Plugin: Web User Interface for SageTV 2.2-6.6 (V2.25 18 Sep 2009)

[ddman]

I'm having trouble getting up and running. I am using Cayars18e. I downloaded the newest version of the webserver and overwrote the files that came with Cayars. I followed all of the instructions (copied over the java library, disabled the software, copied the files edited the username/password and load_at_startup_runnable_classes=net.sf.sageplugins.webserver.StartServer
) but when I try to access the link in the instructions (http://localhost:8080/sage/Home) I get "page cannot be displayed" ... I then deleted the folders and went back to the version that came with Cayars.

Any ideas?? I'm sure I'm probably forgetting something... THANKS!!!

[nielm]

Originally Posted by ddman

I get "page cannot be displayed"

Can you post the 2 lines that appear at the end of that error message, that contain the actual error message (MS IE's error 'friendly' message are a real pain for any web-developer, as they hide the reason for the error!)

Did it create a log file in webserver/log?

You could also enable the troubleshooting console and look for error messages on startup (If using SageTV in service mode, then you have to add the webserver to the client to get the webserver startup messages in the console)

I am guessing that the webserver version that came with Cayer's STV works with no problems?

[ddman]

I think the problem was actually that the java files weren't being recognized but after a while of playing around it's working now!! Thanks for the quick response!!

[nielm]

Glad you solved the webserver problem...

For the other, best to raise it in another thread: I promise you that it is not webserver-related -- the webserver does nothing unless you tell it to!

[jettman]

I love your webserver. I have just ran into a couple of problems. I was using an older version of your webserver. I just installed your latest version of the webserver. Now, the background is not blue anymore. Also, when I try to click on a link, the link moves around. Very hard to click.
Any ideas?

[ddman]

Just a suggestion:

For the background of the movies etc, which is now purple, green... I was thinking it might look really good if you used partially transparent backgrounds like those in the actual program. I might work on something like that if anyone is interested (either using png in firefox or some sort of 1px on 1px off transparency so that it's explorer friendly...)

[jettman]

Originally Posted by jettman

I love your webserver. I have just ran into a couple of problems. I was using an older version of your webserver. I just installed your latest version of the webserver. Now, the background is not blue anymore. Also, when I try to click on a link, the link moves around. Very hard to click.
Any ideas?

Anyone have any ideas? Do I need to reinstall SageTV?

[nielm]

Originally Posted by jettman

Anyone have any ideas? Do I need to reinstall SageTV?

oops, missed that...
the background is specified in a css file in webserver/webroot/sage -- check that the file exists and is readable (maybe you are running the server as a different user to the one you installed the update with or something). It is also possible that you may have accidently disabled CSS support in your browser (but that would affect all sites)

Moving links is very odd, nothing to do with me (are you sure you are not click-dragging them)!

Try a different browser (you never know!)

try also removing the following subdirectories of the main SageTV directory
net/sf/sageplugins/sageutils
net/sf/sageplugins/webserver
webroot
Acme
and then reinstall the webserver from the zipfile (remember to reset your user/password after the reinstall)

There would be no need to reinstall SageTV itself: the webserver exists in separate thread(s) and only hooks SageTV to read the DB...

[jettman]

Thanks nielm!
I deleted the webserver stuff and reinstalled it and it works fine now.

[ddman]

I created backgrounds to give the cells that semi-transparent look, it looked great in firefox but was causing serious lag in IE... I guess back to the standard backgrounds. oh well The webserver rocks anyway

[ToonGal]

Nielm,

Man is this the best part of using SageTV. I've been mobile for the last month (vacation to LA, 1/2 summer @ parents' house/pool, etc.) and the webserver has been a TV life saver. I like the ability to maintain Sage when not around, and especially having all functionality without having to tunnel via VNC.

Anyway, before I take my next vacation in 9 days, I figured I'd give some feedback on things you might consider for the next version. I think I asked for #1 before, but the others are new.

Looking forward to what you are proactively adding to it too. I like the creativity. I use it far more than I do the built-in U/I at this point. Starting to get more active on my computer activites again, as my personal life is looking pretty good.

Next stop on TV, Cat6 wiring my house, dumping cable, getting DirectTV, and buying client units!

Great stuff, Nielm! Thanks, hun.

--TG

1) Grid/list view
Highlight entire box w/ <a> tag instead of just text

2) List view
With Grid view, you can control date/time w/ a dialog box. With List view, you can only control the same. On my web server, I have to scroll multiple pages to get to the right channel. It might be worth adding a 3rd dialog box w/ the available channels (i.e. 002-KTVU) so paging isn't necessary.

3) Sage Recordings (and everywhere where the info is displayed, like "watched shows" too)
Include the ep number (XXXX format) in front of all ep titles. For example:
-----
Between The Lions
0006 - The Hopping Hen
-----

For no ep title, display something like:
-----
NFL Live
0000 - <No Title>
-----

4) Sage Recordings
Is it possible to add checkboxes like you do on Upcoming Recordings? I'd like to bulk delete certain shows in one page instead of manually going to each one individually. When I watch things at my parents house, I'd like to 'mark as read' then 'delete' remotely. Doing one set of checkboxes for each action OK, but time consumign when doing it 2x for each show.

5) Web remote
This doesn't have any menus at the top. Intentional?

6) Watched shows
Any chance of having this information grouped by show? I'm up to 115 pages so far and counting. Hard to navigate effectively through the information.

7) Configurable colors
Most frivolous request, but would like color control for types of show, configurable by the end user.

[nielm]

Flattery will get you everywhere!

Originally Posted by ToonGal

1) Grid/list view
Highlight entire box w/ <a> tag instead of just text

this is actually an IE bug because it only supports CSS :hover on <a> tags (it works fine in Mozilla and Opera and probably others).
I am reluctant to do browser-specific hacks, as it is a slippery slope -- together with the difficulty of browser, os and browser version detection with browsers the like to pretend that they are other browsers etc...

This should be fixed in the upcommig IE7... (but what are you using IE for anyway?!!?!?!)

2) List view
With Grid view, you can control date/time w/ a dialog box. With List view, you can only control the same. On my web server, I have to scroll multiple pages to get to the right channel. It might be worth adding a 3rd dialog box w/ the available channels (i.e. 002-KTVU) so paging isn't necessary.

I will look into that, maybe in 1.8...

3) Sage Recordings (and everywhere where the info is displayed, like "watched shows" too)
Include the ep number (XXXX format)

This only works for US and possibly Canadian data -- XMLTV does not generate EPG IDs in the same format.

4) Sage Recordings
Is it possible to add checkboxes like you do on Upcoming Recordings? I'd like to bulk delete certain shows in one page

Something I also want to do... Got to figure out the JS for group selection and how to prevent the user from deleting all their recordings with a single button click!

5) Web remote
This doesn't have any menus at the top. Intentional?

yep. Its a static page, and the menus are dynamic content. This will be fixed when I upgrade the menu engine at some point.

6) Watched shows
Any chance of having this information grouped by show? I'm up to 115 pages so far and counting. Hard to navigate effectively through the information.

yep, I know. I tried grouping, and it looked messy, and I couldnt get it to work properly with big groups that overlapped page boundaries. The workaround is the sort-by Show Name option...

7) Configurable colors
Most frivolous request, but would like color control for types of show, configurable by the end user.

Edit the css file (search for movie, sports or news) -- all the colors and most of the layout is in there

[ToonGal]

Originally Posted by nielm

Flattery will get you everywhere!

Thanks for the quick feedback. Always such a pro, Nielm!

If only you had kept up your STV. Guess I have to bail on Cayars at some point and go to that other one, but another problem for another day.

Thanks again, hun!

--TG

1) This should be fixed in the upcommig IE7... (but what are you using IE for anyway?!!?!?!)

I play MSN Gaming Zone and it only works through IE (last I checked). That and MSFT updates. Should probably go to Moz or Firefox, but just too lazy to install something new with no obvious appreciable benefits.

2) I will look into that, maybe in 1.8...

Sounds good. The feature is currently functional, but not really practical. Thanks. If doing it, as I'm sure you considered, make sure to add wrap-around logic for the last channel.

3) This only works for US and possibly Canadian data -- XMLTV does not generate EPG IDs in the same format.

Uh... Is that a 'no'? This feature is the one that sold me on Cayars' STV originally. This is one of the most important ones to me, because so many shows have unique ep ID's but no title. That's the only case I didn't discuss in my last post, but makes it very useful. If flattery gets me anything, this is the goal. If anyone can do it, I know it's you, Nielm!

4) Something I also want to do... Got to figure out the JS for group selection and how to prevent the user from deleting all their recordings with a single button click!

This is usually my biggest complaint about government. They define their purpose as protecting people from themselves. Blech. If you REALLY have to prevent the user from blowing it, add an interim dialog box displaying files to delete allowing them to confirm. Not for me, but the bulk delete would still let me do what I need w/ so fewer clicks, one extra step not too bad.

5) yep. Its a static page, and the menus are dynamic content. This will be fixed when I upgrade the menu engine at some point.

Yeah, figured as much, since it wasn't written by you. Least important request, so if/when done is OK by me. Just wanted to point it out.

6) yep, I know. I tried grouping, and it looked messy, and I couldnt get it to work properly with big groups that overlapped page boundaries. The workaround is the sort-by Show Name option...

Found the workaround before the post, but still messy and ugly. There probably is some long-term solution, but haven't thought of it here and no other productive input without more consideration.

7) Edit the css file (search for movie, sports or news) -- all the colors and most of the layout is in there

Figured there was a way to do it currently, as you would be silly to hard-code it. All previous work-product ws so modular, knew it was so. The q was a last minute addition. Glad to hear it! Now I'll go color wild when I get back home.

[evilpenguin]

Not sure if this was mentioned somewhere in this massive thread but I had a little trouble with port forwarding. Apparently some routers won't let you use your external IP address internally. So I spent a few hours last night trying to figure out why http://xyz.dyndns.org/sage/Home wasn't working, only to go to work the next day and find out it really was working... just not from behind my router. Might be worth adding to the wiki.

Thanks for the webserver nielm, this thing rules.

[TheDane]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Not sure if this was mentioned somewhere in this massive thread but I had a little trouble with port forwarding. Apparently some routers won't let you use your external IP address internally. So I spent a few hours last night trying to figure out why http://xyz.dyndns.org/sage/Home wasn't working, only to go to work the next day and find out it really was working... just not from behind my router. Might be worth adding to the wiki.

Thanks for the webserver nielm, this thing rules.

Just a quick note: As you have discovered some routers does not support 'loopback' connection, however if you start testing with 'localhost' (127.0.0.1) you should be able to see if it's working. If it works on the localhost address, it also works on the internet (and if not, the problem is in front of the web server)

Perhaps one of the most usefull plugins i have seen!!

Regards,
The Dane

[Ryokurin]

For those wondering, I just installed the 3 beta over the previous with this plugin and the server still runs and seems to be fully functional!

[owilsky]

@nielm:

Feature request!

One thing I really like about your webserver is the ability to change database entrys for the recordings.

Would it be possible to do that not only for recordings on my HD but also for entries in upcoming recordings or even in the TV guide? That way I do not have to wait until the shows are recorded, but can change the info for several favourites before they are even recorded.

Example:
In Germany we have Steven Spielbergs Taken aired at the moment.
In the TV guide the title is "Steven Spielberg presents Taken: <Episode name>". I change that to simply "Taken" because otherwise grouping does not work. I know, bad epg data, but which choice do I have :-( I hope tvtv in V3 will be an alternative...

Oliver

[nielm]

Would it be possible to do that not only for recordings on my HD but also for entries in upcoming recordings or even in the TV guide? That way I do not have to wait until the shows are recorded, but can change the info for several favourites before they are even recorded.

yes its technically possible, but there is no point!

The problem is that at each EPG update, the DB data for the future is replaced with what is in the XML file, so any changes will be lost. (this is definatly the case for XMlTV plugin, I don't know about for the Zap2It built-in guide).

[owilsky]

Originally Posted by nielm

yes its technically possible, but there is no point!

The problem is that at each EPG update, the DB data for the future is replaced with what is in the XML file, so any changes will be lost. (this is definatly the case for XMlTV plugin, I don't know about for the Zap2It built-in guide).

Hmmm... are you sure? Today I tried multiple times to change my xml file, but it seems that he only reads new data if there wasn't any data before, e.g. new days. I changed my epgdata.xml, deleted one show in the middle of another show (Sage does not like that at all), and changed the start and end time of the show I want to record... then I forced an epg update but .... nothing...

[nielm]

pretty sure -- I get EPG data changes: shows for a week away have no episode and minimal info, then when they are only a couple of days away the XML has more info and I see the info updating in Sage.

I assume that when you changed the start/end time that there were no overlaps?