Community Web Admin Requests

[ccarlin]

I'm all out of ideas for enhancements. Any requests?

[ZetaVu]

How about an imdb data downloader for shows (that writes to metadata)? something that can be applied to multiple files.

You asked.

[nanook105]

Implement user based security

[ccarlin]

Well I don't really know enough about how to get data from IMDB to do much with that one. Plus I thought there was some add-ons that already did something along those lines.

As far as security is concerned they did modify the security API to allow mutliple logins. However there are no properties associated with each account so at best I could create a bunch of different hard-coded accounts like: Administrator, Scheduler, Viewer. I couldn't do much else beyond limiting access to specific pages. It might be possible to also limit viewing (for the viewer user) to prohibit by category (like Adult or something). Maybe even a Child account that allowed only access to shows that are marked as Childrens. Of course none of this would carry over to link or the main application only the webadmin.

I will take a stab at adding multiple user accounts and if it seems to work I will gladly take more feedback on what makes sense given that I can't assign properties to an account.

[tscales]

How about a bug fix? If you change the priority from the webadmin on a movie, when it saves the change, it changes the title of the move from the real title to the word: Movie.

My biggest suggestion, though, may be beyond the web admin. I love the new ability to select multiple recordings and do a showsqueeze on them all, but would love a default setting for SD separate from HD. I have to pick on as my default and then over ride for the other and have to carefully select the right shows.

Another suggestion, again probably beyond just the webadmin, is the ability to schedule shows across multiple servers. I have tuners in more than one machine so that the recordings, showsqueeze, etc. can occur faster. It means I have to manually keep track of what I record where. A real pain.

Another small one. The Recorded Shows page let's me choose Hide Showsqueezed. If I do that, and then select the checkbox for all shows, it unhides and THEN selects. The point of hiding is so I don't select shows that are already showsqueezed.

How about an option that automatically clears successful showsqueezes when I enter the showsqueeze page? I don't care about them if they worked, only if they didn't.

How about an option to email me when a recording or a showsqueeze fails? I'd like to be able to rerecord the show if it fails, but I always have to check.

I'll keep thinking

[bradpvr]

What I had done previously was just to create a WebUsers.xml which containted the user/pass (encrypted) and security level of said user.

If I'm not mistaken, there was basically 2 or 3 levels of access everyone wanted.

All/Viewer/Scheduler.

Then based on the user's role, I would hide/show various buttons/options.

I personally never had a use for it, but some other people might. Althought they would still have access to the TV itself hehe.

[cfaslave]

Heres some that probably aren't possible today, but I'll throw them out there anyway:
1. Transcoding ability to allow streaming of shows like Orb does or even like Webguide4 does for MCE (for pay plugin for MCE)
2. RSS Feeds
3. Access to Beyond Media stuff like Music, Photos etc. Again, probably not likely since BM isn't made for it, but never hurts to wish

[glnn]

It would be nice to have an option to start BTV in exclusive fullscreen mode.

[Zogg]

I'd love a web admin that works nicely on small screens, i.e. a cell phone (not a PDA phone). I can make the current web admin work on my RAZR but it's kind of hard to navigate.

Limiting this to just a few specific pages for max functionality would be fine, such as All Recordings (page down thru all your recordings with a few options like showsqueeze), Recordings Calendar (day at a time maybe), and Manual Record.

Thanks, Z

[diamond187]

I'd love to see a way to toggle recording like you would a VCR. Basically, we have a need where I work to tape our City Council meetings, and without knowing the duration ahead of time, the ability for the city clerk to hit 'record' and 'stop' would be wonderful.

Alternatively, the ability for me to send a specially crafted URL to do this would also be just as nice if this is something you wouldn't mind undertaking but the thought of 'runaway recordings' doesn't wet your palate for general public consumption.

Additional information about this is located here: http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/home-theater-pc-discussion/39231-advice-needed-remote-recording.html#post249649

Thanks for the consideration!

[Don_Hart]

There is a couple of things that I would like to see added.

When you edit a show in the web interface and save the changes I would like to see a link that would take you back to the page you started out in. To give you an example.

I get a show or group of shows from someone else and I copy them to my video folder they show up under series as unknown. So I go in and edit the information to denote the series, episode title and maybe a episode description then his save. and it takes back to the edit show screen. To get back to the unknown series page again I have to click on recorded shows then scroll down through the series lists to unknown. If there was a link on the edit show page that would take me back to the page on recorded shows I started out at it would make life easier.

It would be nice to be able to go in and quickly and easily change the new/watched status of shows in the library. There are times when i would like to change the status of a watched show back to new. I have also run into the problem when I have upgraded the drive system and copies the library off to temp storage and copied it back that all of the shows show as new again.

Don

[diamond187]

Originally Posted by ccarlin

Well I don't really know enough about how to get data from IMDB to do much with that one. Plus I thought there was some add-ons that already did something along those lines.

In case you are at all interested in looking into the IMDB scraper (or any others), I know that the Xbox Media Center project has gone from internal to external scrapers, which you can find here in their SVN:
http://xbmc.svn.sourceforge.net/view...crapers/video/

It's a GPL project (not to start the 'built with the xdk' war again - this is raw GPL source), so it may come in handy should you decide to implement it.

Hope this helps,
diamond187

[cfaslave]

Originally Posted by Zogg

I'd love a web admin that works nicely on small screens, i.e. a cell phone (not a PDA phone). I can make the current web admin work on my RAZR but it's kind of hard to navigate.

Limiting this to just a few specific pages for max functionality would be fine, such as All Recordings (page down thru all your recordings with a few options like showsqueeze), Recordings Calendar (day at a time maybe), and Manual Record.

Thanks, Z

Great idea Zogg. This would be a benefit to many of us I think.

[ccarlin]

Originally Posted by diamond187

I'd love to see a way to toggle recording like you would a VCR. Basically, we have a need where I work to tape our City Council meetings, and without knowing the duration ahead of time, the ability for the city clerk to hit 'record' and 'stop' would be wonderful.

Alternatively, the ability for me to send a specially crafted URL to do this would also be just as nice if this is something you wouldn't mind undertaking but the thought of 'runaway recordings' doesn't wet your palate for general public consumption.

Additional information about this is located here: http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/showthread.php?p=249649

Thanks for the consideration!

Well the main problem is that the application just doesn't work that way. All recording jobs need to be submitted with a duration. Now the duration can be some arbitrarily large value but it is still required. However the Record Now option seems to be more or less what you are looking for. To stop a recording in progress you can go to the SetupRecordings page and hit the Stop Current Recordings button. I can probably setup the recordnow page to take parameters at the command line to start a recording by passing in a channel and duration, or stop one passing in a parameter.

So it would be something like:
To start 2 hour recording on channel 0: http://myServer:8129/RecordNow.aspx?...0&duration=120
Top stop all active recordings:
http://myServer:8129/RecordNow.aspx?action=stop

Would this work?


Well I just checked in this change to make this happen here are my comments from the check in.

Added in simple command line ability to start/stop manual recordings from the RecordNow page.
Parameters are:
action={start, stop}
channel={numeric channel number}
duration={minutes for recording}

Well I spoke to soon the source control is not letting me check it in now, but I do have it done and working. I will post an update to the zip file sometime soon.

[ccarlin]

Made some good progress on the multi user with different levels of security. I have changed some of the core to support an additional parameter for each user. So I will set it up so you can create as many users as you want and assign a privilege level to them (or maybe some bitmask for multiple privileges).

The only issue is this is kind of a pain to develop since I need to kill the network service for stuff like this on each try. If I get some more free time I hope to have something working before the end of the week, as far as setting up users and managing them. I am not sure just yet how I will go about locking down stuff since there are quite a few pages out there. I'd hate to have to hit them one by one so if anyone has a suggestion let me know.