - Home Videos" flat="false">
                  <option name="root" value="/Home Videos/"/>
                  <option name="children-only" value="true"/>
                  <description>Display Home Videos Only</description>
                  <tag value="video"/>
                  <view-source name="sagevideoimportsv7"/>
                  <presentation>
                        <sort by="title">
                              <option name="folders-first" value="true"/>
                        </sort>
                  </presentation>
            </view>

Because I'm using sagevideoimportsv7 as the source the view emulates the physical folder style structure that I use within my import path for my home videos which are strewn into my pics collection. It works well.

[wrems]

I created a view that works with collections. While not official support it does work well. This method works a bit different than naming your files like ‘01 Harry Potter - Sorcerer's Stone’ with BMT. You can leave the title as is and it will sort properly or the exact way you want it to appear. Also, if you have to do the manipulations like I’m going to outline you’ll be assured that you will only have to do it once. Since the changes below will persist regardless of everything else. The title field in BMT can easily be over-written and you’d have to redo all of your title manipulations in such an event.

The main way this vfs works is to look at the date the movie was created on your system according to the file attributes (Date Created). The file attributes can be changed easily with this gui tool for ones that fall out of the order you would like to see the movies appear in: http://www.petges.lu/ . So the gist of it is to sort the collections ascending by the date they were ripped to your computer. If they fall out of order then change the dates so the order is how you wish it to appear.

I found that almost all of my collections worked in the order they were meant to since I added the movies as they were released and so the date’s were already sequential. I didn’t have to manipulate many of them at all. Your mileage may vary depending on the order they were added to the system. Likewise, moving forward one just needs to be cognizant to add the files in the order you wish them to be displayed. Really only if you’re adding a complete collection all at once.

You’ll also see that I moved the collections in order to group them. It makes it much easier in the long run to have them broken away from being weaved into a group of standard movies.

The view heavily relies on the underlying physical structure of your files and utilizing ROOT. If your system isn’t organized to benefit from using ROOT’s you’ll have problems and you may consider reorganizing your import paths to make it easier for yourself in all matters. If you can go into BMT’s webgui and look at the combined import path and see a nice collection of subfolders and your media properly organized you are in good shape. If you see a bunch of single files without the grouping folders you might want to organize your files first.

<!-- This involves 3 intermediary views that are not visible and 1 final vfs that combines the pieces and displays the data -->
<!-- The first view grabs the separate combined folder where the collections are stored -->
<view name="wr_collections" label="WR Collections - Collections Only" flat="false" visible="false">
      <option name="root" value="/Collections/"/>
      <option name="children-only" value="true"/>
      <view-source name="sagevideoimportsv7" > </view-source>
</view>
<!-- The second view grabs the standard single movies -->
<view name="wr_collections_movies" label="WR Collections - Movies Only" flat="false" visible="false">
      <option name="root" value="/Movies/"/>
      <option name="children-only" value="true"/>
      <view-source name="sagevideoimportsv7" > </view-source>
</view>
<!-- The third view flattens the second view, it seems redundant but if you flatten the other view you'll end up with a whole bunch more than just your movies -->
<view name="wr_collections_movies2" label="WR Collections - Movies Only2" flat="true" visible="false">
      <view-source name="wr_collections_movies" > </view-source>
</view>
<!-- The fourth and final view takes the two views above: collections and movies and merges them together into a seamless single view with both a folder structure and a flat structure -->
<view name="wr_collections_combined2" label="WR Collections - Merged Movies and Collections" flat="false" visible="true">
      <option name="children-only" value="true"/>
      <view-source name="wr_collections"/>
      <view-source name="wr_collections_movies2"/>
      <presentation level="1">
            <sort by="title">
                  <option name="ignore-all" value="true"/>
                  <option name="folders-first" value="false"/>
            </sort>
      </presentation>
      <presentation level="2">
            <sort by="starttime">
                  <option name="sort-order" value="asc"/>
            </sort>
      </presentation>
</view>

All that needs to be defined for anyone to use the above code is to rename the roots to the folder naming you have on your system. My two combined folders are: Collections and Movies respectively. On my system movies are movies... I don’t physically separate for BD’s, DVD’s, kid’s movies etc. Especially since there are views that can organize that data virtually. It’s just easier imo to keep a single group of just movies. As long as they are cinematic then I don’t care, I will create VFS’s to group and present the different subsets. The point is if you have a bunch of separations you will probably need to adjust the code to accept more sources. Or, consider changing your structure...

The final thing to remember is that when changing the file attributes the movie has to be removed from the import path and re-added. Just changing the date created won’t affect anything. So basically any of the culprits need to be removed from the import path. Then execute a SageTV library scan. Then move the file(s) back into the import path and scan again. The final scan will accept the changes in the date.

I think it’s easiest to move all the collections to a common collections folder and then see how it all lines up in Phoenix. Then move the collections out that don’t work and rescan. Then fix those dates with the above tool. Then move them all back and scan once more. Then it’s done. Moving forward you really shouldn't have to do much.

VIDEO: http://db.tt/X8DSjwr

[pmpj218]

Thanks for posting that. I've been wanting to do something for collections too, since many of them aren't sorted together. I haven't tried anything yet, because I think I have to move some of my movies around like you have to its own "Collections" folder. But instead of sorting by "starttime", did you try sorting by "originalairdate"? It seems like that would work, and then you wouldn't have to worry about changing file attributes.

[wrems]

In most cases the originalairdate did work. The ones where I ran into problems were for collections that are supposed to be viewed out of the order they were released, like Star Wars. At least with the manipulation of the date created attribute one could order them anyway they choose. Although it seems like a lot of work to change the attributes it's not too bad. If you've consistently added media to your collection in roughly the order in which they were released the collection will be already sorted for you and the vfs will pick them up accordingly. I probably only had to change the sequence in 4 of my collections.

I added a video link to the above vfs that hopefully shows/explains what I did.

[pmpj218]

That makes sense. I do think it would look weird if Stars Wars was ordered Episodes 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3 while I was browsing through my movies. However, I don't think they're supposed to be viewed out of the order they were released. (Unless by "view" you mean in terms of vfs's and not watching the actual movies) But that's another topic...

[Rob]

Thanks for all the examples. It has helped alot in my efforts to set up pheonix. I have one last thing I want to do before I spring pheonix on my family (or I thought I had one thing until I read about collections above). Now maybe I have two things...

Anyway, the one I have not been able to figure out is how to have the TV shows view with three presentaion levels (show, season, episode) use the grid view on any level other that the top level. I'd like for the season level to also be a grid, showing the cover art that is in the season level of the phoenix fanart.

Has anyone done this?

[bialio]

No one has done that yet since it's not possible

The Grid and Banner flow are both basically "ART" at to top level, then a list from the 2nd on.

There have been a few requests for season artwork to show at the second level, but we haven't gotten around to adding anything for that yet.
btl.

[Rob]

ok. Now I know why I could not figure it out.

Phoenix is awsome. I really like it and appreciate the work that has gone into it.

Add me to the list of "a few requests" for this feature. I have set up a view for all my ripped TV series and since the fanart is there, it would be cool to have the grid view apply to at least the first two levels and maybe even the third level.

The same would apply to movie collections like Harry Potter. One Harry Potter poster on the main grid of movies and then a grid showing the 8 movies when the first one is selected.

I guess I should read the thread you have for feature requests. I'm just a little late to the phoenix party and trying to catch up!

[gabrielcab]

Some screen shots would be awesome

[wrems]

For any interested in segregating Christmas movies and TV I created a simple view that looks for any tagged (Christmas) media. This VFS doesn't care if it's recorded, imported TV or movies. It's just looking for any of the media in any import directory that you previously and manually appended the custom tag (Christmas) to. Use BMT to tag the media and it only takes a few minutes. Add this VFS to a menu item and you're in business.

<view name="wr_christmas" label="Christmas Programs">
  <description>Christmas Movies and TV</description>
  <tag value="video"/>
  <tag value="movie"/>
  <tag value="primary"/>
  <source name="mediafiles">
    <option name="mediamask" value="DBTVL"/>
  </source>
  <filter by="pql" value="Genre contains 'Christmas'"/>
  <presentation>
    <sort by="title">
      <option name="ignore-all" value="true"/>
    </sort>
  </presentation>
</view>