Phoenix, Gemstone, etc.

[pjpjpjpj]

This coming summer, as I near the EPG deadline, I am also planning to concurrently make the jump to v9. My family has been using v7 with ADM (modified menus to our liking) for a looooong time. My kids are finally getting old enough to operate it themselves via extender (the key being learning to read!). I am trying to weigh options regarding whether to force the family to make a leap to a new UI. I need to keep up WAF (wife) and KAF (kids) to maintain FAF (family)!

What I really want to know is how customizable the menus of the Custom UIs are with respect to folder views or filtered views, *without* requiring me to know how to program or write views/flows/whatever.

Right now our main menu (left side) has:
Recordings (Sage default of TV recordings)
Upcoming (Sage default)
TV Guide (EPG)
Kids (submenu with links to folders, with "movies", "videos", "tv shows")
Media (music, photos, home movies, non-kid movies, etc.)
PlayOn (plugin submenus)
Online (Youtube, weather, editorials, other internet-based plugins like stocks, etc.)

What I really want to know is how mimic-able the "Kids" menu structure would be in the Custom UIs. I don't care if a submenu (or view/ flow/ WhateverYouCallIt) looks different, scrolls sideways or vertical, has fan art or banners attached, etc. What I need (for FAF) is to maintain a Kids menu item which then produces a submenu divided into the kids' movies (a combination of DVD rips in native structure along with main-movie-only MKV files), kids' TV shows (downloaded shows from youtube, PlayOn, rips of DVDs of old cartoons, etc.), and kids' videos (non-movie and non-TV, mostly just silly stuff and music videos from youtube). Currently all those items are in appropriate separated folders on my drives and I've pointed ADM-created menu items at those folders. Also note that I have NOT worked through all the metadata to harmonize "genre" or "type", so filtering (not folder-based) would likely force me to do a lot of manual work and would not make me happy... unless there was a filtering method that didn't require that...

Is there an EASY (no programming skill necessary) way to customize any or all of the Custom UIs to look at folders and show contents in the organization method I've described above? If the answer is "not quite" or "you'd have to do some programming", then I'll stick to default v7 UI with ADM.

SSL (sorry so long!), TIA.

[wayner]

Yes, this is easily doable in Gemstone and you don't necessarily need a folder structure to do so. Gemstone has ADM built into it so the process should be the same. I am sure that Jusjoken will pop in to give the full details.

I do something similar but I have a Kids subsection under both TV and Movies and I use stuff like Genre to determine what belongs in Kids.

So my structure looks like this:
TV - All Recordings
- Kids' TV

Movies - All non-kids movies
-Kids' movies

It would be trivial to change it in the way that you want it.

[bialio]

re: Phoenix (1,2,3) This more easily doable in the earlier Phoenix releases, and in PhoenixLite.

However it all hinges upon their being a 'view' that has what you want in it. You can easily customize your menu system so that there is a Kid's section / submenu / shortcuts, etc. But all of the Phoenix releases are based on Phoenix views, so once you have a view that contains the content you want, the rest is just tweaking the UI.

If you want to explore this, go to BMT (install it if you haven't!!!) and Browse the views there. You will probably want a view based on 'Sage Video Imports by Folder' - that is one of the only example views that exists that keeps the real folder hierarchy rather than using metadata to create 'virtual' folders.

Then you just create view for the kids that is similar to that one, but has root that is the kids folder instead of the 'top' folder that Sage presents you.

It sounds complex, but it's not really. If you end up going down that path we can walk you through what you need to get it done.

btl.

[jusjoken]

Gemstone 1 does have ADM built in with only slight modifications and it does work with V9.

Gemstone 2, in progress, is being retrofitted so it's backend menu system will use the menu functions in the phoenix core to reduce the amount of code we need to maintain. Other than the fact that G1 menus will not import into G2 (you need to build them from scratch or modifying the default), G2 menus will look like G1 menus and be completely customizable within the G2 Menu Manager.

I may also copy this functionality out of G2 and make a new ADM like replacement that uses this and the menu manager in theory could likely be used for any other STV's that also use the phoenix core menus (I believe P3 does). Stuckless has also talked of a BMT editor for menus so that would be another way to edit the same menu xml files.

Big plans....just need more time

k

[pjpjpjpj]

Thanks, all. I think I will make the leap when the time comes. I suppose if it fails, I can always retreat to default v7 UI.

[pjpjpjpj]

So, jusjoken, if I read that right, G2 will not have ADM-like modifications, but instead will be like Phoenix (through BMT)? You might implement ADM-like modifications if you have time?

bialio, I have BMT installed currently and just looked at the web interface. I pulled up all the views and there is one that is "Sage video imports by folder". There are 15 subfolders showing there, three of which would successfully get me the three (current subfolders) I would want under "Kids" (as described above). So do I create a main menu item in Phoenix called "Kids", and have three items under it (subviews?) that would point to these three folders? I apologize if this is too remedial to re-explain here, let me know if this is already all explained in the Phoenix thread itself.

More specifically, can I create a menu item (main or submenu) view from any folder at any level that I can see in BMT, by using the "Sage video imports by folder"?

[jusjoken]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

So, jusjoken, if I read that right, G2 will not have ADM-like modifications, but instead will be like Phoenix (through BMT)? You might implement ADM-like modifications if you have time?

G2 will have a similar customizable menu...just how i implement it will be different.

If and when time permits i may release a customizable menu plugin the the default STV to replace ADM as i do not plan to support that old code any longer.

k

[bialio]

Basically the steps are these:

1) create a file called 'custom.xml' in SageTV/userdata/Phoenix/vfs/custom.xml
2) as a starting place, put this text in the file:

<!DOCTYPE vfs SYSTEM "vfs.dtd">
<vfs>
   <views>
	  	<view name="phoenix.view.custom.sagevideoimports" label="Custom Video Imports" flat="false" visible="true">
			<option name="children-only" value="true"/>
		
			<description>Custom View of All Sage Import folders</description>
			<tag value="video"/>
			<source name="sageimports">
				<option name="combine" value="false"/>
				<option name="mediamask" value="BDV"/>
			</source>

			<presentation>
				<sort by="title">
					<option name="folders-first" value="true"/>
				</sort>
			</presentation>
		</view>		
   </views>   
</vfs>

3) After that you have to create a 'root' for this view - which is basically the spot in the folder hierarchy that it should treat as the 'TOP' (or root).

<option name="root" value="/Imported/Kids"/>

You'll of course need to update the path so that it has the right names for your folder structure...

Then, when you load this view, it drops you off in that folder - in my case I see a bunch of kids movies with that path.

4) Force the views to reload. You can just start/restart sage for this, or in BMT click on 'Refresh Configurations'. Now you should be able to add a menu item of some type (how varies with each Phoenix release) that points to this view and you should be good.
btl.

[bialio]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

More specifically, can I create a menu item (main or submenu) view from any folder at any level that I can see in BMT, by using the "Sage video imports by folder"?

Yes, however that view has some peculiarities. If it is working for you it should be fine. For me that view shows a flat view (removes the folders) - mainly I think because I have just one import location. The view I pasted above is a little more accurate in representing your on disk folder structure.